botmuffins

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The day was still trying to be remembered - Joan Longas , 2019.

Catalan, b. 1959  -

Oil on canvas  , 80 x 80 cm.

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Hey hey hey writers!!! Especially y'alls who are struggling to develop character or have white room/still character syndrome!!!

Look into Uta Hagen's acting techniques, specifically her 9 questions. I'm not kidding. She built off Stanislavski's techniques to help actors develop their characters and roles & bring that to the stage- specifically, and this is why I'm pushing Hagen specifically and not anyone else, their relationship with the set, props, other characters, setting (yes that's different from set), history and the play's plot, and how that changes how they act and speak. I have my textbook open I'll take some pictures.

If you need a transcript/image description I'll put it under the cut, they're a little blurry cause I'm bad at holding my phone... I know alt text is a thing but I don't want y'alls to have to scroll through a tiny box lmao.

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The lower part of a textbook page. The text reads:

Uta Hagen's acting exercises

[Out-of-transcript note: Most of these, with the exception of Three Entrances, are less useful in terms of writers, but you could make it work, especially for roleplay.]

Basic Object Exercise: Sometimes called "two minutes of daily life," this exercise requires the actor to replicate activities from their own daily routine in specific detail (think making breakfast or getting ready to go out). The goal of this exercise is to increase the actor's awareness of their un-observed behaviour.

Three Entrances: Starting offstage, the actor enters the environment of the scene. The actor's performance should answer three questions: What did I just do? What am I going to do? What is the first thing I want?

Immediacy: Hagen asked actors to search for a small object that they need. You can perform the exercise on a set or in your home. As you search, you should observe the behaviour and thoughts that arise as you authentically try to find something. The objective is to identify the thoughts, behaviours, and sensations you experience when you genuinely don't know the outcome, so you can use them on stage.

Fourth Side: This exercise starts with a phone call to a person you know. You should call them with a specific objective in mind. During the convention, Hagen wants you to focus on your surroundings and the specific objects that your eyes rest on. The purpose is to help actors observe how they interact with all dimensions of an enclosed physical space so they can recreate privacy on stage.

Endowment: this exercise is designed to help actors apply their observed behaviours to endow props with qualities that they cannot safely have on stage. Hot irons and sharp knives are typical examples. The Endowment excercise asks actors to believably treat objects on stage as though they have the qualities the actor needs in a scene.

Uta Hagen's exercises are her greatest gift to actors working today. She developed them between Broadway jobs to solve some acting problems she had never seen anyone tackle to her satisfaction. The result is that Hagen's exercises give actors a way to observe human behaviours and catalogue it so they can recall it onstage when useful in a role.

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Most of a textbook page. The image cuts off about 3 quarters of the way down the page. The text reads:

Uta Hagen's 9 Questions

Who am I? This question's answer includes all relevant details from name and age to physical traits, education, and beliefs.

What time is it? Depending on the scene, the most relevant measure of time can be the era, the season, the day, or even the specific minute.

Where am I? This answer covers the country, town, neighbourhood, room, or even the specific part of the room.

What surrounds me? Characters can be surrounded by anything from weather to furnishings, landscape or people.

What are the given circumstances? Given circumstances include what has happened, what is happening and what will happen to a character.

What are my relationships? Relationships can be with the other characters in the play, inanimate objects, or even recent events.

What do I want? Wants can be what the character desires in the moment, or in the overall course of the play. [Out-of-transcript note: I recommend figuring out both for writing, the former multiple times for whenever it changes! Outside of Hagen's technique, we call it objective and superobjective.]

What is in my way? This is the actor's chance to understand the obstacles the character must react to and overcome.

What do I do to get what I want? In Hagen's teaching, "do" means physical action.

Uta Hagen's nine questions help actors develop the granular details of their character's backstory. The questions come from Hagen's first book, "Respect for Acting," though in her later book, "A Challenge for the Actor," she condensed her original nine questions into six steps.

Uta Hagen's revised six steps to building a character are:

Who am I?

What are the circumstances?

What are my relationships?

What do I want?

What is my obstacle?

What do I do to get what I want?

Later in her life, Hagen distances herself from her first book and encouraged her students to rely on her second book, which she felt was clearer about her concepts. Both books are popular with acting teachers and students today, however. Hagen's questions and steps are the foundation for all of her acting exercises. Whether you rely on the nine questions or the six steps depends on personal preference.

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Personally I like the 9 questions more, but like the book says, personal preference! So yeah, if you're a writer, try some of these out for your characters. :]

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What do we call Vee/Viney again? Vinee? Veeny? Vinvee? Veeey? Anyways, That.

And also Veelow.

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SHIT. FUCK. I WAS ON THE WRONG BLOG FOR MOST OF LAST NIGHT

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boo

AAAA!!

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tiny veesha from the veezine magma canvas masha drawn by @botmuffins / @branmuffins22 vee by Me

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I think Masha would rock the hell out of Beta Luz's fit.

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I speedran Flesh.png's BadTober on stream today. I just barely missed the midnight cutoff, but I think that's appropriate for a Tober which is Bad.

Individual images under the cut. (well. some of 'em are still gonna be grouped up. 'cause there's a bunch of em. way too many for a single tumblr post.) (anyways.)

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Behold, the most important thing that came out of my drawing stream earlier today: concept art for the interior of not!lyoko's towers in my owlhouse x codelyoko fic, Backlight and Bitrot.

Image ID: A cylindrical space sits within a dark void, almost enclosed. A haze-like golden glow rises from below, and scattered, translucent, golden panels line the "walls" of the space. A large platform in the shape of a target-like glyph sits in the middle, and an endless flow of black water springs from underneath it. Where the jutting end of the platform meets the "wall", there is a rippling portal, the entrance and exit to the tower. A bright golden terminal floats across from the portal, near the center of the platform.

While its shape and overall vibe is most similar to the tower interiors from Code Lyoko, its color palette resembles The Owl House's Inbetween, and the symbol on the floor is the glyph found in King's tower. I'm still about 50/50 on having the outermost three-quarters-circle be a sort of ramp up to the middle part, and I might change how the terminal is oriented compared to the portal, but other than that, I'm pretty dang happy with what I've got so far.

As for the exteriors of the towers... I might have to do a little more amalgamating, between Lyoko's towers (iconic), King's tower (thematically appropriate), and the tower in the back of the Owl House (rustic, safe). That design is very much not set in stone yet. Hell, I might even vary them from sector to sector...

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I was ✨Inspired✨today.

originals under the cut

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Veek/Vee Week 4komas, Day 4! The prompt I picked this time was "Not a Monster".

In A Trick of the Light, Masha gets a bit of a scare on their way into Cabin 7, after their chores run longer than expected.

Ah, Vee. You adorable little cryptid, you.

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Veek/Vee Week 4komas, for days 1 and 2! I put them on the same page like a dummy, so I couldn't post one 'till I was done with both. If I make more of these this week, I'll split 'em up better.

The first one, In the Eye of the Beheld, is for the prompt "Hug". The idea was to show the first hug Vee ever got, given by Camila as she was being dropped off at camp.

The second, Marathon, is for the prompt "Movie Night". It's a Cabin 7 bonding experience that eventually turned into a Veesha moment. Silly sleepies. Kinda feel like I might've overdone it with the strength of the lighting, but ehhh.

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This time with effort!

A few hours of dedicated work has earned me two whole Vees! One with vitiligo to match the pale spots on her basilisk form, and one without (for the cowards).

I tried to go with a more realistic style, but it fell apart somewhat after her nose and chin (very happy with how those turned out tho).

The shading is a little inconsistent and weird, the hair (and hairline) could use some work, the mouth pose is maybe a little too extreme, there's still something off about the eyes (besides the usual inhuman shine), and I could still stand to learn texturing, but overall, I'm pretty dang proud of this!

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learning 2 draw gud (feat. the snakiesssss)

I had the (unoriginal) thought last night to try drawing all my characters & props the usual sketchy way (outlining and then coloring), and then draw my backgrounds in a more painterly fashion (just smear some color on there). So, today, I thought I'd give it a quick try.

The results were, obviously, rather skrunkly. With no regard for posing, or anatomy, or line weight, or setting (seriously, why did I put 'em on the Isles???), or pretty much anything else, it ended up looking (appropriately) juvenile.

But even just these 20-ish minutes of work helped me learn a lot! In the future, when I'm doing backgrounds, I gotta try and do it back-to-front, or at least use more than one background layer, and some texturing would go a LONG way to make it look less... like that. For characters, I aughtta use smaller lines (ideally, small enough to convey the smallest relevant details, like expressions), and probably pay more attention to anatomy (Vee's head is shaped so weird here).

I'm starting to understand what artists mean when they say you just gotta practice. I already came out of this with, like, a whole post-mortem full of improvements to make. And this was only my first serious attempt at a background! Maybe I should follow along with some Bob Ross about it...

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It has come to my attention that my funny little OC palisman, Caboose the Train Engine, is secretly just Terrako Age of Calamity but in a new shirt.

single eye.

tentacle-like legs.

whistle on their head.

funny little guy.

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Behold, I have recontextualized my sona for The Owl House! (feat. a way-too-high-effort mockup made in my phone's notes app, a shitty little doodle made in the same notes app, and some images that have been sitting on my computer for years)

Now, instead of a hooligan pretending(?) to be a robot, they're an animated [mannequin? suit of armor? haven't decided yet lol] with dreams of learning magic and finally getting some basic dignity.

Not sure if I'm gonna change this iteration's name or not, normally they'd be Bitty, but that feels a little too "robot", not quite the vibe of this "object with meat" angle. They might just get a regular ass name, who knows.

Anyways, ~Lore~ under the cut (i am cringe but i am free)

Months ago, a talented beastkeeper wanted a helping hand around his apparel shop, but because of his sigil, he couldn't create an abomination. Instead, he cast a powerful animation spell on a [mannequin/suit of armor] he had lying around, in the hopes to create an assistant. Unfortunately for him, his would-be servant thought too highly of themself to go along with it, and walked right out the door to start their own life.

To obscure their body and escape their creator's gaze, they stole clothes from wherever they could: a cowl and plant-track pants from a discarded Hexside uniform, flying boots from a heap of rubble beneath Dead Man's Curve, a belt and satchel hanging from a hotel window, a shirt from a carnival's lost-and-found, and gloves left behind by startled campers.

Despite their bipedal build, they had no bile sac with which to cast magic, so life was quite difficult for the construct. One particularly rough day, after being stiffed once again by their "employer", and denied work somewhere else, they caught sight of the infamous Owl Lady, as well as her apprentice, the Human of Bonesborough. They were both rumored to be powerless as well, and yet they somehow still managed to scrounge together enough snails for frivolities like food and shelter.

When they saw the two "powerless" ladies summon fire and ice to threaten a bounty collector into giving them their due, they resolved to confront them, and learn their secrets.

Fast-forward through the plot of an episode in my funny little canon-rewrite longfic (see Something Like a Bible and the [artificer/overthinker] au), and they become a recurring member of what I'm tentatively calling the Powerless Witches' Support Group, a cast of mostly-adults who meet up outside the Owl House every week or so to learn wild magic together. Basically, an extension of Luz's Magic Bootcamp from Escaping Expulsion.

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okokok, yall know Caboose? my funny little palisman guy i made up few days ago? funny little trainthing? chuggachugga-choochoo?

yeah i still dont have a drawing tablet (or like, drawing skills in general tbh), but i doodled em in notes app and then in paint.net

behold, a man:

funny silly little beepo doesnt use his wheels right but thats okay!!

precious little goober!!!