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blingblong55 · 9 months

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Model- 141+ König NSFW

Based on requests:

1.OKAY BUT 141+KÖNIG WITH A READER THAT DOES DIGITAL ART🏃‍♂️ 2.Can you write about TF141+König with an S/O what draws, animates, etc? I was thinking more digital art, but traditional is cool too. If you only wanna do one character, can it be Ghost? Thank you!

GN!reader, digital artist/painter!reader, established!relationship, civilian!reader, smut, 18+, MDNI, Sub!Male, Dom!reader

A/N: Some will be short...and you'll definitely notice who is my favourite on this one

As someone with the talent and skills to create art with your hands and a clean canvas, you always find yourself looking for a model. Thankfully, he is there now, in that position, just for you.

Price:

You mentioned before that you needed a model to help you with proportions for your art. Your strong and bulky boyfriend decided to be just the right model you needed. For months you and him work late at night, and he props himself up for you, wearing whatever you need to bring your ideas to life. The people who buy said art always admire how realistic your art looks, and how no other artist does what you do. And it's all thanks to him.

At the moment, he is on the sofa, dressed in a black suit, a collar around his neck, eyes looking at you, pleading for you. "Stay still, I have to get this angle." You sketch his body onto the canvas of your tablet. You had been teasing him since he woke up, vibrator to his sensitive cock. You had tied him up before this session, mainly because he kept touching himself for some release. Now, staying still and obeying was his punishment. And for him, it was the worst one so far.

"How...much...more...please..need-.." he said in between whimpers and moans. You approach, looking at him, taking in how needy he was being. You get down on your knees, and he moves a little only to find you sketching this position. He whines and closes his eyes, whimpers getting louder by the second. "Stay still or do I have to teach you another lesson?" The masochist in him wanted to be taught a lesson, "Please..please do" You grin, and slap his face lightly causing him to whimper in response. "Don't make any noise, I'm busy.." For an hour, he stayed still, cumming from just the way you teased and looked at him. For sure, this site would end up in someone's dungeon.

Gaz:

When he and you started to get more intimate and he'd make you look at what you and he were doing through the mirror, that's when you knew he had to be the model you'd use for your creations. It took time to mould him into who he is for you but it was all so worth it. Currently, he is leashed to your canvas' stand. Looking up at you, the bite marks and hickeys you had done hours prior still worn proudly on his neck. He was wearing nothing but the collar on his neck and the fishnets you made him wear. His face is slightly red from the heated makeout session you two had since he was a good boy for you.

Your paintbrushes colouring the canvas in front of you, he looked up at you. How sexy you looked when you were so focused on your art. You know he likes it when others watch as you fuck him. How well you can ride and how well he can listen to you. So, you brought a mirror into the art studio. Made him look at his reflection as you ride him, each time he would ruin a line in your art, it was another slap to his already abused face. Tears ran down his cheeks but a wide smile as he enjoyed the thought of how others would look at the canvas and see a moment where you once more made him yours.

Paintbrushes used to mess with his already-hardened nipples. His hands gripped your hips, guiding you to go faster, but you resisted, not wanting to ruin the creation you were making. Some paint smudged to his chest, your hand prints on them when you'd get carried away and ride him faster.

Soap:

He was the one who offered himself up, wanting to please you not just physically but visually. You had made him wear his kilt, war paint on as he spread his legs open for you. Hands in between his thighs, he leans forward, looking up at you with puppy eyes. You had been working with him in this position for too long now and all he needed was just some attention, physically. You knew you wanted this painting to feel more personal, needed a touch of yourself and him in it. So, you picked out the paints that were safe for the next activity you had in mind. You laid the cloth of a canvas on the floor and commanded him to go to it and get on his knees to wait for you.

Poured some of the safe paint on his chest, and you and he began to make out. The cloth filled with paint, art made from your bodies. By the time you and him were done paint was all over your bodies. He requested, as a reward, that you and him take a shower and if you wanted, he could also pose for you in the shower.

Ghost:

He loves to be your sub so when you mentioned that you needed a model for your art, he wanted to be the subject of all your attention. Currently, you have him tied up with leather ropes. A cock ring on him as you paint his position. He looks up at you with puppy eyes, his mask lifted only far up for you to see his lips. Every now and then, he closes his legs to get some friction, only to have his inner thighs spanked by you. He whimpers a little, asking for forgiveness since he knows what you will do to him after you are finished painting this position.

He looks at you, doe-eyed. "Please, please just touch me...just once." But you ignore his pleas. He shuts his eyes and begins to think of how you would touch him. That was the only way he could find some release while he was tied up. You look at the canvas, paint and figures finally making sense, and then you hear his loud moans and cries of pleasure. He was cumming at the thought of you, no one around to touch him, just his mind playing for him.

His whimpers were louder as he couldn't stop cumming, it all leaked everywhere, spurting out as he bucked his hips. "Oh...yes...oh..mmm." he moans. Leather leaking his own mess as you watched with a pleased smile.

König:

It all started with asking him for help in a position you weren't quite sure you knew how it worked or looked. He offered to help and now months later, he has become the man you please and base your art on. Tonight, you had a sudden idea, a man in a suit, touching himself as he wore some rather rougher ropes around his suit. König, is never opposed to the idea, he loves to listen to you and if he knows he can please you this way, then as your good submissive boy, he will obey. The tie he was wearing was now used as a choker that you pull any time he moans too loud.

When you finish sketching his position he looks at you, brows furrowed. "Can I please be touched now? I was a good boy...please" his voice soft, whimpers low. You stand up, the pen which you used to sketch his position in hand. You trail the cold pen along his skin, reaching his sensitive parts. He begins to move his hips, hoping you could go faster, to touch him sooner. Your hands are on his hip when his already hardened cock begins to throb, pre cum leaking as he looks at you. "Meine liebe, I'm so..." he moans. "I'm your messy boy..." he whimpers.

A/N: Maybe this was not part of the request...but a girl has her own needs...anyway..bye

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shirecorn · 3 years

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how about 17 and 24? what inspires you and how do you deal with art block?

Long post warning.

Art block...

I don't actually get art block, which is probably a combination of neurodivergence and drawing every day for the last 3 years

I wrote an entire tutorial about how to do that, but didn't feel like illustrating it. Would people want to read it even without visuals?

Maybe... I'll just start rambling.

There's a couple different types of art block, and it's really just a philosophy puzzle to get past them. I'm going to assume that the things I think of slow days, or art mud, is a milder form of art block and work through that.

Art block is a symptom, not a disease. You probably have something deep inside that you don't want to face, or don't know how. Sometimes you need to discover the cause, sometimes just power through.

Method 1: Rest

Let yourself just Exist. The act of consuming art is part of the process. Watching shows and playing games, taking a break and going gardening or focus on school. This is what you need for burnout-induced art block.

Method 2: Action

I always choose action, sometimes it means a tiny 2 min sketch per day. Ugly or super simplified. As long as I don't stop moving.

Toss everything. Start every piece thinking you will throw it away.

The act of drawing moves you forward; pinning it to the fridge does not. Don't work things until they are perfect. Work them until they are there.

Art block causes and solutions:

- No Inspiration

Not sure what to draw, nothing seems appealing. Art won't come out like it used to.

Do studies from life or photos. Sketch, paint, digital, traditional, doesn't matter. Rocks, fruit, figure drawing, landscapes, buildings, anything.

Study and copy professional's work. Old masters are best, like rubens, michalangelo (only his men tho) etc because they will teach you anatomy while you work. If you copy someone with a lot of flaws, you will repeat those flaws.

Trace to learn, not to earn. Trace photography and art from anyone you want. Don't post it unless you have the artist's permission or they are dead, whichever comes first. This is strictly work for yourself, on yourself. It's not about the finished drawing.

Find an artist with a fun style and try converting stuff into their style. Don't make that your new style though and especially don't start selling it. Your style is a chimera of everyone you love, not a clone of one person.

Take blurry photos. You don't need a fancy camera or good skills or beautiful subjects. Doing studies from your own photos can spark life into your workflow.

Make challenges for yourself. Randomly generate things to combine. Try fusing characters! Don't try to make it look good, just be fun.

Doodle patterns, swirls, lines, random stuff. Try looking up art warmups and doing some of those.

- Everything Sucks

You finally see how bad you are. Or somehow you got worse. Every piece is a fight and you spend hours trying to get something right only for it to be stiff and disgusting and STILL wrong.

Why are you trying to draw good? It's enough just to draw.

Accept that your art is bad. Every artist can see flaws in their work. Your problem is that those flaws outweigh anything remotely worthwhile and hurt to look at.

So what? You're in a period of growth, not a period of production. Keep that wonky second eye. Let them have hot dog fingers.

Show everyone! Show no one! No piece of art can ever be a reflection of the artist. Not their worth, not their skill. The only thing your art says about you is "Held and moved a pen for a bit."

Make bad art. It's ok. Most of the time, the pressure to perform and get things Right is what made them wrong in the first place. Relax.

- No Motivation

The #1 killer of artists everywhere. On some level you think you should draw, on every other level you think you should stay in bed.

You are not lazy. You wouldn't have read this far in a post about art block if you were lazy. You wouldn't CALL it art block if you were lazy. Laziness is wishing you didn't have to do anything. A block is wishing you were doing something. If you think you can namecall Yourself into productivity again, you're wrong and You need to unionize so that you don't treat You like that anymore.

Consider Mental Illness. Losing interest in something that brought you joy can be a symptom of depression. I know it seems obvious, but if you're waiting for a sign that it's "bad enough," it's bad enough. Seek care if you have the means. Forgive yourself if you already know this.

Selfcare. Examine yourself for neglect. Nutrition, exercise, enrichment, social need, and sleep are all part of the art process. Eat three meals and sleep 8 hours. That's your gaymer fuel. You deserve it, I promise. Depriving yourself of your needs will make your blocks worse, not kick you into making them better.

Identify potholes. Sketchbook falling apart? Tablet cord frayed? Half your pencils missing? Chair uncomfortable? Desk hard to reach? There's a lot of things that you tell yourself to work around and get over. Just because you CAN workaround something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. A difficult work environment can cause secret dread deep inside that you don't recognize and just think you're lazy. What you think of as "no motivation" might actually be "I don't want to deal with my tablet disconnecting every time I move it wrong and I have to wiggle it for a few seconds to make it work again." These little things are like potholes in the road. Sure you CAN still drive through them, but eventually you're going to look up and realize you haven't voluntarily left the house in weeks.

Repair potholes and roadblocks. You might feel bad about buying a new pencil, headphones, tablet, car, etc because technically the old one works if you hustle. But if you're running into so many potholes you've ground to a halt, it doesn't Actually work anymore, does it? Invest, save up, request, and require working equipment and suitable conditions. This stuff isn't just cushy privilege, it's an investment in yourself and your art. You are worth the effort it takes to clear the way. If you can't afford reliable (reliable! not perfect or luxurious) equipment, then say it. If cardboard is all you can afford, draw on cardboard. But know that you deserve canvas, and one day you might be able to make the jump. Acknowledge that sometimes, if you don't have it in you to smear burned twigs on wet cardboard, the problem isn't motivation, but opportunity.

- Haven't Drawn in So Long

A unique type of art block that self perpetuates. The thought of starting again is so stressful you can't do it. Or maybe you'll do it tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow for sure.

Face your fears. Are you ashamed of your lack of drawing? Are you anthropomorphizing your paper and thinking it's going to judge you, like "oh NOW you come back >:/" I internalize voices I hear and project them onto other people, concepts, locations, and inanimate objects. Your paper, computer, WIPs folder.... none of that is judging you.

Reframe your WIPs. Do you feel shame when you see "unfinished" projects? Why? Who says you MUST bring everything you start to Finish? You don't have to. A sketch is a finished art piece; it's called a sketch! If a sketch is a fully realized creation, pages that are half colored, 75% lined, or partially rendered are all fully realized creations too. Unless paid otherwise, art is done when you're done working on it.

Lower the stakes. Draw a chibi or grab some crayons. Get messy and slowly ease yourself back into the flow over the course of a couple days. It's fine.

Get a buddy! Find an art meme, do an art trade, get a study subject, or just wing it. Drawing art alongside someone can help you get past that block.

Pretend you never stopped. Don't think about the gap, how long it's been, or rustiness. As far as anyone knows, you drew the mona lisa yesterday and didn't break a sweat. Today, you drew a starfish on your hand with a gel pen. Keep up that streak, good job!

Just keep drawing. Make a goal to do one sucky drawing per day on the back of a napkin. Don't make up for missed days, just pretend they didn't happen. Who's going to judge you? The calendar? That's pieces of paper; it doesn't have an opinion. Draw a cat on it. Done. Keeping up the momentum is a great way to prevent art blocks in the future.

TLDR: Draw imperfectly and toss it. Selfcare is king. Draw often and don't judge yourself.

Art is a process, not a product.

#shire screams #art tips #ask #art block #long post

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canmom · 2 years

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I've been watching so much youtube lately bc it's brain numbing when in executive dysfunction stuck in bed mode. i say, I'll just watch a video to calm my brain down and then I'll do stuff. or, I'll start this video and then watch it as i go downstairs for breakfast. usually it ends up being two or three videos during which i don't go anywhere and i lose an hour.

anyway that means i have a bunch of thoughts about videos in my head.

firstly, a whole lot of art pedagogy these days takes place on a handful of youtube channels. these are... mostly pretty solid for addressing the teachable parts of the major artistic styles that most people want to pursue: academic figure drawing, illustration for Instagram, japanese commercial illustration, anime keyframes, concept art... mostly the ones I've watched focus on digital drawing and painting because that's my medium, but i know there are others targeting traditional media.

some of them are very dry lectures with minimal imagery, such as Tonari Animation's videos on the anime pipeline. others are pretty slick affairs like Proko, where a short scripted and edited lesson on a specific subject will be mixed with a brief bit of comedy and an ad for the extra info in the paid course. some of them are clearly run as a business that effectively functions as an ad for paid content, with clickbaity titles and framings (levels from noob to pro, n ways to improve your painting), others upload when the artist feels like it (Sinix and dong chang are very infrequent uploaders but generally very good content). some are long and rambling, mixing practical drawing advice with philosophical meditations on being an artist (Steven Zapata is the one I'm thinking of here, more on that momentarily). there's clearly a whole ecosystem of Japanese videos as well, notably Naoki Saito whose videos are subtitled in English, who mainly makes paintover videos where he advises artists on composition and technique. some of them lean much harder on the comedy and character performance, such as Ethan Becker, who frames his videos as critiques of other art advice, but also overloads it with irony and jokes to the point that it's hard to work out what he's actually advising.

on the whole this is probably a good thing, in that each of these artists tends to bring some specific insight into the process. for example, the concept of 'shape design' developed over a variety of videos by primarily Sinix and Marco Bucci but also inspiring various others to elaborate on it including Borocg, Moderndayjames and Kenzo of Love Life Drawing, has been one of the most useful framings I've found for thinking about the elements of pictures, simple and complex. and there's an immense utility in seeing a time lapse of the artist applying the principles they're espousing, it makes it considerably more concrete.

the problem - of course i would say there's a problem - i think comes with the way this becomes a kind of scripture laying out the right and proper way to do art. i see a lot of very young novice artists telling each other to 'use forms' or 'practice gesture' in this almost ritualistic way. very few of them talk outside of the specifics of technique onto any broader talk around making art, and so it tends to push people towards the idea that 'good art' is teachable art; it's measured by its ability to correctly apply the principles, whether the sacred twelve principles of animation or the more vague set of principles of perspective, line quality, gesture, and design.

this gap only really became obvious when i watched some videos of Steven Zapata, whose videos tend to be long time lapses of incredibly technically adept pencil rendering which talk as much or more about forming a fulfilling 'art practice' as the how of shading etc, all delivered in a very soothing voice. Zapata argues that it's important to work out what specifically appeals to you in art and develop strong aesthetic opinions, and drill down on that motivating thing rather than spend years trying to take a 'broad shotgun approach' where you gatekeep actual art-making behind a certain number of dry technical exercises. when i came across this, i was pretty deep into grind flagellant mode, and it was a breath of fresh air. but anyway he's kind of said his piece now, and most of his recent videos are streams.

instead the artist whose caught the most of my time recently has been Naoki Saito. his videos - despite the translation being a little wobbly - have an almost too compelling frame: an artist writes to the master for help, and he edits and repaints the picture, explaining the reasoning behind each stage, and at the end you see a picture which (the majority of times) carries the spirit of the original with more appeal. it helps of course that the people writing in are almost all working in what we could loosely call '2010s anime style', maybe even moe; there are certain idioms of stylisation (face contours, proportions, ways of painting eyes and hair, ways of rendering surfaces) common to a lot of them, though he generally seems good at honouring the specific quirks of a picture in his corrections rather than impose a uniform style. anyway thanks to him i learned the term 'atsunuri' ('thick painting'), which is a useful way to understand 'more than cel shaded but not fully rendered' style prevalent on sites like pixiv. i don't want to only be able to draw anime, but i do want to be able to do it at all convincingly, and get better at digital rendering beyond cel shading, so i think i can siphon out a lot from him.

anyway, the thing with all these art channels is the thing with everything: exercise judgement, take what's worth keeping and drop what isn't, a judgement that will vary from person to person. the more styles that are represented the better. i don't think perspective and rendering are the measure of art - indeed, some of my absolute favourite illustrators disregard them to great effect - but for me, being able to draw in a way that looks refined and 3D is important in a way i can't justify or explain, a deep part of the appeal of the seinen manga artists that make me stop and go 'wow' like shintaro kago or suehiro maruo or hideo yamamoto or junji ito, or the 90s realist school of animators who worked on projects like memories, ghost in the shell or satoshi kon's films, or more recently takeshi koike. i just don't know how to thread the needle of pursuing such a project without accidentally upholding the cult of realism!

anyway. that's probably enough for one post. tomorrow let me talk about that folding ideas guy.

sure are a lot of blokes in these videos...

#introspective nightposting #drawing #illustration

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dabidagoose · 3 years

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What's your fave video game sountrack(s)? =^o

Ok that is a very loaded question so this is gonna be a long ass response, I hope you're prepared for what you've done.

(ok there's a tl;dr at the end if you want it sorry for this lmao)

FIRST POINT my immediate thought was the Ikenfell soundtrack (actually my immediate thought is I can't fuckin' choose they're all amazing but. then ikenfell). On the personal side, I was pretty much obsessed with the game for like three months straight, and i fuckin' love aivi and surasshu's music. I am also a simp for chiptune so jot that down. Moving past what may very well just be personal preference there are some incredibly interesting musical choices and impeccable choices story-wise that hit just. SO fuckin hard. Like emotionally. I won't elaborate on to the context and why the song works so well but the final battle theme is absolutely SPECTACULAR. (I could elaborate though so. ask if you will and i'll write another spiel on why it breaks my heart and soul). But also to reference a less-plot relevant piece I'm gonna bring up Alchemy is for Everyone. The squish bass sounds at the beginning are SUCH a fun environmental sound, it is really just NOT a sound I hear often which makes the track really stand out. And it fits SO perfectly for all the slimes and just. It's so WET. I love it. Makes me wanna wriggle. Which ok is probably also personal preference on reflection because my friend hates a wet song that I love but. Ok it's GOOD. Anyways continuing to the melody the fuckin PITCH bends. This is digital music at it's peak. We get the fun sounds. We get the fuckin pitch bends. Which are so fun because having slightly out of tune notes is such a fun feeling. It's a little off kilter, it's a little different. It's just SO funky and sounds so awesome to bend those pitches just a little bit, take full advantage of the medium and play around with it. Now I'm gonna talk a bit about why I love aivi & surasshu's music so much which. Ok so I believe(?) they coined the term "digital fusion" where you're mixing all these fun fresh digital sounds with real instruments/more traditional sounds and it can work SO fuckin well (for extra musical literature on this subject I'd like to suggest Yoann Turpin and specifically Chip Ship). Which we already get a taste of that where the pitch bends are playing on piano but it really kicks in when the violin takes over the melody and it's SUCH a graceful instrument in comparison to all this funky/awkward stuff we've had. The dichotomy is fuckin awesome. The violin is like a graceful victorian socialite ballroom dancing in after these pitch bends just pinned their arms to their sides and wiggled their hips around. We then get a third spacey instrument (I. have no idea what it is.) and it is. SUCH a switch. We have moved from awkward and stilted to almost too perfect and graceful (I forgot to write before but the high piano at the violin adds so much) to a moment of awe and discovery. We are now exploring the universe, the world of science and alchemy, and it is fantastic. The song almost seems to have it's own little narrative, and this is just a backing track for exploring one of the buildings!!!! This is within the first couple hours of gameplay, it is incredibly non-plot-relevant but SUCH a piece of art. I am absolutely in a slime ball watching amazing science happen so precisely and it is. so fuckin cool. And I could probably go off about every single other song, but in the interest of keeping away spoilers and finishing this post before 2 am, I will not. (Addendums because I can: this is less wet than the one my friend hates, and also this song is MOIST. I would also like to mention It's Showtime and Between the Lines as other song favorites but if I went into them I would never sleep.)

Okokokok. So. So SECOND point (I'm. so sorry.) I looked at my video game music soundtrack (I have two main soundtracks one for just every music but I didn't want to overwhelm it with VG music so I made one just for that that has ENTIRE soundtracks from almost every game I've played which. oops.) and I found two other contenders based mostly on I Really Liked The Games. The Oneshot soundtrack and the Night in the Woods soundtrack. Ok I'm gonna talk about Night in the Woods first cause HOLY shit. holy shit. The fucking astral songs. Those are fucking masterpieces. Such a simple ensemble but it creates such an INTENSE atmosphere. I really love instrumental music can you tell. I specifically want you listening to Astral Train for this one (played it for my senior recital and even though I had to play the violin part on clarinet I maintain it was one of the best choices I've ever made), but we the way the layers blend together is a fucking masterpiece. Since this song had to be designed so that any layer could play alone and each one could join in any order, each part of the quartet has to be interesting, but they still all must blend together and so they each get melody moments but the harmony/bass lines have to be interesting as well and. They ARE. This is such a hard task and it's accomplished SO. INCREDIBLY. WELL. (Side note: also makes for a good ensemble piece for, say, your and your friends' senior recitals, so everyone gets fun parts, a chance in the limelight, and a chance to rest, haha totally irrelevant note right there definitely no connection to my real life). With Astral Train we really get this cool ghostly train feel and through all the Astral pieces we REALLY feel the absolute intensity of Mae's dreams and the music creates such an immaculate vibe. It is unmatched. The rest of the soundtrack contains plenty of bops in a variety of genres too, where the bass songs have to be both playable and fun (Die Anywhere Else my beloved), and we get nostalgic and mischievous music fit for this ragtag team. This is the feeling I've had hanging out with my teenage friends at 10 PM in a parking lot. It is absolutely perfect for this video game. The music is SUCH a bop and really emotionally connects to me cause the game is such a bop of a plot. It is truly fantastic. (Addendum: Ok listening to Gregg rn and. Holy shit bop. I love him. I love this)

Ok now onto Oneshot, which, admittedly, does not have as strong a holding on the podium as these other two do, but curse me for having been emotionally destroyed by the video game because now I am emotionally attached to the music too. But, again, ATMOSPHERE. I am once again gonna be speaking in the interest of spoilers here, so I hope anyone who's finished the game will forgive what I'm not saying, but the entire landscape of this desolate planet is just SO much. The world is so simple and empty, and yet awe is often mixed with this feeling of despair. This is incredibly fitting for Niko, for the hopeful little pal they are, and creates an incredible effect. (I included specific song reccs for the last but I don't quite for this - so I'll just say now that I'm listening to On Little Cat Feet). The visuals are fairly simple, the map small, and just looking at the game the world feels incredibly small. But the music makes it all seem so vast. We really get put into Niko's shoes (or their little cat feet I suppose), and get to see this world for the vast, terrifying, but incredible place it is. The music makes you feel like that child seeing a new world for the first time, (this isn't spoilers past the first chapter but I'm warning you anyways) even though you are meant to be a god, you are still made to feel small and the world still large. The music does so much of this work, and it's incredible. Throughout the soundtrack the underlying angst, the despair, remains present, and the game has so much more impact for the music. No game is incomplete without it's music, and Nightmargin does a fantastic job creating this music for Oneshot. I haven't analyzed the actual music instruments/structure so much, but it's those instrumental sounds again tearing at my heart strings again. I would also like to recommend this game beyond the soundtrack, since it is an incredible story, with some puzzling gameplay, and it has made me feel how no other game has. It is a masterpiece of a game, and I implore everyone to play it through. Get hints if you need to, or play alone, just make it to the Ending. You'll know when you're there. (Addendum: I think I'm very repetitive here but I refuse to edit it so you have to live with this. Anyways gonna say it again: Play Oneshot!!)

Now I have chosen three game soundtracks that had a story that incredibly connected with me, and music to bolster that story and those emotions in incredibly meaningful ways. But there are so many others with great music, but that didn't necessarily connect on such an emotional level. Portal and Portal 2 have fantastic soundtracks, Celeste has beautiful music, Underhero has some funky and spectacular beats, Undertale and Deltarune are famously incredible (although I also did emotionally connect with them... but they're already talked about enough. Lancer beloved.), Clam Man is just. Fun., Oxenfree is also incredibly atmospheric and spectacular, Sewer Rave just has nice beats, and Minecraft is nostalgic as all hell. There are so many games to choose from, that from the moment I saw your question I knew I would be writing a far too long Tumblr post to answer you, because it feels an injustice to just answer one without reasoning, or without bringing to light all of the other amazing sounds I've discovered.

To finally answer your question, I think Ikenfell deserves the top spot in my heart. My instinct was right, there's fresh sounds, great musical structure (see: Between the Lines that I didn't elaborate on), incredibly emotional sounds, and fantastic storytelling within the soundtrack. But I love all of these other soundtracks, so I must bring them up. For they also have spots in my heart.

TL;DR - Ikenfell wins but I also love Oneshot and Night in the Woods and many others so I don't know what to say chief (lies i have too much to say)

#i will not apologize you brought this on the world by asking #i'm so sorry you had to find out i'm such a nerd This Way #i want to ask my friends to proofread this for legibility before posting but lets be real thats not happening. it wont be legible #so sorry about being this much of a nerd. not really but. wow that got long. mm vulnerability my behated #ikenfell #night in the woods #oneshot #only tagging those three cause theyre the ones i got too emotional about.#ok ok im gonna post this now lmao #wait am i legally allowed to mention blaseball cause the garages or is that not allowed #ok i think its not allowed #but the garages r very good i listened to the newest album today and *chefs kiss*

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cinemavariety · 4 years

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The Director’s Series: Nicolas Winding Refn

The director series will consist of me concentrating on the filmography of all my favorite directors. I will rank each of their films according to my personal taste. I hope this project will provide everyone with quality recommendations and insight into films that they might not have known about. Today’s director in spotlight is Nicolas Winding Refn

#9 - Fear X (2003) Runtime: 1 hr 31 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

When his wife is killed in a seemingly random incident Harry, prompted by mysterious visions, journeys to discover the true circumstances surrounding her murder.

Verdict: Refn’s most forgotten about film, even I have a hard time remembering that this film is part of his oeuvre. Nevertheless, Fear X is a quiet and lingering exercise in style. It’s a surrealist film noir with heavy influences from David Lynch. It’s also the first time where Refn began experimenting with color and started to move away from shaky cam.

#8 - The Pusher Trilogy (1996/2004/2005) Runtime: 1 hr 45 min / 1 hr 40 min / 1 hr 30 min Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1 / 1.85 : 1 / 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 16mm / 35mm / 35mm

A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.

Verdict: I made the decision to categorize all three Pusher films as one entry for this post (otherwise it would just be too many). Nicolas Winding Refn started off his career with the strong crime tale of Pusher, and made the last two films to complete the trilogy after his English language debut Fear X ended up bombing. While I love the first and third entry more than I do the second, all three Pusher films are captivating and anxiety-ridden crime docudramas. It’s a great way to see how far Refn has evolved by starting with these films first.

#7 - Bleeder (1999) Runtime: 1 hr 38 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

Two stories for the price of one: Lenny works in a video shop and tries to get acquainted with the waitress Lea. Leo can't cope with the pressure of becoming a father, leading to trouble with his pregnant wife and especially her brother.

Verdict: While Bleeder might be Refn’s lowest budget film to date, and not all the violence comes off as extremely convincing, I enjoyed it more than all three Pusher films because of the emotional stakes within the story. Multiple characters lives intertwine and interconnect in oftentimes disastrous circumstances. I also loved how Mads Mikkelsen’s character is a huge film aficionado, all of the scenes he is featured in bring a much needed reprieve from the turmoil and abuse.

#6 - Too Old to Die Young (2019) Runtime: 15 hr Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: Arri Alexa Digital

The numb existences of Martin Jones, a police officer with secrets to hide, and Jesus, a traumatized avenging son, collide in a ghostly Los Angeles where several ruthless criminal gangs fight for their turf and dictate who lives and who dies. Verdict: Too Old To Die Young finds the celebrated auteur, Nicolas Winding Refn, sharing his view of humanity and society at its most despicable. All of his usual motifs and creative decisions are employed in full force with Too Old To Die Young, sometimes to an almost unbearable degree unless you are a truth Refn aficionado. His long takes, infinitesimal silences between lines, neon lighting, synth score and characters belonging to a criminal underworld are all utilized to great affect within the series. And while I believe that Refn’s sensibilities are best conveyed through a film medium, the limited series allows Refn to explore what he wants to convey like an artist adding layer upon layer of colors onto a blank palette.

#5 - Bronson (2008) Runtime: 1 hr 32 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson. Verdict: Bronson is quite possibly Tom Hardy’s most impressive performance, and that’s saying a lot. It exudes such a hypnotic quality that every time I watch it, it’s as if I am seeing the film for my very first time. It tells the true story of one of Britain’s most infamous criminals.Refn’s visual flair and unique filming style make it unlike any other prison film I’ve ever witnessed. This is the beginnings of Refn’s disinterest in traditional narrative structure.

#4 - Only God Forgives (2013) Runtime: 1 hr 30 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: Red Epic Digital

Julian, who runs a Thai boxing club as a front organization for his family’s drug smuggling operation, is forced by his mother Crystal to find and kill the individual responsible for his brother’s recent death.

Verdict: This is easily Refn’s most frustrating film. Whenever I watch it, I’m unsure whether I adore it or dislike it. But the fact that it’s the Refn film I have probably revisited the most is extremely telling of the ambience that Refn creates. Only God Forgives is arguably the most beautifully shot film from Nicolas. The neon drenched streets of Bangkok are presented to look like a netherworld. It’s a revenge fantasy thriller mixed with Oedipal undertones. Also, Gosling looks like a treat in every frame.

#3 - Valhalla Rising (2009) Runtime: 1 hr 33 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: Red One Digital

1000 AD, for years, One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the Norse chieftain Barde. Aided by Are, a boy slave, One Eye slays his captor and together he and Are escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness. On their flight, One Eye and Are board a Viking vessel, but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that clears only as the crew sights an unknown land. As the new world reveals its secrets and the Vikings confront their terrible and bloody fate, One Eye discovers his true self.

Verdict: Valhalla Rising is Refn’s dirtiest and bloodiest work, and it certainly finds the director at his most surreal and existential. If anyone wants to know a film that epitomized what it means to be considered art house - this is it. It’s a film about a slave finding emancipation from his tyrannous slave owners, and finds himself on a doomed voyage to the New World with a group of fanatical Christian vikings. The story is told in separate chapters, with each section the audience finds itself traveling down a rabbit hole that resembles something of an acid try gone awry.

#2 - The Neon Demon (2016) Runtime: 1 hr 57 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: Arri Alexa XT Plus Digital

When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.

Verdict: The Neon Demon has grown to become my second favorite movie from Nicolas. The film succeeds in shedding light on the hedonistic lifestyle of deranged young women in a tongue-in-cheek, almost satirical fashion. It’s one of the best looking Refn films to date, with even banal or commonplace locations drenched in neon hues. Composer Cliff Martinez outdoes himself with the synth-heavy score which guides the audience along a fairytale of horrors. In Refn’s surreal vision of Los Angeles there is no such thing as going too far to reach fame, even if it means bloodshed. As one character says in the film: “Beauty isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” It would be nice to write off this statement as pure subjectivity, but what else has the media taught us but this ideal?

#1 - Drive (2011) Runtime: 1 hr 40 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: Arri Alexa & Cooke S4 Digital

A Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong.

Verdict: Seeing Drive in theatres back in 2011, without even having seen a film from Refn and not knowing much of the plot in general, is hands down one of the most memorable and inspiring theatrical experiences I ever had. Drive, among many other films that came out around that time, acted as a catalyst for me to branch out and discover more independent and arthouse filmmakers. I believe that it is undoubtedly Refn’s best film, and I might dare say that might be credited to the fact that is one of the only Refn films in which he didn’t write. These characters, while quiet and mysterious, have more depth to them than any of his others. The quiet romance between Drive and Irene provide more emotional stakes than any of his other works as well. All the elements of Drive complement each other and build off of each other. As cheesy as it may sound, if any film could be considered cool - it’s this. It’s already gained a cult status and it will most definitely go down in history as one of the most beautiful crime noirs ever made.

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clarestrand · 4 years

Text

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize Catalogue with text by Orit Gat.

The award will now be announced (virtually) on Sept 14th. For further info on how to join the webcast please consult The Photographers Gallery Website.

Image = Information

Orit Gat

1 A beginning

In Paris, an artist painting in a studio that used to be part of a monastery. She goes out and gets the largest drawing papers she can find. Surrounded by paint pots and brushes, it’s an image that belongs in a tradition of artists painting away in Parisian garrets, only this is not that story. What Clare Strand was painting in her Paris studio during a three-month residency at the Centre Photographique d'Ile-de-France in 2017 was a translation of pre-existing photographs that were ‘read’ to her over the phone by her husband in the UK. From across the English Channel, he would give her directions that would encode an image of his choosing, and she would paint it.

2 Transmission

Strand and her husband were following an existing model. The method they were using to transmit information was described in George H. Eckhardt’s ‘Electronic Television’, from 1936, in which he outlined how a photograph can be transmitted via code over telegraph. In this system, the original image is divided into a grid, with every square being given a value from 1 to 10. 1 is white, 2 has a tinge of grey, 3 is greyer, 4 darker and so on until 10, which is black. The initial source images from which Strand’s husband chose the images he would transmit to her were 10-by-8 inches, which they divided into a grid of forty-nine squares across and sixty down, each about 5 square millimetres. If it’s boring to read, imagine the couple’s phone conversations: he would call and say 24-2; 25-4; 26-5; and so on. Through conversation, with Strand following her husband’s direction, the language would form a representation of the original image. Like a human fax machine.

3 The result

Is a series of ten black-and-white paintings in acrylic on paper. The history of art brings forth associations and relations, from the development of the grid as a foundation for perspective in the Renaissance, to the nineteenth-century illusionism achieved through Pointillism. There are Gerhard Richter’s black-and-white paintings, László Moholy-Nagy’s telephone paintings, Agnes Martin’s feather-light grids. But the connection to the history of art crumbles in front of the actual framed paintings. They’re human, Strand says, as she reasserts that she is not a painter. They’re messy, imperfect. There are hairs that stuck to the paper, dust congealed into the paint. However, in installation shots of the whole series, they look like another kind of work. Photographed, the paintings seem faultless: the black, white and grey hues reminiscent of aestheticized black-and-white photography; the paintings look clean, their edges not frayed, the small mistakes blend into the frame. It’s like they have two lives, as object and as image. When I ask Strand which one matters more, she answers, ‘I don’t know. What I find ironic is that, as much I try to push “photography” into different mediums, I can never escape the camera and how it operates as a tool of representation. With each press or catalogue reproduction, the paintings are represented as photographs, which is somewhat at odds with the concept of the work – photography transposing into painting only then to be represented by photography!’

4 Utility

To talk about the history of art and about installation shots is to ignore how the objecthood of the paintings depends on their creation. This series, titled The Discrete Channel with Noise, is at once the result of and the documentation of communication and its possible failures. Looking at the paintings, I want to say they look pixelated, but that would make them more photo than painting, more final product than process.

5 The first man who saw the first photograph

The relationship between painting and photography always makes me think of Roland Barthes writing in his essay on photography, Camera Lucida, that ‘The first man who saw the first photograph (if we except Niépce, who made it) must have thought it was a painting: same framing, same perspective. Photography has been, and is still, tormented by the ghost of Painting.’ Later in the book, he writes about photography’s relationship to reality, or to the document: ‘No writing can give me this certainty. It is the misfortune (but also perhaps the voluptuous pleasure) of language not to be able to authenticate itself.’ The photo as confirmation of fact. That fact, that reality, is communicated over phone lines in The Discrete Channel with Noise. When we look at a photograph, what we’re looking for, according to Barthes, is knowledge that a thing, an event, happened. He writes about Polish soldiers in a 1915 photo by André Kertész: ‘that they were there; what I see is not a memory, an imagination, a reconstitution, a piece of Maya, such as art lavishes upon us, but reality in a past state: at once the past and the real.’ What we see, in The Discrete Channel with Noise, is a story about reality rather than proof thereof.

6 Whizzing through the air

When I meet Strand, she hands me an assortment of notes. She’s hesitant about it for a minute, as if giving me homework rather than help. Or as if she expects communication can fail, and thinks a list of references may offer a way out of an impasse. The history of Morse code; pigeon post between Paris and England c. 1870–71; Eckhardt; Cybernetics founder Norbert Weiner and American mathematician Claude Shannon’s information theory, which gave The Discrete Channel with Noise its title: Strand’s research does not explain as much as expand the work. And then in the notes is a quote from the 1973 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory based on Roald Dahl’s writing, recreating Eckhardt’s transmission of images over radio. Here the character Mike Teavee, the winner of the fourth golden ticket, who loves this technology, explains: “You photograph something then the photograph is split up in to millions of tiny pieces and they go whizzing through the air, then down to your TV set when they are all put together in the right order”

Mike Teavee, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl (1971).

That it is possible to share an image, and the labyrinthine process of it whizzing through the air is in line with Dahl’s 1971 book, in which the candy factory includes an impenetrable room-sized machine that, when operated, makes a lot of noise, takes a lot of time, and then produces a single bit of chewing gum. Unimpressive until someone chews it and realizes it is as nourishing as a three-course dinner: tomato soup, roast beef with baked potatoes, blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert.

Proof: the overcomplicated can sometimes be amazing.

A lesson: also worth exploring.

7 Thirty-six images on a journey

The ten images in The Discrete Channel with Noise were chosen from a collection of thirty-six images Strand has compiled for a previous work, The Entropy Pendulum (2015), in which each of these photographs, which were taken from a tabloid newspaper’s archive, was eroded by the weight of a pendulum over the course of one day in an exhibition, then framed. Strand rephotographed the physical photos from the archive, creating a digital output that becomes a dataset ready for reuse. The subject of those images related to what Strand refers to as the subject of her work in general – magic, illusion, the paranormal, communication, transmission, the way people thought communication technologies were magical when they were first introduced, the way Alexander Graham Bell called the telephone a way to ‘talk with electricity’. How to read the transformation of these images through the process in The Discrete Channel with Noise These images are on a journey of losing and gaining information. The project is a metaphor, if not a realization, for what images do anyway: in flux, they move and shift in meaning.

8 Shifting in meaning

Why pay attention to shifts? Because shifts in context can mean that information is lost, or misused. An art historian friend of mine regularly points out that Alexander Nix, the founder and CEO of Cambridge Analytica, studied art history in university. Art matters, images matter, she wants to say. All channels of misinformation need to be decoded. Is there a present and a real, like Barthes thought there was in an only slightly less technological time than the one we occupy, today? Or is the subject of study now how realities are fractured across channels of communication?

9 An entire history of communication

The diagram used to explain Eckhardt’s ‘Electronic Television’ has a man sitting at a table in front of a large black-and-white image divided into a grid of a woman with short, curly hair who looks a bit like an early Hollywood film star. His sleeves are rolled up, his back a bit hunched, he is clearly concentrating. He holds a long pointer stick and taps information onto a device resting on the desk he is sitting at. The cable running from that device spirals into a growing network of telephone poles that reach a window, and from that window to a box on the wall, and straight from the box to a set of headphones that another man wearing a blazer (or is it a lab coat?) standing in front of a large grid, only partially completed with the recognisable top of the short-haired woman’s head. He holds a paint brush at the same spot the other man’s pointer is. Behind him on a table are 10 boxes of paint numbered from 1 (white) to 10 (black) and some paint brushes. The caption reads, ‘Fig. 26. A Simple Method for Sending Pictures by Wire or Radio.’

Visually, it matters that the example is always a woman and the transmitters and receivers are always men. The message is that even in new technologies, even in a new world, some old signals remain. That is what Eckhardt’s diagram exemplifies. An entire history of communication reinforces the idea of who gets to speak across these lines. It is therefore fitting that The Discrete Channel of Noise is structured and executed by a female artist.

10 A piece of Maya

When Barthes writes that ‘no writing can give me this certainty’, he is asserting photography’s relationship to what he calls ‘the real’. But as a writer, he must have known that it is the rest of the above-cited list – ‘a memory, an imagination, a reconstitution, a piece of Maya’ – that is one of the potentials of art: to reconstitute is a way of reimagining the world. After Cambridge Analytica, or in line with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I want to argue that the redefinition or the exploration of that real is the contemporary condition. We come to things with suspicion, some of which is about recognising the failures of the systems around us. But we also come to them with a sense of possibility, a remnant of the Maya or the three-course meal chewing gum: the idea that the world is a story, and it can be shared.

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mysticsparklewings · 4 years

Photo

Light in the Darkness

For Qinni. May she Rest In Peace. ____

I'm sure many of you have heard the news by now, but in case you haven't: Qinni passed away on February 8th, after years of struggle with a heart condition and a relatively new cancer diagnosis. The first tweet I saw saying she'd passed...I thought it was a mistake or some kind of sick joke. She'd said in recent updates she was estimated to have a year, year and a half. That was one of my first thoughts, She was supposed to have another year. But, sadly, it wasn't a mistake. And soon, everywhere online was alight with those of us that had been touched in some way by Qinni's work. She is gone, but she is not forgotten. I never knew Qinni personally, but she was one of the first really popular artists I found myself drawn to here on dA. And a lot of my artistic style circa 2016 was influenced by her work, though I don't think I realized it at the time. This includes the artwork I would go on to make into the wallpaper I use for my banners all over social media. And thus, it only made sense to use that piece as a reference for this tribute piece. A piece that I had to drop everything to make, despite whatever else I had planned. I also decided to draw on an idea I'd been thinking about for a while; the original idea being a mermaid wearing a space helmet, but the helmet is also a fishbowl. I didn't include the mermaid part here, as I mainly wanted to focus on space and star themes since those are elements that Qinni's art is really known for. (Although, after having spent some time going through her gallery and social media posts, it seems the Little Mermaid was a subject she frequented too, so it still would've worked, I think.) I started with a sketch, using My Fantasy, My Insanity for a reference for the face as I mentioned, and some graphics from pixabay.com for the helmet. I did modify the hair to be more like Qinni's, made the eyes match, and turned the previously neutral mouth into more of a smile, but other than that the basic lines are largely the same. At some point, though I'm not really sure where the idea came from, I had the idea to do the whole sketch of the face out like a constellation. (My original plan had been to just have a galaxy in the blank space between the face and the helmet or just do the hair that way.) This is something I'd never tried doing before, so I stopped and did a couple of test pieces to see if what I wanted to do would be possible traditionally. I knew it would be digitally, but I wanted to stick largely to a traditional piece since Qinni became known for her watercolor work. Fortunately, those test pieces turned out really nicely, aside from me discovering watercolor paper was my better bet over mixed media for the gradient effects I wanted (which in hindsight I really should've seen coming, but this is why I did separate tests in the first place). And I will be posting these test pieces at a later time since they did work out well, talking more about how I figured out the process I'm about to go over as relates to each of those. With those tests done, I was finally able to start on the actual artwork. (Although I did stop a few more times as I went to do other tests.) I started by scanning the sketch in and booting it into Paint Tool Sai to break it down into the more simple lines and spaces I'd need, like making a connect-the-dots puzzle in reverse. First I just went over the sketch with connected (but straight) lines, making corners at curves, and then I made a new layer and broke those lines down a bit farther, leaving dedicated spaces at certain corners and where lines intersected for stars later. Then I printed off the lines and, after inking the helmet onto watercolor paper (including the ink-technique shading), used my lightbox and a ruler to carefully trace the face lines into the helmet. I taped down the edges of the paper, covered the shine spots on the helmet near the face space just to be on the safe side, and then got to work with painting. It may not look like much, but I spent a long time going back and forth with the paint to get the blending and colors right. I wanted just the right amount of pink, just the right amount of blue. A little dark over here, but lighter over there. Lots of blending and lifting involved. As is typical of me, I'd put paint on, blend it out, then put more on and start the cycle again. But eventually, I found the right balance and got something I was happy with. (And fortunately, I was smart enough to use some of my 100% cotton watercolor paper to make this process easier; it would not have blended this nicely over this large of an area if I'd used anything else.) That had to dry overnight since by the time I finished with it, it was approaching 4 in the a.m. and I was exhausted. The next day, I used a ruler and a white gel pen to go back over the constellation lines and make the notable stars (dots) attached to/connecting them. As well as I used a yellow Gelly Roll moonlight pen to place yellow stars in certain places, a specific nod to the stars in many of Qinni's artworks. After I'd given the gel pen a few minutes to dry, I pulled out the white gouache and got busy splattering to really bring home the galaxy look. And then after that, I went in with some PanPastel to give the lines a glow so they'd pop a little more. It was good, but even after I filled in the two top elements on the helmet to be black to balance a little better (they'd just been cross-hatched before), it still wasn't quite what I wanted. I'd known for a while I was going to be taking out the extra white of the paper background in Photoshop, so I decided if I had time (it was a busy few days surrounding this artwork's creation) I would try fixing the yellow stars in Photoshop and maybe a few other experiments to finalize it. This turned out to be a good thing, as just as I was finishing up the now-digital stars, I realized I'd completely forgotten one of the main elements I'd wanted to include: The fish! And to be honest, I'm still not sure how that happened. They just totally slipped my mind during the initial planning and testing phases. But since I was already there, it wasn't too hard to pull up some of Qinni's artwork as a reference and draw a few fish in digitally, then turn down the opacity a little so the orange wouldn't be too overbearing. And that worked out, as originally the piece had still felt kind of empty somehow. The fishies fill in some of the more bare spots pretty nicely. There are a million other little ideas or tweaks I could do if I went back in and gave myself more time, but it's already more than what I had imagined. And I can fiddle with it all I want, but all the art in the whole world that I could ever make will never fully express my gratitude towards Qinni and my sorrow that she's gone. That one of the brightest lights in the art community has moved from earth to the stars. Qinni's work reminds me of one of my favorite poems by FridgePoetProject (another wonderful artist that passed away all too soon), The Daily Magnet #106, which reads, "You write love into my eyes with starry ink." Although, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say she painted it into our hearts with starry watercolor. Rest In Peace, Qinni. <3 ____ Artwork (c) me, MysticSparkleWings

#thankyouqinni #galaxiesforqinni #starsforqinni #qinnitribute #qinniartinspired #qinniart #qinniartbookvote #galaxy #stars #constellations #astronaut #watercolor #ink #traditionalart #digitalart #mixedmedia

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asterinjapan · 5 years

Text

Walks through history and caves

Hello again!

Today was a hot and sunny day, so of course I spent most of it inside, haha. That’s not as much of a shame as you might think, because I saw some lovely things and I didn’t melt. That’s always a plus.

Follow me behind the link for today’s report on Okinawa World and the Okinawa prefectural museum!

So, yeah, two things today again. I have a bunch of things I want to do or visit, but not all of them can be combined due to bus lines being very inconvenient. In general they’re pretty great, but sometimes two things are like 5 kilometers apart and yet the fastest way by bus is going to the other side of the island first… So I stayed up late last night and scrambled up my list to see what came up. As it turns out, the Prefectural museum is on the other side than anything else I’d like to visit, and would thus always require a trip back to Naha. That would be the plan for the afternoon then!

In the morning, I went to Okinawa World. It’s a theme park of sorts about, well, Okinawa, and frankly the majority of it is… well. I mostly came here for the cave, which we will get to later, because upon entering, I learnt that there would be a performance in ten minutes, so I went there first. It turned out to be a traditional Eisa-style drum and dance performance and boy, did that group pack a punch! Near the end they rolled in an absolutely massive drum as well, those were some intense vibrations, haha. Despite the heat (it was open-air, although underneath a tent cover), time flew and I had a good time during the performance. I however can’t say it’s music I’d very quickly buy a CD of, because I feel this is something you have to experience.

After that, I made my way to the limestone cave, Gyokusendo, the second biggest in Japan. It was formed over the past 300,000 years and measures 15 kilometers in length, although only a little less than 1 kilometer is accessible to the public. And accessible it is: there’s a metal walkway with guardrails and at the end there’s an escalator, so you don’t have to climb stairs all the way up again.

The most impressive part is right at the beginning: once you descend the first flight of stairs, you face an absolutely massive room full of stalactites and stalagmites. It’s pretty dark in here, but there are enough lights to find your way and take pictures without needing excessive flash. And although mankind has carved itself a path through the cave, it’s definitely still a natural beauty. The cave narrows the further you get, and at one point they’ve had to carve a pathway through the stalactites since they had gotten too dense. The big dangers here are tripping as the ceiling drips incessantly, and hitting your head against a stalactite, haha.

Here and there, special places were marked and occasionally got special lights, like a blue pool of water and a waterfall.

Overall, I really enjoyed this walk, especially since it was only 21 C down here, haha. That was quite the clash once I got back outside, with 30 C and sun. The cave exit leads you into the Kingdom Village, which is full of work shops that all require additional fees, and a bunch of souvenir shops. Uh, yeah, it’s a bit overly commercial here, haha, but I was prepared for that and thus didn’t really mind. Outside the cave they were selling commemorative pictures which they had taken before entering the actual cave, so I uh, caved and got that one. I should be able to download it tomorrow too, so that’s nice! I still look very jetlagged on that picture, but hey, not a lot of full-body shots of me here otherwise, haha. It’s all selfies or nothing.

I walked through Kingdom Village fairly quickly, although it looked very nice. Scents of all kinds of food were mingling, and that didn’t exactly do wonders to my stomach along with the heat. I most definitely skipped out on the snake show (thankfully you can opt out of paying for that in the first place) and looked up my bus times. Still plenty of time left, and thus I crossed the street to find a café.

Not just any café, however – the Cave Café! Across the street lies the Gangala valley. You can only take a tour if you make reservations, and I’d juuuust come out of a cave, but you can still take a seat and have a drink at the café. Which was really cool, because it is indeed inside a cave, with stalactites dripping above you. They served soft drinks with flavored ice blocks, so I asked for the most popular combination (lemon and – something) and took a seat.

After soaking in the cool air and the pretty views for a while, I went out to find the bus stop. The bus took me back to my starting point, about 9 minutes away from my hotel, but I wasn’t done yet for today! No, I boarded the next bus which brought me to the Okinawa Prefectural Museum. Although I must confess I rushed into the nearest shopping center first to find a bathroom and a water tap, haha.

After that, I walked to the museum and got myself a ticket for the general exhibition in the historic museum, skipping out of the art museum and special exhibitions as it was already close to 4 PM. I didn’t have to rush, though, since the museum is open until 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

And I’m happy I didn’t have to rush, because whoa, this museum is packed! I got a free audio guide, which came with 50 (!) audio spots, and consisted of a map with a digital pen. You set the pen to your preferred language and then tapped the audio spot on the map. To be fair, if you listen to all audio clips, it takes much longer to make your way through, haha, but it definitely added to the experience.

The museum has a very impressive opening with a glass floor looking down into the coral life that surrounds the islands of Okinawa prefecture. Right in the first hall, there’s a relief map on the floor of the islands, and with light projections, they show how the islands were formed over the ages. The history museum really lived up to its name and covered the entire history of the Ryukyu islands right from the earliest human being discovered there, to the kings and culture, until the eventual 17th century invasion by Satsuma (currently Kagoshima in the south of Japan) and eventually annexed by Japan in 1879 as the Okinawa prefecture, only to be briefly under USA command following the horrific and devastating Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Okinawa was returned to Japan in the 70s, but the relationship remains difficult as many Ryukyuans feel independent of Japan. Sure enough, Ryukyu culture is a mix of Japanese, Chinese and other influences and yet has its own character, and even managed to remain a kingdom under Satsuma and Japan, be it with adjustments to become a vassal state. Current concerns are the loss of Ryukyu identity due to mixing with Japan and Japanese attempts to push their language and culture onto Okinawa.

So yeah, pretty difficult topics presented in a mostly neutral manner, but there was still more to discover. The natural history part went into length about the unique eco systems of Okinawa’s different islands, with very specific species of insects, birds and so on that got cut off from the rest of the world early on and now only exist here. They went the extra mile and replicated the environments here, trees and all, with animals hiding in between the trees for you to find (not live ones, of course).

Other parts of the museum discussed all aspects of life, including funerals, and this is where I truly learnt why the urns at the Tamaudun Mausoleum were surprisingly big. They do not contain ashes, since cremation wasn’t par of the course back then. Instead, once the body had decomposed, there was a bone washing ceremony and then the bones were deposited into the urn, their actual final resting place. Apparently the urns are now sought after because they’re pretty and there have already been instances or grave robbing… Geesh.

Aside from that slightly disturbing note, there were more folklore exhibits, such as the dressing up as the gods, which was on tv the other day and confused me completely, haha. The person dressed up as god, Miruku, supposedly comes from across the sea (which is something akin to heaven for people living on an island) and brings good fortune. Other gods must be appeased as they might bring bad omens. And unlike mainland Japan, it’s the women here who are spiritually superior and communicate with the deities as priestesses. I think I could have watched an entire museum on that topic alone, haha, but they did a good job covering the basics here considering how broad their scope is.

There are also a couple of traditional buildings outside, but I didn’t stay there for long since well, I just visited the Nakamura house already, haha. And I was getting really, really tired – although I had a great time at the museum, I was secretly kind of glad to be through. It made for an interesting contrast with Okinawa world, although I can’t say the latter felt super ingenuine or something. Just – commercially inclined. But I’m not sure in how far Okinawan/Ryukyu culture is actually oppressed and in how far it is akin to what I’ve heard the Ainu people on Hokkaido say: that they feel they had to put on a costume to even show their culture at all. I don’t think that’s the case here, but I’m way too uninformed still to say something sensible about that on Okinawa, so I’ll leave that to your discretion. Maybe I’m just spouting sleep-deprived nonsense here, who knows, haha.

After that contemplation, I had a (slightly too big, but still) delicious dinner in the mall, which hosts several traditionally Japanese food stands, and then walked to the bus stop on the other side of the road. Technically the wait for the bus meant that I could just walk back to my hotel and arrive there at the same time, but it had been a long day and it was past 7 PM, which means it’s dark here, so uh, the bus it is, haha.

And now I’m back in my hotel! Longest day so far, so I don’t know what I’m up to for tomorrow. I have enough to choose from, that’s for sure! Photos will be up soon, and thank you for reading all of that. See you tomorrow!

#report #japan 2019 #report: japan 2019

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robindluzenwriting · 3 years

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Something or Nothing

When I first met Jeff Chelf, he talked about woodworking like it was a past life. The Wisconsin-based artist has a more recent portfolio full of performative, conceptual projects --seemingly the artistic opposite of his erstwhile craftsmanship. We spoke about labor, handicraft and our shared Midwestern roots, remarking on the drastic divergence from his more traditional practice as a maker. Chelf’s practice today is not easy to label. His medium, performance, is not so much the conundrum as is his meaning. In his practice, Chelf is constantly traversing a thematic spectrum about work, value and objects, but he never lands anywhere one would expect with his message. Chelf’s body of work is full of earnest yet futile laboriousness, lengthy investigations into the inconsequential, and elaborate processes that don’t yield anything tangible in the end.

Touching a bit on all three of these aspects is one of Chelf’s recent projects, Dutch Masters (2020) with Ali Deane. The introduction of the small printed book that documents Dutch Masters explains that Chelf and Deane selected a scrap of printed paper board from the trash they had cleaned up from along a Madison, WI highway. The scrap, which turned out to be packaging from Dutch Masters brand cigars, is not terribly interesting to look at, and is reproduced in the book; nevertheless, the artist duo embarked on a month-long digital research binge that ended in them both smoking the mass-market cigars and then (presumably) sending the scrap back from whence it came: the garbage. The research Chelf and Deane turned up is of a mildly notable variety --some anecdotes from the brand's century-old origins, its contemporary popularity as a blunt wrapper. If the object itself nor the sum of the research are the focal point of the artistic exercise, then what is? As one pages through the Dutch Masters booklet, one finds oneself dwelling more on the absurdity of this venture in general than the information printed on the pages. Dutch Masters is just one of many instances in Chelf’s body of work wherein a viewer spends their time not thinking about what the piece’s intended message is, but why the artist has chosen to do it at all and why he expended so much effort in doing it.

In his own words, Chelf’s relationship to labor is “strained.” It’s no small thing for a Midwesterner to flip the script on the notion that production --of material, of consumer goods-- is the genesis of value, as such production in the region has shaped the landscape, the population, our families, and even our own psyches.(1.) And while the artist is no longer driven by an engagement in the labor (and subsequent commerce) of making, industriousness, in the abstract, remains an important vehicle for Chelf. In To Cut a Lake in Half (2020), Chelf again exerts himself in a tremendous undertaking; along with collaborator Derek Kiesling, Chelf literally cuts a line through the ice of a frozen lake with nothing but hand saws. This gesture speaks to the character of such Midwestern waterways, their simultaneous fragility and resilience, and their inextricable link to the region’s industrial history. Like in Dutch Masters, there is an absurdity to the piece, an aspect of futility in laboring over something so ephemeral. If, as a woodworker, Chelf had previously been channeling his labor into the craft object in an attempt to imbue it with value, as a performance artist, he’s now resituating the labor as the subject of a conceptual art piece. He’s assigning meaning to his labor without creating a consumable product for a market.

However, when it comes to the value of an artwork, a viewer cannot just take Chelf’s word for it. At least in To Cut a Lake in Half, there was a beginning and end to the project: the artists began cutting at different ends of the lake, and completed when they met in the middle. To Bring Water to Land (2020) has no such satisfying conclusion, no sense of accomplishment a viewer can appreciate vicariously. To Bring Water to Land is one of the most futile pieces in his oeuvre. Here, Chelf and Kiesling, outfitted with a pair of galvanized buckets, scoop water from a lake and deposit it on the shore. The photos that document this performance show the collaborators dressed for the autumn weather, soaked to the knee as they trudge back and forth from the water to the rocky bank. As one would expect, the water poured onto the beach flowed back down to the lake, and the artists’ efforts made no perceptible impact on the water level. It’s also likely that, after a few hours, the ground would have dried and it would appear as though Chelf and Kiesling were never even there. If in Dutch Masters and To Cut a Lake in Half, meaning shifts around between objects and actions, meaning is essentially questionable in To Bring Water to Land. In the latter piece, a viewer has to wonder: is this really something, or is it nothing at all?

1. For example, in the textbooks issued to us for Michigan History class in fifth grade, the opening line is a quote from Henry Ford: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black.”

-Robin Dluzen Artist & Critic, 2020

#otherpublications

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essaytitlepage335 · 4 years

Video

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professional writing service

About me

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doodleodramablog-blog · 6 years

Text

The seven deadly doubts

Let’s begin!

Firstly, a big welcome to all the warm butts parked here. Welcome to my blog. I am going to be using this space to answer questions, give unnecessary but free gyaan, and to spurt other nonsense from time to time. So sit back and try not to throw up.

Here are some of the questions that I get asked very frequently. I am going to try and answer them to the best of my ability

1. Who are you?

My name is Mounica Tata. I am a 28 year old woman, self-taught full-time freelance illustrator. I am originally from Hyderabad but based out of Bangalore. My dad was in the army so I moved around quite a bit. I speak Hindi, English, and Telugu (can’t read and write Telugu though). I am married to a fine man, I fondly call hubster and I have a very fluffy son, adopted. He is a 2 and a half year old golden retriever called Sir Leo.

2. How did Doodleodrama happen?

I am a B.com Honours graduate who went onto do a masters in Mass Communication. Then went onto work as an editor for a college magazine, then as a client executive and content writer for a small design firm, then as an account executive and copy writer for a digital marketing agency.

I finally quit my last job last year in May and decided to draw for a living. I had been putting up work online for a couple of years now and I used to get small gigs like wedding invitations, designing menu cards for cafes, customised posters, etc. which I used to work on on weekends. I realised that drawing gives me pure joy and I decided to take the leap of faith and do it full-time.

3. Why that brand name Doodleodrama?

I definitely didn’t want to make my name my brand name. Honestly, I didn’t think much before I started my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/doodleodrama) with that name. I was in college, I liked doodling, I liked all things dramatic and have always been a fan of everything round so the O to bring doodle and drama together. I wanted to at some point change the name especially since I’ve been drawing for a living now but the name stuck and it has LEO in it so I let it be :)

4. How did you pick up drawing, the tools, and all that jazz?

I don’t think I have mastered any of that yet, still a long way to go. I worked as a content writer and client executive with design & marketing firms so I used to stay up after work hours or sit during breaks with the design team and ask them to teach me the basics (opening & saving files on photoshop). Up until then, I used to take pictures of my hand-drawn comics and upload them or use MS Paint. So I used to come back from my day job (at night!) and then practice the software, watch a tonne of online tutorials, read & read some more. See more art, follow crazy number of artists & their work (still do) and practice. My learning curve has been quite steep (from where I started to where I am today and where I am headed from here) but it taught me a lot!

5. What are your weapons of choice and what’s your method/process like?

I still predominantly use pencil and paper for my initial rough sketches. Still pretty old school. I then either take a picture or scan my rough sketches and take it to Adobe Photoshop. I then add layers and use the brush tool and ink my rough sketches (to get cleaner, bolder lines). And the subsequent layers are for colouring, detailing, adding shadows, highlights, text, etc.

I started off with Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet and a 15-inch Dell Inspiron laptop. I used that drawing tablet from 2013-2015. In 2015, I went off to London for a few months and my most priced possession/buy from that trip is my Wacom Intuos Pro Medium drawing tablet. I work on a 27-inch iMac desktop. I recently got the new iPad Pro and I am enjoying drawing digitally (directly) on the screen with Procreate. These are all the hardwares and softwares I use and have used.

6. What about traditional art?

I am quite rubbish with traditional art but I find paints and paper therapeutic so I continue to experiment, explore, fail, and pick up! Thanks to #Inktober2017 (you can use the #myelliestory on Instagram to see my inktober story this year) I invested in some inks and paints. I currently have a set of Windsor & Newton watercolours (it was a gift), Camlin transparent photo colors, & Daler Rowney’s acrylic inks & Sumi India Ink (black).

7. How do you get clients & followers?

I believe I am an average artist and a terrible business woman. I’ve not invested a single penny on digital/social media marketing for my work. I’ve only invested time and effort in putting up work. It helps to create a digital portfolio and in turn helps to get recognised. It’s important to find your voice and your style and that helps you to build a niche audience for yourself and to get noticed. My content, my style, and my sense of humour are my brand ambassadors. I draw everyday, I put out content regularly so nothing happens overnight!

I am sort of tired now. My brain hurts (also soul). Leave me your questions here or on Facebook or on Instagram (if you have any more) or if you have fun topics that you’d like my two cents on, please let me know so we can keep this blog alive. Not bad for a first attempt, no?

#faq #blog #illustrations #freelancerlife #questions #doodleodramaspeaks cartoonist comics

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hellagaymccree · 7 years

Text

Masterpiece

Back with something silly that came to mind a while ago. Have art proffesor!Reyes that takes a stranger to his apartment one night and he turns out to be the model for his class the next day. McReyes with background Symbra and the cool kids.

NSFW

AO3

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Gabriel was seeing all the colors every time he closed his eyes. It felt cliché to say a rainbow, but it was a twisted version of one fading into the sky after a storm. He saw dark red every time the stranger sunk his teeth into his skin, like blood, like a glass of wine going down his throat. He tasted yellow when they kissed, the sun itself, bright and energized. He saw brown when he looked into the obviously younger man’s eyes, shining sinhalite under the light of his room. The gemstones were forging under his blazing gaze when the stranger growled. It made Gabe’s mouth dry, thirsty for a glass whisky. He felt like a king when the man’s nails scratched his back, like gold was peeking through the wounds. And he definitely saw white when he hit the climax. A flash so blinding even with his eyes close. White like the clouds up in the sky. With the divine pleads coming from the younger man’s mouth, Gabriel felt like he had touched the heavens.

The room was on fire and vibrant as the night grew colder and older. The mysterious cowboy that approached him at the bar rode him through the dark hours. Gabriel inspected him from hat to the spurs at the ankles of his boots; he thought this guy would never get a chance. But the more the stranger’s velvet voice and laugh overshadowed the music around them, the more intoxicated Gabriel felt. Before Gabriel could stop himself, he was pinning the younger man into a wall of the club and letting him sway his hips against his own. The cowboy kept calling him names like ‘sweetheart’, ‘sugar’ and ‘darling’. The latter seemed to be a favorite. They didn’t ask for names nor life stories, only wanted a good time and Gabriel doesn’t regret it.

Gabe isn’t surprised to wake up and find the cowboy by his side, snoring in deep sleep. The white sheets line up the curve of his hips right, itching Gabriel to trace them again with his fingertips. The man’s hair is like brown strokes of paint over the white pillows, softly drawn and perfectly pigmented rich mahogany. Gabriel uses his finger to lower the sheets until the younger man’s sweet firm butt comes to view. He licks his lips to the thought of another round. To see the vibrant colors again, to feel things so vibrantly it makes him question what it’s real or not. It’d have to be quick, but he thinks the stranger would be glad to be fucked senseless against the wall. Sadly, Gabriel’s alarm reminds him he can’t afford another one, not even if it’s quick.

Gabriel brews a pot of coffee while he gets dressed and before he can leave his room, the cowboy stirs awake.

“Mornin’, sunshine.” He turns towards Gabriel. “Is that coffee I smell?”

“I can give you a to-go cup,” Gabriel says as he puts on a shirt.

“How mighty kind of you.” The man sits up, the sheets almost reveal his soft member. Gabriel gazes over the hair on the man’s chest and down the trail to his crotch. He leaves the room before his thirsty mouth says something.

Gabriel walks the man to the door, ready to leave himself, but before the cowboy walks out, he pulls him by the waistline of his pants and catches Gabriel’s lips with his own. He drinks the leftover coffee taste from the older man’s mouth and Gabriel would be lying if he didn’t feel dizzy after the gift. He also feels the man’s hand slipping in one of the back pocket of his jeans.

“Don’t hesitate to call, sugar,” the man speaks close to his lips.

Once he leaves, Gabriel pulls out the piece of folded paper. The dog paws on the corner let him know it’s from the small notebook he leaves on the kitchen counter to write down his grocery lists and important details. There are seven digits and below a ‘J’. Gabriel scoffs and leaves the note on the coffee table to think it over later.

When Gabriel arrives to his classroom, he can’t help but smile at the students already waiting in the studio. Hana and Lucio are listening to music on a corner together and throw him ‘morning, Reyes!’ when he enters. Lena sits behind her usual easel, showing the piece she did last time to Mei, another student.

“Hiya, professor!” Lena waves and Mei smiles at the man.

“Morning, Lena.” Gabriel responds as he drops his messenger bag on his desk. “Lucio, how’s the new cover coming up?” He gets the younger man’s attention who starts searching in his bag for his tablet.

“Came up with a better idea yesterday,” Lucio says as he paces towards his professor.

Gabriel chuckles to his student’s enthusiasm as he approaches him.

Lucio is majoring in music, but also wants to do his own art as long as he can. He wants to drop his first EP soon and heard Gabriel was a good art professor to help him in the areas he needed. Even if his main focus was traditional, he also knows how to work with digital. As they went over the cover design, more students started to arrive. Genji was amongst them, who quickly showed Gabriel a draft of a tattoo design he would like to cover majority of his right leg.

“Everyone settle down, please, we’re about to begin,” Gabriel announces after looking at his watch. “Sombra.” He showed the way out of the classroom to the charismatic girl he had taught this same class a year ago and always finds a way to take one of his classes every semester since then. Even if the enrollment is full.

The girl with dark purple hair waves him off before planting a sweet kiss on Satya’s hand.

“Get your sketchbooks out, I expect our model will be arriving soon.”

“Model?” Sombra says on her way to the door. “Is it that class today? Maybe I’ll stick around.”

A few students snicker, even Satya grins to Sombra’s comment.

“Don’t you have classes to go to?” Gabriel asks crossing his arms.

“I’m sure my professors will understand,” Sombra responds as she grabs an empty stool from a corner.

A few more laughs and Gabriel sees a few students glance at the door. When he looks himself, he feels his heart is about to run out of his chest.

“Human anatomy with Mr. Reyes?” The cowboy looks at Gabriel and his eyes show shock for less than a second, before he melts into a smooth smile.

“Yes,” Gabriel composes himself and looks over his class. Sombra is looking at him in a way that makes him nervous.

“I’m your model for today.” The cowboy steps closer, he’s wearing the same jeans from last night, tight and dark, same cowboy hat and boots with the spurs, but now he sports a blue and black plaid shirt instead of gray.

“Jesse McCree, then?” He always gets his models from Amelie, a colleague that teaches theater and surrounds herself with people that don’t mind exposing themselves for the arts, or their ego.

“At your service,” the cowboy tips his hat. “Mrs. Lacroix sent me.”

“Of course. Well, the stage is yours.” Gabriel quickly steps behind his desk and McCree approaches him.

“Hold this for me, darlin’,” McCree places his cowboy hat on Gabriel’s head and his cheeks feel hotter.

The model steps onto the small stage with a stool and starts unbuttoning his shirt while Gabriel takes the hat off, looking annoyed. The professor doesn’t give him directions, like he hasn’t done with his past models. Amelie always runs the drills by them first and they know what to do once they step on the stage.

“You’ll have ten minutes with each pose first. Focus on detail.” Gabriel directs his class, trying to ignore McCree undressing from the corner of his eye. “Look first, capture his expression, the angles and lines. Don’t hurry yourself. Before changing position I will ask if you’re all satisfy. If not, I will agree to five more minutes. Mister McCree.” His tongue knots in his throat when he looks at the model at the same time he drops his pants, showing sign of no underwear. “You may begin.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” McCree steps out of his jeans and throws them off the stage along with his shirt, boots and socks.

McCree flexes first and holds the pose, with his arms raised in perfect arcs. His students start drawing away, minus Sombra, who sits back admiring the view. Meanwhile, Gabriel tries to ignore the man a few feet from him. He always tells his student to be mature before bringing a model for this lesson, and now he feels like he’s acting like a horny school boy. He thinks sad thoughts, disguising things anything that won’t starts excitement inside of him. Anything but the way Jesse moaned last night, or the way his hips moved between his thighs or the way he kissed every inch of Gabriel’s body and left bruises on certain spots no one will ever get to see.

He starts feeling hot and thirsty. His jeans feel tight around him and the collar of his shirt suffocates him. His students look calm and collected, while he thinks they all can see his memories from last night. See the profanities he did and let Jesse do to him. He wonders if McCree is thinking about it too, but either he’s not or he’s good at not showing it.

Gabriel’s stare diverts too much to the naked model. To his strong arms, the curve of his waist where a little roll of fat sets, to his thick thighs and his soft cock. But Gabriel has to look, he usually does this practice too to show it to his student. When he does, he focuses on details, like he said. Tries to count the hairs on the man’s body, ignores how soft they felt against his own. How heavy Jesse felt above him. He looks at the model’s expression, blank, but wicked eyes that ignore him.

The timer goes off and Jesse shifts, sits on the stool and recreates The Thinker piece by Auguste Rodin. Gabriel pays attention to the profile of Jesse’s face; he can only see half, but enough to catch the glimpses of deep thought in Jesse’s head. Gabriel’s hand stops moving over the page of his sketchbook as he admires the model. He has seen some of Amelie’s students on stage when he’s free and they have talent. He has never seen McCree. Must be a new to her classes, but Gabriel can already see him up on stages with the spotlight emphasizing his muscles and contrasting against different backdrops, but also adapting to the scene.

The times goes off and Jesse moves to something like The Discus Thrower, a sculpture with an unknown creator. Other models have done this pose before, but their arm starts trembling after a minute or two or they shift softly in their feet to cause little trouble to the students drawing them. Meanwhile, McCree stands as still as the statue itself. This time, he can’t see much of his face since McCree’s back is facing him, but the curve of it, the color of his skin and the way his legs stand firm make Gabriel wish he could get his hands on him again and mold him the way he wants. The next pose Jesse takes reminds Gabriel of The Dying Gaul, another piece without a real source of origin. And Jesse expresses that unknown fact in his face, like a fallen warrior that doesn’t know what will become of him. Gabriel catches a drop of sweat down his temple and a light glazy, coat over his chest and shoulders. They don’t help keep his mind pure and clean.

Gabriel sighs when he checks his watch and it’s less than ten minutes for the class to end. He announces to the students to do the finishing touches on their work. Once the timer hits, Jesse stretches his body, twisting it to the side, giving Gabriel a nice view on purpose. He winks at the professor over the few students coming over to show their results. Once they disperse, Jesse approaches him, already dressed.

“Thank you for your time,” Gabriel says to him, feeling awkward in his own skin.

“My pleasure, let me know if you need a model for private practice,” Jesse tils his head and winks at the professor before taking his hat. Gabriel raises an eyebrow at the cowboy’s boldness. “I’m free right now.”

Gabriel lick his lips as he considers it, to his own surprise. But this is not the right time. “I got another class coming in five.”

Jesse shrugs. “It ain’t a complete no.” He places his hat back on top of his head and turns to leave.

On Gabriel’s second class, Art Techniques, they worked on abstract painting. One wall was covered in large canvases that still held wet paint. He was lining them after picking them up from the floor his students have worked on since the easels couldn’t hold them. Only two remain on the ground when he hears heavy footsteps with spurs approaching. The door closes and he suddenly feels alone in the world, along with the roaming cowboy.

When he turns, Jesse is there, admiring the paintings with a whistle.

“Never got art, but these are pretty.”

“Why are you here?” Gabriel asks, and hates those are his first words.

Jesse looks at him, admires the professor from head to toe. He looked so broody last night, too cool to be caught with someone like Jesse. Now he wears worn jeans and a simple white t-shirt he didn’t have earlier that shows signs of past paint. His arms are also covered in different colored strokes. He never got art, but looking at Reyes has peeked his interest and desire to learn and create something. Especially out of Reyes.

“I see you don’t have class right now,” Jesse points out.

“No, it’s my break,” Gabriel points out, looking around before meeting Jesse’s eyes again.

“Good,” Jesse steps closer. “Cause I can’t stop thinking about ya. And after I saw you earlier, I thought that if fate had given me a second chance, why try to forget at all, then?”

Gabriel stares at Jesse, directly into his eyes. He wants to know if this is all true or a way to get a second round. Gabriel wouldn’t say no to one, but in the middle of his classroom? Just answering his own question makes him shiver in thrill. The longer he looks at the younger man, the more energize he feels. As if his skin was drinking directly from the rays of the sun.

Jesse bites his lip, waiting for Gabriel to say something, but when he takes too long, he strikes first. Jesse kisses him deep, pushing him back and against one of the canvases. Gabriel’s eyes widen to the feel of wet paint going through his thin, used shirt. Yet, his care drifts away the longer the cowboy savors him. Jesse traps him against the canvas, his palms getting dirty against the paint. Gabriel’s hands find the cowboy’s hips and pull him closer without him realizing it. It’s a messy kiss, too eager to find a good rhythm, yet Gabriel moans to it. Jesse smiles before nipping at the 36-year-old’s bottom lip.

Gabriel growls and forces them to turn around. Jesse’s back hits the canvas and Gabriel pins his wrists against the fabric, staining Jesse’s arms and his own fingertips in the process. Jesse moans in surprise and keeps smiling between the kiss before his tongue slips into Gabriel’s mouth. Gabriel grows impatient and starts fidgeting with the buttons of Jesse’s shirt. The cowboy laughs breathlessly as he watches the professor get them all out to reveal his hairy chest and stomach. Gabriel is quick to start kissing down the younger man’s neck and chest, remembering the spots that make Jesse sing.

“Oh, sugar,” Jesse sighs as he closes his eyes, falling into bliss. “I needed you too, so damn much.”

Those words ring in Gabriel’s ears and it’s enough for him to pull his own shirt off. Jesse springs forward and starts kissing him again, unable to hold himself back. By now, both have spread paint over the other’s skin. Jesse huffs as he picks up Gabriel by his thighs and Gabriel gasps close to McCree’s mouth. He sets the professor down on one of the nearest tables, full of art supplies, including palettes, wet brushes and opened containers with the paint his students used before. Some spill when Gabriel bumps into them. He thinks this is all part of Jesse’s plan. Creating chaos so beautiful that gets him interested in art.

Jesse forces him to lie down as he kisses the older man’s stomach. The puddles of paint under Gabriel feel cool, but a fire starts everywhere Jesse’s lips brush on his stomach. Jesse crawls on top to reach his chest and neck. Gabriel tugs at the brown locks under the cowboy hat, getting it dirty with paint and scratches down Jesse’s back, leaving tracks of red and yellow, like the sparks building between their bodies. He throws the hat of the side, thinking it would leave a wider space to tug at the younger man’s hair.

He paints Jesse’s neck when he cradles it, bringing closer for a quick kiss on the lips. Jesse dips his fingers on the nearest paint and strokes them over Gabriel’s skin. The cold touch makes Gabriel yelp, but he allows the action to continue, finding it soothing after. Jesse bites his bottom lip as he admires the masterpiece below him. Gabriel with goosebumps on his skin, sweat on his forehead, parted swollen lips and a sunset painted on his chest.

He unzips Gabriel’s pants and pulls them down, along with his boxers and watches with hunger how Gabriel’s hard dick springs free. Jesse licks his lips and he decides to directly take it in his mouth, using the excuse of not wanting to get paint on it, to be safe. Jesse hopes Gabriel will forgive him and by the gasp and grip on his hair, he suspects Gabriel will be just fine.

Jesse makes sure to be patient. To take care of the man that’s spread on the table for him to feast on. Gabriel calls his name, they’re almost a whisper. Jesse looks up to see the man curving his back and biting his lip to quiet himself. Jesse moans and sucks until he sees the whines forcing themselves out of Gabriel and into the air.

“That’s right, baby,” Jesse says, lips caressing Gabriel’s cock. “Don’t ever stay quiet ‘round me.”

Gabriel growls when Jesse’s mouth surrounds his cock again. When he presses his eyes close, he sees flashes of vibrant blue, like twinkling stars or fireworks tickling his eyelids. He feels breathless as his lungs burn when he pants. His heart thumping inside his ribcage so fast, he’s afraid it’ll break his bones.

Gabriel sits up and Jesse stops, thinking he has done something wrong, but Gabriel only kisses him and lures him back as he gets off the table and both are on the floor. Jesse crawls until he feels one of the canvases on the floor and lies on it as Gabriel hovers over him after pulling his jeans off on the way. The professor settles himself between Jesse’s thighs and keeps kissing the cowboy as they tangle between each other. Their hands go all over the other’s body, finger-painting every inch of free skin they feel.

Slowly, Gabriel’s mouth travels lower until he makes Jesse’s pants disappear and takes the younger man’s hard cock in his mouth. Both moan together, Gabriel to the taste he longed for since last night and Jesse for the warmth. Just as good as Jesse was, Gabriel makes sure to treat him right. He maneuvers his tongue around the shaft and sucks at the head before planting sweet kisses. His trails a tongue back up before taking Jesse again.

Gabriel stands up and looks for a clean paper towel and pours some water on it. While he cleans his hands, he watches how Jesse pants on top of the canvas. They’ve made a mess of it, but created the beautiful disaster that is Jesse right now. Pupils blown, eyes almost onyx like the few black strokes under him. Skin flushed with red and sweat glazing certain spots. And paint scratched and stroked on him, blending with the paintings underneath him.

“My wallet,” Jesse says.

Gabriel grabs the cowboy’s pants and searches through his wallet until he finds a condom.

“And belt buckle,” Jesse smirks before Gabriel walks back.

The professor raises an eyebrow but still grabs it. He tugs at the BAMF golden belt buckle he still finds tacky and the letters come off like a lid. There’s a small bottle of lube tucked inside and he shows it at Jesse. “Really?”

“You never know,” Jesse shrugs, but Gabriel is glad to have it. There isn’t really anything they could use as lube in the classroom.

He walks back to Jesse and crawls on top before kissing him. He trails kisses down the younger man’s body again until his head sets between his shaking thighs. He pushes Jesse’s ass cheeks aside and rims the hole with his tongue. Jesse moans to the new pleasure and remembers scenes from last night. He smiles as he relieves them all over again. Making sure his fingers are still clean, Gabriel pours lube on his hand and once they are slick enough, he starts teasing Jesse’s hole, along with his tongue. His index finger goes in and he wastes no time on moving it around gently, alert of Jesse’s body language and sounds. Jesse gasps in pleasure and arcs his back. Gabriel curves his finger and starts poking it in and out slowly. Another finger joins and then a third after a while. Then Jesse’s begging for more, quick.

Gabriel tears through the condom packet and slips it on his cock after a few strokes. He teases Jesse’s hole a few more times, making the younger man squirm under him and whimper. He pours more lube on his hand and strokes his own cock before lifting one of Jesse’s knees and lining up with Jesse’s entrance. Once he starts slipping in, Jesse almost falls apart. Gabriel shifts closer and stays still as both breath to regain the air they’ve lost. Jesse starts to rock his hips, begging Gabriel to move his. Gabriel chuckles and obeys the cowboy’s silent cries.

Gabriel thrusts into Jesse once he feels loose. The cowboy’s legs wrap around the professor, trapping him until he finishes the job. Gabriel leans forward, grabbing a fist full of Jesse’s hair and his other hand rests around Jesse’s neck, squeezing once in a while. Jesse’s eyes roll to the back of his head once Gabriel brushes his prostate. Gabriel notices, but he doesn’t want this to end yet. Their sweat starts to mix with the paint they have spread on each other. Jesse’s hands scramble over the canvas before going over Gabriel’s skin, causing it to become more like a masterpiece. Jesse’s too high to think straight, too frantic to just hold on to one part of Gabriel’s body. He wants to grab everything, lick every drop of sweat, bite every curve and kiss every stroke of paint he has created.

Jesse moves too quickly for Gabriel to react soon enough. In almost a blink, the professor finds himself on his back, on top of the canvas, and the younger man saddling his hips. The cowboy holds on to Gabriel’s cock and slowly dives down into it, almost singing in pleasure when he’s full again. Gabriel grabs his hips as he starts moving.

“Darlin’, you’ve got me too high,” Jesse mumbles. “I won’t be able to see another painting again without thinking of your cock. Without thinking of your stare and, fuck, just you.”

Jesse rambles more drunken words and Gabriel drinks them all. He feels like Jesse himself looks like a piece of art that deserves to be pinned to a wall. He hopes to do it soon after this, between the walls of his apartment, where both can rattle the furniture and paint the walls without a care.

Once Gabriel feels close, he starts stroking Jesse’s leaking cock. The younger man cries in pleasure and smiles with half lidded eyes looking down on Gabriel. The whole scene, Jesse’s stare, his sweaty and painted body, and the way he moves, cause Gabriel to reach the climax. He gasps and arcs his back up while Jesse moves his hips faster, wanting to reach him. Jesse collapses on top of Gabriel while white lines spill out of his cock and collect between both of them, adding to the mess of colors in their stomachs.

Gabriel grabs Jesse’s chin so their lips can meet in a tender, tired kiss. Their bodies feel numb, and they’re minds are in a high state of euphoria to think of anything at the moment. Gabriel just sees colors, mostly browns. Different shades of brown; like Jesse’s warm skin, his tantalizing eyes, chocolate threads of hair and the darker patches where he blushes.

Jesse sighs in pleasure when he lifts himself and lies beside Gabriel.

“What are you goin’ to tell your students?” Jesse asks as he looks at his arms covered in paint.

Gabriel looks up, at the destroyed paintings against the wall. He hadn’t thought about the pieces, but he knows a lot of his students took pictures of their work. “Ah, they can still pass as abstract to give them an A. I can just say the wind knocked them down or something.”

“I can help with that,” Jesse smirks and Gabriel elbows him.

While Gabriel stares at the ceiling, he feels Jesse’s eyes on him, tracing his profile and counting the pigments on his skin.

“Now I know white paint isn’t the only that looks good on you.” Jesse emphasizes the word ‘paint’, putting another meaning to it.

Gabriel scoffs and can’t help elbowing the younger man again as the cowboy laughs back, too loud to keep themselves a secret. Jesse lies on his side and kisses the professor tenderly, he feels him melting under him.

“Wanna go to dinner tonight?” Jesse says, voice lower.

“A little late for that, isn’t it?” Gabriel says as he raises an eyebrow.

Jesse shrugs, “I like dessert before the main course, it’s a good way to keep things interesting.”

“And who says we can’t have desserts two times?” Gabriel says and Jesse smirks.

“I like the way you think,” Jesse almost murmurs as his lips brush Gabriel’s before losing himself into another kiss.

#mcreyes #mcreaper #writingramblings

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jaygraphicarts2-blog · 5 years

Text

‘Runners’ — Roto-scoping Animation Workshop

For the introduction to celebrating people’s achievements, I looked at the traditional ‘run cycle’ as a preface into animation, using Mo Farah as the subject to commend his contribution to British athletics. The outcome of this workshop will be to learn the fundamentals of the run cycle and produce a 12-16 frame loop of a runner using the work of Eadweard Muybridge as the imagery to work from. As an extension, I can apply the knowledge from this workshop to a sequence of Mo Farah running and explore the possibilities of creating a viral advert from this.

Eadweard Muybridge

Although never making a single drawn animation or even image, Eadweard Muybridge is renowned for his vast contribution to the studies of moving image. Muybridge was a photographer and would take sequential images of a subject before playing them back to create the illusion of movement. The studies of animation were so young that some people would explain the movement as ‘magic’ and were baffled as to how they were witnessing the movement, which shows how revolutionary this technique was.

Why is his work helpful/revolutionary?

It is important to look at Eadweard Muybridge’s work and use it as an example to work from because it allows me to look at a similar process the earliest animators would’ve done. Because animation at the time of Muybridge was hardly developed on, what we see today as accessible would’ve seemed alien to most people. Starting with the backbone of animation, rotoscoping from a photographic sequence helps build the contextual knowledge to create more modern animation using the same principles.

Another huge impact he has had on art, in general, is with the accuracy of the depiction of the horse. Horses had always been depicted in art with all 4 hoofs off the ground, spread away from the horse’s body. It was a long-lasting debate whether all of the horse’s hoofs were airborne at once, so Muybridge was hired by businessman and race-horse owner Leland Stanford to settle the case. It took 6 years to settle the case with Muybridge perfecting the photography of a horse gallop until he successfully shot the gallop accurate enough that the airborne pose was a frame.

Process

Firstly, I used paper and a pencil above the subject image of Muybridge’s photography sequence of a man running so I could begin roto-scoping over. I used a pencil because I wanted to portray some texture. This was to experiment with how texture could be animated on top of just the main animation, I also used a lightbox underneath everything so I could see the frames on the bottom easily; this caused my outlines to be more accurate so that when they were played back in sequence there wasn’t a large amount of chattering in the frames.

Chattering: This is the effect in which frames seems to ‘wobble’ when they are created with a frame by frame process. This is caused by a lack of consistency in each one which I used to my advantage to compliment the texture my pencil marks made. In comparison to more modern techniques such as key-frame animation where the chattering isn’t there, it can offer a more authentic look to an animation.

As I sketched over the frames, I made sure to number each one as I was going to composite them digitally at a later stage. To avoid confusion of the order in which the frames play, it’s important to stay organised from the beginning of the animation process.

The next step was to composite the frames together in a sequence to create the illusion of movement. Eadweard Muybridge used a ‘zoöpraxiscope’ to play back his sequences. This was an invention he himself conceptualised, which he then used to bring his photography into movement. It was a circular device with slots for individual frames, which would then be spun at a speed as to give the illusion that the frames passing by were overlapping and therefore would look like movement. For this workshop, the Photoshop timeline is what I used to put together the frames. The way the motion is developed is done in a similar way, by playing the sequence of images at a speed to give the impression that they are connected and part of one motion.

The first part of the Photoshop stage was to edit the frames together to bring out the contrast and remove the colour of them. My aim here was to get the black areas defined enough so that they could easily be seen, but still maintaining the texture of the pencil marks. For this, I used the image adjustments ‘Levels’ and ‘Hue/Saturation.

After making the sheet of frames suitable for putting them together, the next step was to isolate each frame to a separate layer. I did this by selecting one frame, cutting it from the original layer and pasting it onto a new one; before doing this for the remaining frames. Lastly, I used the timeline window in Photoshop to play back the layers. I placed the layer labelled ‘1’ as the first timeline frame, then made a new frame for each stage of the animation, making sure to lower the opacity of each one to make sure they were lined up.

Extension

Looking Back

Although I have taken part in previous animation workshops and made animated outcomes, going back to the roots was helpful to understand where what I was learning originated from. Muybridge’s early research on moving image helped create the foundation which makes viewing/making it today possible. Relating back to the brief and my take away from it, the outcome of the extension task is an example of the possibilities that are open to me. I have celebrated someone in a way which implements the root-scope technique, but in the same way, I can do this with any type of process, as long as I consider the audience.

When reviewing everyone’s work, the general feedback was positive in terms of how recognisable everyone’s run cycles were. Although we each had the same subject, everyone’s individual expressions showed in their animations. I found moving image to have a more active response from its audience than static imagery, which is why it is a good way to commemorate someone and get an audience on board with the message.

Moving Forward

This workshop also got me to start considering different ways in which I can celebrate people. In this case, taking the run cycle of Mo Farah from a 12 frame looping animation to a potential viral advert for Nike got me prepared for developing my own ideas into functional projects. In future workshops I hope to expand on animation and use the fundamentals I have learnt in this session to apply to my current skills to create something which I am happy with but most importantly puts the audience reaction first. My next plans, however, are to start establishing a better idea for where I am going to take my project. I need to consider possible themes and people, and now I have learnt about a way I could go with this animation, I feel like my ideas are opened up more.

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legendary · 7 years

Photo

Creating a World of Witches and Wonder

A Conversation with Firebrand's Jessica Chobot, Erika Lewis, and Claudia Aguirre.

Firebrand, the latest original title from Legendary Comics is heading into the home stretch of its inaugural run on digital comics platform, LINE Webtoon. The weekly series follows teenage witch Natali Presano as she comes to terms with her role in a supernatural war, while dealing with the everyday pressures of young adulthood. Firebrand is the brainchild of Jessica Chobot and Erika Lewis. Chobot is best known as host for Nerdist News. Before joining Nerdist, she was a host and recurring personality on IGN and G4. Lewis has made a name for herself as a young adult and fantasy author with her work Game of Shadows, and The 49th Key, in addition to Firebrand. “Jessica Chobot has been such a huge part of the Legendary family for years,” said Robert Napton, Vice President and Editorial Director of Legendary Comics. “We were so thrilled to have an opportunity to support her exploration of a new creative venture and we know that she and Erika Lewis have created a truly compelling new heroine and story that fans will truly become immersed in.” Legendary Backstory had the opportunity to talk with Chobot, Lewis, and artist Claudia Aguirre about the exciting new series as it heads into the second half of its season. See what they had to say about creating the comic below!

Q: As an intro, can you tell the readers a little bit about what Firebrand is all about and talk about the process in which it’s come to fruition. Where did the idea originate from, how did it develop, how did each of you become involved and come together to create it, etc.?

JC: You know, Firebrand is sort of a combination of a coming of age story and a traditional hero’s journey. At its heart, it’s really about a young woman who we’ve seen growing up, who basically just never felt like she belonged anywhere. This was actually an idea that Erika had that she came to me with one day when we were just talking and hanging out. We started volleying ideas back and forth and eventually realized we should do something with this because it started to grow so quickly during that first conversation. So we just started meeting up after that and exchanging ideas and characters and relationships. Eventually it really felt like we had something and we wanted to shop it around and obviously one of the first places we went to was Legendary. EL: Jessica and I worked together at G4 and both had obsessions with witches and magic and all things insane. But for me, I’m obsessed with ancient myths and legends, especially when it comes to magic in different places around the world. Basque is such a unique place and culture and really unlike anything else around it. I did a lot of research into pre-Christianity times in Basque, finding timeless myths. We hope to bring to pieces of them to life in a very unique Erika-Jessica-Claudia type of way. I saw (artist) Claudia Aguirre’s work at another publisher and I was so impressed, and was like ‘oh, how cool it would be to have three women!’ So (Legendary Comics’) Robert Napton got in touch with Claudia and thankfully she was excited about the idea!

Q: Claudia, can you talk about the process in designing the look of Firebrand from early sketches to the finished art?

CA: Well, the creative process for me is like a movie in my head. Jessica and Erika are great. They are very, very cinematic in what they describe so I can see it in my head. I initially try to make sense of my own idea and I do some thumbnailing on paper and try to make it look really cool. Then, I start translating that onto the computer, so I’ll draw it and show everything to the team. They’ll tell me if it doesn’t work and give me feedback. After that, I do the inking process and then the colors too.

Q: Which real stories and history (if any) did you pull from to inspire the style of witchcraft/characterization of the Sorgin in the series? Are there references to any of these in the story or in the artwork?

EL: Historically speaking, the Spanish Inquisitions have been incorporated into the backstory of "Sorgin" mythology, our fictional universe. The inquisitions put paganism on trial during the spread of Christianity in Western Europe. Although you can find a good deal about the Spanish Inquisitions and witch trials, the specific story we tell in Firebrand is something Jessica and I made up. CA: For the art, there is definitely a strong influence from Spain, the border between Spain and France. It’s definitely a process of trying to piece things together to make a whole universe that isn’t there. It’s quite fun.

Q: It’s evident that Natali Presano is a badass. How important is it to have kickass female protagonists like Natali in comics? Are there any comic characters out there that you drew inspiration from in fleshing her character out?

JC: It’s always been important, and we’ve always tackled the story with Natali being a character with a lot of self-sufficiency. But, with how things stand in the U.S., it feels even more important right now. Not only to have that represented for women and girls, but really for anybody who feels left out from “average society." It’s helpful to have a character that shows, if you are true to yourself, you can utilize your power to get through tough times. You can be admired and I think that is so important to have that in a character right now. EL: Absolutely. When Natali sees a wrong, she wants to right it. She wants to do the right thing. But sometimes what she wants to do butts up against Sorgin law, and causes her to get in trouble. Not that it would ever stop her. Deep down inside, she has what it takes character to do the right thing and stand up for what she believes is fair. CA: We always needed people like Natali in comics - we need to not feel alone. For people who feel alone or have been through things, it is important to have these characters portrayed. We have the opportunity to be someone who makes a difference, so we have to make use of it.

Q: Going back to the artwork, it features a cool contrast between the realism of the human world in Washington that Natali comes from and the more fantastical setting of Eder. Claudia, what went into imagining and designing both settings and what key differences did you want Eder to have to set it apart from the human world?

CA: Well, I tried to make the culture. I sadly couldn’t find much in history before Christianity, so I found out a little of their principles and dialect and some stone monuments that they had. Essentially, I took a little of all of this and tried to make an evolving city of Eder. I tried to stay away from the Stone Age so I could make it a little more medieval. I could Google Map a lot of the places in Seattle, so that made that setting easier to do. But the main expansion for me was to try and make it a bit more magical. I tried to make the magical more blueish and the realistic setting of Seattle more grey.

Q: Were there elements of your own lives that you drew from to go into the story or even into the artwork?

EL: On the story side, I will say that for me, I am from D.C. and grew up in a politically charged environment. A very argumentative atmosphere. The kind of place you either love or hate. Also I am from a divorced family. Some of the characters may have been developed around real people. Also, I understand Natali's need to want to feel accepted for who she is, to be a part of a family that allows her to be herself, because I never felt like I fit in anywhere. JC: I guess for me, it wasn’t too specific besides growing up and being interested in the paranormal and the occult and being the weird girl at school. I was kind of shunned by a lot of the kids growing up, so for me it was a matter of identifying as not part of the group mantra. Also though, as I grow up, realizing that there isn’t anything wrong with me, it is just what I like. So that is what I think I brought to Natali in a little bit of a subconscious way.

Q: The “direct address” to the reader style of narration is a cool device that makes the story feel almost interactive in a way, drawing the reader in and directly questioning them. How did you decide on that and what do you think it brings to the storytelling?

JC: Well, we didn’t start with that in the beginning - we had a traditional approach. But we decided to bring in Natali’s voice, because we wanted to break the fourth wall and feel more invested by having Natali talk more to them. EL: She is sarcastic at times, and very powerful. The real parts of her, like everyone, can be insecure and afraid and we try to really humanize her and let people into the fact that she isn’t necessarily what she puts out to the world. All of those things surrounding Natali, her internal voice, we were hoping to give people an insight into who she truly is.

Q: The series is at times hilarious and at times deals with some pretty dark themes. How do you walk that tricky tightrope in the writing and the tone to maintain that balance?

JC: It is a fine line, especially if you have a younger audience. However, these things really happen, so sugarcoating it isn’t necessarily a great thing to do either. So, drawing on all of the traumatic experiences of Natali’s we really wanted to approach all of them from the best angle we could. We wanted to give the backstory and make it relatable, but not turn off the readership by going overboard. These are all issues kids and families deal with growing up, so we wanted to address them but remain respectful. EL: You can see in the comments on each issue: people talk about things they go through. With Natali specifically, the balance of keeping the comic relief but also the dark tones, the greatest thing was using that inner voice and letting the reader into her head; knowing when she was excited, or feeling sarcastic or funny. We tried to make it palatable. We tried to do moments of light-heartedness, especially during those first few chapters.

Catch up on Firebrand's entire first season before new issues are releasedevery Wednesday over at LINE Webtoon

#Worlds

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