visual-reference - Tumblr blog

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kill the shift manager in your brain

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couples themed photoshoots and old romance films have such a Grip on me they're all so destian and it makes me unwell LIKE

LIIIIIIIIIKE

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Mermaid tail shape concepts.

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The most important writing lesson I ever learned was not in a screenwriting class, but a fiction class.

This was senior year of college.  Most of us had already been accepted into grad school of some sort. We felt powerful, we felt talented, and most of all, we felt artistic.

It was the advanced fiction workshop, and we did an entire round of workshops with everyone’s best stories, their most advanced work, their most polished pieces. It was very technical and, most of all, very artistic.

IE: They were boring pieces of pretentious crap.

Now the teacher was either a genius OR was tired of our shit, and decided to give us a challenge.  Flash fiction, he said. Write something as quickly as possible.  Make it stupid.  Make it not mean a thing, just be a quick little blast of words. 

And, of course, we all got stupid.  Little one and two pages of prose without the barriers that it must be good. Little flashes of characters, little bits of scenarios.

And they were electric.  All of them. So interesting, so vivid, not held back by the need to write important things or artistic things. 

One sticks in my mind even today.  The guys original piece was a thinky, thoughtful piece relating the breaking up of threesomes to volcanoes and uncontrolled eruptions that was just annoying to read. But his flash fiction was this three page bit about a homeless man who stole a truck full of coca cola and had to bribe people to drink the soda so he could return the cans to recycling so he could afford one night with the prostitute he loved.

It was funny, it was heartfelt, and it was so, so, so well written.

And just that one little bit of advice, the write something short and stupid, changed a ton of people’s writing styles for the better.

It was amazing. So go.  Go write something small.  Go write something that’s not artistic.  Go write something stupid. Go have fun.

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Bzztt

LoopyArt

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The Character Wardrobe Meme

Send a number to my ask box along with a character of your choice, and I’ll draw up the ensuing ensemble! (If the character chosen wouldn’t wear the option given… go ahead and sub in something else!)

DRAW YOUR CHARACTER WEARING…

Underwear

Casual clothes

Work uniform

Night clothes

Swimwear

Formal gala garb

Lounging, lazy-time stuff

A party outfit

Date night threads

Something outdoorsy

Interview outfit

Tourist/travel wear

A costume!

Their sick day scrubs

Summer clothes

Winter clothes

Um, spring clothes?

Why not - fall clothes!

Workout wear

Last minute throw-ons

The most expensive thing they own

A fig leaf

Feel free to add, subtract, or alter as you please to fit your character bunch!

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Courtney McCullough in LA

Photo by Matthew Takes

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I am literally in love with Courtney McCullough’s hair/aesthetic

Photos by Courtney McCullough

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How to Draw a Rose

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Also had a pic of Walter at the beach drawn tonight. Kinda sloppily thrown together but eh..

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When your character is lying in the dark and the pain and then their rescuer finally arrives and they’re gasping their name in disbelief and grabbing for them and they’re clinging to them so tightly and grasping fistfuls of their clothes and burying their face in their shoulder and accidentally smearing blood on their shirt and sobs of relief are wracking their whole body and it’s over, it’s finally over.

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In a story I'm planning to write, I want to have 2 gay male spies. The problem is, because it takes place in 1960, I'm concerned that neither of them would actually pursue a relationship with the other for fear of social stigma associated with being gay. Do you guys think I should make them have a relationship anyway even though they're both "in the closet" or should they just be friends? Thanks so much.

Gay people were pursuing relationships long before then, Anon, albeit secretly.

Just because your characters live in a period where homosexuality was heavily stigmatised, this doesn’t mean you should censor their sexuality out. Gay relationships still happened, just in very covert, hidden ways. Portraying positive representations for the LGBT+ community in your writing doesn’t mean erasing historical experiences.

My advice for you is this: read into LGBT+ history and consume media set in this same time frame with gay characters represented, to get a better understanding of how it was to be a gay man in the 1960s. After that, it’s up to you how you develop your story, but don’t be intimidated to write what you want to write, just because it will be a challenge to write it.

As long as you tackle this topic sensitively, and backed by good, solid research, there’s no reason why you can’t write about two gay spies in the 1960s if that’s what you feel needs to be written. Here are some links to get you started:

Further Reading

Articles

Key dates for lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality

1960: A Turning Point

Gay and Lesbian Rights (1960s)

Gay marriage makes big gains, but attitudes are stuck in the 1960s

Videos

The LGBT Movement: 1960s-Today

Coming Out in the 1960s

How We Got Gay (Full Documentary)

As Seen on TV: An Exploration of LGBT Characters: 1954-1979 - Compilation Video

Recalling Gay NYC Life in the 1960s

Books

This is a small list to act as a starting point - our followers might have more recommendations. I’ve tried to pick books set or written in the 1960s, but there is a lot of LGBT lit from the 70s/80s onwards that you could also look into if you want to be more comprehensive in your research.

The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, Vito Russo

The City and the Pillar, Gore Vidal

Quatrefoil, James Barr (contemporary for its time, so worth a look).

Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg

City of Night, John Rechy

Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin

Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown

Best of luck, Anon, I hope this helps.

- enlee

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This is cool but I’m laughing so much at the guy in the background I’m drunk tired

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As requested! A tutorial on faces will be coming soon as well.

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OK SO this is how I showed perspective to a student that was having difficulty visualizing it

Draw the buddy

Use a transformation tool

fill it up like a baloon not forgetting some things cover others

Keep going! That way you keep your proportions right, etc

And don’t forget references for the angles