#I Struggled with palette so I’m posting to commit to it

[kingcael]

all in the eyes of a boy

[haleigh-sloth]

An art analysis nobody asked for:

No thoughts, just...

This picture lives in my head rent free right now. I already made a post with this picture in it but I wanted to make another and explain why this makes me so happy. 

As an artist, my favorite thing about reading manga is that you get the narration along with the VISUAL representation of the narration. To me, manga, comics, stories told in this format are the most enjoyable because there isn’t much left to the imagination as far as visuals, but there is a lot left up to interpretation. You can interpret the facial expressions, statements, shading, body poses, everything in a manga panel the way you feel fits the story, but you don’t have to struggle to imagine what a character looks like or what action they are making like you would with a book. (Reading is great don’t get me wrong, I’m just expressing my reasons for loving manga so much)

All manga series come with art pieces that don’t occur within the story. This can include separate prints, official merch, and even volume covers!. These pictures don’t exist within the actual story, but instead exist to give off impressions, get fans hyped up, and sometimes foreshadow future events. But official art pieces very rarely, if ever, spoil major events for the story. 

Now seeing this picture makes me SO HAPPY because it’s truly the start of a turning point in the story. Last chapter was a big deal. Midoriya has a new goal to work toward. And while I did think it would take a little longer to reach the story’s final arc/act/whatever you wanna call it, I’m not dissatisfied with the fact that it’s being dove straight into. I am an impatient woman, so I am pleased (Although I am worried about story-telling quality suffering a bit? But I think Hori knows what he is doing for the most part-I believe in him). Anyway, I just want to examine some past official art pieces/volume covers that have corresponded with certain points in the story as it came out, so as not to spoil anything.

If saving Shigaraki was Horikoshi’s plan all along, he could have been putting out art to indicate as much, but spoilers! Instead, we got pieces like this:

This is a DVD cover I believe. But it corresponds with a big moment in the story. Reminding us of a terrible crime he and the league committed (kidnapping), emphasizing his villainy (and our other two important villains). 

We have several volume covers that don’t paint him in the best light, but instead emphasize negative characteristics:

These emphasize him as an enemy. We don’t even see his whole face, just his red eye. (red is usually associated with evil!)

Then we get a little more personal with Shigaraki, and by personal I mean we see his face:

In this one he’s underneath. Still framed as “bad”, “evil”, “lurking beneath, plotting something”.

This one, in my opinion, is very light hearted in a way. It shows the LOV, together just...hanging out, being themselves. But The events that take place in this volume aren’t light hearted...at all...lol This cover corresponds with a turning point in the story. A dark turning point at that.

This has got to be my favorite. Yum. Seriously though, this is clearly a depiction of him mentally spiraling. It corresponds with him uncovering his traumatic memories. This cover doesn’t have a positive connotation to it. But again, we’re getting more personal with our main antagonist. 

In my opinion, this is where I saw a bit of hope in the art:

Look, Shigaraki clearly looks like an enemy here. I get that. But there are a couple of things here to be noted:

The coloring style for this picture is different for a reason. Both are painted in different color palettes than we’re used to. Orange and pink don’t indicate good OR bad, for either side. Deku’s hand being held out is very telling. Now I remember when this piece came out, I don’t remember exactly which chapter it was released with, but it gave me ominous vibes. I’m sure to most, it was a typical “hero vs. villain” image. To me, it was the beginning of the change in dynamic. Standing back to back is a pose you usually see with partnerships--positive ones. Two characters standing back to back to show solidarity. That, coupled with Deku reaching out, gave me a positive feeling for the story, even if the chapter at the time wasn’t OBVIOUSLY reflecting it, like it was last week. 

But now we have this new piece. There’s no facing off against each other, there’s no fighting, they’re not even looking at each other, but they’re still connected because of what they’re holding in their hands, and their matching positions. (NO--THIS IS NOT ME CONDONING THE DFO THEORY DON’T EVEN START). Deku’s future is going to involve AFO. He’s going to have to fight him (I assume right now with aid from Shigaraki). I’m not looking into Deku holding his picture any further than that. Now Shigaraki holding a picture of All Might is painful and sad, but also sweet, and hopeful. 

It’s so sad because...well..All Might should have saved Shigaraki, a long time ago. But he didn’t. Shigaraki HATES All Might, we know this. Before he found his TRUE conviction (destroying everything and starting over) his initial goal was to just straight up kill him. However, the sad part about this is I believe Shigaraki hates All Might because deep down, this whole time, he was subconsciously hoping and wishing All Might would come save him. I’ve been thinking about that for a long time now, because on more than one occasion, EARLY in the manga, Shigaraki had taken notice of Midoriya also:

I mean at first glance this can be taken as villainous. “I need to learn more about him so I can defeat him”. But to me, from the GET GO, this was always just sad. His first encounter with Midoriya he immediately got All Might vibes from him, which brings me back to Shigaraki truly wishing AM had saved him long ago. To me in this panel looking at baby All Might, he’s still wishing and hoping that he’ll somehow get saved-deep, DEEP down (like so deep down he isn’t even aware of this desire to be helped).

Bringing it back to the color spread...it’s sweet and hopeful because even though it isn’t AM doing the saving, Shigaraki has been noticed by All Might’s legacy, finally, and help is on the way. **also peep how Shigaraki’s pinky is lifted, so as not to crumble the picture :,)** I really REALLY love this new piece because it’s the first one of Midoriya and Shigaraki (my favorite character) where there isn’t violence or fighting, but a taste of the hopeful ending we’re heading toward.

[slaughterverse]

Wanted to infodump about the symbolism of Array of Cicadas more so I’m making a separate post.

Symbolism plays a big part of my art, even if a lot of my designs are more simplistic. However, Nora is a very symbolic character, her role in the story is one that represents great change, transmutation. The main theme of Array of Cicadas is change and transformation. My main influence stems from being trans and having to deal with the consequences of change.

Nothing stays the same forever, sometimes you become someone new, sometimes the people you love exit your life. Ultimately, that’s what AoC is about The cicada itself, is a symbol of transformation and change.

Akira is a character who is going through a lot of hardships at the start of the story. She’s dealing with grief and she’s struggling with connecting to her family and people around her. In this sense, Akira is me, she’s my struggles and my pain, but she’s also my hope.

Devan is the change in Akira’s life, he’s the positive change. He represents all my friends and also a piece of myself I lost a long time ago. He’s also one of the younger characters in AoC, which is to say, he’s the future. Akira might be the protagonist, but really the thing that helps her the most, is helping Devan grow into the real hero.

Colors play a big part in AoC also, there’s two colors in particular that I use in almost all the designs. Red is the most common color in all of my art, red and black are the colors of the Izebellian Emperor, they’re also the colors of the Machine God. Red is the primary color in Akira’s design. It represents a lot of things for me, but the primary meaning in AoC is pain. Pain that someone is feeling, pain that is inflicted on others. Of course, it also sticks with it’s usual theme of anger.

Akira’s anger is more subtle, it’s in her fighting and in her mannerisms. It’s an anger that’s hard to direct at anyone because it stems from her struggles and grief. Her pain is similar, it’s mostly pain that can’t go away, it’s prominent in her design because it’s something she has to live with. Grief especially isn’t something that goes away. Her story is more focused on how to live with that pain more than it is to get rid of it.

Leo’s red is more subtle in his design. He has lots of other colors and is less monochromatic than most of the main cast. Leo’s had it pretty good, his family always lived comfortably and he didn’t have too many hardships. His anger and his pain are both for his friends. Leo is very empathetic, he takes on a lot of the pain that Caz and Devan aren’t able to deal with. Leo is an adult, while Caz and Devan are both kids, he feels the responsibility to take care of them.

Izebel’s red is simple, she was created from anger, like, almost literally. She’s been forced to shoulder the burden of Circe’s rage since she was born. Her own pain is buried deep under mounds of denial, she doesn’t want to face things that are hurting her so she lashes out at others instead. Izebel doesn’t get a confrontation until much later on, so her story is focused more on her antagonist role than anything.

Vonstantine only has a little bit of red in her design, most of the colors in her palette are cool colors, contrasted only by one article of clothing. Which is, literally, not a part of her. She doesn’t have any reason to be as angry as she is, her actions aren’t justified. Vonstantine isn’t quote unquote “irredeemable”, she’s just spoiled. She’s used to getting things her way and she’s mad that things aren’t working out for her. She represents pretty much everything all the other antagonists aren’t. She wants power and pretty much doesn’t care about anything else. She was raised with legends about her ancestors and created a false image of Karma in her mind that she aspired to be like. She’s honestly one of the most two dimensional characters I’ve ever made. Which is on purpose of course, although a big theme of AoC is change and redemption, I also wanted to acknowledge that some people don’t change and stick to one mindset their whole lives.

Karma’s red is [REDACTED]... a uh, major plot point. I can’t really go into detail about it.

Teal is the other most prominent color. The main color palette of AoC is plum, teal, yellow, and lavender. (Like just look at my theme over on @noxsylvania if you wanna see the EXACT colors I always use) Each of them have their own meaning. They’re associated with four things that will come up a lot in the lore of AoC. Teal is The Cicada, Lavender is The Sky, Plum is The Chasm, and Yellow is The Eyes.

Teal, the color of The Cicada, has the same meaning as the cicada itself, change and transformation. It also represents growth.

Devan is like Akira design wise, pretty monochromatic. His teal is of course representative of his role as a force of change in Akira’s life, but also represents his growth and the change he goes through throughout the story.

Vonstantine’s teal actually represents... negative change. She’s going to get worse ON PURPOSE. For her, it’s more of a desire for change, but because of the kind of person she is, it’s unlikely she’d actually accept the change that she needs to make.

Caz is like Leo in that she’s much more colorful. The teal in her design is more of an accent than a prominent color in her design. For Caz, this color represents her growth and recovery from her grief.

Yellow represents power. It mostly comes in the form of gold. It accents a good amount of characters designs. Like Akira and Vonstantine. Only a few characters have it as a prominent part of their design.

Leo has a lot of yellow in his design that’s more representative of his... i don’t know a better way to phrase it other than “political” or social power. Leo as a member of the Lenoir family, holds a lot of high status. However, it’s not resemble as gold on his design because Leo is VERY humble, it’s more of just something that is a part of his life and he’s more casual about it.

Azar’s design is completely yellow and other warm colors. He’s basically a physical manifestation of power and cool magic shit. He’s the spirit of a warrior that lived like 300 years ago and lives inside a super magical ass sword. Him representing power should be self explanatory.

Lavender represents peace and Plum represents death. There’s not any characters with lavender in their design that show up before Cryptadia, so I’ll skip over it. Plum is an undertone in Akira’s design as well as Karma’s (temporarily).

For Akira, it directly and 100% represents Takara’s death. For Karma, it’s representative of fucking... all the regicide she’s committed. I mean, she’s called the Regicidal Regent. It’s kinda her thing. However, as I mentioned, for Karma it’s temporary, the cloak she wears throughout the story is ditched the second you face off against her during her boss fight. This represents a few things.

Every single Gjalleon wears a hood or something else that obscures their face. This doesn’t always have a deep meaning and is just a fun thing about their character design. Devan’s hood has the most symbolic significance. Devan doesn’t like being a Gjalleon and tends to hide this fact from everyone, the Gjalleon’s descend from the Dragon God, Gjalleon as well as Karma, who was SUPER infamous because she [REDACTED]. As a result of [REDACTED], the Gjalleon’s became pretty hated by most people. Vonstantine used this to make people respect her through fear. Devan could care less about the Gjalleon family and hasn’t even MET anyone else in the Gjalleon family besides his dad. So he wears a hood to hide his obviously Gjalleon features and only goes by his mother’s surname. His hoodie is ALSO his comfort jacket!!! VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL!! The hood doesn’t symbolize much for Vonstantine other than it being the soul source of red in her design, when she takes it off to fight Devan, it’s her removing her visage, that her anger everything else was just a lie to get what she wanted. For Karma, it’s the soul source of plum in her design, it basically represents malice. Removing it symbolizes that she has no malicious intent towards the gang, mainly because she sees them all as children.

Most other colors I use follow pretty normal symbolism and not every character with these colors has it in their design for a specific reason. For Morah, red just looks good on her.

Anyways if anyone wants, I will go into the symbolism of the Cryptadia cast also.

[hopeshoodie]

hey i asked if you had any talia hcs a while ago but tumblr was eating all my asks around that time so idk if you did get it just ignore this i don’t mean to be pushy

Oh work! U rite, I didn’t see that ask (because I love any opportunity to talk about my lovely wife and would immediately jump on that one).

She’s an amazing cook of specific recipes, but generally can’t cook unless she’s following a recipe or knows it by heart. If she’s trying to follow a new recipe it’ll take her 2 hours to finish because she has to stop and re-read it, and then figure out what’s happening. But the 1 or 2 dishes her mom taught her to cook? When you try them they taste like coming home.

She smells like slightly musky jasmine perfume 😍😍😍

She doesn’t buy a whole lot of clothes/makeup, and will use them until they run out. And that’s on what? Her nasty 8-year-old eyeshadow palette that she’s re-pressed after it cracked multiple times But also shopping with her is MISERABLE because she’ll try on 100 things, like 1 or 2, and then decide not to buy them because she doesn’t love it. She’s big on staple pieces and rewears the same 10 outfits day to day (but obviously has stuff to dress up in for date nights) 

We should’ve gotten to do the heartrate challenge with her because she is a BLUSHY BITCH. She doesn’t know how to handle compliments other than throwing them back and gets flushed really easily.

She doesn’t like mint toothpaste and used to use kid’s bubblegum flavor until she found an adult strawberry flavor to buy. If she doesn’t have non-mint toothpaste, she won’t brush her teeth and will feel super gross about it.

She really ~wants~ to like classical music, but just doesn’t have the knowledge base/ability to get into it. She’ll always agree to go watch orchestras and tries to put it on while driving, but she’s never as interested in listening to it as she wants to be. 

It’s probably just me projecting but I think she struggled with depression from 15-20 and still has to work at recovery. She has a lot more good days now that she’s out of school, but still struggles sometimes.

Her Instagram is trash. She hardly ever updates it, and when she does post ootd or a selfie they get a TON of likes and comments. People come to her page because she’s super hot, and they run into those ‘aesthetic photos with a quote in cursive overlaid’ and have to scroll just to find another picture of her. She never likes/comments on other peoples posts.

Loves the tattooed aesthetic but is afraid to get really heavily tattooed herself. Part of it is that she lowkey doesn’t like the style of the tattoos she got when she was younger, and part of it is that she still worries she won’t be as sexy with lots of work. But she’s definitely into inked girls. 

Her ouid tolerance is absolutely nothing. She takes a few drags and gets super giggly. I’m pretty sure if anyone gave her an edible she’d astral project and never come back.

Hates public speaking. Hates it with a passion. She gets really flustered and confused and apologizes a lot. 

This bitch leaves moisturizer everywhere in the goddamn house. Different scents, different types, but it’s literally somewhere in every room. Same with chapstick. She’s got car body lotion and office body lotion and bedroom body lotion and it’s honestly just getting out of hand at this point. BUT! She’s easy to buy gifts for at least....

She LOVES budgeting but is really embarrassed about it. She’s pretty secretive about it, and won’t obviously say “sorry that’s out of my budget”, preferring instead to quietly find an excuse or other way. The satisfaction of identifying how much comes in and what needs to go out is 10/10 for her. If MC needs financial advise she’ll be really excited to break it all down and look at the numbers. 

Building off of that, one of her favorite things to do is calculate what monthly mortgage payment would be the absolute stretch for her (though realistically she’d never feel comfortable committing to more than 25% of her income) and then search online for homes that match that. In another life she’d be an estate agent. 

Curly hair is NOT a joke to her- she’s very passionate about the ‘do NOT brush it out’ and ‘scrunch it’ and ‘cover it with a silk cap/tshirt’ system.

She loved hopscotch as a kid and create super long, intricate scotches (idk what to call them lmao). As an adult, if she sees one she will ALWAYS do it, and she gets really excited about it. If you’re walking and she sees one, she will cross the street just to do it.

She’s really into visual art (which is one of the reasons she was so into my S1 MC) and adores museum dates. She loves standing in front of a painting for 30 minutes just staring, then looking up history about it and interpretations on her phone.

Not to talk too much about my MCs, but S1 Clara is a stone cold slytherin bitch who takes no shit and is not nice to people she doesn’t know. She’s super intimidating (purposefully so), but Talia is really warm and approachable. I love their high femme ‘really friendlyXstoic and mean’ dynamic so much. 

[aion-rsa]

How the Cyberpunk 2077 Soundtrack Found Its Dystopian Sound in a Soviet-Era Synthesizer

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CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the the biggest video game release of 2020, transporting players to a gritty sci-fi world full of bio-augmented criminals and lowlives. True to its name, the game explores some pretty deep concepts about cyberspace and what life might be like in a futuristic transhuman society where technological advancements have turned us less human and more machine. So it’s no surprise that the game’s score often sounds like something recovered from the year 2077 and brought back to our time. At its very best, the soundtrack elevates this grim dystopia.

In the wake of Cyberpunk 2077‘s massive launch, Den of Geek spoke with the trio of composers behind the game’s score: Marcin Przybylowicz (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), P.T. Adamczyk (Gwent: The Witcher Card Game), and Paul Leonard-Morgan (Dredd). The three composers discussed the soundtrack’s conception and revealed the unconventional methods they used to create the score’s unique, ominous sound.

The Cyberpunk 2077 Original Score, which contains two discs-worth of the game’s enormous pool of music, is available now to buy and stream. As players have discovered in the week since the game’s launch, the score isn’t exactly the pulsating, adrenaline-fueled synth barrage some might be expecting from a cyberpunk title. It’s largely ambient, with ominous layers of otherworldly bass bellows, tribal beats that sound both futuristic and primal, and melancholic wades through placid synth soundscapes. There are definitely bangers on the tracklist, but what stands out is that many of the pieces almost feel introspective. 

“You’re dealing with a complex story, and there’s [a vast] number of characters in Cyberpunk,” Adamczyk explains. “Finding a theme or an idea or a motif and being confident in it…that’s really difficult because there are so many different things happening in the story, and you could score it a thousand different ways. And they all would be good enough. But the question remains, ‘What is the essence?’”

Przybylowicz was the first of the three composers to start work on the score for Cyberpunk 2077 very early in the game’s production. In laying the foundations for what the game’s music would sound like (the elusive “essence” Adamczyk speaks of), he set out to create something unique, though he was also committed to honoring the source material that the game is steeped in.

“We were trying to find out how our take on Cyberpunk would differ from other bits of culture,” says Marcin of the initial creative process. “We must never forget that our game is not a game that is simply set in a yberpunk universe. Our game is Cyberpunk 2077, which means that it’s based on a very well described and very lore-heavy, already existing universe, Cyberpunk 2020 by Mike Pondsmith. So that means there is a ton of source material, tons of creative work that has already been done before. So we needed to reach out to these books and see if we could pinpoint anything that would remain useful for us after we move the events from 2020 to 2077. Then we started to formulate how that would translate to the game’s sonic palette.”

The original tabletop game paints a picture of an alternate future in which corruption reigns and oppressive megacorporations wage war on each other, as the denizens of gang-infested, urban sprawls like Night City struggle to survive on the streets. Humans and machines intertwine via cybernetic enhancements, and this unholy merging of flesh and technology is represented vividly in the game’s score, which often employs the use of synth that sounds both metallic and organic.

The majority of electronic music is created from a widely-available database of preset sounds built into a computer or synth. To create Cyberpunk 2077’s unique sonic identity, the composers eschewed convention and took a more experimental approach, using a slew of odd machines to create bespoke sounds that give the score its ethereal edge.

“What we’ve done is ridiculous,” Leonard-Morgan explains. “It hasn’t been done before. We’ve composed with virtually no software at all. It’s all external gear. So it’s all weird and wacky synthesizers, all weird modular synths, always stuff which you then had to record the audio and process that around. You can never recreate the sounds again.”

The trio used rare, long out-of-production machines, took their already unique built-in sounds, and manipulated them further to compose the game’s music. The result is a tapestry of interconnected compositions that have a dark, Frankenstein’s-monster bizarreness to them, and one of the most prominent and peculiar synths you’ll hear in the mix has a curious background of its own.

“P.T. and I own our own Soviet-made Polivokses. Mine’s from 1982,” Przybylowicz says. “My Polivoks still has a price tag: 800 Rubles, which is, I think by today’s standards, 10 bucks. It’s a duophonic synthesizer similar to the Moog Sub 37, which is a very famous duophonic unit. I heard a story that during the Cold War, blueprints [of the Moog Sub 37] were stolen by Soviet agents in order to obtain something that they could copy [to build their own synthesizer]. Supposedly they were trying to make an exact copy, but you know, something always goes wrong on the production lines–they ended up with a machine that is truly, remarkably ugly-sounding. Yet still sounds like nothing else.”

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Another strange machine in the trio’s fleet of synths is the Folktek Mescaline, an infernal-looking mess of jet-black panels, spiraling bronze detailing, and a scattered arrangement of inputs, knobs, buttons, and switches. It looks so intimidating and unapproachable that it’s no wonder the trio harnessed its power in their compositions.

“All three of us own Folktek Mescalines,” Przybylowicz says. “It’s a small modular system that allows you to basically do anything. It doesn’t come with a very good manual. It doesn’t feature keyboards. It doesn’t feature any self-explanatory indications of what’s doing what. So it’s all based on experimentation.”

Adamczyk elaborates, “You can’t really decide, ‘I’m just going to play an A minor chord’ on a Mescaline. Getting an A minor chord is a real pain in the ass because you have to pretty much tune the machine to that specific chord. You have to try to find your way with these instruments and try to somehow find a musical way of using them. Half of the time, you have no idea what you’re doing.”

The game boasts around eight hours of music that, amazingly, is virtually all in the key of A minor to allow the different compositions to flow seamlessly in and out of each other as the player transitions between different encounters and scenarios.

“Games are like living organisms,” Przybylowicz explains. “It’s dependent on the player’s actions, even if we’re talking about the most linear scripted games. Ours obviously is nothing like that. It’s a full-fledged, open-world RPG with multiple branching lines in the narrative arc. So obviously it’s even more difficult [to compose for], but I think in a sense it’s almost liberating to work on a thing that changes so many times during even a single playthrough, you know?”

Cyberpunk 2077 had fans practically salivating in the days leading to its release date. It’s not only the next chapter of a long-beloved sci-fi franchise, but CD Projekt RED’s follow-up to the all-time classic The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is, to put it mildly, a tough act to follow. The composers feel the magnitude of the moment, though they remain unshakable, confident in the work they’ve put forward.

“Working on a game of such a big scale, ambition and quality and fan base…I think it naturally adds to the pressure,” says Przybylowicz. “So the bigger the hype gets, the bigger the expectations are getting, and the bigger the pressure gets. I think it’s at least in some parts a natural process of this profession, when you get to work on a project of this reputation.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“It doesn’t matter for me whether it’s a one million dollar film, a hundred million dollar film, a billion-dollar game, or whatever,” Leonard-Morgan adds. “The point is it’s all about the creative process. That’s the part that I really, really enjoy. And I think as soon as you start letting external forces come into your head, that’s where I start to kind of…Self-doubt is the wrong phrase. But you start second-guessing, and second guessing is just the worst thing you can do as a composer.”

You can listen to the score below:

Cyberpunk 2077 is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.

The post How the Cyberpunk 2077 Soundtrack Found Its Dystopian Sound in a Soviet-Era Synthesizer appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[mysticsparklewings]

The Dream Crosser

Surprise! NaPoWriMo didn't kill me (and I'm not abandoning dA because of the incoming Eclipse update either, more on that situation here), I just needed a week off to recuperate...and obsessively play Animal Crossing: New Horizons... Admittedly, I actually drew this well over a month ago (and wrote up the majority of the description!), not just before NaPoWriMo but before I actually had New Horizons in my grasp. The plan was to post it the day I got the game. Which was supposed to be much closer to the game's launch (March 20th). That ended up not happening and the day I got the game was the first day of NaPoWriMo, but 1. I messed up with the non-uniform prompts and spent all of the day trying to catch up so I couldn't even play the game yet, and 2. As a side effect, I ended up having two posts that day and a lot of work to do to catch up the second, and I hardly had time to think about posting this. And even if I had posted it, it would've been drowned in the incoming NaPoWriMo posts. And so, here we are. Really, really, I do have to mention that I truly feel for anyone else still waiting on the game for whatever reason. You have my deepest sympathy and I'm so sorry I can't just give you the game right now and make it better.  I know the wait was hard enough for me, being this is the one game I highly anticipated in over a year and I essentially had the rug yanked out from under me. But I'll save that story for after I talk about the art itself since I'm sure that's what most people are here for and not my pre-order frustrations. So in case you don't know or couldn't tell, this is the lovely Luna from AC: New Leaf's Dream Suite. From what we've seen of New Horizons since it's release, the Dream Suite's functions and purpose have been mostly absolved into the Airport and Dodo Codes, and so I'm very doubtful Luna will actually be in the game in any capacity, which makes me sad. A typical player (including me) wouldn't even necessarily interact with Luna that much in New Leaf unless you really enjoy visiting other towns using Dream Codes, so I'm not sure what it is, but for some reason I just really like her. That's why I picked her to draw to celebrate. I very nearly drew her a long time ago when I was on an Animal Crossing kick in 2018, but at the time I didn't like the idea of pressuring myself into drawing all and/or multiple AC characters just because I wanted to be "fair" to them all (much the same reason I don't draw Pokemon very often), so I ended up drawing One Little Spark, a crossover of the Disney character Figment drawn in the New Leaf style, instead. So in a way, she's had this coming for quite a while. At the time I started working on her, (way back in early March, because I was hoping beyond hope my pre-order would arrive to me actually on launch day, but ha ha ha look who's got egg on her face for that ) I was running a bit dry on artistic motivation, and so while I tried to draw her in my usual manner: Making a sketch, transferring the sketch onto different paper with finalized lines, then picking whichever coloring method I was most into at the time), I was struggling with the sketch. I've had days where I have to work on a sketch for a really long time before I can get something I'm happy with, but this day I was just so not into the whole sketching process. I wanted to create, but I wanted it to be quick and easy and simple. I didn't want to have to poke at it for hours and hours and then still maybe not be happy when I was done. So when I got discouraged enough, I broke away from trying to draw Luna and just drew mandalas instead. (As had become my art-block crutch for a little while.) Somewhere in me, as I worked on other things, I kept going back and forth on what to do about Luna, though. I did still want to draw her, but my usual formula just wasn't working for me. Not for her. I even tried briefly to draw her linelessly, digitally, as what was supposed to be a quick and simple experiment, but that went downhill even faster than sketching did. Although, for some reason, the lineless idea wouldn't leave me alone after that. Finally, I decided to try something completely different. I was going to try and free-handedly draw her, without lines, traditionally. With, primarily, alcohol markers. Honestly, the thought minorly horrifies me now just as much as it did before I started. And yet, here we are and I actually like how it turned out. Allow me to explain how this came together: So, since I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out once I decided to try it, I opted to use my not-so-great mixed media paper so I wouldn't feel guilty about wasting better paper if I ended up hating it. Naturally, this did lead to some notable limitations, but not enough to discourage me from trying. I dove right in with the dark brown for her head and body, focusing on getting the general shapes down. I'd noticed some glaring mistakes in my mostly unproductive sketching when it came to Luna's body proportions, so I tried to keep those things in mind and adjust accordingly as I went. It was scary because there is no erasing this way short of using white paint and because this paper feathers pretty noticeably with markers. Then once I got to a certain point, I had to switch and bring in some pink and off-white markers to draw in parts of her dress so I knew where to put her other arm and her legs. And here is where I technically cheated; I did use my "clear" Stardust Gelly Roll pen to do most of the outlines for her dress. I needed some kind of guideline, but pencil tends to get yucky when you put markers on top and at the time I couldn't really think of a better option. (The joke was kind of on me because somehow I still got a nasty gray line that looked like pencil under her bust that I had to gently edit out later in Photoshop, but I digress.) As I went with the markers, I was also doing some light shading. Not too much, because this paper is really fussy with layers and blending, but enough that I felt like it didn't look completely flat and I could tell where one shape ended and another started. Though, for her nose (trunk? I believe Luna is supposed to be a Tapir) and her raised arm, I had to get a little creative and I used a white brush pen meant for glass/ceramics to put in the lines so you could actually see them. And later I would use the same pen in 3-4 layers to add the white back in for her eyes. With the base for her body, dress, and the bun part of her hair done though, then I had the task of figuring out what to do for her shoes and the details of her face. (Without having to mix and use specific paint for those tiny details.) In the end, I opted to mostly use my classic red Gelly Roll pen for her shoes, and a little bit of a dark red alcohol marker for shading. And then I got to experiment with mixing the classic red and one of the Moonlight Gelly Rolls for her lips so that the color would be visible and not just a dark lip-shaped "what is this." This was because the classic Gelly Rolls don't show up super well on dark surfaces and the Moonlight ones do, but I didn't have the right color straight out of a Moonlight pen. It did take 2-3 careful layers, but I think I managed well enough in the end. I used just one black pen, a Prismacolor brush-tip fine liner, for her eyes, though in-person the white base underneath makes her pupils look about a shade or two lighter from certain angles, which was a very unintentional nice touch. My answer to everything else ended up being gouache, although I did try to come up with pen colors for her eye shadow and the blue dots on her cheeks before admitting defeat that I just didn't have the colors I needed. Originally, I had actually been thinking of trying a lineless art piece with gouache, as I think it would work particularly well for that look, but I wasn't ready to fully commit to the idea, mostly because I seem to be even worse at mixing a non-excessive amount of a specific color with gouache than I am with acrylics, and that sounds like a fantastic way to waste a bunch of palette space because I mixed too much but it's gouache so it can be re-wet and re-use it and I don't want to just throw it away...  (Although I suppose this could be half-way solved by getting a bigger palette specifically for mixing gouache, but I also don't want to have to buy yet another palette when I have some perfectly good ones...If I could just use up all the paint in them already...) Anyway. Point: This is kind of a step between a full lineless gouache piece and not doing one at all. Baby steps, yes? I knew from fairly early on that I was probably going to have to use gouache for the front part of her hair/bangs, since I did not thoroughly plan ahead enough and didn't leave a gap there to do it with markers. Fortunately, I didn't have to do much mixing since my gouache already has a nice yellow ochre color included, and I could use a bit of the other two browns and one I had some leftover mixed already from Roses in Your Eyes for shading. (White for the flowers, too, thank goodness.) And I actually ended up going over most of her bun with gouache too since, by comparison, the marker didn't look like it had much shading and it was bothering me. I did have to mix my own blue and pinky-purple for her makeup, and I ended up with a lot of leftover pinky-purple. But it's kind of okay because by itself it's such a pretty color I'm sure I'll find an excuse to use that one. After that, I just had to do some minor tweaks where the gouache had gotten a bit away from me and then I went ham on the shading for the dress based on my reference photo. Then I realized I wanted some kind of background because this seemed awfully boring without one. And, naturally, I hadn't really planned ahead for that, me being me and being in habit of doing the background last... At first, I wanted to do something hot pink, since her official Amiibo card has a hot pink background, but then I thought that might be a little too loud and I wasn't really sure the best way to apply one without potentially messing her up. And also, this isn't watercolor or paper thicker than 140 lb, which immediately threw watercolor out the window unless I wanted a very uneven paper when I was finished. I'd already pushed my luck with the gouache and been very careful about not using much water with it; I decided it was best not to push my luck any farther. Also, I couldn't use my pink PanPastel, despite that being maybe my best option, because it is still perpetually screwed onto the little Pan Pastel stack with no hope of getting unstuck anytime soon. (One of these days I swear, I will order either another set like the one I have or an individual Pink one to solve this problem, but until then, I am going to bring it up every single time as a caution to others to please be very careful when screwing and unscrewing your own Pan Pastels if you store them screwed together.) And I didn't feel like dragging out some of my drawing pastels and/or makeup that's too expired to use on my face and very slowly building up color and hoping it'll do what the Pan Pastels do. With no better ideas coming to me, I decided I'd leave the drawing for the night and come back to it the next day. After yet more brainstorming the next day, I finally settled on doing a glittery rounded rectangle and filling it with washi tape stripes. This plan did change a little as I figured out which tapes I wanted to use (a purple-y, champagne gold, and light pink ones, the latter two of which look more different in-person than they do on the scan) and as I actually started applying the lines. Partially because this tape is a bit thin and partially because I'm not used to cutting tape around very specific shapes, it took a very long time to both place strips of the tape and then get them cut to fit right up to Luna without looking strange. Once I got to a certain point going in one direction, I realized my next couple of cuts were just going to be too hard for me to stand. I had a choice: Ditch the tape, or figure something else out. Taking a risk, I decided to try and salvage it by doing an almost-plaid/checkerboard with the tape, specifically leaving out certain areas where I knew it would be too tricky to cut the tape. This also turned out to be a good way to use up some of the pieces of tape I'd already cut off that were too small to be used the other way. It's still not the greatest background solution I've ever come up with, but it does the job of making it look less empty, and that's really all I wanted anyway. And you know, compared to official images her proportions look wonky, but by herself (meaning, without comparing the two) I think Luna looks pretty good, actually. (Though, I admit I did have to tweak her right ear in Photoshop because it came out entirely too long and there wasn't really a good way for me to fix it by hand.) To think, this piece started out as such a mess. Or rather, I was such a mess when I started. And yet, here we are, and it looks kinda okay. Okay enough that I finished it and am posting it, at least.   I have no idea if I'll be returning to this style/method for art-making in the future, but even if I don't it was a nice experiment to try, and that's what art is really all about isn't it? Experimenting, trying new things? Speaking of experimenting though, about those pre-order frustrations I mentioned now that I've covered everything about the art itself...(in small text for those that don't care to easily skip over) Back in February I tried twice to pre-order New Horizons from Target, since they were running an ad where if you pre-ordered the game you'd also get an AC themed journal with it, and that combined with my family member's employee discount made it the cheapest/best value way for us to buy the game. As I said, I tried to order it twice. Both times, it was sold out. My family member had even tried to go to the store and have them order it before then, to no avail. After the second time, which was the day after Target sent out the sale paper with the new ad in it, while I was still frustratedly wondering how on earth do you sell out of a pre-order?? I kept refreshing the page every so often just to see if by some fluke it would miraculously not be sold out. I got very lucky around 3 in the afternoon and we managed to get the order in before it sold out again. Now, we're a relatively cheap family, so we didn't pay for the "express shipping" or whatever. Although, this was a $60 game and we were ordering it three whole weeks (on March 2nd) before release. If you ask me, the least they could do is have it shipped out either on launch day (March 20th) or the day after. Especially if I can pre-order a book on Amazon with three days' notice and they can still get it to me on release day. But, okay, I could live with waiting an extra day or up to maybe three if I had to. (And, to be fair, this was all before a certain virus exploded into chaos here in the US.) Much to my dismay, a week before NH release day, I checked the order status with Target only to be told I wouldn't get it until the 26th. A week later. That was pretty disappointing at the time, but it didn't really bother me until the day before and the day of launch when some people were getting their pre-orders early from places like Amazon and Best Buy (and some of them didn't even pay for the express shipping option from their selected source). If those two companies could plan around virus constraints to do that, why in the heck couldn't Target? But, okay, fine. Maybe the virus had something to do with it and they were really doing the best they could. Whatever. A week. Fine. I'll wait a week. A few days later though, we got an email saying: Surprise! Don't expect your dumb video game until April 3rd because we couldn't get our act together! (Okay, that's not what it really said, but that's what it felt like.) And I know, I promise I so know there are much more serious issues going on in the world right now and a video game about talking animals isn't exactly a priority shipment. I know. But it was still massively upsetting after I'd already waited so long. And, honestly, I feel like they had plenty of time and notice to take care of the game before everything else exploded and messed it all up. Again, especially if other companies already had time to even ship orders early and/or get the games to people on launch day. Or the day after. TWO WEEKS after launch, and you don't tell me about the secondary delay until the week I started expecting the game to already be in the mail on it's way to me? The only tiny silver lining is that as I was checking the order to make sure it didn't miraculously get pushed back to sometime in 2021 (because I really had no faith in Target's time estimates at this point) is that it did get bumped back up to April 1st. Although, I did think that it would be the absolute least funny April Fools' Day Joke ever if the day came and it was late because screw me.  But it did arrive to me on April 1st as promised; I just had a million other things to do before I could play it. ) And I will say, I know I could've just canceled the pre-order and bought the game digitally, but it was enough of a hassle to order it in the first place, and if I did that I'd also lose my pre-order bonus. And all that aside, I specifically wanted a physical copy to begin with. I always prefer that when it's possible. So people on the internet that want to eat me alive for not canceling when the shipping got screwed up, there are my reasons. Take 'em or leave 'em. (Seriously, I've seen some people be really rude about this just because they didn't like hearing people upset that they didn't have the game yet...when they already had it themselves or didn't care about AC in the first place...) Moral of the story: Don't pre-order from Target. Or, at least, don't expect the item to actually get to you right around release day. Account for at least two additional weeks of not having the thing. ...Seriously though, how do you sell out of a pre-order?? At least, when it's a highly anticipated game and you're a big company and not some small indie company with limited resources! Sheesh! Anyway. I have the game now, I've been playing it as much as possible and enjoying it. I still have a ways to go before my island is "complete" per se, but it's coming along nicely and I feel more comfortable now taking some more time away from it to get back into the swing of making art and things like that. So hopefully I'll be getting back into a regular posting schedule and you'll have that to look forward to. 

____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[ambitionsource]

001 for dasher!! :)

oh boy....... hoooooo boyyyyyyyyy

Dylan & Asher

When I started shipping it if I did: so if i were a viewer, i think i would like ship them from basically the moment it was made pretty clear on the show that they were romantically linked rather than just Good Pals Being Pals (i.e. “LOVE OF MY LIFE” in 103). but for a majority of s1 i think it would be a passive shipping sort of thing, like i’d love their moments and enjoy watching them, but things wouldn’t really Click into place until s2 when we really start to actually dig into them and their dynamic / their individual struggles (i.e., their promotion to regulars in s2). around 203 + 204 i’d be so locked in though, that’s probably when i’d start making fandom content or digging around for fics, and then by 207 / 208... whew y’all. whew!

My thoughts: okay so like not to be dramatic but like. im really kind of obsessed with them doe GJDSGFDKJHLFKDH. like i’m really chill about it on here for the most part, but i have not shut up about them in my gcs since quite literally like. august. there’s kind of like this whole timeline for them that doesn’t exist on the Show because its just not relevant to the story, but there’s a lot of their development as individuals and a relationship going on in the background of s2 that really informs how i write them and is really quite elaborate FDSJGLKDSG. i have an entire drive folder that’s dedicated to screenshots of the conversations we’ve had in the discord that chronicles some of this stuff. like what we fondly refer to as “4 days” which is this period between 203 and 204 in which asher became so overwhelmed with everything going on with lucas that he just dropped everything and isolated for a few days -- including closing the window on dylan; and that really has a major impact on their relationship and sort of leads to this Relationship Upgrade in the sense that they go from having the fun and easy going relationship they have in s1 to really like... committing to one another and stepping into this deeper Partnership. i can’t do it justice just talking abt it but like. again to keep it concise, i’m obsessed

What makes me happy about them: literally... so much. i will say that i think what’s really important to me about them -- as well as on the show and what they represent -- is that they really do demonstrate this like... Healthy relationship. and they don’t realize it, but they are one of the only examples of a healthy, committed, equal partnership that many of their friends have in their lives (lucas and isa, specifically). so they’re leaving this impact on people just by leading by example and just living with their hearts on their sleeves and being so unapologetically loving, and that is just... a message i want to spread far and wide. dylan and asher definitely both have their quirks and flaws, but they’re two characters who are so fundamentally driven by compassion and love in their own ways -- and then its really beautiful to watch them share that energy with one another at the most devoted level

What makes me sad about them: i mean like.......... honestly? not much. how wild is that. a pairing that doesn’t make me wanna kermit bc there’s so much angst riddled throughout.......... unreal..........

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: i firmly believe that da would be such an interesting fandom to analyze. this is because they would definitely have a strong fanbase of their own (especially post S2), but also i bet they would be victims of the “supporting pairing” in a lot of fics -- i.e., they get tagged as a pairing on ao3 but then only are featured in like 3 scenes out of a 220448328 word fic. you know, that tragedy. also annoying would be 1) dumbing down dylan or focusing only on his naivety / simplistic nature and stripping him of his incredible emotional literacy and lowkey wisdom 2) babying either of them and again stripping them of their nuances and complexities 3) exaggerating some of asher’s shrill qualities to the point that he’s just unbearable 4) ANY sort of obvious attempts to Gender their relationship -- i think zc would be able to avoid this for the most part, but i get the feeling it would be a common annoying thing in da portrayals 5) taking asher’s external hesitation towards pda / being too overtly emotional in public and reading that as either him being unaffectionate towards dylan in general or casting him as some sort of prude when in actuality i think asher is more instrumental in their Physical Relationship than one would think on the outset 6) fics where da is tagged but then its like. one of them leaving the other for lucas fDJSGDKGLFD LIKE BYEEEEEEEE

Things I look for in fanfic: on the flip side of my earlier answer, i really do believe that there would be a beautiful and dynamic da writer cohort. i think there would be some REALLY cool and lovely works out there for these two, because i know how much they’ve inspired creativity and excitement for me. i would love fics that are just about filling in missing moments to their relationship that we don’t get to see on the show just due to focus and time; i would be keen for any sort of au with them; i’d want to see portrayals of them that really highlight the balance they bring out in one another and how well they complement one another -- the ways that dylan makes up for asher’s emotional literacy and even a focus on how asher can sometimes struggle to grapple with his emotions despite being so put together in public would be A1; anything that highlights the utmost respect and adoration they have towards one another; always stan representing how touchy-feely dylan is with small affectionate touches; gold star fics would highlight their other relationships as well, both as a duo (the techie crew, dylucasher) and individually (jade x asher, dylan x isa, dylan x dave x nate, their dynamics with riley). i just..... i’m really aching for this fandom rn i tell ya!!!

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: i.......... there’s honestly not an answer. they’re asher and dylan. dylan and asher. they’re literally multiverse endorsed soulmates. there’s a mental block for alternatives sorry!

My happily ever after for them: i don’t have to worry about them so i know i’m gonna get it fDSJKGLFDG but just them continuing to have their deeply committed and supportive and emotionally healthy relationship and be there for one another as they continue to grow as people! can’t wait for them to live together college and beyond and just... thrive. i love them dearly

Who is the big spoon/little spoon: oh this has been well established. asher is the big spoon. there of course are OCCASIONAL days where it shifts (more likely during naps, for example), but when it’s time for bed they will fall asleep with asher hugging dylan and resting his head against his back. that’s The Move. it’s set in stone!

What is their favorite non-sexual activity: they spend so much time together i genuinely could say that just existing together is their activity fDJSKLGJFDKLHDh. but um they like to go on adventures with lucas; dylan will bake and asher will “help” i.e. just keep him company and steal dough; they like watching tv together (wide range from like true crime documentaries to Good TV to the classics like Spongebob to hgtv and chill fdkjhgkjdhg like. Cultured palette here folks); just spending time together but doing their own thing i.e. asher might be reading while dylan is playing nintendo switch but they’re like reclining against one another; they often take drives together and get out of the city just to listen to music and like escape the pressure of that environment; they go on trips with their families and their families even take trips together sometimes once they realize that dasher are basically tied for life (shoutout to the upcoming new years ski trip of 2019... Romance)... i could go on. there’s always much to say. i love them that’s it that’s it that’s it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

send some winter hiatus asks !! or try this one

[sanrionharbor-blog]

Sansa and Tyrion’s Character Arcs (Part I: Tyrion)

Being a writer, I’ve been pouring through Shawn Coyne’s The Story Grid over the past two weeks. One of the points he makes is that every part of a story–from beat to arc–has the same 5 elements: inciting incident, complication, crisis, climax, resolution.

And being as obsessed as I am with Sansa and Tyrion of GOT in particular, I thought I’d use the hey-day of the series season finale episodes to indulge in some character metas. 

We’re going to (mainly) focus on the inciting incident.

So, not only does GOT have an overarching inciting incident/complication/crisis/climax/resolution that it’s moving towards, but each season has them, each episode/chapter has them, each  subplot has them, and each character has them.

According to Shawn Coyne, an inciting incident promises one thing: “…the ending.”

So let’s dive a little deeper and see what Sansa’s inciting incident and Tyrion’s inciting incident tells us about them. I’m writing separate posts since they’re both long–first up is Tyrion!

Tyrion

To start on a side note that will eventually get to the point:

I really wonder if show-Tyrion and book-Tyrion can come to the same conclusion. 

Book-Tyrion is much more morally grey than show-Tyrion, for one. They make different decisions after the Purple Wedding (in the show Tyrion is notably celibate whereas book-Tyrion hits an all-time low and is not above sleeping with drugged-up, unresponsive prostitutes–though he manages to empathize with them, he still uses them to run from his own darkness). 

Now, I’m equally invested in both versions of the character and believe they have the same arc/themes overall. So on one hand I can see them playing out beat-by-beat, just with different palettes, if you would, but only because of the power of the inciting incident:

So, an inciting incident does more than promise an ending–it sets the character on a path of no return. So, more than a character’s introduction, it’s when their story first goes down an irreversible path.

Furthermore, an inciting incident is called an incident for a reason: it’s not necessarily a decision made by a character, but something that happens to him (but more on that in a minute).

Tyrion’s Introduction

First we’ll note Tyrion’s introduction in the book:

“Jon found it hard to look away from [Jaime]. This is what a king should look like, he thought to himself as the man passed.

Then he saw the other one, waddling along half-hidden by his brother’s side. Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Twyin’s brood and by far the ugliest. All that the gods had given to Cersei and Jaime, they had denied Tyrion. He was a dwarf, half his brother’s height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs….one green eye and one black one peered out from under a lanky fall of hair so blond it seemed white. Jon watched him with fascination.”

Later, still in the same chapter:

“The dwarf grinned down at [Jon]. ‘Is that animal a wolf?’

‘A direwolf,’ Jon said. ‘His name is Ghost….what are you doing up there? Why aren’t you at the feast ?’

‘Too hot, too noisy, and I’d drunk too much wine,’ the dwarf told him. ‘…might I have a closer look at your wolf?’

…he pushed himself off the ledge into empty air. Jon gasped, then watched with awe as Tyrion Lannister spun around in a tight ball, landed lightly on his hands, then vaulted backward.

Ghost backed away from him uncertainly.

The dwarf dusted himself off and laughed. ‘I believe I’ve frightened your wolf. My apologies.’”

They talk a little more, and it’s interesting to note that Tyrion isn’t threatened by Ghost, merely fascinated, and he correctly deduces that Ghost is more shy than harmful, despite Ghost baring his teeth. This could be foreshadowing that the Lannisters will have dominion over the Starks soon, but Tyrion was never a player in that. Despite his loyalties to his family, he was the one that reached out to Jon when he saw Jon was crying, he was the one who bonded with Jon at the wall and honored Jon’s request to take care of Bran, he was the one who took the time to design a saddle for Bran, and who later treated Sansa with dignity despite every cultural and social protocol having taught him to do the opposite.

No, I think this has more to do with Tyrion’s fascination with direwolves, and perhaps the Wolf, in general. I also believe it’s foreshadowing (not the deliberate kind, but the instinctual kind that most writers aren’t even aware of), to Tyrion’s possible later loyalty/ally status with the Stark’s. More on that when we get to his first POV.

Tyrion’s First POV Chapter

The very first POV that features Tyrion ends on this line (I know most of you have read it before):

“When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment, Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.”

And then there is Tyrion’s first chapter written in his POV–where certain details stand out to me [all emphases mine]:

“Somewhere in the great stone maze of Winterfell, a wolf howled. The sound hung over the castle like a flag of mourning…something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack.”

That’s the opening of Tyrion’s first POV. No lion metaphors here. Instead, Tyrion briefly imagines being part of a wolf pack–is he running in front as a leader, naked and free and accepted, or because he’s being chased down, naked and hunted and vulnerable? 

Regardless, the chapter ends here:

“‘My sweet brother,” [Jaime] said darkly, “there are times you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on,”

Tyrion’s mouth was full of bread and fish. He took a swallow of strong black beer to wash it all down, and grinned up wolfishly at Jaime. ‘Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,’ he said, ‘you wound me. You know how much I love my family.’”

For some reason, Tyrion is metaphorically identifying with wolves. These exchanges also tune us into the��hint of whimsy and empathy in his character, which co-exists with his book-smart/world-weary outlook. 

Still, neither of these moments include Tyrion’s inciting incident. No, Tyrion’s inciting incident is a direct result of ASOIAF’s inciting incident: the moment Catelyn Stark receives a letter from her sister Lysa Arryn about the death of Jon Arryn, Lord Paramount of the Vale and Hand to the King.

This is powerful stuff in itself, even if the death had been natural. But we’re about to be lead through a political spiderweb that’s being spun over a dark, fuzzy expanse; and we can only make out what that darkness is when the spiderweb isn’t so clearly in focus: Winter, and not just any Winter, but the Long Night. 

This is all happening at once, and Tyrion is actually an early witness to the complementary foci of ASOIAF:

Myth: He visits the Wall with Jon Snow and, while he doesn’t encounter any wights, he does encounter several people who��re convinced about such things. He’s skeptical, but we learn over time that Tyrion is a closeted romantic. Sure, he’s reading up on the lives of Maesters and pouring through ledgers and history books half the time–but he’s also obsessed with true love and handsome knights and dragons.

Humanity: He’s a casualty of Jon Arryn’s murder and Catelyn Stark’s having been deceived (though Catelyn acts heroically based on what she believes to be the truth). He’s kidnapped by Lady Stark and forced to stand trial for two murders he did not commit. This is his inciting incident. It’s what gets Tywin to declare war on the Starks and what inadvertently puts Tyrion in the pathway of both Bronn and Shae. It leads him to his newfound confidence as a military strategist, even as a pseudo-knight, in subsequent battles–including the one that costs him his nose, and any illusion that his looks could be improved or his stature increased by acting like a knight. Acting like a knight (like Jaime, like the son his father wanted, like the heroes Tyrion grew up reading about) did not win him the approval of Tywin, the adoration of the people, the reality of knighthood, or the true affection of any lady. And we know how his story goes from here.

But none of it would have happened without Tyrion’s Inciting Incident. And he had no choice in the matter either. This was his point of no return.

So, what are the themes established here?

Themes from his introduction:

-Even though he’s compared unfavorably to his brother Jaime, who is described as “what kings should look like,” the POV ends with Tyrion standing “tall as a king.” So, in a word, kingliness. 

-His intro through Jon’s eyes establishes him as larger than life, despite his size. He’s breezy, irreverent, whip-smart, aware of his status (as a Lannister and as a pariah), and even surprisingly acrobatic (or at the very least self-sufficient, and possessing the element of surprise). He’s also empathetic–he gives Jon advice on how to navigate the world and finds common place between them. Remember, he’s a noble and Jon is a bastard. He’s under no obligation to treat him kindly. It’s simply his character; one of Tyrion’s better qualities. 

-In short, Tyrion fulfills a role as: outcast (dwarf) and elite (Lannister noble), adviser (or Hand), jester (“Generations of capering fools in motley…’), and, at least inwardly, a king. And all of these are mythical archetypes and play well into the fantasy tropes that GRRM is exploring, deconstructing, and reconstructing.

-I also highlighted the part about Tyrion’s one black eye and one green, and his hair so pale it was almost white. This has less bearing in the TV show, obviously, but many of these clues not only point out his physical otherness, but can symbolically point to:

Looking at the world from two perspectives

Divided loyalties (the green eyes of the Lannister’s, and that one dark eye–dark like the Stark’s?)

Or does it represent a divided lineage?

B/C, though I’m not sold on the theory, one wonders if the “Tyrion as the third head of the dragon” isn’t hinted through his white-blond hair? Yet another secret Targaryen?

Themes from his first POV chapter:

-Tyrion finds it easy to identify with the Wolf (and yes, with a capital ‘W,’ encompassing the Starks, the direwolves, the archetype). And throughout the story he easily empathizes with the Starks, despite the Shakespearean-level rift between his family and theirs.

-He loves his family. But he is also separate from his family. 

-Tyrion’s strength (and weakness) will be his mind

Themes from his inciting incident:

-I see themes of justice/injustice, truth/deception, and acceptance/prejudice.

-In fact, Catelyn Stark seizes him with these words: “…I call upon you to seize him and help me return him to Winterfell to await the king’s justice.”

-To return to Winterfell. 

-To await the king’s justice.

Tyrion: The Ending Is In The Beginning

So this essay has been largely book-focused. The biggest differences between book-Tyrion and show-Tyrion, in the first arc anyway, are simply Tyrion’s sex appeal. Let’s be honest. In the show, his introduction comes by way of brothel (and it’s also a way to introduce the show-only character, Roz), whereas in the books it comes by way of unfavorable comparison with his brother. Peter Dinklage is also very handsome, and I’m not complaining AT ALL about his casting (because I love him), and D&D had a limited range to pick from anyway, but Tyrion in the show is more attractive and that colors several scenes–especially the ones with Shae and Sansa.

But it doesn’t matter that much in the end. Because the point is that Tyrion’s arc isn’t about his overall attractiveness (but physicality, yes). Tyrion is still playing roles that are traditionally given to conventionally handsome characters, not just to outsiders or “monstrous” archetypes. 

So the interesting part is that his looks play a tangential role, but not a main one. His physicality is always at play, but not so much his attractiveness. For example, both show and book Tywin hate that their son is a dwarf; the ugliness of book-Tyrion is just the T.P. at the bottom of Tywin’s ill-fitting shoe. Again, tangential. It changes the palettes of book and show Tyrion’s overall story visual, but not the actual shape of their story.

So regardless of the differences between the show and the book, Tyrion’s ending can still be found in the book A Game of Thrones’. And not only because that’s a universal law of storytelling (the inciting incident promises the ending) but it’s exactly what George R.R. Martin has confirmed. 

So what can we infer about Tyrion’s ending from his beginning?

Here is where we find Tyrion at the end of season 1 of GOT and in his last POV in the first book of ASOIAF [all emphases mine]:

In the wake of Jaime’s kidnapping, Tywin has just told Tyrion he’s sending him to King’s Landing. 

“It was the last thing Tyrion Lannister would ever have anticipated. He reached for his wine, and considered for a moment as he sipped. ‘And what am I to do there?’

‘Rule,’ his father said curtly.

Tyrion hooted with laughter. ‘My sweet sister might have a word or two to say about that!’

That part about Cersei seems more pertinent now that we’re heading into Season 8 of Game of Thrones and she’s a prominent villain. She’s at least a major obstacle in Tyrion’s current story line (and, in fact, always has been). 

But more importantly is his father’s command to rule. Tyrion Lannister is groomed for rulership throughout his story, and this will probably be his destiny: whether that come in the capacity of being king or some other kind of leader. Perhaps there won’t even be an Iron Throne at the end of all of this, but Tyrion, worldly and well-traveled and ruthless and empathetic as he is, could be a spearhead for a new political system. Perhaps the Magna Carta of Westeros is coming? 

Let’s hark back to Tyrion’s inciting incident. He was going to await the king’s justice. What if the king’s justice turns out to be Tyrion’s justice? And Tyrion, after being held accountable all his life for things he had not done wrong (though not being punished for the things he has done wrong–after all, he’s no saint), will find his justice by a king, someway-somehow. Either with Tyrion as said King, or by being Hand to just such a King, or even, tragically, by finally facing a justice he cannot escape–at the hands of a king. (Or Queen). 

Tyrion’s arc will end when he is finally taken off trial. He thought he’d finally made it when he was free of his father’s (physical) shadow and when he found full acceptance (he thought) with Daenerys. But here’s where Tyrion’s theme of divided loyalties comes into play. He’s been struggling with finding where he stands throughout his storyline. Even when he was advising for Dany, he was still hoping that Cersei had the capacity for change. I think what he loved most about Cersei was her motherly instincts, her children (sans Joffrey). And he probably does feel guilt over Myrcella’s death. So Tyrion is seeking justice; he wants Cersei’s baby to live because he loves him/her instinctually, because it “atones” for the other children, because blood runs thicker than water, because he won’t be the reason the Lannister name is snuffed out. 

“…To return to Winterfell and await the king’s justice.”

In Season 8, Tyrion does return to Winterfell. If there were a third trial (orchestrated perhaps by Daenerys or by Cersei), it would probably take place at King’s Landing or the Dragon Pit, but there’s still the fact that Tyrion’s story is inextricably linked with Winterfell. 

He is particularly bound up in the stories of Bran, Sansa, and Jon. And in a series inspired by the War of the Roses, he could be the link that brings the Lannisters (Lancasters) and Starks (Yorks) to true peace. To finally establish justice and resolve the conflict that started this whole saga. 

Tyrion has been denounced in two trials and made to suffer consequences to his agency and reputation, despite the deception at play. His agency and reputation still need restoring. He still has neither of these things with Daenerys. 

He needs to emerge victorious from a third trial. Whether that third trial is literal or metaphorical.  It’s very possible that Tyrion will finally stand trial for a murder he is guilty of: Cersei could put him on trial for the murder of Tywin Lannister, and Tyrion will have to face the spiritual shadow of his father and the reality of his guilt once and for all. 

This third trial will establish Tyrion’s character; it will close his arc. Whether he dies physically or not, he will be spiritually enlightened/restored. 

And I’d have to agree with Peter Dinklage–that would be a really beautiful end for Tyrion Lannister, however it plays out. 

(Please share your thoughts as I am OBSESSED with Tyrion theories). 

(Next Up: Sansa Stark). 

[drink-n-watch]

Genre : Action, fighting, supernatural

Episodes: 12

Studio: Platinum Vision

  Something has awakened. Something that’s been slumbering for a long time is beginning to stir and the shockwaves are being felt all over heaven and earth. Demons are getting restless and the attacks on innocent villages have become routine. Thankfully, the Sanzo party is here to protect the good people from the fiends that would do them harm. Never mind that they happen to be just as fiendish themselves. As long as you can pay for the services, you can trust them. Probably. After all, you have to be able to trust a venerable Sanzo monk now don’t you? He’s the one smoking and getting into a fist fight with his demon buddy while screaming obscenities. Yeah, this should work out just fine!

The journey for this little title to make it on my to watch list went something like this: this looks like an otome adaptation, it’s probably really stupid, I’m gonna watch it. a week later – yeah there’s plenty of stupid out there, maybe I don’t need this one, I’m going to flush it. Wait the summary says Yokai, I like Yokai, I’m going to keep it. OK, I guess I should really watch this at some point…

yeah…this is a smart way to start this post…

If you didn’t pick it up from my little skit there, I did not know what I was getting into but I sure thought I did. The production value for this show is decent. animation can get a bit visibly cheap with reused scenes and stills with offscreen battles but for the most part, everything is well done. Voice acting is quite good, colours stick to a signature palette, design and art is pretty.

Unfortunately, I think this pretty design and art is in fact doing Saiyuki Reload Blast a disservice. I took one look at those chiseled young men and their intricate costumes (all different and this is important) and I immediately thought, this is clearly an otome. At best it’s a poor man’s Touken Ranbu which remains one of the best cute boy shows I’ve ever seen and also only. The lack of a clear female lead was pushing me towards option number two but I was expecting some basic slice of life nonsense with historical flourishes thrown in for flavour. Some manservice and if they wanted to push it maybe a drop of hoyay suggestion.

look at all that…mancandy?

I judged it entirely on it’s cover I have to admit. I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one at that. That’s the problem you see. Those that are generally uninterested in those types of shows probably dismissed it offhand. I don’t blame them, the aesthetic is pretty glaring, and it’s not entirely wrong, the show is classified as Josei. But aside for a few scenes in the OP, there’s no fanservice at all (unless you count the lady monk with the super tight outfit) and none of the expected staples of the genre. Someone specifically looking for the show insinuated by those visuals, would be disappointed or at least, confused.

The narrative and execution of Saiyuri Reload Blast is closest to a rather traditional fighting shonen. If you had switched one of the main characters’ design to a sexy lady without changing anything else at all, you could have marketed it as such easily. The season is roughly separated into three arcs. The opening establishing arc plays out as a series of monster of the week episodes, with our main party going from one village to the next and saving them from demon attacks. It’s fine, a little dry but I’ve seen worse.

I said it was ok….

The second arc is a flashback to 500 years prior where the story starts to really from and the foundations are laid for the greater lore. It quickly became apparent the this show was basing itself on a Journey to the West, which is pretty awesome. It’s a very loose retelling but there were enough similarities for me to recognize it pretty easily, that made my appreciation for the series rise quite a bit.

This flashback arc was rich in references to classic Chinese folklore and filled with a tense atmosphere unmatched by the other episodes. I also found the flashback characters considerably more interesting. Despite how bloody and ultimately sad this arc was, it was by far my favorite part of the anime and I would have loved a season that explored just that story. The last arc brings us back to the present where past and future collide in an all out multiple episode battle.

After watching the show I found out that Saiyuri is an expansive franchise. Reload blast is only the latest in several anime incarnations, a whole series of OVAs, multiple rounds of manga, at least one movie and a stage play. This may in fact explain some of my gripes. You see, Saiyuri really plays up a lot of shonen tropes. The never ending battles, mid-fight monologues (this is so prevalent in fact that I think in the middle of battle is the only way we get an exposition), the best friend fisty cuffs, the super dramatic realization screams and the cathartic last minute saves.

Nantaku really needed more development mind you

They’re all there and all well done, except this is a 12 episode series. When you’re characters are going through this massive emotional struggle over what is a pretty silly situation in fact at episode 60, it works because you’ve grown to really know the characters and you accept their eccentricities. Also the stakes have been slowly rising so you got accustomed to it at your own pace before everything spilled over into ridiculous. Now you’re just kind of in for the ride. When the same thing happens at episode 4 you’re like, yo relax dude and this is kinda silly.

The low episode count and the need to fit in a fully realized three arc narrative with a centuries spanning background really condensed everything. To Saiyuri’s credit, the narrative was still pretty easy to follow and although the characters were pretty shallow, they weren’t completely 2 dimensional either. But the dramatic pacing is what really suffers here and ultimately will stop most people from engaging with what is at it’s core a decent, even interesting story.

mullets again…

If you happen to be interested in the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, I say give this anime a shot. It has some good moments and the parallels with Journey to the West are really fun to notice. If you like the character designs and are in the mood for a fighting anime that won’t make you commit to a high episode count, this could also be for you. Otherwise, it’s uneven and clumsy. There was enough there for me to be intrigued about the other anime seasons and-or manga but not enough for me to actively seek it out.

Also, in the very last episode we find out the jeep they have been driving in al along has a mind of its own and is in fact Hakuryuu which is Hakkai’s pet dragon. We find this out in the last 5 minutes of the last episode. Like wha??? OK, I’m done now. Oh no wait one last thing. There’s no Yokai. I mean the demons are technically yokai but they call them demons and they look like demons… this show has some failings is what I’m saying.

Favorite character: Field Marshal Tenpou (If there’s a season dedicated to the heaven’s arc – I will watch it!)

What this anime reminded me: This is the only way a monocle makes sense:

The problem with some people is that when they aren’t drunk they’re sober

Suggested drink: Berry Burbon Blast

Every time Sanzo is sleepy(ing)– take a sip

Every time Gojyo gets called a water sprite – take a sip of water

Every time Sanzo tells someone to shut up – take a sip

Every time we hear a stomach growl – get a snack

Every time Hakkai spouts random facts – humour him

Every time Gojyo’s chain scythe thingy appears out of nowhere – take a sip

Every time Nantaku gets hurt – take a sip

Every time Goku throws a fit – roll your eyes

Every time anyone smokes – take a breath

Every time there’s mid battle monologue – laugh, it’s all you can do at this point

Saiyuki Reload Blast – Journey to the Middle Genre : Action, fighting, supernatural Episodes: 12 Studio: Platinum Vision Something has awakened. Something that's been slumbering for a long time is beginning to stir and the shockwaves are being felt all over heaven and earth.

[sexydeathparty]

The Batman Reviews: Critics Brand New Film 'Bland And Forgettable' And 'One Of The Best Superhero Movies Ever'

The reviews for Robert Pattinson’s new Batman film are out – and critics can’t seem to agree on the latest adaptation of the iconic comic book series.

Media outlets began sharing their reviews of The Batman on Monday afternoon, and when we say it’s been polarising, we really mean it. While some critics have hailed the film as an “epic for our times”, holding it among “the best superhero movies ever made”, others have branded it “bland”, “forgettable” and “tiresome”.

So yes, it’s safe to say there’s a whole range of different opinions out there. Here’s just a selection of what the critics have had to say…

The Times (2/5)

“The performances are as complex as the colour palette (ie not very). 

“Pattinson, who has delivered so many thrilling turns recently, struggles to elevate his antihero beyond a pouty emo brat. A latex-covered Colin Farrell, however, in the underused role of the Penguin, seems to be having a blast throughout. I’m glad that someone did.”

The New York Post (2/5) 

“Bland and forgettable… In the latest perfunctory film, The Batman, Gotham is bleaker than ever. Too bleak, if you ask me.

“Director Matt Reeves’ downer movie embraces the realism of The Dark Knight, only without the payoff of excellent writing and acting. There’s an unshakable feeling here of ‘What’s the point?’.”

BBC News

“Most of the action is sluggish, the twists aren’t exactly shocking, and the Riddler is nowhere near as terrifying or as ingenious as Heath Ledger’s Joker was. But, in its own way, The Batman is still impressive.

“As grim as the Burton, Nolan and Snyder films were, Reeves and his team have fashioned their own distinctive and stylish variety of grimness, and they commit to it for three whole hours. Frankly, it’s amazing that they got away with it.”

The Guardian (3/5)

“Inevitably, night falls on the latest Batman iteration with the cloudy sense that – of course – nothing has really been at stake. A classy turn from Pattinson, however, as the crime fighter with an injured soul.”

Mashable

“It’s almost like Reeves forgot superhero movies should be fun. Sure, there are action sequences, big-budget and full of spectacle. There are villains, vicious and eccentric.

“Sometimes, there’s even a bit of grim humour amid the avalanche of exposition and Batman scowling... But Reeves appears more interested in creating grisly pageantry than entertainment.”

The Hollywood Reporter

“It’s a soulful nocturne of corruption and chaos, and as much as I longed for a few more glimmers of humour, at no point during the hefty three-hour run time did my attention wander.

“But this film hammers home the realisation that somewhere along the line, someone — probably Christopher Nolan — decided that Batman movies should no longer be fun.”

Entertainment Weekly (B)

“Even Batmen get the blues. Still, Robert Pattinson’s damaged young billionaire may be the Darkest Knight yet… For nearly three hours he gives great mood – and while that is not quite the same thing as a great movie, writer-director Matt Reeves nearly wills it to be in his sprawling, operatic update.”

Evening Standard

“There’s a lot of plot, but for almost the entire running time, I was amused, intoxicated and shocked. Though some punches are pulled, this ‘young Batman’ yarn is definitely not canon… Truly, this is an epic for our times.”

TheWrap

“Pattinson conveys a fascinating fragility behind the façade of his impenetrable armour that leads Bruce Wayne into even unhappier places than the ones he started in, and that journey marks a shift that’s pointedly different from previous incarnations of the character, if only because it actually gives him somewhere to go when they inevitably make a couple of sequels.

“For all of his psychological trappings, Batman ultimately has been a pretty one-dimensional gloomy-Gus on screen, and I don’t mean to damn the film with faint praise by celebrating the fact that here, he actually gets a character arc, one that makes you root for him as a person and not just as a hero.”

USA Today

“Pattinson’s main man holds down a revamped Gotham that feels distinctively gritty with its blueprint of madness and mayhem, a place you would never want to live in but still would love to revisit as soon as possible.”

ScreenRant (4/5)

“One of the best [Batman movies]... Reeves and his team have crafted a Batman film that offers a different side to the hero audiences have come to know and love.

“With exhilarating action scenes, a layered story, and poignant, in-depth characterisation, The Batman is a worthy addition to the live-action DC slate.”

Variety

“This grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.”

Den Of Geek

“One of the best superhero movies ever made… Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s The Batman is a magnificent achievement: a crime epic that stands apart from previous versions of the character.”

Digital Spy (5/5)

“The level of detail and technical skill that has gone into creating this new version of Gotham City is why the [three-hour] runtime never becomes an issue. It’s a world you’re happy to luxuriate in, filled with fascinating characters that, although they’re well-known, feel different to what’s come before.

“It’s easy to get Batman wrong, but Reeves never even threatens to do so. The Batman is an enthralling, chilling and fresh new take on the iconic DC hero that’ll leave you desperate for another visit to this impeccably-crafted world.”

The Batman arrives in UK cinemas on 4 March.

READ MORE:

Colin Farrell 'Fought Valiantly' To Keep One Of The Penguin's Trademarks In The Batman, To No Avail

Robert Pattinson Tried To Change Batman’s Famous Gruff Voice And It Did Not End Well

OK, We Need To Talk About Colin Farrell's Unbelievable Transformation In The Batman

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[trashartandmovies]

Berlinale Film Festival 2021, Industry Event, Day 1

We all knew the 71st Berlinale would be different, but who’d have guessed we’d be given a twofer? At this point, the juries for the Competition, Encounters, Shorts, and Generations sections have all handed out their awards. These juries got to watch the films in their respective categories on the big screen. Meanwhile, the press were given the opportunity to screen these movies at home, as well as the films in the Berlinale Special, Panorama, Forum and Forum Expanded sections, as well as the six films making up the Perspektive Deutsches Kino category and episodes from the six television shows included in Berlinale Series. (The always excellent Retrospective section is only screening during the summer.) Altogether, around 150 at-home screenings were made available to the press. We had five days to watch them. I was able to watch 22 of them. This is Part One.

———

I’m sure everyone covering the festival is hoping that the Summer Special, in mid-June, will go smoothly and we’ll be able to catch at least a fraction of the movies we weren’t able to see. (For geo-blocking streaming reasons, a few films in the lineup weren’t available at all in my geo-region. Including two in the Competition: the FABIAN adaptation and Daniel Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut NEXT DOOR.) Usually, the press is given a week ahead of the festival to check out the Panorama, Forum and Generations titles. One assumes it’s so that audiences may get some recommendations on these lower-profile movies in the inevitable situation when all the high-profile films are sold out. Will this happen in the summer? Unless I missed a press release, the details around the Summer Special are still a bit vague. Rightfully so, since we’re still living in week-by-week uncertainty as far as lockdown measures go.

All we can do now is cross our fingers and hope for a chance to get a look at some of the these titles, because when presented with the challenge of covering a 150-movie lineup over just five days, you have to make some obvious decisions. I suspect many people did what I did — try to watch all the Competition titles and get in a few Encounters, Specials, some shorts and hold out hope for one or two stray Panoramas or Forums. To make matters more heartbreaking, the press screenings went like this: every morning at 7:00 AM, you’d get an impossibly long list of films to watch until 7:00 AM next morning. You’d get a few Competition titles, a few Encounters and Specials, and a deluge of films from the other categories. For many films, all you could do is look at the title, nod, and say to yourself, hopefully we’ll meet again soon, because there’s no way I can fit a sixth movie in today without losing my mind.

(Now there was a wrinkle added to this plan. Over the weekend of March 6 - 7, the press could screen the award winners that got announced on Friday. But it was difficult to try and take this into consideration in any strategic way.)

———

Like most film festivals, Berlinale usually kicks things off with a star-studded opening night movie that’s usually too mainstream for the critics. With no red carpet to be concerned with this year, that wasn’t the case. Instead, on Day One, the closest to a big movie star name was Iain Glen (Game of Thrones). Glen isn’t the lead in Tim Fehlbaum’s TIDES, shown in the Berlinale Special program, but he does play a key role as an astronaut who’s landed back on Earth, generations after human had mostly left the increasingly inhabitable planet. Humans have been living in a space colony called Kepler, but everyone ended up sterile, so missions are being sent back to Earth in the hopes that they can once again live there and get their reproductive groove back.

That’s the underlying story of TIDES, and it’s just one element that will likely feel very familiar to anyone who’s well-versed in post-apocalyptic cinema. The color palette is stark, with muted colors. The landscape is barren, this one with lots of water, rather than the desert locales of Mad Max. In fact, the notorious WATERWORLD came to mind more than once while watching TIDES. There’s even a doll in the film that looks just like Dennis Hopper’s character in that film, eye patch and everything. That little detail may be one of the most interesting things about the film.

The main character of TIDES is another astronaut, played with a committed intensity by Nora Arnezeder. She crash lands on Earth, is held captive by central casting post-apocalyptic scavengers, and eventually tries to track down a McGuffin that will let her contact Kepler and report back that there are people reproducing on Earth. Meanwhile, she also suspects that something might remain of the previous mission that was comprised of her father and Iain Glen.

The main attraction here is Fehlbaum’s use of stunning landscapes and practical locations, like a beached industrial ocean liner that serves as inspiration for one of the primary sets. The art design and costumes are all exceptional, while the acting and photography are all decent enough. But it never does much with the conspiracy it tries to entertain us with. Its attempts at being thrilling look good, but can’t help but feel like pretty standard stuff at this point. It’s worth noting that one of the film’s producers is Roland Emmerich, a man who knows a thing or two about making generic high concept action pictures. Some things, like the art design and the pleasingly diverse and international cast, set TIDES apart. But the story is far less inspired.

Faring better were the Day One Competition titles. I started with MEMORY BOX, a lively picture wherein a daughter gets to better understand her mother when a box of the mom’s old teenage diaries and correspondence ends up on their doorstep. (This mother-daughter connection is essentially the same theme that Céline Sciamma’s PETITE MAMAN covers in a different, more sci-fi, fashion.) As the daughter, living in a nice house in Montreal, digs into her mother’s old journals, scrapbooks and tape recordings, the film travels back to 1980s Beirut through the eyes of her teenage mom. It makes these trips back in time through some pretty cool moments of collage-like animation — putting scrapbook pages into motion and diving into photographs and contact sheets that come alive. Plus, the soundtrack is killer, full of lively 80s post punk like Killing Joke, The Stranglers and Blondie.

There’s romance, the trauma of war, a strong refugee story, and a poignant tale of cross-generational understanding. The kicker is that it’s very autobiographical, with the film mirroring co-director Joana Hadjithomas’s own story of corresponding with her friend in Paris while Beirut was falling down around her. These journals are backed up by old photographs taken in Beirut from the other co-director, Kahil Joreige. Like last year’s fascinating BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS, and this year’s A COP MOVIE, Berlinale movies are continuing to find success in blurring the line between documentary and narrative fiction. The movie has a little trouble maintaining momentum all the way through, but I loved the experimentation on display here, and the unique ways it tells its story. It helps that MEMORY BOX really sticks the landing at the end.

Next up was ICH BIN DEIN MENSCH, or I’M YOUR MAN — another film, like many in recent years, interested in the ethics behind artificial intelligence and robots with emotions. Think of it as a romantic comedy version of BLADE RUNNER, or an updated version of the forgotten-by-time Ann Magnuson and John Malkovich vehicle MAKING MR. RIGHT. This one, based on a recent short story by Emma Braslavsky, is directed by Maria Schrader, who recently helmed the popular Netflix series Unorthodox (she’s also a veteran film and TV actress, from Tatort and Deutschland 86 to AIMEE & JAGUAR). Schrader continues to prove that she has a good eye for framing and storytelling. The movie doesn’t always escape the problem that many German movies continue to struggle with, which is that they often feel like a good TV movie rather than a work of cinema, but it manages better than most.

The general idea is that Maren Eggert plays Alma, a researcher who is assigned the task of spending a couple weeks with a new personal companion robot named Tom, played by the dreamy-eyed Dan Stevens. Alma is, of course, a completely rational-minded person who is happy to just get through the two weeks with as little interaction with Tom as possible. In her mind, it’s an impossibility that a piece of technology could fulfill a human being’s needs. Of course, as each day goes by, Tom continues to surprise her and wear down her defenses.

It’s a pretty well-worn story by now. The issues that get raised over the course of the movie are some that Star Trek: The Next Generation was dealing with on a regular basis (Tom is similar to Data, though Stevens doesn’t need any special contact lenses), but there are some interesting wrinkles here. Few movies have looked at this subject from the female perspective. And if there’s one that that this year’s Berlinale truly excelled at, it’s offering a wide variety of movies by female directors and/or with female leads. We’ve covered three movies that fit that criteria already, and many more will come. What’s more, Maren Eggert gives us a character who’s at an age where she’s wrestling with the question of whether or not her child-bearing days are behind her. When’s the last time Hollywood dealt with that subject? So, while Alma starts off as a very emotionally distant, academic type, and the best thing about the movie is uncovering her past and getting to understand why she has put up so many walls. I’m not sure it does much with the subject of AI or robot companions, but it does provide a charming odd-couple story and I don’t have any complaints with Eggert winning the festival’s best actress award.

The nightcap on Day One was INTEURODEOKSYEON, or INTRODUCTION, the newest film by the prolific Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo. At last year’s Berlinale, Sangsoo was also in the Competition with the excellent THE GIRL WHO RAN, and he doesn’t disappoint with INTRODUCTION. Ironically enough, if you’re unfamiliar with Hong Sangsoo and don’t know where to start — understandable given the nearly 30 films he’s directed in the past 25 years — INTRODUCTION ain’t a bad way to start. It’s not his best work, but it’s pretty damn good, and a very accessible entry-point into the man’s style and thematic interests. And it barely cracks the 60-minute mark, so you’re not committing to much.

This one ping-pongs between a young man, Youngho, and a young woman, Juwan, both trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Juwan wants to study fashion in Berlin, Youngho wants to become an actor. Both run into problems with these pursuits — some of which are out of their control. In Youngho’s case, it leads to a hilariously drunken dinner confrontation with Ki Joo-bong, who may or may not be playing a version of himself, since he’s only credited as “Old Actor.” The esteemed Korean actor Joo-bong has appeared in Park Chan-wook films, SAVE THE GREEN PLANET, as well as few of Sangsoo’s other films and some 70 other movies. In INTRODUCTION, his character is revered by every other person he meets. And his advice to Youngho is an eruptive highlight in a movie that’s otherwise pretty subtle.

Subtlety is often Sangsoo’s thing, but the emotions he leaves you with tend to be pretty strong. This is his magic. He writes very realistic, dialog-driven scenes that, on their own, are nuanced and deceptively simple. But these quiet scenes build up to an ending that makes everything come together in a profound way. Even if you’re familiar with Sangsoo’s work, INTRODUCTION may come across as slight, or a minor work in the maestro’s deep catalog, but I found it’s pleasures to be more immediate than usual. To my knowledge, no one is writing screenplays like this. The way he reveals characters, develops them, and draws connections through casual lines of dialog, sometimes nested deep within a conversation, is practically his trademark move, and it’s never not remarkable. It demands your attention and then rewards it at the end. His technique is patient, confident and hugely sophisticated. The only problem I see is that, given his track record of releasing one or two movies a year, his talent is in danger of being taken. Don’t be one of those people.

[lifebetweenlines]

Thursday

Once again, I fall victim to my slothiness so I decide to change up my routine by writing this post as first order of business after my morning workout (on another note, I’m on my day 2 of 30-day summer challenge by MadFit). Let’s see how both endeavors will fare in the end. For whatever it’s worth, I finished Little Women yesterday and like a reflex, I was dreaded by the urge of writing a book review on Goodreads. I’ve been so wishy washy with the habit of reflecting upon how a book leaves an impression on me in gazillion ways. I struggle even with scratching on the surface and come to terms with how incompetent I am at articulating myself. This is not a post of self-shaming, lest I read this again one day and catch myself in this thought. I feel as if I were given such a powerful tool - words and I am going in circles trying to make the full out of it. Practice makes perfect and I realise I’m still shy from committing to this 110 percent. If I want something this much, shouldn’t I have gone to the great lengths of making it happen? 

I’m thinking of documenting my styles through time. Blogging in Tumblr does a good minimum at this job but I want to expand my palette beyond words. Urgg my mind is all over the place, oh my god. I need to commit to one thing at a time, toil and moil and see how far I can go. Hope it will be something further than sitting on my mattress because I have yet to get a decent table and chair (another telltale proof of my wishy-washiness) 

Anyhow, I’m loving the sky right now though it’s cloudy and somber-looking. In fact, I love it all the time but let’s be specific, shan’t we?

I realise I have used “first order of business” the second time in my life and both times are on this blog. It occurs to me so organically that I can’t think of anything else that is close to capture the same essence of my intention. Also, a new phrase I’ve learnt from Little Women - “blush and blunder”. I posted a photo of my room view of the skyline yesterday on Instagram and captioned it “All blush and no blunder” as my personal spin on the original.

I’m reading through my all posts and something interesting came up - I keep mixing up two, to and too.

[aion-rsa]

The First Mission: Impossible Still Has One of the Greatest Action Set Pieces

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It was a rare thing even back then. Inside movie houses across America, the silence was so acute you could hear a popcorn kernel drop—never mind pens. That was because on the big beautiful cinema screen, Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt was performing what 25 years and six Mission: Impossible movies later may still be his greatest stunt. And there weren’t any motorcycles revving up, nor was there a plane taking off. All we needed was an actor dangling from a wire over a glass floor. If you looked closely, too, out of the corner of his eye there suddenly would be a single drop of perspiration, which if it hit the floor meant game over. Trust us, Tom, you weren’t the only one sweating bullets that day.

This crackerjack sequence is the centerpiece of Brian De Palma’s first Mission: Impossible, and it remains a marvel today: an exercise in tension and a showcase of the benefits that come from letting a true master of his craft handle a summer blockbuster. It certainly became the calling card for Tom Cruise’s burgeoning reinvention of himself in the 1990s as an Übermensch action hero, and perhaps more importantly a movie producer. Indeed, Mission: Impossible was the first film Cruise produced with Paula Wagner via his new production company. It’s not a coincidence, then, that is where Cruise’s new clout began allowing him to work with auteurs who could rarely say no to his demands that he do his own stunts, sometimes at 25,000 feet.

Of course that more extravagant derring-do came later. In 1996, Mission: Impossible was all about the crafting of a sleek and wonderfully knotty thriller that tied itself up in circles while delivering perfectly calibrated thrills. Even for all the script’s high pedigree, with talent like Steven Ziallian (Schindler’s List), Robert Towne (Chinatown), and David Koepp at the peak of his post-Jurassic Park glow working on the screenplay, this movie only ever wanted to be a basic framework on which to hang one De Palma showstopper after another.

And the payoff of that approach is never clearer than in the buildup and execution of “the vault” sequence in the original movie. Narratively, there’s some mumbo jumbo reason for Mission: Impossible suddenly turning into a heist movie: Ethan Hunt (Cruise) has been burned by the CIA after a frame job suggests he killed his own team to steal half of the NOC List—a data file that comprises every undercover American agent operating in Europe. But for reasons that are never exactly clear, the list is worthless without its other half, which is stored in the belly of the CIA beast at Langley.

To clear his name, Cruise is basically going to have to double down by actually stealing the other half of the NOC list. If you’re wondering why, you’re asking the wrong question. The entire appeal of the Mission: Impossible movies is how. And the how is a wonder to behold here.

Five years before Steven Soderbergh got credit for reinventing the heist genre with his Ocean’s 11 remake, many of the conventions were implemented by De Palma first: a voiceover narration by the protagonist, listing the obstacles and worst case scenarios his team is about to face? Check. The film then cross-cutting the actual mechanics of the heist with the team still discussing how they’ll pull it off? Yep. And an emphasis on a mark whose life they’re about to ruin? Just look at that poor bastard played by Rolf Saxon, a nine-to-five schmuck who after letting himself be momentarily distracted by Emmanuelle Béart (it happens) spends the rest of his screen time vomiting in trash cans and being banished to the North Pole by superiors.

It’s all here, but most of all there is an almost giddy embrace of filmmaking craft and tension-building. For most of his career, De Palma has chased the long shadow of Alfred Hitchcock and his masterful cinematic games of suspense. While this particular Mission: Impossible scene doesn’t dabble in doppelgangers and murder—two other De Palma motifs taken from Hitch that recur elsewhere in M:I—he nonetheless achieves one of his greatest suspense sequences inside the CIA vault, and it feels wholly original.

As Saxon’s CIA analyst struggles with repeated emergencies in the bathroom, Cruise is forced to dangle from an air vent over a CIA vault with such high security that in addition to the floor being pressure sensitive, he must keep as still as possible or risk his body raising the overall temperature in the room. Meanwhile if a sound louder than a whisper is made, the computer Ethan is hoping to hack will be shut down, and all the exits in the building will be locked.

So Cruise dangles from the air for a grueling nine minutes, floating with graceful, willowy precision in a cold, sterile vacuum. With a binary color scheme of white walls offset by Cruise’s tight black shirt and silvery gray gloves, the visual palette is as intentionally muted as the characters’ lips. There is no score, almost no dialogue, and each time the decibel counter on Ethan’s wrist rises, or the temperature in the room increases by a fraction of a degree, the audience gasps.

In the same summer movie season that gave us aliens blowing up the White House in Independence Day, and a tornado roaring like it’s a goddamn lion in Twister, the restraint and intelligence of this Mission: Impossible showstopper was shocking. It still is, as the commercial side of the industry continues to go the other way—to the point where the idea of a blockbuster starring scientists chasing a tornado seems downright highbrow.

Similarly, action spectacle has leaned with an ever heavier hand on computer generated nonsense. Perhaps it’s a key reason that the Mission: Impossible movies remain a generally celebrated breath of fresh air in the Hollywood tentpole landscape. Twenty-five years since the original movie’s release, Cruise is still doing these Ethan Hunt adventures, and narratively they’ve only gotten better, with the most recent two written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie being the best in the series. Their commitment to in-camera stunts and sophisticated action set pieces that put the focus on Cruise doing dazzling feats, however, feels even more vital now than then, as action sequences costing tens of millions of dollars, with digitized superhero sprites fighting hordes of animated robots, has come to dominate multiplexes more than ever before.

By contrast, Cruise’s memories about the difficulties of shooting the vault scene in 1996 are illuminating.

“I wasn’t really balanced that well [in the air],” Cruise said in a junket interview at the time. “So there were a few times where you hit the ground and you’re holding that position. It was exhausting. Brian was ready to finally say, ‘Okay, I’m going to have to divide this into two different shots.’” Today, it’d be worse: they’d say they could do it all on a computer. Yet it was Cruise’s idea (at least by how he tells it) to turn his body into a proverbial scale, and use British currency coins as his counterweights.

“I had them hook me up, hang me, put a couple of pounds in each shoe to balance myself, because I kept falling and smacking my head on the floor,” Cruise said. “I couldn’t balance it, physically. Finally, when we did it and I got the balance right… it worked, and Brian just left me hanging there just to get all of it. We had three different cameras going.”

Read more

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Audio Surfaces of Tom Cruise Raging on the Set of Mission: Impossible 7

By Kirsten Howard

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How Different Directors Made Their Mark on Mission: Impossible Movies

By Tim George

Cruise and his director ended up skipping lunch that day so they could get every shot they needed of Ethan hanging over the pressure sensitive floor, operating the computer terminal, and even catching that lonely bead of sweat. The insistence by the star and director to get it in camera, to the point where Cruise was carrying a few quid in each boot, was a rarity then and is nearly unheard of now.

Here’s to hoping that Cruise work ethic, which carried him from that vault to genuinely scaling the world’s largest building in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, never touches the floor.

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[doodlewash]

My name is Nicoline Mann and I’m from Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. I have always been deeply inspired by nature and animals. I loved drawing as a kid and even considered going to art school as a young adult, but my mom advised me that art was a hobby not a career. I didn’t trust that I could make a living as an artist or that I was good enough anyway, so I abandoned it entirely for a couple of decades in favour of “real” jobs.

Until one day in February 2017 I felt so exhausted I couldn’t get out of bed, and I remained there for 2 weeks. As I slowly tried getting back to my old life, I realized it was impossible. I later discovered that I had ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome). During this time, and desperate to not fall into depression, I had the urge to draw again so I drew a Basset Hound that I felt compelled to add colour to. I found my daughters old watercolour pans from elementary school and I painted the Basset blue! The next day I did the same thing with a German Shepherd in bright pinks and a black Sharpie. I had never used watercolour before but found playing with it instantly lifted my mood and made me feel hopeful again.

I posted my playful dogs on Facebook and was surprised by the happy responses of my friends and family. I started receiving pet commissions that inadvertently and unexpectedly started my art business! Because I really had no idea what I was doing, I got very tense with the commissions. Even though I charged very low prices, I felt an obligation to do an incredible job and I found I wasn’t able to capture the lightheartedness and playfulness I felt when doing it just for me. Within a few short months of my fledgling pet portrait business I developed severe tendonitis in my right arm and was unable to hold anything in my hand for several months. I painted and drew with my left hand at this time, but I kept those to myself! Having art taken away from me so quickly, made me realize how much I loved it and needed it in my life.

As my arm healed I explored doing illustrative style of portraits and committed to a self-imposed 100 days of dogs series on Instagram. A few days into my challenge people started asking if their dog could be in the 100. It was such an incredible experience that developed my social network while also developing my skills! Each portrait was the size of a trading card (2″x3″). At first I cut Arches paper to size, but decided to purchase precut sizes available from Strathmore and they were perfect! I used 140 lbs coldpress precut Strathmore 400 Series trading cards and sketched the dogs directly onto the paper.

It takes erasing well and is a durable paper for this purpose. I then used a size 3 micron pen to outline some of the dog, then did light washes of watercolour overtop. Finally I added the name of the dog, the number out of 100 for that card and the dogs information (provided by the owner) onto the back of the cards. At the end of the project I offered the dog portraits to the owners for $35 and approximately 60 of them sold. They were shipped all over the world including, the UK, the Philippines, Australia, Hawaii, Canada and the USA. It was a slightly exhausting experience, but it gave me purpose and connection with others which was incredibly enriching and rewarding.

Since then I have taken a slower approach to my art and business. I continue to be realistic with my art, but because I still struggle with tendinitis I realize that my arm does not appreciate a tight style of art. Due to my physical limitations, I have begun seeking out teachers who offer a looser style of painting. I have been learning from Louise De Masi and most recently signed up for Jean Haines online school. I feel my sweetspot may be somewhere in the middle between their two beautiful styles, but only time will tell!

My approach to painting an animal is always the same. I ask for several photos of the pet in various poses and favourite images from the owner. I study the animal for a long time, looking at its features, eye colour, how its hair lays or curls and any unique or interesting features I want to highlight. I also ask the owners to tell me about their pet so that I can get a feel for it’s personality and soul. I sketch it out on sketch paper first and then transfer my drawing to my watercolour paper using a lightbox, window or transfer paper.

I used to try and capture every detail of the animal, but am now concentrating on only a few details while keeping the rest of the animal more implied. I then pick out the colours I will use. Most animals can be painted with a very limited palette. I always use French Ultramarine, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow, and Burnt Sienna. Sometimes I also use van dyke brown, sepia, raw sienna and burnt umber. I like to work wet-in-wet for most of the animal and then wet on dry for the details. I pay particular attention to the eyes because if they aren’t right, nothing is right.

​

My favourite paints to use are Daniel Smith and M. Graham. M. Graham is wonderful for people who have physical issues with their painting arm and hand. They use honey as a binder, so the paint remains soft and is very easy to reconstitute. Sometimes just getting paint ready to use or mixing it can be too much for someone with arthritis, carpal tunnel or tendonitis. I highly recommend a honey-based professional paint like M. Graham for someone who has these issues.

​

My favourite papers for commissions are cold press 300lbs Legion Stonehenge or Arches in bright white. I have found the 140 lbs Arches buckles too much for my style and I don’t have the energy to stretch paper or make it flat afterwards. I like to use Strathmore 500 Series 140lb paper in cold press and hot press for studies. It doesn’t buckle as much as Arches at the same weight, is bright white, comes precut in popular sizes, stays fairly flat even with a lot of water and is very affordable! My favourite brushes to use are Silver Black Velvet in size 10 and size 6, I also use smaller brushes by Rosemary & Co. for the detail work.

My work continues to evolve as I grow and develop as an artist. I used to think that art was talent someone was born with, but easily see now that it is a skill that can be developed and honed with practice. I’ve also come to see how incredibly therapeutic it is to have an art practice while also being shown the places where I can grow. In the beginning I felt like I needed to prove that I was a good artist in order to be taken seriously.

I felt like everything I created needed to look incredible or I shouldn’t share it. This was my perfectionism speaking and we still have words with each other, but she’s learning to trust and realize that perfection is the feeling one has while creating and not just the outcome. Art has made me see the world through a new lens, nothing looks as it used to. I notice so much more than I ever did before and have become an amateur botanist and birder along the way because of it.

Through art my love of nature and animals has only deepened. The gifts art continues to give, in the people I meet, the wisdom gained, the skills learned, the new ways of seeing, they all continue to astound and delight me. It is a gift and honour to be an artist and I am incredibly proud and humbled to call myself one.

Thanks again for this opportunity Charlie, it has been a delight revisiting the origins of my art journey!

Nicoline Mann Website Instagram Facebook

GUEST ARTIST: "Art For Therapy And Personal Development" by Nicoline Mann - #doodlewash #WorldWatercolorGroup #watercolor #watercolour My name is Nicoline Mann and I'm from Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. I have always been deeply inspired by nature and animals.

[anneedmonsonus]

The Hilton Fibro Cottage Renovation

I love this house. This is the former home of our friends Tim and Caity Phillips, it’s a cool renovation and a house that I like because it suits its owners down to a tee. You guys may already know Tim’s name from some of my earlier posts; he and his TJP Carpentry team put up the cladding as part of our Scyon Walls makeover, and they also recently completed our new deck. It was actually through House Nerd that I met Tim and Caity; I got Tim’s name from a House Nerd reader who recommended him as a carpenter years ago, and completely by chance we were looking for a carpenter that week – and it randomly turned out Caity already followed my blog! Now we’re lucky to call Tim and Caity friends. Little Nerd in particular worships them with the kind of awed reverence Mr Nerd and I only dream of attaining.

The first time I visited Tim and Caity’s house was when they opened up their backyard for a gig as part of Parlour Gigs, an initiative where people can host musicians to play in their homes. With their huge oak tree and deck, it was an awesome setting for live music and I fell in love with the house as a whole. I could 100 percent see why they were sad to sell it (and yes they sold it not long after we did our shoot – more on that later!)

GREEN ENVY: Plants at every corner pay homage to the home’s roots – the house was rumoured to have once been used as a plant nursery. Photos by Heather Robbins.

I feel like I have to pop in a disclaimer here, because we all know I am a terrible blogger but this is particularly embarrassing. Heather (Robbins) and I shot this home AGES ago, just before Tim and Caity put it on the market… at the end of 2017, I believe. WHAT THE. Insert monkey emoji covering his eyes. In my defense, we had a limited amount of time to shoot the house quickly before Caity and Tim styled it to sell, because I just knew a house like theirs would be snatched up quickly (and it was – it spent only two weeks on the market before the Phillips accepted an offer).

Shortly after Heather and I visited, I got pregnant and spent the next ten months throwing up as fun, unsponsored posts like this one took a backseat for a while, as pretty much all my energy went towards doing the bare minimum of sponsored posts to get me through. Obviously I have no qualms about doing sponsored content, but home tours like these (and personal ramblings) are still the stories I love to share the most. That said, they’re also the ones I tend to put the most into. Whenever a house like this crosses my path, I feel this funny sense to ‘do it justice’ and to write it as best as I can. And when the owners are my friends, or when I meet them and they turn out to be people I really like (which, if I’m honest, tends to be pretty much all of them) then I feel this even greater need to put together something I hope they’ll be proud of.

I can’t even say this is just a House Nerd thing; I was this obsessive back when I just used to write features for the paper and magazines. I’d spend WAY more time and energy on the stories of the houses I loved (and the home owners I liked) than the ones that I was indifferent to, which I could dash off and shoot through to my editor in half an hour. The downfall of the overcommitted, procrastinating perfectionist, people. Sometimes it feels like a fault; like everything I do must be my full effort or I feel dissatisfied. I don’t even think it’s about trying to do something ‘perfectly’, it is just about effort. I can’t do anything half-arsed. I must put full arse into everything. That sounded wrong and will probably bring me some unsavoury SEO. (2019 New Year’s Resolution – stop being weird. Finish what I have in my folders before enthusiastically committing myself to more and more and more like I’m still a-20-something-uni-student-with-no-kids).

Anyway – back to the story. Tim and Caity met years ago through mutual friends – Caity was best friends with the drummer of Tim’s band (“We had a real love-hate relationship in the beginning,” says Caity, but the thought seems laughable now; they are one of the best-suited couples we know) and were living in a share house in Attadale. They had just returned from four months travelling through Europe when they decided to start looking for a place of their own, feeling like it was time to have their own space. Initially they were looking to rent before realising it would actually be cheaper to buy. “We’d originally been looking at renting,” says Tim. “But it was peak time on the rental market and we were really struggling to find anything that we liked without paying a huge amount every week- so much so that we realised it would just about be cheaper for us to buy our own place and pay a mortgage. We had a broad area we liked but kind of fell in love with Hilton and honed the search in here.” They bought their house in May 2014.

Hilton was designed under the state government’s post World War II ‘garden suburbs’ initiative, with single homes on larger blocks and wide verges, and the suburb has no shortage of timber and timber-framed cottages; one of its attractions for Tim and Caity. “As Tim is a carpenter, we loved the idea of a timber frame house that we could easily work on, along with plenty of trees and room for a dog,” says Caity.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER.“Our favourite paint colour is Dulux Lexicon,” says Caity of the white they chose for both inside and outside. “We’ve used it on practically everything and love how bright and calming it is. We made a bold choice in choosing gloss black for our architraves but think it really paid off. The architraves and black door handles become such a great focus point now.” Photos by Heather Robbins.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

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BEFORE

AFTER. “The house is really small at just 120sqm but it’s on a 640sqm block so we have a lot of external living space,” says Caity. Photos by Heather Robbins.

The home they ended up buying was a 1950s fibro cottage with jarrah floorboards. A previous owner had clad the fibro exterior in cedar weatherboards, and although the house was looking worn, Tim and Caity knew it could come up a treat. Inside, every room was a different colour. “There was avocado green, lemon yellow, pink, purple and maroon,” Caity remembers. “We never really loved the look of the house but we fell in love with the feeling we got from it. After we moved in we wondered what we had got ourselves into.”

Over the next three years they painstakingly worked on and off on every room, with the older house throwing up some fun curveballs. “From the get go we had to repair things we weren’t expecting,” says Caity. “We had to gut the entire master bedroom, because the false ceiling was falling down, and then found the original ceiling above it was falling down too. We also found quite a few roof leaks in our first winter. We remember coming home one day to practically find a waterfall in our spare bedroom.”

SCYON CLADDING: A previous owner had overclad the original fibro cottage with cedar weatherboards. Tim and Caity restored some of these and painted them white, but at the front of the house they replaced the whole front with Scyon Linea cladding. Photos by Heather Robbins.

The shabby external cedar weatherboards were restored and painted white, and Tim and Caity replaced the whole front of the house with new Scyon Linea boards. The old original veranda had at one stage been turned into additional space and a bedroom, so Tim and Caity extended the front to create a new veranda with timber decking and a paneled ceiling, where Tim added skylights. For the garden they called in the help of friends, Moloney Gardens, who put in lawns and reticulation, while other friends Fozlek Electrical helped out too.

Quaint is a good way to describe this house, where walls are wonky and the old jarrah floor in the front bedroom (originally a veranda, see below) isn’t quite level. “We’re pretty sure there isn’t a single straight wall in the house!” laughs Caity. But somehow things like this just add to the home’s charm.

“Our records are currently stored in a vintage buffet unit that my dad picked up at Vinnies for $5,” says Caity. “He’s since passed away, so even though it’s practically falling apart, we can’t bring ourselves to get rid of it. He also made the shell lamp that is in our lounge room. When he passed, it was the one thing of his that I really, really wanted to have.” Photos by Heather Robbins.

Tim says the part of the renovation they were most happy with would be the kitchen. “It was an IKEA kitchen put in by the previous owners. Cream cupboards and a tiny round sink. We swapped the door fronts to gloss white, made up some matte black panels, a cupboard over the fridge and put on black handles and a bigger black sink. It completely changed the feel of the house in one weekend and at a minimal cost too.” Photos by Heather Robbins.

Being just five minutes from the beach, where they take their kelpies, Mabel and Tiger, each morning, Tim and Caity wanted to give the house a coastal-inspired ambience. “We love the beach, so we wanted that sort of carefree vibe, but still keeping it basic with a monochrome palette,” says Caity. “We used a lot of jarrah and greenery to add colour.” Another thing I love about Tim and Caity’s style is their confident use of black. I am a big believer in the adage that every interior needs a touch of black, and they’ve used it in unexpected ways like with black gloss on the doorframes, making them a feature with new doors in a VJ style.

Both work long hours (they say that recently making the decision to get a cleaner in on Fridays was the best idea they’ve had in a long time!) Caity works for MRL, Tim plays football on top of running TJP Carpentry, and Caity used to own a shop and coffee hub in Fremantle, Calypso Warehouse. So home is about relaxing (or trying to, in between demolition work and renovations). “We are both pretty busy people, so when we come home we want to be able to relax and feel like we’re on holiday,” says Caity. “We find that our house is often influenced by our travels. A trip to New York led us to select more industrial, warehouse kind of furniture while a trip to Bali led us to choose more soft furnishings and tropical plants. We pick up a lot of our little bits and pieces from vintage shops. We don’t specifically seek out these things; we just stumble upon them and feel like they fit.”

AFTER

They share a similar design aesthetic (although one difference is that Tim is tidy, Caity is not!) “Our styles are pretty much the same,” says Tim. “The only real compromise we’ve had to make is that I wanted a custom-built kitchen and Caity was happy to just replace the fronts on the IKEA kitchen that was already there. We compromised by keeping the layout, using IKEA drawer and cupboard fronts and then I built some custom cabinets and put in custom-made side panels.” “It actually worked out really well!” says Caity. “We couldn’t have been happier with the result.”

Tim’s carpentry work is at every corner – he made the plumbing part shelving in the study corner and the drawer unit in the kitchen, one of the first things he built in the house. “He’d already designed the overall look so my contribution was the white leather tab handles,” says Caity. “We then copied that exact style for our floating TV unit which completely opened up the lounge room space. There’s a hall table in the spare bedroom that Tim made as well. We always try to use recycled jarrah and other woods to minimise on costs and waste.”

She and Tim are two of the most social people I know, and entertained here often. “Entertaining is our favourite thing to do,” says Caity. “We’ve had countless parties and even hosted a live music gig. We love being surrounded by our family and friends.”

The gig they mention was the night they hosted under the Parlour Gigs banner, the first time I visited their house – and I remember then thinking their house had such a warm feel to it. They rushed through another stage of renovations for the gig, adding a small deck beneath the oak tree which worked as a stage and also an external powder room (in the space of a week!)

HILTON LOVE: “We love this area – being so close to the beach and the cafes in South Freo,” says Caity. “We spend most of our Sunday nights at the Local Hotel and love café-hopping for breakfasts on a Sunday morning. Hilton is so full of trees so it almost has a bush kind of vibe to it.” Photos by Heather Robbins.

FAVOURITE ROOM: Overlooking the spectacular oak tree, the back deck is their favourite part of the house. “Our oak tree covers almost the whole backyard so it’s really nice and cool in summer and then allows the back deck to be flooded with sun in the winter,” says Caity. “Our lounge room is so beautiful and cosy in winter too.” Photos by Heather Robbins.

And then… right as they finished renovations (and as so often happens) Tim and Caity decided to sell! They were sad at the thought of leaving as they love this house, but had gotten some good advice from a friend on the real estate market and decided to take the plunge and put it on the market. They accepted an offer within just two weeks. Then they went on a big trip to the States and South America and eloped in a hot air balloon in Vegas, as you do.

When they got home they threw a wedding party and promptly jumped into renovating their next buy – this one a quaint 1960s brick cottage. “It was owned by a little Italian nonna and papa I imagine,” says Caity. “The shower curtain rail comes up to my chin!” Suffice to say, it needs a lot of modernising. Their plan is to renovate this cottage and subdivide the big block and build on the back of it. You can follow along their progress at Caity’s Instagram @what.caity.did.next I’m sure I’ll do a shoot of this house in 2020, and probably write about it in 2028. Stay tuned. Maya x

HOME LOWDOWN

THE OWNERS

Tim and Caity Phillips and their two dogs, black and tan kelpie Tiger and red cloud kelpie Mabel

THEIR HOME

A fully renovated 1950s fibro cottage, since clad in weatherboards and Scyon

LOCATION

Hilton, Western Australia

PURCHASED

2014

THE BUILDER AND DESIGNER

Tim and Caity designed the interiors and did all the work themselves. Tim runs his own carpentry business, TJP Carpentry

FEATURES

Main suite with parents retreat, two minor bedrooms, open-plan kitchen, living and dining, study, workshop, bathroom, external powder room

SUPPLIERS AND TRADES

TJP Carpentry (Tim’s business) Scyon Walls Dulux Fozlek Electrical Moloney Gardens for reticulation and lawn

PHOTOGRAPHY

Heather Robbins of Heather Robbins Photography

The post The Hilton Fibro Cottage Renovation appeared first on House Nerd.

from Home Improvement https://house-nerd.com/2019/01/03/hilton-fibro-cottage/

[lucentia]

After much experimenting and researching (and spending) I wanted to share my go-to beauty products that are vegan and cruelty free (and most of them relatively inexpensive). Whether you are vegan or not PLEASE PLEASE do not buy products from brands that test on animals. Do a little research (this blog post will get you started!) because no animal’s suffering and torture is worth a lipstick. The more we show we care about this issue through what we buy, the more inclined companies will be to change.

First thing’s first: don’t throw away all your non-vegan make up. As with clothes, it’s more wasteful to just chuck it than to use it up and get your money’s worth. As you start to replace things, just put red crosses over all these brands and products that test on animals. E.g. L’Oreal. They sell to China, thus they test on animals so see ya.

Here’s the lowdown of the current rules:

The use of animals to test cosmetics products or their ingredients is banned in the UK and all other member states of the European Union.

(However, millions of animals a year are still tested on for medicinal purposes and in universities).

This law is all well and good, but products are still tested on animals in the US and China. In fact, in China, it is a legal requirement for the products to be tested on animals before they are sold. So companies that sell to China will test on animals. You are still being faced with a choice to buy ethically almost all the time but you probably didn’t even realise (these big companies are very sneaky).

Some brands that are too big, like Unilever who own basically everything, ADMIT to testing on animals. Other brands will be vague and not give clear answers, probably because they too test on animals but try to find a loophole. But their vagueness is just suspicious. If that’s all you can see them saying avoid these brands too.

There are some brands, such as Lush, that not only avoid ingredients tested on animals but actively seek to end it.

The controversy for me lies in they having products that still include beeswax, carmine, and casein (a protein from cows milk). I’m waiting for the day Lush goes all vegan. Because I would argue a brand is not 100% cruelty free (even though they don’t test on animals) if they still use stuff like beeswax which to obtain involves the exploitation of bees. See the full list of animal derived ingredients here if you want to familiarise yourself with what to look out for. Carmine for example, has multiple names such as crimson lake, natural red 4 and E120 so is something I’ve found quite difficult to spot.

It’s okay to make mistakes.  As you’re probably a bit confused right now anyway- there’s so many aspects to think about, so many products and brands to avoid that it almost seems not worth bothering. But I promise it is! It seems overwhelming at first but what a thing to boast to yourself: I do not partake in supplying funds for companies to test on guinea-pigs.

so cute!! I love u

What is more, there are still loads of options! Just because you can’t buy that Estee Lauder foundation anymore, doesn’t mean there’s not a great cruelty free and vegan alternative. Same goes for toiletries and hair products (I’ll do a separate posts on shampoos and conditioners etc- this is long already and we haven’t even got to the make up yet haha). I still buy products from brands that are not completely vegan but still cruelty free (obvs) just because it’s cheap/ it suits my skin type/ variation etc. I’m currently in the process of finding my favourite vegan make up from vegan brands that I’ll probably use again and again during the rest of my life. More and more brands are jumping on the vegan bandwagon though so keep a lookout.

Cruelty Free Kitty is a great resource.

Just google a specific product and that usually gives you a straight forward answer.

Also PETA has several useful lists which are easy to navigate.

Bookmark these resources. Look for the leaping bunny which means it’s cruelty free on the back of products. Check if the brand itself tests on animals at all or sells to China. See if there’s a vegan alternative if it isn’t labelled as suitable for vegans.

Here’s a real life scenario for you. I’ve recently been wanting a new eye shadow palette for my birthday but when I was researching (to help my family so they don’t have to), all these brands that boast about their vegan range fell short at EYE SHADOW. Weirdly, even other blogs that listed for example the ABH palettes as vegan were not correct because when I looked at the ingredients it said it contained Carmine??? I love red eye shadow, it’s so autumnal and warm, but they all seem to have boiled down crushed beetles in??? UM WHO SANCTIONS THIS?? If companies stated more clearly **contains dead bugs btw** I don’t think people would be as convinced by their sales pitches, but look at that pigmentation! I’m not, for sure.

This research took a bit of work. And I’m happy to do so for my own benefit as well as sharing my findings to make it easier for readers of this blog! But it shouldn’t have been as complicated as it was. I’ve been looking for vegan products for almost two years now and the information is still not clear. It is a current and controversial issue but one we as the consumers can definitely put pressure on.

On a more positive note, a good place to start is Superdrug. Superdrug is the superior place to visit on the high-street for beauty products – and great for on a budget! I always end up scrolling on Beauty Bay and Feel Unique but never committing to the extortionate priced items in my basket. Maybe the quality is slightly better than drugstore brands, but not £15-difference-in-price better. Instead I spend lots at Superdrug (but gotta get them deals!).

Boycott Boots, here is why Superdrug is super super:

It has a selection of great drugstore brands; you can notice a difference between a Huda pallet and a Makeup Revolution but I still get compliments on my pink eye shadow from Makeup Revolution (unfortunately turns out this palette has carmine in sigh, I tried and some of their other palettes are vegan).

THEY HAVE A COMPLETELY VEGAN AND CRUELTY FREE MAKE UP RANGE and the products are actually very reliable and good value for money. No messing about here, thank you Superdrug you’re my hero x

Everything else i.e. not make up in their own brand range is cruelty free and almost all is vegan (I’ve found some foot cream with honey in it) and the great thing is that everything is labelled clearly (!!!)

STUDENT DISCOUNT- Unidays and NUS, get on it.

A BEAUTY CARD- gotta get them points because then you get free stuff.

Thursdays you get all these extra treats if you shop in store (see ya there).

And there’s always some deal or another like 3 for 2 or get this thing free and I’m like yes this gives me an excuse to stock up on everything because I’m saving money in the long run.

e.l.f.- another completely vegan and cruelty free brand exclusively sold in Superdrug stores. It is so liberating being able to buy everything and not have to check. And I really rate most Elf products.

Any more questions or comments feel free to share! Even if you still eat meat and/or dairy and don’t want to change that part of your life, using cosmetics and toiletries that contribute to suffering is completely unnecessary and switching will still make a difference! So (finally) here are some places to get you started! I hope I’ve convinced you to do the kind and ethical thing ❤

I’ve linked most of the products to Superdrug so if you fancy a make up haul you can just use Superdrug (note, student discount is not available online cry). All of these are products that come from cruelty free brands and are vegan, even if not all products from that particular brand are vegan.

Face

Primer

e.l.f. Mineral Face Primer

Let’s start with the basics. I rate the elf primers. Affordable and do the job well. There are plenty of variations to suit different skin types and for different occasions. The Mineral Face Primer is my favourite at the moment.

Foundation

Gosh Foundation Drops 30ml Ivory 002

Okay I’m still struggling to find THE love of my life (foundation-wise and real life lol) but this one comes pretty close. I love GOSH products, the quality is just above a lot of the other drugstore brands but not all of them are vegan 😦

This foundation buffs very nicely and is just the right amount of coverage! It is fairly long-wearing too when combined with a primer and setting spray/powder

Concealer

B. Flawless Concealer Duo N1/C2

This one is okay- it’s got a creamy texture an the ability to blend two shades and is fine if you put foundation over the top. But I have terrible dark circles under my eyes an I just need something a bit stronger.

So am still looking for a banging vegan concealer, hit me up if you got any suggestions.

Powder

GOSH Velvet Touch Primer & Setting Powder – Transparent

This is a versatile product- can be used as base and/or setting powder. It gives a nice finish though and keeps everything in place. The flaw with loose powder is that they are not the easiest to use.

Highlighter

e.l.f. Baked Highlighter Moonlight Pearls 704

Lovely lil highlighter! I feel like it’s quite subtle so I go a bit crazy on the layers but for a fiver, it adds great dimension and lasts forever.

Bronzer

I Heart Revolution Bronzer Love Hot Summer 5g

I loveee this bronzer! I use to adore the Hula bronzer from Benefit but alas, Benefit needs to go in the burn pile. I have gone through some bad bronzers since, but this is just perfect for my fair complexion!

Lips

(I do not suit lipstick so barely wear anything other than my Lush lip balm sorry this has one product, will let you know if I find any more gems)

e.l.f. Matte Lip Colour Tea Rose

This is like a pencil lipstick, it’s a sort of hybrid but I actually am quite a fan! Nice to add a bit of subtle colour and complete a look without being too in your face, or drying.

Eyes

Mascara

Too Faced BETTER THAN SEX MASCARA

The pink one, and top right shows the brush. Yes I should probably make a joke how this mascara is better than sex (but let’s be honest, it’s not) but it is my favourite mascara for sure! So dramatic, coal black, and actually makes my eyes look bigger! It does flake a bit towards the end of the day, but the mascara itself lasts so long! I buy roughly one a year.

The gold mascara is Gaya Cosmetics Vegan Mascara for Sensitive Eyes.

It was a present and I actually really like it! It’s the opposite to my Better Than Sex mascara, it lengthens lashes and is a bit less dramatic for everyday. It also doesn’t flake as much. The brush is in the top left photo. The two mascaras combined, create the ultimate dramatic eyelashes.

Palettes

Okay story time: so I was going to include my Urban Decay Naked 2 Pallet here. It’s a go-to for nights out and the best pigmentation palette I have. I got it for my birthday last year and I specifically remember asking for a vegan eye shadow palette. And I specifically remember my Mum saying she double checked with the lady who sold it to her in Debenhams or whatever that it was definitely vegan. And up to five minutes ago I thought it was! I had done light research a year a go, couldn’t find anything to convince me otherwise, it was cruelty free after all.  BUT IT’S NOT VEGAN! Urban Decay is a cruelty free brand but is owned by L’Oreal so its parent company isn’t even cruelty free so belittles its cruelty free status. On the UD website, it says all eye shadow in the palette MAY CONTAIN CARMINE. And now, I just feel like my life’s a lie, how does a brand get this far and so popular that almost every girl has one but people aren’t deterred by not only the dead beetles, but the brand’s laid-back attitude to using animal derived ingredients?

Also whilst partaking in this vigorous research for this post, I have reason to believe my other fave palette, Makeup Revolution Flawless 4, isn’t vegan. I bought this palette fairly recently and although the pigmentation isn’t great unless you add water or hairspray to your brush (though hairspray can dry the eye shadow out), I do remember looking up whether it is vegan. Superdrug again is extremely helpful because it has a vegan filter (as do an increasing amount of websites thank you). But I thought I would mention this here to admit I make mistakes. And sometimes my good intentions don’t get come to fruition.

Instead I shall include my Lily Lolo Laid Bare Eye PAlette. 

These are lovely quality creamy eye shadows for a shimmery every day. The downside is the individual eye shadows are kinda small (but portable!)

e.l.f. Matte Eyeshadow Palette Mad For Matte

Elf classic mattes good for a basic look and the base of a more complex one if you combine with another palette. A must-have!

Eyeliner

Supercat

The one time you’re allowed to go to Boots is for Soap and Glory. Yes, their products are pretty fab, and they are cruelty free. This eyeliner, the ultimate of all eyeliner pens. is also vegan (THANK GOODNESS). 10/10 feel like a super cat.

Lashes

Extreme caution here!!! Some of the most popular lashes are made from mink who are kept on fur farms. Elf do cruelty free lashes (but I’ve found them not to be so good).

I tend not to buy lashes because they are SO expensive and would rather invest in a good mascara.

Just be careful. Check.

Brows

No competition, brows is where I justly splash out a little and get the Dipbrow Pomade by Anastasia Beverly Hills. It is God-like and worth the hype. The only bad thing is that it dries out quite easily. Sometimes I have to add a little water or setting spray to my brush to get it going.

Setting Sprays

Can you tell I’m a fan of elf?

I’m not sure how well setting sprays actually work but I wanted to try one. I think I can notice a difference but I prefer a good powder to set my make up. Sometimes I double up. Also word to the wise, apply after eye makeup has completely dried.

Perfume

Eden Perfumes

I’ll do a proper post about this fab company but just buy from Eden Perfumes. Perfume can contain some nasty ingredients- Eden Perfumes are all vegan and not tested on animals. They make dupes of popular brands (who can afford the eye-watering £50 perfume of Marc Jacobs bottles anyway?) that smell almost exactly the same! I love No. 309 Daisy and No.470, a Tom Ford dupe. They have two stores, one in Brighton and one in London so worth a visit where you can try everything!

Even better, you can send your bottles back to get them refilled at a cheaper price whilst also saving on waste yay!

Brushes

Like most people, I have just collected a random assortment of brushes over the years. When buying brushes make sure the hairs are synthetic. I really like Eco Tools though.

Also Superdrug has an own brand brush cleaner for those who need a good, cheap brush cleaner!

    As always, please share any of your finds! As you can probably tell, I don’t venture outside of Superdrug much but I am most willing to do on a recommendation!

Katy x

Vegan and Cruelty Free Make Up Favourites After much experimenting and researching (and spending) I wanted to share my go-to beauty products that are vegan and cruelty free (and most of them relatively inexpensive).