#wow me not drawing Tolkien or Star Wars

[sponge-goblin-art]

Oh, don't leave me here alone

Don't tell me that we've grown

For having loved a little while

Oh, I don't wanna be alone

I wanna find a home

And I wanna share it with you - Hello My Old Heart by The Oh Hellos

The natural consequences of watching Howls Moving Castle with an Oh Hellos discord server

[awlwren]

Favorite Character from 10 Fandoms

I was tagged by @shieldmaidenofsherwood and @exlibrisfangirl. Thanks for thinking of me! No thanks for making me make decisions. :(

Rules: List your favorite character from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people.

Rather than try to actually chose, I'm just going to do the last 10 characters I used their tag to find fic for on Ao3, from most recent to least.

Nyx Ulric from Kingsglaive/Final Fantasy XV. RIP to your feeds; this man has captured my attention for almost a full year now. Wow. He is trying so hard to save his friends in spite of everything, but also isn't afraid to chew people out who need to hear it. There are so many blanks to fill in, too.

Elrond Peredhil from the Hobbit/LotR/Silmarillion. A very old, but enduring fave from back when my dad read the Hobbit to me when I was eight or so and started my love for Tolkien. He was wise and smart and helpful, and gave people shelter. Instant fave. Nice to see him getting some more love lately!

Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan from the Vorkosigan Saga. All you people here on tumblr made me decide to start the series and I adored her and her husband and so was very disappointed to see less of them as the series shifted to their son, not that he isn't fantastic! But I've always had a weakness for the previous generation, so this is nothing new.

Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, my original blorbo, as the children say. I got introduced to Star Wars when I was six and it has been an obsession ever since. What can I say, I am basic and weak for main characters. I was heavy into the EU and so I started to draw away when Episode II came out and I could see it killing itself trying to cope with contradictions, but Luke, with such a burden always trying will always be a favorite. 4b. Mara Jade also has gotten a character tag search, but she is in the same fandom so she doesn't get her own number. But don't neglect her!

Jason Todd from Batman comics. I fell sideways into this fandom through an old mutual who loved him, and since that's how I came into the fandom I have stuck with him. I tend to latch onto a character and stay loyal, so here I am, through some very bizarre characterization and storyline choices, having learned from this man and fandom how to pick and chose fanon and canon very harshly. Definitely a character that when written well is very very good, and when written badly (or how I don't like) is horrid. 5b. This is basically a (hopefully more mature) carbon copy of how I got into BtVS through a friend obsessed with Spike.

Clark Kent from Superman comics/shows (yes this counts as separate fandoms). Another oldie. My grandparents had the 1940s cartoons as some of the few brother-approved VHS tapes they had, so I watched a lot of it, and then STAS came out and I was hooked. What can I say, I love characters who always try so hard to be the best they can be, and the reminder that even the Man of Tomorrow, for all his powers, can't do everything.

Meliara Astiar and Vidanric Renselaus from Crown & Court Duel by Sherwood Smith. Yes, both of them, shut up. I got on a nostalgia kick and they have a few excellent fics on Ao3. Ultimate culture clash, all the tropes and they make it work.

Trafalgar Law from One Piece. (No, I am not caught up and will not be until Wano is done.) He...he also tries so hard but in a different way. He tries to be serious in Luffy's world and it never works and it's great. Trash man trying to be creepy and trying so hard. And he's genuinely badass, he just cares too much and it cracks me up. And then his backstory breaks my heart.

Eve Baird from The Librarians (tv show). Mama Baird knows what she wants and knows her skills and is doing all she can to protect her idiot Librarian and equally chaotic LITs, but isn't afraid to admit when she needs to learn from them as well.

Alberich from Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey. Another nostalgia lookup, with even less fic. I like mentors, okay? I like older people learning and teaching and I always have, even when I was young. I actually haven't read much of this series, but I got his two books and enjoyed them, and didn't do much with the rest.

I'm going to chose to interpret the lack of women on this list as a critique of the books I read and not solely of me myself. But it's a good trend to see as I try to figure out what to procrastinate by reading next. (as is the appalling lack of explicit POC. Ouch.)

Again, these are the most recent character tag searches I've done on Ao3, not my top 10 characters, because this took less decisions, honestly.

Absolutely no-pressure tagging of @garbria, @whumpwriterforlife, @starjunco, @sanzochan, @whostarlockeda03, @noirbriar, @newlyorange, and @maychorian, along with anyone else who wants to go. I would love to get more character reccs, honestly. It's gotten me started on two series that I've enjoyed but haven't gotten far enough in to seek out fic yet for risk of spoilers. ^_^

[luwucas04]

About 4000 (I am so sorry) Words Concerning Films that Helped Define My Existence

Ah, movies. So much in one package. Story, music, visuals, what’s not to love? Today I shall be elaborating on the most noteworthy films in the thrilling ever-changing saga that continues to be my life. Screenplay alongside a screenplay, if you will (please take this statement as modestly as you can).

The first ever thing in my entire life that I remember being an avid and enthusiastic fan about was the original Star Wars saga, written and directed by George Lucas, spanning May 1977 (A New Hope) – May 2005 (Revenge of the Sith).

As mentioned in the podcast and as you may be able to tell from said podcast, I can’t really pinpoint an exact point in my life where I was introduced to it as it was kinda integrated into my upbringing from the get-go—and due to this it’s a very near and dear franchise to me. And oh boy fun fact my first ever childhood crush was Luke Skywalker (I vividly recall my uncle asking why I had his page bookmarked haha). I remember it was something that I would always watch with my dad and or grandpa, and then when I couldn’t find the VCR set that we had for it, I officially commenced my illicit streaming career (not really though, I didn’t get very far. Only crappy 20-minute clips on YouTube). Star Wars for me was the first thing that I actively sought out stuff for or showed genuine interest in pursuing if that makes sense. Like, you’d watch whatever movies or shows were thrown at you and you never thought much of them. Ohoho not Star Wars, though, that one lasted years. My cousin and I would always bring our little action figures to play with whenever we visited—or we’d find long-ish sticks in the backyard and have lightsaber fights, I got the video games, posters, Lego sets of ships (X-wing and Y-wing to be exact), an entire encyclopedia that I still own to this day (I just checked and there’s a date written inside, April 9th 2010 (which is my 7th birthday)), and of course inspiration for my own art and such. I remember I made this magazine that was essentially just me redrawing pages from the guidebook I had. I still have it, too! Sitting at the bottom of a drawer right now. Also, later on for some reason I absolutely loved drawing Ashoka Tano. Over and over again man. I drew her taking up my cousin’s entire driveway in chalk once.

Not only are the Star Wars films a nostalgic and comforting series, but it held onto its marvel throughout the. Wow well over 10 whole years, I’m getting old. Additionally, because at the time we didn’t have as much access to the things we can achieve with modern technology, I was basically all on my own with it. I fueled my own fascination. And shockingly, not a lot of people in my elementary school (up until maybe grade 6-7) showed much interest in it either. So it was pretty much just me myself and I, and occasionally my cousin whenever he visited, and I think that made it all the more special to me. Also, at the time I think it was geared way more toward kids. There weren’t series like The Mandalorian or active internet communities that were obsessed with the series as far as I was aware, so there wasn’t the same quantity of content nor overall enthusiasm around it. Nonetheless, it was and still is a very personal series due to how engrained it is into basically every aspect of my childhood. I’ll try not to be too repetitive with what I said in the podcast, but ultimately the clear nature of the franchise (attractive character designs, colours, setting in general (it’s an action-packed space adventure what’s not to love)) is what really made me latch onto it, and it kickstarted my interest in the very essence of media and understanding the film medium and what it has to offer. I remember asking how they got Jar Jar to exist on screen and he told me they made him out of CGI, and I interpreted that as they somehow made a real-life computer model out of him and that they were actually interacting with like a physical, solid hologram. Anyway, revisiting the franchise and diving into more of its intricacies now (like the production diaries) is like an absolute goldmine. There are so many aspects of it that 100% contributed to and nurtured my goals, passions, and ultimately who I am as a person. Here is some of my very recent art for good measure:

Up next up we got Lord of the Rings (dir. Peter Jackson, December 2001 – December 2003) or I guess a better way to put it would be those plus The Hobbit (December 2012 – December 2014) trilogy. I think it was earlier than the Marvel phase (which follows this section) because like Star Wars I can’t really remember my first viewing of it, but I definitely watched it all. It might’ve been around grade 3 so 2011-ish? Quick anecdote, one time I had a sleepover I was really excited for, and as we all know when you’re excited for something as a kid and it’s later on in the day, time doesn’t actually pass at all, and so my genius ass decided to flip on The Fellowship of the Ring and boom it was 5 pm and time to leave. Also my grandparents from my mom’s side of the family (they’re German so we call them oma and opa) were visiting once and my opa (grandpa equivalent) wanted to watch something so I was like “omg Lord of the Rings is perfect there are so many characters he can feel empowered by (Gandalf and Saruman because they’re old)”. Phenomenal logic—now thinking back it was probably much too violent for his tastes but yknow.

I love Lord of the Rings so much because it’s the true embodiment of an ideal fantasy story; there’s such pure character dynamics and personalities and Tolkien created such an incredibly solid world in which these stories take place. Man knew his stuff, and in turn provided a charming and utterly wonderful scape for young minds to roam free within. I was going to talk about this if I did my other culminating idea regarding masculinity within the media, but I have the perfect opportunity to do so here: something so great about said world is how sincere and genuine a lot of the male characters are (yknow minus people like Denethor and Alfred). Namely the fellowship, they all openly care for and are affectionate towards one another, something we rarely see between men both in modern media and in real life. Aragorn is a perfect example of someone owning and being comfortable in his masculinity. He is kind to and uplifts others, and communicates openly with them. He isn’t afraid of being intimate and vulnerable towards them, either. We see this in Boromir’s death scene. Aragorn doesn’t patronize him for trying to take the Ring, he consoles Boromir in his last moments and they treat each other with the utmost tenderness and respect—not callously or stiffly. Right after decapitating an orc, Aragorn is still able to run to his side, hold him, and kiss him on the forehead following his passing. Aragorn also isn’t afraid to share fame or glory, in fact he never seeks it out in the first place despite his lineage. It was at the battle of Helm’s Deep that he embraced that destine to be king, not out of lust for power, but because these people needed guidance and leadership and he could provide it for them. He elevates others in an incredibly positive and empowering way, especially Frodo and Éowyn, and is content with the fact that the story is not about him. Even at his own coronation, he directs every single person’s attention to the literal earth-saving feat that the hobbits have achieved in light of his own massive accomplishment. He is such a great role model to have been able to look up and aspire to be like, and I wish there were more characters and people like him.

I was a fan of those original films at an earlier point in my life, but the thing that brought that interest back a little stronger was undoubtedly the release of the Hobbit prequels. Like the Star Wars prequels, everyone can say what they want but they are very gorgeous to me. I skipped out on seeing Frozen with my class to go see The Desolation of Smaug with my dad and that was SUCH a good decision. Although, I’m rewatching them all now and Battle of the Five Armies kinda sucks at the beginning. They kill Smaug in like the first five minutes and like it wasn’t bad but it was very anticlimactic. I also don’t like how they shoved Legolas in there, his personality is really jaded and he’s kind of a big prick in those films. But it’s fine I love Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage and the rest of the dwarves the most. They were obviously the most significant and I like them a lot, and there are three movies as opposed to the one book so there’s even more content!

WHEW sorry about that anyway The Hobbit really was the revival/rekindling of that past love for Tolkien’s world. I also had a good close friend who was also along for the ride as well—being able to be into these things alongside someone is always fun and I’m grateful she was there and shared my same energy. She had the Lego game for that one, very similar free-roam concept as my Marvel one (coming up next), so we had lots of fun with that too. To reiterate, I am rewatching these movies again now as an older person with like an actual conscience, and my takeaway from them is vastly different on more of like… a philosophical level, I suppose. I appreciate the process of things more and the backstory behind Tolkien’s lore and the timeless characters and deeper meanings that he’s conceived. But that wouldn’t be very chronological of me to go into it here so moving on.

Proceeding next, around grade four at the most (so just after it came out), I watched The Avengers (dir. Joss Whedon, 2012). Not only did this single-handedly make my art convictions explode (in a good way), it also instigated my love for soundtracks (and also the entire Marvel universe but we’ll obviously be covering that very soon).

The Avengers was like an epiphany for me. Literally ground-breaking and earth-shattering. Changed my entire 10-year-old life. It was all that I ever wanted and more, and since it was around 2012-13 that I became aware of its existence, the internet community was blossoming with possibilities and content. That same friend liked it as well! My Avengers/Marvel phase definitely rivals my Star Wars phase; I think I watched The Avengers first, and then my dad was like “yeah ok you need to watch everything else now” and so henceforth Captain America and Iron Man and Thor. Those were very good times, and I actually remember experiencing all of them for the first time ever. The Christmas of 2013 was absolutely wild. I only got Marvel related gifts which was incredible at the time. My first ever ‘art of’ book was for the Avengers film, too! I also got an arc reactor shirt that actually lit up and I thought that was the absolute coolest thing ever, and then I remember I cut my tongue on this candy I was eating and my mouth bled profusely for a while. However the most iconic gift of all was my copy of Lego Marvel Superheroes for the PS3. I finished it in about 2 days, and it’s the only Lego game that I’ve gotten 100% completed progress on. I love that game dearly and still play it sometimes. The thing that I love specifically about it was the ability to free-roam the entirety of New York City as any character you wanted, me and that friend would do that exclusively for hours on end and make up our own stories with all the characters. Here is Galactus perusing the streets

Speaking of characters, this was the first thing that really got me making up and drawing a shit ton (apologies for lack of a better phrase) of original characters. I’d make superhero characters for me and my friend (ok I guess I should give her a name huh), Mackenzie, and even for random people in my class cause we needed to fill in some blanks in the stories we’d make. I’d create comics, write little stories, make variation after variation of these people we came up with, and of course like normal children me and Mackenzie would go to the park near my old house and pretend we were said characters. Man it was so fun. Then we’d do all those personality quizzes to find out which member you were most like. Mackenzie and I would do these quizzes on none other than our state-of-the-art BlackBerry playbooks. For me it was usually either Iron Man or Thor, and Mackenzie had this weird curse where she’d only ever get Loki as a result for anything at all which was very hilarious to me. Circling back to soundtracks, The Avengers OST was one of my first full album purchases. The main theme was my favourite track out of all of them for obvious reasons, but I still paid respects to all of them and listened to it often. Since I bought it with my dad’s Apple ID, it’d show up on the communal iPad that we used for music in the kitchen and I have full recollection of my grandpa playing it on blast in the morning to wake us up one time. I was aggravated at first but then when I realized what it was I was like ah yes of course. After the Avengers soundtrack, I got the Wolverine (2013) OST and that was fun but I didn’t like all the tracks in the same way, but THEN I got the Days of Future Past soundtrack. THAT is a good soundtrack AND a phenomenal film.

Anyway, after that I was a Marvel connoisseur for a little while. Like Star Wars I got an entire character encyclopedia, a bunch of comics, posters, you name it. My parents and sister also enjoyed dabbling in stuff too; we’d watch the animated series together on Netflix and eventually ended up seeing all the new movies together when they came out in theatres (except not my mom though cause she gets motion sickness from action films). Marvel was a staple in the adolescence stage of my life before I was introduced to anime (then it was all downhill from there (I am kidding anime was a part of my life that I look back at with great fondness)). It was reason for so much of what I explored with my art and my own imagination, and was one of my first experiences in what it was like to be a part of a fandom-esque community. There were also memes ripe for the picking when it came to Marvel; as one can assume I had no access to memes in kindergarten to grade 1 in the late 2000s. It was such a lovely and warm point in my life, something that established what kind of passion I really poured into something when I really liked it. And akin to Star Wars, there’s just so much to like about it. There’s so much to offer, an array of colourful characters and storylines—and of course, creative liberty when it came to superpowers and that whole narrative. The sky was literally the limit. Here is some of my ancient 2014 portraiture that I dug up for the sake of this assignment

Ok heads up we are now veering AWAY from childhood content and touching on a film that played a more personal part, namely during a very pivotal point, in my life. I picked up The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 1999) at a bookstore and read it at the speed of light; I was crying in my room on my bed by the time I finished it. I love how we see Charlie’s character change over the course of the novel, not only through what he describes or how he perceives things but his style of writing in general. Anyway, I wanted to read the novel first before I watched the movie (dir. Stephen Chbosky 2012), and I was pleasantly surprised by how accurate the movie is to the book (well duh the author directed it). I read/watched this right before I started high school, so I was kind of (but not really considering the built-up childhood trauma he has yikes) in the same position as the protagonist, Charlie, as he was starting out (minus a lot of the major aspects of his character and what he went/goes through (like drugs)). A lot of the things that he learns were really important takeaways for me before heading into that new chapter of life like he did.

Contrary to the title of the (I know it started out as a novel but I’m just gonna say film) film, you need to put yourself out there and advocate for yourself in life. It’s great to be a trustworthy individual whom everyone is vaguely aware of and likes, but you need to approach things with reason and make yourself known somehow. At the time, both before and during grade 9, and even still sometimes in the present (though I do it more deliberately now), I found myself just standing on the sidelines as life happened before me and I let it sweep me away without having any feet planted on the ground. It was like I wasn’t in control of it, and in turn I might’ve struggled in some areas more than I should have. I didn’t own anything, like I wasn’t totally present. Similar to Charlie, I was a person who’d always be there for others, someone people could talk to and confide in, and ultimately someone people truly enjoyed having around—which is pretty great. But I didn’t fully know my position or what I ultimately wanted in any of those situations. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful for my entire freshman experience and I absolutely wouldn’t have wanted it any other way considering all personal circumstances, but with that foreknowledge of the importance of making a name for yourself, especially in high school, I think I was able to branch out with ease a bit more than I would have without it. I at least was aware of what was going on in that sense. That movie is really special to me because it ended up being a pseudo-mirror of my own experiences. Charlie’s English teacher, Bill, embraced his writing abilities and urged him to participate more, share his own thoughts, and express more of his personality by giving him books for extra reading. My first ever semester of Laurier did the exact same for me as Bill did for Charlie. It fostered my interests and intellectual abilities, and you guys constantly urged me and everyone else to go above and beyond what we were used to because you knew we could do it (even though I feel like I could’ve done a lot better on some things as my marks in grade 9 are a bit lower than I’d like them to be, but hey it was a time of adjustment and I did my best and that’s what matters). As a direct result of Laurier, I’m really lucky to have been surrounded by an amazing group of passionate students, a handful of which became my closest friends throughout high school, and that my very first teachers of the day were people who uplifted me and genuinely cared not only about furthering my academic work, but about my growth as a person.

Whew let’s wade out of the sap and get into some more energetic stuff!!! To tie off this recollection of my life through film the most recent and notable movie that impacted my life was, the one and only, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (dir. Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman, 2018). Similar to The Desolation of Smaug and Frozen, I went with my dad to the cinema but parted ways with him to watch this movie by my lonesome (he went to the Aquaman theatre instead smh). Again, phenomenal choice. I talked about this in my grade 11 blog, but Spider-Verse is an absolute masterpiece in every way shape and form.

At the point I watched it, I knew what I wanted to generally do with my life (be part of the art industry) and the visuals of this movie alone were enough to make me want to elope with it and never see or talk to anyone ever again. It is such a gorgeous film. The way they strayed from the yucky 3D conventions norm—and there is literally no way they could’ve done the majority of what they did in that movie effectively if they did it live action. Or, they could definitely try and make an attempt, but it’d look like garbage. For example, a lot of the action scenes in general and also when they become abstracted like with the particle collider. 40-60 fps would not do that sense of movement justice at all. Too smooth. Not enough grit and personality.

Anyway, they also pioneered new animation techniques in mixing 2D and 3D, and explored a newer superhero trope where the main character’s own mundane life struggles are equally as important as him trying to sort things out with these new powers. It’s more of a battle between what Miles wants with his own personal life—new school, the friends he won’t be able to see because of said new school, owning his own abilities and adjusting to change. Then on top of that he’s met with all these alternate-dimension people that he has to work and be on par with. Aside from the art, I thought the overall message was every special: Miles learns through trial and tribulations, unsureness—and most importantly, failure. Confidence and optimism, in regard to what he thinks he can and can’t do, is vital. Amidst everything he is faced with, he starts out as just another kid who wants to be just another kid. But we all have something special inside us that we must choose to embrace if we want to truly flourish. We see him come to terms with the fact that he really is capable of greatness if he sets his mind to it—and that’s the main message: anyone can wear the mask. And can we talk about that soundtrack??? Not only the instrumentals, but the actual songs were great too! “Sunflower” and “What’s Up Danger”? Lovely and fitting. And back to the OST, the Prowler’s theme??? Shivers.

There is such a unique and beautiful vibe to this movie, and it’s inspired me in more ways than one. Aside from that nice motivational stuff, it also has recently played a tremendous part in developing my own art. All of the artists who worked on the film are people I immediately tried to find on social media so I could see more of their work. I purchased the art book, and even bought a 2D sequence illustration course provided by one of the art directors, Patrick O’Keefe. That course also came with the (digital) brushes he uses, and I’ve used them in pretty much every single one of my pieces since downloading them. This movie really showed me the possibilities of what could be achieved in the art industry, and it made me want to be a part of it so much more than I was before. I want to be involved in revolutionary visual achievements, and I want to develop characters and stories and worlds that are as interesting and loveable as the ones in Spider-Verse. (my stuff featured below)

So there you have it folks, 5 (five) of the most significant movies in my life relayed in a whopping just over 4000 words. I hope this has been enlightening for all you readers out there, perhaps you now have a better understanding of how I came to be personality/interest-wise, and I hope you can catch a glimpse of that same importance these pieces of media have in regard to me and my values.

[arcane-villain-blog]

I played Warcraft III since 2003 year, when I had 12 years old and I was a huge admirer of Tolkien and his Middle-Earth. When I started orc and human campaign, I loved everything from Warcraft, but Night Elves filled my heart with special kind of love. Now it’s 2017, I have 26 years old, I don’t play WoW much since few years, I even don’t know exactly what’s going on in Azeroth now (well, there were some alternative universe-timetraveling orc bullshit, fanservice-zombie-elf-bitch is the Warchief of the Horde, there were some spaceship Star Wars with Legion on the spacegoats’ home planet, in Suramar is still blooming civilisation of lost elves even if Maiev never met them in the Frozen Throne, Illidan has strong personality disorder after plot resurrected him again so he broke Turalyon’s favourite glowing Lego, blah, blah, blah) and it’s not the Warcraft I felt in love with... but I will never stop love the Night Elves. I don’t care they turned into sissy-hippie-treehuggers in Cata and MoP, I will still remember them as they were in Warcraft III. Enough of preface, blah, blah, blah, it’s not interesting at all. What is interesting is the fact, that I will draw the Night Elves even if WoW will turn cold dead game remembered only by “90′ and 00′ kids”. They made me, now I’ll made them the way I remember them. So I wanted to doodle them again and ugain until I’ll master them enough.

First doodle is classic “perspective doodles”, I wanted to estabilish the most common and typical features of Night Elves, adapt them to my style with keeping the soul of Warcraft 3 and WoW models. Used Wowhead modelviewer as a referrence. They are Night Elven John and Jane Doe, next excersise will be practising some different facial features to avoid my tendency to sameface. Second doodle is playing with color schemes. From the top: 1. Common “Ashenvale” elves, as they are portrayed on most of official artworks. 2. Common elves - just like above, just lil’bit darker version, let’s call them “Darkshore” elves. 3. Druidism influenced elves - with amber/golden eyes, more brownish skin and greener hair. Let’s say they are “Hyjal” elves. Common color scheme used with portraying druids. 4. Arcane magic influenced elves, with more exotic color scheme - mostly used for portraying Highborne caste. Let’s call them “Suramar” elves. 5. Emerald Dream/Nightmare possessed elves. I hate the Fire Druids bullshit (really, druidism and fire? Who was drunk enough to made up such thing?) and I will never accept this, so I prefer the alternate lore version about Nightmare Druids. 6. Fel influenced elves. Theme used both in Felborne and Demon Hunters portrayal. .................... Forgive me sarcasm and harsh language. I’m normally nice and kind person, but I’m also very fanatical and antiquated when it comes to Warcraft lore, that’s why I usually don’t discuss about that. Let’s say that on my blog art is the only important thing, so I can promise there will be more and more art and less lore digressions and opinions.

[forceprojecdin]

“Art Is Technology”: Musings on George Lucas, 3D Movies & Art With Mike Klimo

The following comes from a facebook thread, of a conversation I had, with “Star Wars Ring Theory author Mike Klimo It really is what he (George Lucas) meant by "Art is technology." I have done further research into the biology of our brains and how it relates to art. An area of our brain deals specifically with recognising the unfamiliar, what's out of place. This area is mainly for survival, fo ex, in early human times we'd need to be aware of a dangerous animal appearing suddenly in the forest etc. The brain will turn on all of a sudden, our senses will perk up. However, his area also reacts what is different even in art. Seeing the yellow speeder fly through Coruscant in 3D will be different enough, that our brains which have grown too familiar with it, will all of a sudden turn on, and we'll feel that new excitement. Our emotional responses will even heighten. I still remember being blow away by how the composed 3D for Attack Of The Clones (which I was able to view at a special screening at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2015). Lucas himself said he used it artistically, to further direct where people's eyes went. This biology is why artists like Lucas push. They are following what;s natural about human life, essentially. They intuitively understand we need to turn on that areas of people's brains to get them to notice. Thus, the same old story told in a new way, with new technology, is new! And noticeable. Of course, that's just for converting older movies. The opportunities are endless. Even Guillermo Del Toro was against 3D, but after he spent 6 months converting Pacific Rim, he himself declared (in the Blu Ray special features) it became the way he intended the film to be seen. Films like Avatar, Hugo and Gravity are totally new 3D expressions. Even Guillermo Del Toro was against 3D, but after spending 6 months converting Pacific Rim, he said that was how the film should be see. Stephen Spielberg claimed he original shot Jurassic Park like it was a 3D film, so it’s conversion is actually the closest thing to his artistic intent. When a Raptor charged at the screen, I jumped! Peter Jackson went so far as to have is world renowned Tolkien artists Alan Lee and John Howe compose conceptual art for The Hobbit Trilogy, in 3D, with red and blue pencils; To artistically compose in 3D from the get go.  To me, these films only truly work in 3D, and that's what's great! Michelangelo's David is only ever going to "really" work seeing it in person, not on a 2D piece of paper. Further, 3D is natural for film in it's "rectangular" shape. Basically it's not much different from the thousands of years of relief sculpture in art. Even sculpture. It's not a gimmick, it's sculpting in 3D, just like artists have through history. It's just so cool that at this point in time, movies can truly combine painting and sculpture - with movement! This is what GL seemed to be excited about. Michelangelo would freak out viewing a 3D Star Wars film! It's pretty much as far as one can push the way we see film in it's "shape" now. VR is coming to change that "shape" but it will be VR. Seems to me it will be such a new environment, that it will be it's own thing. Just like painting in art, no matter how crazy conceptual and wild art gets, there will always be a place for the composition on the rectangular canvas. Wow, I really needed to say all that. Thanks Mike :)

John Howe (left) and Alan Lee (right) draw in red and blue pencils to compose 3D concept art for The Hobbit films.

Mike enjoyed this post and suggested I consider getting into writing about these things in the thread, so I posted it here! Thanks Mike * * *

[ginnyzero]

Knock Offs, Counterfeits, Clones, and Plagiarism

And how does this apply to Fashion and writing.

I’m a fashion person. I’m also a writer person. And the last three years or more I’ve spent more time being a writer person than I have been a fashion person. (My current dream job is putting together a girl targeted AAA noncombatant horse MMO with enough clothing skins to rival GW2. Yes. Goals! GW2 is known as Fashion Wars.) But both industries, and a lot of industries have a major problem with theft.

I’m not going to talk about outright e-book download theft and how that hurts authors. I’ve already done that.

No. I’m talking about creative theft. Writers and Fashion Designers stealing from other Writers and Fashion Designers. I’m talking about companies stealing the designs/ideas of Designers and Writers and copying them. I’m talking about knock offs and counterfeiting, genre clones and plagiarism.

Theft is the reason why we have copyright, trademarks and patents. Because human beings like to steal from each other for some reason and the easiest thing to steal are ideas. Ideas are hard to prove to be original. It’s hard to prove who had the idea first. (Fashion is just beginning to tiptoe into patents. Trademarking has been standard for years.)

So, what is the difference between a knock-off and a counterfeit?

Well, both are stealing. The knock off however doesn’t try to pretend that it’s from a famous brand name.

A knock off design is a long standing tradition in fashion. Designers like Worth would put out their designs for the new seasons in the windows, other seamstresses would come and sketch the designs and go back to their studios and make the same designs out of different fabric at a lower price. (And quite possibly a lower quality.) Apparently, I had a relative that could do this! She could go look at the designs in the window, sketch them and come home and pattern them out for herself. As far as I know, she did this without any formal training.

I could probably do this, but I do have formal training. I choose not to.

The knock off design isn’t pretending to be a gown from Worth or any current famous day designer. The Knock Off looks the same usually in different materials at a different price point and gives the customer a feeling that they have luxury goods even if the label is different.

In Asia, the customers are so obsessed with brand names and labels, that the high end companies have made it a point to have their products in three or four different price points so that all the customers can have their goods. (Or else no doubt knock offs and counterfeits would abound even more than they already do.) Now, this was a good decade ago. It might have changed. This policy hasn’t been instituted anywhere else that I’m aware of. But this is one way that big name brands can discourage knock offs, basically, by doing it themselves by embracing more than their “core customer.”

A knock off in writing. Well, it’s a clone.

Remember when the Hunger Games came out and everyone compared it to Battle Royale? And Suzanne Collins swore up and down that she’d never read that series or seen the movies or even heard of it. (Unless she was into anime, I’d believe her. Battle Royale was a bit niche even for anime.)

Dungeons and Dragons “ripped off” Tolkien. (As did Forgotten Realms.) Warhammer “ripped off” Dungeons and Dragons. WarCraft “ripped off” Warhammer. (Only because Warhammer backed out of a game deal with Blizzard and they had too much money invested to abandon the project. I bet Warhammer is wincing now.) And lots of MMOs ripped off World of Warcraft.

They’re clones. They’re genre clones. The difference between all of them is that none of them are claiming that they’re Tolkien. (Tolkien created a mythos based off the legends and tales of Europe, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Christianity.)

It doesn’t become a counterfeit or plagiarism until the writer directly lifts words from the other writer or tries to pass the garment/handbag/pair of shoes as coming from a high end company when they really don’t.

We’ll get to trademark infringement in a moment.

Using someone’s design stitch for stitch, color for color and putting in a label that can be mistaken for a high end company’s label like Gucci or Fendi etc is counterfeiting. Taking someone’s words, word for word, from another book, more than 50 words, without credit is plagiarism.

It’s stealing

Stealing is wrong.

Now, yes, to a certain extent knock offs are wrong too. Let’s not get into the idea that “oh, because I presented it as my own, it’s okay.” Knock offs and genre cloning are really this grey area. So, here is where we get into trademarks.

Trademarks were created by the gov’t in order to protect, along with copyright, intellectual property. Trademarks deal with words and visuals and in fashion, they deal with overall design details. Trademarks, the applying of trademarks and not applying for frivolous trademarks and trademark infringement is one of those things that gets lawyers involved and no one makes any money.

The Lord of the Rings is a trademark. Elves aren’t trademarked. Dwarves aren’t trademarked. The Lord of the Rings as a property is trademarked.

That eye searing color of pink that T-Mobile uses on its products and stores. Trademarked.

The double stitching on denim back pockets, the red tag on the back right pocket and the specific leather back tag on Levi Jeans, trademarked. (In fact, they even might be registered which is a step beyond trademarking.)

These are things that make each brand different. If you want to write high fantasy, you can’t use the series title “the Lord of the Rings.” Sure, go ahead and have rings in your story. The Shannara Chronicles did it, there is another series that did it that I can’t remember the name of. But you can’t title it, “The Lord of the Rings.”

If you’re a phone company, don’t even think about bothering to use anything close to that color of pink that T-Mobile uses. They’ll sue you for trademark infringement. Customers might confuse your store for theirs. And they can’t have that!

If you want to design a jean, don’t use double stitching across the back pockets, ban the color red from all your tags and for all that is holy don’t think to use the Levi Logo on a brown leather square on the back of the waistband (or that color of brown for that matter.) Those are Levi’s. People may see those things and think you’re wearing Levi’s. (And I mean, no line of double stitching in any design. It’s a no go.)

Creative people draw from other works of art and writings and from the world around them all the time. There are trends in media and there are writers/corporations/designers that want to jump onto those trends and try to get a bit of that money that everyone is spending on that particular trend at that particular time. (All the dystopian novels that came out after the Hunger Games. All the little WoW MMO Clones. Kanye West’s designs showing up in the windows and on the racks of H&M.)

There are literally writers dedicated to writing stories to fit Amazon search term/graphs. There are writers who take the themes and stories from other writers, dress it up in slightly different trappings and try to peddle it as original. They clone the work without changing it significantly. They use imagery and ideas and even words similar to other popular writers in order to try and leech off those other writer’s fan bases.

Now, I have an entire rant about not worrying about being too original because it’s all been done before.

What I’m saying here is don’t be so unoriginal and draw only from one work of stories or deliberately tread into another author’s trademarked series in order to try and present their works and brand as your own works and brand.

There’s a difference between a Lord of the Rings clone and a Lord of the Rings fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off. A clone is going to do more than just change the  “setting” and the “names.” A clone is going to introduce new plots and new ideas drawn from other sources than just Tolkien. Yes. It’s going to be, “Oh, this is similar to Lord of the Rings.” (The first Shannara book didn’t stray quite as far as it should have from Tolkien, for example.) But it’s still going to be different enough to say, “oh, and I see other mythologies and new themes are being explored and it’s advancing the genre.”

And if it doesn’t, then it’s a bad clone even if the names and settings have been changed. It remains that fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off of it.

In fashion, in general, I wince at “brands” that I can tell or have explicitly stated that they’re knock off brands.

They may not realize they’re knock off brands. If part of your company story is going to a store, buying a product and then finding out how to recreate it at a lower price point, then you’re a knock off brand. They may not get this because some, not all, the people who do this don’t have fashion training. And don’t know how fashion business works and why knocking off “styles” of stuff is bad. They didn’t design that style. They didn’t put thousands of dollars into researching how to make that shoe and make it comfortable from sole to last. They went and bought it at a store and copied it. Then they’re presenting it as their own under their name.

Why are they knocking off that handbag? Or shoes? Or item of clothing? Mostly, to make money. But their voice, their point of view as a person isn’t coming through because honestly, most of the time, they don’t have one. I’m talking about fashion brands here started by not fashion people who haven’t gone to school, or companies that don’t hire fashion designers. They make me whimper and cringe. Why? Why? Why? Money. Ohkay, profit isn’t a dirty word, but don’t you feel the least bit dirty taking someone else’s design and remaking it? How can you be remotely proud of that?

It bugs me.

Writers who deliberately want to make a Narnia clone or a Star Wars clone or insert popular trend of the moment clone make me wince as well. I have to ask myself, though I don’t ask them, what they think they’re bringing to the genre by just making another rendition of a popular thing? What questions are they asking? What themes are they exploring? Or are they just trying to make money? Do they really have their own story to tell? Where is their voice? Where is their personal experience?

Personally, if I want to read more of a popular universe, I go to AO3 or FF.net and I read fanfiction. Not only is it free, there’s roughly the same amount of good to bad that I’ll find on bookshelves. The characters are the characters I know and love and leaving a kudo or comment can make someone’s day! (Okay, leaving a review of someone’s book can also make an author’s day. Seriously! Leave reviews!)

When I sat down to write the first book of Heaven’s Heathens. I wanted to write Urban Fantasy. I like the worlds that Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs and Laurell K. Hamilton create. And there is a lot of Urban Fantasy on the shelves and it’s mostly mysteries. And it’d be easy, oh so easy, to create a clone of one of those worlds to put in all the different races and the tensions and try to put my own spin on that. (And there are plenty of writers who have done that!)

And I do have an idea like that. My idea draws on another popular genre as well. (And I’m amazed at how popular that genre is to be honest. It baffles me like Amish romances baffle me.)

But that didn’t feel right at the time. I didn’t want to be another clone of another urban fantasy. I didn’t want to be dystopia either. Even though that was popular at the time. I wanted to write about bikers and werewolves and touch upon themes that were important to me; belonging, family, emotional labor, feminism, healthy masculinity, different types of dating.

Straight up urban fantasy didn’t seem a good fit. Putting it in today’s world might be a bit touchy. And the only place I could think of where leather was accepted was post-apocalyptic fiction. And with that, I could set it into the future and have fun with technology making it science fantasy instead of just pure urban fantasy. There’s more adventures in science fantasies and I’m good at writing adventures and action. (And silliness, I’m good at silliness.)

Originality comes from taking the building blocks of different ideas and different designs and fitting them together in different ways to say new and meaningful things in your own voice. Remember, stealing from one person is plagiarism. Stealing from many is research.

Knock offs and cloning, counterfeiting and plagiarism, the deliberate and with intent stealing of other people’s creative work, words, writing and designs and presenting them as your own is wrong. Counterfeiting and plagiarism is straight up illegal. Knock offs and clones aren’t as long as they don’t stray into trademark infringement. Though there is a very good question about morals and ethics if you want to knock off another design or another book.

The reason why there are so many kitchen sink urban fantasies out there outside of the popularity of the genre, is because they don’t stray into trademark infringement, the worlds are different, the protagonists are different even if they are essentially all doing the same thing; solving mysteries. And there is nothing wrong with having 101 different types of kitchen sink urban fantasy mysteries with private eye wizards or mechanics or nurses or bounty hunters or security people or line cooks at bbq joints that double as assassins. (And those are the ones I’ve read.) Because the world building is different, the characters are different, the rules are different. They may be clones but they aren’t direct copies trying to pass themselves off as from super popular writer.

And readers like this because that means there are more kitchen sink urban fantasies for them to read (regardless of quality.)

So, if you want to write a kitchen sink urban fantasy go right ahead. Just, remember, you need to take your voice and your experience and your themes and infuse them into your writing by creating your own characters and writing in your own world instead of using someone else’s.

In fashion, it’s the same way. There are basic building blocks to fashion. There are basic ideas for clothes, the tailored jacket, the 5 pocket jean, the basic t-shirt, the pencil skirt and so on and so forth. And if you want to create a fashion label, then by all means, create a fashion label and remember that these basic building blocks (that everyone needs) are launching and jumping points for higher designed clothing. Don’t go out and buy someone else’s pencil skirt or t-shirt or bootie and cut it apart and trace their pattern. Take your voice, your experience with clothing and try to find out what is important to you in fashion, what types of things do you want to wear and others like you want to wear. Those are the fashion details you bring to your clothes!

Be yourself. Find your voice. Then, you don’t have to worry about being a clone or a knock off or being sued for copyright or trademark infringement. (Though looking into various fashion trademarks is a good idea to be honest.) If you have something you want to say and it’s important to you, you’ll find a way to say it without relying on the ideas of others.