My First Commission

 I was asked to create a specific piece by someone on DeviantArt a couple weeks ago. Here lies the result;

Doing a commissioned work is a unique experience. There are definitely aspects that make it both more complicated and easier than an original piece. First off is the pressure of trying to get something done that is pleasing to a very specific audience of one. The requestor was super chill, so that helps, but there's still the pressure you put on yourself to do a good job for them. It's different from my usual works where I can be satisfied with any reasonable job I do. The design and element choice second-guessing that goes into planning and executing a project for someone else can be a burden.

At the same time, when the client has a sufficiently specific idea of what they want to see, you can free yourself from a lot of those considerations, as the constraints of their vision supplement the murkiness of your own. Of course there's some give and take, but this is a much easier process when the design by committee elements are kept to a minimum. 

This isn't a project I'd typically do. I haven't done any works featuring Nami from One Piece. She's not even mentioned by name, as best I can recall, in any of my stories. She is technically a part of the First Sun Saga, as the Pirate King's crew is mentioned in the World of C story I have there. But my story never directly engages the One Piece crew. 

Moreover, I don't have any plans to use Nami as a character in one of my stories or as a part of one of the Two-Six pantheon. That's not to say anything about Nami as a character. But Hancock Boa obviously features far more prominently in my stories, and Robin to a much smaller degree than Hancock. Even Trafalger Law features in one of my tales. I just don't have anything for Nami.

On top of that, the outfit is not quite in line with my typical aesthetics. 

The request from the client was simple; from the images below, take the woman on the left, keep the thigh highs and shoes, but have her wearing the top, with the same eyes and facial markings as the one on the right. 

Outside those requirements, I was free to do whatever I wanted. Given that, I decided to do a sitting pose, as the two reference images already have a standing pose and I wanted to differentiate somehow. I wanted to keep the general hairstyle the artist used for Nami in the primary image, so I replicated that. It's not too different from Nami's normal hairstyle in the anime, except for the hairband pinning back her bangs. 

Given the clothing choices, I had to decide what to do about bottoms for her. Given her mostly bare torso by virtue of the top, there were only two real options; shorts or a skirt. Given how she's seated the choice isn't super critical, but I went with shorts because I liked the concept better. 

Backgrounds are always my kryptonite, but this time the idea came really easily, even if I still need to improve my skills on execution. Originally I was going to have her sitting on a barrel. But, I didn't like that idea given how I'd already sketched out where her legs would be. Trying to keep the barrel with the idea that I finally arrived at for having her feet resting atop a treasure chest seemed too awkward, so I changed the barrel idea to a crate. When I did that, my idea of having her arm stretching down to the just beside where she was sitting, as if she were steadying herself, to having her holding a fistful of treasure from the chest. 

The chest was going to be opened and overflowing with random treasure. But I gave up on that idea and and opted for a closed chest. When I did that, I decided to have just one treasure piece in hand, that choice being a golden jewel-encrusted goblet.

I wasn't sure entirely how to draw Nami for this. Oda obviously has a particular style, which is different from what the artist in the referenced image used. And as popular as One Piece is as an IP, and as popular as Nami is within that IP, there are tons of artists who have their won artistic takes on Nami. I wanted to respect both the referenced artist's style and Oda's style, so I kept some of the tone-downed exaggerations the referenced artist used, but I did play up some aspects to be closer to Oda's style. So, the legs and torso are longer, the chest a little bigger. Lastly, the referenced image didn't include her shoulder tattoo, so I added that back in. 

So that's that. I'm open to doing more commissions if folks have ideas I'm capable of working with. Feel free to reach out and let me know if you've got something in mind and I'll give you an answer pretty quickly.