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EXTENSIVE Research - 3

(This is my interpretation of this song, you're entitled to your own opinion. And definitely listen to this song!)

//Reference of verbal abuse, violence, sexual content and Azealia Banks

Tarantula - Azealia Banks

Tarantula is a single released by Azealia Banks on October 2nd, as part of her Tarantula/Wings of a Butterfly Single EP.

The song has sparked controversy as it has been cited that it was a response song to GRIMES' '100 Percent Tragedy', which remains an unreleased track to this day.

GRIMES has gone on the record, mentioning that the song was about her "having to defeat Azealia Banks when she tried to destroy her life", preceding their falling out and subsequent fight in 2018.

Without delving too deep into the controversy, Banks was scheduled to have produced and released a collaboration song with GRIMES, wherein she had showed up to Elon Musk's house to meet with her, only for GRIMES to not show up.

This would then prompt Banks to release a series of tweets and livestreams wherein she would talk very lowly about GRIMES, citing that she had only invited her to Musk's place so they would be able to engage in sexual activity with her, and she'd mention how she was disgusted with her and would go on to refer to GRIMES as a junkie.

During these series of tweets and messages having been thrown around, GRIMES would make several indirect threats towards GRIMES' and Elon's baby, stating that,

"The karma will come right back on Elon and that baby, and we'll see how tough she is when she no longer has him to hide behind and she has to spend 24/7 in the ICU praying her baby's cracked skull and brain stops haemorrhaging."

Along with two Stories posted to her Instagram, one of which being a picture of a tarantula with the caption "what do you do when you wake up with this tarantula in your baby's bed Claire?"

And another simply being a black background with the text,

"I don't take well to GRIMES wishing tragedy against me, Feel this hex b*tch, Pray for your child, I promise, you'll be the first to die."

This of course is a direct reference to the aforementioned song 100% Tragedy, along with the "You'll be the first to die", quote being featured in the song.

And with GRIMES and Musk now having been separated, Banks claimed that she would be open to the idea of collaborating, now that, quote, "That apartheid Clyde is out of the way."

Opening the song with the verse,

"Waif-like and blind, Frail is your body, A conscience redesigned, To be childlike and bitter."

Which is definitely a dig at the way GRIMES had publicly spoken about her, referring to her as childish.

Though this could also be a direct reference to GRIMES' child himself.

Going on, Banks compares herself to the hypothetical tarantula, having been walking across the ceiling and watching GRIMES and Elon together with distain, before commencing her attack.

"I walk across the ceiling at night, I see you through all eight of my eyes. I'll zipline venom inside, Blood boils you awake and you're paralysed.

He tried so many times, to take my life away. But he'll be the first to die tonight. You'll be the next to die tonight."

She goes on to repeat this verse, having changed more of the lyrics.

"I walk across the ceiling at night, I see you and him through all eight eyes, while you are sleeping, my dear. I'll zipline venom inside, Blood boils you awake and you're paralysed. A witness of your own demise. You'll be the first to die tonight, A dead groom and a corpse bride. You'll be the first to die, I promise my dear."

Once again, alluding both to herself being the tarantula sent to eliminate GRIMES, and the tarantula she had threatened would be the one to attack GRIMES' child.

This song is an interesting case, and of course I don't condone Banks' behaviour towards Elon, GRIMES and their child whatsoever.

But using the metaphor of herself being a tarantula, which is a creature known for its precision and of course its venom, so it would be a very strong and sly creature able to sneak its way through defences and take out its prey.

Affirmed with the knOwledge that she Would be listENing, and she'd know she'LL be the first die.

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EXTENSIVE Research - 2

(This is my interpretation of this song, you're entitled to your own opinion. And definitely listen to this song!)

Fallen Fruit - Lorde

Released in 2021 as the fourth single for her (as of now) most recent album, 'Solar Power', Lorde uses the breathy and stripped-back essence seen throughout the album in a ballad of metaphors and social commentaries on the climate of the world and celebrity fame culture.

The alternative version featured on the Solar Power EP (known as "Te Ao Mãrama") named "Hua Pilau" also features vocals from Hinewehi Mohi, Hēmi Kelly, Bic Runga, and Hana Mereraiha and is fully performed in the Mãori language.

Opening the song with the verse, "To the ones who came before us, All the golden ones who were lifted on a wing."

Lorde is seemingly alluding to the generation preceding hers, and how they hold a place of privilege over her current generation.

"We had no idea the dreams we had were far too big."

Could likely be in reference to the technological advancements of the recent generations, and how much of a push for consumerism has been seen in recent years.

"And we will walk together, Psychedelic garlands in our hair. Through the halls of splendour where the apple trees all grew, You'll leave us dancing on the Fallen Fruit."

Once again, making that correlation and disconnect between modern generations and the previous, the mention of walking together and being left behind is likely in reference to how the previous generation, or one step further, celebrities and those of wealthy status, could simply be whisked away should the situation g awry, whereas those less privileged would be left to 'dance on the Fallen Fruit'.

"From the Nissan, to the phantom, to the plane, We'll disappear in the cover of the rain. Took the great minds and the vapers, And a pocketful of seed, It's time for us to leave."

Further pushing the idea that those of higher social status would simply be able to be transported away to safety.

"And we will walk together, Psychedelic garlands in our hair. But how can I love what I know I am gonna lose, Don't make me choose."

Now this seems to instead be leaning more towards the climate crisis, where the subsequent result of our technological advancement and overall neglect of the planet herself is resulting in vastly negative consequences.

From wildfires, polluted waters, animal extinctions.

Lorde is dwelling on the fact that she's unable to appreciate the world for what it is, because she knows at some point (whether it be in her lifetime or after), she's going to see it taken away from her due to the negligence of mankind.

The music video for the song depicts this idea very strongly, wherein Lorde is seen walking through a civilisation on the beachside, and the frame occasionally cuts from the scene during the day, which is scenic and natural, to the shots at night, where the campsite is seen destroyed.

(Video was cut down slightly, please watch the original)

She is also seen being carried away via an escort vehicle at the end, further emphasising the point that the second things turn dangerous or unstable, celebrities of her status would be able to simply just leave everyone else behind to save their lives, and she acknowledges that she has this level of privilege, but she can't do much about it.

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EXTENSIVE Research - 1

Predator (1987) - The Yautja Species

Originally drafted with the title 'Hunter', Predator is a 1987 movie directed by John McTiernan and was written by brothers Jim and John Thomas.

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays the role of Dutch Schaefer, as he follows the paramilitary as they attempt to rescue hostages being held in guerrilla-held territory in a Central American Rainforest.

Here, they encounter the Yautja, an extraterrestrial being who makes it their primary directive to hunt down and execute said recruits.

This creature is a member of the species of Yautja's, who primarily compete with one another in the sport of trophy-collecting, with said trophies being skulls of the creatures they hunt.

Early design concepts of the creature, as done by Stan Winston.

On a flight, alongside the creator of Alien, James Cameron, Winston had been creating some early designs, having quoted saying "I always wanted to see something with mandibles."

Arnold was also the one to have recommended Winston, as they'd previously worked together for the movie The Terminator, as he (and his studio) was brought in to assist in creating the suit for the actor Kevin Peter Hall, as seen in the movie.

The process of creating the actual suit for the Yautja was rather extensive, as it was originally planned to have a long neck and only one eye, but this was scrapped as it became apparent how difficult it would be to film with this design.

It was also said that the studio had contracted Richard Edlund's Boss Film Creature Shop to assist in the makeup for the creature, but due to complications and crossing with filming Alien, this role was passed down to Winston.

However the makeup would go on to fail due to the 'impractical' design of the Yautja having 12-inch leg extensions, to give the creature a backward-bent satyr-leg appearance, and this wasn't going to work with the jungle locations.

And after six months of filming, they'd go on to shut down so that Winston would be able to create a new suit, which would go on to take eight months, with filming resuming for five more weeks, ending in February, 1987.

The Predator species are known to have an association to the Xenomorphs too (the creature seen in Alien), and they refer to them as "Kainde Amedha", which translates to "Hard Meat", and they view them as the worthiest of prey, with some Yautja's having forcefully bred captive Queen's of the species so they would be able to hunt the spawn, which was used as an initiation for young predators.

"I know one thing, Major - I drew down and fired straight at it. Caped off 200 rounds and the minigun, full pack, nothing... Nothing on this Earth could've lived... Not at that range."

Mac regarding the Predator to Dutch.

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COMIC Research

(POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

John Layman and Rob Guillory - CHEW

Chew is an American Comic Series, written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob Guillory, which follows the protagonist 'Tony Chu', an agent of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and solves crimes, doing so by consuming a variety of foods.

Chew, in itself, has a very distinctive art style, with the characters seeming very pointed and sharp, and this is further pushed with the heavy shading present with the black.

To me, though different in its own ways, the style brings my mind to the works of Shawn Coss, who has always been an inspiration of mine.

It's a very brutalist style that, from what I perceive the comic is about, really matches.

Not only that but the composition almost reminds me of Cowboy Bebop, which was a Japanese 'Neo-Noir Space Western' series from 1998.

An illustration depicted which is a clear reference to 'The Last Supper' as painted by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Jeff Lemire and Jose Villarrubia - Sweet Tooth

Sweet Tooth is an American comic drawn by the Canadian Cartoonist, Jeff Lemire.

Described as "Mad Max meets Bambi", Sweet Tooth follows a young boy by the name of Gus, a young boy with deer-like features (antlers and ears) as he is rescued by a man by the name of Jepperd as he was nearly slain by hybrid cultists, like his father had been.

Earning the nickname of "Sweet Tooth" by eating all of Jepperd's candy, Gus would follow along with Jeppard up until his betrayal, having been exchanged for the remains of his wife to a scientific facility.

(There is more but I won't recite the entire Wikipedia article).

Similarly to Chew, Sweet Tooth's style does seem rather dark art style, although the colour composition (atleast in the image above, as The Return seems to have a more refurbished style, (which made research EXTREMELY DIFFICULT), is a lot more neutral, with it having a sort of water-colour-like vibrancy to it.

Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard - The Walking Dead

Contrary to belief, the comic was actually created before the series had been adapted (starting in 2009 where the series was greenlit in 2010).

With the first six issues being illustrated by Tony Moore, along with him creating the cover art for the first twenty-four issues, the torch would then be passed onto Charlie Adlard.

You're probably tired of hearing it by now, but this style does indeed carry some similar motifs of the ones seem previously, with the very stark shading seen in the cover art.

Whereas within the actual comic itself, the style being simply just in black and white, which was said to be due to the cost of printing in colour, but it had became the iconic style used.

Which works very well to its benefit, as it gives it a very gritty, old noir aesthetic.

Bill Morrison

Bill Morrison is an American comic book artist, writer and editor, and he was accredited with co-founding Bongo Comics alongside Matt Groening (the creator of The Simpsons) and Cindy and Steve Vance.

Morrison's style is actually a lot more cartoonish and versatile, as it's able to adapt to the needed thematics and general style of the characters, which is seen especially with his work on the Simpsons comics.

Now, either I'm not looking very hard, or these comic series' are actually pretty difficult to find online.

But his works do perfectly encapsulate the friendly homeliness of The Simpsons and their antics.

Bryan Lee O'Malley

O'Malley is the illustrator known mostly for his creation of the Scott Pilgrim series and its distinctive cartoonish style.

Scott is a young boy who's a bit of a loser, and he manages to score a girlfriend by the name of Ramona, however this comes with the difficulty of having to fight and take down her six ex boyfriends and one ex girlfriend.

The most noticeable aspects of his character design and overall designs of the comics is the cel-shading and the style itself, which consists of very chunky lines, vibrant characters, and of course, the eyes.

It's also pretty fun to note that O'Malley is also a musician under the name of Kupek.

Frank Miller

Frank Miller is an American comic book artist and writer, known most notably for his work on Daredevil, wherein he had created the character Elektra, and his work on The Dark Night Returns.

He's known to combine inspirations from film-noir and Manga, having quoted been saying that "American [and English] comics are too wordy, and Japanese comics are too empty. So I'd attempted to create a hybrid."

The style, which is mostly unseen in popular comics, actually has more thin and wispy lines, as opposed to the typical bold and cartoonish ones.

It almost seems like the outlines were done with finalisers whereas the colours were done in watercolours, giving off a very blended and shady look.

I also just think it's worth noting that his rendition of Batman is an absolute unit of a man, and it really gives off the impression of a superhero that you would never want to cross.

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CANNED! Research

Mina Lima

Mina Lima is a graphic design studio that was founded by Mina and Eduardo Lima in 2009.

The graphics created have a very fantastical and mystical appearance, which really complement the books that are often of the same theme.

Which brings me to their work on the Harry Potter Books (I will not be discussing the author).

Likely their most recognisable work, the graphics done on the Harry Potter books, as mentioned before, contain that very magical and childlike wonder that really encapsulates you into the essence of the books.

For example, their works on the covers often using golds, especially on the frames for the graphics.

It appears almost like a door into the book, which reminds me of the doors from The Nightmare Before Christmas, where each door takes you into the world of a different Holiday (i.e Christmas, Easter).

It's like you're taking a journey into the world of Harry Potter, which believe me, many of us would love to do.

H.R. Giger

Giger is an artist that is most popularly known for his works using airbrushing techniques, combining aspects of mechanical and human bodies, which was known as "Bio-Mechanical".

Along with his unique and absolutely stunning (yet horrifying) artworks, it's worth noting that he was also responsible for the creation of the Xenomorph, featured in the 1979 movie, 'Alien'.

His works have also inspired a lot of other unique mediums, ranging from furniture to album covers too.

The album 'Brain Salad Surgery' by Emerson, Lake and Palmer uses one of these works for the cover art.

His works are very surrealist and eerie, due to their absolute immaculate attention to detail and simplistic use of the greys, maintaining that mechanical aspect.

The Mos Espa Marketplace

Mos Espa is a city and space-port on the planet of Tatoonie, featured in the popular film series, Star Wars.

The first appearance of said location seemed to be in Episode I - The Phantom Menace.

The market is divided into several quarters, each one specialising in different vendors, ranging from the food markets to some tailored in fixing droids and selling weaponry.

It's also said that the markets used the tactics of having cooling units nearby to attract more customers, as the climates of Mos Espa are frequently humid.

The main focus of this would be the food stalls, which consisted of e Gragra's Gorgmonger Booth, Akim's Munch Outdoor Café and Jira's Fruits Stall.

Street Foods (Graphic Content - I Apologise to Vegans)

Though seeming like a very general topic, a lot of street foods (especially internationally) do seem very strange and even disgusting.

In the UK, we're likely known simply for our fish and chips and mushy peas, and the US might be known for fried chocolate bars.

However, if we broaden our horizons, we could find some very.. Interesting foods.

Cambodia, Asia, has a very popular street food known as Fried Tarantulas.

You read me right.

FRIED TARANTULAS.

Or Blood Soup.

Though harder to pinpoint the origins, Blood Soup is a soup consisting of mainly (or perhaps only) animals blood.

(I won't be providing an image).

And Andouillette, which is a French sausage with a filling of Pig Intestines.

Needless to say, a lot of these foods can seem disgusting to an outsider (like myself), but these do have roots within different cultures, and regular citizens of these places would likely view these as very normal in their cuisines.

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The Walk Cycle

Having been lined up on a spot against the wall to create a consistent cycle, we were tasked with taking photographs in pairs of us following the previously animated 9-frame walk cycle.

Which was somewhat embarrassing, but thankfully my partner was as embarrassed as me, so the combined shame sort of helped us overcome it.

The real shame came when I had to trace over it in photoshop.

Now, of course this looks very chunky, and it really was.

Planning out a natural walk cycle by striking separate poses obviously would be very trying, but thankfully I was able to somewhat polish it by aligning the frames and then animating them with the timeline.

(I should clarify that there was also an animated walk cycle created using the images of myself, but I'm choosing not to post that for privacy reasons, you get the same motif from the images above).

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Cool lil animation

This was also very annoying to make because I had to keep tweaking the body so it wouldn't simply be replicated.

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The finalised comic!

Remind me next time to actually screenshot the process for doing this, because adding every individual frame was so difficult and annoying and I would never want to do it again.

the ratio is also too small.

big mistake, huge.

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Starting the Sketch

And deciding to go over it with fineliners and pens to give it more vibrance.

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Beginning the Template

The comic template that I'll be using.

Creating this was relatively easy, as all I had to do was simply use the shape tool and often tweak a few pieces (like changing the stroke width to have more thick borders).

Creating the middle triangles was slightly more difficult, as it was done using the line tool and dedicated alignment, but it worked out well.

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The Demo for the Comic

In preparations for creating our own custom comics (depicting our CANNED creatures), we were tasked with following the template of a preexisting comic but providing our own spins on it.

If it wasn't obvious, I didn't exactly take this too seriously, because of course I had the idea to use the soyjaks the second I saw the template.

What's art if you can't have a little fun with it?

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I am extremely happy to say,

The Butterspi has been completed!

Over Friday, I had taken the model and wings home so I could then use a (multi-tool) dremel so I could drill two holes into the bodice for the wing stems.

But before I'd done this, I had also decided to hot glue the legs of the body, which would kill two birds with one stone:

Keeping the legs firmly in place.

And giving said legs a more realistic shape.

Both of which, I believe, worked very effectively.

And once painted over with black acrylic (because as we discussed before, those other paints are the work of Satan himself), I was able to wedge the wings into the holes with hot glue.

Once again, I'm glad by how effectively this worked, though I did shape it up just a bit around the join for extra stability.

The same method was also applied with the antennae, though it was slightly more difficult, because I instead dipped the wire into hot glue and pressed it in, but the hot glue started drying really quickly.

But I managed, and it really paid off.

Ready to go into its finalised can.

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Some images I'd found in the hallway that could be a pretty good reference.

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The Wings pt2

This has been a long time coming, and I've been tossing the idea around in my head for weeks now.

How am I going to make the wings??

Of course, the initial plan was to try using tracing paper, which as you know, did not work.

So the next plan was simply using a printout, which looked too polished so I'd scrapped that.

SO, my friend had then suggested that I use tissue paper, an idea that I entertained.

But like everything, this came with its own issues.

The first, of course, was HOW would I be able to trace the pattern?

So, I tried looking for a lightbox, and when one wasn't immediately handed to me by the universe, I tried to get creative.

So I found a mini ring-light, used for the photo booth, and taped the drawing to it.

Genius, I know.

But this was until my friend (the same one who'd suggested using tissue paper) had pointed out that our classroom DOES have a lightbox.

And with slight frustration, I was able to use that instead.

The next issue was actually trying out tracing onto the tissue paper using both ink pens AND fine-liners, the paper was too thin for it to not bleed through and even melt the paper.

^ Ink pen results.

^ The fine-liner results.

So, what was the plan?

I went to Kyrstie, and she'd suggested that I should try gluing the tissue paper onto the wireframe, and then gluing it to create a firm, drum-like texture.

I was reluctant to do so, because I figured if it didn't work, then it would then mess up the frame for future attempts, but I was pretty desperate, so I went through with it.

Beautiful.

And then the part I was concerned about, the gluing.

It worked!

(This picture was taken after I'd glued down both sides, and to do this I simply glued down a piece of tissue paper to the other side and cut around the frame, because I'm a genius I'd put them onto the wrong side (creating two right-wings), so I'd have to do both sides regardless.)

And on the topic of being reluctant to try out things, there was the pen aspect of it.

Despite the tissue paper having been given a firmer texture, I was still worried for the thinness of it, so what was suggested is that I simply use a scrap piece of tissue paper to test out how it would work.

Very thankfully, it worked perfectly.

(Also a quick thankyou to another friend who allowed me to use one of their fine-liners.)

So, next was actually tracing the pattern onto wing, which was rather difficult because it was slightly hard to see the actual printout through the wing, even on top of the lightbox.

Which had also led me to a sort of.. Issue? But also not really?

Now, compared to the original plan for the wing, there's meant to be three red stems at the top of the wing, but I only traced two, and if I wanted to add another, it wouldn't work because it wouldn't be connected.

So I decided to sort of just go with it.

It was easy to trace onto the other side because the darkness shone through, but drawing onto the other wing was slightly more difficult, but I'd managed.

And they were done!

You wouldn't believe the smile on my face once they were finally completed, as planning this had likely been the most difficult thing to do, and now it's finally ready to be glued to the spider's body.

Though, that sounds a lot easier than it will be, because I still have yet to drill holes into the spider to fit the wing stems, along with wanting to hot glue the spider legs to give them a more realistic texture.

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The Wings Pt1

Now, as mentioned quite a while back, I created a wing from wire!

This alone was already difficult, but.. Having to make a SECOND wing was even more trying, because I had to replicate the shape.

So, in an attempt to make it easier on myself, I'd traced out the wireframe onto a piece of paper so I'd be able to follow it.

But this naturally didn't work, because life can't be easy, and the shape ended up being a bit too wide and off place.

^ This was about the time I gave up.

So instead, I'd tried shaping the wire around the already formed wing, which was so annoying because the wire kept swinging everywhere and getting caught on the table.

But eventually, with much pain and effort, it was finally done.

And I'm extremely proud that I was able to complete it so nicely.

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The Butterspi, with help from my friend, has now adopted the name Steven Stevette Wilson.

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The spider is nearing completion

I'm growing increasingly excited to say that the spider is roughly 85% complete, as the only thing left to create is the wings.

Which, on the topic of, will need a complete revamp. All the previous methods I had considered applying just.. Didn't work out very well.

The initial idea was to trace the wing out of tracing paper, use watercolour onto it and get the red outlines by using posca pens.

DO NOT USE WATERCOLOURS ON TRACING PAPER.

It not only very hardly coloured, but it also caused the paper to curve insufferably.

So the next method I'm considering is having a printed out version of the digitised wings so I'd be able to glue them to the frame, which is still currently a work in progress, so I'll be updating on that tomorrow.

But returning to the spider, I was able to paint it today!

And here comes another issue, I didn't use acrylic paints.

I used those absolute hellspawn paints we keep upstairs in the storage room, where they should stay until the end of time.

So, upon using proper acrylic paint, I was able to achieve the desired outcome.

You may also well notice that I'd painted over the legs too, which just generally seemed like a good idea for consistency's sake.

And this was upon adding some extra details with posca pens, such as the eyes, back pattern and shimmer.

Not only has the spider been going through some improvement, but I've also been bringing together the can aswell, putting her egg sac inside and also adding some REAL dead bugs I'd found.

The next steps would be definitely adding more moss to the can and possibly patching over some of the visible hot-glue blobs.