About three or four months ago, before I had even made the move to San Francisco, my friend Carlos sent me a Tweet linking to a blog post that Rich had posted about a Zelda Artist casting call.

I, of course, immediately applied to be one of the artists by shooting off an email to Rich (keep in mind that I had no idea who Rich was at the time, and vice versa).

Below, you’ll find my “audition” email:

Being the annoyingly active overachiever that I am, I also began harassing him via Twitter in an attempt to get his attention.  I mean, he was probably looking at hundreds of artist applications!  How else was I gonna stand out, y’know?!  I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing.

So uh … I went for the shock factor.
I’m pretty sure I tweeted and asked him if I could draw Princess Zelda & Shiekh making out or something, and he was like, “Uhm, that’s not exactly what we’re looking for, as awesome as that would be.”  And from there, I may have pestered him relentlessly into checking out my email so he could lay verdict on whether or not he found my style passable for the Zelda tribute.

And well, lucky me, I guess he thought I was pretty good. :3 *Blush*

Sidenote: I seriously just spent the past 30 minutes or so scrolling back through countless tweets on my feed in an attempt to find the Twitter conversation I had with Rich about this, and then it stopped loading right before the day I needed. AAAAH!! — OH WAIT. I can check his! O_O! DUMB!

Behold, the entire Twitter conversation that lead up to landing this feature:

I was pretty serious with this suggestion, actually.
If you can’t already tell from my current gallery of work, I enjoy
drawing hot women in provocative poses. :P

I totally did, too.

I’ve said this before, but I love villains.

When I received the Tweet hinting that I check my email, I was like, ZOMG!! Heart attack, girly squeal, etc!

XD!!!
… So of course, I tweeted a response. :3

And so our conversation moved to emails where we could discuss the secret project in more delicious detail.  Obviously it would’ve been crap to reveal the Hyrule’s Most Wanted secret feature to the public 4 months before it was actually supposed to launch, so precautions were taken!  And who knew it would end up being such a huge project full of so many amazing artists, of which I have the honor of being a part of?!

Followup Emails below:

Side Note: FUCK YEAHHHH!!! XD!! *Dance Dance Dance*

It is such a trip looking back at these Tweets, at these emails, and at everything that’s transpired since January.

For one, Rich has become one of my favorite people on the planet, and we’re kind of ridiculously close now.  And for another, I’ve obviously learned how to color my lineart.  So seeing the extremely plain image above of Puppet Zelda reaching menacingly towards the viewer just makes me cringe in disappointment!  I should have colored it. :(  I mean, it’s too late now, since it’s already up and in the system.  Which means I’ll probably just end up coloring it in my spare time so I can throw it up here in the blog for peace of mind.

Enjoy a few close-ups for more details:

Do you know how difficult it was for me to keep this project a secret?!
How torturous it was for me not to share a piece that I was working on?!

On my Tumblr alone, I am constantly posting “Work In Progress” pictures of the various projects I’m attacking. I really value the feedback I get on my work, as it serves to drive me and motivate me. So being unable to share my progress was totally a pain!

It feels good to finally reveal everything.

The full-size Puppet Zelda piece prints out at 20″ x 30″ and took about an hour or two to complete.
You can also view a larger version on my DeviantArt, check out my page on IGN’s feature, or browse the entire list of villains (still being updated)! You can also check out Rich’s blog discussing the Behind The Scenes of the project — be sure to leave him comments as well!

Enjoy,
XOXO Cheri XOXO