#these casting sites are legit btw

[cambrioleur]

Filming dates? Casting notices? Preproduction? Am I dreaming?

@cant-get-worse-than-this

@behindlupin

Paris: girl and boy from 8-14 years wanted for the Netflix series "Lupin" with Omar Sy.

Join the thrilling universe of the Netflix series "Lupin" alongside the talented Omar Sy!

We are looking for young actors for a memorable sequence in a restaurant in Paris, scheduled for late April 2025.

Roles sought:

Role: A boy, aged eight to ten, with blond or light brown hair, with a lively and cheerful personality.

Silent extra: A young girl of twelve to fourteen, of North African descent.

This is an incredible opportunity to participate in a famous production!

[elliotchen-apologist]

25 ND OUTFITS CHALLENGE: day 8, The Game You Think is the Hardest

100% ded, legit every time me and cheat sites fighting this game for 3 days straight

But look in my eyes and tell me the cast isn’t just your typical anime club in 2000s like I KNOW people like this

they all like evangelion btw :/

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Quote: "IDK why people act like most recast owners try to go to legit-only places. We mostly don’t."

Maybe not "most recast owners", but LOL. Probably bc there have been a few confession about it here, a la

-"Haha, legit people claim to be able to ID recasts, but no one's ever noticed mine."

-"I own several recasts, and post them with my legits, and no one ever notices."

-"I own recasts, and am in legit spaces, and I'm always worried someone might notice."

-"I'm an artist who owns several recasts, and I'm worried if someone notices people will stop commissioning me."

-or however that one went. Or maybe a few cases where people claim their very obvious recast dolls are "actually legits" when literally everyone has noticed they're fakes, and post them in the company tags.

-Recasts shouldn't be tagged with the company tag, since they're RECASTS and not legits. It's just kinda trashy, and reeks of wanting validation.

-Example being that one Volks doll, I don't remember the name, where someone claimed it's legit, even though the doll isn't sold in that resin color. I think the doll is white, and it was never sold in white.

-Generally dolls that are hybrids, or are posted that are clearly cast in resin that doesn't match anything the company officially sells.

-Dolls that have been off the market for years, and suddenly someone finds a brand new doll of that exact sculpt, having a recaster Face-up. (That one was actually almost hilarious, especially when they wiped the face-up, and pretended like they didn't out themselves with it.)

-People who post obvious fake COA's, and claim they're "the real deal".

-This one especially. Why would recasters need fake COA's, unless they try pawning off their recasts as legits?

Or how about the fact that DOA has literally banned several people posting their recasts on DOA. Or the times where DOA mods were hypocritical and allowed someone with recasts continue to be on the site, even though the person admitted to having posted recasts? We've literally had several people point that out, with names of the offenders.

I've been on Discord groups that have banned people for owning, or endorsing recasts, when it's a clear rule that it's an anti-recaster space.

And what about all the recast people who try to sell their recasts for legit doll money on marketplaces, with not a single mention of them selling a recast? That's lying by omission btw, and fraud, since you leave the buyers in the belief that you are selling a legit version of the item.

-That goes for any bootleg, or rip-off items btw, if you don't mention they're fakes in the sale, it's fraud. Eg: Paypal even has protection against being sold counterfeit, so you can just open a paypal dispute in that case. https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security Amazon and Ebay don't allow counterfeit sales at all. So again, you can contact support for these issues.

~Anonymous

[real-bjd-recast-community]

I remember like last year, during the pandemic I bought a recast and loved her! I posted her here and was told that all Doris dolls are recasts and what not. But I don't think so, I have removed her wig and she's a different type of doll. She seemed customized she had like an opening on her head and she's not resin either. Not that I cared because wow she is so cute and my very first one. I did feel like I didn't want to buy anymore after that and try to get a legit. Which I did in February and I still didn't get her yet! BTW from Gem Of Doll(communications is pretty bad.) The doll got to the partners on Aug 4! And they didn't even replace her wig which I requested! No wig yet and she had to talk to them😒

Yeah, Anon, except that... hmmm... errr...

There's just SO much to unpack here that I don't... alright, I guess I'll have to start by the definition of the doll:

"Doris Dolls" are not recasts, because for recasting something you need the actual action of making a silicone mold and a resin cast.

This dolls ("Doris Dolls") are made by "injection plastic" molds. Pretty much like a "made to move" big Barbie.

Also, they're not actually full BJDs.

Although it can be argue that SOME articulations are "ball jointed", most of this dolls articulation it's actually plastic articulated pieces that click together.

Sadly, because they're a cheap option for beginners and they have a certain customization element, they're often sold on Ali or other sites with the word "BJD" somewhere in the title (because it's a selling tactic, and most likely if you're interested in customizable dolls, you might be into this plastic dolls).

This tends to confuse beginners into thinking this type of dolls are BJDs (or recast of brand resin dolls).

Now, I want to make clear I got nothing against this or any type of custom dolls. I got some myself. But I need to clarify that they're "customizable dolls", but, mostly all people wouldn't consider them "BJDs" or even "recast" for the simple fact that they're a different type of doll altogether.

Regarding "Gem of Doll", if they're who I think they are, then YES, they're actually BJDs.

Why?: They're made of (resin) pieces that click together in each other by a ball shaped articulation hold inside by elastic cord that goes from the hands/feet to the head.

Examples of plastic BJDs might be, let's say, Hujoo dolls. But not Doris Dolls.

It's very important if you're buying dolls to fit in a certain group that you actually know what you're buying and what group of people will welcome you.

So, regardless of the waiting times or whatever issues with "Gem of Doll", truth is that while Doris Dolls are always rumored that this sort of dolls face shape resemble "this" or "that" other doll, they're not recasts because they're just not considered by the vast majority like actual BJDs. They're stuck in this gray area of custom dolls but not having more than 4 to 6 arguable actual "ball joints" from around 20 points of articulation.

I know I had explained this before and it keeps getting on my inbox, and I hope no one feels bad for me saying it, and I do love this types of dolls, but just because someone put the "bjd" on the sale title to sell more doesn't actually makes them "BJDs" (?)

[projectjasper]

people do be acting like asian media is the only one that lumps all queer cinema together under one label , as if all 200 newspaper sites weren’t calling god’s own country “ the british brokeback mountain “ , even though there is absolutely nothing in common between the two , except that they are both ( very broadly speaking ) about two gay men on a farm . 

people do be latching onto words and letting the west get away with it because the category is “ woke “ and calls itself “ lgbtq cinema “ instead of “ bls “ or whatever . even though 60% of all that “ lgbtq cinema “ is just a random love story between two cis white able-bodied neurotypical men ( who are likely both gay , or one of whom is perhaps bi or pan , but with an additional joy of biphobia or panphobia on the side )  , with no fucking queer people in sight in the cast or crew . and the majority of the remaining 40% is still the same old love story between two cis white able-bodied neurotypical men  ( who are likely both gay , or one of whom is perhaps bi or pan , but with an additional joy of biphobia or panphobia on the side ) , except maybe they got like one of the characters to be played by a gay actor , which thanks i guess .

and people do be acting like that bullshit is all valid attempts at queer cinema , while what is labeled as “ bls “ ( simply because that’s how it started and that’s where it’s at right now ) is garbage and has nothing to do with queer people , as if we are not getting more and more “ bls “ directed by queer people and/or with queer people in the cast , discussing queer issues and targeted specifically at our community .

and people do be acting like stereotypes about queer people are only perpetuated in bls ( which - may i remind you - is basically just fucking asian queer cinema , with the exception of a couple of gls that i can probably count on the fingers of just one of my hands and the equivalent to which is just as rare in the west btw ) , as if the majority of western queer cinema doesn’t rely on queer torture porn and doesn’t have terrible endings that reinforce the idea that queer people can never be truly happy , in addition to many other problems . 

like , it would be nice to get rid of the bl label , because it is redundant , but - looking at the western queer cinema - the label is clearly not the fucking problem . and getting rid of it will sure as hell not magically fix the misogyny or the lack of representation for someone other than mlm , etc. . and i say that as a trans non-binary asexual , who can run about looking for rep in what’s called “ lgbtq cinema “ or what’s called “ bls “ and won’t find any from either in equal measure .

queer cinema is not perfect anywhere . not in the west and not in the east . not when it’s labeled as “ lgbtq cinema “ and not when it’s labeled as “ bl “ . we have a fucking gigantic way to go to get to even as little as half of all queer cinema to be genuinely good and to have genuinely good representation in all areas . but watching any bullshit that’s produced in the us just because it’s wokely called queer or lgbtq , but not giving a fighting fucking chance to anything produced in asia because “ haha cringy bls “ is fucking bullshit . 

asian media is just as capable of producing fantastic queer cinema , even if ( at the moment ) they call it differently ( and they DO produce fantastic queer cinema , and the farther we go , the better it gets and the more good shows and movies we get ) . and the western media is just as capable of targeting their mlm shows and movies at straight girls ( who have always fetishized queer men just as much as straight men fetishized queer women - fucking everywhere , y’all do be acting like that’s something specific to asia , which it’s NOT ) . 

like not to namedrop , but some of you do legit think that a torture porn movie written by a straight woman with no queer people involved or the movie where a grown fucking adult man prays on an underage boy is the pinnacle of queer cinema , but you look at anything that’s technically called a bl and you go “ ew no “ without even trying to find out anything about it , much less giving it a chance ? from the very bottom of my heart - fuck off .

[dominicvail]

thjslove replied to your post

“do you think this could be end in one of them getting killed and...”

omg what CM receipts? ��

@thjslove cm is one of the most convoluted behind the scenes messes i have ever witnessed and i am just Astounded till this day like, i’ll bullet point for you because i Genuinely will be here writing this for 3 hours if i do details;

think of all the female cast members that have ever been on cm?? yeah?? a lot! well, the only ones who left in non suspicious circumstances? Lola Glaudini (elle) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (kate). Literally. The only ones. 

one time (between seasons 8 and 9) they almost cancelled the show because aj cook and kirsten vangsness decided they didn’t like that their male costars were making $70,000 more PER EPISODE than they were (this was back when they did 24 eps a season so like... i’m not gonna do the math but that is A Lot Of Money). (they renewed it last day of renewals, it was the same year cote de pablo walked from ncis because of the same reason, legit the only reason they got anywhere was b/c they said ‘we both get raises or we both walk’. 

btw while this was happening, minus Moore, the rest of the male cast was holding up negotiations so they got perks on top of being paid over 50% more than the women. 

this sequence is the kicker

u know season six, the jj and prentiss absences??? 

it was because they both got fired, listed as ‘creative decisions’ (that’s important later), which basically seemed to amount to ‘we want both less women and for her to be younger than both of you’. 

they fired aj cook flat out as her contract had expired that year, in the middle of a 2 parter, and didn’t even want to let her do an exit???? they legit had to fight for the right to have her to film an exit episode (they negotiatied 3 episodes, one for finishing the 2 parter, one exit, and one for when prentiss exited). 

brewster’s contract had Not expired (also important later), they just only decided she should be in 8 episodes. 

it’s important to the sequence of events that i mention outside influences, b/c the cm fans were PISSED. There was a straight up public outcry, i have Never seen a response like it in my many years of obsessive TV watching. People were Very fond of Prentiss and JJ and were Not impressed they were being booted as unnecessary to the narrative, those pesky creative decisions!!! the petitions and public support towards them were pretty incredible actually. 

by that point there wasn’t much that could be done about Cook, but seeing the response CBS kept making Brewster film Way more than those 8 episodes she got slotted for actively dragging her along, Still fired but p much unable to find other work realistically??? b/c they kept calling her back in???

public support was still Overwhelmingly on the actresses side. 

To the point that CBS started ardently claiming the actresses were fired for Monetary reasons. Yeah, they straight up lied, and still lie about it today. I have seen cbs affiliate websites print said lie bluntly in their articles (i no longer read cbs affiliate anything). 

I listed the pay scandal first for perspective on the money lie. At that point i think the men on the cast were wearing about $110,000 an episode, and it got out Cook was earning about £50,000 an ep, and we never heard about Brewster’s salary But when i say she made a Big Deal over finally getting paid as much as the men in the past couple of years i mean it, so we can assume she was also being paid a lot less. My point being, if they needed to save money, it would have been more profitable for them to fire One man on the show than two women. They pay gap was that much. 

so they lied, still lie, about why they fired them and it wasn’t even a good lie. 

ANYWAY

i know the show’s writing isn’t really applicable but Prentiss and Seaver  were never meant to be main characters on the show together, where they dragged out prentiss’ exit, they overlapped and Rachel Nichols had very little to do. 

Anyway, by the time the late eps of the season were airing (and i assume they looked at how many viewers cut loose when brewster left) cbs straight up rang up aj cook and asked her to sign back on (why she was in the last ep despite only being hired for 3 eps that season). She said she hated them but she had a young kid at the time and regular work that was local was helpful (plus, u know, i bet it was a great ego boost).

the season finishes airing, it goes on hiatus with the cast listed 4 season 7 as the men, garcia, jj and seaver. 

u know how i mentioned paget had a contract for s6 still but they cut her episodes down??? Well, CBS used the fact that they wouldn’t let her work on the show anymore despite being signed on as evidence that she was breaching contract if she didn’t go back as a regular for season 7. They threatened to sue her for breach of contract. The only reason prentiss was in s7 was because they used what they did against her that she had no power over to threaten her. So, u know, super nice. 

meanwhile, they fire rachel nichols, don’t bother to actually tell her they’d done it!!! and she found out on fucking twitter (and rachel is such a nice person, and she was absolutely vilified and abused by every idiot on the internet too thick to realise none of the above was her fault jeez). 

so s7 happens w/ the same cast as before, but brewster will Only work to contract and refuses to sign on again for s8. Understandable, tbh. 

they hire jeanne tripplehorn, fandom is disgusting as usual, like, absolutely vile, not surprised just disappointed. 

at the end of season 9 (they have 2 year contracts so like.. it was the end of her contract), despite everything in the  storyline process indicating otherwise and how much of a farce for her character what went down was... Blake left???? No more Jeanne???

Not one peep from bts over what happened.

if that sounds suspicious to you, it is, one of the crew members let slip they’d all been gagged and were not allowed to talk about it. So cbs learnt it’s lessons in as such that they learnt to hide their shitty actions rather than not do anything shitty.

p sure there was another pay scandal in here somewhere too??? 

in terms of The Gay(tm), Reid was like, conceptualised as bi from the get go but that thing in season one with Lila happened so the execs said he could not possibly be bisexual. Yeah. Yeah u read that right. Most ppl laugh at that one and say uhm do you not know what bi is??? but honestly it was just an excuse they knew full well what they were doing imo

why? they did it again! the writers, producers and Brewster all agreed on a scene where an episode opens w/ prentiss waking up in bed with another woman, guess who nixed it!!!! cbs. They also put a gag order on That little fact too! Kirsten Vangsness, bless her, did a podcast a few years ago on afterellen (before it got fuckawful and was with it’s original owners) and, i’d say ‘let slip’ but she knowingly dropped that truth bomb knowing full well she shouldn’t have. I love her. 

lately they’ve made brewster do “interviews” with some of those cbs affiliates where they try and get points??? for saying prentiss was gonna be gay??? like they’re not the ones removing the rep from the show??? and expecting a pat on the back for... refusing to have any kind of gay rep in a show that is by this point conspicuously straight (not that LA isn’t, but it’s not nearly as bad as cm). 

the whole mess with Gibson is... Wild b/c as much as i Loathe the dude he supposedly attacked cbs would not just fire their white guy show lead for no reason and i didn’t see any above the level sites claim any funny business there, but he got fired and cbs rang up Brewster and asked her to be the show lead which, honestly, after being fired for being old and irrelevant must have been AMAZING.

she also takes the time to point out to anybody who asks about her and aj being fired for money reasons that no, it was not about money at all. She basically calls her bosses out for being liars in public interviews frequently and it’s Amazing. 

i’m sure there’s more crap but i’m not recalling it rn

honestly cm bts drama is Wild and this doesn’t even get into the Patinkin drama (which while drama, is not actually anything to do with cbs). 

Interestingly enough, it’s super hard to find out all this stuff unless u were in the fandom the whole time because they’ve bloody lied So Much it’s all everyone even believes anymore. It’s disgusting. 

Still can’t believe  ncis:la’s female cast has done this well for so long???? These are just CM’s reciepts, they have a history of doing this stuff over and over on multiple shows, i know of it as far back as when trek tng was airing in the 80′s and can name more in between. 

[moviestorian]

Les Mis BBC final thoughts

Alright, on monday I finished the 6th and last episode of the most recent, mini-series adaptation of Les Misérables. I was slightly hesitant about posting my thoughts (mostly because of the tag being largely dominated by negativity; any effort to post anything else seemed kind of pointless to me), but I eventually decided to go for it. I still wanted the entire show to sit in for a while (I also want to do a rewatch, because I can't guarantee that my feelings remain the same; I might just as well change my opinions completely). But let's begin!

Tldr; Also, unpopular opinion alert: I actually enjoyed it. A lot. I genuinely liked the miniseries. Yes, there were some choices and things I wasn't exactly fond of, but I have the same thing about literally every single adaptation I have seen so far (mostly thinking of the stage musical and 2012 film). Cause you know, you can like something and still see its flaws, and the other way round - you can dislike it and yet admit it is not inherently bad.

Now, the longer "review" comes in. It's gonna be reaaaally long. Also: spoilers.

The negatives/things I'm indifferent about/what could have been better:

- I'm following the popular trend of disliking that font. I care a lot about cinematography and visual parts of films and shows, so I wasn't satisfied with this particular choice. They could do better, honestly.

- For most of the time, the music was a bit meh. Nothing really striking or to hate, but compared to the War&Peace 2016 soundtrack (which was amazing!), this one was very undermining. There were some individual songs I liked a lot, though.

- The overall cinematography was ok. Again, nothing super special, but there were some pretty nice shots, too. I had some minor objections about cgi in a few scenes, but let's that the 2012 film wasn't exactly flawless in this aspect, too... If not worse.

- Ok, confession time & another unpopular opinion alert: I genuinely think the script is not half as bad as some people on this site try to tell everyone and the majority of their issues is either exaggerated to an enormous extent or comes from a huge prejudice. Or a general but pretty clear misinterpretation of certain scenes. Having said that, I had issues with the script, too. Davies did a waaay better job with his W&P, really. Although I actually like some of his changes or narrative choices, there is one thing I can't exactly ignore: how certain scenes were pure exposition. I think it got better in the later episodes, but I spotted at least two(!) examples just in episode one alone. Davies, being the experienced author as he is, should really know that it's not a good way to write scenes, especially in the first episode (which is supposed to encourage the viewers to keep watching). There's nothing more annoying to me than being treated, as a viewer, as a person who needs a straight-in-your-face explaination of what’s happening on screen.

- Another fairly popular trend: the brothel & the wet dream sequences. Even though I expected both of these to be A LOT worse, given what the fandom was saying (exaggerating again), and I don't think they are "out of character" or unrealistic in terms of the setting, I tried to cut these out from the episode (in my head ofc). And I think we could do without them; the brothel scene could remain in the final cut, but I would make it way shorter.

- What I REALLY disliked: a minor thing, but it bugged me a lot. I mean the main dialogue being in English, and the background dialogue in French. Christ, how I hate when they do such stuff in the movies...(thankfully the main characters didn't try to pull off their fake French accent, that would be even worse) Either you do it in French, or in English. One has to be consistent.

- The pissing scene in ep1 was...weird.

- Valjean being mean to Gavroche.

- The timeline was sometimes a bit odd, if not crazy, but could’ve been way worse (nothing can surpass P0ldark and its weirdly ageing children and even more weirdly, or not at all ageing adults)

- Valjean firing Fantine left me with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think it makes sense narratively, in this particular adaptation, it’s also not the first one who makes Valjean responsible for Fantine’s misery (to a smaller or bigger extent). On the other one, it’s not a choice I’m super happy about so...

Now, let's move on to the positives!

- Excellent choice in casting. I think all of the actors did a solid job. Obviously they had some veteran, experienced or acclaimed actors like Bradley, Sumpter, Jacobi, Colman, West... You couldn't expect any less from them. BUT there were also some younger and fresh faces, who's interpretations of their characters I really loved - Lily Collins, Erin Kellyman, Reece Yates, Josh O'Connor. Liked Joseph Quinn and Ellie Bamber a lot, too, especially the former. Obviously, I cannot NOT mention David Oyelowo! He was particularly impressive in the last episode.

- You have no idea how grateful I am for the entire Pontmercy storyline, honestly. I have so many feelings about Georges Pontmercy it's not even funny. Also baby Marius!!! Huge props for the Marius/Guillenormand dynamics.

- Fantine's storyline. I love the focus on her in this adaptation, and instead of merely showing her "downfall", we got to see her entire background story and many faces of her character. From naivety and joyful innocent to her determination to survive, and, finally, her desperate attempts to feed her daughter. I love that we got to see a glimpse of her relationship with Cosette. I love that, heartbreaking as that scene was, we got to see the moment of her leaving her child with the Thénardiers. Loved that she was also outspoken at times. I really felt for her in this series. Naturally, I always do have tons of empathy for Fantine, she's one of my favourite characters in general, but I found Lily Collins' version to be particularly relatable.

- Btw: I disagree that Fantine and Cosette were overly "sexualized" or fetishized. And don't even get me started on the supposed "sexual undertones" between Cosette and Valjean, cause this is utter bullshit.

- I actually liked the relationship between Cosette and her Papa, especially when she was little!

- I loved Gavroche in this adaptation. I'm usually not a huge fan of his, but Reece was so charming and impossible to resist!

- All the side characters (good or bad) we finally got to see at least for a while! I already mentioned the Pontmercies, but I also mean: Petit Gervais, Tholomyès and his gang (+Favourite and Zephine), Azelma, Gavroche's little brothers, Mabeuf, even Victurnien. And Sister Simplice, I love that woman. And Rivette. 😁

- Huge thumbs up for portraying the Thénardiers as the evil/malicious people they were (but not one-dimensional, esp. Madame Th.) instead of as some comic relief only.

- Contrary to the popular opinion, I count Les Amis as the positives. I actually think that narrowing down the number of the students to focus on was a good choice (like, excuse me, but giving a few lines to a character in an ensemble song is not enough to give them personality. Even in the book some hardly had one). And guess what? I legit cared more about this Enjolras or this Courfeyrac than in other adaptations. I liked Quinn's version of Enjolras more than I like Hugo's original character. This is obviously a personal preference, but to me personally Quinn's slightly toned down version, sort of a hybrid of Enjolras and Combeferre was way more appealing (I also think Quinn had more innocence and wide-eyedness in his eyes and face than some most popular actors who have played the role. To me, the accurate hair colour is the least sygnificant thing, honestly. Especially that some of the fans' favourites hardly fit the book description in that aspect).

- The Enjolras/Grantaire execution scene.

- Small interactions between Enjolras and Courfeyrac. Especially the ones in the final moments of the resistance. Oh my...

- Overall, the barricade scenes were very good.

- I liked Marius a lot, which is quite a thing! I loved that we got the awkward, but still adorable side of his. I had seen Josh in The Riot Club and I remember him being good but not memorable; I was impressed with his performance in Les Mis, he was so different!

- Erin's Éponine broke my heart. Especially in episode 5, she was fantastic. So many expressions in her eyes; I loved her fidgety hand moves, too!

- I appreciate that they started the show with something other than the galleys/bishop Myriel. That was a nice and quite refreshing take.

What else do I like about this adaptation? That it revived my passion for Les Mis; that it made me want to reread the book (or certain chapters at least), rewatch the 2012 film, listen to songs from the musical, check out other adaptations. That it’s gonna bring new people to the fandom. And, whether you like it or not, it DOES offer new interpretations of the characters and actually does give a fresh take. Every adaptations gives us something new to discuss, this one included. I also don’t believe it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Les Mis or whatever; I happen to think it actually is a good adaptation overall. Is it flawless or 100% accurate in everything? No, because it’s impossible to turn such a huge and detailed book into a 100% faithful adaptation; also it’s really not what the adaptations are for. I too would have added/cut out some stuff from various versions of Les Mis, but this is because it’s my interpretation; the fact that we imagine some things differently does not mean that other people’s interpretations are bad.

Since films and tv shows belong to the visual media, I think that Les Mis BBC could have done better in that aspect - I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it, as I wasn’t exactly over the moon about some choices in the script. It’s not a masterpiece, but I never expected it to be one; neither it is a “piece of shit”. Despite its flaws, I still found the miniseries to be very enjoyable and I will gladly rewatch it in the near future. I feel that it might even become one of my favourite adaptations(I will decide once I’ve seen them all, or most of them!), save for the interpretation of JVJ, which could’ve been better tbh. For me, it’s a nice 7,5/10

[gihu]

Hello ! I’ve been wanting to start drawing but to really learn. Do you have any tips ? How did you start drawing? I love your art !! 💕

Hello friend!! So sorry for the delay, I’ve been p busy and also was a little shook that anyone would ask ME for art advice??? bc tbh i’m hardly at that level yet LOL but also maybe it’s a good thing you asked me bc BOY have I struggled and BOY am i struggling now!!  putting this under a cut bc i tend to ramble

So one thing I won’t say is “JuST pRActICE” which is what a lot of tumblr artists say and that irks me even though it’s true and valid advice it’s just…not that helpful. At least for me. Another thing I won’t say is “I popped out of the womb with a pencil in hand!!” because I can’t relate. Being from a pretty conservative Asian family/country kinda suppressed what desire to pursue art, even as a hobby, in me as a kid. I started learning how to draw in sophomore year in high school because I got REALLY fucking obsessed with One Piece LMAO. I lived and breathed OP, I was watching dozens of eps a day at one point. That one tumblr post that was like “the best way to get better at drawing is to become obsessed with something and draw it a million times”? Probably the most solid advice I’ve come across. Anyway, that obsession led me to wanting to create fanart for the first time (that was my starting point for wanting to become an artist, which eventually led me into stop motion, thanks One Piece)! I did start attempting to draw the characters right away, but I also started watching a bunch of youtube videos and using figure drawing sites to practice anatomy. I’d recommend starting off with learning anatomy! Learn the proportions of the face and body, it’ll help a TON. but you’ll have to learn how to enjoy the process of studying bc there’s so much studying to be done if you want to learn how to draw. Other tips (that helped me personally): 

-don’t aim to finish a drawing 100%. By that I mean skip rendering the details, it’ll slow down your improvement. try to aim for 60 or 70%. also, some may disagree with me on this but try to avoid using color at all when you’re starting out! you may get overwhelmed and it’s fact that drawing and knowledge of values are far more important. i’ve heard a professor compare color to icing on a cake: it makes the cake pretty but why would that matter at all if the cake base tastes like crap??

- don’t doodle mindlessly. a tip i hear often is to doodle lots and lots but…i don’t think it helped me improve at all. you need reference, something to compare your drawings to so you can throughly analyze how to improve them. nearly every single artist i know, including myself, uses reference for their drawings. it’s ok to doodle to jot down ideas and stuff, just not for learning. 

 - draw from life as much as possible!! it’s more helpful than drawing from photos or art because translating from 3d to 2d really trains your brain by forcing it to analyze more. also, photos tend to be distorted and alter reality. copying/referencing art can be helpful but only if they’re master paintings (sargent, monet, etc.) IMO. please don’t copy from tumblr artists, even for practice LOL. try to avoid their tutorials as well if you’re a beginner you probably won’t be aware of the mistakes they make, and unwittingly incorporate them into your drawing habits. there’s tons of art book PDFs out there, they’re your best bet! 

- carry a sketchbook around and just draw as much as possible. use your free time to draw from life. make it a habit. the more you draw the more you’ll add to your muscle memory and visual dictionary

- find out what interests you about the world, and incorporate those interests into your art! is it the way clothing falls across the body or the way light casts shadows? do you have a particular interest for teeth or hands?? i think hands are quite amazing 

- idk if i’ll be able to explain this clearly but whether you’re drawing comics or making “aesthetic” work, CONCEPT will always be more important than how your art looks! by concept i mean idea, message, etc. The clarity of your message is also important! it needs to be readable

- don’t blame your tools for your lack of skill. when i was starting out i wasted so much time researching and accumulating a bunch of art supplies that i didn’t even use, thinking that better tools would increase the quality of my art. the only tools i needed turned out to be pencils, pens, some watercolors and later, a basic tablet. award-winning films have been made with iPhones alone.

- lastly…JUST DO IT. technical skills are important but what’s even more important is your passion and desire to create. what’s holding you back? fear of being judged? that’s dumb! the best art-related quote i’ve heard is by andy warhol:

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

isn’t that beautiful? this changed my whole outlook on making art! i mean, you won’t ever be able to make art that appeals to everyone but you sure can make art that some people will like! there’s an audience for everything! so don’t be needlessly burdened by what you think others think of your art and make art for you and you only. one thing that i did that i deeply deeply regret is quitting drawing for 2 years up until this past summer, and that’s only because i didn’t think i’d ever be good enough at drawing. so i just gave up. it makes me so sad because even if i drew for just 10min a day i could’ve improved so much in those years! please don’t do what i did

- some helpful websites/youtube channels: schoolism (the best and most affordable online art class i’ve come across, $35 a month but they have legit instructors from disney, pixar etc.) Line-of-action (for figure drawing) croquis cafe (more figure drawing bc you can never do enough) sycra (youtuber who makes tutorials, one of the few that trust completely. i especially like his video on iterative drawing) 

man that was long! but there’s so much to talk about still! btw it’s admirable that you want to learn a new skill! i believe that if you truly want something to be better at something, you will, 100%. if you ever have more questions, feel free to shoot me a message, my inbox/DMs are always open, even if i might take a while to get to it :)