A new challenger has appeared!
OMG, tease!
Sorry about the lack of posts lately, but I recently became a new father and so I’ve been absolutely exhausted. My son’s starting to get into more of a rhythm sleeping, so I’m hoping to catch up on my various series soon. Anyway, a month or so ago, I got the idea that I wanted Sea Slugs! Anime Blog to have its own mascot so that I wouldn’t have to go searching for pictures for the banner for branding purposes.
Without further ado, here she is, Nama! I chose the name because a namako is the sea slug (really sea cucumber) that gives this blog its name, and the -ko honorific is sometimes used for females you are familiar with. Hence, Nama-ko.
The colors!!!
I only had a few simple ideas in my mind about what I wanted (big curls and sea slug hair ornaments), so I knew I needed to get someone who was very talented and creative to spin artistic gold from my mental straw. With that in mind I basically browsed deviantART for several days looking for skillful artists who were taking commissions. From this pool, I selected artists who showed creativity and a style that I liked. This is how I settled on Lires. Lires was extremely easy to work with, getting me a sketch within a day, promptly replying to any emails, exhibiting patience with change requests, and finishing the whole job in under a month (even though I was in the middle of his commission queue).
So easy I probably could have done it myself in under an hour =3
While Osaka will always be the muse of SS!AB, I wanted something that was unique to this site. There’s a long lead time for art, but I plan on commissioning more pieces and eventually replacing the rotating banner images with Nama-ko banners. This was my first experience commissioning artwork for fun (though I did do printing bids before in an early job), and the experience was extremely positive. I suspect that you get what you pay for, and it makes sense to really read artist profiles and commission rules to get a sense of whether the potential artist will be easy to work with.
I hope you guys love Nama-ko as much as I do, and I welcome any comments. I’m looking forward to seeing what Lires and other talented artists can come up with, and I think it will help in making Sea Slugs! a really distinct site.
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About Kabitzin: One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well-choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns. |
37 Comments
Mmm, imma get REAL familiah wit hur soon, knam sayin’?
I thought the palette was going to have more blue in it, but this is still awesome! Kurisu would be proud (you know, cause he likes Real Drive) (…*ba dum psh*)
Wow, it came out great. Congratulations, I love it.
Cute one. I’m positively surprised she’s rather mature, unlike other blogs’ mascots who seem to be not even allowed to have a little drink with you. (Mine is 16 so she can have a little wine).
I like her dress, and I think green, especially while she has reflections of blue in many places, will perfectly match your current color scheme. Though if you know me enough, you know that I prefer more open skin. :3
Concluding, congratulations! (Regarding 1. your son, I didn’t know earlier; 2. your new mascot girl, I hope you’ll get along well)
I didn’t want a total moeblob or super-busty mascot, but I imagine I’ll get some cute chibi art eventually. The artist asked me if I wanted to show more skin and cleavage and I said no, haha. It’s better when more is left to the imagination
.
Perhaps, it’s true. Though still, the best ‘left to the imagination’ art are Gorobottsu’s works. (link needed?)
I myself am in vehement opposition to twintails (especially with drill curls) but nonetheless, coolio.
I specifically asked for fat drill curls!
New son and new mascot!
I actually like Matsudaira Touko now but the residual rage over Rainy Blue still makes me flinch slightly when I see a twin hair drills chara. But the green hair kind of cancels that out wrt Nama-ko. And like J159, I thought that’d be more blue in her colour scheme. Great job nonetheless!
And I suppose how Stripey will react to her depends on how old she is.
DEM DRILLS!
Her drill hair will pierce the blogging heaven? :p
Looks very nice, I love the green :3
Glad you like it! I just requested that Nama match the colors of the blog, and Lires did a great job with the palette.
Nice one!
So this was what the teaser pic was all about. Very nice indeed.
I’m going to add that artist to my devwatch now lol.
Yeah, I wonder if anyone really thought it was a face.
Awesome! can’t wait to see her grace the top of the site.
Me too, although I might wait until I have amassed a few more pieces so I can keep up a rotation.
I suddenly feel inferior, but its a good kind of inferior.
Seriously, but it’s hard to compete with those who do this for a living orz.
Do we get to rule34 her?
/facepalm
Watch out, it might really happen.
Congrats on the new mascot, hooray for Nama(ko)-chan! Drilltastic.
lol! who wants to start a pool?
Nice mascot, but you already had one ready to go with my beautiful conceptualizations of Sea Slugs!
Oh well, a cute girl is fine too =P
I wanted a mascot that was a little easier to draw =3.
Can we call her Sea Sluggy? Slug-Tan? I really like the outfit.
Oh wow. This is pretty awesome. Are you going to start selling merchandise with Nama anytime soon? :P
P-p-p-papa!?
and yay for artist patronage!
All I can say is AWSOME design. Very unique and original. Bust looks a little off and kinda kills the flow, but overall is grand!
Nice mascot! I think it came out really well, and the green is a great color. It’s only a matter of time before someone starts a Nama fanclub.
Congratulations on becoming a father!
Like the mascot, too. I cannot resist the call of the twin drills, either.
WOOHOO!!
And congratulations again on being a father
You have my eternal gratitude if you have a loli version of her
Nice! I love the green colouring and drill hair, it’s very memorable.
Wow, really nice!
How much did you pay to get something like this? Or a price range would be good
You can check Lires’ price ranges on his commission page. I gave a bit extra as a tip since he was working without references, but it’s not too much more than the typical going rate.
“Nama-ko wo nameruna!” (“Don’t look down on Nama-ko!” could also be “Don’t lick Nama-ko!” thanks to Japanese homonym) immediately came to mind the moment I read this XD Be sure to protect her from Impz (he might be MIA atm, but who knows)!
This makes me want to learn how to draw. really bad. Really my one big weakness being a web developer…
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[...] probably wraps up the 2009 Nama-ko season. I went over budget this year, since it cost more to get this whole mascot project started, but it’s been very rewarding. I’d like to get more images of dear Nama in 2010 doing [...]