(yet another artist friend who is gonna have to deal with SOO MANY QUESTIONS haha, sorry not sorry, I AM ENDLESSLY CURIOUS AND MUST KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT MY ARTIST FRIENDS AND THEIR PROCESS AND SUCH! 🎊🎊🎊
PLS DON'T APOLOGISE, ASKS MAKE ME V HAPPY INDEEDY! 🥰☺️
This is much more… ex-art student orientated than character design/TSC/CS/ML orientated, I'm sorry! But it was quite nice to reflect on my uni degree and the body of work that I produced during that period of my life!
To make up for it, however, here are a couple of doods :D — a rather surly-looking Jack (wip; you can just about see Lucy in there too) and an adult!Fiera! (I need to update her design, this is just a prototype!)
Art programs you have but don’t use. Adobe Illustrator! I learnt to use it at uni (I studied Illustration and Design) but am much more disposed to Photoshop and Procreate.
A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate. Like a physical medium? Hmm… I’m going to say pastels. There are very few mediums I don’t work in (when I’m actually producing art, that is, lmao). I love oils, acrylics, charcoals. Pretty much everything. But pastels… I’ve never really taken the time to get to know them. Maybe I should!
What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in? During my final year of uni I wrote and illustrated my own children’s book. I am, to this day, quite proud of it and hope to one day finalise the illos. …Maybe. Possibly. I wouldn’t therefore say that I’ve “lost interest” in it, necessarily, but it’s certainly fallen to the wayside (it has after all been four years).
A creator who you admire but whose work isn’t your thing. This is very tricky bc I’m hard pressed to think of any creators whose work isn’t “my thing”. If it’s artsy then I’m gonna enjoy it, no matter what! With that in mind (and if it’s okay?) I may have to amend this to, “a creator who you admire but whose work you could never emulate”, and that creator is Georgia Lowe (@georgialowpapercuts on insta). She makes the most sublime paper cut outs — stunningly intricate, extraordinarily delicate! I adore them! I’m not sure I could ever have the patience to make something that time-consuming.
*Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth). In my flat. Typically while sitting (pretzel-like) on my sofa. I’m very boring! Although I have been known to take a sketchbook to the V&A or the Tate Britain, every once in awhile. Or on a walk around Hyde. It’s not a common occurrence, though. I don’t like to draw in public spaces lest someone ask to see what I’m working on! I’m extraordinarily shy about my work.
An estimate of how many art supplies you’ve broken. Countless, lmao. I am a clumsy bean and shit happens. The most frustrating was when I tore a newly bought canvas. A very big canvas at that. Oh and when I dropped a bag full of chalks and charcoals — makes them so much harder to use! I also snapped a paintbrush once, because I didn’t realise how badly I was bending it while pouring over an exam piece.
Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by. One of my editorial pieces was once likened to Escher's work, which — while enormously flattering — had not been my intention!
What piece of yours do you think is underrated. Looking back, there are several pieces I submitted as part of my overall body of coursework which I deeply disliked at the time (having been staring at them for months) but am now fairly fond of! One charcoal image of a horse, in particular, springeth to mind.
—God had just picked up the Saint of Joy bodily and sat her at the edge of the table, and the Saint of Patience had his mouth at God's neck, which was horrible—
2024 Painted over since the faces were bothering me, original below!
Ok but I’m still gagged by the choice of the white dress covered in her spilled ink for the TTPD set.
The way it’s almost certainly meant to reference a wedding gown just like the music video and how that ties into the narrative of TTPD in general.
The way so many of these songs are about how she’s been wronged and how she’s angry.
The striking image of her floating around on stage unleashing her anger in Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, or her collapsed on the platform in Down Bad begging to be beamed back up to the space ship. Very much giving dying on the altar waiting for the proof (in both meanings). She’s the jilted lover and the runaway bride. She’s the old widow who goes to the stone everyday and she’s the girl heading towards a shotgun wedding if she keeps this up. She's the unhappily married woman whose life is turned upside down by a man beyond her reach, with the chasm between them widening the longer the set goes on. And then!!! she's taken away (held back?) by the nurses at the asylum -- the crazy wife being committed for hysteria!!! (Actually I don't know what order that comes in in the set -- I'm going to have to find better videos.)
She said that the TTPD set is Female Rage: The Musical, and a lot of that is "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free." She sacrificed her youth to her demons and to people who never had her best interest at heart. She sacrificed her youth to bad actors who wanted to ruin her. She sacrificed her youth to men who traded promises of commitment for their own safety.
So to see that all symbolized in the white gown, saying "I love you, it's ruining my life," is so powerful. By the time we get to "The Smallest Man," she's covered up in the band (or army dress?) uniform, those dreams finally dead and buried, marching to her own memorial service. They all finally kill her, and her dreams of her future.
This one goes out to all the slow burn enjoyers, the dense Y/Ns, and the soft robo jesters that suffer in silence!
Inspired by @bamsara's “Solar Lunacy” fic.
If you feel like reading my ramblings and want to experience more heartbreak for fictional jester blorbos, check under the cut where I detail all the planning behind the frames!
so i heard this song for the first time in a while and the opening lyrics immediately made me think of moon, so i was daydreaming some scenes and then i decided to thumbnail some ideas:
and it all went downhill from there as everything became a metaphor and a parallel to each other, which i will now go into detail on!
you thought the animatic itself was sad?
*writing muse laughs maniacally* IT'S ALL A METAPHOR
Frame 1. "turn down the lights"
We start with a back view on Moon. The lights are out, the Moon is out, but we do not see his face. The music and the greyscale atmosphere are enough to establish the weight of the moment and the weight on Moon’s mind.
Frame 2. "turn down the bed"
We cut to a shot of Moon's body, kneeling on the ground of the daycare, like a padded cell. Moon’s hands are twitching with the effects of the glitch, with purple sparks coming from his hands. We still do not see his face.
Frame 3. "turn down these voices inside my head"
Cut to an extreme close up on the dark half of Moon’s face. Now we see his face, but only a portion of it. His left eye is wide open, red and glitching out. The voices in his head can refer to the glitch but also his repressed feelings. Or maybe it could be Sun's voice in their shared headspace.
Frame 4. "lay down with me"
Y/N's hand enters the frame from the upper right corner, lowering down to meet Moon where he kneels on the ground. Only a corner of Moon's face appears on the bottom left corner of the frame, his starry nightcap beginning to cover his glitched left eye.
Frame 5. "tell me no lies"
An full shot of Moon on the floor and Y/N standing in front of him with their hand stretched towards him. A light spills out from behind Y/N, creating a boundary between them.
Now we see more of Moon. It is only when Y/N enters the frame—enters his world—that Moon’s body is shown in its entirely. When Y/N is here, he is no longer fragmented. He is whole.
Frame 6. "just hold me close"
pspspspsps
Playfully, Moon extends his own hand, beckoning Y/N to come closer, to join him. His right hand crossed over his body as he uses the playful gesture to hide his true feelings—to put distance between him and Y/N. His hat continues to cover his glitching left eye. He doesn’t want to worry Y/N.
Frame 7. "don't patronize"
In response, Y/N’s hand pats Moon on the head, returning his playfulness. Moon looks surprised by the action. Moon, notably, does not lower his hand—perhaps he has forgotten it or perhaps his invitation is still open.
Frames 8-9. "don't patronize me"
Moon rotates his faceplate so Y/N’s hand is touching the side of his faceplate, a more intimate gesture than a head pat. However, his hat is in the way. At this angle, his starry nightcap fully covers his glitchy eye and the dark side of his face, hiding his defect and acting as a veil between him and Y/N. A self-imposed boundary. So close, yet thinly separated. It's better this way. It's safer this way.
The lyrics are broken up by Y/N's arm, both to illustrate how the song is sung ("patronize" is drawn out and "me" is briefly added in before the chorus starts) but also to show how Y/N interrupts Moon's resolve, highlighting the irony between the visuals and the lyrics. Demanding not to be patronized, yet Moon happily accepts this play at intimacy. Don't patronize me, I am weak for it.
This is also the only instance where the red light of Moon's eyes glow and tint the surfaces around it. Visually, it makes it look like Moon is blushing (heavily inspired by @restinsodaroni's art). But also, in this moment of honesty, Moon's intrinsic light spills out, colouring the greyscale world. In this brief moment of honesty, Moon touches the world with his own colours, his own light.
(and this is also where i forgot to clean up the shading on Y/N's arm, but it's okay it doesn't need to be perfect it simply needs to be. And Moon will still love Y/N even if they are a continuity error.)
Frame 10. "'cause I can't make you love me if you don't"
A parallel to a frame 4, Y/N retrieves their hand away and immediately Moon is reduced to the corner of his faceplate in the frame. Only now his glitched eye is fully covered by his hat.
The lyrics here (and in the next frame) in particular grow lighter to emphasize Moon's diminishing resolve and agency.
From here on out, the lyrics here are broken up, carrying on this theme of fragmentation. Y/N is pulling away, Moon is breaking up, the words are breaking up. Everything is coming apart.
Frame 11. "you can't make your heart feel something it won't"
Y/N turns to leave. The lyrics, broken up as before, highlight the irony of the situation. Y/N, a human, can’t feel something they simply don’t feel. Whereas, Moon, the machine, feels something his code never intended him to feel.
Frame 12. "here in the dark in these final hours"
Another full shot that parallels frame 5, as Y/N steps towards the light and Moon leans forward into the space Y/N once occupied. Y/N is leaving—that which makes him whole is leaving. And he is only capable of making it to the boundary where the light cuts into the darkness. The "final hours" suggest it might be the end of Y/N’s shift, or perhaps this scene takes place right before the glitch takes over—the final hours that Y/N has with the true Moon. Either way, time is running out—and only Moon knows it.
There is a contrasting display of body language here. Moon is on the floor leaning towards Y/N with his hand still left out. Whereas Y/N is turned away, walking away, and has already slipped their hand away and into their pocket. Y/N is closed off while Moon is limply open. Y/N is actively moving while Moon is on the floor, waiting, hoping, for that which he lacks the agency to reach for himself.
Frame 13. "I will lay down my heart"
A close up on Moon’s hand, rising up again, perhaps to beckon Y/N back once more. This is a slight parallel to Y/N's hand reaching out to Moon. While Y/N can freely reach out and touch Moon, Moon cannot. He can't enter the light and more importantly he can't risk potentially harming his relationship with Y/N—be it through the glitch or by his feelings. He can only lay down his heart—put aside his feelings or hope that someone will pick up his pieces and make him whole.
Frame 14. "and I'll feel the power"
Still on a close up on Moon’s hand, now clenched in slightly. This initially was going to have the glitch effects. However, I felt it more meaningful for it to be left without. Leave it up for interpretation why Moon pauses his hand. What is the power that he alone feels and stays his hand?
Frame 15. "but you won't, no, you won't"
A parallel to frame 1, a view of on Moon's back with his hand stretched out towards the light, and Y/N walking into the light spilling through the open daycare door.
The placement of the lyrics suggest two different “you won’t”—Y/N who won’t realize Moon’s feelings, and Moon who won’t dare speak them into reality.
Another note on the parallel to frame 1, this time we also see Y/N's back, but it is notably different from our view of Moon's back. With Moon, we literally see inside him through the hole for his loop. However, Y/N is shrouded in shadow, just a solid, obscure silhouette against the bright light of a world Moon—and Sun for that matter—are closed off from. We don’t see into Y/N, just as the Daycare Attendant doesn't have any vantage point of Y/N's life beyond their time at the PizzaPlex. (The unfortunate reality of a being a character made for the purpose of being a vessel for the reader.)
Frame 16. "'cause I can't make you love me"
We finally cut to face Moon head-on, frozen in place with his hand stretched out, unable to cross the boundary into the light. His eyes have gone dark. Where we began by seeing bits and parts of Moon, and never seeing his full face—now we, the viewer, see the full Moon, open and vulnerable—unbeknownst to Y/N.
Frame 17. "if you don't"
But in the dark, behind closed doors, there is no one to perceive him—no one to receive him. The light dwindles as the daycare doors are closed. Moon stays frozen where he kneels. It is no longer the glitch that plagues him, but a far deeper dread.
But a lone streak of light peaks through the gap in the daycare doors. Perhaps that is just enough. A silver lining. A frail hope. A single, ethereal thread out of darkness and into light.
Thanks for reading and watching!
We'll be back to our regularly scheduled fun and games shortly!
╰┈➤ “At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of." - Carrie Fisher
Okay maybe this is a little off the cuff, but I wanted to tell you how much I adore your art. 🥺🥺 It is literally so gorgeous, I love your shading and anatomy and the way you draw eyes is super cool!!!! It’s like… creepy, but I love creepy so so much. Idk!!! Just I really love your art, and I hope you continue posting. <3
Creepy is a compliment that I would take with pride so Thank you so much for your kind words !!
i’m so annoyed. so i decided to give one of those “dream girl femininity” videos one more chance on youtube… and OF COURSE they’ve made the entire concept about getting a fucking man… AGAIN. sigh. this is why my version of the “dream girl” concept is so important to me. i value SELF LOVE over anything. these channels constantly telling girls to think of themselves a certain way so that you can “be his dream girl” UGH, AS IF! it’s so tiring. i promise when i finally upload my dream girl journey video, it’ll be about being YOUR dream girl and nothing else!!
I’ll never get there, but if I put the work in, maybe I’ll get close enough that I can chase just behind perfection — and have a front-row seat as you achieve it.