helenaheissner

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Part 2 is up! This week, we talk about Making It Work!

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The first of my essay series “New Girl and the Art of Romcom Writing” is live on substack for free in its entirety!

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things to not dwell on:

people who treated you badly

things you can’t change

comparing yourself to others

things to think about more:

baby animals

people who love u unconditionally

good things in your life that make you happy

days and times to look forward to

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I may be wrong, but I think I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched may have been the beginning of non comic book Urban Fantasy in the US

@ariel-seagull-wings @thealmightyemprex @the-blue-fairie @mask131

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Finished commission: Brush, marker, and printed duoshade on 19x13” vellum Strathmore bristol.

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The world lacks hope. Human beings are clamouring to fill their empty lives with things that will not satisfy. Young people are only after fun that they never have enough.  So much so, they fall into all kinds of temptation and end up being miserable and hopeless. People need to know that Jesus came to bring hope, that He is our hope, and that our hope is a Person. Paul describes Jesus Christ as “our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1) and “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). We have hope because Jesus forgave and reconciled us to God. This hope in Jesus brings contentment that material possessions can never give and brings joy and peace regardless of the circumstances.

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I just know Glinda would be supportive of Ozma and Dorothy's relationship

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The new Wicked movie has been out for about a week, and I'm inspired to make a new Oz model sheet featuring the classic Wicked Witch of the West.

Now, if you know me, I find it disappointing that many Oz adaptations try to copy the Hamilton interpretation of the witch (Wears black, green skin, flies on a broomstick, etc) when the original book offers a far more unique look.

The Wicked Witch of the West in the books was described as having one eye and carrying an umbrella rather than a broom (which makes sense since she would be afraid of water). She's also described to be so dry to the bone that virtually no liquid remains in her body, which is why she melts so easily from water. This gives me the impression that she's virtually a living mummy. The official first illustrations of the Wicked Witch of the West also depict her having some kind of pigtails.

So I loosely follow the book interpretations while adding subtle elements from the MGM movie to tell the audience that this is indeed the Wicked Witch of the West, with her dress and hat being primarily black with yellow highlights (to reflect the Winkies national colors) and having a long face with a greenish tint. It was incredibly difficult getting the right amount of yellow and black without making the witch look silly (yellow is a very bright color that clashes with the classic witch look).

When doing the old eye look, I initially tried an eyepatch on the witch but then realized that it would be more scary and unique if it was an empty eye socket with the surrounding skin having a melted look, a subtle hint that she had experienced water before Dorothy gave the rest of the bath.

My headcanon is that the Wicked Witch's abuse of magic caused her body to shrivel and mummify over the countless centuries of living, and the realization that she is now vulnerable to water caused the witch to become cowardly. She's still threatening, but she is far past her prime and she doesn't anyone else to know about it.

Oh and one little trivia: The quick melting scene sketch is based on Belos melting in the Boiling Rain. Note the shrivel skin melting off of the skull.

Credit to @danguy96 for giving me inspirations during our talks about Wicked.

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Glinda the Good

Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. Not to be confused for Galinda Upland, the Good Witch of the North from Wicked. This Glinda is based on the books, and she is consistently portrayed as a very ancient, powerful, and wise witch. Essentially a goddess in all but name. Nearly every illustration of Glinda from the books depict her as very tall and beautiful, towering over everyone else, especially over Ozma and Dorothy as one Glinda of Oz book cover showed.

Naturally, to design my own take, I set up a few design rules for myself:

1) Make her like a Greek goddess. A stunning stature that would cause everyone fall in love with her. I mainly took inspiration from Palutena from the Kid Icarus series since I wanted to give her a potential mischievous aura to offset any stoic nature of the character. I also took inspiration from the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio to incorporate an otherworldly feel to her (at least compared to Dorothy and Ozma).

2) Use Galinda as a reference of what not to do with my take. The MGM movie infamously depicted Glinda as this bubbly, fairy princess that flies in a bubble and constantly smiles all the time. Galinda from Wicked cements that take and deconstructs that archetype as being insensitive to real issues and clearly being a mask of insecurity. Not to say the character is bad, it's just not how I see Glinda as. Maybe Elphaba and Galinda can be their own characters separated from the originals...

3) Looking at the book's description and motifs related to Glinda. According to the book, Glinda has deep rich red hair, blue eyes, and peachy cheeks with a pure white dress. She is also the ruler of the Quadling Country, whose primary color was Red. Glinda's red hair proved to be useful to make her clothes focus on white and silver colors as I found red to be very distracting unless it's close to Glinda's face, which the red hair excels at. Of course, as a little homage to the MGM movie, I gave her a pair of red ruby slippers underneath her dress. Glinda was also said to travel on a chariot pulled by swans and storks, so I designed Glinda with a bird wing motifs. You may actually notice that her crown has several swans at the front, and her cape is meant evoke wings of a bird.

To capture the mythical, goddess aspect of Glinda, I used the Procreate Symmetry tool to give Glinda's character model a sense of perfection and orderliness to contrast Ozma's more tomboyish approach to being a ruler. The only thing that is not symmetrical is her arms since I need her to hold a wand.

The funny thing about designing Glinda is that she is never actually seen wielding a wand, staff or even scepter in the official illustrations. At best, she has a book in her hand. So all I had to go by was the classic star wand from MGM. But I felt that a star wand would be not be regal enough for Glinda but luckily, I had stumbled upon a flag banner in Santa Barbara during my winter vacation which had a star shape that feels like a star and royalty. I actually debated on whether the wand should be ruby or silver, but I ultimately chose silver with ruby highlights.

Next up on my Oz takes will be the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the East. Hopefully, I'll be able to redesign Mombi yet again to fit with these witch designs.

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Definitely what that means, yes yes.

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Book of the Day: Swift & Saddled

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consuming mass amounts of media related to my hyperfixation isnt enough i need to eat it

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Black Canary: Best of the Best #4 (DC, February 2025) cover by Ryan Sook

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Open up your Bible and you’ll never find a scripture that instructs you to feel guilty. Repentance for what you did is one thing, but guilt is a whole other thing. There’s a huge difference between feeling convicted by God and feeling condemned by the devil.