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Posted by BatMad on 07-09-2015 at23:18:

  Fantômette is missing one boot!

Hallo one-shoers!

Here's two peculiar versions of classic french heroine Fantômette (as she appeared in her 1999 animated series) and everyone's beloved masked maiden, Batgirl (redesigned by Jeff Matsuda for "The Batman").

I wanted to share it here as a preview, before posting it on deviantART, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. in the next hours.

I had this pic almost done literally years ago, but then my computer crashed and the source files got lost, leaving only a very small, rasterized backup of the inking.
Last week I decided to resume the work on this lovely superheroine couple; did a couple of edits (more on that later), re-colored it and filled in some of the silly wording I like so much lately.

It's an unmasking pic (my other fetish) but you can see that one of Fantômette's boots is already off
The original drawing had both boots on BUT since on this very forum you guys noted I don't draw enough proper one-shoe pics, I've re-drawn a tenderly bootless leg on poor Fantômette.

I hope you like it!

BatMad

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Posted by Nopperabo on 07-10-2015 at21:06:

 

Nice. I can see why Batgirl would want to deboot her too, if nothing else, they are probably HER boots (this isn't meant to be a jab at you and your artistic choices, just a note that, based on a quick image search I did, Fantomette's boots from the TV show seem to be flat soled [ and earlier incarnations didn't wear boots at all; they seem to all have on either yellow flats or red Mary Janes/ T-straps])

Speaking of French Cartoon females, I thought I had a new candidate for the debooting list, Arcana from the old 1980's cartoon Les Mondes Egloutis (better know to old fogey English language viewers like me as Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea) and old favorite from my childhood. However thinking it over, I realize she is probably not a good choice for two reasons.

1. I'm not sure her clothes are even removable. She was constructed with them, and since she never seems to take any of them off (including that weird vaguely Fritz Lang-ish hat). So I'm not 100% sure she even has skin under them. This might be doubly true for her feet since the children who made her were completely unfamiliar with them (that was one of the points of the series, the Arcadians no longer have legs, they just hover)

2. Arcana has a very weird face, even given the animation style of the series. Between it's extreme flatness and the odd slant of her eyes, she has a vaguely Mongoloid look (both in terms of her ethnicity and in terms of the old un PC word for a person with Down's Syndrome) So it's actually sort of hard to make expressions for her (if you look at the actual series there are relatively few times she actually doesn't look more or less deadpan) So if you leave it as is, the picture wouldn't work because she'd have no sign she felt anything. And if you changed her appearance enough to make her capable of expressions, it wouldn't really look like her (that's sort of the problem I have with the C.C./Kallen debooting drawing Noiry did, it's a nice picture but it doesn't really LOOK like C.C. and Kallen.)

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Posted by BatMad on 07-11-2015 at23:02:

 

Hi! Thanks for your thorough response

I hadn't heard of that particular cartoon before and I like Arcana's design!
Thank you so much for making me discover this potential debooting jem.

I understand the restrictions you talk about but if I ever end up drawing her, well, those boots will be removable and she'll wear some opaque white tights underneath
I could even go as far as to make her crazy headpiece fall off to reveal a cute haircut. Will the final representation still look like Arcana or will she be perceived as a random gal in Arcana cosplay? Or as the "animated actress" who protrayed Arcana caught (un)dressing in her room?
That's tricky.

I assure you it's not to be unrespectful of the source material, it's just that my urge for debooting always comes first. It must be done.

About her face... well, let's start with Fantômette's boots

It's true, Fantômette's boots are supposed to be flat. I just don't think you'll ever see me draw flat shoes in a fetish piece - and I know that you know that
I was even planning a sexy show-off between Old and New Fantômette, and I think the classic version will end up losing some suede platform Mary Janes

Some great artists, like Haruyama or LostOneZero, when doing sexy fanart are able to adapt their style according to the subject. That's because they know and accept that the public is not as interested in your rendering of the character as much as they want to see their beloved hottie in a sexy situation - and being consistent with the original style helps the illusion a lot.
Change the style too dramatically and you lose the deeper connection with a fandom looking for action.

I'm not that good

One might add that a well-conceived character will stand the "inner recognition" test regardless of the drawing style
This is especially true for comic book chars, since visual inconsitencies are rooted in a medium where multiple official artists render the same character on a monthly basis for years and years.

That being said, even when sticking with your own style (either for incompetence, like me, or out of artistic choice), there's elements of the character you always need to grasp and keep even in your very personal iteration.
I love a disco 70 version of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb by I can't conceive a cover of Every Breath You Take that goes without the bassline (sounds silly, but somebody did it. Jeeez).

So if I ever deboot Arcana, I will pay attention to her very unique face. And thanks for pointing that out!

BatMad
ps: she would also wear impossibly high heels nonetheless. I know, I'm sick.

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Posted by Nopperabo on 07-12-2015 at01:51:

 

This link might help you then. The show had two repeated songs videos running through it, the Flasbic (which back when I was in high school, I actually worked out how to play (well the refrain since I played trumpet, I talked a friend who played the flute into doing the major part) and this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbmdFRy5XV8

The bit around 1:00 or so is the closest I can think of of Arcana giving what could be considered a sexy look.)

I also was fond of L' Mysterieux Cites D'or (The Mysterious cities of Gold) when I was a kid, but that would not be of use to use period. Zia is the only notable female character and she 1. is about eight or nine and 2. wears pretty basic sandals (she is Incan after all) Though I will point out that, for whoever it was who was interested in male shoe loss who posted a while back, Esteban does lose one of his sandals in the opening credits.