#(so less extreme foreshortening but still definitely In Perspective)

[pioneer-over-c]

Draw Everything June day 19. The Dream Team on Nar Shaddaa

[riftp]

Read It For the Pictures 38: Avatar: Tsu’Tey’s Path by Duursema, Smith, Dzobia, and Parson

NK: Welcome to Read It For the Pictures, the comic book blog where we read it for the pictures! So, Dave Clarke, may I ask you what you were up to in 2009?

DC: I was at home watching television, so no I don't have any witnesses who can confirm that. And on that television I was seeing ads for James Cameron's Avatar. I didn't see it in a cinema, though; it would take another year or so for me to watch a DVD copy on the crappy little tv in my dorm.

NK: I.e. not in 3D, its big selling point

DC: Yeah, I didn't really get the appeal when I watched it. But in the spirit of the looking back 10 years and comparing the exciting, brimming with potential world of 2009 to the bloated and depressed pointlessness of 2019, we're reviewing an Avatar comic that came out this week.

NK: Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path #1 is a prequel comic written by Sherri L. Smith and illustrated by Jan Duursema with inks by Dan Parson and coloring by Wez Dzioba. It tells the story of Tsu'tey, the native heroine's betrothed who, following the "Pocahontas in Space" script, is just there to get cucked and get killed, so it's not like he's a complex and memorable character whose rich backstory we're worried about contradicting.

( Also, while I hate the regressive misogynist types who use the word, I really like saying "Cuck" because it's a funny sound. Cuck cuck cuck cuck cuck )

DC: Yes, Ive been hounded all week by Neil wanting to review the cuck comic. The year of the orc is over, long live the year of the cuck

NK: I was skeptical about this because the only other comic I've read drawn by artist Jan Duursema was a Wolverine "Prestige Format" one-shot in a fantasy AU Fortunately she's done a lot more than just ridiculously jacked grumpypusses in her long career.

DC: And how do you think this held up.

NK: About as well as it could've in a dimly lit forest with entirely half-naked blue cat people. So definitely points for accuracy.

DC: Yeah folks, not much to talk about in this one were you wondering what the blue aliens were doing prior to humans showing up? Pretty much just hunting and stuff

NK: Did you have trouble telling the characters apart?

DC: One was a woman

Pictured: a distinct and memorable cast of characters

 NK: There was some impressive facial work in this comic in the scenes where characters got to emote beyond being stoic. It is worth noting that Avatar's Pandora is a beautifully designed world with some extremely impressive creatures. The trees are impressively organic and create a nice environment

DC: Neil was always a better diplomat than I. The biggest hint, to me at least, that this wasn’t a passion project was that even the action scenes seem to have no attempt at foreshortening. (foreshortening is when you draw a long object, like an arm or leg, distorted in such a way to look like it's coming towards the viewer, creating the illusion of depth)

NK: A lot of these are fairly stock superheroey poses too.

DC: The mighty marvel method allowed Jack Kirby to infuse page with a dynamic and spontaneous energy and also allowed people to easily crank out tie-in comics to 10 year old movies no one cares about. A few action poses, a few meaningful looks in a conversation scene, fit the words around them

NK: Computer coloring only goes so far to enhance this, comics haven't benefitted from technology to compensate for flat story as well as movies or games

DC: Come to think of it this probably went through several layers of approval from the IP owners. I wonder who has the job of making sure that the clothing the na'vi wear across multimedia is consistent.

NK: I would've preferred they gone with a radically stylized look to showcase the Na'vi's movements being far more fluid and flexible than humans'. For example, a Ted McKeever Avatar

DC: Michael Fiffe's Bloodstrike: Brutalists which we reviewed a while back is the good version of this decade out of date revival done right.

NK: Yes, that is a much better way to revitalize a long dead franchise the world's long since forgotten

DC: I wonder if any of the kids who saw avatar at a formative age are old enough to be nostalgic for it while the Na'vi go through a Shrek style ironic revival?

NK: In theory I like the idea of telling the story of the Na'vi, a mash-up of indigenous cultures through the lens of a rich white guy's philanthropy, from the perspective of the actual natives

DC: Weirdly this comic, by mostly just being the natives fucking around doing their own thing, has less weird politics than the film, where the white outsider was the hero in a story about pushing back the colonizers

NK: Avatar is really a form of colonialism that, having exhausted the natural resources and human labor it brutally stole from the rest of the world, shows it sympathy it can sell in the form of a #NotAllWhities adventure.. The bar is so low for larger sociocultural consciousness in Hollywood films that it almost seems woke compared to, say, the Transformers movies At least this comic gives Tsu'tey another note or two to his personality beyond "Cranky Cuck".

DC: What note was that? I mean, I know what it was, I’m asking for the readers. Obviously.

NK: That he's still mourning the death of his true beloved, Ney'tiri's sister, and he's stepping up to roles set before him.

DC: Let this be an PSA to fellow content producers: reviewing an Avatar comic in 2019 is not the easy comedy goldmine it may seem at first glance. That said, are you excited for Avatar 2: the search for Na'vi's gold?

NK: If you'll excuse me, I gotta go fast to catch a ship that sailed years ago.

DC: At least spending $4 on a comic for ironic nostalgia is cheaper than spending $20 on a movie ticket. Anyway, happy new year everyone, we promise* to have more regular reviews this year

*not legally binding

[feed-our-souls-too]

Art, Faith, Film (Part 3)

This is post 3 of 3 from a friend and fellow artist (find her Instagram here). She took a class on faith and film and we both found that the journalling and conversations that resulted from it were thought-provoking and, as such, worth sharing here. ~Julie (The Hopeful Raincoat)

Entry 6

When It released in theaters in 2017, a friend had free tickets and wanted me to come along, feeling bad for leaving me behind while she goes to the movies. We almost struck a deal that if I went we would go to the Puyallup Fair and try out the carnival rides (terrifying for her, exhilarating for me). It fell through, much to my relief. I have almost absolutely avoided horror movies, not seeing how it could be entertaining or valuable for me to watch based on descriptions others gave me. For me, horror movies definitely developed an association of excessive blood and disfigurement presented in grotesque ways.

I have discussed why horror is attractive with people who watch them, trying to understand the reasoning. I remember one girl saying that she liked the community aspect of watching a horror movie – she could laugh at other people who screamed. To me, that seems like expressing dominance or strength over someone else due to her numbness to the imagery. I have heard other people find comfort in knowing life could be worse. To be fair, people often walk away from the theatre wishing they could live in an alternate reality incorporating dragons, space ships, or even a perfect romance. People walking out of a horror film typically do not want to incorporate aspects of what they just watched into their lives. However, receiving an adrenaline rush during a torture scene like the moviegoer mentioned in Through a Screen Darkly is a counter to this statement, and definitely a reason for concern.

I am open to the possibility of a horror movie having constructive points and reason for their development besides experiencing a scare factor and laughing at our friends, but I have definitely felt that the same ideas could be expressed in a manner that is less extreme or abhorrent. Is it necessary to make the horrific features that extreme to make a point? Thinking on this, it seems that dulling the edge of a horror movie to make it easier to view might be similar to diminishing the dynamic quality of a composition used to emphasize the emotive quality of an image. There are reasons artists use the most extreme image possible to make a point. Overstreet mentions seeing a billboard for an anti-smoking campaign, with an image of lungs that have been exposed to the effects of smoking for a long period of time – it's not pleasant at all, and that’s the goal. It is designed to expose the dangers of smoking, and make it look unappealing. Nobody wants to look at it, but it sends an important message. Imagine if the smoking campaign poster displayed a lung only half as deteriorated. Or worse, if it had simply said, keep your lungs healthy with an image of top-notch lungs, the message would not have been received.

Artists must navigate this plane of intense communication in simple ways, such as using foreshortened perspective to enhance the drama of an image, or in some cases, to expose some parts of our lives that might not be so pleasant through a horror medium. Overstreet sees the works of Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and an interesting turn from horror, Marvel’s Dr. Strange) as examples of how horror has been used in a contemplative way.

That being said, I still do not see myself becoming a connoisseur of horror anytime soon. Please remember, these are just my musings on a reading on horror film…

 Entry 7

In the conclusion of Through a Screen Darkly, I loved reading about the ways that movies can give a new appreciation for mundane things. Certainly, film can remind us not to take these items for granted, and maybe even remind us of a lesson along the way. It almost sounds too easy for film watching be a learning experience (it seems like these are experiences we should make on our own, which is impossible in many cases), but it can also be a healing experience, and the associations we make outside of the film are beneficial

Overstreet states, “The more I spend time with the work of artists and filmmakers who are similarly patient and attentive to the visual poetry of faces, light, nature, and revelatory details, the less I’m satisfied with noisy, frantic entertainment that shows no care for aesthetics.” This applies to games, too. More game producers are realizing that staking the quality of a game on fancy graphics leads to it falling flat and being uninteresting within five years, as technology improves. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might have taken a risk with its art direction (I love that a big franchise was willing to take the risk), but the aesthetic combined with ambient music allows players to feel at ease simply exploring Hyrule on horseback, not even pursuing the narrative. It’s a curious thing to play a game just to discover and wander. What exactly are players discovering?

To me, this statement about attentiveness related to developing a craft or art skill. In order to find achievement in an art form, you have to pay attention to what may feel like the drudgery of art making. In my case, that includes studying nuances of reflected light, interrelationships of color, anatomy, and even the chemistry of pigment.  I have often heard experienced artists, even in the world of concept art, say that if you cannot withstand this process, or even enjoy it, reconsider pursuing an art career.  Initially, I had to simply try to maintain an optimistic attitude while drawing white spheres or doing master studies. However, I find that the more time I take to simply sit and draw or paint from observation, it becomes less of a necessary task, and more of a discovery.

There will always be noisy frantic art that has no trouble at all drawing attention. Perhaps even more frustrating than taking time to develop technique, is watching another artist casually ignore art principles (yes, there is a place for this, but with reason), produce prolifically, and praise falls down on their shoulders. I have to pause and remind myself that I want to rise above the mediocrity of fast art that comes and goes, even if it is a slow arduous process that does not feel successful to the greater world, and may only appeal to a small audience. Art with permanence has been refined by the “visual poetry of faces, light, nature, and revelatory details…”