#there's a lot of factors. i'm drawn to them as character /and/ they have banging aesthetics and music <3

[mishkakagehishka]

hiya korka!!! how are you doing today?

anyway, since you reblogged that thing asking about questions... how about why valkyrie are your favorite unit? or some of your favorite things about your culture/the country you live in if you're willing to share~? (i'm so curious and you talk about it a lot!!)

WE GOT ANOTHER ONE (interested in the culture) LADS /lh

Okay but wait hiiiii!! I'm doing quite well, resting up😌 I hope you're still fine, too!

Firstly, Valkyrie. Valkyrie. [Screams] okay, to understand why I love Valkyrie, you need to understand me on a molecular level. Not really, just some key facts - n°1 I am unfortunately very into steampunk, have been for ages, it's peak aesthetics to me. Victorian era in general, too, but specifically, like, the 1860s and 70s and 80s were a blessing for western european fashion, and you cannot change my mind. I love crinolines and bustles and corsets and I want them back soooo bad. But then steampunk is like. Personally, I think industrialisation was a mistake (/hj), but steampunk aesthetics? The bronze, the cogs, the goggles, the clocks, the myriad of belts? Yeah. Go off. N°2 so my music taste is questionable, a singular "kpop" band, videogame soundtracks and anime rappers, mostly. But the one thing I'm willing to call my taste superior over is the fact that I love chamber pop and adore baroque and classicism especially.

And when my friend showed me Valkyrie, who do (livelier - very, yes i'll say this again, baroque of them) chamber pop with steampunk aesthetics, what was I supposed to do? Not install Ensemble Stars then and there? But! I could have just been a ValkyrieP without being a Shu and MikaP so I'll also say why I'm a ValkyrieP both as in "I have all of their songs downloaded on my phone" and "I'm tempted to throw my actual irl money at happyele if it's to get Shu or Mika cards". But if I said all the reasons, we'd be here until tomorrow, so I'll keep it brief: I fucking love well-written conflict and a satisfactory conclusion to a story. Granted, enstars is ongoing, but I'm mainly talking ab their growth during ! here. The contrast between early ! and early !! ... it's like. It makes me want to send flowers and chocolates to Akira, because the character development is immaculate, makes sense, it's well-written, and well-paced. Like, it takes a while, and they're still not quite "there" yet, but you can taste and feel the progress. It makes you want to root for them imo bc you see how much they've already done.

Is this already getting too long? Maybe. ANYWAY I recognise you put "or" between the two, but guess what, I'm gonna tell you about a proposal tradition that I've been going insane about for a month now. Nobody does it anymore (but I better be proposed to that way or I'm rejecting smh), but like. So, in Croatian, "engaged" is hard to literally translate. Zaručiti, can be separated into za and ručiti, and ručiti comes from ruke. Za ruke (and zaruke means "engagement"), would mean "hands" but you gotta use a verb. As in, "hold hands" or "take [someone's] hands" - držati za ruke, uzeti za ruke. I always thought this was metaphorical, like, taking your s/o's hands as a symbol of going into life together. Anyway. In ye olden times, proposing would be like. The couple literally joins hands and pledges love to one another (which used to be the marriage rite itself), and the girl gets gifted an apple, money and/or a ring. And then gets spun around in the direction of the Sun, which I thought was hilarious, but also cute. The old wedding traditions are cute, too (personal fave: best man has to tie the couple together with rope), but modern weddings are more like drink and party until you see the Sun, and then some more.

#i could talk ab valkyrie for a month straight and still have more to say btw but this is like why i love them laconically #there's a lot of factors. i'm drawn to them as character /and/ they have banging aesthetics and music <3 #asks

[abri-chan]

Going to try to make this quick; inspired by a video analysis on the differences between "All of Us Are Dead" webcomic versus drama.

The division is as follows: the comic is about survival, that is, heavier on plot points; and the drama is more about character interaction, chemistry, and emotions, diving longer into each relationship to the point of adding new ones (hambie girl had no romance subplot in the original comic). Now the question is why? There are many reasons, one of which may have to be with drama having to be extra dramatic as the name suggests, thus focusing more on the relationships, and it could also have to be with perhaps drama branching out of soap operas, and retaining in its "DNA" something of its origin, even when elevated to more "serious" hybrids.

I do hold one theory, that to my knowledge hasn't been talked about elsewhere, about the reason why dramas will always focus on character relationships independent of the source material, and that has to do with drama being a special medium when translating from comic or manga form. Think about this, "what the cost" is for a mangaka or a comic artist to introduce a big cast and kill half of them in the very first chapters? Sure, there is the cost of bad storytelling or upsetting the fans, but I'm talking about financial costs or material costs: there are no extra costs that aren't already included in the medium (paper, ink, etc) for a mangaka to kill a character they created and introduced. Similarly, when a manga gets translated into anime, there are no costs to, as the original plotline demands, kill early on any character that was introduced: In fact, it saves costs for animators because there are less characters they need to animate, and if you want to keep a character around, there better be a good reason for that, to justify the extra work of animation cells or extra scenes that aren't even in the original story.

Now drama is different because you have to cast real people; for every character that has relevance you need to open auditions, interview, go through a selection process, spend a lot of time worrying about the perfect cast for your vision. These are not drawn characters but real people, and while one can argue the counterexample of "wouldn't you the actor less if their character dies early?", the sunk cost is actually in selecting the cast, and the time you won't get back is the biggest factor. So you better get the most bang for the buck you "spent" on getting this cast on board for the show.

Now, what does that mean in terms of storytelling? It means the characters aren't expandable the way they are in manga or anime. You want to keep characters around as long as you can, and delay that plot point where they die (characters in the AOURD died later than they did in the comic), and that is a double win bc the longer you keep a character around, the more chemistry they form with other characters, the more viewers care about, the more devastated they are when this character dies. Two, because you keep them around longer, the higher the chance of romance, and because again you want to utilize as much as possible the actors you hired, you will add layers of romance, even though it wasn't needed or didn't appear in the source material. Because romance, much to exposing people that claim are above it, is what makes everyone give a shit--I guarantee it. If you are into romance stories, or care about the ship, you want to know more of it. But even if you don't care much about romance stories, upon hearing of love, even in real life, you will be interested to know. You will ask: so who and who got together, did they even get together, did they end up together? Our curiosity in this topic is so ingrained, that we can't escape our need to peek and gossip.

To conclude, drama is special because it involves real people cast in character roles. This very thing will shift the focus to character interactions and relationships, and it won't matter what the source material was. Horror, science fiction, thriller, romance, it doesn't matter.

#anime manga rambles #all of us are dead

[four-pages-zine-blog]

Issue 2: Interview with Hannah Depop: @guthball

Q: What brought you to Depop? How long have you had your shop? Did you/Do you sell anywhere else?

A: Depop appealed to me because it's so clear that its basis is in community. I’ve been able to connect, collaborate and create for cool people I might’ve never clicked with otherwise, and I actually, really, truly cherish that. Plus, the layout and features are so user-friendly, there’s never been an intimidation factor. I created an account about two years ago. And I’m still here, maybe just because they added the video feature...

The reception of my art from depop users has been so gratifying. I would not have immersed myself in resin so extensively without that encouragement. It wasn’t long before I joined depop that I began experimenting with the medium; I loved the look, but had no idea what its creation entailed. So I took in a few tutorials, bought a kit, and have grown, or attempted to, from there.

The entrepreneurial bug bit me early. My mom owns and operates a drycleaners, and has allowed me to sell there since I was a kid. It began with hand-drawn bookmarks, friendship bracelets, that kind of thing. Now, I have a display of resin magnets and keychains there. I do local shows here and there, too. Mostly for fun, profit’s never promised. It’s always worth it, though, just to gauge reactions to my work- I love answering questions on process, seeing little kids play with the magnets, or experiencing the moment someone takes a closer look at something I made and really GETS it.

Q: (Your magnet faces make me so happy to look at!) How long have you been making them for, and what inspired the making of these characters?

A: I’m so glad you enjoy the face magnets! They are a blast to make. I just looked through my photos to see how long ago I made my first- it was back to September of 2016. Wow. That piece now resides with my sister, totally forgot it.

A lot of my work is influenced by quirks in process and material, the expression pieces are no exception. At their inception, I’d done a few projects with encapsulated googly eyes before, and had a bunch of sequins I'd bought to make flower accents. It was around then that I realized that the plastic formed packaging from my jewelry findings could be repurposed as a smooth, glossy tile mold, in a range of sizes PERFECT for magnets and other accessories. Toony faces have always been my go-to in drawing, and these introduced a way to marry my illustration style with resin work. I've put together so many goofy lookers now, made out of all sorts of materials, and set in all kinds of molds. I've refined my technique, but still never really know how (/if!) they’ll come together until they’re popped out. The features are all cut and glued, then layered in backwards, so I don’t have a great view as they cure. Pieces can shift, bubbles can sneak their way in, some materials distort when submerged in resin. It can be a challenge to make sure nothing's too out of place, but the glitches can be where the character sneaks in.

I mostly improvise the face designs, but sometimes, just to shake up the procedure, I doodle ideas out beforehand. There’s definitely inspiration from drag, from cartoons, from geometry, texture, and color. I know there’s one with a pout I ripped straight from a photo of my sister- I'm into the idea of full-on custom magnetic portraiture, but no one’s come to me requesting their likeness in sequins and googly eyes yet. The fact that kids think they're fun is also a huge influence: that motivates me to make them as kooky and colorful as I can. There is a selection that made it to a preschool classroom, and it’s been reported back to me that all the kids like to play and even fight over them. I love that!

Q: Do you have any favorite artists that inspire you?

A: She’s inspired by way too many artists!!! A few off the top of my head: Keith Haring, Hattie Stewart, Jillian Evelyn, Betsey Johnson, Parker Day, Shantell Martin, Siobhan Gallagher, Kendra Dandy, Tuesday Bassen, Erté, Klimt, Kay Nielsen, Man Ray, Chagall, Dalí, Hirschfeld, Picasso, Gary Baseman, Kenny Scharf, Neal Levin. If that’s not a weird and wide enough swath... I follow hundreds, if not thousands, of creators of all sorts on instagram. Admittedly extensive, but a wonderful pool of inspiration to dip into.

I have always had an interest in the arts, and (…aquarius here) make a point to be very open to all sorts of visuals. I’m content to take everything in, and very much, like, “like like like”-- it’s a whole thing when I don’t care for something, but I try not to play critic so much. I’m normally drawn to really graphic work, yet down to take the time to appreciate subtleties as well. I gravitate toward what’s wacky, clever, bold, evocative, sparkly, dimensional… a lot of stark contrast as well, a lot of black and white. But also a lot of pink and kitsch. I'm a maximalist, I obsess. That might just be reflected in my work.

And, duh, I admire other resin artists. The medium is SO versatile and I love to see its limits stretched. I put a lot into distinguishing my style from others who create with resin, but there’s major inspo in what everyone else is coming up with! Shout out to my fellow resin-making depoppers :) I’d also like to mention Lauralee Benjamin (if you're not familiar, please change that immediately), who has found inventive ways to use my pieces as accents on her beautiful work. That collaboration is all thanks to depop, and has inspired me in ways I never could have expected.

Q:What is some of your process when you create? (Do you listen to music, create alone or with friends, where is your work space?)

A:Oh my god. It’s all over the place. A lot of my process is just seeing what I can get away with.

So much can go wrong; resin is a finicky substance. I employ a variety of techniques, many developed through trial and error. I try to create unique effects, or emulate things I’ve seen before in my own way. Many of my projects are worked in layers, transformed with each pour. It can be as simple as mixing a bunch of glitters together. Even that can be tricky, though! I can get very in my head about intricacies, and try to balance the detail-oriented with simpler projects, or whatever'll give me a break from the eyestrain. Most of my stuff comes from sitting down at my workspace, assessing my supplies, and sorting it out from there. Once I have a batch of resin mixed, it's a race to get it divided into colors and divvied into molds. At times it requires a lot of precision, and a willingness to just wait it out and see what’ll happen.

Tools and materials dictate much of the process. I have a few staples, but keep an eye out for new supplies just about everywhere. I get the biggest kick out of repurposing components that might’ve otherwise been trashed. Think broken jewelry, old cosmetics, sequin scraps, and single-use plastics. I intend to look into eco-resin and biodegradable glitters down the line; it’s a matter of cost and accessibility, but adjustments I find necessary, at least for my own sake, in continuing with this art form.

At the end of last year I cleared a space in my (creepy) basement as a studio. It’s kept a hectic mess, but… that’s my nature. I work alone, save for a few times my sister has joined me. Friends have been invited to try in the past, but considering resin is such a time-sensitive, kind of hazardous, sticky thing, it’s not a great group activity for the uninitiated.

I work to an, errr, eclectic mix of podcasts and music. A lot of Sondheim, disco, Comedy Bang! Bang! and CBC Radio 2.

Q: What is your favorite piece you've sold so far?

A: Oooh, toughie. The first that comes to mind is one of the first sequin trays I made- it was a really specific rainbow pattern inspired by a book cover. I also love the custom name necklaces; they always turn out so badass! In a few instances, I've made pieces used in photo shoots or performance. Those are extra special to me, too.

Q: Where do you want to go next with your art?

A: My art is going to morph. I want to hone my skill in areas beyond resin, and then find ways to blend the edges. I want to keep pushing, but know when to pull back. I wish to collaborate more, to find solutions I’ve not yet reached, to make some of my outlandish ideas a bit more tangible. I want to build a brand and learn to accrue my worth for once.

And, maybe, down the line, tile a room with a mosaic of resin faces.

Q: What is your favorite fashion era?

A: I love an outrageous 80’s moment.

Q: Do you do commissions?

A: I adore doing commissioned work, and have had so much fun on prior personalized pieces. I am currently open to fulfilling some custom requests, just DM me, whatever!

Visit Hanna's shop!

Depop.com/guthball

#depop #art #resin #artist #interview #zine