#would draw them more accurately but i also like movies style

[snip-stein]

mmmm early 2000s dinos

[lu-sn]

i am here today to talk about HORRIBLE OVERSIGHT in the pete fandom we NEED to correct our ways and see the light

but it is ok i will Explain

ok do u see this

this is a pha khao ma (spelling up for debate). it's a waistcloth commonly worn in south and southeast asia — you may have heard of it as a lungi / longyi. it's a rectangular, light, soft piece of cloth that (mostly) men tie around their (mostly) waists to wear in hot humid climates because it's very comfy and breezy and dries fast.

some fun facts:

it's very common to wear right out of the bath / shower because the dampness stays on your skin for a while after so this helps air it out

underwear is ✨ optional ✨ (although really mostly only at home. the fear of being pantsed in public is universal, after all)

it's often worn at home, but people wear it out as well and it is especially common in rural communities. if you've got a bunch of old uncles sitting outside on a veranda in a small town, they're all maybe sitting around in pha khao mas

(let me follow this up with: while it is common in rural regions, people in rural areas all over thailand do also just wear shirts and shorts and pants 😂 it is merely an option, not a rule)

what you see is the casual version. there are much more formal versions, and fashionable versions, and they are apparently having a resurgence with the thailand youth rn

the plaid-like patterning is a specific design that has centuries of history in thailand! different regions produce styles of designs with vibrantly different colors and dyes, and they're very proud of it

there's many ways to tie it: in these pictures, pete has it tied so that it hangs down well past his knees, but you can hoist them up to mostly be around your upper legs (leaving the knees showing). this gives you a TON more mobility to, say, run around or climb trees or beat up people

here is a reference of real people wearing pha khao mas. as you can see they are chilling

and the most important fun fact of all:

post-canon pete wears it ALL. THE. TIME.

we know pete wears these in the privacy of his home! they're his comfy post-shower post-workout jammies! every time we see him with one he has a different one! HE HAS LIKE SIX MORE OF THESE TUCKED AWAY.

he probably wore them a lot around his yaai. and now, at home, vegas sees him in them CONSTANTLY.

you may be looking at me, and then looking at these photos, and then looking again at me, and going, lu, noooooooo, this ruins the post-canon pete being unbearably cute and stylish and hot agenda!!! to which i say

no

it ENHANCES IT. it's about the DICHOTOMY

vegas watches as pete walks out of the bathroom wearing one of these and nothing else, and they're riding real low on his hips, and vegas chokes out a "what the hell are you wearing" and pete leans against the doorframe and wiggles his eyebrows and puts on his thickest northern accent and says "you wanna fuck me so bad city boy" and he's RIGHT OKAY VEGAS HATES THEM AND VEGAS DOES WANT TO FUCK HIM SO BAD ANYWAYS

macau gives pete sooo much shit for it but then he watches pete kick ass in one during training one day and pete looks like some rural film movie star in his tank top and pha khao ma and his fists of fury and macau goes, huh, actually, phi looks fucking cool, can i have one

when they visit yaai pete basically forgoes pants and just wears these all the time and blends in with all the old grandpas who pat pete on the back and ask him for his opinions on politics and vegas is so fucking confused and totally in love do you UNDERSTAND

anyway. all of this to say, if you were to write fics where pete wears a pha khao ma and/or draw him in one it would be HIGHLY CANONICALLY ACCURATE. and i would love you. thank u for coming to my ted talk.

(and thanks to @minorfamilysupremacy for being the first victim of said ted talk)

[devils-acre]

Historically Accurate POTC Designs, Maybe??

Tried drawing some historically accurate Pirates of the Caribbean designs, with my best effort(s?) to keep the spirit of the original costumes!

Research rabbit holes below:

I set the clothes in the late 1720's, 1728-1731. At this time, coats were very full—almost skirt-like—with big cuffs, and the waistcoats sometimes had long sleeves!

For Will, I decided to give him just a waistcoat since most of his costumes in the movie don't have an overcoat, and it makes more sense for a blacksmith, I think! I also decided not to give him a wig since I don't think he would be wealthy enough or be able to work with one.

For (Captain) Jack, I really just wanted to give him shoes with red heels. They were popular in the 17th century, but carried over to the early 18th!  Wearing them meant you were in favor with King Louis XIV (who ruled at the time) and were rich enough to wear the color red. Since Jack is obviously none of those things I thought it’d be funny—he probably stole them. The T on his hand was supposed to be the equivalent to the P brand Jack has in the movies. Branding was a thing, just not for pirates! A T burned on the hand was for “thief.” Usually brands were like a warning, and if the offender committed another crime then they would be hanged—pirates, however, didn’t get a second chance.

For Elizabeth, her dress was hard to research. Technically the popular gown at the time was a Robe Volante, but I don’t like the way it looks so I found a different one haha :D What I could find from a few paintings was what apparently is called a “round gown” and was often worn with some sort of belt or ribbon thing at the middle. Not sure what that part is called, maybe a girdle? Technically, a mantua would be closer to the purple-red gown Barbossa gives Elizabeth, since it has fabric bunched up in the back, but I thought a different style could work too.

Elizabeth’s pirate outfit is just based off of what I could find for general 18th-century sailor’s clothes, which were difficult to find for the 1720s in particular, but didn’t seem to change much throughout the decade. However fashionable, boots (sadly) weren’t actually worn by pirates, and most sailors would go barefoot or just wear the current fashionable shoe at the time! She would also probably be wearing a knit hat, but I thought the tricorne was too iconic to take away.

And, lastly, for Norrington! He’s wearing a Ramillies wig (named after the battle of Ramillies in 1706) which was the style for people in the military, or really for anyone who couldn’t wear a full periwig (the really big curly wigs.) And for his clothes, since British Navy Uniforms weren’t introduced until 1748, I just put him in blue and gold.

And that’s it! I’m only a very amateur fashion history enthusiast and could be wrong about a lot, so if anyone knows anything about 1720-30s fashion or anything like that feel free to let me know about any mistakes or other interesting historical facts!

[irregularbillcipher]

Hello! If there were yet another hypothetical cinematic Flatland adaptation, how would you adapt it as a movie? And if you could, what would be your fancasts for the movie? My fancasts include Owen Wilson as A. Square and Michael Caine as Lord Sphere.

Never really thought about fancasts tbh! I like Michael Caine as the Sphere! Admittedly Owen Wilson has always read as having sort of a "young" voice, and A Square is an old grandpa, so he wouldn't be my first choice, but he's an interesting pick!

I did make that Flatland short film a while back and I am still fond of the aesthetic of it, even if it's not entirely book-accurate, since you can't see the internal organs. I think if I did ever make a film, I would make Flatland itself very similar to that short film. I would absolutely keep it simple, keep the 2nd dimension a mix of incredibly basic "puppet" animation (without any rigging, obviously, because... Shapes...) for the bodies and hand-drawn features, plus completely hand-drawn lines. I like my old aesthetic of a top-down view, with Flatland's surface being shown as pure bblack, and all the linework being white, so I think I would keep that.

I think it's a real detriment that both the mainstream Flatland films have decided to portray Flatland in color, and have "humanized" the facial features by giving the Shapes mouths. Again, not saying my personal aesthetic for my film was entirely book-accurate-- it wasn't, and with my character designs I cannot blame my old animation classmate looking over my shoulder and going "is that Bill?" because even though it actually wasn't...

... I more than understand the confusion. So again! I took influences from other sources and wasn't drawing Flatlanders As They Were Described in the book, but I do think that more simple designs for them are more effective and frankly more expressive and interesting.

As for the dimensions outside of Flatland... I think it would be interesting to still portray them through different animation styles? CGI is the most obvious pick for Spaceland and I do get that but honestly I think some form of stop motion could be really fun, actually constructing physical, three-dimensional Shapes to represent these actual, three-dimensional Shapes. Lineland could be hand-drawn as well, but maybe traditionally hand-drawn, on pencil and paper? (Or, if you want to keep the dark background, white pastel on paper?) And I'm sort of just imagining the king of Pointland as a little hole punched in a piece of paper. IDK, I think the idea of each dimension feeling and looking different in a very tactile way could be a lot of fun!

I also maintain that the first time we should see color is when the Sphere and the Third Dimension appear in the story. The fact that both the larger Flatland films are just In Color is so boring, and misses the opportunity for a fun, visually stunning, "Dorothy lands in Oz and we switch to Technicolor" type moment. It would be such a good way to just show how deprived the citizens of Flatland have been, by depriving us for a good portion of the film.

IDK, my thoughts lie with the visuals more than anything else, I suppose, but I do think this has the potential to be a really visually interesting adaptation and I'm kind of bummed that neither Flatland adaptation is particularly... nice to look at.

[onskepa]

Artwork!

hiiiiiiiiiiii!!

So I take all of you have now read the "New body, fresh eyes" fic, I wanna show you guys the cover I made for. I am just too proud of how they turned out to be! SO LEMME SHOVE IT IN YO FACE!!

Okie so here is the rough sketch. As you can see from the final product, I decided to change neytiri's hair. She was originally gonna have braids but it was giving me a hard time. I gotta practice how to draw braids. So instead I went with a different route. Same for spider, I decided to have his dreads be a bit more spread out. Reminded me of the dreads of that one predators alien guy.

Spider in all of his magnificent na'vi glory! It took me longer to do his stripes since I had to go on how spider did his stripes in the movie. I did see some fanart of na'vi spider and how he would look like. So I did my version. I also struggled a bit on his mouth. I wanted him to smile but not make it look weird.

And human neytiri! Unlike spider where I had more creative guesses. Neytiri is zoe, so I used a lot of zoe pictures to get the accurate and lemme tell you. It was HARD. It was tricky to make it close to the real thing while also keeping it my style. I also had to use completely different set of brushes from the ones I used for spider. Neytiri certainly took me longer but I am happy how she turns out.

Now for both spider and neytiri, I did use the mirror tool so I can align their features when it was time to merge them. I was a bit off on the lower part of the face but still liked how it turned out.

I also LOVED the color and lighting effects I used so the light of the fire reflected the shades and light areas of their faces. I did not draw neytiri with a face mask as it would ruin the overall look.

I hope you guys loved my drawings. I am so proud of them. It took me almost 2 weeks to finish it. Mostly because work took a good chunk of my time. But it is why I didn't post much recently.

And if you guys wants to repost PLEASE credit me. This is my work. Don't take it and claim it as your own.

[graceloveswolves]

Hey I was wondering if you still done ships? If you don't then just ignore this but I was wondering if I could get a ship with Supernatural?

Apperence: I am 5'0 tall, 120 ish lbs. I have shoulder length dark brown hair that looks black with plum highlights (basically look up blackberry colors hair on pinterest or Google and that's what I have) that's cut in this 70's or 80's female rocker shag mullet i guess just call it a wolfcut. I have pale skin with freckles and I have some stretch marks on my hips, love handles, and inner thighs. My eye color is Hazel but you can't really tell so people just thing I have light brown eyes. I have horrible vision so I have to wear glasses.

Personality: I honestly don't know what my personality is. Like I'm quiet so I come off as shy but in reality I'm really not and can actually be quite the chatterbox especially when it's a topic I am passionate about. But I really only talk to people when they talk to me first, I don't really like starting conversations. I can get really hyper and jump, dance, and sing when some music is playing that I like. I tend to make whatever I am into at the moment either it be a tv show, movie, or book my personality until I get bored and move onto the next one. I guess I have a hard time trusting people even if I known them for a long time and know that they would never hurt me especially when it comes to relationships and forms of intimacy like cuddling, kissing, ect. I don't like fighting verbal or physical but if it comes down to it I will hold my ground if I need to. I'm hard-headed and stubborn as a mule at times. But once you get to know me and gain my trust I'm pretty fun.

Likes/hobbies: I really like music almost any kind really. But my favorite is indie pop/alernative/rock and pop. I like to bake and cook. My favorite seasons are late spring and early fall when its warm but not to hot or too cold. I love to read almost everything right now I am reading The Grapes of Wrath. I really like learning about flowers especially ones that grow wild and I like to learn about different cultures too. I'm an artist so I'm drawing or painting a lot and it is not uncommon to find me with paint or pen marks on my arms and legs. My favorite color palette is pastels especially pastel purples, pinks, and blues. I really like looking at sunsets because of all the colors the sky turns.

I hope this is enough information about me! If you need more I am happy to add more.

Hello Beautiful!! I hope you are having a great day and thank you so much for the detail!! I love hearing about other people and learning all the kinds of personalities out in the world, also more detail gives me a stronger opinion and more to work with so thank you, you nailed it!

I ship you with.... Sam Winchester!

I believe Sam is the most accurate ship for you and here is why...

You remind him of his brother, in all of the good ways. Your clothing and style with your hard headed/stubbornness gives him a sense of comfort and nostalgia with his good memories of his brother.

You both have common traits. You come off as shy, but are quite passionate when talking about your passions/interests. I believe Sam is very similar in this way, he reads and studies all kinds of lore and is usually the one that finds the most information in whatever case him and Dean are working on. I believe between all the characters he is the most "shy" out of the group. (Definitely more shy then Dean in my opinion) and we see him opt to do studying/research at the motel then interviewing/bar hopping like Dean does (reasons vary because of Dean's lack of interests in research but still)

This boy has trust issues too. Like Major. But the thing with Sam is that he opts for healthy healing and talking things out right there and then when he feels a certain way or if he senses other people (mostly Dean) harboring emotions or grudges against him. He rather talk calmly and work out whatever is going on without coming off in an attacking/aggressive manner, which is mostly why I chose him for you verses the rest of the characters because in the show we see Dean bottle up his emotions/hit/throw things when he gets angry even getting physical with Sam (although he would NEVER hit his significant other) . And Castiel doesn't really know how to handle human emotions and usually asks for advice from others or mishandles the situation with good intentions. Which can be very frustrating for someone who doesn't like conflict. I believe with the exception of Jack, Sam is #1 at trying to defuse conflict.

You both like reading. Again there's common ground with you two, I can see y'all both just chilling in the impala both reading the same book, casually asking each other opinions on the characters in the book you guys are reading or occasionally checking up to see where in the book you both are at. Even making book references that has Dean internally wondering if y'all are making jabs at him or not.

Anyways, all things considered I ship y'all and I think you both would get along the most.

[mauesartetc]

oh wow, i never even considered the abundance of tangents in these designs, and now that you point them out, that would explain why it can be hard to tell whats going on! you pretty much said what i was thinking though, especially with being unable to tell what species they are, i once showed these designs to my mom and she thought mystery was a goat LMAO

theres also a really weird nitpick i have with alfreds design where hes described as 'brawny' by both the fandom wiki and the official website... but. well. youve seen him, hes not all that brawny, is he? i suppose its moreso a gripe i have with the art style though, the artist isnt great at drawing different body types (and a lot of other things... but thats another story haha)

(Context)

Do... do these people know what "brawny" means? Or does the word just make them think of paper towels?

Also, LOL at the goat thing. If different folks have wildly differing answers for what your character's species is, it might be time for some changes.

Yeah, art style is really no excuse for excluding certain body types. If an artist wanted to draw a character who was actually brawny, they could look up photos of athletes who compete in tests of strength. And let's be real, this type of research would probably provide a much more accurate picture of how truly strong people look, because weightlifters and strongmen don't typically have well-defined abs like the idealized, media-conjured vision of strength. (I wish folks who made superhero movies didn't insist on actors being shredded. Like y'all really don't need to destroy your bodies for the sake of superficial aesthetics.)

I guess if I redesigned Alfred with a more muscular body type, he'd look something like this.

[odaclan]

This hairstyle is not chasenmage, and Sengoku samurai rarely wear this

I’m talking about this hair: 

(screenshot from Kirin ga Kuru)

This is not specifically about Nobunaga or anything, but 90% of the Nobunaga I see in Taiga drama and movies usually has this hair style, and I want to talk about it. There were some drawing guides I’ve seen online that mistakenly label this hair as “chasenmage”, and it’s somewhat misleading.

Chasenmage 茶���髷, literally meaning “tea whisk hair”, is one of the hairstyles commonly worn in the Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama period aside from the folded topknot (orimage/chonmage). The hair is tied tightly with strings, leaving a small tuft at the end, making it resemble a tea whisk. However, even a high-angled chasenmage doesn’t go as far as stick straight up like seen above.

That being said, I say they “rarely” wear the sticking-up style, not “never”, because this hairstyle is actually "real”. It’s not a made-up style invented by Kabuki or movies, it’s just... incorrectly applied. This hairstyle is called kanmuri-shita no motodori 冠下髻 or hitotsu motodori 一髻. It’s the hairstyle worn under the kanmuri (court cap):

(image from Kotobank dictionary)

So if you want to be "accurate”, it’s fine Nobunaga or some other daimyou wears this hairstyle sometimes, but only if you’re showing they’re in the process of getting dressed or undressed from courtly attires (for meeting with the shogun or other courtly business). 

It’s one thing if the character is the emperor or court nobles, as the caps are often part of the daily attire. It would make sense that they might keep their hair in kanmuri-shita style even in leisure. However, Sengoku daimyou wear their hair mostly in the folded topknot style, and there is no reason for them to constantly wear kanmuri-shita hair. And, once more, the kanmuri-shita is not the chasenmage that Sengoku samurai did frequently wear. 

(Emperor Seiwa, shown with his hair in the kanmuri-shita style. From the Ban Dainagon Ekotoba  伴大納言絵詞 picture scroll)

Picture from Teijou Zakki 貞丈雑記, written by Ise Sadatake around 1763-1784, also describing that this hairstyle is meant to be worn under a hat (either an eboshi or a kanmuri, as mentioned above)

I can’t trace where/how it began, but at some point it seems that Kabuki actors starts wearing that hairstyle in their performances:

Ukiyo-e of Kabuki actors then influence ukiyo-e depictions of “historical events” of the Sengoku. Then, when people start making movies about Sengoku samurai maybe in the 50s and 60s, ukiyo-e and Kabuki costumes are probably the easiest source of reference, resulting in this long-standing “trend” to give Sengoku samurai this hairdo. 

(Nobunaga wearing that now-“iconic” hairstyle in an ukiyo-e by Yōsai Nobukazu 楊斎延一)

Meta-wise speaking, it’s likely that studios maintain this “wrong” hairstyle to save on budget. It’s better to just reuse old wigs rather than spend more money to make a new batch of historically-accurate wigs. However, I don’t really see any reason for illustrated media maintaining this, other than “maybe the artist just didn’t know”. Unlike the image of Nobunaga wearing European armour, there is no real branding attached to this hairstyle, so there is no specific need to keep drawing this style. Far as I can tell, Sengoku enthusiasts are equally fine with seeing samurai wearing just a “normal ponytail”.

Or, if not, something like this:

The hairdo Koei likes to use for their Nobunaga’s Ambition portraits may not necessarily be an accurate chasenmage either, but it’s “less wrong” than the kanmuri-shita. 

We end with what a “correct” chasenmage looks like, as depicted by paintings from the 16th century:

Some attendants from Nanban Byoubu by Kanō Naizen 狩野内膳 were shown wearing chasenmage. 

Falconers from the Rakuchuu Rakugai screen, by Kanō Eitoku.  *) The third person behind them that I did not mark is angled oddly, so I wasn’t able to identify if that was a chasenmage (more stiff, secured with more strings) or just a “floppy ponytail”. 

Modern illustration for clarity, provided by Kotobank online dictionary.

[cienie-isengardu]

Hi! I noticed that some unfounded criticism was being sent to you... I just want to write to you that your posts are very interesting. Special thanks for the fact that they are traditional. Don't pay attention to the negative! Keep writing in the same style, and write more and more. I wish you tons of inspiration! :) May I ask why you love the topic of clones and Mandalorians so much? It would seem that there was little about both of them in the history of Star Wars. Anyway, I wonder why...

Thank you very much for the kind words! 💜

In general I like cool armors and the military feeling (settling) so the warrior/soldier/assassin type of characters draws my attention immediately but as for my Star Wars interests, the funny thing is that everything always starts and ends with Anakin/Vader and both Mandalorians and clone troopers fall into that monothematic obsession of mine. 

For Mandalorians the passion of course started with Boba Fett, partially due to the cool armor and no-nonsense attitude and partially because he was Vader’s favorite bounty hunter - although I won’t lie, it took some time for my uncle to actually convince the kid!me in that matter because Boba’s performance in RotJ kinda left much to be desired. My uncle literally brought me the first novel (The Mandalorian Armor) from The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy to change my mind and to this day I’m truly grateful for his dedication because it did the job. Of course, twenty years ago there wasn’t that much star wars tie-in materials in my country, even less about Mandalorians so everyone latched at anything that was available and the great work of fans who shared for free all the translated scanlations of comics or articles and so on still warms my heart at the mere thought how awesome fandom can be. Again, thanks to the courtesy of my uncle, I got my hands on Jango Fett: Open Seasons and I absolutely fell in love with Mandalorians, especially with Tor Vizsla - and by extension, with Death Watch even though I know most fans despite this character. It is the black armor (my weakness!) and ruthless cleverness, battle skills but also underrated (or outright ignored?) little aspects of his personality that makes Tor Vizsla a very compelling character for me. That and also the fan translation that presented Death Watch as “Wataha Śmierci” in which Wataha in Polish may means a dangerous group but is also a Polish term for wolf-pack (while Death translated accurately) that I will admit, shaped my image of Mandalorians way more strongly than anything else. Ya’ know, the wild, dangerous predators tightly knit together as the clan and all the wolf symbolic for freedom, hard life, honor, majesty, nightmares and so on. Oops, sorry for the digression. Anyway, I like Mandalorians because they aren’t the holier-than-thou group and they can be - and are - ruthless bastards but also the loyalty to clan, the brotherhood in arms and honor sense is what I’m here for.

(I like Jango and think he was one of the best aspect of AotC and in general True Mandalorians vs Death Watch and the Fenn Shysa’s Protectors fight against Imperial occupation are great stories but thanks to The Sith Wars, I will always favor the original Mandalorians (Taungs) and KotOR era Mandalorians. Mainly because the Mandalore Indomitable is both awesome and hilarious when interacting with Exar Kun and Ulic Qel Droma.)

As for clones, well, I watched AotC in hope to see young Anakin the great battle (sadly battle of Geonosis didn’t take that much movie time overall) and I was truly touched and impressed with the little scenes they got then. In general I like to watch competent soldiers/specialists at their job - and Revenge of the Sith for sure provided more joy in that regard -  but also I love the complexity of Star Wars that has this whole subplot of exploiting humans literally “breed for war” while Republic (the symbol of democracy) and Jedi Order (the legendary good guys from Original Trilogy) doesn’t blink an eye on slavery that is technically forbidden by their own laws. Of course, the potential was never truly used, even more so with Anakin’s backstory of being born in slavery. Anyway, Clone Wars is one of my absolute favorite star wars eras, exactly for heroic Anakin and his slow, tragic path to Dark Side but also for his relationship with clone troopers (an interesting mirror to Vader’s specific relationship with common troopers in contrast to the “military elites” and oh boy, even with so little focus on clones, there is so many moments to see how Skywalker cares for his men). So the more I explored source material in that regard, the more I came to love Legends!clones, like Alpha-17 and his sarcasm or Nate who took the name of Jangotat for himself or the most awesome Delta Squad or commander Faie who definitely wanted to kill his Jedi General during Order 66 or those few commandos who refused to kill their Jedi comrades. The spectrum of experiences that shaped the supposedly same people is thrilling to watch how those men develop into their own persona, how they break from dehumanization or not, while all are so competent and no-nonsense humans always ready to die for a system that doesn’t care about them in the first place. Clones and their place in the story is really heartbreaking and I do think all the time about this complexity. However I wholeheartedly hate the chip-in-brain nonsense and I’m tired of the weird (TCW?) fandom tendencies to present clones as some kind of dumb idiots who either love their Jedi generals *so much* they can't function like normal human beings or can’t be left without supervision because again, dumb idiots… Uh. Sorry, ranting again. 

In summary, I love Mandalorian and clone troopers because they lack special powers in a universe that is all about special powers (Force) while being still pretty good at their job and generally neutral on the scale of good and evil. They are all a bit of both which gives a great possibilities to explore star wars universe, both from in-universe perspective and our real life. I love them because both groups provide me a lot of interesting stuff in regard to Anakin/Vader. Because yes, I’m that monotonic when it comes to star wars. And well, again, brotherhood in arms and cool armors are my thing.

[elysiuminfra]

hi anon i love you. thank you for thisi question (i just woke up) you have no idea how excited i am to talk about this. had to make a post since it didnt wanna publish ur ask :( in the ideal world AMPHIMAL (all capitals for silly) is a 14 episode 2D animated tv show (heavily inspired by gennedy tartakovsky's work - particularly with samurai jack and primal, as well as mike mignola's work on hellboy) (AND SERGIO PABLOS!!) (wait edit: AND the old animated batman movies) HOWEVER. i have had many many thoughts about its ACTUAL format as a webcomic. i think it works best in this format cause the internal dialogue is important and you'd lose that in a show (i have many many thoughts about how media format influences tone/overall storytelling) particularly i'd like to execute it as a webcomic set with unconventional format - im very inspired by indie comics such as quinn - a horror webcomic made by moby, tumblr linked here, an artist who's work ive followed for a while and who's work first piqued my interest in breaking "traditional" webcomic format. yugo limbo and mike mignola (there he is again!) are also huge inspirations. (and another webcomic im too embarrassed to say) im in love with the  idea of using the website itself as a backdrop for your visuals - it would be a mix of script, prose, intermingling with cinema-like stills as visuals - this is because traditional comics are difficult for me, i THINK in camera angles and shot layouts, not necessarily comic panels. i also plan on having annotations throughout the story, for secrets and descriptions of certain era-specific objects as fun optional facts - although when i actually put it all together on a website, this feature could be toggled. ideally it would be non-intrusive - think the note system from pentiment. the biggest inspirations i draw for AMPHIMAL though is Hellboy full stop in terms of palettes, visuals, and style. i plan on further solidifying and developing the "look" of amphimal as i do more research on victorian cultural and architecture motifs (they don't even know about the henry jekyll architecture associations) and also because i am the world's most unnecessarily detail-oriented person. my current work reflects moreso how i plan on amphimal looking when its published, with stark shadows, black shapes taking forefront, limited and striking palettes with heavy emphasis on color, shape, and object motifs. i am putting an unnecessary and frankly embarrassing amount of thought into literally every single detail (AND striving for semi-historical accuracy) (which is extremely difficult due to the lack of primary sources / bias in papers and the lack of accounts of certain aspects of victorian life, such as lgbt history and london’s underbelly of the era. particularly because many primary accounts are rife with racism, bigotry and inaccuracies - and they don’t paint a complete picture, so much of what i show WILL be speculation and not historically accurate) as for SCRIPT? behind the scenes its pretty rough - i have my charts and notes, but they're all pretty disorganized and i don't think i could share them without 1. spoiling a LOT of stuff (it doesnt differ from the original plot in any way, it just has far, far more depth into the characters - and some stuff i want to keep a secret!) 2. exposing just how deranged my note-taking skills are. amphimal currently exists only in pages and charts and key visuals i've made for myself that i MUST compile in a clean format for personal use (and sharing among those who can take peeks behind the scenes) as for key points oh boy. my favorite chapter and the one i'm most excited to write is utterson's search and first meeting with hyde. second favorite is utterson's scenes involving lanyon's death (he does die in amphimal, that i'm not changing - i thought about it at first but scrapped it) these moments show off utterson's character at key points OUTSIDE of jekyll (an absolute necessity!) - and he is, by far, my favorite protagonist out of all my projects. and i love him your honor ANYWAY ummm i dont really have much else to write other than thank u for sending this question!!! artistic format / experimentation is one of my favorite things to talk about. as for WHEN amphimal is gonna be a thing, it'll be in the future when i'm in a better living situation (and when the full amphimal theory bible is compiled - i'm obsessed with consistency between scenes and background motifs, so this will work as a reference for me once the project gets started however this will and is currently taking a LOT of research) ETA? later. possibly next year if i'm not too busy adjusting to the city im moving to. dont know yet but it'll happen. i'll make amphimal before i die promise because if i dont my spirit will never sleep peacefully

[hopelesscatdad]

15 questions, 15 mutuals game

Are you named after anyone? - Birthname: no. At least I don't think so. Chosen name: yes, named after Marionette.

When was the last time you cried? When Blip broke down 57 miles from home around a week ago, and heard even with insurance towing would cost 370 bucks. I was in a TV store owned by a couple old men kind enough to let me hang out until I could figure out a way home.

Do you have any kids? No. I don't want any either right now.

What's the first you notice about people? - are they happy and are they honest? I can still be friends with someone super depressed and such, but so far every time I've agreed to date people like that I've turned into their therapist or was ghosted. If we're in a dedicated relationship, stable life, and something happens or my partner falls into such a state I will be there to support them. But rn I'm a young adult trying to figure life out. I can't play therapist on top of everything going on rn to someone I only recently started to interact with. Which is why new rule is I'm no longer even giving a chance to people who say they aren't ready but want to try. I don't have time for that.

What's your eye colour? - honey brown. No seriously. Under light my eyes become an almost gold color.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? All the time. It's why I'm so big on specifying when I'm dead serious.

Where were you born? - a wonderful hellhole called Sacramento. They have wild peacocks on the streets there.

Scary movies or happy endings? - these aren't mutually exclusive. You can have a terrifying movie with a happy ending.

Any special talents? - I can draw really good in various styles I just can't ever pick one. I'm also really good at writing too. Just need to find the inspiration.

What are your hobbies? - writing, drawing, reading, listening to music, driving, scrolling through tumblr. Playing old PC games. Photography.

Have you got any pets? - technically not anymore. My grandma does have a cute golden terrier though. The same breed as Toto in The Wizard of Oz.

What sports do you play/have you played? - when i was 5 I did soccer for one summer. Never did sports again.

How tall are you? - 5’5"

Favourite subject in school? - English. I'd say History but it never goes in depth and often isn't accurate. I always learned way more studying independently.

Dream job? - don't have one. Whatever gets me enough money to keep caring for Blip, get a small cottage and maybe even own a Hudson Hornet.

Idk if I have 15 mutuals I'll tag everyone I know though(no pressure)

@fork-bork @kckachow @hexamoron @apollo11fangirl @galaxyisnthere @rollingwheels @goldendiie @starlysammie @hudson-whorenet @bootleg-cal-weathers @racer62 @chickthiccs @purplerae364

Idk probably missed someone I'm tired this is fine no pressure again.

[artblock-tm]

RIGHT BACK AT YOU. ART GAME NUMBERS 1, 17, AND 22

(And mayyyybe 20 if you'd like to ;))

YIPPEE

How would you describe your style?

Hm. That's always a hard question for me. Mine is a bit more cartoony and certainly takes liberties when it comes to how realistic it is, but at the same time I try to get things close to accurate (such with anatomy and detail and whatnot).

I can't find words that pinpoint what my style looks like, but I can certainly find the inspirations that got it to where it is now. (Anime and various animations!)

Since we're speaking of my style though, fun fact: I CAN'T for the life of me imitate other people's art styles. It'll always look really similar to my regular art style, just changed up a bit. I see challenges were people imitate different art styles and realize, "Wow! That's cool! How the HELL did they do that!!"

17. What do you love getting compliments about?

When it comes to art? Anything, to be honest. Hell, I'm happy if people reblog my art without any tags. (Although, once or twice, I've gotten an "inspo" or a keysmash or a slight ramble and that really made my day.)

What I like most though is feedback on my OCs. I'm honestly rather bad at character design, and I love knowing what people think about them. Alas, people hardly see my OC art...when I do post it. </3

22. What inspires you?

MANY THINGS, my friend. Some things have made lifelong shifts on my art style (ex: the shading under the chin technique I use is derived from the anime Black Clover!), but most often, I get inspired to draw a specific thing.

Music often inspires me- especially vocaloid, and especially if there's art featured in the video. One of my favorite vocaloid songs is Reckless Battery Burns and I'm obsessed with the MV in it.

TV and movies inspire me, too. I adore the Owl House and have noticed some completely unintentional similarities between Hunter and one of my own characters! Also, bringing back Black Clover, there's a lot of worldbuilding from Masked inspired from that anime.

Books inspire me too! A good example of that is my Shapeshifter/Badgeseller 1984 comic. Another series that gives me inspiration is the Giver series by Lois Lowry (not just the first book, the entire thing, all four books). Ooh, and also the Pandava series (or the Aru Shah series, I don't fully know what to call it). Writing is cool! :)

Secret question: 20. A piece from this year that you're really proud of!

Most of my art this year is Shadow Rift, haha...let me see what I can find.

^ This one is a good starting point! This one was me playing around with lighting. I found a new technique to use with my art program, and was just messing around with it. So I paid less attention to the background and colors to do so. Here's a fraction of a screenshot I took when I realized just how good it was!

I was going to compare it to another one of Shadow Rift's pieces, but I realized that discussion would be too long. And would ruin the magic of the piece I was comparing. Whatever.

Next one has bright colors!

I was mostly playing around with colors and proportions on this one, and I really like the turnout. This is the rare piece of Doodle OC art. Her name is Krystll, and YES I will infodump about her if asked.

And, for the final thing I'm super proud of, that Shapeshifter/Badgeseller 1984 comic. Go look at it again, if you want to. :)

That's it for now! Thank you so much for asking! I'm willing to answer any follow up questions anywhere you like! (Tumblr, Discord, etc.)

[kinetic-elaboration]

February 5: Tinker Tailor (Movie Version)

Just finished re-watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. That was... an interesting experience. Last time I watched it, it was before reading the book, on purpose to see how well I could follow it blind, and this time I just finished a re-read.

Overall impression: this was made for people who've read the book. It's not that it was difficult to follow exactly... that's too hard for me to judge at this point. It's more that I think it might be hard to see the point or to really get invested without the book. But maybe I'm wrong because I think I was pretty invested after my first watch, with just the movie to go on.

Often times, what it reminded me of was a sort of summary, picking out the most important part of each section or scene and presenting it with minimal context. When I was a kid, and the internet had like 3 sites on it, I would amuse myself sometimes by using the summary function in Word to make summaries of various lengths of things I had written. This movie felt at times, especially early on, like such a document. It was accurate in picking out the most important bits but they weren't presented with much context and they had no particular room to breathe, no time for excess detail. (Which is sort of understandable because it's a 2 hour movie but also not understandable because there are a lot of quite random interlude scenes of Smiley... walking? swimming?)

I did think it did a good job of compressing important plot points when necessary. For example, cutting out Dani and her mother but still having a reason for Guillam to suspect Tarr was lying, or simplifying the confusing situation with Haydon at the club.

The relationship between Smiley and Peter was so good, and I thought there was a subtlety to the performances that really brought a lot that was unique while still being in keeping with the book. Smiley's "You're going to do something for me" really sent me. He didn't get to show off that much of his softly powerful interrogation style, but he had moments--"Yes, I am a better spy than Bill Haydon" moments--like that one, or like when he had Guillam pulled off Tarr, that really drove his character home.

The Karla encounter story was also really well done. That's a long story that seems like it should be a flashback in a movie, and yet it can't be a flashback without showing Karla, and they way it was done here really solved that problem beautifully. The smoky brown room and they're both fucking plastered and Smiley's re-enacting the whole memory to a blank chair on the second half of the screen... Karla is the empty space, the eye of the storm, the vortex around which everything else whirls.

I really liked Tom Hardy's portrayal of Ricki; it seemed a stand out performance to me this time around. He's certainly more sympathetic, but he still retained that coiled up nervous energy.

In general, a lot of the characters came off more sympathetic here, in particular Ricki, Connie, and Westerby--though Westerby was arguably just a name, really, since he didn't have either actual Westerby's personality or the personality of Sam, the actual duty officer on the night of Jim's shooting.

There were some bits that were added that I liked quite a bit: in particular, Haydon bringing his bicycle into the Circus, because it was a quick, fun way to show how quirky and likable he is; Tarr using the mirror to draw light on Irina's face, because it made them both sympathetic very quickly and it was beautiful; and the use of the Mr. Wu song while Guillam was stealing from the Circus. It's hard to depict on screen the sort of paranoia that is so obvious on the page, especially in Guilliam's arc, but having him pass by Roy singing on the stairs did that super well, and in a way that fit the medium. Is he singing it because he was listening to the same radio station, or because he was listening to Guillam on the phone? You simply can't know!

I'm also pro-recurring Christmas party scene, though I wonder if that's a controversial take.

Though there were places where I felt the summarizing was well done, there were other places where I felt like shortcuts they'd put in created inconsistencies, or where things were cut I would have liked to have seen kept in. For example, Smiley tells Jim when they meet that it's presumed that he blew his networks to save himself--no, it's presumed he died immediately from being shot. You can't have both. Seems a weird thing for Smiley to lie about and yet it doesn't fit with the movie timeline. It makes sense in the book--but then the networks were a much bigger deal in the book as well. Similarly, I get why they depicted Karla shooting Irina in front of Jim--it established she was dead and showed what kind of torture he endured, two birds, etc.--but the timeline, fudged as it is, doesn't make sense. Either Tarr sat on his info for even longer than in the book, or she hadn't been captured yet.

I also think the movie was too coy about Bill and Jim. I've heard both takes--it was too coy and it was (somehow) too explicit--but I'm bothered that one completely legitimate interpretation of this movie by itself is that Jim's feelings were not requited. It's true Bill takes the photo of them, and that he mentions having both a man and a woman he's attached to in England (aka canonically is bisexual) but the Christmas party scene makes it look perhaps like it's only Jim who has those feelings. Also, the truly fucked up relationship between them and the depth of Haydon's betrayal are not clear enough in my opinion. It wouldn't take much to make them so. It could be as little as adding "because he loved you" in the middle of the line "He came to warn you. Because he knew all along it was you."

On a related note, I think it was important to make clear that Operation Testify was not a legitimate operation that the mole fucked up. It was a set up from first to last. Again, there isn't a lot of excuse for keeping this unclear in my opinion. Smiley's last talk with Haydon is extremely short--very much one of the 'summary scenes'--and adding in a few more lines wouldn't have made it run too long. They do talk about it! After Haydon saying "Dammit I got him back," Smiley could have asked if the operation was ever real, for example, and he could have said no.

I also think it was unnecessary and mean to make Jim reject Roach at the end. That's completely made up, not just truncated from the book, and I think both characters deserve more than that.

I realize I'm harping on Jim stuff (I wonder why) but it also bothered me that the kids talked about his hunchback but he absolutely did not have one??? Am I just not seeing it? He seemed fine to me.

Another nitpicking detail: Witchcraft was the name of the intelligence product, and Merlin was the name of the source. I don't get why they didn't differentiate those two things. Jarring to hear "Witchcraft" used as the name of a person.

Overall.... the structure of the film seemed softer and less precise than the book, and I realize this is book bias talking but... I was a little frustrated. Why does Ricki tell his story so late? Why isn't Operation Testify given its due? There was a real build up to Smiley and Jim meeting in the book; in the movie it's just another interview, like with Connie or Westerby. Even really big scenes, like the Jim interview, or the reveal of the mole (which could have used more violence imo), or the Haydon scene at the end, seemed like, eh, just another scene. The pacing was too even, I suppose is what I'm saying, and the placement of scenes too random. I think that's what people find hard to follow: the when of each scene seems quite arbitrary most of the time. It isn't always, but I think if the movie followed the larger structure of the book, which is really quite smart and well thought out, I mean it's all done for you right there, it might have been easier to parse.

But that's easy for me to say as someone who's never written a screenplay I suppose.

Now where's my movie that's all about Thursgood's?

[kebriones]

I love your art! Csn i ask you if you can also draw Pericles and Aspasia? They are really underrated and barely they are mentioned even though they were do important in Greek history.

Also Anyone else from the Peloponnese war too, like why does no one mention it? The story would make for an entire GOT series style 😅

Thank you! I will put it in my to-draw list for you anon, even though I have personal beef with Pericles and I am honestly sick of hearing about Aspasia because my grandmother, all the years i've known her, cannot stop gushing over her. But those silly personal reasons aside, I do want to draw them studying scrolls and tablets together like stressed-out parents trying to make ends meet.

I am honestly in a phase where all my brain wants to draw of that era is Alcibiades, because im zeroed in on him, and I never really had much interest in classical greece or the peloponnesian war (I always found the minoans and mycenaeans a lot more itneresting and in terms of art, hellenistic and roman art unfortunately owns my soul). But I have some half-finished sketches of Nicias suffering.

I know nothing about GOT but I do agree that a series on the Peloponnesian war would be sick, as long as it goes as far away from the normal epic-hero-war-aesthetics nonsense the other movies on ancient greece have going on. But I would love to see some really accurate series on it for sure. I think it won't happen because it wasn't a very linear and cool war but a rather drawn out series of "sparta and athens causing a mess and making everyone else miserable" and there's more sieges and ship battles and deals than the actual cool all-out land battles the people like to watch, so it's hard to make it into something that will keep most audience members engaged but if they choose to focus on few specific characters to keep you invested and keep the story structured maybe it could work.

[vital-information]

“I just love sketching,” Casarosa shares. “And I just love travelogging. I come from drawing comics, and watercolors. When I pitched La Luna with a presentation using watercolors, I remember someone asking me, ‘But you want to do it in watercolor?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I mean, you know, we're at Pixar and I think we should use our tools, but how do we bring in some warmth and imperfection...’ The thing I don't always love about computer animation is there's a certain sheen, a certain perfection to it. Now it's gone past that toward realism. But I come from loving sketches; I'm not one to love a perfectly painted picture that is realistic.”

“…So that sketchiness, that cartoony expressiveness, was part of our early story reels. And they were the part that made us laugh. It felt unique, these connections to kinetic and comedic moments.”

Casarosa’s artistic sensibilities stem in part from the animation he loves most. “I love Miyazaki movies,” he shares. “I love Wes Anderson’s stop-motion. I love Aardman’s stop-motion. Some of that ends up in my drawings, that sketchy and expressive style. We wanted to bring that to the film because it felt like this is a kid's world. This is a playful world. And it felt true to the story to go in that direction. I love the immersion of 3D, but I sometimes I feel it can go towards coldness. So, I wanted to bring the warmth of imperfection. That’s why some of the silly drawings made us laugh when we started boarding them and then put them on a screen.”

“We wanted to capture some of that in our animation,” he continues. “Which meant, we needed to inspire the animation team to embrace it. And they took it and ran with it, literally and figuratively, in a wonderful way. I didn't know where it was going to exactly go, but it was really fun because some of them were showing more limited animation, with these snappy, kind of wonderfully held poses.”

…

It’s an old-fashion cartoon technique in some ways,” Casarosa says, referring to the multi-limb motion. “Like with Peanuts. It came out of the drawings, the essence of someone running extremely fast. We wanted to use the multi-limb technique in areas of the film where the characters were doing extreme physicality, where it would add to the personality of the silliness of the moment. There were only so many chances to use it. I wish there were more. But it was so much fun to use it when we could.”

Venturini goes on to explain how they also had to back away from their inherent instinct to move towards realism in the animation. “One part of our 2D inspiration is that in 2D animation, more often than not, you're animating on every other frame - on twos, as they say. And when you do that, you must be more descriptive in your shapes because you have fewer opportunities to describe the dialogue. Your shapes become a little more caricature, or a little more like graphically abstract art.”

“Our films are always done on ones,” he notes. “We use every single frame and in dialogue, it allows us to be incredibly rich and realistic in detail. So much so that we pride ourselves in the ability to turn the sound off and still be able to tell what a character saying. For Luca, we didn't want to be that rich in detail. Part of our 2D inspiration was to simplify the mouth shapes and try to animate only every other shape. Simplify it a little bit. That allowed us to be round in the mouth corners because we didn't have to do accurate phonetic shapes. We had to liberate ourselves from that level of realism before we could really consider doing round shapes and not wanting to be phonetically accurate. The other thing was that in the Miyazaki film library, and in a lot of anime, is they get really big with the mouth shapes because they're being emotionally expressive. It's less about the dialogue being said, or the anatomical accuracy. So, we thought, ‘Let's be big and expressive. These are kids, the world's huge to them.’ And then, let's be as small as we can and just bring those corners all the way in and keep it round.”

“We watched a lot of Aardman animation where they go from a big toothy mouth to a little one with no teeth,” Venturini adds. “They'll go to these shapes where there's no teeth and we thought, ‘Let's do that.’ So, we also developed the ability to turn the teeth on and off over a single frame if we wanted. Those were some of the things that influenced us that we thought were playful, fun, more emotionally expressive, and less chained to reality.”

— Dan Sarto, “Creating the Stylized, 2D-Inspired Fun of Pixar’s Luca”

[otteroflore]

mlp opinions under cut

read a post online that was someone who didn't like g4 but liked g5 mlp and I decided to watch some clips and... woof that was bad.

theres a lot of subjectivity to the mlp style and aesthetics but for me what it boils down to is that the g5 ponies look like someone looked at g4 and made it 3D, as opposed to looking at an actual pony. I've seen people criticize g4 for being too cartoony and not looking enough like horses, but if you look at the development drawings you can tell that a lot of work was put into stylizing them in a specific way.

I kind of feel like g1 had that too, you can see how the ponies are stylized off real ponies, and then g3 has a similar problem to g5 where it feels more based off of the previous cartoons than looking at a real horse.

Anyways, that all isn't inherently a problem, it's a cartoon and highly stylized. I watched the g5 movie when it came out and it was fine, a little boring tbh but the ponies were okay, I like how they have realistic hair and their bodies look fuzzy. I really don't like how skinny they are, like the chibi body + big head was cuter in g4 when it was a 2D cartoon but looks bizarre as a 3D object to me

which segues into my other thing which is... the pony toys from the new generation are the ugliest in all of my little ponydom, and i didnt even like g4's toys much but they were like half a step above. i cannot get over how bad their bodies are.

when i was a kid i took an all-ages art class on how to draw a horse, and the 2 things i took away from it were: you start by drawing a bean shape for the body, and a circle with a rectangle as the face

like 99% of horses boil down to this shape

regardless of other anatomical (leg) errors, this is how g1 looked

this was true of the animation too, you can generally see a divot in their back

are the characters from mlp g4 cartoony? yes, but

despite shrinking both THE BEAN and the nose, its like the same shape, simplified.

every single one of the g5 toys has no bean, their body like... narrows at the waist so much which is so bizarre to me. but its like theyre allergic to giving it a curved shape so its just all flat lines. and i find the hooves so much more disturbing when detailed because none of the rest of it is anatomically accurate so WHY did they add more detail there. its the very epitome of that meme about fetishists drawing extremely detailed feet.

besides that, the head is placed?? ?at the center of the neck?? presumably to help them stand up because their back half is so skinny but it just looks hideous. the eyes are closer together and the face generally flatter so they look more "Anthro" from the front- g4 had them on model from the side instead, so if you looked at the front of the face their eyes would be far apart, but it would be more like how a horse has eyes on the sides of their head:

im not 100% on this but it also looks weirdly like the g5 hair was just put on top of the head, every g5 pony ive seen doesn't have a many, just like a ponytail at the top. the g4 ponies dont have hair all the way down their backs, but its far enough that it falls naturally like a mane.

also i for some reason cannot get this image comparizon out of my head. they dont look that similar, i think its the colors mostly, but once seen i cannot unsee.

anyways i hate these dolls so much, ive stared at them for too long. i was going to complain about how the voice acting in the show is extremelyy rough, the songs are all pop songs, the animation of the mouth is bizarre, the animation of the body is unnaturally fluid and anatomically bizarre, but ive ranted too much already. byeeee