#based off my favourite bit of Red Death concept art

[always-amity]

Couple more doodles from last night

[feuillmort]

Hello! I am aware that you are not drawing COTL for the moment, but do you still answer asks about it? If you do, I'd like to ask, if it isn't too spoilery: What gave you the idea to make a reincarnation AU that you are writing right now? Does being the god of cycle also include death and rebirth in that domain? How do you plan on showing Lamb's suspicious familiarity with the Red Crown? How did Narinder became a follower of the previous Red Crown bearer? Would your Red Crown have its own personality or some form of sentience, and would it recognise its former bearer's soul if so?

What is your favourite weapon, fleece, and curse to use in the game? Any OC followers?

Have an enjoyable month, eat regularly.

EEEK HIIII OH GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE I ALMOST MISSED THIS ASK!!!! HIIII ❤️❤️ (speaking of which, all other asks pertaining to art reqs will be answered eventually!!! don't worry, i've seen em)

longpost and mentions of irl religion under the cut

What gave you the idea to make a reincarnation AU?

- There wasn't really any big "aha" moment when it came to the early stages of trying to find an au that i could write, but I'd been seeing fairly similar role reversal concept art on my dash for quite a while. Eventually, after I'd come up with some logical reasoning for how everything worked, I decided to write it for real :)

Does being the god of cycles also include death and rebirth in that domain?

- Yes! It's also part of the reason the lamb ever made it back to the land of the living in the first place, aside from being a genuine abstract concept.

How do you plan on showing the lamb's suspicious familiarity with the crown?

- Through dreams, primarily. The dreams don't start up until the lamb starts wearing the crown, and after that they're mostly vague bits and pieces that they oftentimes can't remember well enough to understand. On Narinder's end, it's even less certain. He can't recognize them--their soul, while it's the same, has taken up residence in an entirely new body. The possibility of them being his old god doesn't even cross his mind; why would it? He can't remember anything from his mortal life, not after spending however many years trapped in abject agony. However, he does notice how easily they seem to take to the crown in comparison to its previous bearers (ie Ratau). They bounce back almost immediately after being resurrected, and their power is amplified. He can't fathom why that might be.

How did Narinder become a follower of the previous Red Crown bearer?

- I based the worship of the Great Ones off of the worship of the actual Greek and Roman pantheons. While many people were not devoted to a specific god, it was common to leave offerings and pray to one for safe passage/victory in war/fertile soil/etc. For example, if one wanted to guarantee the safe passage of a loved one through the afterlife, they would pray to They of Cycles (although the god would do their best to safeguard deceased souls, regardless).

In contrast, Narinder grew up in a family of devouts residing in a temple to the previous bearer. From the moment he became old enough, he was an acolyte, assisting celebrants in processions and the like. As I've mentioned before, They of Cycles took on the form of a worshiper to observe their followers often. They had a tentative relationship with many in their temple, but they'd made fast friends with Narinder, too.

Would your Red Crown have its own personality or some form of sentience, and would it recognize its previous bearer if so?

- Technically, no. The crowns do not have their own personalities, and they are sentient in only the barest form.

I grew up doing witchcraft with my grandmother, and she had her own beliefs around how wands "actually worked." (And obviously I'm not trying to give commentary on anyone else's beliefs, btw! This is just how I grew up. I haven't interacted with other witches outside of my grandmother's older circle in several years.) A practician is perfectly capable of doing magic on their own, but using a wand is helpful for directing their energy during spellwork.

In the same vein, the gods are extremely powerful regardless of whether or not they posess their crowns, but the crowns are a great help when they want to focus their power toward more demanding tasks.

Where they differ, however, is the vitality of the god's conduit; gods can only last so long without their crowns. When their crown is not in their posession, a god's source of devotion is cut off completely, and they will begin to deteriorate over an extremely long period of time. This is why, by the time Narinder is free, the lamb is able to defeat him. They've had his crown for so long that he's weakened enough to be defeated in combat. Narinder recognized this risk every time he gave away his crown, but there was no other hope for escape, and as long as his vessel remained obedient and returned the crown to its "rightful owner," he would leave his prison more powerful than he entered it regardless.

Anyway, since I'm getting a teeny bit off track. No, the crown is not its own character and functions more like a wand, but it is sentient enough to recognize its true owner and begin funneling what's left of their power and memories back into their soul. Or something like that.

Favorite weapon?

- Dagger.

Favorite fleece?

- Glass cannon.

Favorite curse?

- I don't use curses. </3

Any follower OCS?

- None at the moment, but I have ideas for some that'll probably feature later in the fic!

Thank you for your well wishes! Your asks are always a joy to see in my inbox <3 I hope you have a wonderful month, as well, and make sure to get some sleep!

[val-lanto]

Lanto Talks: #2 Frustrations, Minimalism and Backlogs (And another PSD)

A mixed bag of thoughts to shift through this time around. Won a challenge, didn’t place in the other for two pieces that I consider on the other sides of the spectrum of each other. We’ll cover that and my thoughts technically between two pieces themed around the same thing. And my eternal frustration when dealing with minimalism.  

I’m not really good at being a humble winner nor a humble loser, so when I say I’m both bitter and surprised at the contest results, I do mean it. The two pieces in question are two Cioccolata pieces: MON WED FRI that documents just after his death and The Pinnacle Of Curiosity that focuses on Cioccolata’s background and story. Both based on panels, both expanding out, both relatively the same. Both filled with little details: Cioccolata’s earring appears in both; The flip phone to Secco appears in both; and both pieces have a hidden message in you’ll only see if you really zoom in or watch the speed art. Little details are my favourite thing to put in, all the little hidden things and Easter eggs. So, you’ll forgive me when the results of the competition had flipped the opposite way I had expected. The earlier piece, I believe is the best I’ve one in my newer art, and probably one of my favourites of all time. Enflamed by malice about something, I struck my heart and passion into painting every little detail. The level of touching up and painting to do within the piece was rather extreme. Blending the trash textures, making sure to take small bits of paper fold over each other. There was delicate attention to the detail like the licks of flames and under blurring for the layers of rubbish. The details and time it takes to layer flat textures with depth is something I never want do ever again. In turn, the other piece the number of corners I cut in the piece I won with was immense. A rushed piece sketched out just before the deadline to a friend over discord. The arm in the background is incorrect, the shadowing is wrong on the coat and the perspective on the able is laughable. The reflection on table is actually wrong too, the arm on both the tablet and the background mirror were done at different parts therefore inconsistent. upon retrospect, even the depth is lazy.  It doesn’t have the finishing touches, those extra brushes that separate the former piece out. Then that moves me to a different angle, the difference between concept and technical ability.

There is always the “defence of concept”. It’s something I am always in two minds about. Every contest has a theme and thematic the judges are looking for. To do something as precise as that, even with the speed art makes it harder to notice or see.  Further on, while I miss disagree with the winner of both contests, More so the former, there is always the different n concept. For a theme like “The More You See” there’s going to be a much more heavier weight on the concept. When I first stated signature making about 6 to 7 odd years ago now at Platinum Graphics, I used to be much more vehemently involved on this discussion and all in for concept over tech. Going against the nature of fifty same looking c4d and render sigs in favour of creative ones. The admin himself who I won in a battle to prove my voice about creativity over technical ability would always disagree with me.  Coming full circle now, I seem too much to be on the other hand, vying for my technical ability and a balance rather than two pieces of stock blended with an essay. If we go way back there was a time where I thought many of my pieces that were boring, same and unmoving from the crowd, they are all technically competent at the least. Several dozen girls in long dresses doing things with nature, blah blah. Everywhere all I saw the same angels, vampires and fairies, I made explicit pieces in a fairy competition of a piece “killing” theories.  There is a balance though between concept and technical ability. I made a series of manips taking a stab at the constant same 3 or 4 things I saw maniped. The “Jimmie series” of these four pieces, where taking the “boring” concepts like mermaids and that fisherman statue, but done under the story of a long hair wearing tentacle monster. They are technically, visually good with and interesting concept to marry with a story. I think this is where I peaked between balancing concept vs the technical side.  I think where that balance lines comes back to where you personally sit on the sliding scale of personal taste.

That brings us to my two recent minimalism pieces for the Stewed Tomatoes contests I tried to test this a little but making two pieces I think were on the other side of the scale. One more technically profound, clean and playing with depth to create a jarring minimal piece but has no meaning and was strictly made with anything that could lead to a concept. It’s nonsense. The second piece, not so technically profound and filled with broken clip, incorrect perspective. Yet it’s endeared with a concept at every point. The blue and red. The black and white. The cross and the purposeful little description added onto it. All this is filled together to make a piece with a story deep with hidden meaning, symbolism but not as technically profound.  I purposely crafted it alongside how I felt more what looked the best and placed a story alongside it. Of course, it means very little when it’s so personal, but having this outlook created two different pieces, with different flavours. One very cold, even down to the no humans or anything that’s “live in it” vs the very organic piece with the hands.  It’s interesting making both with a set theme and a goal how I felt making them. I often found myself very stuck making the the rock one and you call tell in its speed art the indesciveness that lingers all around it. While conversely the more emotions ne gave a different type of frustrating about it not being fully what I had wanted. Originally I wanted a straight cross with hands crumbling into blackness with light at the top. Very late piece. But my heart was swayed by a different stock and such is the mess I went with. Perhaps it would have been more fitting and simpler, but not my style. Maybe I am just wholly incompatible with the concept of less is more. Perhaps I will see after the detail which one got more attention and get back to you. Personally, I prefer neither of them and wish the contest theme was something else. But if you never test your curiosity, how can you evolve, hm?

Taking a break from the challenges and endless backlog of things, for jjbararepairweek was also a mistake. I’m really far behind and my work has gained no other attention, nor care for it. This brings me to my feeling about continuing to make Jojo or fanart manips in general. It’s a struggle balance because none of the people who fanart is made for actually like and vice versa the photmanipers don’t seem to “Get” them unless I write down long explanations of what are they relate too. I suppose that is a balance most people face, but it’s annoying. Returning to just random photosmanips would be a good idea, but I fall utterly uninspired without the framework of a challenge or a goal. Nor the image and base to work off with trying to make things real like with my Jojo manips. When the odd thing comes up like Mad-Max-Kun from Jojolion appear then sure I might indulge into it but staying follow on it I a mistake. It’s tough to do both sides and the frustrations from rarepairweek unable to do the draw or edit the things I want.to is painful. Alongside the tutorials and PSDs seem to have fallen flat. Not to say my confidence has been knocked or I’m moaning that much, it just seems like misplaced effort if nobody cares or wants to indulge with it. I would rather the Tutorials on DA but because of dumb roundabout rules, I can’t. So the audience that would appreciate them simply can’t get to them, and vice versa. This is all very frustrating, no?  But to sit on monthly challenges to carry my workflow seems useless. Anyway, to celebrate Mad Max Kun, here’s the PSD of the piece I made of him.

There’s some interesting contests coming up, I’ve sketched for an idea for the Dandelion Wishes contest that I am super hyped about….even if I doubt my skills to go through with it. The Doppleganger contest I’ve managed to push in a Cioccolata reference with. Although it will be one of those simple manips which requires to me to actually pay attention. I don’t have a lot of faith in myself but with both my Dolomite and Mad Max piece I pushed through it and got to the other end. So maybe I might surprise myself. Again, I just hope it doesn’t fall apart qt the concept.  I suppose it’s worth it just to get more into and t least exist within the “Community”. No the irony is not lost on me the fact that I may complain about not much feedback when I spent almost a month forgetting to add my things to the proper groups outside of the Jojo one. Burned the bridge so hard with the only person who would care about Cioccolata I set pluto on fire.  Advertising is always a pain and all my years of photomaniping I don’t know what my audience is.

I suppose, we can only march forward.