#also drawing this much of it tired me out i originally intended to render this or even just fully paint it but man…

[tofuthebold]

ngl i've kinda grown attached to the Violet Suit, both the default version and my custom. It exudes such incredible loser energy 🌹

[mamcollection]

Artist Gina Beavers Satirizes Our Insatiable Appetite for Personal Beauty in Her New Show at Marianne Boesky

Makeup as Muse: Gina Beavers

November 28, 2020

Despite my art history background and general love of art, I am less than eloquent when writing about it.  Nevertheless I will continue soldiering forward with the Museum's Makeup as Muse series, the latest installment of which focuses on the work of Gina Beavers in honor of her recent show at Marianne Boesky Gallery. Beavers' practice encompasses a variety of themes, but it's her paintings of makeup tutorials that I'll be exploring.  Since I'm both tired and lazy this will be more of a summary of her work rather than offering any fresh insight and I'll be quoting the artist extensively along with some writers who have covered her art, so most of this will not be my own words.

Born in Athens and raised in Europe, Beavers is fascinated by the excess and consumerism of both American culture and social media. "I don't know how to talk about this existence without talking about consumption, and so I think that's the element in consuming other people's images. That's where that's embedded. We have to start with consumption if we're going to talk about who we are. That's the bedrock—especially as an American," she says.  The purchase of a smart phone in 2010 is when Beavers' work began focusing on social media.  "[Pre-smart phone] I would see things in the world and paint them! Post-smartphone my attention and observation seemed to go into my phone, into looking at and participating in social media apps, and all of the things that would arise there...Historically, painters have drawn inspiration from their world, for me it's just that a lot of my world is virtual [now]."

But why makeup, and specifically, makeup tutorials?  There seem to be two main themes running through the artist's focus on these online instructions, the first being the relationship between painting and makeup.  Beavers explains:  "When I started with these paintings I was really thinking that this painting is looking at you while it is painting itself. It’s drawing and painting: it has pencils, it has brushes, and it’s trying to make itself appealing to the viewer. It’s about that parallel between a painting and what you expect from it as well as desire and attraction. It’s also interesting because the terms that makeup artists use on social media are painting terms. The way they talk about brushes or pigments sounds like painters talking shop."  Makeup application as traditional painting is a theme that goes back centuries, but Beavers's work represents a fresh take on it.  As Ellen Blumenstein wrote in an essay for Wall Street International: "Elements such as brushes, lipsticks or fingers, which are intended to reassure the viewers of the videos of the imitability of the make-up procedures, here allude to the active role of the painting – which does not just stare or make eyes at the viewer, but rather seems to paint itself with the accessories depicted – literally building a bridge extending out from the image...Beavers divests [the image] of its natural quality and uses painting as an analytical tool. The viewer is no longer looking at photographic tableaus composed of freeze-frames taken from make-up tutorials, but rather paintings about make-up tutorials, which present the aesthetic and formal parameters of this particular class of images, which exist exclusively on the net."  The conflation of makeup and painting can also be perceived as a rumination on authorship and original sources.  Beavers is remaking tutorials, but the tutorials themselves originated with individual bloggers and YouTubers.  And given the viral, democratic nature of the Internet, it's nearly impossible to tell who did a particular tutorial first and whether tutorials covering the same material - say, lip art depicting Van Gogh's "Starry Night"  - are direct copies of one artist's work or merely the phenomenon of many people having the same idea and sharing it online.  Sometimes the online audience cannot distinguish between authentic content and advertising; Beavers's "Burger Eye" (2015), for example, is actually not recreated from a tutorial at all but an Instagram ad for Burger King (and the makeup artist who was hired to create it remains, as far as I know, uncredited).

Another theme is fashioning one's self through makeup, and how that self is projected online in multiple ways.  Beavers explains: "I am interested in the ways existing online is performative, and the tremendous lengths people go to in constructing their online selves. Meme-makers, face-painters, people who make their hair into sculptures, are really a frontier of a new creative world...It’s interesting, as make-up has gotten bigger and bigger, I’ve realized what an important role it plays in helping people construct a self, particularly in trans and drag communities. I don’t normally wear a lot of make-up myself, but I like the idea of the process of applying make-up standing in for the process of self-determination, the idea of ‘making yourself’."

As for the artist's process, it's a laborious one. Beavers regularly combs Instagram, YouTube and other online sources and saves thousands of images on her phone. She then narrows down to a few based on both composition and the story they're trying to tell. "I'm arrested by images that have interesting formal qualities, color, composition but also a compelling narrative. I really like when an image is saying something that leaves me unsure of how it will translate to painting, like whether the meaning will change in the context of the history of painting," she says.  "I always felt drawn to photos that had an interesting composition, whether for its color or depth or organization. But in order for me to want to paint it, it also had to have interesting content, like the image was communicating some reality beyond its composition that I related to in my life or that I thought spoke in some interesting way about culture."  The act of painting for Beavers is physically demanding as well: she needs to start several series at the same time and go back and forth between paintings to allow the layers to dry.  They have to lay flat to dry so she often ends up painting on the floor, and her recent switch to an even heavier acrylic caused a bout of carpal tunnel syndrome.

But it's precisely the thick quality of the paint that return some of the tactile nature of makeup application.  This is not accidental; Beavers intentionally uses this technique as way to remind us of makeup's various textures and to ensure her paintings resemble paintings rather than a photorealistic recreation of the digital screen. "The depth of certain elements in the background of images has taught me a lot about seeing. I think I have learned that I enjoy setting up problems to solve, that it isn't enough for me to simply render a photo realistically, that I have to build up the acrylic deeply in order to interfere with the rendering of something too realistically," she explains.  Sharon Mizota, writing for the LA Times, says it best:  "Skin, lashes and lips are textured with rough, caked-on brushstrokes that mimic and exaggerate wrinkles and gloppy mascara. This treatment gives the subjects back some of the clunky physicality that the camera and the digital screen strip away. Beavers’ paintings, in some measure, undo the gloss of the photographic image."

Beavers also uses foam to further build up certain sections so that they bulge out towards the viewer, representing the desire to connect to others online.  "Much of what people do online is to try to create connection, to reach out and meet people or talk to people. That is what the surfaces of my painting do in a really literal way, they are reaching off the linen into the viewer’s space," she says.  This sculptural quality also points to the reality of the online world - it's not quite "real life" but it's not imaginary either, occupying a space in between.  Beavers expands on her painting style representing the online space: "It’s interesting because flatness often comes up with screens, and I think historically the screen might have been read like that, reflecting a more passive relationship. That has changed with the advent of engagement and social media. What’s behind our screen is a whole living, breathing world, one that gives as much as it takes. I mean it is certainly as 'real' as anything else. I see the dimension as a way to reflect that world and the ways that world is reaching out to make a connection. Another aspect is that once these works are finished, they end up circulating back in the same online world and now have this heightened dimensionality – they cast their own shadow. They’re not a real person, or burger, or whatever, but they’re not a photo of it either, they’re something in between."

Let's dig a little more into what all this means in terms of makeup, the beauty industry and social media.  Beavers' work can be viewed as a simultaneous critique and celebration of all three.  Sharon Mizota again: "[The tutorial paintings] also pointedly mimic the act of putting on makeup, reminding us that it is something like sedimentation, built up layer by layer. There is no effortless glamour here, only sticky accretion.  That quality itself feels like an indictment — of the beauty industry, of restrictive gender roles. But an element of playfulness and admiration lives in Beavers’ work.  They speak of makeup as a site of creativity and self-transformation, and Instagram and other social media sites as democratizing forces in the spread of culture. To be sure, social media may be the spur for increasingly outré acts, which are often a form of bragging, but why shouldn’t a hamburger eye be as popular as a smoky eye? In translating these photographs into something more physical, Beavers asks us to consider these questions and exposes the duality of the makeup industry: The same business that strives to make us insecure also enables us to reinvent ourselves, not just in the image of the beautiful as it’s already defined, but in images of our own devising."

This ambiguity is particularly apparent in Beavers's 2015 exhibition, entitled Ambitchous, which incorporated beauty Instagrammers and YouTubers' makeup renditions of Disney villains alongside "good" characters.  Blumenstein explains: "So it isn’t protagonists with positive connotations which are favoured by the artist, but unmistakably ambivalent characters who could undoubtedly lay claim to the neologism ambitchous, which is the name given to the exhibition. Like the original image material, this portmanteau of ‘ambitious’ and ‘bitchy’ is taken from social media and its creative vernacular, and is used, depending on the context, either in a derogatory fashion – for example for women who will do absolutely anything to get what they want – or positively re-interpreted as an expression of female self-affirmation.  Beavers also applies this playful and strategic complication of seemingly unambiguous contexts of meaning to the statements contained in her paintings. It remains utterly impossible to determine whether they are critically exaggerating the conformist and consumerist beauty ideals of neo-capitalism, or ascribing emancipatory potential to the conscious and confident use of make-up."

More recently, Beavers has been using her own face as a canvas and making her own photos of them her source material, furthering her exploration of the self. "Staring at yourself or your lips for hours is pretty jarring. But I like it, because it creates this whole other level of self,” she says.

This shift also points to another dichotomy in Beavers's work: in recreating famous works of art on her face, she is both critiquing art history's traditional canon and appreciating it, referring to them as a sort of fan art.  "I think a lot of the works that I have made that reference art history—like whether it's Van Gogh or whoever it is—have a duality where I really respect the artist and I'm influenced by them, and at the same time I'm making it my own and poking a little fun. And so, a lot of these pieces originated with the idea of fan art. You'll find all sorts of Starry Night images online that people have painted or sculpted or painted on their body. It comes out of that. And I just started to reach a point where I was searching things like 'Franz Kline body art,' and I wasn’t finding that, so I had to make my own. Then it started to get a little bit geekier. I have a piece in the show where I am painting a Lee Bontecou on my cheek, that's a kind of art world geeky thing—you have to really love art to get it."

Ultimately, Beavers perceives the intersection of makeup and social media as a force for good.  While the specter of misinformation is always lurking, YouTube tutorials and the like allow anyone with internet access to learn how to do a smoky eye or a flawlessly lined lip.  "I think for a lot of people social media is kind of like the weather. We don't have a lot of control of it, it just is. It gives and it takes away. There's no doubt that it has connected people in ways that are great and productive, allowing people to find communities and organize activism, it can also be a huge distraction...I approach looking at images there pretty distantly, more as a neutral documentarian, and I come down on the side of seeing social media as an incredibly useful, democratic tool in a lot of ways," she concludes.

On the other side of social media, Beavers is interested on how content creators help disseminate the idea of makeup as representing something larger and more meaningful than traditional notions of beauty. "I was super fascinated with makeup and all of the kinds of costume makeup and things you can find online that go away from a traditional beauty makeup and go towards something really wild and cool...I also had certain paintings in [a 2016] show that were much more about costume makeup, that were going away from beauty. That’s the thing that gives me hope. When I go through makeup hashtags on Instagram, there will be ten or twenty beauty eye makeup images and then one that’s painted with horror makeup. There are women out there doing completely weird things, right next to alluring ones." In the pandemic age, as people's relationships with makeup are changing, "weird" makeup is actually becoming less strange. Beavers' emphasis on experimental makeup is more timely than ever.  I also think she's documenting the gradual way makeup is breaking free of the gender binary.  She says: "I mean with makeup, and the whole conversation around femininity and makeup—I think for a long time when I was making makeup images, there were people that just thought, 'Oh, that's not for me,' because it's about makeup, it's feminine. But it’s interesting, the culture is shifting. I just saw the other day that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did a whole Instagram live where she was putting on her makeup and talking about how empowering makeup is for trans communities...some people see make-up as restrictive or frivolous, but drag performers show how it can be liberating and life-saving."  Another point to consider in terms of gender is the close-up aspect of Beavers's paintings.  With individual features (eyes, lips, nails) separated from the rest of the face and body and removed from their original context, they're neither masculine nor feminine, thereby reiterating that makeup is for any (or no) gender.

All I can say is, I love these paintings.  Stylistically, they're right up my alley - big, colorful and mimicking makeup's tactile nature so much that I have a similar reaction to them as I do when seeing makeup testers in a store: I just want to dip my hands in them and smear them everywhere! I also enjoy the multiple themes and levels in her work. Beavers isn't commenting just on makeup in the digital age, but also self-representation online, shifting attitudes towards makeup's meaning, the relationship between painting and makeup, and Western art history.

What do you think of Beavers's paintings? 

[fjohnson0275-blog]

Doodle Maker REVIEW BONUS WALKTHROUGH OTO

64 substantial master bonuses, one-on-one 30-minute, zoom training, console you get my brand-new youtube ranking publication and also a comprehensive walk-through of all the spaces and crannies in this product. Hey. This is sid divar below. We'Re very excited about this launch, and here is just a sneak. Peek of some of the amazing features loaded into doodle maker, now have the ability to make outstanding blackboard, whiteboard as well as glassboard video clips utilizing the built-in 300 plus video clip templates or design videos from scratch, or transform existing as well as tiring videos into effective doodle presentations in any kind of language. Within mins with the integrated text-to-speech in 60 plus languages, with 150 male and female voices ability to make shade or black and white doodle video clips, language, translation, built-in collection of numerous doodle photos, whiteboard design video shifts hand starts - are simply a few of the powerful features built Into doodle maker review.

As well as if you believed that was a lot for the first time ever before, we are offering market an amazing, expert system technology that will make doodle video clip development much faster, less complicated and effortless as well as get. This will be able to paste a straightforward text into the app as well as the software will immediately scan the text as well as locate relevant pictures and produce text-to-speech voices and produce attractive doodle style slides to create amazing doodle videos with expert system customers can customize anything change.

Colors include their very own pictures: songs, create gorgeous chalkboard, white boards and also glassboard videos within minutes and also to make video clip development a lot more much easier individuals can submit their very own video or paste in a youtube. Link. The ai modern technology will automatically transcribe the video convert into an additional language and create show quiting doodle video clips easily. It can get simpler than this. We contend least 50 more attributes that will just blow you away to make this an alluring offer. We are offering all this away at the low one-time cost you don't want to miss out on this hi there. This is paul pogna, welcome to doodle maker. Currently in this video, i'm going to reveal you all the wonderful facets of doodle maker. In a short summary style, so you can quickly stand up and also running with it and have a great deal of fun utilizing it. The three components with doodle maker first, as you can see below, is ready-made templates that you can use that we have over 300 plus with male and women voiceovers in hundreds of various specific niches as well as sectors. Doodle Maker Bonus.

Once more, click them use them and also quickly customize them as well as create powerful video clips. The 2nd component is starting from scratch, using our artificial intelligence, cutting edge technology. What this will certainly do, it will certainly allow you to just paste a bunch of script and immediately it will certainly pull in all the doodle properties as well as create your entire storyboard as well as the video itself as well as the elegance is. This is fully adjustable as well, and also i'm going to reveal you exactly how to do that. And also finally, we have the ai video translation engine where you can actually bring in any type of youtube video and afterwards not only convert all boring video clips right into effective doodle videos. You can actually go an action further and do something actually cool which is transform it into another language. Envision you can now reach global audiences too, and so let's enter and also most likely to the extremely primary step, and also let me reveal you the kind of videos that you can develop with doodle maker. That'S really vital because the type of flexibility that we've brought in the unbelievable deepness that we brought right into the amount of functions that are included it's going to take me all day.

I'm just going to give you a quick review of some of the attributes. When you're jumping in and utilizing it, it's going to be a lot of enjoyable. The first thing that we have readily available is a color doodle, video clip, fine, that you can create for the very first time ever. You can do that and view this if you're. Trying to find a high quality bakery for your following event, you possibly have a great deal of inquiries such as beautiful, looking shade doodle videos. You can likewise create white and also chalkboard videos, similar to this coming solution as well as we're devoted to producing pleased, customers and handling every one of your plumbing requires. It'S one more example of an attractive looking chalkboard video. We can do glassboard, whiteboard plan, video clips or even your very own custom history also, that you can bring in as well as also that had not been enough. You can generate a ton of other sorts of characters, properties and so forth, utilizing our collection that you have right here so, as an example, let's state i want to make use of a few of the possessions right here, like shapes personalities and more etc like to see to My bottom right, you can do that along with an instance, let me show you this right here. You can see that you can develop these personality, illustration really thorough, doodle video clips too. We have thousands as well as countless assets like these also.

So actually, if you want to take it a step better, let's claim currently: we created among these and we wished to include something else. On top, we can really most likely to the collection drop and discover anything that we want to do so, as an example, i intend to do a store right because this person - let's claim they - want to establish their own business. I click search in the collection and all these are sketchable. So, as an example, let's claim i such as this one right here, due to the fact that this looks like a nice shop right. I wish to build an organisation right and now this element, which is a doodle color aspect, will certainly be hand attracted once more.

This originates from over a million assets that you can draw from, which is the only application incidentally that does it, that makes rulemaker truly phenomenal in what it can achieve. So that suggests not only and also hear me out right here. Can you create one more time, personality, design, little videos make and alter every little thing you wish to do? You can add shifts like what you see right here, which is fade in slide from bases light from the left slide from the right-hand man, drawing and so forth and in cases where, for instance, there uh is mosting likely to be a picture that you wish to bring over As well as convert into doodle video, you can additionally create it as a hand, paint kind design which allows you to sort of make any type of picture or video right into a doodle video clip, really, really effective element on what you can accomplish with doodle maker. Not only have we've done every little thing for you in a sense that you can go in below today as well as click ready-made templates and have all these hundreds and also hundreds upon whiteboard video clips, glassboard videos thus with bunch of design templates as well as voiceovers, and whatever done chalkboard, videos And so forth, you can tailor them too. Incidentally you got male and also female voiceovers for these, so it's really, very powerful, so you can reach different markets. We went a step even more and we permit modification in addition to it also. For instance, any one of these templates that i have let's say a bakery. I select a bakeshop theme here when you pack the layout. There are two points you can do, one, which is the simple one which is you simply lots in below and then you transform the logo as well as you can begin rendering it because the voice over as well as whatever else is done. And if you see right here all the other, slides as well as videos are currently done and also you can customize it as well by the way, also additionally, if you so need which's one choice, therefore allow's say you wish to personalize also further.

Let me reveal you just how to do that. There are 2 options: one you can simply remove the actual element below. Okay, so let's remove this component and also we want to bring in something which is extra like a doodle design component and more. You have quite a few choices right here. One is you can go into one of our pre-made assets, as you can see here, which are a bunch of them, and there are thousands and thousands of these uh a color, doodle, black and white, and so on as well assets here that you can use, which Could be relevant to a bakery so, for instance, let's say i wanted to add this here: okay, that's because you know, maybe you want to bake a cake uh in this case for wedding or engagement or birthday or whatever. That could be one and can draw this and sketch this out or let's say i can even go a step further and i can add multiple elements. What do i mean by it? Because this can be moved around? I can put this right here as well as i can additionally put an additional element below: could be a doodle element and so on. So, as an example, let's claim i wanted to include a cake.

Okay, i can come in right here and also we can obtain all these assets for a cake. As you can see below so which one do we like here well, we might do this one and also we can add this shade doodle below and then have that transition as handwriting, and then you can change the speed elements right here. You see that i can make it attract slowly, faster and more etc. I can do that as well and then once i've set it to a speed that i like and then i can even go to the. As you can see here, you see this timeline settings, i can just click on this lock button and then i can unlock it and i could start. Let me click on it. You claim: are you certain you want to reset the timeline? Okay, of course and then currently i can move points about. Where do i desire, as well as what do i want to draw initially?

For example, let's say i want to draw uh this one: first, a quality bakery right, good quality, bakeries first, but i don't want this uh, for example, this one to come. Second, i desired this cupcake to find. Second right so well, i can do that too by actually putting that cupcake to the top. You see here, as you can see below, so i can put every element. I can adjust it uh to turn up first, 2nd and so forth, and the various other thing is, if you see send out in reverse and all the various other components that are readily available here. All the other modifications are likewise readily available for you to tweak as well as do other things and so on. So, for example, let me secure this again and when you lock the timeline like what i've done here, you can actually change more elements.

For example, i can say keep display or hide after displaying, or i can have it, for instance, where it can display for a few seconds like four seconds, five seconds or whatever time, and then it hides after that. I can even do it where it will certainly show up for simply a couple of seconds and afterwards conceal, and in addition to that i can place things on top of each other as well in this manner. For instance, let's say i wanted the cake to appear first and this one on top, i can do that as well, so that one will get hidden and then the other one will appear on top of it and get sketched out. You can do different transitions. Now i want to discuss some of the features that are within the application.

Okay, so first thing the easiest one is, you can include message and also it has a whole bunch of typefaces that you can utilize and also you can preview, the fonts and so forth etc. So in this case, obtain an unique price cut. Today, okay, let's state, as well as you can alter this font style size as well, whatever you want as well as click insert to scene, you see that right there i can personalize it. I can transform the color of it. I can do all kinds of great things. So, allow's remove this element now and i can change these things over make it.

You recognize hand creating discolor in slide from leading strike from left and so on and so forth, as well as the amazing thing is so. If i wanted to glide from left base and more etc, it would have various hand shifts that would certainly make that possible. Okay, so, as an example, this certain cupcake. Let me simply delete this element in the meantime, so i can show you exactly how that would certainly appear. So, let's say this cupcake today. If i want this to uh basically slide from the. Okay, i simply have to do that and afterwards i simply click on the sneak peek switch on the leading and also i'll reveal you exactly how that appears like if you're looking for a high quality bake you'll see that to ensure that could be a shift right now. You can change each and every single element, you can do hand drawing fade in slide from bottom and so forth, and then, if you scroll down, you can also alter the text to speech script for this in this aspect that you see right here, which is extremely effective because After that you can enter here as well as if you intended to remodel that text-to-speech aspect, you can do that as well. You can additionally, if you go back and click on the canvas below, you can place your very own text-to-speech voice.

We have an entire lot of text-to-speech voices below in various languages and so forth, which is really powerful, especially when you're attempting to select that language previously on in the video clip itself. And then you can also do upload your own voice here, which is an mp3 file and so on or record your voice from within the application. To make sure that's another powerful means for you to do it as well as, as you can see below, the seconds are displayed below in this situation it's 6 secs, so i would certainly make certain that i document my voice to match that 6 seconds and more. Alright. To ensure that is straightforward now the next thing that you can do is you can change the language. You see that speech language and also we have all these languages that you can do so. If i intended to transform it into one more language right away, i can simply click. Spanish as well as click on that automobile translation, switch as well as click upgrade and all these words as well as even the message to speech will convert into spanish.

You see that and if you see that procedure right here, you have these uh, you recognize change. You can also change that spanish voices and more in the future okay, to make sure that's quite actually actually trendy things, and here, if i intend to go an action better, i can even personalize the hands again as well as alter the hands right here. Many alternatives offered. I can place my very own background music here. If you have an entire bunch offered right here for you to go as well as choose - as well as you know add your own background music, you can even alter as you can see here, the history itself. So you can see a white black glass board customized shade, it's mosting likely to resemble a plan, color like in engineers and so on, or you can also do, for example, an environment-friendly board or perhaps put your own picture and have that as a background also. Very powerful resource to do that.

A great deal of personalization and flexibility for you to do, and afterwards we have the watermark feature, as you can see below, where you can actually place any kind of logo design as well as have that as a watermark to show up throughout the video clip. This has two elements here which is really useful, and the first element that is very useful is, as you can see here, is when you do the watermark. You have 2 alternatives. Clearly, you can put it to the leading to the bottom here like so whatever you want, you can also do something amazing, which is you can change the opacity of this to ensure that you know in case certain times.

Possibly you intend to put as a true watermark. Nobody's going to do your content and that sort of thing you can do that as well, so that you know the client actually pays or you can remove this watermark again and then you can basically give them the non-watermark based video. This is likewise beneficial. If you want this to appear throughout this logo design throughout the complete video clip as well, it's very beneficial in that sense, as well as if it lets me just erase the watermark below once more, if you want to change the standard job name, you can go back to settings and transform That too so in this situation service solutions, i can change it to a bakery service, video right as well as i click update, and afterwards it automatically saves the settings and more. Let me show you the library choice. Today.

Our possession collection is the greatest doodle asset collection anywhere on the internet. I particularly went in spent a lot of money to obtain all these assets and so forth to bring in and so for example, you can obtain all number of icons. Like you see below, you can use this to search for different sorts of icons that you wanted to make use of. For example, i want to put a search for a doctor and it's going to find all kinds of doodle assets right here and then we also have an assets tab, which is you have all these cool assets that i was showing you earlier. So very, really powerful. For instance, if i want to put this guy right here and i wanted that to be sketched all i have to do - let's eliminate this element for the time being, and let me put him in the center and let's say we want him to be.

So, allow's do that right now, allow's put it out simply to reveal you exactly how this would look like right and currently you can sneak peek it and also i'll show you exactly how great this will look since i had the language of spanish, as you can see below, it instantly Made that video clip into spanish as well as if you go back to the library again we also have assets with pixabay, as an example. This could be delighted and also i intended to obtain somebody who is actually pleased. So, allow's say her right, she's actually delighted jumping in delight. For example, what i can do is, i can add her in here like so i can remove the background like what you see right now and it's gon na take a couple of minutes, but there you go so we could have something like this and we Can put that anywhere into this and also make that into a transition like a hand, painting reveal fade in fade out and all that stuff for that asset to come in and what's even cooler than that is. If i delete this and also return to library, do the same thing right as well as i can find somebody else. So let's say i discover this this pair right here. It looks truly wonderful. What i can do is, i can click on this little symbol, which states the magic wand. It automatically converts it into a nice little sketch, painting kind of style, so i click use and now again i can go a step further and remove this background. So it's pretty great and also what it can attain. It functions actually well with human style, uh video clip.

So again, i can make this a hand expose. For instance, i could do that and i can do the transition, for example, either a hand painting or a reveal or fade in slide from the left and so on and so forth. If i want to put a slide from the left, for instance, and put that into the first, so i'll show you how this looks like real quick. So you can obtain an idea of how very easy it is to do this aspect today as well as develop a whole storyboard around it, and so let's preview siesta quite rather powerful right which it means that literally you'll never ever run short of doodle possessions or white boards assets. Ever and in addition to that, we additionally have picture bin right here, and also we have this truly great combination, where you can go a step further as well as find all the doodle videos you'll ever before require.  Doodle Maker Review Info.

For example, if i wanted to do something to do with baking as it's a bakery well, i have your lessons on that. Let'S state i intended to do something on a service right, so allow's claim i wanted to grow an organisation and so on and so forth. Well, you have all these doodle properties specifically for that, for instance, so let's state i intended to produce something along these lines that you see below. Let's say i want to draw this. If i wanted to drag this and this one into the timeline, i can do that right away. So, for example, allow's claim i intended to put this right here. I can adjust different components below, as you can envision, so i might also make the transitions various for each of them.

So in this situation this set is handwriting. So allow's slow it down a little bit. This is, as an example, another thing so i'll reduce. This down slightly as well, and then now you can test out this right away. Once more, you can alter the language again if in case you just wanted to keep it english. You can do that. Simple basic means: again: i'm going to put the english uh. You recognize accent here and more, and after that we can do that also. So, for example, so currently, let's click on the preview button, rather powerful right and you can always enter as well as you can add a brand-new slide also.

[minty-pepps]

some thoughts on comics

this has less to do with comics as they are in their current state in the industry and more about the artistry possible with the form, maybe even artistry in other mediums as well. this is something i’ve thought about a lot, and it’s rather long and a bit rambly, a bit elitist and maybe even pretentious, but i’d gladly appreciate it if you read it!

(this contains some spoilers regarding The Killing Joke by Alan Moore, the film and novel Drive, respectively by Nicolas Winding Refn and James Sallis, Devilman by Go Nagai and Persona by Ingmar Bergman.)

while discussing art with an art examiner, i came across a particular topic which has been bothering me for a while. i mentioned my interest in comics and their influence upon my work, and one way or the other, i can’t particularly remember how we got to the point before we moved on, she said “yes, but you need to use your influences in the high arts”.

a typically familiar distinction was made once again: comics are low-art, cheap and mass-produced, with little artistic viability; all visual arts besides it have the potential for high art. 

had i been the person i was a few years ago, i may have agreed. i may have also extended the idea of “high visual art” being only possible within the classical mediums of visual art: painting, drawing, sculpting. 

but as i’ve gotten a little older, a little more open-minded, and a little more willing to see things from others’ perspectives, i’ve realized just how much artistic expression is possible in other visual arts as well. photography, film, comics, collages, printing, 3D art, etching, animation. all of these visual mediums possess inherent strengths that can create extraordinary images, can communicate things otherwise impossible in other ways.

but, as i wrote in the title, this is about comics; or, maybe, more specifically, the concept of comics and their potential. 

so, to give a definition of comics, let me use scott mccloud’s definition: “comics are juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” 

this is ripped directly from mccloud’s book “understanding comics” (which is a great read and sort of inspired this write-up, i’d advise you to check it out) and while this may be the most accurate description of the form, it’s possible far more things may be done outside this definition, which could also fall under the idea of comics, but we will have to wait and see. 

it works well for now, however, and can possibly, with a backwards look at history, relabel some pieces of art as comics. an example of this, given in “understanding comics”, is the triptych, which typically is 3 paintings placed alongside each other to convey an overlying idea within the culmination of the works, with each work conveying their own specific idea. 

this gives one possible insight into the possibility of comics, and that is their ability to explore ideas in a “narrative” way via their images, whether it be actual narratives on display, or themes which link and provide context to each image. 

in other words, comics can explore singular ideas belonging to larger ideas, with each piece of art in the sequence informing the context and/or meaning behind the others, providing a framework for the entire comic from which meaning can be derived for each individual artwork.

 this ability of comics, for each piece in the whole’s meaning to be able to affect the overall whole meaning of the work, and vice-versa, falls under the idea of semiotics, and i believe it is this direct connection to semiotics which gives comics a large range of visual artistic expression beyond only narrative, beyond only language and beyond only imagery.

to give you an idea of why semiotics is such a powerful thing, let me illustrate for you; imagine a dog barking, wagging its tail, and running around in a field - see how it runs, jumps, and chases, in a friendly game, after a bird. now imagine a man, laughing, holding his belly, with a soft, loving smile on his face, a dog collar and leash in hand. finally, imagine a pickup truck parked in front of a house, its back canopy dirtied with mud and hair, with a man about to clean it up, a tired look on his face.

the logical association you could make here might be an obvious one: a man who loves his happy dog, after returning home from letting the dog run on a field, hates the process of cleaning his truck after bringing the dog back home in it. your mind has automatically made a logical framework to provide meaning to each idea shown.

but what if the man carried not a dog leash but now a shovel in the second idea? what if his face showed not happiness, but anger, hatred and disgust? the tired cleaning of the final idea can now carry a far darker association, yet it is entirely a created one within our minds. in fact, our entire perception of the relationship between the dog, the man, and the truck is created by ourselves. 

and it is with this perception of the whole, with our mind creating a logical connection between each individual element that comprises the whole, that gives comics its ability to convey artistic themes extraordinarily lucidly and at the same time also give the potential of intentional ambiguity and different interpretation (this intentional ambiguity i believe being the most important part of what people classify as “high art”). 

with this in mind, i believe comic artists have the ability to depict not only stories but thoughts and human ideas beyond the limitations of both narrative and visual arts in a vividly clear way which only our individual minds, informed as they are by our personal perceptions, can understand.

 but it does not happen, or if it does, it does not happen nearly enough. and this, i believe, is why comics are perceived as a “low art”, that comics are only a form that can only communicate simply and explicitly. 

so what are the limitations that, i feel, limit comic artists from being perceived as “high artists”, as artists with something serious to say in their respective form? 

i believe there are many reasons, reasons beyond the control of artists themselves which i can understand immensely (such as comics being a form of industry, which limits artistry a lot), but there are some beliefs and ideas which i believe are perpetuated within and around the form that limits comic artists from fully utilizing the medium in an artistic manner (this is also where i have to engage some elitist opinions of mine but nevertheless i believe they are necessary).

1) Comic art =/= Fine Art

(please note that this is dealing with artistic proficiency, not artistic intent or authenticity)

this is usually the first reason why comic artists are dismissed as “low art”. narrative propels comics, usually, and with the narrative behind comics providing the necessary framework for meaning to be connected between each frame in a comic, this usually has the unspoken implication that art in comics does not have to be technically proficient, or at least proficient to the standard of “amazing art” which most people expect from the visual arts.

i think, if you’re on tumblr, you can inherently understand why this is ignorant. if not, if you’ve ever given visual art a proper go, you can also understand why this is wrong. if an example must be provided, please look at this

this was made by Ashley Wood, an illustrator and comic artist, for his comic Automatic Kafka. i think this demonstrates how comic artists can display remarkable technical proficiency, and why i think the idea of comic artists not being able to be as technically proficient as a regular “fine artist” is a flawed belief.

However, even if a comic artist is technically proficient, what often drags them away from being considered a “serious” artist is

2) good art and good writing =/= good comic

(this is also handled in scott mccloud’s book, i highly recommend “understanding comics” once again”)

now i might sound elitist here, but listen, i think this is something that needs to be vitally understood by anyone who believes in comics as “high art”/a serious art form: any visual story when driven by plot, by actions, by thoughts, by things which can be tangibly translated into language and have a narrative formed from that, is inherently going to be inferior as an art when compared to literature; maybe not all forms of literature, since lots of “low art” fiction relies immensely on imagery to create scenes or events (which would be rendered a lot more elegantly and simply in a comic), but it’s simply due to the fact that words are far more useful for many abstract ideas which cannot be communicated simply by images alone. 

for example (and i’m going to use an example of a novel considered cheap, pulpy stuff to illustrate the problem here so that one gets the sense that it isn’t just “classic novels” that do narrative better than comics), if one takes a look at the film Drive by Nicolas Winding Refn, then compares it to the original novel by James Sallis (which, admittedly, the film adapted loosely), one will immediately notice the difference in tone between the two, but also what’s strikingly different is the way the Driver is characterised. 

In the film, the Driver is portrayed as a stoic, quiet and friendly guy, a sort of Man With No Name, with a dangerously efficient, criminally-inclined hidden life, whereas in the novel the Driver is shown to interally monologue a lot, and often in a cynical and acerbic way, while being a sort of anti-heroic moral judge, giving further insight into the character’s relation to the rest of the narrative, while still illustrating the abstracted Driver from the film. this could not be done as easily in the film, nor would it contribute to the film at all and quite frankly the novel’s Driver is a lot less of a character appropriate for the film in general but ignore this for now

this illustrates the problem of comics being believed (both by audiences and creators) to be only a narrative-driven or art-driven form. with this i must say there is nothing wrong with comics being narratively driven, it is just incredibly reductive to think of the possibilities comics may have if they’re only seen as narrative-driven and/or art-driven.

and, this is going to sound very elitist of me, a lot of the stories presented in comics are very schlocky, convoluted and contrived, and do not use the medium to its fullest extent to work on possible themes as best as they could. even highly acclaimed comics are praised primarily on their story lines and/or their art, perhaps some may throw in a nod to panelling, composition and so on, but there is rarely appreciation for how these comics use the form of comics, and often times, they don’t, really (i’ve had a couple of friends admit to skimming over the art in various acclaimed comics and manga they’ve read, such as Watchmen, The Sandman, Berserk and Goodnight Punpun, because “they’re secondary to the story”). 

to give an example of how i think comic form can be utilized to its fullest in narratives in a very good way for that “intentional ambiguity” i mentioned earlier, i’ll use the last page of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore

this is the culmination of the entire story, and it ends ambiguously for the reader (i suggest reading the comic for the full effect of this page, plus it’s a really good comic). 

is the joker being taken away by the police in the final panel? in the middle panel, is the joker being strangled, or is batman simply placing his hand on the joker’s shoulder? is batman laughing with or at the joker? is he being sympathetic, or is he trying to conceal his anger? does the laughter’s disappearance in the final 3 panels indicate resignation or death? 

we’ll never know, and thus we’re given this ambiguity which we can weigh against ourselves, reflect upon as human beings, and use as an insight into the overlying theme of the work. 

this may sound a little too serious for some, but I feel that dismisses the real issue here: it’s not about what approach an artist takes to approach their theme, nor what themes they have, it’s about how “seriously” they handle what they try to do - whether it illustrates the joy of familial love and care or the unseens horrors of war and their effect on everyday life, a certain level of gravitas should be employed by the artist to do so.

however, this comes to another point which i feel needs to be addressed, and it’s something i feel needs to be understood, as i feel it will help bridge the divide of comics and “high art”, or, more satisfactory, destroy the ridiculous barrier which prevents the form being appreciated or used for serious artistic expression, and that is

3) cliched and pulpy subject matter

(this is a bit of a rant and more rambling than my other thoughts, but i think this one is the main issue)

this ties in with a point i mentioned earlier, being that comics are seen as “narrative-driven” or “story-driven”. this often leads to extraordinarily convoluted plots having lots of “plot logic” and “lore” to justify many of the events that occur, as well as give a scenario for the emotional climaxes occur and for the themes to be explored. 

 now, let me say here, in addition to the earlier point about “serious handling of subject matter”, i personally, and i think some may agree with me, cannot stand having long and unnecessary trimmings surrounding a core theme, nor do i think justifications need to exist for anything and everything; if it works towards the emotion or ideas being explored, it works. 

for example, Devilman by Go Nagai is a pulpy action horror manga, that is its primary intent and the general expectation one gets going into it. i don’t really think i can get much exploration of any themes in the work beyond an “eh” touching on an anti-war theme in the second half with subsequent rereadings, but as a primarily action-focused manga with the intent being to entertain, Devilman is just perfect for that. there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s first and foremost a pulpy story, done interestingly and satisfyingly; anything further than that is entirely a reading of my own, since everything else within the work contributes to its main explicit intention of the work. 

it wants to create a fictional reality where the events in the story can occur, so it does that, and it does that knowing the story as its end to the means of the plot’s logic and events, nothing more (i think this is where most people get irritated by seeing others do in-depth analyses of anime, manga and general other “trashy” stuff like 80s horror B-Movies but I digress).

i’ve got a big space opera dealing with the horrors of war. i do not see why i would need to divorce war from its inherently political-social implications on earth. 

i’ve got a fantasy chosen one journey, with elves, orcs and warlocks, with a side-theme of racism. yes, this may add interest to the fictional world created, and that may be interesting to consider when applied to real life, but it is honestly too distant, too alienated from the context of real life to adequately consider in real life, and i feel that that cheapens the value of any possible interpretation or intended meaning.

(do note that i am not derriding people who wish to such with fiction, with comics, or with any form of art, but i feel this is simply the issue that causes such a divide between “high art” and “low art”.)

let me use an example of what i feel handles its artistic expression well, without the trappings of logic or subject matter (thus moving into that “intentional ambiguity” which i feels gives serious art its timeless quality), though it is a film: Persona by Ingmar Bergman (something which i’ve had a couple thoughts on, which i plan to write on).

this film, from what i understand, deals with the personas which make up one’s self, and how our personas, even if we try to distance them from ourselves, are ourselves. how it does this is not shown in a structured, logical or plot-driven way, even if there is a plot which gives context and drive to the events being able to explore it. it instead uses the elements of film to explore this in ways which only film could: acting, imagery, sound, continual movement of time. when the lead characters enter the beach house in the film, reality become less rigid in structure, as it seems to merge with dreams (hallucinations even), and things don’t generally seem to work within reality’s logic, but instead operate for the needs of the emotion, the themes, the ideas that wish to be conveyed.

and that’s how the film “works”; not because of the material around what the artist wants demanding things be this way,or that, but allowing what is wished to be expressed instead steering the artist and their internal artistic logic. it is this whole idea which is expressed by the entire work that should be given priority, not the clutter, i feel, and the minor ideas surrounding this whole idea should give both insight into the meaning of the whole idea, as well as its surrounding informing our perception of its own individual meaning.

and, as i’ve said before, this is semiotics, and comics have the most direct connection to it in all artforms outside maybe film, and as our entire human consciousness is formed from individual experiences and elements from which we derive meaning in both their entirety and in their individual context, this is why i think comics have such immense potential for artistic expression: they are the easiest way for us to express, as closely as possible, the human mind.

thank you for reading!

[killfaeh]

Back to childhood with AppleWorks

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to tell you about a very old software that kept me busy for many, many hours during my teenage years and that I've had the pleasure of rediscovering these days. Apple fans will have glitter of nostalgia in their eyes, others will have the opportunity to discover a beautiful tool that has not forgotten to be compatible with Windows. It is AppleWorks! AppleWorks was an office suite, installed on all Apple computers of the time, which, in addition to the classic word processor, spreadsheet and Power Point presentation, also offered a vector drawing tool and a bitmap drawing tool. It was my first experience in digital drawing and photo manipulation and with a bit of inventiveness, I was able to get some amazing things out of it. Behind its apparent simplicity, this little soft hides an unsuspected power. Let's go for a little trip back in time!

Small overview

The painting module

Gallery of illustrations

Install AppleWorks (Yes! It still works! )

Small overview

AppleWorks is 6 softwares grouped into one. When you launch it, it offers you the possibility to create 6 types of documents: word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, bitmap drawing, vector drawing.

I quickly talk about Spreadsheet, Database and Presentation because I never used these modules. Anyway, know that with Spreadsheet you could make like with Excel, with Database, create databases and with Presentation, make like with Power Point. (You can click on the images to enlarge them to full size.)

And here are, then, the 3 modules that I really used!

The word processor

I wrote all my comics scripts, presentations and internship reports there when I was at school, until my dad bought Microsoft Office. Hard to compete with the Word arts. 8D Except that Microsoft Office did not offer vector drawing software, nor bitmap drawing software. So it was not about to dethrone AppleWorks.

The vector drawing module

This module helped me a lot to make diagrams to integrate in the word processor, draw dungeon plans for our Donjons and Dragons sessions, make some logos or paste editable text on images like my comics pages. I particularly liked its ability to generate gradients that roughly matched the shape in which they were applied, and there are recent vector drawing technologies that still can't do that and that's a little bit annoying to me. And finally, here is the module where I really spent the most time!

The bitmap drawing module

Well... Some geometrical shapes, a pencil, a brush, a filling tool, an eraser... So far it doesn't look much different from Paint. Wait until you see what it is capable of. :p

The painting module (bitmap drawing)

To begin, AppleWorks 6 is not the first version of AppleWorks that I worked with and already at that time, I had my little habits and what a disappointment for me when I didn't find my favorite features !! Looking for a little bit it turned out that they were just a little hidden and just needed to be tidied up a bit. Because yes! This small software already had a customizable interface by drag and drop as on a modern Photoshop!

Now all is clear, we can get to the heart of the matter: drawing! :p I've already mentioned the toolbar on the side earlyer, which is already familiar to you if you've ever used Paint. Now, let's move on to the area just below: the palettes. AppleWorks offers a limited palette of colors.

You can combine the selected color with a pattern to apply. Some of them look like manga screentones.

Some fun colorful patterns are also available.

And finally a small palette of gradients is also available.

Well... A few funny patterns, some gradients. It's enough to have fun for 5 minutes, but nothing special. We will going not very far. That's where the real work begins. :p Do you remember? A few moments ago I added buttons in the horizontal bar at the top, including this one.

And this is what it opens!

A customization window! :D Not enough colors in the default palette? Never mind! You can create as many color palettes as you want.

Not enough patterns either in black and white or in color? You can create as many pattern palettes as you want!

The default gradients palettes is too poor? No problem! You can create as many gradient palettes as you want! And for the moment, I spent a lot, a lot, a lot of time on this section! You can make circular gradients.

Linear gradients.

And gradients that fit the shape in which you apply them. Well, it's far from perfect with concave shapes, but it already allows for interesting things.

And to give the coup de grace to Paint, with AppleWorks you could even create your own brushes! :p

There are even some effects available such as blurring.

This AppleWorks is a piece of cake in the belly! :D Now that we know about its possibilities, I propose to show you a small gallery of what I was able to do with this software from end of nineties to middle of 2000s. :D

Gallery of illustrations

Let's start with the very first drawing I made with AppleWorks in 1998. We didn't have a scanner at the time, so I had to do it entirely with the mouse. It was also a time when I didn't have much notion of saving the original files and I considered that as soon as I had printed the drawing, it was no longer worth keeping it on the computer to save space (the hard drive was 4 GB). So this is a scan of the printed version you see here. x)

A good old Darth Vader! (1998)

Well, making a drawing from A to Z entirely with the mouse was laborious, so I also used AppleWorks to create backgrounds and print them. Then I would do my drawing by hand and cut it out and paste it onto the printed background. I was able to make interesting effects by understanding the limitations of the software and exploiting them. By understanding that gradients were composed of a series of solid color bands, I could make focus line effects by filling them with the filling tool with a different patterns or gradients.

This posing remind some Dragon Ball character (Between 1998 and 2000)

It is also with AppleWorks that I made my first attempts at photo manipulation. I used photos from an encyclopedia we had on CD-ROM and manipulate them by tinkering them and copying and pasting small pieces here and there. Then I printed my montages and paste them onto the comics pages.

My montages were mainly used for space scenery. (1999 - 2000 in collaboration with my sister)

This software really pushed me to be creative to get what I wanted out of it. I had even managed the tour de force of pasting a white lineart over a photo.

(2000 - 2001)

In the absence of layers, I had to work on 2 files in parallel and with the lasso select tool. And then one day, our first scanner finally arrived home! There the serious things could begin! I was able to stop trying to make drawings with the mouse and use AppleWorks to put in color drawings made with the traditional way. So I was able to go further from the end of nineties. It obviously started with Saint Seiya. x) (You can always click on the images to enlarge them to full size.)

I loved the Aquarius saint. He was my favorite character from Saint Seiya. ^^ (2000 - 2001, this way)

At the beginning I was just doing solid colors, but as I experimented with the features and learned how to combine them, I ended up getting more and more advanced renderings.

Aoshi Shinomori from Kenshin and Ashram from Record of Lodoss War. These two were also my favorites characters at one time. (Between 2004 and 2006)

If you have enlarged the images you must have noticed that the line is particularly crenellated. There was no antialiasing, no layer system with opacity levels, no tolerance threshold for the filling tool. So it had to be black, or white, but not in between. As a result, AppleWorks was not really adapted to work on drawings with small details, hatching or heavily detailled backgrounds...

I tried anyway. :p These last 4 examples I think I made them between 2004 and 2006. The comics pages come from the first version of the Nécrotech project which is currently in a dormant state (but which I intend to resume one day). You'll notice on the first image of the last page some effects whose style stands out a bit from the rest. It's normal, I made them in another old painting software, Art Dabbler, but this is another story. :p In 2007, I got tired of suffering, I started to use The Gimp, in 2008 I bought my first graphics tablet, in 2009 I embarked on the Photoshop adventure and you know the rest: I sold my soul to Promarkers and Clip Studio Paint. And then there are days like that, we fall back into childhood. (Click on the image to see it at full size and distinguish the pixel patterns. I know, I repeat myself, but the devil is in the details. :p )

Last week, I decided to make a theme of the Drink'N'Draw from A to Z with AppleWorks to see what I could get out of it with 15 more years of experience in drawing and illustration. 8D With some tips you can get a pretty amazing result! I am happy with the result, especially the colors. It wasn't done without pain. The feature I wanted to take full advantage of (customizing color patterns) is buggy on the Windows version of the software, so I had to set up a Mac OS X Snow Leopard virtual machine to be able to do the finishing touches. What an adventure! In any case, AppleWorks is always well adapted to make pixel art and this experience has allowed me to learn new things applicable in recent and professional softwares. I had never really tried pixel art, which I love, by apprehension of the execution time. I think I found the trigger to get serious about it. I will explore it further. :D Well, well, well! But in fact, calculating gradient patterns for pixel art with shaders shouldn't be complicated. I think I will add such an effect in Péguy ! :D

Install AppleWorks

You've read it right! You can still install and use AppleWorks in 2021! :D

Windows

I did the test with Windows 8.1 on my Cintiq Companion tablet from Wacom, and in the comments it seems that it also works very well on Windows 10. To do this you will first install the latest version of QuickTime 7 which you can find on this page. You double click on the installer and you do next, next, next... Even when you are asked if you have a product key. It is not mandatory and useless for our needs. Then you go to this page and download the first file. You unzip the file and double click on the installer, then same procedure as before: next, next, next... You can do retro digital painting now! :D

Mac OS X

Apple computers have changed so much in 20 years that it is now impossible or at least very complicated to run the original programs on today's machines. The manipulation therefore consists in using the Windows version with the Wine emulator. If I had no problem with the procedure, it may seem a bit complicated for non-technical profiles so I simply propose you to download the final application I created myself via this link on Google Drive. You just have to download it, unzip it (with a double click) and launch it. If you're a computer geek and want to get a version of AppleWorks without the color pattern bug, you can get the .dmg here and install it in a Snow Leopard virtual machine.

Be reasonable about the size of your files. This is an old software that will have trouble supporting surfaces exceeding 2000px by 2000px. There is a way to cheat a bit, it is by creating a vector drawing file and creating a bitmap drawing surface inside.

That's all for that nostalgic moment. I think I will come back with some illustrations made with AppleWorks in the future. :D Have a nice day and see you soon! Suisei

P.S. If you want miss no news and if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the newsletter here : https://www.suiseipark.com/User/SubscribeNewsletter/language/english/

Source : https://www.suiseipark.com/News/Entry/id/308/

[cherokeegal1975]

Michael LaFaye and Lilly the Cat

This is the entry for my Deviantart page for my ideas on this character:

Update 5/10/219: OPEN INVINTATION TO TRY YOUR OWN VERSION OF MY CHARACTERS IS NOW CLOSED.  I'm being a bit lazy by only adding this update instead of bothering to go through the paragraphs below to edit the wording.   Besides, it's become clear that no one really wants to collaborate with me anyway, so I quit. (Silly question: Could you see these two in either a Marvel or DC cartoon film?)    Whew!  Finally I got this one done!  Completed 2/20/2019.  This is my one and only attempt at a superhero set of partners.  I gathered together a lot of online references and used them.  Nothing turned out exactly as I had first envisioned my two characters.  I even used a real tabby cat named Lilly that is our pet we rescued off the street some years ago to keep her from freezing to death.  She’s a beautiful, intelligent, loving, sometimes grumpy, talkative and playful kitty.  She’s really great…and though my cat here doesn’t look exactly like her, I did pay close attention to her markings and did the best I could to draw them.  I’m actually surprised how well my cat turned out, I have even less practice drawing cats than I do drawing people.    Why a fairy as my head hero?  I don’t remember.  I had the idea in my head for a long time and the original design for my character was a lot younger looking and was into skateboarding.  Like I said, nothing worked out exactly as I had first intended.    I don’t have a lot of ideas as far as a story that goes with them, so I’m sending out an invite for anyone who wants to try using my characters.  Two main rules, no matter what you do, you can’t hurt the cat.  Second rule, please credit me.  Also I would love to see what you do with my characters.    I DID NOT DRAW THE BACKDROP!  I got that from an online search for anime city scenes and I have no idea who the original artist is.  This one was actually my second choice, the original one being a anime monster…but I got tired of looking at the hideous thing so I switched it.  Actually I picked it because it was horrible looking and seemed like a good way to add to the visual part of the story at the time.    Okay, so in this invite, I’m going to lay down a foundation for you to follow…don’t panic, I will leave a lot open to the imagination.    Lilly: she’s a full partner of my head hero.  What powers she has is up to you, but she has to be able to communicate clearly with her partner; be it telepathically or even have the ability to speak like a human.    Talismans: You might notice that both have matching talismans.  This is to help them keep track of each other and make sure they can help when the other is in danger.  Can be used both as a long range communication device and a tracker.  You might try thinking of other things they might be able to do with them as well.  They got each other’s backs and Michael is especially protective of Lilly, so that’s why he made the talismans.  Why not?  They love each other.    Staff: Part fighting weapon and part over sized magic wand.  When It’s not in use, my hero can transform it into a unobtrusive bracelet or wrist watch.    Michael: I “borrowed” his wing design with some added embellishments from my fairies of Eden Symbiotic, a novel I wrote and published some years ago on Amazon.  Basically he can shrink them away to fin like ridges on his back and then fold them flat, making them invisible under his clothes.  He can turn those glowing parts of his wings off and on at will and with the lights off the spots are a light black with little white circles in the middle.  He can fold and drape them like a cape, but usually only does that when he's high up enough for them not to drag on the ground.  They also have a special magic that makes him lighter so he can fly more easily and help him to carry larger loads because the lightness can be transferred to anything he touches while he has them fully out.  No one can see his wings or his staff unless he lets them, due to a glamor spell that only a rare few humans can see through.  He’s immortal too, though he can die if he sustains a bad enough injury.  He’s very smart and will as often as not use his high intelligence to win out of a fight as use brute force.  Whether he’s an old hand or just starting out as a protector, that will be up to you.    Job: To protect the innocent, human or not mainly from supernatural monsters that cause trouble.  But they will also help with non-supernatural emergencies too.      Personalities:  Well, I gave you a basic one for Lilly.  I have no idea for Michael.  I don’t know what his personal life is like, who his other friends and allies are, or what other outfits he might wear.  I don’t see the point of him wearing a spandex costume.  In a way it’s smarter no to do that, no need to make a quick change of wardrobe and by pulling his wings in and transforming his staff, he looks pretty much like a well dressed man out on the town.  Pretty good disguise as is really. So, you can use my characters in drawings, comics, games, written stories, 3-D renderings…whatever.  I look forward to seeing what you do if you choose to take me up on my invitation.   (I almost forgot to mention two things. One, part of this is about placing a cat in a positive roll in fiction. I haven't encountered too many cats in fiction that were given rolls as main characters, or portrayed in a positive way. Second, Michael can have more than one animal partner. If you would like, you can use my photos in my gallery for references. The same rules of giving credit and no matter what your plot is, you can't let my animals come to harm. I know it's pure fantasy, but I care about them a lot. You can have them escape peril, dive selflessly into danger...but like many fantasy heroes, the must somehow get out of trouble without a scratch.) Update: Here are some screen shots to highlight the details of what is impossible to see from my gallery because it doesn't blow up big enough when clicked on: www.deviantart.com/cherokeegal…

[straykatfish]

This final A1 piece in acrylics came about following an exploration of ways in which the sea is represented in art. I ran a search via Google images and then scrolled through the results, settling on only the images that caught my eye. I wanted images that were visually impactful and as my knowledge of art and artists is still very limited, it seemed to me that this might introduce me to and pique my interest in work I wouldn’t otherwise have noticed.

In the end, the pieces that drew my eye were largely by artists I knew of but only really from a distance. This time I had been drawn in by their work and not their name or reputation. They also, very conveniently, came from different time periods and different artistic traditions. I printed out copies of each and then made drawings from them in different media, which inevitably meant interpretation as this, and my own developing style, impacted on the copies.

First was The Great Wave (1829-1833) by Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist working largely in wood block and print. The result is a very formal and stylised image. I copied this using soft pastels, changing the background to black and omitting the boats drawn up into the wave so as to focus as much as possible on the construction of the wave itself. Hokusai makes tendrils of the foam and fixes the water in position so that, in effect, it’s no less solid than Mount Fuji in the distance. I liked the drama of that and the sense of power it evokes, despite its being static.

Next I looked at what I then discovered was Turner’s Fishermen on a Lee-shore, (1802), an acknowledged masterpiece of grandeur and drama. This was a daunting piece to copy and it felt presumptuous to attempt it. Again, this is soft pastels in an A5 sketchbook and I felt pleased by the way my rendering of some of the elements turned out. I like the motion and the effect of blending and how, without realising how I did it, the marks that form the tumbling foam in the foreground seem to work.

The third piece was Paul Klee’s Golden Fish (1925). The colours deceived me into thinking this was by Kandinsky so I was surprised to find it wasn’t. Klee’s image is almost naive and childlike, a semi-stylised piece that verges on abstract in that realism is barely described. I used soft pastels again for this copy and made the image on black gesso. I like the colourful representations of the fish and the merest suggestion of the surrounding element – water. It was fun to do.

Finally, I took on one of Maggi Hambling’s series of hugely energetic gestural pieces (circa 2012) describing waves, most of which are in portrait orientation and towering so that the impact of power comes across without any further context. Hambling makes broad marks in an expressive style that speaks of the essence of a wave rather than its objective anatomy. I like the way she incorporates unexpected colours into the water, maybe reflecting the way droplets act as prisms to fracture white light; but maybe not. My copy is in soft pastels which are also quite large – especially on A5 paper – and tries to home in on that expression.

My first intention was to make larger versions of these and to weave into them text relevant to the period in which they were made. I had seen typographic art in galleries in Brighton earlier and liked the idea. Later though, I was drawn back to a poem by Marianne Moore called The Steeplejack (c 1930s) which I’d drawn before starting the course and thought to return to that.

After completing the A1 piece, I did return to it and made a series of images owing something to each of the artists, with accompanying text from a particular stanza speculating on how Durer would have liked to ‘live in a town like this, with eight stranded whales to look at’. This is on A3 hot pressed watercolour support; each image is drawn directly onto it and the surrounding colour is black gesso with outlines of white conte.

The ‘D’ of Durer is made by a great wave after Hambling; and the stranded whales wearing lettering spelling that out, is black ink on white gesso with deliberate spaces left between them to emphasise their edges as a Hokusai woodblock might. Beneath is blended soft pastel representing the ‘sweet air’ (after Turner), and last is Klee’s golden fish accompanied by text that describes the water as being ‘etched with waves as formal as the scales on a fish’. Ideally, I would have used letraset for the text but had to resort to handwritten and typed text which I don’t consider ideal. As I have no capacity for calligraphy or even well-controlled handwriting, this remains an exercise until a better way of handling the imagery occurs to me. Also, I’m still quite fond of my pre-course drawing based on this poem and that is interfering with progressing the new way of looking at it.

In the meantime I made a series of drawings and paintings based not on the original art works I’d chosen but on similar real-world photographs which seemed to lend themselves to my chosen styles.

The whales. This is from a photograph attributed to ***

The great wave: this one from a representative photograph attributed to *** – as no one was there for the actual incident – of the largest wave ever recorded in the north Atlantic (2012).

I began to put these into a composition, first as separate images in a sequence reflecting the stylised through to the expressive, and then as part of one whole piece with quite explicit reference to Hokusai’s and Hambling’s waves, Turner’s blending around the whales, and a couple of red fish nodding towards Klee. The bottom image shows in more detail both the formalised structure of the Hokusai wave and also begins to reference a more modern notion of structure drawn from 3D computer modelling when I discovered that one of my reference whales was in fact an animated construct. The red lines represent the wire frame stage of the animation process. Also in this image is my Fibonacci layout, something that had come up while observing NASA engineers in the Mars rover live lab as they inadvertently one day fell into exactly a classical golden ratio tableau. I drew this out in orange conte to find where the focus should be and it was clearly not there.

This led to a further composition which moved the whales closer to the wave and eventually dispensed with both the stylised wave and the additional whale although I retained the red lines for a while and used dots of orange to hint at Klee’s fish.

I tried also using portrait orientation as had Hambling because at one point it seems that the expanse of dark sea and sky to the left was draining the energy from the elements on the right. This is made in inks, oil pastels, and coloured conte on a black gesso ground and while I like the effect of rubbing and scraping at the surfaces to reveal the colours in the layers beneath, I’m not wild about the composition or the rather insubstantial feel of the media I’ve used so I returned to acrylics.

This required yet another iteration of the basic composition and, after checking again both onscreen and on the easel from a distance where the focus needed to be, I printed and  cut out multiples of the feeding whales to position under the wave and determine how many and where they should go. This led to the final composition as shown beneath.

Unfortunately, I could find no way of eliminating reflection of light on the black gesso and moving the camera closer led to the black being rendered as grey by the digital algorithm. The better shot is at the top of this post but from a distance. It can be zoomed for detail. Here, I want to describe something of what remains of the artists whose work brought me to this point. For me, Hambling’s expressiveness dominates the wave structure and contains small patches of colour which reflect her style and also a little of Klee’s golden fish. Some parts of the foam are more stylised than others where I manipulated a stylus in the wet acrylic to make curls in the edges, then further down is a very clear-cut edge to a rising component of the wave, marking with a thin line of turquoise the foreground water from the central melee of the whales. This is the Hokusai influence. I have used blending – by finger – on the foam in the large wave and also in the turbulence around the whales where the behaviour of the water reminded me of the waves in Turner’s piece.

As additional notes, there are two small patches of dark red wash in the black area to the left which I’ve intended as both an indication that this is a ‘live’ area (sky) and not simply one that hasn’t been addressed. The colour reflects those in Klee’s painting. Then finally I’ve placed a dot of orange in the sweep of the wave just between its base and the whales to both reflect again Klee’s fish and also to pinpoint what, to my eye, is the centre point of the Fibonacci spiral.

I have learned a great deal in the making of this piece. First that copying great works needn’t be intimidating and doing so delivers ideas and motor skills subliminally. Second, that repetition (up to a point – I do become very tired of seeing some things after a while!) improves those motor skills as these are refined from many stiff movements to one or two large swift ones. And thirdly, that innovation is born of practice and looking, listening and feeling. I’ve used music quite often throughout this work, in particular the score for the ballet Woolf Works by Max Richter (2017) which describes the tormented life and tragic demise of Virginia Woolf. The final scene is danced before an enormous monochrome sea moving in the slowest of slow motions. I’ve also made audio and video clips of the waves crashing onto the beach at Lancing and used these too to keep the sense of power and fluidity in mind. Most of all though, I’ve had at the front of my thinking the terrible losses we’ll experience if we fail to protect our oceans, our wildlife, and our planet. This is not a political message piece, but for me the subtext certainly is.

Woolf Works, Ballet performed by the Royal Ballet, score by Max Richter. 2017.

Paul Klee, The Golden (or Gold) Fish. (1925).

J.M.W. Turner, Fishermen on a Lee Shore in Squally Weather (1802).

Maggi Hambling, Bold Breaking Waves. (c 2012).

Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. (1829-1833).

All sites last accessed 18/01/2020.

  NB I may edit this post prior to submission, but will not do so subsequently. 

Part 5 – personal project submission This final A1 piece in acrylics came about following an exploration of ways in which the sea is represented in art.

[emeraldembers]

Fic: After the Rain (Baze Malbus/Chirrut Imwe, NC17)

Title: After the Rain

Fandom: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Pairing: Baze Malbus/Chirrut Imwe

Summary: Baze has depression, and while Chirrut knows he can’t fix this, he knows taking Baze out on one of his better days for a frolic in a hot tub won’t hurt matters.

Author’s Notes: Written for the prompt “Baze and Chirrut fuck in a hot tub” for @lionmettled in the 2017 spiritassassin fic exchange. The original draft was a hot mess but had some ideas I liked - this is the belated, bettered, and beta-ed version (thanks @thenyxmidnight, love you as always <3, and @only-1-a for also being a legend).

AO3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/11953089

* * *

Baze's hair was filthy.

The fact it was filthy was no real surprise. Chirrut could not remember the last time Baze had showered, and deodorising powders could only do so much when masking Baze's scent.

It wasn't idleness or a disregard for hygiene that kept Baze from showering, but the same illness that had bound Baze to their quarters for days at a time, practically rendered mute by his suffering. Sickness of the mind could be as cruel as sickness anywhere else in the body, and Chirrut’s help could only go so far.

Times like this had been part of Chirrut's life with Baze for as long as they had known each other; times when the lessons passed down by masters, and tinctures brewed from the temple's garden were not enough to soothe Baze's wounds. Even Chirrut's hands, lovingly tending to sore muscles or tangled braids, were not enough.

Baze's worst enemy was not something Chirrut could fight with his fists, no matter how hard he trained, but Chirrut had endurance as well as strength, and meant to wait out each episode at Baze's side for as long as Baze would let him.

Easier days with the illness were marked by Baze talking without being prompted, bad days by fits of anger followed by crushing sorrow or stubborn silence. After two easy days in a row, Chirrut knew it was time to make Baze wash with him, for his health alone if nothing else.

Bringing up Baze's need to wash without wounding his pride could be tricky, but luck in the timing of Baze's better days and Jedha's fleeting wet season had created a perfect opportunity for Chirrut to exploit.

The flash floods had been kind this year, filling reservoirs in the city and its outskirts to the point of spilling, and several tourist hotspots had taken advantage of the waters to provide facilities Jedha could rarely afford.

Hot tubs were a rare luxury on Jedha, but Chirrut saw no harm in making use of them while they were available. All wastewater would find its way to farmland in the end, and Chirrut had friends enough to gain cheap access to such facilities when the floods had been generous.

That Baze would accompany him went without saying. Where Chirrut walked, Baze followed, and this had been understood long before their relationship turned romantic.

"You didn't have to do this," Baze said, the powdery scent of soap leaf pouring off him as Chirrut rinsed it from his hair.

"What fun would it be if I needed to?" Chirrut asked, combing through the wet locks with his fingers to make sure they were free of lather and tangles. Washing in preparation for use of the hot tub was a matter of courtesy as well as hygiene, and Chirrut was glad of the excuse to get his hands on Baze.

Not that he needed one, but he was glad to have it nonetheless.

"You feel presentable," Chirrut said, resting his hands on Baze's waist and pressing a quick kiss to his shoulder. "How do we look?"

"Wet," Baze said, straightening up and taking hold of Chirrut's wrist. "Lead the way."

It was a short walk through the inn's corridor to the room with the hot tub, short enough that Chirrut opted for holding a towel over his groin rather than wrapping it around his waist. He dropped it gladly as soon as he heard the door close behind him, enjoying the alien cling of humidity to his skin.

"There's no lock."

"I don't care," Chirrut said cheerily, walking over to the hot tub with carefully extended hands and smiling when he found its edges. "Do you? Help me in."

There was a hushed sound as Baze dropped his own towel, then Baze pressed up against him from behind, skin hot and sweat-sticky. "You asked."

Chirrut squawked as he was lifted and dunked without ceremony into the tub, and glared in what he hoped was Baze's direction once he'd surfaced and found a seat. "Found your sense of humour?" Chirrut muttered, listening as Baze climbed in.

Baze grunted in agreement before climbing into Chirrut's lap, clutching his head in both hands. "Here it is."

"Your sense of humour?"

"The reason I laugh," Baze said, snorting at his own joke, and Chirrut couldn't help but laugh in turn, wrapping his arms around Baze's waist loosely as Baze did the same.

The laughter settled into a not quite comfortable silence, and Chirrut chose to break it first. "I've missed this."

"I know," Baze said, his hands warm and heavy on Chirrut's back, and Chirrut tilted his head up for a kiss.

Chirrut hadn't intended much by it, but after sharing a relatively chaste peck, Baze kissed him again, open-mouthed, and Chirrut was happy to respond in kind.

Baze's hands were greedier than his mouth, moving quickly to grab Chirrut's ass, and Chirrut smiled at the contradiction. Baze rarely sought out Chirrut's tongue unless Chirrut had first toyed with his, but his hands rarely needed that same, unspoken prompt.

"You want my hands on you?" Chirrut asked when they took a moment to breathe, forehead to forehead and belly to belly, unable to get enough of each other.

The treatments for Baze's condition sometimes left him unable to take pleasure from Chirrut, though he rarely hesitated to give it if Chirrut asked, and it was both flattering and a relief for Chirrut to feel Baze stir under his touch. The feel of him swelling, growing hard and rocking into Chirrut's touch, was something Chirrut would never tire of; the sounds Baze made as Chirrut stroked him were a pleasing bonus.

"This is your fault," Baze panted as he closed a hand over Chirrut's own, bracing himself against the hot tub's edge with the other.

"I should be ashamed of myself," Chirrut deadpanned before kissing him again, feeling a smile on Baze's lips that mirrored his own. It didn't matter much that his own erection was unattended. Not when it had been weeks since he'd last heard Baze's breathing grow ragged and desperate, since he'd last felt Baze rocking against him, thighs trembling with exertion.

"Chirrut," Baze said, "I -"

That was as much warning as Chirrut got before Baze shuddered against him and came with a low grunt, the slick texture quickly washing away to nothing in the water, and Chirrut brought both hands up to Baze's shoulders, drawing him close while his breathing settled.

"You can sleep if you want to," Chirrut said, curling Baze's hair loosely around his fingers. "I booked an hour."

The quiet as they dried and dressed each other afterwards was the sort Chirrut wished he could live in always, tender and weighted with affection.

He let his hands speak for him, catching Baze's face between them and tracing over his features, mapping out the ways relaxation had smoothed them soft.

Kind eyes under a thoughtful brow, soft cheeks and softer lips, and Chirrut kissed each in turn, finished by nipping Baze's nose.

"Troublemaker," Baze muttered.

"Fool," Chirrut countered, and hugged him tight, enjoying the moment of peace while it lasted.

Those moments seemed to come fewer and farther between as of late, but they were still worth fighting for, would always be worth fighting for. Baze was worth fighting for.

Baze was worth everything.

[crystallinearts]

@ladsindistress​

Lads in Distress fic incoming, featuring one of the cut princes because... uhhhhh... because I find sleepy characters endearing? Because I’m into melting-an-ice-prince’s-heart tsundere ships?? ... Because he’s adorable???

Whatever!! I have fun with this. It’s been a while since I’ve tried to incorporate this thing of “gonna try to stick to the original writing’s tone but use my own style” sort of thing, haha.

Enjoy!!! <3

                                                Sleeping Beauty

                                               | Charming x Beau |

The sight of my new betrothed lying on my bed is not at all what I expect when I retire to my room for the day.

There he is, though. Beau is still fully clothed, boots and all, curled up on top of my sheets; he looks no less comfortable for it, either. In fact, if I weren’t looking directly at his clothes, I’d think he was wrapped up in nothing but a long, soft nightshirt. His bangs are still over one eye, although they’re sweeping over as if trying to also cover his other as well. Dark blonde lashes are closed tightly, yet, at the same time, they look as if he could wake up any second.

However, I don’t think that’s even a possibility. He looks as if he’s sleeping the sleep of the dead. It might alarm me a bit, if I couldn’t see that his chest is slowly rising and falling. So he’s still breathing. He’s fine… just asleep. For once, he doesn’t have a scowl on his face or look indifferent to everything around him. He actually looks… sort of peaceful.

Pity that he chose to look peaceful in my bed.

Not even the crackling of the fireball I’ve just conjured is enough to rouse him. You would think most people would jump a mile at the sound of that. I sigh and the flames match my frustration, growing a little brighter. Am I really going to have to do this the hard way? Heavy sleeper or not, this seems ridiculous.

“Prince Beau!” My free hand grabs his shoulder, giving him as rough a shake as I dare to. “Wake up!”

Wow. All he does is stir slightly, one hand reaching to brush at my fingers. Though his eyebrows draw together as if he’s only mildly disturbed, they fall back into a more relaxed position quickly enough. “Mmmnnn…” Legs tuck up underneath him further, moving as if there’s been a sudden draft and he’s gotten cold.

That’s two things I’ve tried that haven’t worked. Gods, what is with him? A curse of being constantly tired is one thing, but that doesn’t mean he’s allowed to just sleep wherever he pleases – especially in my palace. “Prince Beau!” I repeat, more harshly this time. My grip on his shoulder tightens significantly, and I bring my fireball just close enough so that he can feel its heat. “Wake up! If I have to say it a third time, it will not be pleasant for you!”

What I’ve researched about his curse leads me to believe there’s some kind of ‘true love’s kiss’ element. Is that really the case? Does he have to be kissed to wake up? If so, I’ll simply levitate him out of here. I’m not going to tolerate his presence in my room at night, nor am I going to kiss a slumbering man I’ve known for barely a day.

Thankfully, it seems that the warmth of the blaze is what pulls him out of whatever dream he was having. His eyes flutter open, golden orbs full of fatigue despite (I assume) having been resting for a while peering up at me. “Princess… great…” Rosebud lips part briefly as a yawn breaks through his speech, and amazingly enough, he does nothing but turn onto his other side. “I don’t care what you want… I’m sleeping, so… it can wait…” Another yawn interrupts him, so forceful this time that it makes his entire slender frame shudder. “… Until tomorrow…” He shifts his head around, nuzzling his cheek against the fabric of my topmost blanket. “Get out of… my room…”

“Your room?!” His words surprise me so much that my magic dissipates in an instant. Anger bubbles up inside of me at the thought that he has so much nerve to command me to leave when it’s my room he’s fallen asleep in. Why on Earth does he think it’s his?! “I don’t know what kind of dream you’re having, Prince Beau…” When my hands grab him for a second time, I stay true to my threat. Gentle is not the word I’d use to describe how I pull him into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. “… But you are in my room! I’m tired, too, and I’d like to go to sleep! Kindly get off my bed and go to your own room!”

My less-than-sweet touches and tone seem to snap him back to being almost fully alert. His eyes are half-lidded as if he’s still tremendously exhausted, and he’s looking around in a confused daze. A third yawn cuts through the silence as he rubs at his visible eye. At least he seems like he’s actually paying attention now. “… Your room…?” He pouts for half a second, then it evolves into a complete scowl. Ah. There’s the ill-tempered prince I’ve been dealing with. “A thousand pardons.” The bed hardly creaks as he gets to his feet, nearly tripping over himself as he starts toward the door. I don’t miss the sarcasm in his voice as he ‘apologizes’, either. “Excuse me.”

>[Just dismiss it.]

Why he was in my room in the first place, I’m sure I’ll never know. His curse renders him constantly weary, though, so whatever he was doing in here, he probably doesn’t ever intend to fall asleep in odd places. It’s not worth a fight.

“Goodnight!” I call after him, albeit a little bitterly.

Though I can’t be sure, I think I hear a quiet scoff before he shuts the door.

Urgh. You’d think a prince would have better manners.

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Tomorrow we leave to begin the courting period in the Dream Kingdom, so I’d better get my rest instead of being upset with Beau. Hopefully, the next two months will be as uneventful as possible.

>[Ask him why he was in your room.]

“Hey, wait just a second!”

Thrice now I’ve grabbed him by the arm, and when he turns to glance at me, he doesn’t look thrilled. If I were to wager a guess, I’d call the look on his face irritation. “What? I thought you wanted me out of your room.”

My teeth chew at my lower lip for a moment, because there’s nothing I can say to that. He’s right, I do want him out. It’s not like I’d rather have him stay, for heaven’s sake! “… I do. But you owe me an explanation. What were you doing snooping around in my room in the first place?”

“Snooping.” As if judging my word choice, he snorts before rubbing at his eye again. How long has he been asleep? Shouldn’t he be rested enough to not look like he’s about to keel over? “That isn’t becoming of a prince. I wasn’t here on purpose.”

Something about his words strikes me, strangely, as true. It’s enough that I release my grip on his arm. “Then why were you here?”

His eyes narrow for a second, then return to just looking drawn. “Like I said, it wasn’t on purpose. Not like I was waiting for you or anything like that. I was tired, heading back to my room, and I… just… must have gone into the wrong room.”

I blink, and in a flash, he’s heading out. “Have a good night.”

“Ah–” By the time I can stammer out a, “You too,” he’s disappeared down the hall.

… I’m starting to feel a little drained myself.

It still annoys me that he fell asleep in my room, but… I can’t bring myself to truly be angry at him. Tomorrow we leave to Dream Kingdom for the courting period, so I should probably get some sleep, as well. Hopefully, the next two months will just go smoothly.

[subparatbestcomics]

Artist’s Commentary 2

Today's artist commentary marks the 22nd week of work on RFO. It is the longest I have ever worked on any one thing.

RFO 11 This marks point in the story where the supernatural elements begin. I had difficulty deciding on how to frame it. In the end, I culled the background elements in favor of the action.

This didn't work very well, because I am still unskilled at creating dynamic poses or panels. I hope to improve over time. Also, part of the background isn’t shaded in, so that bothers me too. I am at least pleased with the flames. They come to me more easily than  figures do.

RFO 12 I am much more proud of this page. The bottom panel was originally going to be a rectangle as well. As I drew in the top panel, I felt that having the sword cut through Jude's reality, was a cooler visual. The sword is based on some of the earliest known, which were short and made of bronze. I chose this to lend a sense of age and uniqueness.

RFO 13 Boy, Jude's faces are a little stiff in this one. A major part of the problem is that I am drawing these pages on printer paper, which is the only medium available at this time. Whenever I make a mistake or change my mind about how Ive drawn something, I have to chose between erasing it -which will leave visible marks- or leaving it as is. More often than not, I will keep whatever I drew first, because erasing is a nightmare that leaves smudges or accidentally crumples the paper. My wrist hurts too much to draw the same page twice to correct it.        Especially this page. I would have to redraw all of those bricks.

RFO 14 It may not be clear, but Jude hurt his knee when he fell. It isn’t the most important thing, but I felt I should clarify. Also, in the bottom left panel, Jude wasn’t meant to be walking on the grass, he was meant to be on the sidewalk, but I was tired and didn't realize as I drew the scene that the angles didn’t match up.

RFO 15 I’m proud of this page too. The smoke effects are different in each panel. The smoke is heavier and more realistically rendered closer to the viewer, and more stylized when the view zooms out to show the rest of the room. Anyway, at this point in the story we see that Jude cannot escape whatever is happening, because even his neighbor's door leads back to his own house.

RFO 16 This panel reinforces the idea that Jude cannot escape, by having his neighbor's front door connect his ruined living room, to his back door. On another note, I still have trouble with Jude's proportions, as you can see in the last two panels, where Jude's arms get longer.

RFO 17 Jude's expression are a little weird here too, but I like them; I feel they express his combined fear, frustration and confusion pretty well. The refrigerator was not always in the corner. Originally I had intended for Jude not to even have a proper refrigerator, just shelves. Then, it was a mini-fridge in the basement. Then, as I was going over the script, I realized it had to be in the kitchen, in a spot Jude would overlook, so the devil could be in the scene as he is here. Luckily, the layout of Jude’s house had an empty spot in the kitchen that met my needs.

RFO 18 You have probably already noticed, but I cannot seem to keep the devil's overall look consistent. The exact shape of his head, shoulders, body, and clothing are ever shifting. Being that he is the devil, you might think this was on purpose, but no, I just am unable to keep track. Nowhere is this more clear than in his suit stripes. On an unrelated note, in the bottom panels, I experimented with how I fill the background, and I think I like it. I might try more in later panels.

RFO 19 I’m not very happy with this page. It was needed, but I know I could have done better. I felt that there had to be a pause as Jude sat with the devil, but I also wanted the conversation to be broken up in a certain way. These panels could have been condensed into one, but I couldn’t find a way to fit it in with the panels you see on page 20, so I spread that pause to fill a whole page. When RFO moves from draft to final, this page will almost certainly be divided into an extra panel for pages 18 and 20.

RFO 20 This page marks the story entering a more dialogue heavy section, and as such the dialogue will be taking up more real estate on the page.This means I have to draw less, but it also means mistakes will be more obvious. I hope I am up to the task.

                                                                           Jacob Birmingham

[pope-francis-quotes]

4th April >> Pope Francis' Address to Vatican Conference on 50th Anniversary of “Populorum Progressio”

What does integral development mean today and in the near future, namely, the development of every man and of the whole man? Pope Francis addressed today, April 4, 2017, in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, the participants in the Congress promoted by the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, being held in the Vatican on April 3-4, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Encyclical Populorum Progressio Below, please find an English working translation of the Pope Francis' address to those present at the meeting: Dear Brothers and Sisters, Thank you for the invitation and your welcome. I thank you for your presence and for your activity in human promotion and the common good. I thank Cardinal Turkson for his words of greeting and for having started, not without effort, the new Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development. It has been a model to follow, in peace, creativity, consultations, truly a model of ecclesial construction: thank you, Eminence. You are gathered in this International Congress because the birth of the new Dicastery coincides significantly with the 50th anniversary of Blessed Paul VI’s Encyclical Populorum Progressio. In that encyclical, he specified in detail the meaning of “integral development (cf. n. 21), and he proposed that synthetic and fortunate formula: “development of every man and of the whole man” (n. 14). What does integral development mean today and in the near future, namely, the development of every man and of the whole man? In the wake of Paul VI, perhaps in fact in the verb integrate – so dear to me – we can identify a fundamental orientation for the new Dicastery. Let us see together some aspects. It is about integrating different peoples of the earth. The duty of solidarity obliges us to seek just ways of sharing, so that there is not that dramatic inequality between those that have too much and those that have nothing, between those that discard and those that are discarded. Only the way of integration between peoples enables humanity to have a future of peace and hope. It is about offering practical models of social integration. Everyone has a contribution to make to the whole of society, all have a peculiarity that might help to live together, no one is excluded from contributing something to the good of all. This is at the same time a right and a duty. It is the principle of subsidiarity that guarantees the necessity of everyone’s contribution, be it as individuals or as groups, if we wish to create a human coexistence open to all. Moreover, it is about integrating in development all those elements that truly render it so. The different systems: economy, finance, work, culture, family life, religion, each one is in its specificity an indispensable moment of this growth. None of them can be absolutized and none of them can be excluded from a conception of integral human development that takes account <of the fact> that human life is like an orchestra that sounds well if the different instruments are in accord and follow a score shared by all. It is also about integrating the individual and communal dimension. It is undeniable that we are children of a culture, at least in the West, that has exalted the individual to the point of making him an island, almost as if one can be happy on one’s own. On the other hand, ideological visions and political powers are not lacking that have squeezed the person out, they have standarized him and deprived him of that freedom without which man no longer feels himself man. Interested also in such standarization are economic powers that wish to exploit globalization, instead of fostering greater sharing among men, simply to impose a global market of which they themselves dictate the rules and draw the profits. The I and the community are not concurrent between them, but the I can only mature in the presence of genuine inter-personal relations and the community is generator when they are all and individually its components. This is even truer for the family, which is the first cell of society and in which one learns to live together. Finally, it is about integrating body and soul. Already Paul VI wrote that development is not reduced to simple economic growth (cf. n. 14); development does not consist in having ever more goods available, for material wellbeing alone. To integrate body and soul also means that no endeavor of development can truly achieve its purpose if it does not respect the place in which God is present in us and speaks to our heart. God made himself known fully in Jesus Christ: in Him, God and man are not divided and separated between them. God became man to make of human life, be it personal or social, a concrete way of salvation. Thus God’s manifestation in Christ – including His gestures of healing, liberation, reconciliation that we are called to propose again today to the many wounded on the side of the road – indicates the path and the way of the service that the Church intends to offer the world: in its light one can understand what “integral” development means, which does no wrong to God or to man, because it assumes all the consistency of both. In this connection, in fact, the concept of person, born and matured in Christianity, helps to pursue a fully human development. Because the word ‘person’ always means relation, not individualism; it affirms inclusion and not exclusion, the unique and inviolable identity and not exploitation, freedom and not constriction. The Church does not tire of offering this wisdom and her work to the world, in the awareness that integral development is the way of the good that the human family is called to follow. I invite you to carry this action forward with patience and constancy, in the confidence that the Lord accompanies you. May He bless you and our Lady protect you. [Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]

[courtneyneeson3danimation]

Before I can animate Tailgate I need to get all his pieces rigged which thankfully in my case shall be much easier than some of my classmates. For the majority of my fellow classmates, their rigs were pulling and pushing the wrong vertices or too many vertices which meant they had to go and paint their rigs to be able to control it better.

I did not have to do this because my rig would be a mechanical one and with all my pieces detached I can add individual bones and simply use the hierarchy system of parenting to get them to move correctly.

Here you can see me doing the most difficult part of the rig and that is his hands and fingers, I could have set up one control so that Tailgate could make a fist or close his hands however I did want to be able to pose him having as much control as possible. The thickest part of the bones is the point where it rotates, moves or grows in size, think of it as an origin point and the smaller end is showing where it connect to the next bone. When you set these up they automatically are parented meaning despite having to go and parent them to the objects themselves the hierarchy within the bones themselves is already set.

As you can see each circle is set to match the points at which the fingers are meant to bend and not further down the fingers because that way whenever the cylinders spin they do appear to be joints and the blocks of the fingers do not collide with each other.

In today Tailgate had 48 bones with some of them being mandatory and some being for posing that may not have been absolutely necessary. For example, some of the mandatory bones were the spine, neck, legs, feet and wrists, and some that do not be the second control on his thighs and each joint on his fingers.

The second bone in his thigh was to help spin the leg if Tailgate was to pose pointing his toe outward away from his body. The main control stays within the ball joint on his hips but the second control was not really needed but I felt should I need to pose him a certain way I can make it look more normal.

I did almost put in a control to spin the tires in his shoulders and hips however upon looking at it from a  rendered view I have no real way of showing they are moving as they have no rim designs. Making the types spin would have made it look no different than when they were sitting still so they were not included.

I do apologise as I am no artist as I have RSI in my drawing hand at the moment so these had to be very minimalistic but as long as I get my message across they still fulfil their purpose. Because I really have no time to animate Tailgate but what I can do is show off his model, I can set up the camera to stand in front of him and rotate around him. Having the camera rotate around him at different points will show off his model better but in panel 4 I intend to have the camera focus in on him whilst holding a cube.

In the Transformers universe, cubs are a common feature as their fuel is stored in these cubes and glow in the dark, I wanted to show this because that way it could show how I can control lighting through objects and also show how effective it is to use the Cycles Render feature to bring out the shadows better in darkened scenes.

To get the camera to rotate without actually touching the camera I instead set up a sphere and set it to 0,0,0 and then parented it to the camera with the sphere being the parent. Now when the sphere spins it will not move but the camera shall follow.

Getting prepared to position the camera for multiple shots I decided to create an environment for Tailgate to be in slightly. I put him on a reflective turntable to try and make the scene a little more interesting than him just standing in all the room backgrounds I have had for all his previous renders.

All that was left to do was enter the key frames which I did every 90 degrees on every 25th frame, this meant I had 5 key frames and a total of 125 frames her clip. Clips will all be shown below:

The blog will not allow me to include anymore links sadly, however, I do have 1 more render to show and in addition to that I shall have a link below to the actual video, the link is also available in my presentation blog.

Tailgate Render P8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U6j7lwFkvI

3D Animation Assignment | Courtney Neeson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGrbK0Kg98

[cherokeegal1975]

Michael LaFaye and Lilly the Cat

  Update 5/10/219: OPEN INVINTATION TO TRY YOUR OWN VERSION OF MY CHARACTERS IS NOW CLOSED.  I'm being a bit lazy by only adding this update instead of bothering to go through the paragraphs below to edit the wording.   Besides, it's become clear that no one really wants to collaborate with me anyway, so I quit.  

Your opinions and thoughts are still welcome however. (Silly question: Could you see these two in either a Marvel or DC cartoon film?)     Whew!  Finally I got this one done!  Completed 2/20/2019.  This is my one and only attempt at a superhero set of partners.  I gathered together a lot of online references and used them.  Nothing turned out exactly as I had first envisioned my two characters.  I even used a real tabby cat named Lilly that is our pet we rescued off the street some years ago to keep her from freezing to death.  She’s a beautiful, intelligent, loving, sometimes grumpy, talkative and playful kitty.  She’s really great…and though my cat here doesn’t look exactly like her, I did pay close attention to her markings and did the best I could to draw them.  I’m actually surprised how well my cat turned out, I have even less practice drawing cats than I do drawing people.     Why a fairy as my head hero?  I don’t remember.  I had the idea in my head for a long time and the original design for my character was a lot younger looking and was into skateboarding.  Like I said, nothing worked out exactly as I had first intended.     I don’t have a lot of ideas as far as a story that goes with them, so I’m sending out an invite for anyone who wants to try using my characters.  Two main rules, no matter what you do, you can’t hurt the cat.  Second rule, please credit me.  Also I would love to see what you do with my characters.     I DID NOT DRAW THE BACKDROP!  I got that from an online search for anime city scenes and I have no idea who the original artist is.  This one was actually my second choice, the original one being a anime monster…but I got tired of looking at the hideous thing so I switched it.  Actually I picked it because it was horrible looking and seemed like a good way to add to the visual part of the story at the time.     Okay, so in this invite, I’m going to lay down a foundation for you to follow…don’t panic, I will leave a lot open to the imagination.     Lilly: she’s a full partner of my head hero.  What powers she has is up to you, but she has to be able to communicate clearly with her partner; be it telepathically or even have the ability to speak like a human.     Talismans: You might notice that both have matching talismans.  This is to help them keep track of each other and make sure they can help when the other is in danger.  Can be used both as a long range communication device and a tracker.  You might try thinking of other things they might be able to do with them as well.  They got each other’s backs and Michael is especially protective of Lilly, so that’s why he made the talismans.  Why not?  They love each other.     Staff: Part fighting weapon and part over sized magic wand.  When It’s not in use, my hero can transform it into a unobtrusive bracelet or wrist watch.     Michael: I “borrowed” his wing design with some added embellishments from my fairies of Eden Symbiotic, a novel I wrote and published some years ago on Amazon.  Basically he can shrink them away to fin like ridges on his back and then fold them flat, making them invisible under his clothes.  He can turn those glowing parts of his wings off and on at will.  He can fold and drape them like a cape, but usually only does that when he's high up enough for them not to drag on the ground.  They also have a special magic that makes him lighter so he can fly more easily and help him to carry larger loads because the lightness can be transferred to anything he touches while he has them fully out.  No one can see his wings or his staff unless he lets them, due to a glamor spell that only a rare few humans can see through.  He’s immortal too, though he can die if he sustains a bad enough injury.  He’s very smart and will as often as not use his high intelligence to win out of a fight as use brute force.  Whether he’s an old hand or just starting out as a protector, that will be up to you.     Job: To protect the innocent, human or not mainly from supernatural monsters that cause trouble.  But they will also help with non-supernatural emergencies too.       Personalities:  Well, I gave you a basic one for Lilly.  I have no idea for Michael.  I don’t know what his personal life is like, who his other friends and allies are, or what other outfits he might wear.  I don’t see the point of him wearing a spandex costume.  In a way it’s smarter no to do that, no need to make a quick change of wardrobe and by pulling his wings in and transforming his staff, he looks pretty much like a well dressed man out on the town.  Pretty good disguise as is really. So, you can use my characters in drawings, comics, games, written stories, 3-D renderings…whatever.  I look forward to seeing what you do if you choose to take me up on my invitation.   (I almost forgot to mention two things. One, part of this is about placing a cat in a positive roll in fiction. I haven't encountered too many cats in fiction that were given rolls as main characters, or portrayed in a positive way. Second, Michael can have more than one animal partner. If you would like, you can use my photos in my gallery for references. The same rules of giving credit and no matter what your plot is, you can't let my animals come to harm. I know it's pure fantasy, but I care about them a lot. You can have them escape peril, dive selflessly into danger...but like many fantasy heroes, the must somehow get out of trouble without a scratch.)

[cherokeegal1975]

Michael LaFaye and Lilly the Cat by CherokeeGal1975

     Update 5/10/219: OPEN INVINTATION TO TRY YOUR OWN VERSION OF MY CHARACTERS IS NOW CLOSED.  I'm being a bit lazy by only adding this update instead of bothering to go through the paragraphs below to edit the wording.   (Silly question: Could you see these two in either a Marvel or DC cartoon film?)     Whew!  Finally I got this one done!  Completed 2/20/2019.  This is my one and only attempt at a superhero set of partners.  I gathered together a lot of online references and used them.  Nothing turned out exactly as I had first envisioned my two characters.  I even used a real tabby cat named Lilly that is our pet we rescued off the street some years ago to keep her from freezing to death.  She’s a beautiful, intelligent, loving, sometimes grumpy, talkative and playful kitty.  She’s really great…and though my cat here doesn’t look exactly like her, I did pay close attention to her markings and did the best I could to draw them.  I’m actually surprised how well my cat turned out, I have even less practice drawing cats than I do drawing people.     Why a fairy as my head hero?  I don’t remember.  I had the idea in my head for a long time and the original design for my character was a lot younger looking and was into skateboarding.  Like I said, nothing worked out exactly as I had first intended.     I don’t have a lot of ideas as far as a story that goes with them, so I’m sending out an invite for anyone who wants to try using my characters.  Two main rules, no matter what you do, you can’t hurt the cat.  Second rule, please credit me.  Also I would love to see what you do with my characters.     I DID NOT DRAW THE BACKDROP!  I got that from an online search for anime city scenes and I have no idea who the original artist is.  This one was actually my second choice, the original one being a anime monster…but I got tired of looking at the hideous thing so I switched it.  Actually I picked it because it was horrible looking and seemed like a good way to add to the visual part of the story at the time.     Okay, so in this invite, I’m going to lay down a foundation for you to follow…don’t panic, I will leave a lot open to the imagination.     Lilly: she’s a full partner of my head hero.  What powers she has is up to you, but she has to be able to communicate clearly with her partner; be it telepathically or even have the ability to speak like a human.     Talismans: You might notice that both have matching talismans.  This is to help them keep track of each other and make sure they can help when the other is in danger.  Can be used both as a long range communication device and a tracker.  You might try thinking of other things they might be able to do with them as well.  They got each other’s backs and Michael is especially protective of Lilly, so that’s why he made the talismans.  Why not?  They love each other.     Staff: Part fighting weapon and part over sized magic wand.  When It’s not in use, my hero can transform it into a unobtrusive bracelet or wrist watch.     Michael: I “borrowed” his wing design with some added embellishments from my fairies of Eden Symbiotic, a novel I wrote and published some years ago on Amazon.  Basically he can shrink them away to fin like ridges on his back and then fold them flat, making them invisible under his clothes.  He can turn those glowing parts of his wings off and on at will.  He can fold and drape them like a cape, but usually only does that when he's high up enough for them not to drag on the ground.  They also have a special magic that makes him lighter so he can fly more easily and help him to carry larger loads because the lightness can be transferred to anything he touches while he has them fully out.  No one can see his wings or his staff unless he lets them, due to a glamor spell that only a rare few humans can see through.  He’s immortal too, though he can die if he sustains a bad enough injury.  He’s very smart and will as often as not use his high intelligence to win out of a fight as use brute force.  Whether he’s an old hand or just starting out as a protector, that will be up to you.     Job: To protect the innocent, human or not mainly from supernatural monsters that cause trouble.  But they will also help with non-supernatural emergencies too.       Personalities:  Well, I gave you a basic one for Lilly.  I have no idea for Michael.  I don’t know what his personal life is like, who his other friends and allies are, or what other outfits he might wear.  I don’t see the point of him wearing a spandex costume.  In a way it’s smarter no to do that, no need to make a quick change of wardrobe and by pulling his wings in and transforming his staff, he looks pretty much like a well dressed man out on the town.  Pretty good disguise as is really. So, you can use my characters in drawings, comics, games, written stories, 3-D renderings…whatever.  I look forward to seeing what you do if you choose to take me up on my invitation.   (I almost forgot to mention two things. One, part of this is about placing a cat in a positive roll in fiction. I haven't encountered too many cats in fiction that were given rolls as main characters, or portrayed in a positive way. Second, Michael can have more than one animal partner. If you would like, you can use my photos in my gallery for references. The same rules of giving credit and no matter what your plot is, you can't let my animals come to harm. I know it's pure fantasy, but I care about them a lot. You can have them escape peril, dive selflessly into danger...but like many fantasy heroes, the must somehow get out of trouble without a scratch.) Update:  Here are some screen shots to highlight the details of what is impossible to see from my gallery because it doesn't blow up big enough when clicked on: www.deviantart.com/cherokeegal… www.deviantart.com/cherokeegal…