Ranko-chan Sketch

[artistbettyanne]

As promised, the first of (probably many) updates on my current WIP!




Yes, Ranko-chan (girl-type Ranma) is the "central" or prominent figure in this work; she fell very naturally into this spot. :3 Boy-type Ranma is going to be the figure seated at her feet. I had toyed very briefly with swapping the two, but I decided it wasn't what I wanted even before I started penciling the thumbnails.

Ranko's pose very nearly matches the original. (See side-by-side comparison below.) I rebalanced the weight of the figure - Moon requires her staff for balance, because her legs are both on one side of her center of gravity, and I moved Ranko's left leg (viewer's right) so that she's placing it back under her center of gravity. This is aided by her swinging the tea kettle up and forward. The pull of fabric in her dress and the swinging of her pig-tail also show that the figure is rotating around her center of gravity. The white heels Ranko was wearing with that outfit in the Christmas episode were chunkier than the ones Moon was wearing, so I also changed the arch of the shoe and the weight of the heels. Doing so gave the added benefit of helping to ground the figure more solidly than Moon was - Moon was barely settled on her feet, which enhanced the ethereal, goddess-like presence.



Ranko's outfit comes from the OAV series episode "Tendo Family Christmas Scramble":



I had debated between this outfit and her outfit in the movie Nihao My Concubine, but ultimately, I decided I was too lazy to draw, color and shade all of the folds in the Concubine dress. XD Also, I've always thought that dress would have flattered her more with the huge bow in back, so I also went with personal aesthetics. If I'm going to drool while I draw, I might as well enjoy the whole package. XD

The next step is to get Ranma-kun (boy-type Ranma) drawn and settled at her feet.