#crosshatch musical | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

edenorisshitposting · 1 year

Note

So, for the ask game: 5, 14 and 15 maybe?

5. Anything you haven’t drawn yet but want to?

Another comic.. About a young girl who who meets a large, kind, wolf. The story has a beginning and and end, but I haven't figured out the middle yet. But when I do HEHEHE.... It's gonna be sad.

14. How has your art changed over the years?

Oh boy, it changed a LOT. I went from drawing nearly exclusively edgy anime boys in middle and high school, to completely ditching anime but still drawing characters all the time, to actually drawing environments more than people.

My style changed a lot too. I think today I draw in a much more graphic, illustrative style. Kind of european comics inspired. Compared to my old thinking of "it's only good if it looks like the art on magic the gathering cards" (which it never did). I often just use one (two if I'm filling fancy!) additional colour, rather than fully colouring every artwork. Truth is, many of my illustrations don't actually need colour! There's so much more WHITE (or blank paper) on my art now, and I use it in much smarter ways. It actually adds to the composition now, rather than just be space I didn't bother filling out.

If you fancy a trip down memory lane, scroll all the way down on my instagram, or my art blog down to my pre uni days. it's different.

15. Biggest artist pet peeve?

You're adding too many details with your white gel pen, and it's making things look shiny that aren't supposed to be. You're buying art supplies with cute packaging that are garbage in quality (looking at you Himi Jelly Guache!). The same white girl with vacant expression on a blank background does not evoke as deep of a meaning as you think it does. You say your nude photographs don't come from a place of sexualising your subject, yet you photograph exclusively young skinny women (r/analog....). Shirts don't fold in between boobs like that. You're adding too many labels to your political cartoon. I can tell the person is being used as bait, because they're hanging from the end of a hook. No need to write "bait" on them in addition.

I'm gonna stop here before I make this post a mile long...

Ask thing

#ask thing #It accidentally turned into a rant at the last question there #I honestly could fill an entire longpost with just art pet peeves #I have a small bone to pick with youtube artists #which I am definitely blowing out of proportions and does not matter very much #But I swear to god if I see another mediocre ''ghibli frame study'' with himi guache and the same lo fi music....#AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE MOLSKINE SKETCHBOOKS #HATE HATE HATE #shit quality paper for way too much money #if you want a nice watercolour sketchbook get one form Khadi Mill #They're more sustainable #look nicer #better quality #100% cotton #for as much or sometimes even less money #Cass Art in the UK stocks them give em a shot #honestly some of the best paper I painted on #obviously not very suitable for inking or crosshatching but amazing for watercolour #or guache #ok I'll stop now for real

2 notes · View notes

riverpunx · 1 year

Text

(TW: eye stuff) This took around fifteen hours total to complete. I was recently wanting to make something horror themed and went from an idea for something small to a full poster of myself embroidering the iris of my eye. I was inspired a lot by the works of Junji Ito as well as my mom’s hate of anything to do with eyes (sorry mom). I also created a black metal inspired logo for my “Oddball” brand.

Here are some closeups

2 notes · View notes

trupowieszcz-moved · 10 months

Text

ART, WRITING AND MUSIC COMMISSIONS

TRADE OFFER:

I give you a drawing or a story or a music theme

You give me money (here: ko-fi.com/dravenaddams or through PayPal)

Showcase:

Art - $5-$35

Done with ink on paper, no colors. Prices may vary depending on your request, but I will keep them between $5 for small, simple sketches to a maximum of $35 if you want a whole scene. The style is visible below - crosshatching, medium amount of details et cetera. If I had to set a price for these examples, they would be around $10-$15.

I will gladly draw your D&D (or other ttrpg!) characters, monsters, furries etc; horror stuff is absolutely fine too.

I will not draw complicated outfits/armor, mechas and any sexual content, simply because you will not get your money's worth.

Writing - $5-$50

I can write you a story! As long as it's not fanfiction, because I can't legally do that. I can only write fanfiction for free, and my goal is to make money. However if you have some non-copyrighted characters (like your OCs) that you want to see in action, or simply want to read a story with specific tropes, you can absolutely pay me to do that. I can even write you an SCP or a tale in that universe - I have published 16 original works on the SCP Wiki and even more translations, and here the license allows me to commercialise it (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Here, the pricing is much easier to assess: it's $5 per 500 words. I will not write anything over c.a. 5000 words ($50). If I go up to 10% beyond the settled word limit (for example you commissioned me for around 1000 words, but I wrote 1100), the price will go up a little accordingly. However, if it's more than 10%, the maximum will stay at the 110% (so if I write 1200 words, you will still pay $11). I will try not to do that, though. Of course, it also goes the other way - if I feel like the story is done at 900 words, you will only pay $9 instead of the full $10 for 1000.

I will write: fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, basically anything that has some action in it. My style of writing is usually a little humorous, but that doesn't mean the story can't be serious and dramatic. I can also write erotica (don't be scared to DM me to ask about details).

I will not write: things containing religious trauma, "slice of life", romance, poetry.

Music - $15 per theme (additional but small fees may apply)

Have you ever wanted your beloved D&D character to have their own theme? Now you can make that dream a reality! Even if you've only ever thought about it at this specific moment! These themes were made in Musescore 3, but now I have access to FL Studio, so they will sounds even better!

youtube

Don't look at the art here, it's old. But the music still slaps.

Don't hesitate to DM me for any additional details! If you ask nicely, I might also do something that's not necessarily listed here.

#artists on tumblr #musicians on tumblr #writers on tumblr #commissions #dravencommissions #<-for blacklist if you are annoyed of me reblogging this post

157 notes · View notes

rassicas · 2 years

Photo

Summary of the new Splatoon character chart from the Nintendo JP website

I spent a couple hours writing up a summary of all the new, noteworthy, or otherwise obscure information from this character chart. Basically, if its lore that’s been mentioned in a more known source like a sunken scroll or in the game itself, I left it out. Click the link above to see the chart, its interactive and more than what I can fit in a single screenshot. Summary under the cut, with my own notes written in brackets.

Agent 3/S1 Player character -came from a region a little far from Inkopolis where there are many prosperous towns. they left their parents at age 14 and moved to the city. [old comic in the 1st artbook followed this backstory. mentions of parents are rare in splatoon lol] -the age that inklings gain their humanoid form varies, but its usually around age 14 [mentioned in 1st artbook, nice to see it brought up again] -some inklings keen on turf wars participate in competitions held in distant lands [probably in reference to IRL competitions] Agent 4/S2 Player character -came from a place about 40 minutes away from Inkopolis square by train, so they didn't have as much longing for the city as the S1 player character -was too busy with extracurriculars to know who Marie/the squid sisters were [previously mentioned in the S2 artbook] -many Salmon Runners have become "addicted" to the work Pearl -She thought of the Squid Sisters as rivals, but the 2 duos hit it off when they performed together in a distant foreign country. -When she gets serious, she builds up emotional energy by hopping side to side [in the JP version of Octo Expansion, she does this to build up her special to use the princess cannon. this was localized to her warming up her vocal chords in English.] Marina -She loves shoujo manga and practices her crosshatching -She got the groove of the squids in her soul after hearing the Inkantation [bringing this up because in the JP dialogue there's no mention of being 'freed of the oppression of Octarian society' or whatever. She wasn’t literally sci-fi mind controlled by Octavio, and still holds some respect for him despite leaving the Octarian world] -her description is "Maiden in love," the word for "love" seems to be the romantic type. [pearlina real???????] Callie and Marie -Callie loves the outdoors, while Marie is bad with both hot and cold weather -Their debut happened after their performance at a youth singing competition in their home region caught the attention of Shy-ho-shy, who then went on to become their producer [mentioned in Splatune album jacket] Agent 8 -worked in combat in Octarian society -really looks up to Agent 3 and has a “strong mental image” of them. Watched the battle between them and Octavio. [the inner agent 3 fight was never real, its just 8's active imagination. hence the name “inner” agent 3.] Judd and Lil Judd -Judd's eyes are able to instantly determine the winner of turf wars -the voice that you hear when first arriving in inkopolis is not some out-of-universe narrator, it's Judd talking telepathically -While Lil Judd is always plotting to backstab Judd, his plans fail because he's too small -Lil Judd is basically an omnivore, but is especially interested in 'crispy prawns' -once again it's brought up that judd and lil judd are the only 2 mammals to exist, and that judd is immortal. [considering Lil Judd was intended to be a back up for Judd in case he died in cryo freezing, I wouldn't be surprised if lil judd was immortal as well. hasn’t been confirmed tho] Capn Cuttlefish -[if you played Octo Expansion then nothing really new in his info, mostly stuff mentioned in the chat logs.] over 100 years old. made the zapfish plushies that appear in place of the real zapfishes when you replay a level. Annie and Moe -Annie is a fan of metal music -Sheldon sometimes asks her to help him decorate weapons -Moe is a bit overweight because Annie feeds him a lot of sweets

Crusty Sean -he can sometimes sense that Judd and lil Judd are looking at him in a "i want to eat you" way, but he doesn't seem to care. -not new info, but the tidbit about why he uses tickets instead of cash is mentioned. Basically when he first set up his food truck, the long lines were bothersome to the folks running The Shoal, so he worked with the Inkopolis chamber of commerce to set up the ticket system to cut down on lines and bring customers into The Shoal as well.

Jelonzo -his store doesnt sell pants because jellyfish dont wear pants [makes sense lol] Jelfonzo -He won the National Karuta Tournament on his first go because of all the old books he read to memorize the Inkling language. [This tidbit was referenced in splatoon 2's sunken scroll 8 but was never really explained. Karuta is a japanese card game thats been around since the mid 1500s.]

Sheldon -The building that houses Booyah Base is owned by Sheldon's family [I think this was mentioned before in a 2015 famitsu interview] -Sheldon's grandpa, Ammoses, made a fortune off selling weapons for use against the Octarians during the Great Turf War

Spyke and Murch -both came from the same town in a nothern region [previously mentioned in a famitsu interview] -Sea urchins are good at processing Super Sea Snails, and use their spines to dexterously remove the insides -the process of applying chunks is described as a technique(technology?) developed by Murch, and that sea snail shells are used to reapply gear abilities -Flow loves to dote on Murch

Flow and Craymond -Flow loves to drink alcohol, and when she gets drunk, she loves teasing cute kids. [in the 2nd artbook theres art of her getting drunk. In the chart, her thoughts on the player character is that they are a cute kid. This also explains why she dotes on Murch] -her age is unknown but the inklings think of her as a 'cool older sister' kind of lady -Craymond cleans up parasites that may have latched onto Flow

Bisk -the 3 shoes he wears are his favorites -mentions the thing about him leaving his lover to pursue a band career in the city of Inkopolis, but that’s not really new info CQ Cumber -Kamabo Co. continues operation nowadays just for the sake of those living in the Deepsea -CQ detonates the ink-filled backpack on test subjects when they fail without hesitation because they're faithful to their duties -life form created solely to operate the deepsea metro. there are many of them spread throughout the metro. [this tidbit was previously mentioned only in Haikara walker concept art and the Nintendo Dream interview in 2018] Telephone/Tartar -being left alone for over 10000 years made it go from 'lonely' to 'completely out of control' [the 'lonely' part was previously only mentioned in a couple dev interviews, nice to see it brought up again] Iso Padre -the bag he carries is said to be filled with 'hopes and dreams' DJ Octavio -described as indomitable, and able to escape and rise up after defeat -his wasabi DJ style is unique to him -the music played throughout the Octarian world is mixed by him. The rhythm regulates the dilligent octarians [again, Octavio is not literally mind-controlling his soldiers! think of 'regulate' like how a commander keeps a military in line.] -He once hijacked Inkling airwaves to provoke the Inkling world. The Inklings, however, thought it was a new promotion or something and didn't care, but they appreciated the music. Octarians -Extremely dilligent, follows the music that is played in Octarian society -due to their diligence, they dont really care about how their designs (of their machinery) look -There are two types of octarians: those that are made from tentacles cut off from a host, and those that can become humanoid. more limbs=more intelligence [Essentially, it seems that Octolings reproduce the same way as Inklings, while other Octarians like Octotroopers are made through severed tentacles. octarian reproduction FINALLY clarified after years of confusion massive W] Mr Grizz -described as a mysterious entity, seen by nobody and unknown whether he really exists -the benefit package for Grizzco is described as "excellent" : free transportation, no overtime, and free uniform rental -golden eggs are used as a high-performance energy source, and may be contributing to the overall energy situation in Inkling society [i speculated this for years FINALLYYYYY THEY CONFIRM THIS OUTRIGHT] -some inklings are addicted to the experience of using the illegally modified grizzco weapons, since its a feeling you cant get in normal turf wars... Salmonids -They can live in both land and water, and have the intelligence to weaponize junk that sinks underwater [like ive been saying guys salmonids arent a bunch of dumb animals, thanks] -many of them feel that they are prisoners to their part time jobs [im unsure if this is referring to ω-3 or to salmonids as a whole tbh] -[personal note: the "smoke rises from the 7 rings" bit from the sunken scrolls is brought up and not explained, but i finally realized... the seven rings is in reference to a shichirin 七輪, a small charcoal grill... the literal translation for the kanji is "7 rings." same tattoo ariana grande got lol]

#splatoon #splatoon lore #splatoon 3 #splatoon translations

937 notes · View notes

thetovplace · 18 days

Text

Fun Unicode characters I've found tonight:

Meroitic Hieroglyphic Letter Ba 𐦆

𐇯

Anatolian Hieroglyph A099 𔑮

Anatolian Hieroglyph A006 𔐅

Anatolian Hieroglyph A009 𔐈

Bamum Letter Phase-A Pon Mfon Pipaemba 𖠃

Domino Tile Horizontal-03-04 🁊

Playing Card Queen of Hearts 🂽

Double-Struck Capital Q ℚ

Prescription Take ℞

Rotated Capital Q ℺

House ⌂

Symbol For Backspace ␈

Up Arrowhead Between Two Horizontal Bars ⌤

APL Functional Symbol Star Diaeresis ⍣

Symbol For Substitute ␚

Square with Diagonal Crosshatch Fill ▩

Snowman ☃

White Chess Knight ♘

Permanent Paper Sign ♾

Flower ⚘

Male and Female Sign ⚥

Divorce Symbol ⚮

Black Draughts King ⛃

Car Sliding ⛐

Left Closed Entry ⛜

White Hexagon ⬡

Editorial Coronis ⸎

Hyphen with Diaeresis ⸚

Presentation Form For Vertical Right White Lenticular Brakcet ︘

(this spelling mistake is known and unfixable for backwards compatibility)

Linear B Ideogram B104 Deer 𐂂

Linear B Ideogram B240 Wheeled Chariot 𐃌

Aegean Number Five Thousand 𐄦

Phaistos Disc Sign Child 𐇔

Phaistos Disc Sign Beehive 𐇧

Phaistos Disc Sign Cat 𐇬

Meroitic Hieroglyphic Letter I 𐦂

Cuneiform Sign Bahar2 𒁃

Cuneiform Numeric Sign Nine Shar2 𒐫

Byzantine Musical Symbol Oyranisma Neo 𝁵

Mahjong Tile Plum 🀢

#⌂#℺#℞#‽#⌤#unicode #␈▩☃#⚘♾♘#⚮#⬡#𐃌𐂂︘#🀢𝁵𒐫

3 notes · View notes

narcpocalypse · 19 hours

Text

HEYYY updated intro post!!

I am the creator of Crosshatch (The Musical) and my goal is to get accurate NPD representation in media. We need to work together to destigmatize and normalize our experiences and I want to do my part! I want ALL kinds of narcissists to feel seen in my work and hopefully, cross(hatch)ing my fingers that I'll educate others/have an impact so we don't have to tirelessly explain ourselves as much as we already do.

Crosshatch is going to be a long project and I hope you resonate with my work as it gets put out! Some other themes will be queerness, transness, HUGEEE themes of self harm and how it impacts narcs, etc.

Here are some specific tags I use in my posts (the tags will be used below the intro post so u can click whichever one u wanna check out!):

-(#crosshatch musical): for musical thoughts and updates!

-(#giles blabbers): me yapping :pp

-(#ask giles): answering asks!

-(#rad mutuals) supporting my mutuals art/thoughts/writing!

Here's my meet the artist thing :3

(Gasp... FACE REVEAL????/lh)

No DNI I'll just block you. Feel free to interact if you resonate with/like my posts/work!

#crosshatch musical #giles blabbers #ask giles #rad mutuals #npd tags for the algorithm LEAVE ME ALONE #npd #narcissist #narcissistic personality disorder #cluster b #npd safe #actually narcissistic #actually npd #cluster b safe #narcposting #actually cluster b

11 notes · View notes

milbethmorillo · 7 months

Text

Saw this Manga cover called "A Witch hat Atelier" and I got a hit of inspiration, also made me remember old RPG games like Rhapsody a musical adventure, legend of mana and many others, so I drew something without references and I think I ended up drawing my dream house 😂 I really just wanna be the forest witch, Baba yaga is my rol model lol. I also wanted to keep it simple with the coloring and shading and just let the old style Lineart with crosshatch be the star.

#illustration #fantasy art #fairy #fairy tales #storybook #picture books #crosshatching #ink illustration #fantasy illustration #fantasy #cottagecore #cottage aesthetic #cottage witch

9 notes · View notes

metalhoops · 9 months

Text

9 people you want to know better

tagged by @hellion-child. Thanks so much for tagging me ❤️

Last song: Gotterdammerung- Zeal & Ardor. It's been a long day and sometimes my brain just needs very loud music to chill out, counterintuitive as it might seem.

Currently watching: Like most of Tumblr, I just finished watching Good Omens season 2. I'm also watching the latest season of What We Do in the Shadows.

Currently reading: I just finished reading 'Our Share of Night' / 'Nuestra Parte de Noche ' by Mariana Enriquez. I would recommend it if you're looking for a tome of a horror novel that gets under your skin. It's not necessarily scary but it is haunting. Plus most of the main characters are LGBT+.

Like Lovecraftian Gods, cults, kids on bikes in the 80s, haunted houses, generational trauma, a capitalism hit peace, or a story where the characters become horrible people in order to do what they think is right only for them to become the thing they fear? Then this book is for you.

Current obsession: If I'm honest I don't have much time for my obsessions. I'm currently juggling a master's degree, placement and part-time work. So free time to exist is hard to come by.

I feel like it's obvious if I tell you I love reading or writing.

If I do have spare time I enjoy art, which you might not know from my Tumblr because I don't really do fan art. I'm not that good at digital art. I tend to do ink, Berserk-like stuff because hyper-focusing on tiny details or repetitive crosshatching also scratches an itch in my brain. I also really enjoy painting flower/ nature with a palette knife.

✨No pressure tags:✨

@glygriffe @afewproblems @strangersteddierthings @life-love-musicaltheatre @luvgods @starrystevie @scoops-stevie @loveinhawkins

#about me #tag game #not stranger things #this was fun #I'd love to see other people's answers #but I also get people might be busy #I've been flat out #Hence why I haven't written much lately #I'm trying to survive y'all #Also hellion #I get what you mean about TV #I can't binge watch anything #I am like a 1-2 episode max girl #then I need to go for a walk or something #also anyone feel free to ask me more questions #either as a comment or in my asks #if you do want to get to know more #I feel like I don't share too much on here #besides fandom stuff

10 notes · View notes

custardcove · 4 months

Text

First Memories

Chapter Six - Fierce Competition

It seemed like no time at all before the first intermission. In order for either of them to make a decent pie, the crust had to rest in the fridge for at least forty minutes, and in Alice’s case so did her apples. Pansy wasn’t really allowed to enquire about how Alice was doing, and so gave her two thumbs up before chatting with the other judges. Taylor couldn’t talk either, he was busy entertaining the crowd, and had invited a one-man-band elf onstage to play music during the wait. Queenie, however, was well within her right to interrogate Alice about her progress.

“I’m impressed you managed to form a substantial dough. Cooking doesn’t seem like your forte.”

Alice sighed quietly at the backhanded compliment. “I didn’t think it was your forte either.”

“On the contrary, I have quite a bit of practice in the kitchen.”

A memory hit Alice like a brick. Queenie didn’t trust anyone with food. Of course she had experience, she didn’t let anyone else cook for her!

“Well—making a pie isn’t rocket science, anyway. I can read and follow a recipe well enough.”

“Can you? What comes next is the hard part. You can’t read experience or presentation.”

It wasn’t worth gratifying her intimidation with further argument. The truth made it hurt, and Alice didn’t need to be cut deeper. “Good luck, Queenie. Thanks for the extra salt, by the way.”

The noble just tittered.

Thirty minutes later, it was time to form the dough into a crust and brush it with egg. Queenie hadn’t made that jab for no reason—it was important to try and make it look nice. In an attempt to do this, Alice went over the edges of her pie with a fork, and she cut out strips of dough to form a crosshatch pattern later. Would the apples be ready yet? It hadn’t been as long as the recipe suggested, but Alice had done her best to chop them into small (somewhat rounded) cubes, having hoped this would help them marinate faster. Taking her chances, she removed them from the fridge and tumbled them into her pie casing, flattening them the best she could before adding the strips of pastry. Getting the whole thing into the oven was a relief, but that meant another forty-minute wait…

Before she could react, Taylor approached her with his microphone.

“And how do you feel about your progress, dear contestant?”

“Um.” Points off for Tay, Alice would have never felt prepared for this. “Fine—it’s fine. I’ll wait to see what the judges think.”

“Humble words!” He spun around. “And how does our other contestant feel about her chances?”

Polar opposite, Queenie leant over for the mic. “It’s no contest. But I believe Alice is right—we certainly will see what the judges think.”

“What a bold claim! Our second contestant thinks she’s got this in the bag. But only time will tell. In the meantime, I’ve got another act for all you lovely folks out there—”

Time to watch another half-baked performance while they waited for the pies to cook. Still, Alice thought it was better to listen than suffer any further hot steam from her opponent…

***

Ding! Alice’s personal timer was done. She hurried over to the oven. Was it cooked all the way through? The pastry was a golden colour; maybe it could use a few more minutes—but Queenie was already taking hers out! The human debated what to do. Did a few minutes make that much difference? Maybe. But what if—

“Five minutes left!”

In a panic, she opted to remove the pie. It needed those five minutes to cool down.

“Fiiiiiive minutes…!”

“We’re both done, you ignorant fop.” It seemed Queenie was as eager for this to end as Alice was.

“Oh. Well, in that case…” Taylor adjusted his tie with his free hand, washing away the insult with a deep breath. “Both contestants have completed their challenge, and judging will commence shortly. You don’t want to miss that, folks!”

He was right—the crowd, which had thus far been filled with people more interested in milling between stalls, had finally come to attention. This was the part worth watching.

Taylor had introduced the judges earlier, having them speak at occasional intervals, but only now did Alice pay attention to Queenie’s pick.

Half-animan, she had neat, short black hair, cat ears, and a perpetually unimpressed gaze. Taylor had introduced her as Naomi; for once someone Alice couldn't identify. She wondered if Naomi had a discerning palette, or if Queenie was using her as an ace up her sleeve.

The pies were labelled ‘A’ and ‘B’, which each judge receiving a slice of each. Alice’s was Pie B – she stood by with Queenie as they awaited the verdict. Pie A was judged first.

“It’s got a nice leaf design on it,” Pansy observed. Queenie had indeed taken the time to decorate with little pastry leaves. “Hopefully tastes as good as it looks.”

“It’s super nice, visually,” Tech agreed. There was a beat as Naomi waited for him to say something more descriptive. He didn’t.

“An elegant design,” she started. “Care was taken to give each leaf a vein, presumably with a fork. The arrangement of the leaves overall is in a consistent pattern, while still appearing natural. But looks aren’t everything.”

Queenie glowered at her for this last remark, to which the cat lady added, “Anyway, let’s try it.”

Taylor held the mic away as they ate, taking a moment to give Alice a reassuring (and perhaps apologetic) smile.

After a few mouthfuls, Pansy seemed surprised. “This—it’s pretty good.”

“Yeah, really cinnamony,” Tech hummed. “Not too sweet.”

“A delicate balance between sweet and tart; flavourful but not forceful. The cinnamon and hint of ginger brings it together.” Naomi nodded, agreeing. “This recipe refines the meaning of ‘apple pie’.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Pansy said carefully. “But it’s tasty.”

They all took a swig of water before taking on Pie B. As she watched, Alice realised she’d been clenching her teeth.

“The crosshatch pattern is cute,” Tech observed, which Pansy readily agreed with.

“Shows it’s cooked well inside.”

Naomi poked it with her fork. “Yes, very traditional. The kind of homeliness you’d expect from an apple pie. Care was taken here, though some lines are slightly askew.”

They began to taste it.

“Tough choice,” Pansy claimed, though the recognition of Alice’s cooking was all too readable on her face. “They’re both real good, but this one—it’s more classic.”

“I feel like … this one’s a bit sweeter.” Tech took another spoonful. “For sure. It’s good—the other one had something extra in it, though. Was that the ginger?”

“I like sweet,” Naomi mused. “Good apples, well cooked… As Miss Pansy noted, it leans into the traditional idea of an apple pie.”

Did that mean it was good or bad? It was hard to tell. Alice hadn’t even considered using anything other than the spices listed in the recipe…

With the tasting done, Taylor prompted them further. “Are the judges ready to make their decision?”

“Yes,” all three said in unison.

“Alright! There should be two cards in front of you—A and B. Please show us whichever one you think should win!”

Pansy raised her card first. B, of course. Naomi was quicker on the draw than Tech. A, also expected. Tech, the only real impartial judge, would be the tiebreaker. He raised his card. Pie A. The winner. Alice had lost.

“And the winner—” Taylor’s words momentarily caught in his throat. He pushed on. “Is Queenie.”

The crowd clapped politely as Queenie took a short bow, stragglers starting to disperse now that the event was over. Alice couldn’t move. There was a tightness in her chest and neck, creeping up to her eyes. Queenie turned to her, ready to gloat.

“Terribly sorry, Webbe… It looks like I’ll be keeping this locket.” From the folds of her clothing, she produced her prize. It twinkled in the sunlight, tantalizing, taunting. “Such a beautiful colour, too…”

Before she could further salt the wound, the necklace erupted in light. Queenie yelped, losing grip in her momentary blindness. As the light emerged, it formed the shape of a small bird and snatched the jewellery from her loosened fingers. It landed on one of the countertops, brightness fading to reveal a little yellow duck, which dropped the necklace at its feet. The duck spoke in a voice that was no louder than anyone else’s, but everyone could hear his words clearly. “This is not yours to keep.”

The crowd gasped, filtering back in to nosey at this development.

Alice’s face shone with recognition. “Ivan!” Her friend—the one that had given her the locket in the first place. How could she have forgotten him?

“But—” Queenie looked quite affronted by this sudden nonsense. “I won it. It’s rightfully mine, and Alice agreed to it.”

“I heard your terms, but it was never yours to wager,” the duck sapped back. “This necklace belongs to Alice. And what good will it do you, keeping it locked in a drawer? Had I any access to sunlight, I would’ve escaped from it sooner, and rightly reprimanded you!”

“Buh—well—I didn’t know you were inside there.” Queenie raised her head high, briefly glancing at the onlookers. She folded her arms tight. “Am I to understand you’re robbing me of my hard-won victory?”

“Oh no. You still won. Congratulations.” Ivan’s praise couldn’t be emptier. “Your prize is the satisfaction of winning. Next time, get your deals in writing. I think we’re done here.”

Queenie opened her mouth as if to argue, debating whether it was worth further public humiliation.

Pansy spoke up instead. “He’s right, Queenie—I think we can all agree you tried to pull one over, here.”

It was hard to say whether the other judges agreed. Tech looked a little bewildered as he scooped up what was left of the pies, and Naomi was sinking as far into her seat as she could go. But Taylor nodded. Despite this, he tried to save the performance.

“That concludes our cooking competition, folks! If you liked what you saw, be sure to pitch in for another at Erryton’s monthly community meeting!”

---

||Previous|| - ||Next||

#Drabble #Custard #Queenie #Pansy #Taylor #Tech #Naomi #Ivan

4 notes · View notes

kinocomix · 4 months

Text

untitled project devlog 8: themes, and pain

At first, when I said I wanted to discuss the themes of my project, I thought that maybe there would be some convenient article, book or philosophy deep dive I could reference, which does not seem to be much the case, seeing as how my approach to themes is very personal. so… here’s some thoughts.

In case it’s not abundantly obvious by now, the story features a band and music quite prominently. One of my original elevator pitches for the comic was “think metalocalypse meets bandslam, but with the scope of Ernest et Celestine and the presentation of a black and white Wes Anderson film” which is the vaguest shit ever and I’ll eventually get my head out of my ass long enough to stop worrying about spoiling the story. My point is: the act of being creative is at the forefront of the story. What drives it forward is something I won’t mention in this series, but a lot of ideas emerge when you decide to write something as personal as making art. Things like purpose, belonging, self worth, expression, communication, validation are things that every artist or musician deals with quite regularly and no story about creativity would be complete without them.

The first post ever made to this blog was a webcomic name fancomic that, looking back, isn’t bad but remembering the reason why I made it is what makes me cringe. I wanted attention. When I started making art I expected to be famous in 100 days. literally, I wish I was exaggerating.

In every artist’s journey with art, they reach the point where they realize that the only things really worth pursuing are the things they’re passionate about. Sometimes this is drawing commissions, other times people do commissions to keep themselves alive. A lot of times, the art people are passionate about barely gets any attention at all. It's a fact that a lot of creatives secretly know that people who get successful doing something they love are very lucky.

youtube

It takes maturity to be happy for people and proud of their hard work as opposed to being an envious child but that doesn’t mean we don’t secretly want success as well. If I could have enough dedicated readers to make my comics for a living but never be famous I’d do that in a heartbeat. Every big shiny thing is destined to accumulate dust, I don’t want to be a big shiny thing, I want to be a reliable hill you can trust to be there year after year. It took me a while to get to the mindset I work with today. 6 years might not feel like a lot when you consider the insane careers some artists had, but as far as people go 6 years is a lot. I graduated, finished a book, worked on 2 short film productions that have both won awards (one of which for my sound design!!), moved house, freelanced, started a stable job, been to therapy, gotten an operation, nearly lost people, been through an explosion, an economic collapse; and I think that’s just the stuff I’m remembering off the top of my head.

Finding documentation and sources about this kind of stuff is pretty difficult because this is not what gets publicized about media. However, if you pay enough attention some similarities start to appear.

The manga Berserk is pretty famous for its elaborate artwork and story. It doesn’t really need an intro and I’ve been told I need to read it which I plan on, but that’s not the point right now. As you may know, Kentaro Miura, the author and illustrator of the manga passed away in 2021. For fans of the series, while very tragic, this wasn’t all that surprising. The dude doesn’t fill in black. he crosshatches everything. An admirable feat, which makes you thankful that a friend of his, Kouji Mori, decided to finish making the manga after he passed away.

Many other manga share this. Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue, has been known to frequently go on hiatus. So has Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi. A lot of times, an artist’s undying faith to their work is because of how passionate they are about it, the people involved in making it or even the audience. I forget the exact interview this is from, but Linkin park has gone on record for saying that sometimes they need to consider the audience. you see them always excited to talk about how experimental their music is, which is great, but when you know someone’s on the receiving end of what you’re making, it’s bound to make you think a bit differently.

This video of George RR Martin and Stephen King chatting kind of outlines the different approaches they have to writing. One of the most iconic quotes is “how do you write so fast?” Spoken by Martin. Now I’m not here to talk about Game of Thrones, trust me I couldn't care less but it does bring up one point worth talking about which is inspiration, discipline and what that has to do about your malleability as an artist.

youtube

This is the trailer for H.E.R.A., one of the short movies I worked on as a sound designer and general handyman. It was written and animated by my friend Alaa Fleifel with the help of some wonderful fellow artists and animators for some of the scenes. Alaa and his studio Phat Chik are an example of what I’m talking about.

pictured: Alaa.

When I talk about being malleable, I don’t mean that in the X-men mystique “I chameleon my way around the world” school of art though that can work in some cases, sure. What I refer to is one’s ability to keep making their art. During the production of H.E.R.A., there were at many points obstacles that would have shot down most movie productions. The sound designer had to prioritize staying alive so he had to unfortunately quit the project midway. Alaa had to juggle a fulltime job, commissions and a rapidly decaying economic system that meant most clients didn’t want to pay well anymore so he had to outsource some of the background art and scenes to friends and animators that he paid out of pocket. The production timeline lasted a year and 8 months, most of that time was spent patching up the team in the background. Working on H.E.R.A. taught me that there is no project in existence that is the result of one human being. Everyone has at least one person to give them advice, someone who goes “hey, I know a guy” and very often that is not just one person. When band line ups change, it’s sometimes treated with an air of disregard.

“oh, it’s just the drummer”

“it’s the rhythm guitarist, their job is pretty easy anyway”

Had Alaa waited around for inspiration or permission to make his film, it would have never happened. Sure, a lot of why we get to watch the absurdist sci-fi acid trip that is H.E.R.A. is due to some luck and connections, but a lot of it is also due to a rejection of the notion that inspiration is what primarily fuels creativity.

So what does that say about the story? usually I find it helpful to present my themes in the form of questions, so here’s what i’ve been able to come up with:

Who does art/music belong to?

How much of the soul of art and music gets lost in translation?

How do you balance making stuff for yourself and an audience once you have one?

How much does inspiration really matter?

I need to be honest with you about something.

I’ve been kind of avoiding talking about the more… personal themes at play here.

it’s not because I don’t know what they are, really. They just come from a place of deep discomfort and humiliation for me. I’ve obviously become a much different human being over the course of my 27 years on the rapidly traveling rock in space but it’s never not weird for me remembering the dumb things I did or said growing up or while I was finding my footing as a writer. There are entire projects and dozens of pages of things that I threw out the window before I felt confident enough in something to be able to share it. there’s a lot of fucking up you do while growing up and not surprisingly, I feel more comfortable seeing my weird feelings in fiction than I do laid out in bullet points in a devlog. So I promise you this:

the people in the story are going to be human. Faults, warts and all. The only thing I ask of you is to know that while those warts are real, they are not mine anymore. Every day that passes, I grow a little bit more, and maybe at some point I’ll grow tall enough that the light trickling through the trees will feel safe enough to fly.

Merry Christmas, and may every year bring a little bit more sun.

Devlog updates on tuesdays.

#comic #webcomic #kinocomix #devlog #graphic novel #metal #youtube #writing #Youtube

4 notes · View notes