#have a closeup to compensate....

[vinestaff]

i havent seen anybody do this yet

[waddei]

FULL ILLUSTRATION COMMISSIONS OPEN

questions about possible pricing, any of the boundaries or if i can draw something that isnt mentioned are more than welcomed, my inbox is open with anon enabled and my dms are open aswell!

you can contact me through tumblr dms or discord to either request a commision or just ask any questions in private!

(discord name is "wadds")

drawings you commission may not be used for merch,nfts or any other comercial means unless some form of compensation is added to the price of the commission. otherwhise theyre meant exclusibly for personal use (EX: phone wallpaper, to print for your own room, icons, fic covers, or character references)

payment through mercado pago would not be done with us dolars and prices would be adjusted to still make sense in that case (en pesos argentinos, pueden esperar un descuento de hasta mas la mitad)

FAQ:

difference between a closeup and a PFP?

a closeup is a zoomed in drawing where any composition, posing or extra elements are present, they can go from half the torso up Generally. while pfps are centered solely on a characters face and have no background beyond simple patterns, elements like "character holding something" could also be present and they dont add to the total

when exactly does the background start costing extra?

rough guidelines are written above in the picture, but I tend to be pretty lenient on them. if you ask for a drawing with a simple background (ie, Not payed) and I later ask if I want to add any details to it they will not add to the cost and you do not need to worry.

how long will this take?

depends on the drawing but it shouldn't take more than a couple of days once I've started working on it, that being said if there are commissioners in from of you in the line it could take longer for me to get to it. but I always try to get every commission done I'm at least one week

why is mercado pago argentina only?

mercado pago doesn't accept international transactions sadly and I am argentinian

can we negotiate the prices?

I consider my prices to be very low to begin with so no. however if you are from a country with a very high dollar price I might CONSIDER it cus I'm nice and all.

what does "obvious fetish content" mean?

it refers to drawings that might not include sex directly but alude directly to an sexual fetish or scenario, ie a girl being restricted by tentacles or someone being gagged and tied while naked. if your fetish is like, feet or smt then it's fine.

what does "predatory pairings" mean?

a pairing where the power imbalance is the main drawn for it. think teacher student relationships, cop / prisoner or similar dinamics. I'm simply not comfortable with it so I won't draw them.

why no background with the clean línes style?

i don't like how my backgrounds look without rendering and don't feel comfortable charging for them in that state

why no profile pic with Ms paint lineless?

the canvas size on those are pretty small and the style doesn't allow much detail, I don't think it'll look too good simply

[tired-reader-writer]

Kazai is finally done! This was a fun one to work on, especially with the pose and the flowy clothes. They're based on the first design on his design sheet but uh, I modified it a bit to be more flowy and I forgot to add the embroidery detailing only to realize the fact after I finished everything else. Oops? So I tried to compensate via giving him a neat earring. Oops?

His entry in the Trilogy™ I'm planning (Kashi, Kazai, Ayunnen) is supposed to contrast against his sister's in that she's dark and settled and solid while he's a flowy free whirlwind in motion— while still bearing some resemblance with her (familial resemblance because they're siblings, they wear their boots in a similar way).

Okay so, I planned this, right? I drew Kashi facing left because whenever I tried drawing her from that side it tended to look really bad and I was determined to make at least one attempt turn out nice, trying to draw her from her “bad” angle. And I did! And I'm super proud of that. But I planned, to have the black-haired siblings facing away from each other, flanking Ayunnen who is facing the screen. And since I drew Kashi facing left, it's only natural to draw Kazai facing right.

The problem.

The problem is that.

Kazai's very recognizable tattoos that I specifically placed to make him look feral, they're on the side of his face that'd be obscured.

Ah, yes, the consequences of my own stubborn hubris.

Also the braid killed me.

Anyways enjoy this one, and please look forward to the upcoming Ayunnen!

Bonus closeup:

[gumnut-logic]

All the kumihimo

From my blog at gumnut.net

Yesterday I spent the whole day playing with basic kumihimo.

I spurred myself on wanting to see how each thread/yarn I had would look once braided up. Because I kept to only bracelet lengths, I was able to churn through quite a few.

Of course, first I jumped into some more Cottage Garden Threads.

But I quickly visited some other favourites with Three Trees Fibre Crafts at the top of that list. Three Trees has hand-dyed sock yarn and I also tried one of their Siren Singles. This one is a favourite – Pink Coral.

This one is from their Fledgling 4ply Sock – Summer Sunset.

I was also eager to try the amazing Maximoo yarn. I only have leftovers from one of their skeins as I need to work up the others into crochet projects first, but ‘Rust Bucket’ is amazing.

Then I cracked open my stash and dragged out a Hedgehog Fibres mini and played with that.

And lastly I played with some DMC 5 Perle Cotton – variegated. These were a Yellow – Pink (4100) and a Yellow – White (4077).

Let’s just say that by the end of the day I had a few extra aches and pains from all this handiwork

A few days ago I also completed my third kumihimo bracelet in this series (Waterlily Diamonds bracelets). This time I used Jokamamo Textiles lovely sock yarn – Raspberry Sherbet.

Here is a closeup of that lovely speckle.

Kumihimo notes

To get enough kumihimo braid to make a bracelet length, you need eight strands at 50-55cm. Fifty is the minimum, but I like to add a little extra to compensate for the thread lost in the beginning and end knots and the width of the kumihimo disk.

Use the smaller kumihimo disk. Because of the shorter length of the threads (Cottage Garden Threads six-strand hand-dyed cottons come in 50cm pre-cut lengths), you are going to lose some thread to the width of the kumihimo disk – use a smaller disk.

These are all eight strand kumihimo braids to arrive at a specific width and length for the pattern I’m using for the bracelets. The width of the braid affects the size of the beaded beads. Too think and the beads need to be redesigned. Too thin and the beads lack support. At some point I will write up the whole bracelet pattern.

Here is an older short of mine showing the braiding process. I will film a more decent tutorial sometime in the future.

Nutty

(off the edge, but learning to fly)

[scoobydoomistakes]

“...I’m... not sure about your wide, Carl.”

Carl the Animator: “Well, I’m double sure of it to compensate.”

Ted the Animator: “Like, I get it. Things can’t be identical...”

Ted the Animator: “...but... like... holy cow, man.”

Carl the Animator: “My only regret is forgetting his sassy bare midriff.”

Ted the Animator: “At least stick with the color of the beam... or the Escherian thing in the window....”

Carl the Animator: “Sheesh. Next you’re gonna be tellin’ me this is an unacceptable closeup, too.” 

Ted the Animator: “...meh. I have to pick my battles.”

[sigridstumb]

Why, yes, I feel like shit today.

Something that chronic pain reveals, like a slow pan across a closeup-terrain and then the camera pulls back to reveal a new planet, is the way that ordinary rules are not designed for this.

For instance.

There are two ways of thinking, in the white midwestern U.S. at least, about making something easier.

Making this task or experience easier is great! It is smart, effective, clever, and inclusive! Good job, you!

Making this task or experience easier is cheating. It is lying, it is lazy, it is taking something away from someone who deserves it more than you. Fuck off, you lazy parasite.

Disability and chronic illness fuck with this paradigm. And most of the time I feel that us spoonies lose.

I have variable disability.

Sometimes, after my steroid shots, my feet are relatively pain-free and I feel great. The lack of pain in my feet means that I am walking more-or-less normally, there is no referred pain in my knees and hips from trying to compensate for the fact that I cannot walk the way most people do.

Sometimes, a few days after surgery, my breathing is great. My throat is open, I am not struggling to keep my trachea open when it wants to collapse shut.

Sometimes, the barometer is good and the humidity is just right and my hands and arms and joints do not ache.

When, I might ask, is it appropriate to use my disability parking pass? When do I feel shitty enough that I deserve a close parking space? How bad must I hurt before using the mobility scooter is smart and effective and not lazy and taking it away from someone who deserves it more?

How bad do I have to feel before I am justified in taking another medically prescribed THC gummy? Before taking a Zofran is deserved? When is it okay to make my life easier? When is making my life easier, making my pain less, clever and smart and a good thing?

How much must I suffer before I deserve relief?

[boo-bookeys]

There is no reasoning outside of hyperfixations for this drawing

Fun Fact: I tried to finish this at my local Dunkin until a homeless guy started yelling because he needed money. The workers did nothing about it. I finished it at home.

.

Btdubs, since my last drawing featured just me, Elaine and Althea, this is the first time I have fully draw the entire Gurlfriendz group, (From my knowledge of who's in it) and subsequently, the first time I ever drew Jam. Yet this is what I do to her.

I swear, my artstyle typically isn't this sloppy. But wanting to draw in between school AND post once in a blue moon, sacrifices have to made sometimes.

.

Close-ups-

(Art Description: A traditional pencil drawing of the Gurlfriendz group drawn to imitate the style of the Gluttonous Goats from Psychonauts 2.

@drjaslaine /Elaine has an oval-shaped head and a plush-like body. Her arms hang at her sides, and she has hoofs instead of hands and feet, as do the rest of the group. She has thin ears that perk up on her head, and straight, sharp-ending horns in-between them. Her long hair flows down her back. She has patch of lighter fur on her stomach and going down her face, with the latter leading to her muzzle. She nonchalantly looks off to the side. Her goat pun-related name written under her is Elamb. (Elaine+Lamb)

boo-bookeys/Brooke has a square-shaped head and a plush body. She rests on hoof on her side, as her right arm is lifted beside her. She has one leg tucked behind the other, which sticks out. She has round, half-lidded eyes that stare at the viewer. The light fur on her head leads to a snout. Her ears half-flop and half-stick up on the sides of her head. Her horns near the center of her head slightly curve inwards. Her pun-related name is Brooke De Los Cabros. (Brooke Of The Goats)

@altheadajoysoul /Althea has a square-shaped head, and plush body. She is standing on a box to compensate for way she was drawn. They squat down with their legs spread out and hold their arms upwards excitedly, as they appear to grin and shout ecstatically, while their eyes look in different directions. They wear rounded glasses, and there is meant to be circles of lighter fur around their eyes. Her short black hair slightly sticks outwards and covers part of her face. Her ears perk out from the top of her head, and her horns are small and stick up straight. She has a patch of lighter fur on her stomach. Their pun-related name is Althea Grass. (A Field Of Grass)

@crownin-thestars /Jam has a rounder head and plush body. They hold their arms up in a content manner, as their right leg slightly bends inwards. They have a noticeable lighter fur patch on their stomach, and down their face to their nose and mouth. They grin among their friends. Their hair is of medium length and goes down their back and bangs cover part of their face. Their ears are floppy and rest on the sides of their head. Their horns are sharply drawn and curve inwards. Their pun-related name is Ram.)

.

(Image Descriptions: Under the art are screenshots from the movie Big Daddy.)

Over a screenshot where Julian chants "Kangaroo Song" over and over again, the words "My Brain" and "Draw the Gurlfriendz! Draw the goats! Draw Gurlfriendz as goats!!!" are plastered over him.

Over the screenshot of Sonny screaming "ALRIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!", the words "Me trying to get my work down" and "ALRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!" are plastered over him.

Beneath those screenshots, is the "Beyoncé, I'm so sorry, sweetie" meme, revamped to say "Jam, sweetie. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that the one time I draw you, you come out in such a way, oh my god.")

.

(Closeups of the Gurlfriendz' designs are under the Beyoncé meme.)

[bluegrassfarm]

⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ Bluegrass Farm House Tour ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

I think I finally have the house for my little farmer character looking the way I want it to right now, so have a little home tour! Closeups and discussion of all the rooms is under the cut (If you are on mobile I apologize). Since the farmer I made married Elliott, a bit of his tastes went into the home design overall too, of course.

So, let's start with: the Living Room and Dining Space!

I wanted to make the main kitchen area look as if a lot of artisan goods are being bottled and tested, given all the kegged products, aged roe, and cheeses produced on the farm. The more 'actually sit down and dine' area is right next door. As for the Living Room, I was going for a more sea themed feel to it. There are a lot of books strewn everywhere, given the characters who live in this house.

Next Up: The Cellar!

Most of what gets aged down here is actually goat cheeses! There may or may not be magic work done down here as well, but 'don't worry about all that' as the saying goes.

Going back upstairs: The Display Room!

For displaying of collected skeletons, and statues, and other oddities. It's also for some small plant cultivation, like the potted cactuses.

Upstairs Further: Elliott's Office!

A place for Elliott to write, and play piano whenever he likes. All the duck feathers, ink, and books found are actually placed in the chest within this room. Although some ink is kept separately in the kitchen fridges for cooking recipes, of course.

Nearby: The Children's Room!

It makes me a little upset that there is a much more limited selection of specifically childrens beds compared to the regular beds in this game. Regardless, a sofa chair next to the crib seemed like a good idea for reading time, and taking care of infants. You do not want to know what I, the player went through to get that gaming cabinet however. Anything for the children though...

Right next door: The Aquarium and Library!

What better way to enjoy your books then surrounded by aquatic life and a few artifact curiosities on display as well? This is also to show off the legendaries and other fish favorites from past catches.

Just below: The Bedroom!

This room is the most plant and nature oriented as far as decor goes, and that's the way the farmer I made for this play through likes it. The extra bed is specifically for if guests, like if Krobus wants to sleep over. In my head, Krobus visits on days to do paid housework/babysitting and is compensated well for his services.

Last but not least: The Bathroom!

This one took a bit of extra creativity. I was sort of hoping the carpet and tile placement combination would give the illusion that there is a walk in tub here. The amount of bottles just makes sense considering all the bathing and hair products this family has to have.

[skepsys]

Im curious do you takw custom design comms at all? And if so what those would potentially run at?

yes 😭 idk why im soo hesitant to put it on my carrd with everything else because at this point ive done a bunch of design comms of like, random shit, people robots whatever. so like. obviously im fine with doing it

the price i run at baseline is $225 USD for a full body humanoid but realistically is kindaaa dependant on what you want, is it a complex (or simple!) design, do you want alternate outfits/an undressed version, alternate forms, closeups, a whole ref sheet done up.... you know how original characters are lol.

that price kinda originated off my sketchy/simple color comms since that's the sort of artstyle to expect, though naturally cleaner to properly communicate the design and fullbody for those is 150. but then raised to compensate for like. yknow coming up with designs and stuff and inevitably having to change/add/tweak stuff (which isn't a bad thing! it's kinda the nature of character design that this shit is transient, id be lying if my own ocs didnt change like 50 times as theyre taking shape)

[konfizry]

Here's a funny challenge: gush about something from Toarise that you think is brilliant. Like, unironically.

Here's a funny challenge: have some pity on a poor woman who is regularly tormented by an anime video game.

The most straightforward and I believe expected answer would be to wax poetics about Shionne and how significant her character and themes are to me, but such an exercise is bound to invite witless platitudes on my part or even worse, vulnerability.

So we're not gonna do that. Instead I can attempt to convey how much I appreciate the care that went into making the characters as expressive as they are. I do think there's genuine improvement to be had in the uh. body movement/gesturing department?? I mean some of it is good, and like you can definitely tell each character has their own way they carry themselves, pace, tics etc but i find that they're still a little bit too stiff especially if they're just standing around during cutscenes. (and also i can't help missing the cartoonish way characters would sometimes act in older games probably to compensate for the fact that the graphics weren't as detailed and the characters faces couldn't always be seen but i digress. i do understand that more lifelike proportions invite more realistic movement.)

So the part that I DO like in that department: the facial expressions, really? Once again a matter of finding the right amount of expressiveness that blends well with the anime-but-less-so-than-previous-titles, and I think the animators nailed if for the most part.

Genuinely a delight to see the characters faces convey emotions, go from one feeling to the next. It's pretty good, I'm glad. I hope they keep this up for the next installments. The Tales of franchise is heavily character-driven (among other elements i know i know, hush), and nailing their inner turmoils with voice acting and facial expressions can compensate for lackluster writing is a surefire way of having your audience really connect with your characters!

My heart really goes out to whoever was in charge of animating Shionne's eyes, you're a genius.

And she's constantly doing that, too. You look at Shionne at any given moment in the game and there's a 50% chance her eyes are moving with the speed of 2134675 millions of unspeakable thoughts, calculations and impulses. I cannot express with words how much this strengthened my impression of Shionne. In a sense it is purely cosmetic but boy does it do a LOT of heavy lifting here. Ah. How my heart aches for her.

The one issue is I do believe at some point the animation and camerawork ppl got really really invested in the power of extreme closeups on faces in moments of intense emotion so it does get goofy at times

(these shots were not zoomed in or tilted in any way by me this is how they look in the game rngkjegr'gert)

That aside, since we're on the topic of animating the characters. The fights that happen in cutscenes are also pretty well choreographed but you probably didn't need me telling you that. Just look at the confrontation with Vholran right before Niez. It's genuinely hype. I screamed the first time i saw it (multiple times). Same with the duel in Vhorlan's throne room. Like. It's just really really cool.

Oh also if you spam the Swim Faster button while swimming, your character will invent a style that transcends all known laws of physics which is really really what gaming is all about for me.

[byersfanclub]

we were robbed of a closeup of will grasping onto mike during the shootout and only have blurry screenshots so that means we’re entitled to compensation and we get a close up of will and mike holding each other someway again when something scary happens in s5

[byneddiedingo]

Robert Helpmann and Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1948) Cast: Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, Robert Helpmann, Léonide Massine, Ludmilla Tchérina, Esmond Knight, Albert Bassermann, Austin Trevor, Irene Browne. Screenplay: Emeric Pressburger, Keith Winter, Michael Powell, based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. Cinematography: Jack Cardiff. Production design: Hein Heckroth. Film editing: Reginald Mills. Music: Brian Easdale. Costume design: Hein Heckroth. In its digital restoration, The Red Shoes almost certainly looks better than it ever did even in the most optimal theatrical showing, its colors brighter and sharper, its darks deeper and more detailed. But is that necessarily a good thing? I'm not like one of those audiophiles who insist that old vinyl LPs sound better than CDs or any digital audio process -- I like being able to hear things without surface pops and skips. But I do think that in the case of a film like The Red Shoes, where suspension of disbelief is essential, something has been lost. The great red snood of Moira Shearer's hair is revealed to be a thing of individual strands that might have benefited from a quick brushing before her closeups. The special-effects moments, like Vicky's (Shearer) leap into the red shoes or Boleslawsky's (Robert Helpmann) transformation into the newspaper man, are more glaringly just rudimentary jump cuts. There's a loss of glamour and magic that hasn't been compensated for, even though we can now see Jack Cardiff's photography of Hein Heckroth's designs with greater clarity. I will also admit that I have never been in the front ranks of the fans of The Red Shoes. While I admire the storytelling ability of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, I have to question the moral of the story, which seems to be that a woman can't have both a great career and a successful private life, or in a larger sense, that art is impossible without a loss of self. Granted, the story comes from the realm of fairytale, which is never without an element of cruelty, but is Vicky's suicide a necessary follow-through, or just a submission on the part of the screenwriters to the demands of some kind of closure, given that they've never made the character more than a stereotype: the woman torn between the demands of two men? Ravishing to the eye, The Red Shoes doesn't satisfy the mind or the heart.

[hashanur]

Make Money Modeling From Home | Home Based Business Ideas

My Youtube video list: https://youtu.be/OAr8N0X6Mog

Welcome to PROMO HUB USA!

MODELING from home to make money is possible!

HOW TO START MODELING FROM HOME

What you’ll need to apply to agencies are digitals. These can easily be taken with your own camera or camera phone.

Here are some digitals that I took at home with the help of my dad. Very easy to do!

Many agencies will ask for the same type of digitals so having a set of digitals “ready-to-send” will save you time and stress.

How to set up Digitals

I would highly recommend taking digitals without makeup. Yes, you read that right. No makeup.

Use a plain wall as your backdrop. Make sure there are no shapes, patterns, or other objects behind you.

Use natural light whenever possible. This light can come from a window or if you can shoot outside, make sure that the sunlight is not directly on your face as it might make you squint. We don’t want that.

If the lighting on one side of your body isn’t balanced, use a light on the other side to compensate. For example, when I shot indoors, the window was giving light to my right side and my left side was a little too dark. I added a ring light on my right to balance out the darkened side.

What do you wear?!

Form fitting clothes like a tank top and skinny jeans are great. Agencies want to see the shape of your body.

Stick to neutral colors like black, white or gray.

DO NOT: Wear clothes that have bright colors or crazy patterns.

How about your hair?

Unless there are clear guidelines, the general rule is to keep your hair from your face whether it's in a ponytail or behind your ears. Especially for close ups.

What types of shots should I take?

This is a general list. Be sure to take these photos smiling and not smiling. This will give you a wide range of digitals to choose from when sending to agencies:

Closeup of your face

full side profile

¾ of profile

mid body

full body

full body side profile

full body back (facing away from the camera)

Different agencies ask for different photos, so it can get annoying when you have to re-take new pictures for every agency. But having the core group of pictures listed above, you can save time and immediately apply to those agencies you have your eye on.

Once you have all these photos, you are ready to start applying to agencies. This is all you need.

How to find agencies to apply to?

There are 4 ways:

Google “modeling agency in (X city/state)”. X being the city/state you want to be represented in. If you are not sure if the agencies you have found are legit, you can always refer to my steps on how to figure out if an agency is legit or not.

Google “talent agency in (X city/state)”.

Go to models.com . This is a great website to find legit agencies that you can apply to. Just click on the tab “agencies” and then you can easily search per country or city.

If you are petite, meaning under 5’7’’, and you are not sure which agencies are petite friendly, you can go to the list I’ve created here.

Once you find an agency you like, go to their website and then look for “apply”, “become a model”, “get scouted”, “contact us” or anything with similar wording to find an online form or an email address where you can submit your information, digitals and measurements.

If there is a space where you can write something about yourself, make sure whatever you write shows your personality. Be You. Be True.

And that’s it!

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[mindhuestudio]

Clear evening, not too windy, not yet -4°, so time to get the telescope out. And the crazy thing is, it was as if — wait for it — the stars had aligned. This session went smoothly and swimmingly. 🤯 First of all, I figured out how to get the iPhone adapter snugly secured to the zoom eyepiece. Not having your phone randomly fall off the telescope helps a whole lot with your observing satisfaction. Second of all, I inadvertently discovered that I could let the autofocus algorithm make whatever neural net weighted average arbitrary decision it wanted to… THEN ADJUST THE TELESCOPE FOCUS TO COMPENSATE. 🤔😮🎉 Suddenly I was getting crisp detail without screaming and tearing my hair. 🥳What a glorious discovery. Having trouble with stupid AI? Let the dumb programming find its own level then use a physical process to do the real work. Problem solved! So I was able to get three planets and a bunch of Moon pics in quick succession. Venus is still too bright for the camera to really deal with but that’s a definite gibbous phase there. Callisto-Jupiter-Europa-Ganymede this evening; this new zoom eyepiece is really quite nice, I could see two cloud belts on Jupiter’s disk with my eyes but couldn’t get them to resolve in the camera even with the exposure cranked down really far. If this new protocol continues to work smoothly I’ll try to tweak things before Jupiter disappears into solar conjunction. And I got a pretty good disk on Mars, which was another surprise. This autofocus hack really made imaging the Moon a pleasure. Got a good crisp full disk, a detail shot of Tycho, crunchy terminator craters, various maria on the eastern limb, and a really nice closeup of dawn at Aristarchus. Yay zoom eyepiece! It makes it easy to get the telescope pointed correctly, then zoom in for detail shots without losing what you’re looking at while you fumble for another eyepiece. So — pretty awesome evening! 😁 #Iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #waxinggibbous #shallowskyastronomy #galileanmoons #jupiter #io #europa #ganymede #callisto #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #venus https://www.instagram.com/p/CoLw2DhMRAq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[reflexletterpress]

Clear evening, not too windy, not yet -4°, so time to get the telescope out. And the crazy thing is, it was as if — wait for it — the stars had aligned. This session went smoothly and swimmingly. 🤯 First of all, I figured out how to get the iPhone adapter snugly secured to the zoom eyepiece. Not having your phone randomly fall off the telescope helps a whole lot with your observing satisfaction. Second of all, I inadvertently discovered that I could let the autofocus algorithm make whatever neural net weighted average arbitrary decision it wanted to… THEN ADJUST THE TELESCOPE FOCUS TO COMPENSATE. 🤔😮🎉 Suddenly I was getting crisp detail without screaming and tearing my hair. 🥳What a glorious discovery. Having trouble with stupid AI? Let the dumb programming find its own level then use a physical process to do the real work. Problem solved! So I was able to get three planets and a bunch of Moon pics in quick succession. Venus is still too bright for the camera to really deal with but that’s a definite gibbous phase there. Callisto-Jupiter-Europa-Ganymede this evening; this new zoom eyepiece is really quite nice, I could see two cloud belts on Jupiter’s disk with my eyes but couldn’t get them to resolve in the camera even with the exposure cranked down really far. If this new protocol continues to work smoothly I’ll try to tweak things before Jupiter disappears into solar conjunction. And I got a pretty good disk on Mars, which was another surprise. This autofocus hack really made imaging the Moon a pleasure. Got a good crisp full disk, a detail shot of Tycho, crunchy terminator craters, various maria on the eastern limb, and a really nice closeup of dawn at Aristarchus. Yay zoom eyepiece! It makes it easy to get the telescope pointed correctly, then zoom in for detail shots without losing what you’re looking at while you fumble for another eyepiece. So — pretty awesome evening! 😁 #Iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #themoon #waxinggibbous #shallowskyastronomy #galileanmoons #jupiter #io #europa #ganymede #callisto #newtonianreflector #telescope #114mm #venus https://www.instagram.com/p/CoLwjUIO5G8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[justforbooks]

Greek stage and screen actor who appeared in The Guns of Navarone, Zorba the Greek and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

It is apposite that Irene Papas, who has died aged 96, was at her peak when playing the heroines in film versions of classical Greek tragedies. Notwithstanding her many roles in a wide range of Hollywood, international and Greek films, including The Guns of Navarone (1961), Zorba the Greek (1964) and Z (1969), Papas always gave the impression that there was an Electra, Antigone or Clytemnestra bubbling beneath the surface.

She balanced expertly between theatrical tradition and the cinema closeup, her strong, expressive face being especially eloquent in moments of silent suffering.

All the films of the Euripides trilogy – Electra (1962), The Trojan Women (1971) and Iphigenia (1976) – directed by Michael Cacoyannis, were dominated by Papas’s dramatic beauty in closeup against realistic Greek landscapes, and proved that the ancient myths could grip modern audiences. It was Cacoyannis, with whom Papas made six films, including Zorba the Greek, who brought out her talent in full.

The daughter of teachers, she was born Eirini Lelekou in a village near Corinth, and attended the royal drama school in Athens. She started her career in her teens as a singer and dancer in variety shows before launching her film career in 1948, by which time she had married the director Alkis Papas.

After two minor films in Greece, she signed a contract in Italy, where she was underused. Among them were two sword and sandals epics, Theodora, Slave Empress (1954) and Attila (1954), in which she played second fiddle – in the first to Gianna Maria Canale, and in the second to Sophia Loren with Anthony Quinn in the title role. Papas would co-star with Quinn in several films, in which they were a combustible duo.

She made an impressive Hollywood debut as the lover of a ruthless cattle baron (James Cagney) in the Robert Wise western Tribute to a Bad Man (1956). This was the female lead role and she consolidated her star status as the valiant resistance leader in the war adventure The Guns of Navarone.

In the same year, 1961, Papas took on her first Greek tragedian role in Antigone. Directed by George Tzavellas in such a way to make Sophocles’s poetic parable come across with lucidity, it allowed Papas as the intractable heroine to demonstrate her elegiac power.

Papas as Electra, in her first film with Cacoyannis, prompted the critic Dilys Powell to exclaim: “I had never thought to see the face of the great Apollo from the Olympia pediment live and move. Now I have seen it.” Roger Ebert, looking back on the Oscar-nominated film 10 years later, said: “The funereal figures of the Greek chorus – poor peasant women scattered on a hillside – still weep behind Electra, and I can never forget her lament for her dead mother. I thought then, and I still think, that Irene Papas is the most classically beautiful woman ever to appear in films.”

The Trojan Women lost the power, poetry and beauty of the ancient Greek language by being in English, but the multinational cast of Katharine Hepburn (Hecuba), Vanessa Redgrave (Andromache), Geneviève Bujold (Cassandra) and Papas as a seductive Helen of Troy, compensated somewhat. The Oscar-nominated Iphigenia (based on Cacoyannis’s stage production of Iphigenia at Aulis), the last of his Euripides trilogy, had Papas, by now in her 50s, giving a forceful performance as Clytemnestra.

Between the first and second Euripidean films, Papas played the lonely widow in Zorba the Greek who, after making love to an English writer (Alan Bates), is stoned by the Cretan villagers. The character has little dialogue, but Papas’s face and body language are eloquent enough.

Papas went on to play other widows, notably in two political thrillers, Elio Petri’s We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) and Costa-Gavras’s Z. The latter clearly pointed the finger at the colonels’ totalitarian regime in Greece, which Papas – who lived in exile in Italy from 1967 to 1974 – called “the fourth Reich”.

In 1968, among the first work Papas undertook in Italy was the mafia drama The Brotherhood, opposite Kirk Douglas, and the television miniseries The Odyssey, in which she played Penelope. She had now become a travelling player, playing Spaniards such as Catherine of Aragon in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) or Italians such as the lusty housekeeper in Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979). In the 1970s and 80s, Papas made an average of two films a year, many of them unworthy of her talents.

Happily, she had the chance to shine on Broadway in two plays by Euripides, in the title role of Medea (1973) and as Agave in The Bacchae (1980), the latter directed by Cacoyannis. Of her Medea, the New York Times critic wrote: “Irene Papas, who has often played aggrieved and grieving women, brings to the role a controlled intensity, an innate intelligence, and an implacably stubborn anger.”

In films, she began to get supporting roles, bringing fire and authenticity as mothers and grandmothers as in Rosi’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987) and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) before making a superb exit from cinema in Manoel de Oliveira’s multilingual A Talking Picture (2003).

At one point in the film, on board a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, Papas keeps the passengers spellbound by singing a Greek folk song. Her beautiful contralto voice can also be heard on discs of songs by Vangelis and Mikis Theodorakis.

After leaving the cinema, Papas appeared in Euripides’ Hecuba on stage in Rome in 2003, and directed Antigone at the Greek theatre in Syracuse in 2005. She also devoted herself to the establishment of schools of acting in Rome and Athens.

Papas’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1951, and her second marriage, to José Kohn, in 1957, was annulled.

🔔 Irene Papas, actor, born 3 September 1926; died 14 September 2022

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