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#Six Organs of Admittance
dustedmagazine · 1 month
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Six Organs of Admittance — Time Is Glass (Drag City)
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Photo by Kami Chasny
Ben Chasny’s latest as Six Organs of Admittance has a track called “Theophany Song,” a hint, if you know what the word means, at why his work is so hard to describe on paper. Theophany, as it happens, means a physical manifestation of god, in a sunrise, in the sound of surf, in the unsettling anticipation of a full solar eclipse (guess what day I’m writing this). It is, by its nature, resistant to prose. Like Six Organs music, theophany involves a subtle, ecstatic lift out of the world around us into an unknowable, ecstatic other place.
All of which is to say that this mainly acoustic set of songs uses the simplest of tools—the scratchy roughness of finger-picked guitar, the whispered ethereality of near falsetto singing, occasional forays into looming amplification—to work its way towards the divine. Songs like “The Mission” and “Pilar” tap a clean, sunlit purity that seems natural but somehow more so. Though familiar sounding, in the clear picking and drifting, slumberous vocals, these cuts outflank earthly serenity and outrun linear narrative. They strive, and arguably succeed, at providing a glimpse beyond Plato’s shadows on the wall.
It's not all peace and pastoralism. The most affecting cuts incorporate a roll and surge and turmoil. “Hephaestus,” early on, gives a foreshadowing, in its glacial build of vibrations, friction-y bowed tones merging with ominous electronic hum, a clacking percussion underneath.  It’s never loud—this is tumult you hear from miles away—but you can hear the noise gathering itself, willing itself to take shape. This is a music in the process of becoming.
The beast rears up again in “Spinning in a River,” a track that starts placidly enough in serpentine picking and prayerful murmurings, as indolently pleasant as a drift downstream on a sunny day. And yet, listen to the surge two and a half minutes in, where a blast force of electric guitar frames Chasny’s words about “our dream of spinning around.” It’s an inexorable force on a very movable object, and not hard to make the connection to unknowable, invisible power.
The same sort of thing happens in “Summer’s Last Rays” with its quick twists of Spanish-sounding guitar, its antic, agile, staccato restlessness. The guitar dances a tarentel on life’s surface, as, perhaps, we all do. The sound is layered, frenetic, at least two and maybe three guitar lines chasing each other in the round. Yet about halfway through, a viscous, subterranean sound bubbles up, and the surface warps and buckles. The low-end sounds like cathedral organ, like revelation, like the presence of the divine. Trebly melody skitters over it, perhaps aware, perhaps not, of the forces that undergird it.
The point is that Time Is Glass is lovely music — that much should be no surprise to anyone — but beyond that, it taps into something invisible, deep and important. Is it too much to say that these songs manifest the divine? Maybe so, but let’s stipulate at least that they’re trying.  
Jennifer Kelly
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INTERVIEWS ETC 2023
I sometimes talk to people! Going back over the last year, I had some nice conversations with some very cool people. I like doing interviews, but they definitely stress me out a little bit. I suppose it's good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time, though ... So yeah, here are a few of those interviews, in case you missed 'em the first time around.
HEAD VOICE (James Jackson Toth, Ben Chasny, Donovan Quinn)
Donovan Quinn: There’s one aspect of process which is like a user manual. You know, turning on a machine, how you control the bass or whatever. But then there’s a part of process which is more of our terrain, where it’s kind of a story. An artist or a group of artists is interacting with all these elements — each other, gear, inspiration. With each of our pieces in Head Voice, we’re getting little bits of that story.
ILYAS AHMED
With my record, I’ve seen people reference Loren Connors, which is great — I’m a huge fan of Loren Connors. But I’m always comparing it to something like Bill Fay, maybe in an emotional sense. Or like, Neil Young — how do I make “Cortez The Killer” … but not just copy it. One of my favorite Coltrane tunes is “Alabama.” Those eternal favorites you always come back to. How can I make something that feels like that without just doing that, right? I’m not interested in copying it, I’m interested in transmuting it, making it fit into my weird perspective of the world. 
WILL HERMES
As an artist, [Lou] was a “transformer,” and everybody has their own version of who he was. What they want him to be, what aspect of his character they wanted to take in. I tried to show them all. I don’t know if they all morph into a single, intelligible human being. But maybe that is part of what was endlessly fascinating about him. He was all of these things simultaneously and they didn’t all necessarily add up.
M. SAGE
I think it’s radical to have fun. And to be silly. It’s not meant as escapism or denial, but the world is dark and weird. And it keeps getting darker and weirder. It’s radical for an artist to afford an audience joy or pleasure. I mean, I love a lot of that solemn, serious, foreboding electro-acoustic music. There’s incredible stuff, obviously. But I wanted to make something that felt fun. And accessible! That’s radical, too, I think.
HORSE LORDS
Andrew Bernstein: We’re trying to make things that sound interesting to us, first and foremost. But we’re also hoping that the music and the way we operate spurs the listener to think differently. Every act is political, and our decisions might make someone reconsider how they make music or how they go about their lives.
BRENDA SAUTER
“The Obedient Atom” at White Eagle Hall was really special. That was one of the original Willies songs and it never got recorded. It was one of those songs that was always left behind for one reason or another. To finally play it out just felt incredible … and then the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate [laughter]. There’s something about that song! Surreal. The atom wasn’t so obedient that night.
Further reading: Bill Million on the Feelies' live tribute to an Underground legend
GUIDING LIGHT: A TOM VERLAINE APPRECIATION
Alasdair MacLean: I also think of some of Stephan Mallarme’s phrases – “the musician of empty nothingness.” Verlaine seemed to be working in parallel: “Watching the corners turn corners;” “Lightning struck itself.” The language turns in on itself, like the guitar solos. He obviously knew those poets back to front. I imagine lots of other people have tried to do this since, but all of them have made fools of themselves. Verlaine never did.
Further reading: Tom Verlaine - 20 Great Tracks
SPIRAL STAIRS
When we first started talking about rehearsing, I was like, “We’re probably going to be playing the same 20 songs. Let’s just pick another 15 songs that we know we can bust out.” Eventually, we finally came to that point…but then in rehearsals we ended up playing probably like 60 songs [laughs]. I’m like, “Oh my god!” That was just for the two Primavera shows, so it was like “Come on!” It took a while to re-learn all of that stuff. 
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jacobwren · 10 days
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Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance - Stages Of Capitulation
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radiophd · 4 months
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six organs of admittance -- the mission
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invisiblemotor · 4 months
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Six Organs of Admittance - The Mission
video by Elisa Ambrogio
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rustedskyprisms · 1 year
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cbcruk · 5 days
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Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance - Stages Of Capitulation
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beginningspod · 20 days
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It's time for Beginnings, the podcast where writer and performer Andy Beckerman talks to the comedians, writers, filmmakers and musicians he admires about their earliest creative experiences and the numerous ways in which a creative life can unfold.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Ben Chasny. Born in Los Angeles, Ben's family moved to rural Northern California when he was young. His recording debut was a heavy, free rock project named Plague Lounge, whose album The Wicker Image, was released conjointly between the New World of Sound and Holy Mountain labels in 1996. Holy Mountain released many of Ben's albums as Six Organs of Admittance as well, starting with his first self-titled album in 1998. Since then, he's released just about three dozen albums and EPs as Six Organs. Ben also plays in the wonderful psyche/noise rock band Comets on Fire, who have four albums on labels like Alternative Tentacles and Sub Pop, and Ben's latest album as Six Organs of Admittance, Time Is Glass, was released at the end of April on Drag City, and folks, it's fantastic!
I'm on Twitter here and you can get the show with:
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sinceileftyoublog · 27 days
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Six Organs of Admittance Interview: More Than a Couple Chairs
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Photo by Kami Chasny
BY JORDAN MAINZER
When Ben Chasny dives into something, he usually dives deep. Upon answering the phone in February, when I called him to talk about his new Six Organs of Admittance album Time Is Glass (out today on Drag City), he seemed a bit scattered. Despite mentally preparing himself all day for the interview, he got distracted by a "What are you digging lately?" Bandcamper compilation Drag City asked him to put together to advertise his record release. (A music fan with a voracious appetite, Chasny was rediscovering music he had purchased a couple years prior and forgot about.) Six Organs records often occupy the same dedicated headspace, Chasny setting aside blocks of time to think about nothing else. That is, until Time Is Glass. On his latest, Chasny blurs the lines between his outside-of-music life and the music itself, the album a batch of songs that reflects on the magical minutiae that sprout during a period of needed stasis.
The last time I spoke to Chasny, he and his partner [Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers] were still settling in from their move to Humboldt County in Northern California. "When Elisa and I first moved here, we didn't have any friends," Chasny said. "But there's a group of us that live in Humboldt now. A bunch of my friends moved up since the last time I talked to you." That includes fellow Comets on Fire bandmate Ethan Miller and his partner, fellow New Bums musical partner Donovan Quinn, and folk singer Meg Baird and her partner. "Every New Year's Day, if it's not pouring rain, we take a walk on the beach," said Chasny. One such photoshoot on January 1, 2023 yielded the album cover for Time Is Glass: That's Miller and his poodle, along with Baird's Heron Oblivion bandmate Charlie Saufley. This unintentional artistic collective meets up often, whether for coffee or as Winter Band, a rotating cast of area musicians who form to open up for musician friends when they come through town, like Sir Richard Bishop of Sun City Girls. As such, according to Chasny, Time Is Glass is a celebration of community.
Perhaps the supportive strength of his artistic family gave Chasny the willpower to incorporate elements of his daily life into Time Is Glass, something he couldn't avoid. He didn't share with me exactly what in his personal life made it impossible to separate the two, though he mentioned his dog, a difficult-to-train puppy that was a mix of three traditionally stubborn breeds. Said dog inspired "My Familiar", a song that uses occult language to inhabit the mind of his obstinate canine companion. "And we'll burn this whole town / No one says there's good," Chasny sings, alternating between his quintessential hushed delivery and falsetto, his layered vocals atop circular picking exuding a sense of sparseness. Indeed, you wouldn't expect a Six Organs record about home life to sound totally blissful; Time Is Glass is at once gentle and menacing. The devotional "Spinning In A River" portrays the titular carefree act as lightly as the prickle of Chasny's guitar or as doomily as the song's distortion. "Hephaestus" and "Theophany Song" imagine their respective mythological characters as gruff and voyeuristic. "Summer's Last Rays" indeed captures a sense of finality, Chasny's processed guitar and warbling harmonium providing the instantly hazy nostalgia before the fade-out. The album is bookended by songs more straightforwardly hopeful, the opener "The Mission" a dedication to friends falling in love with their new place of residence, the closer "New Year's Song" a twangy ode to dreaming. But it's the moments in between that Chasny was forced to capture on Time Is Glass. And thankfully, what was born out of necessity yielded, for him, new ways to interpret the same old, same old.
Read my conversation with Chasny below, edited for length and clarity. He speaks on domesticity, mythology, playing live, and Arthur Russell.
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SILY: You've lived in Humboldt County for a bit. Is Time Is Glass the first Six Organs record in a while you made while situated in one place?
Ben Chasny: I did do a couple records here before. The first one, I was in the process of moving here, so I wasn't really settled. The second was at the beginning of lockdown. This is the first one I felt like was recorded at a home. Everything was settled, I have a schedule. When I was doing the first one, I didn't even have furniture in the house. I had a couple chairs. [laughs]
SILY: Do you think the feeling of being recorded at a home manifests in any specific way on the album?
BC: I started to incorporate daily domestic routines into the record, more often. A lot of the melodies were written while taking the dog for a walk, which I've never done before. There was always stuff to do as I moved in. The times weren't as separate. Before, it was, "Now I'm recording, now I'm doing life stuff." There was a merging of everything here. I would listen to it on my earbuds while taking walks and constantly work on it for six months.
SILY: It definitely has that homeward bound feel in terms of the lyrics and the sound, like you've been somewhere forever. There are a lot of lyrics about the absence of time, and there's a circular nature to the rhythms and the guitars. Does the title of the album refer to this phenomenon?
BC: A little bit. Time does seem, in general, post-lockdowns and COVID, different. The lyrics on the record have a bit more domesticity. It always seems like there was something that had to be done, that would normally keep me from doing music, that I tried to incorporate here. Maybe I'm just getting older, too. I'm getting more sensitive towards time. I'm running out. [laughs]
SILY: Was there anything specific about your domestic life that made you want to include it in your music?
BC: Just that I had to include it in order to do anything. It was no longer separate. The way life ended up working out, I could no longer separate my artistic life from other life. I had to put the artistic aspect into it in order to work. Instead of getting frustrated, I brought [music] more into the house.
SILY: Did working on the record give you a new perspective on domesticity?
BC: I don't know. A little bit. I was just trying to come to terms with basic life things. Let me look at the record, I forgot what songs are on it. [laughs] The song "My Familiar" is about my dog. I got this book called Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits, which was sort of taken from transcriptions of witch trials from Scotland in the 1500's. A lot of dealing with things like witches' familiars and demon familiars. I found a very strong similarity between that and my dog, which seemed like it was maybe a demon. She's a Husky-German Shepherd-Australian Shepherd mix, so as a puppy, she needed a lot of work. So that became a song. That's a more humorous way everyday life made its way into the music.
[With regard to] the last song, "New Years Song", Elisa and I have a contest on New Year's Eve when we're hanging out where we go in separate rooms and have one hour to write a song. We come out at 11 or 11:30 and play the song for each other. We've done it for a few years now. This was the song I wrote for New Year's Eve going into 2022.
SILY: You talk about God on Time Is Glass and delve a little bit into mythology. Was that something you were thinking about on a day to day basis when writing?
BC: The “Hephaestus” song was just a character. That was a rare song for me in that I was trying to make sounds that particularly evoked a mythological figure. I've made nods to mythology in the past, but the titles were almost an afterthought. This particular song, I was trying to make the sounds of that character in their workshop with the fire and anvils. I was trying to evoke that feeling. That was kind of a new one for me.
SILY: Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but you also seem to talk a bit about your state of mind on "Slip Away".
BC: It's funny you caught onto that, because I wasn't really expecting to bring it up during interviews. I wouldn't say that I came close at times in the past couple years to schizophrenia, but I could see way off in the distance and horizon what that would be like. I...was trying to write about that. At the same time, the lyrics that have to do with two minds and the splitting of the mind are also somewhat of a reference to the idea of a celestial twin or Valentinian gnosis, how you have a celestial counterpart. That idea [is behind the concept of] someone's guardian angel.
SILY: On a couple songs, you sing to someone or something else. "The Mission" you've mentioned is for a friend and their new partner. What about on "Spinning in a River"?
BC: Maybe it was more of a general idea. It wasn't so much to a person as to a general concept of Amory.
SILY: What were all the instruments used on the record?
BC: I had some guitar, I was singing, and there's some harmonium on it, which I did a lot of processing on, lowering it octaves. I've got some really basic Korg synths. Electronic-wise, there's a program called Reactor I like to use a lot. I do it a little bit more subtly than electronic artists. I use it more for background.
SILY: I picked up the harmonium on "Summer's Last Rays"! I feel like you never truly know when you're hearing a harmonium unless it's in the album credits. Sometimes, that sound is just effects.
BC: There are two different harmoniums. When the bass comes in, that's also a harmonium, but I knocked it down a couple octaves and put it through some phaser. It has a grinding bass tone to it. This is actually one of the few Six Organs records with bass guitar on it. Unless it's an electric record with a band, there's never really been bass guitar. I was really inspired by Naomi Yang's bass playing in Galaxie 500 and how it's more melodic. I told her that, too.
SILY: On "Theophany Song", are you playing piano?
BC: Yeah, that's at my friend's house. I just wanted to play a little melody.
SILY: Was this your first time using JJ Golden for mastering?
BC: I've worked with JJ before. He did Ascent and a few others. I particularly wanted to work with him this time because I had just gotten that Masayuki Takayanagi box set on Black Editions and saw he had done that. I have the original CDs, and I thought he did such an amazing job that I wanted to work with him again.
SILY: Is that common for you, that you think of people to work with and you dig a record they just worked on and it clicks for you?
BC: That's the first time I had just heard something and thought, "Oh, I gotta work with this person." I usually have a few mastering engineers I work with and think, "What would be good for them?" or, "What does this sound like?" I usually like to send the more rock-oriented stuff to JJ, but I was just feeling it this time.
SILY: Have you played these songs live?
BC: The instrumental "Pilar" I have been playing since 2019. That's the oldest song on the record. I did do one show last September where I played a couple of these songs live. I have some ideas on how to work it out. It will be a solo acoustic show, but I [hope] to make some new sounds so it's not so straightforward. One thing about this record is I tried to write songs in the same tuning. On previous records, I used a lot of tunings, and it was a real pain to try to play the songs live. I did write this record with the idea that most of these songs would be able to be done live.
SILY: What have you been listening to, watching, or reading lately?
BC: I just got the Emily Robb-Bill Nace split LP. I just saw her live a couple nights ago. The latest one on Freedom To Spend from Danielle Boutet, which is awesome. Freedom To Spend is a go-to label for me. Also, this split with Karen Constance and Dylan Nyoukis.
I've been reading Buddhist Bubblegum by Matt Marble, about Arthur Russell and the systems he developed, which I knew nothing about. His compositional systems have almost a Fluxus influence. The subtitle is Esotericism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell, so it's also about his Buddhism as well. When I first heard about the book, I didn't know if I needed to get it, but I heard an interview with Matt about the detailed systems Arthur Russell came up with. It gives me a whole new level of appreciation for him. It's so good.
SILY: Did you listen to Picture of Bunny Rabbit?
BC: It's so good, especially the title track. It seems like when he has us plugged into some kind of effects or delay, he's switching the different sounds on it, but it makes the instrument go in so many different areas. To me, the title track is worth the price of the entire record, even though the whole thing is good.
SILY: What else is next for you? Are you constantly writing?
BC: This is gonna be a very busy year release-wise. I have a couple more things coming out. It's hard to write stuff because I always think it'll take so long for it to come out. I'm halfway working on something, but I have no idea when it will come out.
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heidismagblog · 2 months
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RTZ - Six Organs of Admittance (2009)
Artist : Steve Quenell
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dustedmagazine · 11 months
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Ben Chasny & Rick Tomlinson—Waves (Voix)
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Photo by Richard Mulhearn
Waves by Ben Chasny & Rick Tomlinson
On Waves, Ben Chasny joins forces with English multi-instrumentalist Rick Tomlinson for a set of instrumentals. The acoustic guitar pieces that dominate are consistent with the playing of both, especially, in Chasny’s case, Intimate Landscape (2021, reviewed for Dusted by Tim Clarke), featuring fingerpicking that eschews the Takoma Park-style heavy thumb in favor of cascades of notes punctuated by pauses and spaces. The guitars alternately interweave and play off of each other in compelling ways. The tracks seem to be largely improvised, and the recording was apparently completed in just a few days, but there is nothing rushed about it, with each composition having a distinctive feel.
On “Ellipse of the Declining Sun,” “Waking of Insects,” and “Wait for Low Tide,” the guitars interweave to generate a web of sound that pulses and shifts almost like a synthesizer. The latter track stretches over nine minutes, with minute shifts in the picking patterns that keep the listener engaged, and the fade-out at the end leaves the impression that the pair may have kept playing for hours. 
The other acoustic tracks, opener “i” and closer “ii,” are more call-and-response, with the guitars panned hard left and right. The gentle, meditative sound frames the recording as a whole and nicely suggests the two friends coming together and then parting ways. 
Also adding to the variety is the longest of the tracks, which is completely different sonically. “Paths of Ocean Currents and Wind Belts” is a tape loop creation that shimmers and ripples. It’s as engrossing as the acoustic pieces and doesn’t seem out of place because it shares with them a trance-inducing quality. 
Hopefully, Waves isn’t a one-off since Chasny and Tomlinson sound great together and bring out interesting features of each other’s playing. 
Jim Marks
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Lagniappe SuperSession :: Birthday Blues | 33 Artists Interpret The Music Of James Toth
It starts with Meg Baird and ends with Lee Ranaldo — and in-between, you'll find a host of other geniuses covering the songs of James "Wooden Wand" Toth in honor of the man's birthday today. An amazing collection ... and it's completely free. A gift from the Toth Zone!
Cory Rayborn says: So, just how do you celebrate a great friend who has also helped provide so much joy through his art? When, beyond friendship, that person also happens to be one of the best living songwriters out there full stop? The answer to that question is to open your email one morning to find a scheming email from the subject’s spouse, Leah Toth, and one of your mutual good friends, Ben Chasny. They had the fantastic idea of celebrating the full and broad catalog of James Toth by asking a lot of our friends to turn in covers. How could I turn this assignment down? Impossible. As things frequently do, the project snowballed quickly into what you have before you here. Folks couldn’t respond “yes” quick enough, proving our concept regarding the simple power of Toth. Even better was that period when messages rolled in daily with folks’ finished works. Track after track, these reinterpretations laid bare the amazing framework that undergirds the massive James Toth catalog. They also demonstrate how much connection listeners come to from James’ lyrics, especially when they possess folks who are typically known as instrumental artists to contribute vocals to their takes. This collection is such a delight. Circling back to the start, a collection like this is how you can celebrate one of the best songwriters and buddies out there. Happy birthday, James!
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maquina-semiotica · 2 years
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Six Organs Of Admittance, "When You Finally Return"
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radiophd · 2 months
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six organs of admittance -- new year's song
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macomico · 1 year
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I've always wanted to learn how to draw bigger people but I often only find tutorials for like muscular men with six-packs and stuff so I was wondering if you have any tips or tutorials or something because the way you draw both men and women has me in a chokehold ahshdj they all look so good and soft and like they'd give the best hugs!!!
aww thank you so much! 💖🤧 and i can definitely help you my dear, i've been in the same spot as you - its really hard to find good references of fat bodies without encountering heavily edited pictures or ads about how to loose weight. you really need to have luck or know people who can help you. but ur in luck, i got some pointers for you >:)
Look for pictures of athletes, preferably of sports that require body mass such as rugby, american football, any throw sport (shot put, discus, hammer, javelin), wrestlers commonly have some body fat on them, POWER LIFTERS. I would avoid (fashion) models because the pictures are often edited heavily and thus warp your perceiption of fat distribution, but they're not too bad for ordinary fullbody poses, so we gotta work with what we got. I have a pin board i made for myself with various bodytypes, consisting of athletes and plus size models that i hope can help you!
What really helped me to really emulate and portray mass on bodies is simply drawing rounded shapes (NOT circles. rather egg/soft trapezoid shapes, overlapping with each other). Fat stacks ONTO your muscles, it will make everything rounder and softer. You can play with the shapes to create different fat distribution. Here is a post from hometownrockstar on tumblr about this topic thats very insightful with sketches explaining everything.
Morpho: Fat and Skin Folds: Anatomy for Artists by Michel Lauricella. this book is the holy grail i swear. i finally purchased a real copy of the book not too long ago and i use translucent paper and simply trace the sketches from the book for practice and its a GODSENT. definitely worth an investment. I previously only owned it as a pdf, which i will gladly send to anyone who sends me a dm or an ask :) for copyright reasons i wont distribute it openly. and zlibrary recently got shut down so lmfao we gotta help each other out
Drawing from life! there's this awesome site with homemade photographic references for artists of fat bodies called fat photo ref. you'll need to ask for admittance via email but they usually respond fairly quickly, took 2-3 days for me. :) its all organized in tags so you can quickly sort and browse.
Hope this helps! <3
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