#i do not see it they both have very distinct facial features from each other and I AM partially faceblind 😭

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

Hot take 😭

[rennybu]

Hiii Andy! I've adore your art for years and your characters. Their designs are so lovely!! And expressive!! I was wondering if you had any tips for a cohesive character design? Or even advice on adding little asymmetrical details or features? And help is greatly appreciated! Thanks! Wishing you all the best!

HELLOO!!! AAAH Thank you so much for such a thoughtful question, this makes me so happy to hear! I'm so sorry it took me so long to get back to you, it turns out I have way too many things to say about this topic AKLSDHFKLSDG

(pls take this readmore<3)

For the starting point in a design, I try to stick to whatever rules apply for the setting the character is in, and their role in that setting.

Basic colour theory is always at the back of my mind, as well. I tend to use analogous and complementary colours when I design my characters and their closets. Analogous colours keep a palette contained and feeling similar to itself without being monotone. And then using colours that are complementary to that elsewhere in the design adds contrast while still maintaining that feeling of cohesion :D

The intended use of the character also heavily affects what can make a design cohesive or not - it's very dependent on art style and medium. (A design for use in animation would be extremely different from semi-realistic TTRPG concept art. The rest of what I've written skews more towards the second option!)

I consider the colours, shapes and materials that make sense for what I want to convey about the world, and how the character would want to be presented in it. The Dogwood characters are my current exercise; Mel's clothes fit him perfectly since he works a labor intensive job on the farm, and his identity is wrapped up in it so he never strays far from heavy cotton, straight cut. Ryan and Park both wear ill-fitting clothes in completely different ways (Ryan, butchly. Park, autistic and transly) - and they each have work uniforms. Ryan's work uniform suits her gnc appearance (welding coveralls/safety gear), while Park's uniform completely transforms him into "Just Some Guy" and that changes how others read him, too (cashier). And they all shop at Local Thrift Store / Farmer's Surplus / The Walmart 1hr Outside of Town. Their styles give them each a distinct silhouette, and their levels of social comfort as well as public expression contribute to body language, colour choices, and shapes that make them stand apart from each other despite living in the same small bubble. COHESION!

Asymmetrical details and features are my FAAAAV THEY ARE SO FUN, I find inspiration for these in people-watching, nature documentaries, architecture, my reflection, my friends.. <333 This part is also fun to tie in to the character's setting! Springboard questions like. Are they prone to injuries? Magical injuries? Do they have like, modern dental procedures available? Do they give a shit about crooked or crowded teeth? Are they missing a tooth, or did they chip one? Do they smile a lot and have crow's feet/other wrinkles? Do they get a lot of sun, and do they have/use sunscreen? (Even finer wrinkles.) Did they have acne as a teen? Do they still? Are they in a combat-heavy setting, with the scars to show it? Even more uniform features like freckles aren't symmetrical.

Clothing is really good to use to play with asymmetry - maybe the character rolls their cuffs but one is coming undone a little. Jewelry of all types is also great for asymmetry since it can go anywhere on the body!! Facial and other physical deformities or injuries are also incredible to see, and should be researched to find out if they impact other parts of a person's overall health and mobility outright. The different skin texture of a birthmark, for example! I noticed in certain photographs, the subject's red birthmark changed the texture of the skin, so I started drawing Orson with one drooping eyelid on the side affected by his birthmark. The more you look, the more you find!

Before I get too carried away. I try to use asymmetrical details and features as a way to boost that "world setting" cohesion, and to bring attention to parts of the character I am personally endeared by or want other people to notice. Mahon's snaggletooth is an eternal fav, which made me draw him smiling more, which made me more prone to drawing lines around his eyes. And since the anchor is in his left hand, and he tries to hide it subconsciously, I put thumb-holes in his left sleeves, which he plucks through as a nervous fidget, and as a result, his clothes pull a little across his entire body :D ITS VERY FUN to find the right jumping-off point that lets specific details click into place. For Mahon especially, since so many of those details are derived from the setting and his role in it!

Asymmetry and symmetry are just tools at ur disposal. Asymmetry tends to be more comfortable and natural. Symmetry gives a sense of stability and can be pushed for a sense of power, a sense of being uncanny, rigid, etc. Asymmetry can also be pushed into uncaniness depending on what it's applied to!! (But as a matter of personal taste, I find asymmetrical details to feel more natural and inviting than perfectly symmetrical ones. Which. Again. Depending on the character's purpose, could equally contribute to a cohesive design!!!)

OMG ok my final thought. Asymmetry can also be used as a balancing tool which yet again lends to a sense of cohesion. Adding a detail on the left while leaving it out on the right, repeated throughout with different details where applicable. Loam's colour spots, archery gear, scars and jewelry are all areas I've played with this idea.

[eiswig]

I decided that since I keep coming up with obikin scenarios on the daily, i might as well post them. Today’s idea— the classic amnesia trope. But what if both of them forgot who they are? That’s right, it’s double amnesia!

~~

Obikin Drabble

10.9.23

Rating: G

He was on his back, against solid ground. It was quiet, only the sound of chirping birds could be heard. He was breathing, thankfully, smelling chilly, thin air, and plants or trees of some sort. The bright, overwhelming light of the sun streamed into his eyes, he raised his arm to shield his face, and was surprised to see his knuckles were bloodied.

Blood? Am I in danger? His mind struggled to keep up, he didn’t hear any commotion, he didn’t feel pain- well, much pain. He did feel pain- his back, ribs, but it didn’t seem urgent. It was dull, and he had a distinct thought that it was something he was used to. There was something shiny next to him as well- a ship, grounded, slightly tipped forward with its nose stuck in the dirt, but in good shape otherwise.

“Hello there,” a voice sounded, from not too far away and he sat up, not sure if he could stand yet, but still ready to defend himself- but the man was just sitting, cross legged on the ground, hands empty, with auburn hair swaying in the wind.

“Who are you”- he asked- “where am I?”

“I’m afraid I’m not sure” he said, with a wry smile, “who are you?”

Eyes wide— the realization hit him that he didn’t know. He was himself, of course… but he couldn’t conjure up a name. He looked down at his body again, it seemed familiar, but, “I— I don’t know.”

Sad, blue eyes met his. “Ah. I was hoping you would.”

They held eye contact, and somehow, though the words went unsaid, established they both didn’t remember their identities, but knew they were close- with an integral trust between them. He couldn’t place their relationship but he knew they hadn’t been fighting each other.

Fighting. Looking down, he recognized the telltale signs of a fight, and on the ground between them were two cylindrical metal objects with handles, but no blade. They were wearing similar clothes, his own were just a darker shade.

“Are we fighters? Have we been… using these…” what were they called? “light, light—“

“Sabers!” The other man finished, “lightsaber, that’s what these are then,” coming to the resolution at the same time.

“Huh. Lightsabers,” that seemed right. Somehow he could tell which one belonged to him, and he grabbed it, also realizing the same arm was metal- but whose blood was it then? “Well, it seems we lost.”

“Perhaps. But we’re not dead, which is good I suppose,” the other man stroked his beard, which seemed a familiar gesture; but sparked annoyance.

“No. This is not good…! Who are we, what are we doing here?? Does anyone know we’re here? Will.. whatever we were fighting come back? Are we stranded?”

Anger, irritation, fear, and profound confusion swirled through him. It felt… dark, but the world around him was still so bright—

“We’ll I’ve only been conscious for a few minutes—” the other man snapped back, “you don’t have to be so rude.” The man looked so disappointed, an expression that seemed endemic to his facial features. The man seemed to be older, muscular of course and, handsome. Very good looking, with shining blue eyes, which made something in his chest clench up.

The thoughts of darkness faded, instead he felt small, subdued, hollow—

“Ugh!” He rocked forward to get on his hands and knees before attempting to stand, but something around the other man’s wrist began crackling with static, so he sat back on his knees. They both watched it as it activated itself and shone with blue.

“General Kenobi, do you copy?” came from the unit, but the other man looked confused. They made eye contact, and held it again

“I- I- yes I suppose that’s me” he said, and adding as an afterthought, “Copy.”

“You suppose?”

“Well this comm unit is on my wrist, is that my name? And who night you be?”

“This is Cody, sir. And yes you are General Obi-Wan Kenobi What happened? What is your status? Is General Skywalker with you?”

“Describe him for me?” General Kenobi said back.

“Brown curly hair, scar across his eye, dark clothes, metal arm—”

“Ah yes, but more of a golden brown color though, don’t you think?” Kenobi’s eyes were twinkling, regarding him.

“I don’t really think—” cutting himself off and sounding resigned, he continued, “yes, that’s Anakin Skywalker, sir”

“Anakin Skywalker,” he, Anakin, tested out, bringing a hand to his lips. It seemed right. “We’re generals?”

“Yes you are,” the voice, Cody, sounded annoyed, “where are you? Are you harmed”

“I couldn’t tell you where we are but we don’t seem harmed,” General Obi-Wan Kenobi said, “we are near a ship, but don’t know if it still works.”

“There’s been a fight,” Anakin interjected. Somehow he trusted the man on the comm, too. “But it doesn’t seem like we’ve been fighting each other,” he pointed out.

“Of course you weren’t- what is the last thing you remember?”

“I don’t… I don’t remember anything,” he replied.

“Same here” Obi-Wan said. “But we aren’t bodily injured.”

“All right, well we have your location, we should be there in a manner of hours, just stay there, sirs.”

“Wait, wait, don’t go—” Obi-Wan said, bringing his comm closer to himself like he could grab onto the disembodied voice. “Who are we? What are we doing here? Where are we?”

As if this vital information was just general knowledge, Cody replied “You are Jedi knights. Obi-Wan, Anakin was your Padawan. You were sent to find and capture a night sister, but… it seems she found you first. She must have cast some sort of memory spell on you. Kix and Ahsoka are already researching it… oh you don’t know who they are —well I’ll have Ahsoka comm you to explain. I need to coordinate—”

“What are we to each other now?” Anakin asked, “now that I’m no longer his Padawan?”

“I, ugh,” Cody replied “Really? This is what you ask..? Ok listen, no one really knows ok? You are close, closer than friends…? Familial, but not actually related? You two fight and bicker, but you’re always together, you are a team— I don’t know. Undefined. I just do my job” he sounded increasingly frustrated.

“Okay, okay, thank you, Cody,” Obi-Wan said, shooting Anakin a chastising look, “Really, I’m sure we’ll figure things out and remember soon.”

“Just please stay there and be safe; go inside the ship, there should be supplies and cots- please don’t do anything risky. Just. Don’t do anything at all.” He pleaded. “Cody out”

“Seems like he really wanted to avoid that question, hm?” Obi-Wan regarded Anakin, blue eyes twinkling again, before looking back at the ship.

“We should explore!” Anakin blurted out- and shot up to stand. He thought about being in close proximity to Obi-Wan, someone he’s apparently ‘closer than friends with,’ —how close?— tending each others wounds, cots around… and felt his stomach flip over.

“No, Anakin- we’re going in.” Obi-Wan said firmly, standing up himself and dusting himself off to turn to the ship. Even covered in dust, and blood, he looked good. Strong. Almost regal. Anakin felt his eyes stray to strong looking thighs, a toned ass, as Obi-Wan turned toward the ship’s side door. His former master. How close were they, really? Was past Anakin getting to experience this man in bed? If so, good for him. Or was he just hot for teacher? Had they ever spoken about this need he felt deep down? Or was it only now that whatever other stuff filled their relationship was gone, that Anakin’s mind could shift to romance and sex?

He found himself not really caring. And suddenly he desired nothing more than to be in close quarters with a handsome stranger.

[roetrolls]

How do you organize your sprite layers?

It depends on what I'm planning to do with them, but here are some screenshots w/ my layers open so you can see the things that I tend to remain consistent with

Sometimes if a character has very large eyes, I'll duplicate my eyebrow folder and then move stuff around so I have the freedom to make more scrunched faces when their eyes are closed.

Some characters have multiple eye shapes, others have one with a little "extras" folder where I put cheeks and eyelids so I can change the shape without needing a zillion different layers.

But unless a character is meant to have very wide eyes 24/7, I always have at least 2 different shapes! Normal and wide.

Generally I just do the static chest/shoulders up with arms/hands that don't affect that, but for these three where I wanted the arms to be a lot more mobile than my other sprites, I did this! (Left one of Emarra's arms on to help show what's going on there)

But there's really no right way to do anything! I was GONNA put the rest under a cut but apparently that will prevent my images from going next to each other so. Hopefully the long post tag is enough. ANYWAYS.

Candy and Veylin both have 3 distinct poses, so their sprites are actually multiple sets stitched together! With Veylin, her head tilt meant I had so many different layers that I actually needed to split them in two

Here you can see that her "overload" sprites are actually a little different from my usual technique. She only has 2 eyebrows, her eyes are static, and initially her mouth was too, before I ended up needing her to scream over something

Candy's sprites really wouldn't have been possible if she had her eyes visible, but because she doesn't, I was able to essentially have 3 mini sprites on one file, with the base pose, blush, mouths, and sfx/accessories for each.

BUT in cases where only the body's pose changes, it's a lot simpler! The facial features create a lot of layers, so as long as the head remains static, I can do pretty much anything with the body.

Franky, for example, has some poses that are actually just his arms. They get stuck right on top of his static body, and because his outfit is one solid blob of color, it's really easy to just change the shape as I need.

It's really easy to make additive changes, where you build on existing forms. But if you need something to move, you'll need more than one layer for that. For Franky to have a pose where he's tugging on his collar, I needed to separate his regular collar from his base sprite.

This kind of thing is why I like to plan out every pose I want in the sketching stage. It lets me build the process around my goal, rather than trying to hammer things into the shape I need them.

I have other methods of changing poses too! For Theo, I put his head on its own layer and then had his body separate.

But for Bigby, I finished coloring his head and then duplicated it to smack right on the body, because I wanted all his different bandana positions confined to their respective folders, and it just felt easier that way.

I did the same thing for Ben to be able to put his hoodie up. It was easier to do that and erase the hair that went outside the lines than it would have been to put his hair on its own layer.

TLDR; None of it is an exact science. Just do what works. As you go, you'll find ways to optimize your process. I've learned a lot over the course of making my own sprites. Trial and error is the key!

[kyogre-blue]

Nilou quest complete. I did it for the mats you get. 

It’s, uh. I honestly can’t say whether it was bad or at least passable, but it was very frustrating because it’s just so misguided in everything it’s doing. 

To start with, this quest really underlines an issue with Nilou’s presence in the Archon quest. Which is that Nilou didn’t do anything there and her presence was a huge waste. We essentially get the exact same setup - there’s a celebration at the theater and those mean ol’ Akademiya show up to shut it down. We need to retread this exact same setup because the Archon quest wasted the whole thing by blowing all their time on a completely pointless “investigation” runaround and presented exactly zero actual characterization for anyone involved. Good times. 

So we start with this attempt to patch up the archon quest’s continued failures, and it immediately continues to fail in that special Genshin way of "Oh, you’re here for a playable character? How about we focus on an NPC instead?” 

Nilou gets the bland protag treatment while our existing bland protag is standing to the side being even more bland and pointless than usual. They’re still doing this, two years in. In fact, I think they actively got worse about it. 

Worse, the NPC’s storyline doesn’t actually match the situation. They use her to turn what is an institutional issue with the Akademiya (abuse of power, devaluing arts and humanity), into a personal disagreement between father and daughter, where they both need to grow some emotional maturity but their heart is in the right place. Cool. Very new and exciting. We definitely needed this. 

In general, the whole story is extremely unfocused and all over the place. They seem to be trying to talk about “what is the meaning of art” but they 1) have nothing to say (and given how painfully commercialized Genshin is, it’s like a joke that they try) and 2) keep deviating from that point while doing very little to actually support it. The extremely bland debate runs the entire way through censorship, the Akademiya’s abuse of their power and disregard for wishes of the people, the meaning of art, the theater crew are like family to each other, the value of human relationships, and then into “actually, this guy isn’t so bad,” disregarding everything else and basically failing to provide any statement or closure on any point except this father and daughter pair ~learning to compromise and see each other’s perspective~ 

You can really conclusively tell they learned nothing from Inazuma’s issues. It’s a similar issue where the problem being portrayed and the resolution the story gives are tangentially connected at best. 

Unrelated, but they seem to have experimented with giving NPCs more distinctive facial features, especially droopy eyes, but it looks pretty off at times. 

[floweroflaurelin]

I am asking very nicely for you to PLEASE talk about all the tiny details of your art i LIVE for that shit.

Yes yes yes!!! Okay this is gonna be LONG. We’re just talking about my portraits for this one but I’m gonna talk a lot, so most of this will be under the cut. In this essay I will be going over what goes through my head when coming up with facial features for different personalities and why I did what I did for each!

Let’s start with fWhip and Gem. Both of these characters are smart as hell, but I think of them as being high INT but low WIS. They’re maybe not the most personable—fWhip makes enemies pretty easily, and Gem doesn’t need to be nice when she knows she’s right. The challenge with these two is: how do I make that clear while I show their different, distinct personalities while also making them look like twins, even to people who don’t know them?

They’re fraternal twins so I wanted them to have different eyes, different nose shapes, different mouths, different chins and jawlines, but while still looking the same.

Fun fact, Gem was the only one who didn’t have an initial pencil sketch. Here’s why:

^ I wanted them to have the same base, so here’s how hers started! I painted directly on top of Count fWhip and changed the features to reflect Gem’s traits instead of his.

So, what traits do their portraits show? The weight on fWhip’s face draws his features downward, but the tightness in Gem’s face draws her features upward. His brow is furrowed lower while Gem’s is slightly raised, and the, like, meatiest part (?) of his cheeks hang lower while Gem’s cheeks sit up higher. fWhip has a hint of a downturned smirk while her lips are quirked up, looking more smug. This is because fWhip is surrounded by ores from the deepest part of the earth while Gem lives high up in a tower! As well, fWhip’s eyes are sunken deeper into his skull with slight marks around the eye sockets as a result of wearing his goggles tight against his skin; Gem has wrinkles around her eyes as a result from squinting while she pores over books in her studies.

You can’t see it here but I interpret Gem’s braid to really go down to her knees like on her mc skin, and when loose it falls into really long, loose ringlets. fWhip has the same hair texture but it’s way curlier since he keeps it shorter. I took a lot of inspiration from @pontsalin’s fWhip design for the hair!

Going back to my notes about them being high INT but low WIS, I played around with the proportions of their faces relative to the overall silhouettes of their heads. Gem and fWhip both have their facial features take up the least amount of space compared to the rest of their skulls—fWhip’s silhouette is mostly hair, and Gem is mostly hat. Their faces are overall less important than everything else because they’re not focused on making friends so much as they are being clever and using their brains (implied to be large because their head silhouettes are very big). As well, neither of them have very bright highlights in their eyes, and their gazes are more calculating than warm or friendly.

—

Up next, Scott versus Shrub. These are the only two characters looking at the camera fully head-on, but for very different reasons. Both of them also have their facial features take up a LOT of room on their skulls, because in their cases I’m thinking about the face they put on to show the others.

So first of all, Scott is looking down at us while Shrub is looking up. Sure, Scott is tall while Shrub is short—but Lizzie is the tallest and we look at her normally. No, this is about power. Specifically the fact that, whether he wants to or not, Scott has a lot of it—and Shrub has very little.

Scott is the mortal Champion of a god and was tasked with defeating his own brother, a demon bent on destroying him and everything he loves, and grappling with supernatural powers he can barely control. Dude’s been through a lot!! He didn’t ask for any of what he ended up with, all he can do is deal and try to lead as best he can given the circumstances. He’s drawn up to his full height, looking down at us with a cold expression of neutral, careful control. His eyes have no highlights in them at all—his eyelids catch the light, but his irises are in complete shadow. His head sans accessories takes up the most space on the canvas of anyone. His hair is perfect, his clothes are crisp. It’s a carefully curated facade.

Shrub is similar in that her life was turned upside down by Xornoth, but in a different way. Her story is all about loss and grief. She has no family, no home, no people, no kingdom. She’s looking straight on at the camera but from below, a position of vulnerability and loneliness. Her eyes have the most highlights in them of any character—almost as though she’s holding back tears. Her face doesn’t have uncanny elven symmetry; while Scott’s hair is perfectly kept to show his need for control, Shrub’s is messy with hair escaping her braid and curling around her head. Her head, minus the mushroom hat, is the smallest of anyone’s, and the lowest down on the page. Her mushroom hat contrasts nicely with Scott’s perfect geometric circlet: it’s asymmetrical, it fits a bit wonky, it’s an organic shape, and it looks like it belongs in the Undergrove.

Overall, these two both get to face forward because of their particular relationship to Xornoth. Scott had to step up and become a leader in an unexpected way, forced into it by circumstance and received a portrait displaying a cold, distant expression and tidy appearance; Shrub lost everything and was driven to madness, so her portrait has an expression of pain and vulnerability.

—

The Seablings!

Don’t worry, it’s more lighthearted from here on out 😜

Since the Seablings aren’t twins I made them look much more different from each other—the main similarity is that that they both have scales (duh) and really dramatic bone structure. Note the shape that the rim light makes as it catches the sides of their faces, sinking in so deeply in the eyesocket and clinging so tightly to the skull, only protruding again for the muscles of the mouth and chin.

When it came to Lizzie my focus was on the textures as opposed to the expression. Her features are well-proportioned and her expression is kind, but more important to me were the scales—I know axolotls don’t have them, but I wanted a really distinct mermaid princess vibe for her. Since scales are shiner than white human skin, hers reflect the colours around her while being the purpley-blue of the Blue Axolotl. That’s why in the highlights they take on the pink of her hair and the brighter blue of the background. I’m also really happy with the way her ear fin came out, with that semi-transparent stretched texture.

Lizzie’s tiara is made of pearl, just like the accents on the banner I designed for the Ocean Empire.

When it comes to Jimmy, his skin tone is unique among the rulers for being the coldest in hue—he has green accents in his cheeks and nose! I imagine that his scales are sort of a weird slimy film over his human skin. As well, his ear fins are far more opaque than Lizzie’s, much more like the webbing between human fingers (but green instead of reddish!). I also made his lips protrude a bit in a fishy sort of way.

Notably, Jimmy is the only person who’s genuinely smiling in their portrait. I had in mind that everyone would be taking it really seriously, trying to project the vibe they want their Empire to have, while Jim is just happy to be there. He also has some of the most high-contrast highlights in his eyes because he’s one of the friendliest emperors there are!

Jimmy is also the ruler that looks the most like the real life CC. I swear I didn’t reference his irl face when making this—I think it’s a combination of Jimmy having a face cam in his videos so I’m really familiar with his face in my mind, and also those are just his vibes.

—

The Copper King! He’s the other CC whose face I’m pretty familiar with, but I deliberately didn’t make his face anything like irl Pixlriffs’ because I had specific ideas in mind for him. I’ve mentioned most of this previously but I’ll include it here with the new stuff :)

As mentioned in a previous ask, in order to get him to read instantly as “wise and spiritual desert man” I borrowed a few traits from Prince of Egypt’s Moses: the hair length and the way the beard is shaped around the jaw. He also has the deepest tan of anyone besides Joey, since they both live in really hot climates.

Pix also has kohl around his eyes because a) he lives in a desert and b) I love eyeliner on men. The kohl in this case is painted on in such a way to draw your attention on the corners of his eyes, appearing to weight them downward. As keeper of the Vigil, Pix has seen a lot of death, and so I wanted to show the weight of that in his eyes—Pixlriffs gets significant highlights both in the eye and on the lower lid, drawing you in. As well, there is no pupil visible. The deep blue of his eyes just keeps going and going, mysterious and endless…

But!! And this is important! The Copper King isn’t weighed down by sorrow and grief. In fact, he’s a really chill guy most of the time! He loves practical jokes and playing pranks—he’s wise and playful. Like an airbender. It would be so easy to have his whole face weighted downwards like his eyes and eyebrows but instead we catch it at the mouth. There’s a youthful upturn there like he’s about to smile.

The Copper King’s crown is something I designed ages ago, and it does have floating parts! The shape of the front of it is inspired by the distinct patterns in Pixandrian architecture, with the floating hemisphere representing the conduit powering the Vigil.

He also has earrings now, something I hadn’t put in my initial Copper King design, and a more… plunging neckline. These are both there because, uh, for reasons. *ahem* Have I mentioned I’m bi?

—

Speaking of, Pearl’s up next! Good segue right there.

I honestly think Pearl’s Empires skin is the most beautiful of them all. As mentioned, her expression is one of kindness and tiredness after a day of working out in the sun. She’s covered in freckles and her hair is sun-bleached, and she’s got a shiny red sunburn across her face and shoulders from all her time spent outdoors. She also has broad, muscular shoulders from hard work and her martial training. Her lips have a natural upturn so she looks like she’s smiling even when her expression is neutral, and her eyes are bright. The moon necklace is self explanatory ☺️🌙

—

The next three are the ones whose videos I’ve watched the least of, so their portraits are mostly based on vibes.

First up, Joey and Katherine!

Joey gets to be sharp, sharp everything. Sharp cheekbones, sharp eyebrows, sharp jawline, sharp eyeliner. His skin is flawless because he has a 14-step routine he does twice a day and he never really stopped being evil-adjacent so his chin is up and he’s looking down on us. He really knows his angles to look as fabulously intimidating as possible.

Katherine, on the other hand, is more round! She gets a heart-shaped face because she is full of love. She just wants everyone to be friends and for there to be peace! And she collects severed heads! Wholesome and little bit crazy, she gets to have big, bright, friendly, round eyes that are perfect for inviting you over for a sleepover. She’s got a dainty little nose and thin fairy ears and perfect glossy hair that is always scented like floral shampoo.

Then comes Sausage! Now, Sausage is A Lot. He talks fast and he says a LOT and he’s got a big personality and there’s always a lot going on!!! But my portrait is much more subdued—his head is tilted down, he looks tired.

Well, when it comes to showing How Much Sausage Is I wanted to show this through his features rather than his expression. He’s got a broad forehead, a large jaw, huge eyebrows, big ears, a wide mouth, and (though you can’t see it here) huge hands. I wanted to focus his expression on how much he’s gone through, in a rugged and world-weary kind of way. He practices blood magic, he’s been possessed, he’s been imprisoned, he had part of his soul locked away, he’s covered in scars…

Sausage’s complexion is ruddy and his skin is pulled taut over his features. I left the most brushstrokes in his face to show the roughness there. He has dramatic bags under his eyes, which are downturned, and he’s barely got any highlights in his eyes. You can’t really see his pupils, either—his mouth is smiling but his eyes are heavy and closed off. Like Shrub I wanted to show how he’s suffered through his eyes, and in this case it’s the exact opposite approach to the highlights.

—

And finally, Joel Smallishbeans! I watch Joel a lot but his portrait is the easiest to explain so I saved his for last.

Joel is smirking because he’s a smug bastard (affectionate) and he has a wide face, cleft chin and small ears because his pfp used to be Shrek ❤️

Literally, that’s it.

—

So yeah!! I spent about two hours on each portrait but only about 5-10 minutes on the initial sketch for each, which is when I would’ve thought about all this stuff. I’m thinking that later this week I’m going to try and put out a post showing the process of how I go about creating a portrait from the sketch to final with all this stuff in mind!

I know this was a ton to read through but if you’ve got any questions about this sort of thing I’d love to hear em :3 Thanks so much for handing me an opportunity to talk about all this stuff!!

[fishklok]

Hopefully my question makes sense, but how are you able to draw people/characters with distinct facial features and still make them attractive?? I feel like even when I do give my characters different eye shapes or noses shapes they still look the same, like I want my characters to be look different from each other and still look hot haha.

Hi anon, I hope I can help you out with this, but please keep in mind that I'm a self taught artist and I have no real character design training.

I think Metalocalypse is actually a good way to practice drawing unique features, because the show rarely repeats facial features on different characters, but the art style is simple enough that it's easy to recreate.

Regardless of your style, if you get the lines representing Nathan's high cheekbones, the nasolabial folds, the bridge of his nose, and the brow crease, his face will be recognizable

Giving characters unique specific features is an important step, but I think equally important is to think about what overall shapes you're going to keep in mind while drawing said character.

I've used this example before, but on paper Magnus and Skwisgaar have rather similar features

By which I mean they're both tall skinny dudes with long hair, gaunt faces, large noses, prominent cheekbones. But when you see them next to each other, you start to notice the differences between their designs that go beyond individual features. To the point where if you slapped Magnus' hair + goatee onto Skwisgaar, it would look very odd (I'm not going to recreate that, don't worry).

The difference that stands out to me the most is while they're both rather angular characters, Skwisgaar's overall design is much softer than Magnus'. His face is made up of more sloping lines that are rarely broken up. So when I go to draw Skwisgaar, I go into the drawing ready to draw a bunch of softer angles, while with Magnus I might as well get the ruler out.

Here are some basic sketches which are basically just me slapping the character's features down onto the page

Usually at this stage I erase my guidelines as I go, but I kept them there for the sake of this example. I don't draw the eyes in great detail because I find it easy to get too focused on things like iris size or pupil placement (and also I don't draw the expression at this stage), which can distract me from getting down the overall feel/rhythm/vibe of the character. It's like building a house. You gotta set the foundation before you start painting the windowsills.

Also use irl references.

It doesn't have to be exact. but sometimes it can be easy to lose your sense of reality when you've been staring at cartoons for so long. I'll usually rely on irl references for proportions or anatomical details, while for the individual features I'll reference the source material.

This really isn't a tutorial, I'm sorry. It's more me trying to put words to what goes through my head whenever I draw a character.

For something actionable, I'd say look at random mtl characters and try to identify the key shapes/features that make up their design. What was the first feature you noticed about them? If you were going to draw them, what kind of motions would you make with your hand? Also try doing silhouette practice, then move on to drawing the characters with no hair or other definable features.

I used mtl as an example because like I said before, the show's character design is great to study from. But the exercises I described can be used with actual people too. Sometimes I like to use the website This Person Does Not Exist to generate faces to practice identifying certain features. It's a good muscle to train.

This response went all over the place, I'm really sorry. I hope that in this ramble there are at least a few nuggets of useful information.

Also the attractiveness thing I cannot speak on lmao. Attractiveness is very subjective and I think my answer is...everything I learned about art came from those How to Draw Manga books.

[thecreaturecodex]

Devil, Legion (Merregon)

Image © Wizards of the Coast

[The merregon first appeared in the 3.5 book Fiendish Codex 2: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, where its appearance was so boring it didn’t even get an illustration! It was basically indistinguishable from a tiefling physically, and its statistics were both boring and overpowered. All merregons in a combat pooled their hit points together and gained ridiculously high bonuses for fighting together. We’re talking all of them take the best Reflex save (and they have evasion) of the legion devils within 60 feet, and gain a +4 bonus on all attack rolls per legion devil! 5e not only tones them down significantly, but actually gives them an interesting appearance and personality, although of course that personality is that they have barely any personality. I imagine that, with the cherubic baby face, the illustrated merregon is in a legion dedicated to Belial.]

Devil, Legion (Merregon) CR 4 LE Outsider (extraplanar) This humanoid creature has a bent back but strong arms, clutching a halberd. It wears a breastplate and a metal mask completely conforming to the shape of its head. Where its skin is visible is a solid grey. 

Legion devils, also known as merregons, are disposable foot soldiers in Hell’s armies. They are usually created from the damned souls of bodyguards, soldiers and other evil mortals who were “just following orders” and committed evil deeds without thinking. Weak by the standards of martially-oriented devils, they are often sent to the mortal realm to serve conjurers and diabolists. Although a legion devil isn’t very powerful on its own, they are stronger fighting alongside each other, or with several serving as an honor guard to a stronger devil.

Merregons are deadly but unimaginative combatants. They prefer melee combat, closing ranks with their halberds and surrounding enemies to hack them to death. If a stronger devil is present, legion devils fight harder and faster, hoping to appease their superiors rather than face additional torment. Merregons can telepathically share teamwork feats, and may adjust these to their opponents, but usually only do so if commanded to by a superior.

Legion devils have no individuality, no names and no real faces. If individual distinctions are required, they are referred to by their battalion and a serial number. Beneath their masks, they have simply two beady eyes and no other facial features. Each mask is tailored to the greater power they serve, however indirectly—pit fiends, malebranches or infernal dukes choose the nature of these masks for their companies. Merregons are mute but can communicate telepathically, usually in short, terse statements.

Legion Devil       CR 4 XP 1,200 LE Medium outsider (devil, evil, extraplanar, lawful) Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +9, see in darkness Defense AC 20, touch 17, flat-footed 13 (+3 Dex, +1 natural, +6 armor) hp 37 (5d10+10) Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +5 DR 5/silver or good; Immune fear, fire, poison; Resist acid 10, cold 10; SR 15 Defensive Abilities loyal bodyguard Offense Speed 30 ft. (40 ft. unarmored) Melee masterwork halberd +10 (1d10+4/x3) Ranged light crossbow +8 (1d8/19-20) Special Attacks battlemind link, hell’s frenzy Statistics Str 17, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 6, Wis 12, Cha 10 Base Atk +5; CMB +8; CMD 21 Feats Duck and Cover (B), Intimidating Prowess, Outflank (B), Power Attack, Weapon Focus (halberd) Skills Climb +8, Intimidate +11, Perception +9, Swim +8 Languages Infernal (cannot speak), telepathy 100 ft. SQ easy to call Ecology Environment any land and underground (Hell) Organization solitary, pair, squad (3-12) or battalion (13-48) Treasure standard (masterwork breastplate, masterwork halberd, light crossbow with 20 bolts, other treasure) Special Abilities Battlemind Link (Su) A legion devil gains two bonus teamwork feats. When within telepathic range of another legion devil, a legion devil may spend a move action to change their teamwork feats to be the same as those possessed by the second legion devil.  Easy to Call (Ex) A legion devil counts as being 2 HD less than its actual Hit Dice for the purposes of conjuration (calling) spells. Hell’s Frenzy (Ex) When it is within 10 feet of a devil with a higher CR than it, a legion devil can make an extra melee attack when it makes a full attack action. Loyal Bodyguard (Ex) A legion devil can spend an immediate action when a creature within 5 feet takes damage from a melee or ranged attack in order to take that damage instead. This damage is adjusted by its damage reduction, immunities and resistances.

[rattyoakenbitch]

youtubers: “don’t touch her” ₊˚ ⸝  corpse husband x reader

❝i don't wanna think about, think about you. drink up, drink up i'm so fucked up, all i want is you.❞

gif credit: n/a song: lykke li - sex money feelings die

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

pairings: corpse husband x reader

warnings: angst, cursing, drinking, smoking, violent language, and minor mentions of anxiety.

summary: i can’t make summaries rn hhh just read it (:

“Sean, there is no way in hell I’m going!”

“Oh, come on, Y/N. It’ll be fun!”

“That’s what you always say!”

“Ugh, you and Corpse are so stubborn. At least I was able to convince him to show up! You know what you need? To get out of the house more often and come hang with us.”

“Uh huh, yeah, y’all have fun, I got some stuff to finish.”

“Yeah? Like what? Your ten hour nap?”

“HEY! Excuse me -”

“7PM, [club address], you’re showing up.”

“Sean - !”

With that, Sean hung up. You let out an exasperated huff, crossing your arms and pouting like a toddler who was just denied a toy. You were invited, or more accurrately forced to celebrate whatever the hell Sean and his friends achieved. With lives like theirs, it seemed like there was always something to celebrate. 

You, on the other hand.. Well, you were just little old you. You met Sean by mere chance. It’s a very long story, but you shared some things in common, like your love for video games. However, that was about the only thing you could relate to with Sean and his little friend circle. You were more passionate about writing, as well as reading short horror stories. 

Now, that’s where you clicked with Corpse Husband. 

He was an underrated YouTuber, whose main uploads were narration videos on creepypastas and horror stories. That’s until he blew up with his Among Us gameplays, collaborating with big names like PewDiePie, Jacksepticeye, and CrankGamePlays (EEF!!!).

You met over an Among Us stream with said YouTubers and immediately hit it off. You shared a dark sense of humor, love for horror, and music. You knew of Corpse before, but only then did you discover that he produced music, which you absolutely enjoyed (and blasted in your house for days on end).

When you found out you lived not even twenty minutes away from each other, you’d occasionally meet up, mostly at his house considering he only went out once in a blue moon. You’d sometimes even spend the night at his place, staying up late, gazing up at the stars, getting deep into conversation and opening up about things you never blurted out to people. But when you were with Corpse, everything just came naturally. You felt safe with him, and hopefully, he felt the same. 

Night approached, the clock striking 5PM. You figured you’d get ready since Sean was dead set on you coming to the party. You showered, did a minimalist glossy makeup look, and chose an outfit, which consisted of a half neon green and black skirt that stopped mid thigh, and an oversized distressed band tee which you tucked into your belt. You slipped on a pair of ripped, striped thigh-highs with mismatched colors, (white stripes on one and neon blue on the other), and your platform boots that made you look like a Bratz Doll. You didn’t bother with your tangled hair. You teased it with a brush but didn’t put any effort into styling it, since it’d get messy anyways. To finish your look, you clipped on a choker and dangled a couple of layered chains around your neck.

Corpse would tease you, saying you had a “dog collar”, but you knew he secretly liked it.

All dolled up and ready to go, you hopped into your car and followed the GPS to the address Sean sent you. Drunk couples stumbled out of the club, dates headed inside, and old wasted guys were thrown out. Oh boy, you were not ready for this.

You were the anxious, anti social type. Not because it was edgy or cool, but you simply didn’t know how to handle social situations. However, it comforted you to know Corpse would be there by your side so you didn’t need to chat and flirt with strangers. 

It’s not like you wanted to meet anybody new, anyways. Though nobody was aware of it, you had feelings for Corpse. Cliche, right? You knew you shouldn’t have, but you developed feelings for him. It made you feel strange and weird, considering you haven’t caught feelings in a while.

You came up with the bright idea of slowly drifting away from Corpse to maybe help de-escalate these feelings, but you were going to run into him at the club, so what the heck.

You headed inside, your eyes scanning the crowd and pushing through, searching for your friend group. You spent a couple minutes cluelessly looking around the club, but to no avail. Then, it was as if a light bulb clicked on over your head; you never thought to phone Sean.

“Ugh, I’m so stupid.” You reached into your purse to get ahold of your phone when a pair of strong, manly hands and cold metal which you assumed to be rings wrapped around your shoulders, gripping you tightly. 

“Boo!” 

You felt your heart stop and ran out of the man’s grasp, spinning around to look at who it was.

“Oh, did I scare you?” 

The man’s deep, monotone voice rumbled above the sound of the music and shouts. Then you recognized that unique and distinctive voice. 

“Corpse!! What the hell?”

His nose and jaw was covered by a black mask, with a print that looked like Frank from Donnie Darko, which was also Corpse’s signature look, seen in his channel art. 

Despite Corpse being a faceless YouTuber, only very few people have seen his face, including you and Glam&Gore who he featured in his narration videos. You thought he was very handsome, his baritone voice matching his appearance. You had to admit, you were a little disappointed he chose to wear a mask. You loved seeing his facial expressions, especially his precious smile that would light up the room when he’d let out little fits of laughter. But you got over it and respected the fact that he wanted to remain anonymous.

“You dickhead,” you scoffed, smacking Corpse lightly on the shoulder. Corpse towered over you, looking admittedly both intimidating and seductive. If you were a stranger, you’d probably be running off, but you weren’t scared of Corpse. He was a big softie and a teddy bear.

Corpse chuckled lowly, slinging his arm over your shoulder and leading you to Sean’s group. He was protective like that, even if you were just friends. Now you could see why Sean, at one point, speculated that you and Corpse had a thing going on. 

“So, Sean forced you to tag along, too?”

“Pfft, yeah, that’s Sean for you.”

“Hey, there’s my favorite couple,” Sean joked, patting your shoulder. You rolled your eyes at his drunk antics.

“Shut up, don’t make me choke you like I hate you,” you mocked in return, eliciting a fit of laughter from the group. 

“Remind me to never hang out with you losers again,” Corpse mumbled sarcastically under his breath.

The night went by in a flash. Sean, Thomas, Felix, and everyone else was blackout drunk. Luckily, Mark was there to assist them. Since Mark couldn’t drink, he would be the designated driver that night. Corpse hung out by himself, sometimes getting approached by women who he politely turned down.

You, on the other hand, were downing alcohol like your life depended on it. For you, it would take more than the average number of drinks for you to get wasted.

“Y/N, don’t you think you should slow down?” Corpse questioned cautiously, resting a hand on the small of your back.

“Does it really look like I’m thinking right now?” you drunkenly slurred, following with a giggle. You waved to the bartender, calling for another shot, which he slid over to you, but not without hesitating after noticing your state. You pushed Corpse off of you, probably more harshly than you intended, and took the shot. 

“Okay, Y/N, fuck this, I’m taking you to my place. We can’t stay here and you certainly can’t drive back home when you’re drunk,” Corpse scowled, stepping closer to you. Again, you shoved him back.

“No.. No..” You sighed, holding your pounding head in your hand. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what? Y/N, you’re drunk -”

“I’m not letting you of all people take me.”

Corpse blinked. “What does that mean?” He knew you were drunk, of course, and you were probably just blurting nonsense.

All of a sudden, tears escaped your eyes, racing down your blushy cheeks.

“No.. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault.” You began to shake and tremble as tears started to uncontrollably spill down your face. Corpse didn’t waste another second to take you in his arms, hushing you. “Your hugs are so warm.. I hate it. I hate feeling this way. It’s all my fault.”

“What did you do, sweetheart? You can tell me.”

Your heart ached when you heard his pet name for you.

“I think I may like you more than you like me.. I-I didn’t mean to! Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have,” you sobbed into his white tee, clinging onto him. “I love you so fucking much, it hurts. I shouldn’t have!”

Corpse stopped for a moment, processing your words.

You.. felt the same?

Corpse had to tell you. You were drunk, but he needed you to know. 

“Y/N, I -”

Suddenly, you had a moment of clarity. Realizing how close you were to Corpse, you backed away, wiping away the mascara tears under your eyes.

“I - I think I had too much to drink.. I just need a smoke..” 

Without giving Corpse the chance to protest, you ran off into the crowd, struggling your way through. 

Corpse began to get worried when you didn’t come back. He waited impatiently on the barstool where you left him, anxiously playing with his rings.

He was just about to get up and look for you, when he caught a glimpse of you stumbling out the exit with another man who guided you, gripping your arm tightly.

Corpse fumed, his face going red and heartbeat speeding up. He went after you, knowing damn well you didn’t know this man. 

The man took you to his car, placing you atop the trunk, your legs dangling over the edge. He stepped in between your legs, caressing your face. Everything was a blur. If your mind was clear, you wouldn’t be stupid enough to trust this random guy, who was probably ten years older than you. 

“You’re too pretty to be crying,” he whispered, leaning in closer to your face, until a yell stopped him from proceeding any further.

“Hey, asshole, she’s drunk! Don’t you fucking touch her!”

“C-Corpse?” You hiccuped, hopping off the trunk to get a look at the approaching figure. It was indeed Corpse. His eyebrows were pressed together angrily at the sight.

“You know this dude?” the man said loudly and smugly, just to get a reaction from Corpse. “Relax, my man, I’m just tryna take this pretty girl home.”

“Well this pretty girl happens to be mine, and I won’t let you take advantage of her,” Corpse growled. 

You stood by the stranger, clinging to him as you watched Corpse’s face twist into an expression of heartbreak when you didn’t budge. He then noticed the bruises around your arms and wrist, supposedly from the man’s strong grip. He was unbelievably furious. 

“Ha, doesn’t look like she’s your girl anymore.” The man’s lips twisted upwards into a devilish smirk, only pissing Corpse off some more. Oh boy, was he ready to snap. He reached into his pocket, when..

“Wait,” you managed to slur out, breaking up the argument. You reached out towards Corpse like a child. His facial expression immediately softened. He gave you a loving smile and immediately took you into his arms, holding you protectively. 

“Now, I suggest you get in your car and never come back,” Corpse threatened.

“Oh, yeah? Or what? I’ll kill you and take your girl, you motherfucker!”

Without hesitation, Corpse took out his switchblade, looking the man in his eyes.

“Say that again?”

You watched as the stranger’s whole tough act fell apart. Without another word, he ran to the driver’s side of his car, fumbling with his keys. 

“Yeah, that’s right,” Corpse mumbled, not taking his eyes off the man until he reached his own car. You held his hand the whole way, processing what had just happened. Corpse noticed your distant expression. You got into his car, shutting the door and slumping back into your seat. He tore off his mask, taking in deep breaths to calm himself. Then he looked back to you. 

“Princess?”

You looked to Corpse, your eyes teary. “Hey, Corpse.” You didn’t seem to be as drunk, your mind a lot clearer after the incident. “D-Did you mean anything you said back there? About the..”

“About you being my girl?” 

Corpse took your hand in his, squeezing it comfortingly. He leaned forward and cupped your face with his free hand. “Absolutely.” 

With that, you leaned towards him, hesitantly pressing your lips to his. Your lips tasted of alcohol, but Corpse didn’t care. He was admittedly taken back, his breath hitching, but he released the tension from his body and kissed you back, pulling you over to the driver’s seat atop him. There wasn’t much space, forcing you to press closer to Corpse, deepening the kiss. 

Still being a bit drunk, you were clumsy and kind of ‘out of it’. 

“I’d hold onto something if I were you,” Corpse mumbled, breaking the kiss momentarily to guide your hands to grip his shoulders. But you were impatient and reconnected your lips with his, no doubt causing him to blush even more than he already was.

You couldn’t help yourself and giggled into the kiss, causing Corpse to chuckle along with you, departing from the kiss again and resting his forehead against yours.

“I’m sorry, you’re just so fucking adorable when you giggle.” 

You hummed in response, offering Corpse an innocent grin as you pecked all over his face. 

“I’m so glad you’re mine.”

[viastro]

they were pretty | chwe vernon hansol

ミ★ synopsis: the moment you lock eyes with your soulmate is when the world will become bright and colorful, but it’s only when the two of you hold eye contact. [dedicated to @memesolvernonchwe​ ! surprise, i’m your secret santa <3]

ミ★ genre: soulmate!au, fluff, some humor

ミ★ warnings: none !

ミ★ word count: 2,116

ミ★ pairings: vernon x gender neutral reader

ミ★ notes: merry christmas everyone ! and to those who don’t celebrate, i hope you’re having a great day ! especially to my friend, mia. i’m your secret santa !! i hope you enjoyed this, i wanted to make it as fluffy as possible hehe. hope you’re doing well <33 as to everyone else reading this oneshot, i hope you guys enjoy it ! make sure to give vernon lots of love, and to also be safe this holiday season !

“I’m so excited for you to be able to see colors, yn.” You nod your head aimlessly at Nayeon’s comment, knowing that she’ll eventually stop talking about meeting her soulmate once a month passes by. You bite the inside of your cheek at a particularly long paragraph in the textbook, trying to scan through it to find what to take note of. 

“It’s truly so beautiful, I wish everyone would be able to experience it. I can’t wait to go and see her again so that I can see the color of the sky.” Glancing up from your notes, you see Nayeon staring longingly out the window of the library. You let out a breath, before deciding to close your textbook, causing her to turn to look at you. Giving her a smile you say, “Let’s head back to the apartment, mm? So that you can go see Jeongyeon.” 

You watch as Nayeon’s face practically lights up as she nods her head, and the two of you begin to pack up your things. You listen as she continues to ramble about how she can’t wait to look at the color blue again, and you nod your head calmly as the two of you walk out the library. 

“I feel like you’ll like the color pink a lot.” Nayeon tells you when you both reach the crowded crosswalk. Raising an eyebrow, you turn to glance at her as you wait for the crosswalk signal to show that it’s your turn to cross the street. She smiles, wrapping an arm around your shoulders. 

“Pink is like a sweet and delicate color. It tastes like bubblegum or cotton candy. And it makes you feel… love. I guess.” Nayeon explains in a soft voice, and you nod your head. You glance at your surroundings that are in black and white, the world that you’ve grown used to seeing. 

You wonder if you’ll ever be lucky enough to be able to see the world through Nayeon’s eyes.

The crosswalk signal turns green, and the two of you begin to cross the street. You look at the ground as Nayeon speaks animatedly beside you about how excited she is to see her soulmate, while you half-listen as you walk past all the people going to their own destinations. 

You glance up from the road, and make eye contact with a few people passing by. You’re about to look back down at the crosswalk again when you lock eyes with someone for a brief moment, and you feel your breath get taken away. 

Your world isn’t black and white for a fleeting second. 

“Yn? Are you okay?” Your breath hitches when you see that everything is black and white again. You glance around in panic as you see the normal different shades of grey when the two of you finally cross the street. Nayeon shakes your arm to try and get your attention, but you stare with wide eyes at the other side of the street, heart beating wildly against your chest as you realize your soulmate just walked past you.

and you don’t know who it is.

“WHAT?!” You grimace at Nayeon’s screech as you watch her pace around your bedroom, trying to process the rather unfortunate information that you just bestowed upon her.

more unfortunate for you rather than her but alas…

“So you’re telling me, that you locked eyes with your soulmate as we crossed the street, saw color for one second, then LOST THEM?!” Nayeon asks, stopping in her tracks to turn and face you with an incredulous expression on her face. You slowly nod your head, and she raises a hand to her forehead out of stress. 

“Do you even remember what they looked like? Distinct facial features? Anything?” You stare at Nayeon for a moment, knowing that your answer to her question is going to absolutely destroy her sanity. And so, out of love for your best friend, you slowly shake your head, no. 

Nayeon stares at you, before sinking down to the floor and resting her head in her arms. The two of you stay like that in silence for a moment, and you bite the inside of your cheek. You briefly remember the brilliant colors you saw, but there’s one that stood out in particular to you that you can only describe as being pretty. 

It was a pretty color.

“What are you gonna do now, yn? You met your soulmate and yet you don’t remember anything about what they looked like.” You glance down at your hands, wondering whether or not fate is on your side. You met your soulmate on a busy street for the briefest moment, and you have no recollection of what they may look like other than the color you saw. 

Turning back towards Nayeon, you give her a smile, and her eyes squint in confusion as to how you’re able to muster such a happy smile when you’re in a rather terrible situation. Shrugging your shoulders you look up towards the ceiling, “I’m just happy to have seen colors in that short moment.” 

Nayeon groans and reaches out to slap your leg, making you yelp out in shock. You give her an offended look and she wiggles her finger at your face, “How are you so carefree? I both despise and envy that feature of yours.” 

You grin, reaching out with your foot and nudging her so that she topples onto her side. She turns and glares at you, making you giggle. Running a hand through your hair you mutter, “If fate allows it, I’ll find them again.” 

“You found your soulmate?!” 

“Ah, Seungkwan you’re too loud.” Vernon says with a wince, making the latter squint at him. Seungkwan rolls his eyes, “How can I not be loud? You met your soulmate a week ago and yet you don’t remember what they look like?!” 

Vernon rubs the back of his neck, wondering the exact same thing. He only remembers the burst of color that appeared in that brief moment the two of you locked eyes, but is unable to recall what you looked like. The color of your eyes is all he can remember, as it was what stood out the most to him. 

He thought it was pretty.

The two continue to walk through the park, with Vernon listening quietly as Seungkwan creates a very intricate plan on how to find you as they do so. Vernon glances up at the cherry blossom trees, watching as the petals fly through the air. He’s heard that the color of cherry blossom flowers are magnificent, and he’s dreamt of the day that he’ll be able to see them in their true beauty. 

“Vernon, are you listening? I’m telling you that if we just get Gong Yoo to listen to your story and he likes it, then we can broadcast to the world that you’re looking for your soulmate. All while Gong Yoo plays you in the drama adaptation of your situation. It’s a win win scenario!” Seungkwan explains with a look of certainty on his face, and Vernon bites his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. 

“I think Gong Yoo is on a whole other playing field when it comes to visuals.” Vernon tells Seungkwan, to which his friend scowls, slapping Vernon’s arm. “You’re both handsome.” 

“Yeah but Gong Yoo is something else.” Seungkwan purses his lips at what Vernon said, before nodding his head in agreement. “He do be really handsome at 41 years old.” 

The two converse as they walk around the park, trying to decide where to eat lunch when Vernon hears someone’s loud voice. Seungkwan and him turn towards the direction of the voice, finding two very pretty people laughing underneath the cherry blossom trees.

“Nayeon! You’re so loud, please!” You laugh, and Vernon tilts his head at the sight of you. He takes note of the crinkle to your eyes as you laugh, finding the sight to be rather pretty. Seungkwan raises an eyebrow at Vernon’s silence as they pass by you and Nayeon, wondering what Vernon finds so enticing. 

It’s only when you feel someone staring at you that you turn your head, and your mouth falls open when a burst of color appears right before your eyes. Vernon’s eyes widen when his world is no longer the black and white that he’s known his whole life, and the two of you just stare at each other in a shocked silence.

“Why are you so quiet?” Nayeon asks with a bright smile, only to pause when she sees how flabbergasted you look. Her eyes follow your line of sight, only to gasp when she finds the handsome guy staring at you with an equally shocked expression on his face. 

“I found you.” Vernon breathes out as he stares into your beautiful eyes.

Seungkwan glances between you and Vernon multiple times, waiting for either of you to make a move, only to let out a sigh when he realizes that neither of you are planning on moving. And so, out of love for his best friend, Seungkwan says, “Bitch, go and talk to your soulmate!” and shoves him in your direction. This promptly snaps Vernon out of his daze, and you feel warmth rush to your face when he smiles shyly at you.

Vernon walks towards you, not breaking eye contact, only to stop once the two of you are a foot apart. He grins, reaching his hand out towards you and saying, “Hi. I’m Vernon, your soulmate.” 

A smile breaks out over your own features as you extend your hand and grasp his warm one, “Hi, I’m yn. I think I’m your soulmate.” 

Vernon chuckles, tilting his head at you, “You think?” 

To which you giggle back, nodding your head. “I think so.” 

You’re about to ask Vernon if he’d like to go and get food so that you can get to know each other, only to pause when a soft cherry blossom petal falls directly onto your nose. Vernon smiles softly at the sight, reaching out to pick it off your nose. Your eyes widen slightly at the contact, only for your mouth to fall into an ‘o’ shape when you realize the cherry blossom petal is similar to the color of Vernon’s lips. Without thinking, you take the petal from his hand, and hold it up beside Vernon’s mouth, making him pause at the close proximity between you two. 

Cheerfully you say, “The cherry blossom petals are similar to the color of your lips. It’s pretty.” 

You glance back up into his eyes after staring between the cherry blossom petal and his mouth, only to also physically pause when you realize how close the two of you are. You take notice of the color rising to Vernon’s cheeks, and you bite the inside of your cheek when you realize how pretty he is. 

Nayeon and Seungkwan watch from the side, and Nayeon lets out a happy sigh. She nods her head peacefully, patting herself on the back when she overhears you say that the color pink is pretty. 

Called it, Nayeon thinks to herself with a grin. 

“Do you wanna go and get food together? Get to know each other, maybe?” You ask after a moment of you and Vernon just staring at each other, and he promptly snaps out of his daze. He takes a step back, and you finally exhale the breath you were holding in. He nods his head with a grin, “I’d love to get food. Where do you want to go?” 

You put your finger to your pursed lips as you think, and Vernon hides his smile behind his hand at how cute he thinks the gesture is. After a moment of thinking, Vernon watches as your eyes brighten when you finally come up with where to eat. “Let’s get tteokbokki!” 

He nods his head in agreement, unable to stop himself from smiling at you. You grin, and the two of you begin your descent towards the tteokbokki restaurant, completely forgetting that you both came with a friend as you converse.

Seungkwan and Nayeon let out a sigh, before turning to glance at each other. Seungkwan gestures to you and Vernon’s shrinking figures as you get farther and farther away, “Should we go and get tteokbokki with them even though they forgot we existed?” 

Nayeon turns her head to glance at you and Vernon, letting out a smile when she catches the way you and Vernon turn to look at each other with happy expressions on your faces. Nayeon nods her head after a moment of thought, “Tteokbokki sounds good.” 

[charlotte-headcanons]

I wonder if some of siblings with twins, triplets, and others get along well. We know the monster triplet seems close to each other, decuplets get along well, just some silly siblings fights, sometimes, Smoothie with Citron and Cinnamon, they just argue when she used her devil fruit power on their subordinates to take the energy to her attacks, Chiffon still loves Lola even after leaving the family. But I wonder how is Cracker with Custard and Angel, Brulee with Broye, and Opera in his group of quintuplets.

Thank you for this ask, anon, that one was super fun to figure out! 💕 We decided to go through all the twin/triplet/etc. groups in the Charlotte family and describe their relations quickly. Naturally, then ❗long post ahead❗

Enjoy! ✨

Group 1: Katakuri/Daifuku/Oven

This three get along great and are indeed, very close to each other. Despite their personality differences, they spent a lot of time together already in childhood and even now they make sure that they find moments to cherish in each other's presence often. Katakuri feels more comfortable around these two than around most, especially since they both know his secret and never judged him for his mouth. Oven and Daifuku find him amazing, sure, but they also still treat him as their brother, not an unattainable ideal, and that allows Katakuri to somewhat relax.

Group 2: Mondee/Amande/Hachee/Effilee

Although Mondee is unstoppable in her efforts to bring these four closer together, being a bit jealous of some other twin/triplet/quadruplet sets, Amande, Hachee, and Effilee are all individualists and quite distinct personalities. Therefore, they might have a bit of a soft spot for each other, but these quadruplets only properly hang out once every three months or so; always from Mondee's initiative.

Group 3: Opera/Counter/Cadenza/Cabaletta/Gala

This group definitely likes to hang out together! They aren't super close and they don't know a lot about each other's personal problems or private life, but they do enjoy regular activities that they can do together: like brawl fights or going out for a few drinks. However, Opera is always a bit out of place in the group. Since he doesn't so much enjoy the same things the others like, they sometimes don't even bother inviting him, and they might be kind of jealous that out of all of them, he was the one who received a Devil Fruit. Gala always brings attention to it, trying not to exclude Opera, but sometimes, unfortunately, he still gets left out.

Group 4: Cracker/Custard/Angel

In their childhood, Custard and Angel got along well, but Cracker was always annoyed by the two and their constant attempts to play with his hair, put flower crowns on him, and more of that girly shit he loathed. Now, Angel changed quite a bit, toughened up, and became known as a kind of feral gal, who loves her triplets, but might sometimes scare/disgust while trying to make them tougher. In effect, Custard and Cracker grew ever so slightly closer. It helps that the girls stopped trying to girlify him, too.

Group 5: Brulee/Broye

Personality-wise, these two are polar opposites. Generally, Broye pities Brulee for not having found a husband yet, as well as for how her lifestyle usually looks like: rather than cooking and gardening she prefers partying and flirting, rather than living in an unpretentious hut, she prefers glamour. Brulee, on the other hand, is always nice to Broye and likes her, however, their relationship grew a bit awkward ever since Broye caught her staring at a wedding dress and bought her one, claiming that 'she's never going to get married anyway, so she may as well just wear it now'. Brulee knows that her twin meant well and thus wears the dress to this day (was it just us or did Brulee's first dress really look like a wedding dress); still she can't help but feel slightly hurt.

Group 6: Nusstorte/Basskarte/Dosmarche

These three see each other mostly as rivals, plain and simple. Basskarte is especially salty that the other two received Minister positions while he didn't, but even between Nusstorte and Dosmarche you can expect only constant attempts to one the other up rather than any sibling closeness.

Group 7: Moscato/Mash/Cornstarch

Moscato and Cornstarch adore each other! They're both idealists and wholesome people, so they can talk with each other for hours and feel very comfortable with each other's presence. Now, Mash is slightly excluded from this: they still like her and are always nice to her, but don't hang out with her half as often. She doesn't mind, though; she prefers Broye to those softies anyway.

Group 8: Compo/Laurin

Compo is very protective of Laurin. Despite only being minutes older than him and despite his short height, he always makes sure no one makes fun of his twin, and has a sixth sense for when the latter is uncomfortable. In return, Laurin is very grateful, and if he could ever return all the favors, he would.

Group 9: Mozart/Marnier

These two are your like, most typical ✨twinsies✨ sisters. They like to wear matching outfits sometimes, they gossip with each other lots, and generally they get along great; although, unlike some other twins on this list, they do have their own, separate lives.

Group 10: High Fat/Tablet

High Fat and Tablet probably have the worst relationship from all the siblings on this list. Even more opposite than Brulee and Broye, they disliked each other since early childhood, when Tablet relentlessly picked on High Fat, and the latter interpreted what Tablet thought was merely playful as outright cruel. As a result of their different perception on things, their antipathy only grew, and they prefer not to talk these days if it can be avoided.

Group 11: Smoothie/Citron/Cinnamon

Smoothie, Citron, and Cinnamon are each other's favorite people, full stop. They all have similar views on life, know each other's secrets, and they love their dynamic; in this dynamic, Smoothie normally takes on a role of the leader, with Cinnamon and Citron often looking for her approval and even mimicking her sometimes, but all this happens without them ever feeling consciously like there is any clear hierarchy.

Group 12: Saint-Marc/Basans

In their childhood, Saint-Marc and Basans were often confused due to their similar facial features. This experience left them bitter, so now, despite not hating each other, they both really try to stand out from the other. For Saint-Marc, the armor was a method; Basans went so far as to wear fake horns, being quite happy whenever it was assumed that Melise was his real sister.

Group 13: Galette/Poire

Poire likes Galette, even with the latter's anxiety and all. Galette, in return, is always kind to Poire, however, she cannot help but be overly stressed out by her sister's often dangerous ways of life. While Mont d'Or is a calming presence for Galette, Poire heightens her worries, so she'd rather hang out with the older brother, all things considered.

Group 14: Snack/Bavarois

Similarly to the first set of quintuplets, Snack and Bavarois like to share fast food or a few drinks, but don't necessarily tell each other much about their life, or their hopes and fears. Their hang out sessions are a bit rarer than for the quintuplets, though, even if they became more frequent when Snack lost his Sweet Commander post.

Group 15: Prim/Praline

Prim always looked at Praline from above, being both smarter and stronger than her. Still, their relations were somewhat amicable until Praline's betrayal. They used to enjoy at least shopping for clothes together, but now, Prim is pissed that Praline left, without telling her, taking with her a large portion of Totto's underwater population, and leaving her behind for Mama to take out her rage on her. If they meet again, Prim will not hold back and will definitely attack Praline just like the rest of her family, if not even more viciously.

Group 16: Kanten/Kato/Montb

Those three are completely neutral in their relations. They have distinct goals in life and personalities, and don't really think of each other as 'their kind of person' but can definitely have a friendly small talk when they meet; which happens rather rarely, considering they don't really seek these meetings out.

Group 17: Chiffon/Lola

As we all know, Chiffon and Lola love each other lots! Chiffon was always very protective of her younger sister and supported her fully in pursuing her dreams; little Lola, on the other hand, would beat up anyone who even looked at her twin wrongly. Since Lola left, they missed each other plenty, but Chiffon never blamed her for leaving and was just very happy to be reunited with her eventually.

Group 18: Mobile/Marble/Myukuru/Maple

These quadruplets get along in pairs. Mobile and Maple like each other lots and hang out with each other plenty, and so do Marble and Myukuru; however, between these two groups, there's little care and more of a neutral outlook.

Group 19: Mascarpone/Joscarpone

Mascarpone and Joscarpone are essentially inseparable. They know everything each other, finish each other's sentences, share literally everything (including clothes), and could be easily confused if not for their different gender. If you tried to keep them apart even for a few days, they'd probably be very uncomfortable and feel lonelier than ever.

Group 20: Newichi/Newji/Newsan/Newshi/Newgo/Nutmeg/Akimeg/Allmeg/Harumeg/Fuyumeg

The decuplets generally all tolerate each other, but hate to be confused. Overall, the boys get along, and so do the girls, but they don't mingle beyond these groups so much, with the exception of Newshi and Harumeg, who are best friends. There is just quite a bit of rivalry between the boys and the girls; they can cooperate great in fives, but as a whole 10-person group they might struggle to communicate all that well.

Group 21: Dolce/Dragee

Basically Mascarpone and Joscarpone on steroids. These two literally speak in unison at times, have their own secret communication system, sometimes switch their clothes which makes everyone confuse them, and get completely miserable and shy whenever separated. We'll see if they grow out of it ever or not!

Aaaaand there you have it! Congrats to everyone who got through the entire post, here's your supreme Charlotte family fan medal 🎖️ hope you enjoyed! 💕

[felassan]

Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition concept art & assets from a 2016 talk/presentation by Matt Rhodes, titled “The World of Concept Art” [watch link & source]

It’s an interesting and insightful talk which I recommend watching, especially if you have an interest in concept art and related things like character design and how it fits into the overall game dev process. It’s also interesting to see a bit about how the DA team’s art direction/process has changed over time between games, and hear a bit about how they’ve been doing things going forwards for the next game.

This is Part 1. [Link to Part 2]

(Some notes on the commentary given on the images and in general in the presentation under the cut due to length.)

On image 2: DAII had a fast, hot production period where decisions were made very quickly. The devs knew that the central hub, Kirkwall, had been a center of an old slavery-based empire in the past, and wanted to have indications of this [in its art direction]. There were going to be giant statues that the PC eventually fought - on the right is the design for the statues as they originally were. In the top left, this is all they had for the location [owing to the intensive prod period]. They also had a general idea that they wanted to have tableaus that came to life, shown in the bottom left.

On image 3: Going back to the design of the giant statues, the beautiful golden clockwork version of the design doesn’t really say ‘tool of an ancient slavery-based empire’, so they took the model and tried to come up with something that had more of the kinds of shapes that get into the back of your head and say things like ‘aggressive, hard, simple’.

On image 4: So here they had started doing concepts trying to find some of the right poses, accessories etc that these things would have. One of the hearts of the internal ‘DA art [direction] codex’ is “gray and pointy”; if they give a concept like this to [then] Art Director Matthew Goldman he instinctively wants to go “Yes! Approve!”, and so has to kind of reign himself in a little bit.

On image 5: This is where they ended up getting to and how the concept art turned out in terms of the model, with some negotiation back and forth. This is an example of how their art direction process now tries to tell a story with the art (i.e. it tries to support the story through art aspects of the setting and the environment). Historically, they would have just thrown the French-looking, Baroque clockwork version of the statue into the game and gone with it. They are getting more and more intentional with this sort of thing.

On this image: This was an internal image made for internal discussion. The characters in it aren’t ones that exist or that became other characters, with the exception of the Warden, who kind of became Blackwall. In this image, they were trying to think about visual separation among members of a group at the most basic level (simple graphic design principles, like different shapes and colors). This image is part of trying to solve the design problem of having 4 different characters on-screen in the party at once in their games - as in, players of course need to be able to easily tell who is doing what and where.

A general comment: At BioWare, the concept artists nowadays involve themselves in the character design process much earlier than they used to. Historically, as in earlier games, the writers would write up a bunch of characters and then concept artists would be brought in to draw them. Through negotiation and back-and-forth they would then come up with something. Nowadays though, the concept artists are involved from Day 1. The writers now write down 2 words to describe a character and the artists do sketches based on that. The writers then will write a sentence and the artists will do more drawings based on that. Then it progresses to a paragraph and drawings based on that and so on. In this way it goes back and forth and they build it up so that the visual aspects and the writeup/content of the character are developed completely in tandem, complimentary to one another. This is their goal. They aren’t quite there yet, but this is what they’re trying to strive for in this area.

On image 6: These are Dorian concepts. His initial 2-word writeup was “rockstar mage”. They had different artists take different swings at him. The middle concept is Matt’s. The third concept is by Casper Konefal. Everyone was very excited about it and so it was then taken up to a more final stage (image 7).

On image 8: Casper is one of Matt’s favorite concept artists because he goes in and lovingly details absolutely everything - all the pieces of jewelry etc. Each ring has a story. This attention and level of detail and thought behind it adds authenticity and verisimilitude. 

On image 9: In game development, there is an effect on character design that can happen during review meetings. The concept/character artist will know what they need visually from a particular character’s design in order to visually tell the story and to help the character support that. Oftentimes, people who aren’t artists don’t have the language to describe this or realize that’s what’s going on in a character’s design, and instead they just see imperfections in the presented faces. What this can lead to is that unintentionally a group review meeting can slowly trim away all the features of a character that make them interesting or distinct. This is why, for many characters across the game industry, if they were shaved and had their facial decorations etc removed, it would be kind of hard to tell many of them apart, as they have all been subjected to this sort of “council sandblasting” process. Casper figured out an idea to help with this; annotating concept drawings with artistic knowledge that artists know intuitively, as has been done here. Artists know, for instance, that certain shapes and angles can allow for certain assumptions about the character to be made (for example, think about Cassandra’s personality and then consider the angular, straight strong lines that make up her face). Annotating like this and then presenting both versions alongside one another helps these aspects of character design be recognized in the review process, and helps characters remain more distinct.

On image 10: They knew that in DAI there was going to be a character who would be with the PC for the whole game - the humble little hermit, non-intrusive, someone quite closed off who the player wouldn’t know much about. “[quote] And at the very end of the game you’d basically find out that he’s Loki himself, or the embodiment of this ancient god that had been tricking you and basically manipulating you the whole time, characterized by a wolf.” And so Nick Thornborrow hung a wolf’s jaw bone off his neck and it was just there in plain sight the whole game. Because this detail was in the drawings at an early stage, it sparked conversations with the audio department, and the audio department could add touches from their end like having wolves howling when he walked into a new area. They could then get all of these different elements and things that could be hinted at, so that when you play the game a second time it’s like ‘They weren’t even hiding it!! It was there the whole time!!’ He loves that.

A general comment: Any one of BioWare’s 3D modelled characters standing in-game talking or animating probably ends up costing them something in the 40,000 - 60,000 dollar range (they calculated this).

A general comment: For DAI, the concept artists also started to get heavily involved in the storytelling side of things at a deeper level, doing things like quick’n’dirty storyboards for the cinematic designers and spending more time with the writers talking about what emotions they were trying to convey at different points and so forth. Since starting doing this, this has become a built-in part of their process.

A comment in the context of giving advice to up-and-coming and student artists, on the subject of how concepts and ideas are naturally thrown out during the process of iterating on ideas etc: “[quote] Right now, the project that I’m working on that I can’t talk about, I have 3 versions of the story in the garbage, and it’s awesome. Because now I’m working on the fourth with our lead writer and it’s so much better than it would have been otherwise and we’re doing it so much earlier so that we can actually change things up.” Said project could be DA4 or something else. (Please remember these comments were made in November 2016. MEA came out in 2017 and DA4 has been rebooted)

[source]

[framecaught]

Cataloguing Homestuck’s Art Styles

Hussie deploys a number of distinct art styles throughout Homestuck, each serving different purposes in the narrative. A number of these, especially those mentioned in the published book series’ author commentary, have been catalogued in the Homestuck wiki [1]. These officially named styles are well-known enough to appear in quora answers. However, Homestuck employs a much larger variety of stylistic manipulations than explicitly mentioned in the book commentary or wiki. While scanning through the comic again for this project, I wanted to catalogue the rest of them! 

This post constitutes a working list of all distinct art styles present in Homestuck. I’ve chosen not to include the distinct styles of the fanartists/outside artists who contributed to the comic; that will be a project for another day. As far as I know, this list only comprises the different styles Hussie develops throughout the comic. I have tried to bring a degree of specific formal analysis (also known as art-historical language) into my description of each style.

1. “Classic” Style

Page 1 of Homestuck

Page 1349 of Homestuck

Page 4227 of Homestuck

The “Classic” Homestuck style appears on the first page of the comic. Although not officially described by the wiki, it is widely understood as the comic’s typical graphic norm. Characters have simplified faces and clothes, and they frequently lack arms. Elements are often outlined in a black stroke, especially to differentiate them from other adjacent, similarly-colored elements. In more colorful panels, scenery may be made up of solid blocks with bright colors. Sprites (base character illustrations) and elements are repurposed from panel to panel in new combinations. Homestuck even takes up the repurposing of sprites as a gag, as in page 1349 above where the ability to flip one’s sprite allows Noir to regain his lost wrist barcode.

This style obviously shares characteristics with Hussie’s style in Problem Sleuth. General characteristics that frequently appear in Hussie’s art are present, such as circular faces and rounded edges on quadrilaterals. The Classic Style umbrella actually covers the broadest range of visuals out of any style catalogued here. The uber-simplistic sprites, such as John on page 1, have typically been lumped in with, for example, the illustration on the cover of Homestuck Book 1, or the two other examples I pulled for this post. So, in the Classic Style, characters can sometimes appear with arms, sometimes without, and in outfits of varying detail, but they retain the same facial features and simplistic quality. The circular facial shape is especially characteristic of this style, along with the lack of a neck. The neck-less quality, static poses, and simplistic detail chiefly differentiate some instances of Classic Style from Hero Mode, though there are still some grey areas.

2. Scribble Mode

Page 1931 of Homestuck

Page 1937 of Homestuck

Page 1798 of Homestuck

Page 3140 of Homestuck

This style is recognized by the Homestuck wiki, which describes it as emphasizing “a particularly silly/stupid moment in the story, particularly those to be imagined by a character.” That is to say, this style often denotes imagined scenarios which do not actually occur in the comic but instead in a character’s imagination, and especially those which form the butt of jokes. It is also employed simply to highlight silliness. This style is constructed to appear as if the author has “scribbled” rapidly between the outlines of forms to fill in color, creating gaps in those forms. Generally, strokes are made to seem more careless, and less detail is used. While the style is meant to mimic a scribbling motion, it does not always end up crude or parodic. For example, in this “charming vignette” (in Hussie’s words) depicting the Mayor’s dream, the scribble style actually illustrates a remarkably beautiful and almost impressionistic series of panels. Although the dream vignette has certain obvious scribbley elements and certainly depicts an imagined scenario, I would argue that it combines aspects of both Scribble Mode and Hussnasty Mode (#4 in this post) throughout.

I have also identified two distinct styles within the Scribble Mode umbrella. One always uses a thin, apparently single-pixel-wide black line to outline forms, while the other uses a thicker stroke for both its filling and outline. You can see the difference between these in the four examples I’ve pulled; they are sometimes even combined within one single Scribble Mode panel.

3. Hero Mode

Page 1815 of Homestuck

Page 2063 of Homestuck

Hero Mode was officially named as such by Hussie. The Homestuck wiki page describes it as cropping up to “emphasize a particularly epic moment in the story.” Hussie originally called the style “action panels” before hitting upon the current name, emphasizing the link to action scenes and dynamic poses. Along with dynamic posing, characters are drawn in greater detail and tend to have elongated limbs. Some crossover can be seen between Hero Mode and Hussnasty Mode. I would argue that characters in Hero Mode usually retain the original style’s characteristic lack of a neck, while Hussnasty Mode often adds one. Compared with the Classic style, Hero Mode always adds arms. The degree to which Hero Mode drawings include the “hatching-type effect” characteristic of Hussnasty Mode varies from panel to panel. The difference between Hero Mode and Classic Mode can be observed clearly on these two pages, where Damara shifts between the two styles at the behest of Scratch, who asks her to “render [herself] in a more symbolic manner.”

The wiki asserts that “Hero Mode dispenses with the black outline that typifies sprite-style animation and scribble mode,” but I don’t think it can actually be characterized as the only lineless style. Scribble Mode and Hussnasty Mode also sometimes feature a lineless graphic style depending on which part of a character is being depicted, or the need for a line to differentiate two features of a similar color. A willingness to move between lined and lineless blocks of color characterizes Hussie’s art as a whole.

4. Hussnasty Mode

Page 2805 of Homestuck

Page 2976 of Homestuck

This art style is also named by the author. In his commentary on page 2805, he writes: “Someone asked me what I called the style, and I replied by naming it "Hussnasty Mode" myself, because well… it's a bit nasty, isn't it? Kind of raw, a little over-illustrated, and making use of a lot of jagged aliased pixel edges for a hatching-type effect. It was sort of the point to make it a little nasty, kind of aggressively incongruous with the other styles previously established.” This quote sums up the style’s characteristics pretty well. Hussie also describes how this style is more naturalistic, or less symbolic, and was meant to work in direct contrast to the extremely symbolic RPG Sprite Mode. He writes that “drawings like this are introduced in contrast with this simple RPG sprite mode, which was also established very recently as something that Homestuck was "allowed" to use as a stylistic presentation of characters and settings… Every time HS does something like this, it's widening its own umbrella in terms of what it's allowed to do stylistically, which includes dramatically simplifying and abstracting its forms. Which implicitly asks another question: Can HS "allow" itself to go in the other direction? To render characters with higher degrees of definition, regardless of congruity, and freely navigate this full artistic palette at any time, resulting in sharp stylistic contrast and a certain amount of visual thrashing? The answer to that question, almost immediately after it's asked in the form of dropping RPG-sprite Rose into a standard panel shot, is yes, HS can do that, and clearly it WILL do that.”

5. RPG Sprite Mode

Page 2804 of Homestuck

Page 2824 of Homestuck

Despite being officially described by the author, RPG Sprite Mode hasn’t gained much representation as a distinct style (it does not have a wiki page, for example). This style appears after Homestuck’s first walk-around game, now incorporated as a style for static or gif panels. After their joint introduction, this style is juxtaposed against the Hussnasty style. The quotes pulled above in the section on Hussnasty Mode nicely describe the contrast between these two styles and their greater impact on Homestuck’s graphic norms. RPG Sprite Mode always shows characters from an aerial view, mimicking the style of the first walk-around game, which in turn mimics a wealth of RPG sprite games (such as the original Pokemon games). Sprites from these sorts of early games can be characterized by their almost pointillistic use of individual pixels to carefully construct forms.

6. Terezi’s Perspective

Page 2756 of Homestuck

Page 2128 of Homestuck

This style hasn’t been officially described yet. It only crops up as a representation of Terezi’s perspective, conveying some of her experience tasting and smelling colors. While it only appears a few times in the comic, I think it is uniquely visually interesting, and it includes “blurring” techniques which are only rarely employed in the rest of the comic. I’d guess that the effect is created by layering low-opacity strokes over one another and then sliding the different layers’ opacity up and down.

7. SBAHJ Style

Page 8 of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff

Page 3451 of Homestuck

The SBAHJ comic, featured both within Homestuck and as a spin-off, has its own recognizable style. In the first few pages it has a lot of commonalities with Homestuck’s two versions of Scribble Mode, but later takes on distinct characteristics. It can be characterized in part by its image clipping, an effect where an element is made to look like it has been selected within a square box (in MS Paint or Photoshop) and dragged around the page with little care for the size and accuracy of the selection box. Commenting on page 3451, Hussie describes this effect as follows: “In the SBaHJ comics, one of my cool tactics—which I'm almost positive I invented as a sequential artist—was to elaborately render someone ‘turning around’ by taking one shot of them and gradually altering the pose by crudely rectangle-selecting pieces of their face and nudging them around until they're facing the other way in a totally unconvincing and utterly hideous manner.” Different from Scribble Mode, the SBAHJ style also frequently features blocks of color that appear to be filled with the “paint bucket” tool. When the paint bucket tool is used to fill anti-aliased stokes, it creates a small transparent space between the filling and the original outline, visible in the SBAHJ graphics. Finally, SBAHJ comes to include image compression and glitching, created through “deep frying” compression techniques. Overall, the breadth of manipulative techniques made apparent to the viewer in SBAHJ is much greater than any other style. SBAHJ panels are reproduced wholesale or hyperlinked in Homestuck, but on these two pages Gamzee is also drawn in the SBAHJ style.

8. Caliborn’s Styles

Page 5075 of Homestuck (hyperlinked in pesterlog)

Page 6259 of Homestuck

Page 6929 of Homestuck

Page 6864 of Homestuck

While Calliope’s in-world art was contributed by Shelby Cragg, Hussie gives Caliborn has three styles of his own. The first is his “angular” style, which Calliope aptly characterizes on page 5109 as containing “inscrutable squiggles” and demonstrating a “penchant for arbitrary, completely baffling straight lines and right angles, almost as if trying unsuccessfully to begin constructing a grid.” The second is the style he uses in Homosuck, which retains elements of his original “baffling right angles” but generally takes on the black outlines characteristic of Homestuck’s Classic style, while employing even cruder detail. Finally, after reading a “How to Draw Manga” book, he develops his “manga” style which uses black strokes, somewhat messy coloring (usually with the paint-bucket tool), and shows an attempt at naturalistic representation despite a complete lack of understanding of human anatomy. This style is specifically meant to emulate manga styles, so it features the characteristic white dots as highlights in the eyes, among other features.

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As becomes apparent through Hussie’s commentary, the different art styles employed in Homestuck do more than just emphasize certain moments; they form part of the comic’s visual language and ask us to question our understanding of graphic representation. The scope of this post also illustrates the attention paid to Homestuck’s visual elements throughout the story’s production and within its readership, even if these visual distinctions have received less attention in scholarship. Despite the variety of styles, we can see Hussie’s characteristic artistic tools, techniques, and sensibilities reflected across the comic. 

If you find any styles recurring in the comic that I haven’t mentioned here, feel free to shoot me a message! Again, I haven’t included styles from other contributors; only those developed and drawn by Hussie.

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As we approach the close of the semester, I’ll probably be putting out one more post sometime soon! If you liked this post, you can follow the blog on tumblr for updates or, if you don’t frequent tumblr, sign up for the mailing list to receive an email whenever I publish a new mini-essay!

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[1] These include Hussnasty Mode, Scribble Mode, and Hero Mode.

[lochtayboatsong]

The Jesus Christ Superstar essay absolutely no one asked for.

Last weekend, I watched the pro-shot of the 2012 arena tour of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Ben Forster, Tim Minchin, and Melanie C, because it was Easter and it was up on YT for the weekend.  I never managed to do my annual listen-through of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass this year, as is my usual Easter tradition, so I figured “Why not watch/listen to this instead?”  It was my first time seeing and hearing JCS in full, and Y’ALL, it has been living rent-free in my brain ever since.  I have a mighty need to get my thoughts out, so here they are, in chronological order by song.  

1) Prologue: I love the way JCS 2012 makes use of the arena video screen.  The production design and concept clearly took a lot of inspiration from the “Occupy ______” movement, which makes it feel a bit dated now.  But every single production of JCS is a product of its time period, so this is a feature and not a bug.  

2) Heaven On Their Minds: This is a straight-up rock song.  It wouldn’t be out of place on any rock and roll album released between 1970 and 2021, and it boggles my mind that Webber and Rice were both in their early twenties when they wrote it.  Also, the lyric “You’ve begun to matter more than the things you say” hits hard no matter the year.

3) What’s the Buzz: A+ use of the arena screens again, this time bringing in social media to set the tone.  Also, this song establishes right from the outset that Jesus is burnt out and T I R E D by this point in the story.  Seriously, can we just let this man have a nap?

4) Strange Thing Mystifying: Judas publicly calls out Mary and Jesus claps back.  Folx, get you a partner who will defend your honor the way Jesus defends MM in this scene.  Also Jesus loses his shoes and is mostly barefoot for the remainder of the show.

5) Everything’s Alright: Okay, this is one of the songs I have A LOT to say about.  First, it’s important to know that I was a church musician throughout all of my adolescence and into my early adulthood.  The pianist at the services I usually played at was a top-notch jazz pianist, and also my piano teacher for about six years while I as in high school and undergrad.  (Incidentally, I had a HUGE crush on his son, who was/is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist and also played in the church band, but that’s a story for another day.)  One of the hymns we played a few times a year was called “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness,” which is notable for being in 5/4 time.  Whenever this hymn was on the schedule, it was usually the recessional, or the last song played as the clergy processed out and the congregation got ready to leave, so we were able to have some fun with it.  After a couple verses the piano player and his son would usually morph it into “Take Five,” a famous jazz standard by Dave Brubeck which is also in 5/4 time.  Anyway, the first time I listened to this song in full, it got to Judas’s line “People who are hungry, people who are starving,” and I sat bolt upright and went “HOLY SHIT THIS IS ‘SING OF THE LORD’S GOODNESS/TAKE FIVE.’”  And I was ricocheted back in time to being fourteen and trying to keep up with this father/son duo in a cavernous Catholic church while simultaneously making heart-eyes at the son.  Final note: This is the only song in the musical to feature all three leads (Jesus, Judas, and Mary Magdalene) and is mostly Jesus and MM being soft with each other in between bouts of Jesus and Judas snarling at one another.

6) This Jesus Must Die: I LOVE that all the villains in this production are in tailored suits.  LOVE IT.  Also, Caiaphas and Annas are a comedy duo akin to “the thin guy and the fat guy,” except in this case it’s “the low basso profundo and the high tenor.”  Excellent use of the arena video screen again, this time as CCTV.

7) Hosanna: My background as a church musician strikes back again.  It honestly took me two or three listens to catch it, but then I had another moment of sitting bolt upright and going “HOLY SHIT THIS IS A PSALM.”  Psalms sung in church usually take the form of call-and-response, with a cantor singing the verses and the congregation joining in for the chorus.  If I close my eyes during this song, I have no trouble imagining Jesus as a church cantor singing the verses and then bringing the congregation in for the “Ho-sanna, Hey-sanna” chorus. 

8) Simon Zealotes: This is part “Gloria In Excelsis” and part over-the-top Gospel song.  Honestly it’s not my favorite, but it marks an important mood change in the show.  The end of “Hosanna” is probably Jesus at his happiest in the entire show, and then Simon comes in and sours the mood by trying to tip the triumphant moment into a violent one.  Jesus is not truly happy again from this moment on.

9) Poor Jerusalem: Also not my fave.  It kinda reads like Webber and Rice realized that Jesus didn’t have a solo aria in Act I, so they came up with this.  But it has the distinction of containing the lyric, “To conquer death you only have to die,” which is the biggest overarching theme of the story.

10) Pilate’s Dream: Pontius Pilate might be the most underrated role in this entire show, and I love that this production has him singing this song while being dressed in judge’s robes.  

11) The Temple: The first half of this is one of the campiest numbers in Act I, at least in this production, and it’s awesome.  The second half is one of the saddest, as Jesus tries to heal the sick but finds there are too many of them.  Also the whole scene is almost entirely in 7/8 time, which I think is just cool.

12) I Don’t Know How To Love Him: Mary Magdalene’s big aria, and one of the songs I knew prior to seeing the full-length show.  This production has MM taking off her heavy lipstick and eye makeup onstage, mid-song, which is kind of cool.  Melanie C says in a BTS interview that MM’s makeup is her armor, so this is a Big Symbolic Moment.

13) Damned For All Time: The scene transition into this song is played entirely in pantomime, and I love it.  The solo guitarist gets to be onstage for a bit, A+ use of the video screen again to show Judas on CCTV, etc.  Love it.  And then this song is Judas frantically rationalizing what he’s doing, and what he’s about to do, with Caiphas and Annas just reacting with raised eyebrows and knowing looks.

14) Blood Money: This is where the tone of the show really takes a turn for the dark.  I think this might be one of Tim Minchin’s finest moments as Judas, because his facial expressions and microexpressions throughout this scene speak absolute volumes.  And the offstage chorus quietly singing “Well done Judas” as he picks up the money is a positively chilling way to end Act I.

15) The Last Supper: Act II begins with major “Drink With Me” vibes.  (Except JCS came WAY before Les Miz, so it’s probably more accurate to say that “Drink With Me” has major “The Last Supper” vibes.)  Jesus and Judas have their knock-down, drag-out fight, and it’s honestly heartbreaking, thanks again to Tim Minchin’s facial expressions.  A well-done production of JCS will really convey that Jesus and Judas were once closer than brothers, even though their relationship is at breaking point when Act I begins.

16) Gethsemane: This is Jesus’s major showpiece and one of my faves.  Jesus knows he has less than 24 hours to live, he knows he’s going to suffer, and worst of all, he doesn’t know whether it’s going to be worth it.  It’s an emotional rollercoaster to watch and to perform, and it goes on for ages: something like 6 or 7 minutes.  Fun fact: the famous G5 is not written in the score.  Ian Gillan, who played Jesus on the original concept album, just sang it that way, so most subsequent Jesuses have also done it that way.  Lindsay Ellis has a great supercut of this on YT.  John Legend notably sang the line as written during the 2018 concert.  

17) The Arrest: Judas’s Betrayer’s Kiss is played differently across different productions.  The 2012 version is pretty tame - I’ve seen clips and gifs of other productions, including the 2000 direct-to-video version, where they kiss fully on the mouth and have to be dragged apart by the guards and it is THE MOST TENDER THING.  Then the 7/8 riff from “The Temple” comes back and the 2012 version lets the video screen do its thing again as Jesus is swarmed by reporters.

18) Peter’s Denial: Not much to say about this one, as it’s basically a scene transition.  But it’s a significant moment in the Passion story, so I’m glad they included it.

19) Pilate and Christ: The 2012 production continues with the theme of Caiaphas, Annas, and Pilate all being bougie af, since Pilate intentionally looks like he just came from tennis practice during this scene.  Also he does pilates...hehehe.

20) King Herod’s Song: Tim Minchin says in a BTS interview that JCS works best when Jesus and Judas are played seriously and the rest of the production is allowed to be completely camp and wild and bizarre all around them, and he is bloody well CORRECT about that.  Case in point: King Herod.  There is not a single production of JCS that I know of where Herod is played “straight.”  He’s been played by everyone from Alice Cooper to Jack Black, and everyone puts a different zany spin on him.  In JCS 2012 he’s a chat show host in a red crushed velvet suit, who is clearly having the time of his LIFE. 

21) Could We Start Again Please: This is another of my faves.  Just a quiet moment where MM, Peter, and the disciples try to grapple with the fact that Jesus is arrested and things are going very, very badly.  This is also my favorite Melanie C moment of the 2012 show.  Her grief is very real, and the little moment she has with Peter at the end is very real.

22) Death of Judas: This is basically Tim Minchin screaming for about five minutes, and incredibly harrowing to watch on first viewing.  

23) Trial Before Pilate: Possibly my single favorite scene in the entire 2012 production.  This is another harrowing watch, but there’s so much to take in.  The “set” that the entire show takes place on is essentially just a massive staircase, and the people with power are almost always positioned above the people without power.  In this scene, the crowd shouting “Crucify Him!” is positioned above Pilate, which is a very telling clue to Pilate’s psychology during this scene.  Jesus is at the very bottom of the stairs, of course.  Excellent use of the video screen once again during the 39 Lashes, to show the lash marks building and building until the entire screen is a wash of red.  Pilate’s counting also gets more and more frantic, especially starting around “20.”  And all the while the guitar riff from “Heaven On Their Minds” is playing.  Jesus’s line “Everything is fixed and you can’t change it” is played quite differently in different productions - here it’s defiant, but elsewhere (in JCS 2000 for example) it’s almost tender, like Jesus is absolving Pilate for his part in the trial.  But it always ends the same - with Pilate almost screaming as he passes the sentence and “washes his hands” of the whole sorry business. 

24) Superstar: The most over-the-top number in the show.  Judas, who died two scenes ago, comes back to sing this.  There are soul singers.  There are girls in skimpy angel costumes.  The parkour guys from the prologue are back.  Judas pulls a tambourine out of hammerspace midway through the song.  And Jesus is silently screaming and crying as he gets hoisted onto a lighting beam while all this is going on.

25) The Crucifixion: More of a spoken-word piece than a song, it’s Jesus’s final words on the cross over eerie piano music, and another harrowing watch.

26) John 19:41: An instrumental piece in which Jesus is taken from the cross and carried, at last, to the top of the stairs, before being lowered out of sight as the video screen turns into a memorial wall and everything fades to black.

So.  I know I’m anywhere from three to fifty-one years late to this particular party, but I am on the JCS bandwagon now and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.  :)

[letterboxd]

Work Horse.

Taking on a rare leading role in his decades-spanning career, national treasure Tim Blake Nelson speaks with Mitchell Beaupre about demystifying heroes, reinventing genres and something called a quiche Western.

“This film is unapologetic about all the tropes that it’s deploying in service of telling the story... You’ve got a satchel full of cash. You’ve got gunslinging, physical violence, and feeding somebody to the pigs.” —Tim Blake Nelson

Described by Letterboxd members as “a national treasure” who “makes everything better”, Tim Blake Nelson is a journeyman actor who has tapped into practically every side of the industry since making his feature debut in Nora Ephron’s This Is My Life back in 1992. Whether you are a Marvel fanatic, a history buff or a parent trying to get through the day, the actor’s distinctive presence is a charming sight that’s always welcome on the screen.

Tim Blake Nelson is one of those rare actors who unites all filmgoers, a man genuinely impossible not to love, which certainly seems to be the case for Hollywood. Checking off working relationships with directors ranging from Terrence Malick and Ang Lee to Hal Hartley and Guillermo Del Toro, Nelson has covered the boards, even crossing over into directing and writing, both in films and on the stage.

Yet, despite being a renowned talent who can take a smaller supporting role in a massive Steven Spielberg blockbuster starring Tom Cruise and carry the film, Nelson-as-leading-man sightings have been few and far between. In fact, it’s quite a struggle to find a film with Nelson in a leading role, as even playing the titular role for directors who understand his greatness still results in him only appearing in the opening section of an anthology feature.

At last, the leading role Nelson fans were in need of has arrived in the form of Old Henry, a new Western from writer/director Potsy Ponciroli. Nelson plays the eponymous Henry, a widowed farmer with a mysterious past who makes a meager living with his son (Gavin Lewis), doing his best to leave his old life behind and hide away from the world. Things get complicated when Henry stumbles upon a satchel of cash and a wounded stranger (Scott Haze), bringing them both into his home. Soon, a dangerous posse led by an intimidating Stephen Dorff comes calling, setting the stage for an old-fashioned throwdown in this twisty Western siege thriller.

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, Old Henry has been warmly received on Letterboxd. “Old Henry feels like the culmination of Tim Blake Nelson’s twenty-plus-year career, but from another dimension, where he’s highly regarded as a leading man”, writes Noah, speaking not only to the strength of Nelson’s performance, but also to the fact that this leading role shouldn’t be such a rarity. Todd awards Nelson the prize for “Best Facial Hair in a 2021 film”, before applauding the actor for pouring “every emotion in his body to play Henry”.

Letterboxd’s East Coast editor Mitchell Beaupre saddled up for a chat with Nelson about the intentional hokiness of the Westerns that made him fall in love with filmmaking, how the Coen brothers put other directors on notice, and the fatherly joy of keeping it all in the family.

I’ve seen a lot of interviews with you discussing your career as an actor, a writer, and a director. You always speak with such reverence for the art. Where does that passion come from for you? What made you want to pursue this field? Tim Blake Nelson: It’s funny, doing these interviews for Old Henry has been reminding me of my introduction to filmmaking as an art. I’ve realized that I had never quite located it, but it really started with the Sergio Leone Westerns, which I would see on television when I was growing up in Oklahoma in the ’70s. Before that, going to the cinema was always invariably a treat, no matter what the film, but I would just be following the story and the dialogue.

The Sergio Leone movies were the first ones that exposed subjectivity in telling stories on film to me. That was where I became aware of the difference between a closeup and an extreme closeup, or how you could build tension through a combination of the angle on a character with the editorial rhythm, with the lens size, with the music in addition to the dialogue and the story.

How old were you when this shift in your understanding of cinema was happening? I think it was across the ages of ten and eighteen, where I suddenly realized that this was an auteur here, Leone. There was a guy behind all these movies I was seeing—and in Oklahoma, you could see a Sergio Leone movie every weekend. This was a man making deliberate and intelligent decisions in everything that I was seeing.

I started noticing that a character was in a duster that goes all the way down to his boots, even though that’s not necessarily accurate to the Old West. That’s something else. Also, why is he wearing it in the desert? Would that have been very practical? And look at that cigar Clint Eastwood is smoking. It’s not smooth, it looks like it was a piece of tree root. Then later I learned it’s a particular kind of Italian cigar, but somehow it was defining this genre of Western. I marveled at that, and found it unbelievably thrilling to discover. I loved the stories and the dialogue and the intentional hokiness of it all. All of it was conspiring to teach me to venerate this form.

Sergio Leone, his daughters, and Clint Eastwood on the set of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ (1966).

The connection there is interesting between the Leone Westerns to where Old Henry is at now. You’ve talked before about how the Western genre is one that is reinvented over and over throughout the years— Oh, you do your homework!

I try my best! What would you say defines the current era of Westerns that we’re seeing, and how the genre is being reinvented? Well, Joel and Ethan [Coen] did a lot of mischief, in a good way, with The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Genres are always about genres, in addition to their story. So, I would say that Buster Scruggs is the quintessential postmodern Western, if you look at it as one movie instead of as an anthology, because it celebrates the history of the form. The magic of that movie is that it engages you in each story while also being a meditation on death. That’s what connects each one of those tales, and then it’s also a meditation on storytelling to boot. In the final chapter, you have a character talking about why we love stories, and he’s telling it to a bunch of people who you’ll learn are all dead.

The stories are a way of delaying the inevitable mortality. I mean, look at that. It’s such an accomplishment. With that movie, I think Joel and Ethan put filmmakers on notice that Westerns had better always be also about Westerns, because whether you like it or not, they are. I think they probably came to understand that when they were making True Grit, although knowing the two of them they probably understood it already.

Do you feel there’s a direct correlation between a movie like Buster Scruggs and Old Henry, in this era of postmodern, revisionist Westerns? How it impacts a movie like Old Henry is that you have Potsy embracing the Western-ness of the movie. This film is unapologetic about all the tropes that it’s deploying in service of telling the story. You’ve got the cantankerous old man hiding a past, who’s a maverick who wants to keep the law and the bad guys off his property. He wants to be left alone. You’ve got a satchel full of cash. You’ve got gunslinging, physical violence, and feeding somebody to the pigs. Yet, it’s all accomplished without irony in a very straightforward way that is utterly confident, and in love with the genre.

I think ultimately that’s why the movie works, because it’s very front-footed. It’s not hiding from you. It’s not deceiving you and trying to tell you it’s something that it isn’t. It’s a good, straightforward Western.

Tim Blake Nelson as the titular singer in ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’ (2018).

That’s a bit different from those Leone Westerns, with all of their anachronisms. I remember when the movie Silverado came out when I was growing up, and people were calling it a “quiche Western”, which was funny. That was what they would call it in Oklahoma because it had a bunch of movie stars in it, who weren’t known for being in Westerns. It was the Sergio Leone crowd calling it that. I went and saw it, wondering, “Well, if it’s a quiche Western, then why is everybody talking about it?” I saw it, and I loved it. Those folks putting it down like that were wrong. It’s actually a straightforward, hard-boiled, hardcore unapologetic Western. You don’t like some of the movie stars in it, but get over it. The reason that movie works is because it’s straight-ahead and well-told, and I think that movie holds up.

Old Henry is the same kind of animal. It’s more in the tradition of Sergio Leone—or, actually, I would say more in the tradition of Unforgiven. That was a big influence on Potsy.

Unforgiven was marvelous in the way it demystified that old black hat/white hat mentality of Westerns, opening up a more multi-dimensional understanding. You’re no stranger to that. A series like Watchmen takes that approach with superheroes, who in a sense hold the position now that Western heroes used to hold culturally. Do you find there’s more of a demand these days to challenge those archetypes who used to be put on pedestals—be they superheroes, cowboys, police—and provide a deeper analysis? Absolutely, yes. At the same time, I think the demystified Western hero goes back to John Wayne in The Searchers. I think it really started with that character, one of the greatest characters ever in a Western. There’s One-Eyed Jacks, with Marlon Brando, which was made just after The Searchers, and again embracing this concept of an extremely complicated man. I don’t think you get the Sergio Leone movies without that.

I always think of McCabe & Mrs. Miller as a Western that was doing something totally different than anything I had seen before. That’s another one, with that final image with the character smoking opium, going into oblivion after the demise of Warren Beatty’s very flawed character, after you’ve watched what it has taken to really build that town. You have a director, Robert Altman, making the deliberate choice to shoot in order so that they can build the town while they’re shooting the movie, and you really get the cost of it. I think there’s a lot of history to get to a place where a movie like Unforgiven can happen. Then Clint comes along and, as he often does, moves it forward even more.

Gavin Lewis as Henry’s son Wyatt in ‘Old Henry’.

That’s a film that tackles legacy, as does Old Henry, which at its core is ultimately about the relationship between a father and his son. You got to work on this film with your own son, coincidentally named Henry, who was part of the art department. What is that experience like, getting to share your passion with your son on a project together? Well, I think something that is true for the character of Henry and for myself, and perhaps all of us, is that we all want our kids to have better lives than ours. I want that to be true in every respect. Mostly, I want them to be more fulfilled than I have been. My kids look at me when I say that and say, “Thanks a lot Dad for raising that bar”, because they see that I have a pretty good life. Which I do, but I still think they can be more fulfilled than I am, and I want that for them. One of the great privileges of this movie was to watch my son—who was the on-set decorator—work his ass off.

Those are the words of an incredibly proud father. He’s a work horse, and he’s learning about filmmaking, and I think on his current trajectory he will go beyond where I’ve gone as a filmmaker, directing more movies than I’ve been able to direct. Do a better job at it, too. He’s also a singer-songwriter, and I think he can have a venerable career doing that if he wants, but he wants to make movies too, and I hope that’s going to happen for him. It was a thrill to watch him do the work, the twelve- and fourteen-hour days, and after every take resetting and making sure everything was right. It felt like an accomplishment to see him take on that responsibility and do the real work every day.

Related content

SJ Holiday’s lists of Essential Neo-Westerns and Essential Modern Westerns

The Best Neo-Westerns of the 21st Century, according to JS Lewis

Our interview with Slow West director John Maclean

Follow Mitchell on Letterboxd

‘Old Henry’ is in US theaters now and on VOD from Friday, October 8.

[ceramicdove]

HI DOVE! i was painting what do u think is the most beautiful aspect of the face? doesnt have to be physically beautiful!

but also im thinking sm abt ocean metaphors ooh the distance ooh the unfathomable thats within our reach ooooh the lack of control... was reading regen fro school and like wow society. thinking a lot about how people are restricted by institutions and values of their society hmm! do u think we still like, are restricted by those things?

LAB HELLO LAAAB I am late to this, pardon me! I'll try to answer this as promptly and as succinctly as I can, except that "promptly" and "succinctly" by Dove Standards is still a lot of text even if I don't talk about anything particularly profound or below surface level, so I'll be cutting this off!

Since you mentioned painting, I'm going to go based on what I tend to find the most interesting to represent in art, and in that case I find there's usually a tie between eyes and noses for me!

I don't think eyes have to be explained much, "the window to the soul" etcetera et al, but it certainly is true. When it comes to my art, I actually do not have a well-developed sense of facial stylization, especially when it comes to eyes. I just don't have a very consistent way of drawing, and that much becomes painfully clear if you look at a lot of my pieces combined. So I find myself re-drawing eyes a lot from scratch, and it makes me realise just how much any small difference can add characterisation in a new and unprecedented way, whether it be the shape or angle or eyelashes or the slightest squint or scrunch of them. I play a lot with that, and though it can get frustrating when I just can't get the right effect, it is a fascinating experiment in its own way. Sometimes, for fun, I try to test myself by trying to design & draw a set of characters only by their eyes.

Noses in art! I am definitely biased because I have a pretty distinct and large hooked nose that I severely struggled to accept growing up; I ended up realising that if I had a more typical, smaller, ski-sloped or button nose, I wouldn't look at all like myself anymore. It's definitely a strong and prominent feature, love it or hate it, but that's exactly why I essentially realised that it suits me & my personality. So that lead me to experimenting way more with different types of noses, different bridges and sizes, and trying to see how they mend with various features in character design. I find it really beautiful!

I LOVE HOW YOU DESCRIBED THE OCEAN METAPHORS HAHAHAH but it struck me! It reminded me of how I've always felt very drawn to water, especially when I was younger. Though I never knew exactly how to feel about the ocean... it's still beautiful, but something about its vastness felt unsettling to me at times. I could interpret that sense of uneasiness in many different ways, but I won't, to spare you that headache. My last trip was almost one year ago, here is a little photo from that time.

"Wow society" indeed! I think we are, unfortunately, very much restricted by both of those things in many ways, shapes, and forms, and it takes naiveté and privilege (though they intersect almost inherently in many cases) to be able to say otherwise. If we weren't restricted, I would be living a very, very different life under a very different form of self-expression... but sometimes it hurts to think about that. We have all sacrificed many pieces of ourselves under that circumstance. I'm particularly interested by how restrictions manifest in different ways under more specifically cultural & familial or hereditary means, and how they end up contradicting each other. But that is a very convoluted topic!

You always ask very interesting questions, and I appreciate it greatly! Thank you greatly for taking the time to send me your thoughts :-]