Welcome back to the second edition of "Behind the Design"! This week, I'm going to be interviewing iPeny, the famous and well-known designer of Tangled' Princess.
Hopeluvs: When did you make Tangled' Princess?
iPeny: To be honest, I'm not really sure. Sometime between the week before the movie came out in theaters and the week after.
Hopeluvs: What inspired you to make it?
iPeny: I'm a huge Disney fan, so I thought it might be fun to create her an outfit on Whyville.
Hopeluvs: How long did it take you to make that outfit?
iPeny: Half hour to an hour. I was still designing with my mouse then.
Hopeluvs: Have you ever worn that outfit?
iPeny: No. Only because it's not meant for the skin tone I use.
Hopeluvs: Was there ever a moment where a lot of people were wearing it at the same time? Like a trend.
iPeny: Yeah, when it first came into new arrivals. Miramagic also came out with a Rapunzel-ish hair at the same time so it worked out perfectly. (I was terrible at hair at the time.)
Hopeluvs: If you have any advice for beginning designers, what would it be?
iPeny: Here are a few things I did:
1. Grab a friend to design with. Once you see that a friend of yours has designed something with their best effort, more than likely it will inspire you to do just as good using your best effort. Helping each other will allow you to become more advanced. You may learn things you didn't know before. Encouragement from your friend is always a plus as well.
2. Study previous art and pictures. For the longest time I studied the shading from different art that already existed in Akbar's Face Mall. Yargpixie is a prime example of someone I tend to study on how to get certain shadings and how to make certain textures. Studying pictures will help you with how to shade and find the dark and light spots of an item. This could also work with your own clothes.
3. Ask an active designer. If you're completely lost, ask for some hints from an active designer on Whyville. You can send them links of designs that you have done in the past and ask how you can perfect them. I know from personal experience that asking designers truly helps in some cases. (The reason why I do hair so well is because I asked Mira for a few tips on how to perfect the design.)
4. Find yourself in your designs. Everyone has a signature in designing. You don't have to be completely clean or dramatically detailed. As long you would wear your design and it's perfect in YOUR eyes the rest, like clams and "WhyFame", will come soon after.
5. Have patience. I've been designing for 4 or 5 years, but I wasn't really noticed until maybe a couple of years ago. So, that being said, don't expect everyone to marvel at you in one sitting. The more you develop your talent the more people will see you as a designer. Everyone has their crappy designs . . . (I definitely know I do . . .) but just learn from your mistakes and try again. Take breaks if you need to. Some people take days to complete a part.
WOW! Just interviewing iPeny, I feel so much more knowledgeable about the secrets to designing! I love the Tangled; Princess set, I even have it myself! With that said, I hope you enjoyed this article, and thank you for reading!
Author's Note: I'd like to thank iPeny for taking her time to be interviewed, and I thank everyone who has supported me in my articles so far!
