Forum:Kit Blanks

Ok. Ferk here, and I'm gonna talk to you folks about the kit blanks. I love them to pieces... when I'm looking at the art made with them. Making the art is awful. The kit blanks really need redoing. Not for the new art to do between books, not because I want more pretty cat art to do, but because they have issues. I realize that this will be a huge project, but it's something that needs to be addressed. Let's begin.


 * Size of the blank. Matching patterns on these (or trying to match other art to them) is painstakingly difficult, even for me, and I've been using those things for almost 5 years.
 * Anatomy/Angle of the pose. It has no chin, barely any tail, no toes, the two full legs we do have seem to come out of no where (where the heck does the chest start??), the eyes are tiny and you can't tell what colour they are most of the time, it doesn't have shoulders, there's no haunch... And the left paw (our right side) looks broken and sits awkwardly. It all goes to show some images like this one can not be made into accurate blanks.
 * The tail is attached to the side of the cat?? If anything, in this current position, it should at least be on the other side of the blank, because that's a long way for a kitten's tail to stretch. Tail placement literally makes no sense with the angle of the body.
 * why no toes? like what
 * the legs look glued onto the front of the cat
 * no separation between chest and belly, or where the side of the kitten starts. shoulders?? chest contour lines? where are they
 * The left (our right) paw seems to be sideways?
 * kittens have huge eyes, these are itty bitty
 * no haunch? do these kittens have hind legs, or do they just have a tiny fuzz ball glued to their side to look like a paw
 * Where are their necks?? Adding collars is a pain because they literally have to sit on the chest part of the blank so they don't cover where the chin is supposed to be
 * Shading. The size and the angle make shading this blank so it has depth, definition, and a good source a pain in the butt. Again, because of the anatomy issues.


 * I'd like to note, however, that some patterns do seem to work with this blank. But not all do. Here are a few kit images that show that not all patterns work. It's also an issue with the compatibility of an artist's style and these demon blanks. Some styles work around the issues with shading and texture (and like?? textured shading, i guess is what you'd call it), and a combination of the those, and not all characters have that, and not all artists can do that in a way that works (I've tried to replicate some of the things I see, like on Blue Whisker or Minty, and it doesn't work for me, at least with GIMP's tools.), and I recall hearing similar things from other users over the years.


 * Here are a few more images of kittens in basically the same pose, all with the same issues I've listed that make them unsuitable for blanks: one two three four.

So, what are all of your opinions on this? I think I've covered it all, but if anybody else sees anything I've missed, then please mention it. 18:03, 06/30/2016