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Neopets Art


Lemur

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Reading that Subeta thread where the poster was claiming that Subeta's art is better got me thinking..

 

Whilst Neopets art doesnt have as much detail.. I think I like it this way.

 

I don't like the indepth detailed pictures of the Subeta art because I feel like the pet is already designed. The more cartoonish look (cartoonish? Maybe not the right word?).. the look of them though, gives me room to expand on the design and make it in to my own character. I love that about the art and about the world.

 

What is your thoughts on it?

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I know what you mean about the Neopets art, it does give you something to build on. I did like the Subeta art also though, and she mentioned how there were potions to change their positions, I thought that was really cool!

 

I do prefer the UC's though to the converted, they had a lot more character and I think the drawings were better :/

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This is exactly what I have been thinking :yes: The simple design of Neopets plus customization allows for artists and writers to use that as a jumping point. Whereas with more detailed art, there's only so far you can go. But with a cartoony Neopet, it's far easier to re-imagine, say, a Draik as a more classic-style european dragon. Or, if you so chose, you could design your Draik as some sort of feathered dragons. Indeed, the variety of Draik designs that I have seen from various people supports that fact.

 

I can't say the same of Subeta, having only been there once, but I imagine it would be more difficult to re-imagine a Magnus. That extra level of complexity in the original design puts a limit on inspiration.

 

If any of you have ever read Understanding Comics, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, and you like to design art, you should give it a read anyway. Chapter 2 gives a good explanation for the effect I am describing.

 

Here's some examples

mccloud.gif

understanding-comics.png

 

Pretty much McCloud is saying that the more simplified a cartoon, the more people it can correspond to. While the first picture of a face is only one man, the last picture could be of anybody.

 

I'm sure any artist is familiar with this: draw a simple face. Once you add hair, it becomes vastly more unique. Adding more facial features, wrinkles, an expression - it becomes even more so. Thus is the cartoon. Subeta art, a step or two up from Neopets in detail, becomes more unique, but then it also means it can encompass less variety of design.

 

Hopefully that made sense. But that's the way I like to look at it. Yeah, Subetan art is prettier. I'm not gonna challenge that. But I use Neopets art as a springboard for my own, and I maintain that it is far easier to do that with Neopets than with Subeta.

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Simple is better, in my opinion. I like the Subeta art, but I'd like it better if it were user submitted ideas of already existing pets, rather than have the pet look that way all the time.

 

On a site like Subeta, what is the point of an art contest when they are already drawn so stylized? I enjoy the fact that our Neopets are simply drawn because then we can expand on their art ourselves and make them look cool for contests and such.

 

Also, as someone else said, they kinda just look like DeviantArt drawings, not something you would actually "own" as a pet

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That's exactly what I was thinking Manta! You expressed my thoughts in to words well.

 

By the way, are you the same Manta from OldNeo.com?

 

Speaking of OldNeo, If you miss the UC Tank Girl, you might want to join up.

 

We're going to be closing public sign ups soon and in about a week if you want to sign up you'll need a join code.

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I am going to have to disagree with you on that, Syrin. I'll use the latest pet that was spotlighted on subeta as an example.

Now that pet is a Glade Popoko which is officially represented as the following-

popoko_glade.png

Cute, right? And a lot of detail! Does this mean no one else can draw it differently? Of course not! Artists have different styles and any good artist will be able to represent this pet it their own way.

Look at this pet spotlight winner and without scrolling down you will already see two different artist interpretations of the same pet! (Scroll down for more art)

 

Mantas post makes a very good point. Because the neopets art is more simple there is a bit more room for creativity. But as seen in the pet I linked to above ^ artists can also re-imagine already existing characters in a new and creative way. I think another good example of this is when people rewrite old stories (A popular one being Alice in Wonderland).

 

I'm not going to comment on the deviantart bit because I don't know what the heck that even means.

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Luciana, I didn't mean to imply that the Subeta pets can't be drawn or re-imagined. I just meant that it is easier to branch out with a simpler slate. What Manta said speaks to my point, just in a different manner.

 

To me, the Subeta pets just seem like drawing, well-done of course, but drawings. The Neopets are more realistic as pets to me, I'm not sure if it's the cartoon style or what, but they are just more interactive to me and I guess a bit more 3-D in appearance to me than the Subeta pets.

 

Also, DeviantArt is an online artist community, as the site description states. A lot of people there draw real world animals or cartoon animals like Pokemon or Digimon in the same style as the Subeta pets, though there are plenty of other styles on the site as well

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That's what I felt you meant when you said "On a site like Subeta, what is the point of an art contest when they are already drawn so stylized?"

So I was mainly responding to that part of your post.

I know what deviantart is but that sentence made little sense to me. Like you were implying the whole site was one type of art.

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Sorry for the confusion. I just meant, regarding deviantart, a lot of the art I've seen for Pokemon and things seem to be in the style that Subeta uses.

 

& I never enter the art contests because I have no artistic ability so I'm probably not the best judge of that anyway :)

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I'm not saying that they're not able to be designed different ways. I just find them harder to do so and I find subetas art (whilst nice), a bit restricting. :(

 

And thanks tank girl :) I hope you enjoy it there. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

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That's exactly what I was thinking Manta! You expressed my thoughts in to words well.

 

By the way, are you the same Manta from OldNeo.com?

 

Great minds think alike! ;)

 

Indeed I am! :D Speaking of pet art, i'm currently working on a new UC to submit. I'm so close to my UC Ty Krawk, I can taste it! :wub_anim: *noms*

 

Btw Luciana, thanks for sharing that pet spotlight! I saved some of that art to my inspiration folder :yes:

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No yea I agree with that. Cause subetas designs for their pets are a bit more complicated they would be harder to change. I guess it helps a lot now that neopets can be customized too. People might be inspired to make more creative pets.

Sorry, Syrin! I agree with you and Manta but for some reason your original post got me confused.

 

Manta- You're welcome! There are a lot of great artists on subeta. Now I'm looking at all the old pet spotlights :P

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