just-jae

[just-jae]

Hi there!

I've been meaning to reach out to say how much I adore your space cadet girl. Anytime it pops up in my feed, I hit that heart button. With that said, I wanted to know if you have any prints for sale, and additionally, are you open to people getting tattoos of your work? Like I said, I adore her, and she reminds me of a poem my parents had hanging in my room as a kid. So sweet. Anyway, please let me know if and where prints might be available for purchase. Take care.

Wow this is amazingly sweet, thank you so much!! I'm so curious what the poem was; if you can remember it, and are comfortable with sharing it, please send it my way!

I'm cool with people getting tattoos of my work (incredibly honored, I'd just wanna be able to see it). I only have one Cadet print up, but I might be able to get some more up if I can find some of my old files.

Thank you so, so, so much for this message! Here's a lil Cadet, just for you!

[just-jae]

So I'm Not even 1/2 way through LOST, and uh...

I find it strange how this show handles characters and stereotypes.

This show explores the backstories, personalities, and motives of the passengers of a sus plane crash, but now that the cast is expanding I've noticed a certain pattern becoming even more explicit in that they play off of racial stereotype all OVER the place but it still feels tasteful. Kind of?

They're on a thin line with it. Here's why.

On one hand, there are a lot of stereotypes in this movie, nearly everyone's base personality is a racial stereotype, from coldhearted white American doctor to, junky rock-band bloke, to "crazy" Hispanic, but they also explore these stereotypes in a way that de-stereotypes it.

There were several times when the way a scene was shot just made me go "Wait, hold on this feels kinda..." but then the actual story continues and that note just gets tacked for later :,D This is that note.

Bc while stereotypes are oversimplifications and generalizations, in LOST they explore each one with such nuance, going into how complex the life of someone with these face value traits can be, and all the experiences that shape them into the person they are.

On top of that they add nuance to the stereotype as well, not just the backstory.

So, the Urban deadbeat black dad, isn't JUST a guy who knows nothing about his kid, he's also authoritarian, and protective, can sometimes butt into business that's not his own. He's also a construction worker who wanted to be an artist. And his underdeveloped relationship with his kid wasn't even a situation he chose and its bc he lacked that control before that he's over controlling now.

The Korean husband who's overcontrolling of his wife, who seems submissive is a couple who had a healthy relationship before with a rather atypical matchup (Rich wife, poor husband). The wife is quiet because she's hiding a secret, the husband exhibiting habits forced into him by a company who held their marriage hostage. They actually love eachother and actually wanted to be together-- One of them can't speak english, the other's pretending not to be able to, and the result isn't just that they aren't involved in group conversations, they're also socially isolated. They literally don't know what's going on in the begining, and the inability to communicate leads to both awkward interactions and hostile misunderstandings.

Even the spoiled rich grown kids stereotype is explored where, this bratty vain woman, not only has asthma that she hides from everyone, but has other skills, she's actually really insecure about being considered useless despite her earlier laziness, and in her backstory you see that not only was she a ballet instructor who'd earned a scholarship, but was suddenly financially cut off by her step mother after her father died. And after that she learned to charm favors out of people, bc she quite literally had nothing but her good looks.

I don't care how spoiled your kid is, if you didn't teach them any skills, it's your fault as the parent that they don't have any. If they've always had access to your money, of course they're going to keep buying things expecting your money to be there. And if you're going to cut them off. I don't know, maybe tell them first? So they can work on getting on their feet before being at risk of becoming a prostitute?

As the show goes on, even though it's only been a month and a half. That spoiled bratty Woman-child actually feels like an adult woman, yet it still feels completely in character for her to be that way, specifically because they let the character change in response to their experiances without abandoning their personality completely.

She's not super attached and overly loving of Vincent (The dog that she just calls "the dog") but she still takes actual responsibility for him, is basically a Karen to herself: "I can't tell that kid I lost his dog because I was exhausted", goes looking when she looses him, waters and pets him. etc. At the start of the show she couldn't even be bothered to help de-rubble the beach.

The only character who still feels a bit shallow, is the arabic veteran and former interrogator mostly bc very little of his backstory translates into his current struggles and his personality itself isn't very complex or nuanced. Most of the time he feels like a sex icon if imma be honest. He's there to be the sexy versatile soldier guy.

Even he isn't a bad character, like. There's nothing unpleasant or awkward about his presence on-screen, he just has the least developed character.

Also, the fact that Rose has lasted this long when she's literally just an old sweet lady is amazing to me. Like no particularly special skills, not a very attention-grabbing personality, she's not even mysterious. But I still love her. And her husband on the otherside of the world is like-- it's like the good version of old married couple. Couple goals right there, and I don't even know if they ever see each other again yet.

[just-jae]

Another watercolor foray : )

[just-jae]

rainbow serpent

[just-jae]

The Quiet Misogyny of OC Artists [commentary/study]

This is a fantastic video wherein data is gathered on gender favoritism and bias in creators against women characters.

Not only did I find the results surprising and disappointing it also helped me reflect on my own work. 

As a reminder, this video essay and interpretation of it’s data have nothing to do with judging people as people (whether they’re good or bad or actively hate women etc) rather it’s about creativity bias.

Mind you, I’m a black, androgenous woman myself who has also struggled with internalized racism and sexism. and I KNOW I struggle with it. When I was younger I grew up around mostly white peers and much of the media I watched centered white male characters (and if they weren’t canonically white, me being a preteen in 2010′s America, definitely interpreted them as white. I vividly remember the moment I realized many anime characters were meant to be assumed as japanese but didn’t do out of their way to “look” japanese bc japanese was already the assumption.

Consequentially when creating characters, most of them where white (if not white coded) or male even if the stories themselves featured a female protagonist. When I did make black or female characters I was only doing so for diversity, as in, I’d notice that all of my characters were white or male and go “Oh let me sprinkle in some who are different.” as an after thought.

The first black character I’d ever created was an antagonist, and a literal other. It was a society of people with bird wings, and this one black character was an outsider, had dragon’s wings and was a political enemy warrior who hated rules and refused to wear a shirt.

Mind you this could be a very well thought out character, but I was like, 12. It was NOT thought out or tasteful.

I actively struggle to see a woman or a minority character as having potential, depth, nuace, or even diverse possibilities.  I was disinterested in women characters specifically bc it felt like they couldn’t have depth. I had been conditioned to define being a woman (or a girl) as a very specific kind of character. Meanwhile it felt like I could do literally anything I wanted to with men characters. And as someone who already didn’t find appeal in femenine culture as a person irl, It pained me to have to write or drawa a “woman” bc it felt like I had to write or draw things I already hated being around and didn’t find interesting at all (grew up with a lot of toxic femininity and misogyny)

I absolutely love this video bc from what I understand, a lot of the artists online ARE women, girls, and minorities. And it’s so interesting to see actual proof of this phenomenon.

Mind you, many new shows in the past decade have been much better at having rounded and nuanced feminine characters (and usually the story is also VERY queer).  LoL: Arcane absolutely blew complex the concept of diverse, nuanced, complex and interesting female characters out of the water. 

And honestly the frustration expressed in this are the very frustrations I’ve grown up with when I saw women in media or “genderbends” where people would take a character and make them a different gender by changing things that have nothing to do with gender.

So yes I have been literally forcing myself to write more women and non-white characters, but specifically writing them the same way I write men. And honestly I’m finally starting to actually love my femnine characters more for it. And bc of that femeninity itself and the parts that I actually like and find interesting also get to breathe instead of being shackled to and strangled by that horrid mangle of toxic femininity and misogeny that I associated it with for so long.

[just-jae]

I don't think Eddie likes working in the snow.

[just-jae]

[just-jae]

[just-jae]

[just-jae]

ive always had this hang up that i have to keep everything i want to turn into a commercial project super secret and professional and never make personal comics or doodles about them, so seeing how you've approached idwtbamg and how people respond to it really fills me with inspiration! maybe the line between silly little OC and real project doesnt have to be so distinct, huh.

definitely doesn't have to be that way at all~ until you sign with a studio and they (maybe) tell you that you can't do that for spoiler or marketing reasons, you're free!

ian jq has a nice little thread about this

[just-jae]

I need everyone to see these cute metal cacti and armadillo I bought from a local business out nearby one of our state parks.

[just-jae]

Aika outfits

[just-jae]

Miss outfits

[just-jae]

Zira outfits

[just-jae]

LOOK AT HIM!

Oops I forgot to be posting in public. I’m not sorry and it will happen again :’)

Thanks @just-jae for the commission!!

[just-jae]