#collabing with others is one the best skill to have in any creative space I would not be able to make the comic without my co writter

[transformers-synergize]

Hi. I wanted to ask if I could make a dub of your comic on my youtube channel.Don't worry, you would be credited and I leave a link to your channel. Here some info thought if you agree:

-First and foremost,I'm not professional.Most of stuff I post on my channel are experimental to test my voice acting skills.

-I'm female and I have thin voice,which is often a problem when I do VA for guys.I use voice generated AI to help me with this.

-I'm not Native english speaker and my accent is mostly reveal this

-I don't expect payment.Like stated before,I do this mostly for fun and practice so it's for free

I understant when you don't agree.I just really like your comic and I would like to introduce it to other people.

Go for it sounds awesome I love to see it. Don't worry about payment You're also 100% allowed to monetize your video and keep all the profits.

just ask you don't use AI voice/ text to speech. I think this technology has its place but I'd rather have real people perform, especially for characters with more messy speaking styles like spikes with frequent ums and uhs and often inarticulate sentences or characters who have a tendency to get very emotional like cliffjumper, I rather a inexperienced voice actor try and fail to potray those emotions than a ai voice with a flat tone,

I rather you attempt the male characters voices yourself, or find someone to collaborate with. There are a lot of amateur voice actors who are always looking for something to work on. the ability to collaborate with other vas is a great non-acting skill to have in voice acting. idk if you would like to collab with other people, but I'll put this out here anyway if you're a dude with a dude-sounding voice and wanna possibly collaborate on an unofficial dub comment below

also, within lore, the cybertronian characters are all genderless, so even if a bot is masculine presenting in design and behavior to humans, doesn't mean they need to sound like a guy. I mean, I have thought of possibly putting together an official dub in the future and planned to let anyone of any gender, accent, or tone try out for any of the cybertronian characters and I would pick roles purely based on the performance, and how well they capture the character energy ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[salcreus]

Hermits Helping Hermits, and why it’s so brilliant

Excuse any grammar mistakes, it is very late and I am very tired as of writing this haha

First off, if you don’t know, there’s this new thing that the Hermits came up with called Hermits Helping Hermits- HHH for short as I like to call it.  Here’s twitch’s VOD of Ren’s POV if you want to get to know that better, instead of reading a badly written paragraph about it by yours truly. (This one is by far the one with the most interactions with it, but there are far more hermits involved in this event :) <3 Check their twitch streams and/or Youtube VODS channels for more of that chit-chatting spicy goodness)

But, if you don't want to sit through two and half hours of video footage (which honestly I don't blame you), the best resume that I can give of it is- actually very explicit in the name. It's just a bunch of hermits helping out another hermit with a certain task, something that is repetitive and would take that hermit absolutely aeons to get done with. It's a very small resume, but at the end of the day, that  /is/ the core of this "Event" of sorts.

Now that you got that out of the way, excuse me as I indulge in all of the details that make this simple concept fry up my brain with joy.

Collaboration. That's a word that we thrive for and love whenever a new stream or episode comes out, it brings out the best of all hermits involved while combining their skills and humour (which I'll touch upon in a bit). It's just overall a bomb fest of creativity and oh boy do we eat that shit up whenever we can (If you need any more proof of the fandom's love for collaborative works, check out the poles our beloved miners and crafters have done to us, audience, asking about which content we prefer. Really. It's absurd how much collabs destroy the other options of the polls).

And honestly... HHH is exactly all we have ever wanted in terms of interactions between hermits. You have a bunch of buzzing bees that are together, in this calm environment, doing tasks that don't quite require that much brainpower, and you got yourself this podcast-Esque vibe going on that just works wonderfully with the stream format that they have going on- And that's not even mentioning the use of the voice chat mod! The way that they don't have to just jumble about in VCs, and can just fly away to talk, promotes this easier way of being part of the action (In this first stream we could see hermits just showing up midway through, or leaving, which, unlike having to click away from Minecraft and onto Discord and switch VCs and all of this tedious process- It doesn't feel forced. It's organic, and they are the ones that have the power to do whatever they want.)

(Also quick note not to ever pressure the content creators into talking or joining in yada yada don't be a prick about it <3 They are human beings too, not your personal TV show)

Humour. (Told you that we were going to talk about this) ...Actually, I'm lying, this is more to analyze their interactions and tie with the thing that I talked about above, but I don't actually want to make two separate tabs for this text so like ehhhh- Okay okay so. We all know that putting different types of personalities into a room is bound to give some good shenanigans, we all know that show and tale, so I am not going to re-tell it (Unless someone someday wants me to write about that which I doubt because I'd be a massive nerd about it). No, I want to focus more on the environment itself and how /that/ is one of the tricks on how their conversations turn into this amalgamation of chiller, more daring topics.

Now, by more daring topics, I don't mean that they are going to start cursing out their viewers, but it overall feels like we get to retire a bit from the Minecraft Funny Persona, and focus more on the humans being behind it. Of course, their personal lives are none of our business, but it's nice to see them acting like the nerdy adults that they are- Which I feel is a bit forgotten in this fandom, yknow?  The fact that they, too, are absolutely silly and would laugh at 69 jokes as much as we do (season 5 chatting my beloved). This chill, lowkey profile induced by the conditions I talked about above impacts their humour, and thus, their way of interacting in this free for all space where they can just vibe!

Also, I cannot mention this ^ without congratulating Rendog for his way of giving everyone their own moment on the spotlight. If it hasn't been clear before by the Hermitcraft panel at Minecon a few years ago (which he was the host of :) <3), Ren is bloody AMAZING at sparking conversation, and overall debate managing; I blame his cockiness and his lack of shame, but who am I to judge. The way that he managed the tasks given, and was able to put everyone on track when the train was moving away from the action, really shows his skills when it comes to entertaining an audience. I am NOT going to forgive him for the pee talk though, hate the furry </3 /j

Creativity! This is just a small thing that I catched on when I was watching, but I really liked how Bdubs was giving tips on how to make the spikes on the biome pop up more (by the use of walls, stairs, slabs). It wasn't something that was really the centre of attention in this "episode" of HHH, but I appreciate the possibilities that this gives in terms of hermits learning as they work together on something, the sentiment of giving tips and tricks as to how to make something pop up, or how to improve on a certain detail- Another moment involving this was when Xisuma was talking about that lava cast shemanty machinery that I am far too dumb to talk about but you know what, he sure was saying words and I am sure they are very useful. The collaborative process of coming up with ideas and solutions is one that always fascinates me (Maybe that's why the mayoral building is my favourite one of the season so far) and I cannot wait to see what else they can bring to the table, even if it's small.

If this hasn’t convinced you yet I don’t know what it will, but, to be fair, I'm just someone that is Far Too Excited about HHH :pensive_emote: But to wrap things up very badly because I am awful at closing statements, the hermits look like they are having fun with it, which is what matters at the end of the day! They are all kind, wonderful individuals that treat us far too good, and this is not exception. Can't wait to see what they are going to do next, and how this event series is going to develop :) <3

(I was also going to go more on topic about the interactions that happened and jokes, but honestly I think that's a side document for another day dsjffsdmf;;)

[iridescentjin]

Passion Project

Summary: artist!yoongi x poet!reader. yoongi and yn are friends that are attending the same university. in need of a muse for his latest assignment, yoongi turns to you for a rather intimate portrait.

Genre: fluff, fluff, and more fluff

Warnings: some swearing, teeth rotting, heart aching, cliche ass fluff

a/n: This is my contribution to the @heartsforbtsnet​’s “The Chronicles of y/n” collab. It was tough for me to write only fluff, but I loved it. I love Yoongi 🥺. There will be an nsfw follow-up piece.

WC: 3830

Everyone always said “don’t go to art school,” and “what are you going to do with a fine art degree?”

You didn’t know, but you knew what you loved. Your passion is split between creative writing and film photography. You would give anything to be able to write poetry for a living, but you know that you’re no Rupi Kaur. Opportunities for poets aren’t very common. But you remained true to yourself, writing everything at every given opportunity.

You fell in love with photography at 13. You had saved up all of your spare money for a year to be able to take Film Photography 101 at the local youth center. From the first roll of film that you processed, you were in love. And now you’re here. Studying the things you love most.

You were filling an elective requirement and taking an intro to drawing course. Most of the people in there were musicians or writers or photographers like yourself. One of them was the music production and painting major Min Yoongi. You thought it was weird to see him in that class the first time you saw him there. Painters usually knew at least a little bit about drawing.

The first day of class, you’d gone around the room and said who you were and what you hoped to get out of the class. You had said your name and that you hoped to gain any skills in drawing at all. Min Yoongi had said that he struggled with still life, focusing mainly on the abstract in his paintings. He wanted to get better at figures. You could relate because you could draw a pretty decent mountain range, but a person? Forget it.

You knew Yoongi from around campus. A friend of a friend, kind of deal. You sat beside him and another Photography major that you get along with, Jeon Minju. Minju is sweet and silly. Yoongi is quiet and sarcastic. It was a weird juxtaposition that you found hilarious. Drawing might just be your favorite class this semester for that simple reason.

The class started out easy enough. Only drawing shadows. One continuous line drawing. Your favorite was playing with charcoal. It was just fun to manipulate and smudge. You loved playing with negative space and light. And getting your fingers covered made you feel like a child playing with chalk.

Yoongi and Minju were both good with light as well. Yoongi’s shadow drawings were incomparable with the rest of the class. You kept thinking to yourself that it was absurd he was here.

Until it came time for figure drawing.

That’s when you realized that though most artists can figure out light and shadows...figures are something completely their own. You listened carefully to every word from the professors mouth, trying to improve your craft. You were not great by any definition of the term, but man, were you better than Min Yoongi. His drawings looked like they were done by first graders who were trying their hardest to make anything look right but just couldn’t get it.

You tried to encourage Yoongi and not laugh at his drawings, but sometimes it was hard when the person in it looked like a straight up penis. 

“Dude,” you said to him once, “you’ve seen a person before, right?”

He had blushed crimson and turned away from you. You felt a little guilty about making him embarrassed, and you tried to walk it back. The damage had already been done, and he didn’t show you any of his drawings for 2 weeks. When he finally showed you one, it was so much better.

“Yoongi, honestly I’m sorry I made fun of you, but this is so good.”

It wasn’t “so good,” but it was pretty good. You wanted to boost his confidence. It seems to work all right, and he starts showing you more of his drawings. You feel a slight feeling of redemption inside at fixing your own mistake.

Over the course of the semester, you, Yoongi, and Minju spent a lot of time together. Something about bonding over the stress of not being good at drawing had bonded the three of you. Every Thursday you eat lunch together at the taco stand in the student center. You even organized a couple of movie nights, watching B-movies together and laughing at how terrible they are.

Birdemic: Shock and Terror was one of your favorites. The three of you had laughed so hard at it because none of it made any sense, and it looked like it was filmed on the cheapest piece of crap camera in the weirdest locations possible.

You sat in your living room, eating popcorn and chips, watching the movies together. It started out kind of awkwardly keeping your distance from each other. Minju on one side of you, Yoongi on the other.

You kept your shoulders away from both of theirs, tending to lean further toward Minju just because you didn't want to make Yoongi uncomfortable. You felt unsure about him at first. Soon you'd started to get to know him more, and you learned that he wasn't cold like he had initially seemed. He was funny and sarcastic. You loosened up. You didn't mind if your shoulder brushed his or if the two of you shared a snack, occasionally brushing finger tips.

It was comfortable, your friendship with Minju and Yoongi. The three of you nearly inseparable. Your schedule coincided with Yoongi’s more than Minju’s, so you ate lunch together nearly everyday, swiping into the dining hall and finding his friends or yours. They knew now to save 2 seats for both of you.

The two of you were nearly inseparable except for when you were in classes. He would meet you in the quad, paint splatters on his face and hands, beaming at you. It was such a seamless friendship. He was an introvert who was kind of over people. You were an introvert who was kind of over people. It just clicked. 

****

One night in November, you had a movie night planned with Minju and Yoongi. Minju calls you around 6pm panicking because she hasn’t finished one of her photography projects. You had finished it earlier in the week, and you offer to come down to the photography building to help her. She insists that she wants to do it on her own, but she won’t be able to make the movie.

You tell her it was no big deal and that you can reschedule for another time. You text Yoongi, and he asks if you still wanted him to come. At first you want to say no because you aren’t going to end up watching the movie you planned. Then you decide that it would be nice seeing Yoongi anyway. He is one of your best friends anyway, so why not?

When Yoongi arrives at your door, he’s wearing a gray beanie with a square, unamused gray smiley face on it. He has one AirPod in one ear. His slight frame is clothed with a gray hoodie with a white shirt poking out the bottom. He has on fitted, tapered sweatpants with a white stripe down the side. Quintessential cozy Yoongi.

He has a brown bag in his hand that you can tell is full of food. There’s a small damp spot on the side from condensation.

“I brought food,” he says with a shrug. 

He makes his way to your couch like he lives there himself. He tosses the bag down on the coffee table, plops down on the couch, and begins to rummage through the paper sack. He pulls out several different containers, each holding some of your favorite foods. You feel a weird feeling in your chest as you watch him sitting there, casually opening the lids on each of the takeout containers.

You shake off the feeling and sit next to him. You dig into the food, picking out pieces of oi kimchi with your chopsticks and popping them into your mouth. Looking at the table, you see that Yoongi got extra of your favorite, oi kimchi, even though he doesn’t like it very much. You smile at the sight of it then keep eating.

The two of you sit in near silence, chewing away on the samgyeopsal and galbi.

You turn to him and ask, “Do you want to watch a movie? It’s almost Thanksgiving. We could watch my all time favorite Thanksgiving movie.”

“Two questions,” he replies. “One: THERE ARE THANKSGIVING MOVIES? Two: YOU HAVE A FAVORITE!?”

“Well, one, yeah. And two, of course.”

You switch on the TV and click over to the hard drive that you have connected to it. You hover over the title “Thankskilling” and turn and look over at Yoongi. He reads the title and chokes slightly on his food. A satisfied smile spreads across his face, and he nods at you. Both of you turn your attention back to the screen.

The two of you laugh out loud immediately upon, “Nice tits, bitch!” being uttered by the turkey. Yoongi laughs hard out loud.

“Oh, I am so excited about this,” he utters.

The movie continues on, you and Yoongi laugh and add commentary as you watch. The tears brim in your eyes as you watch, and Yoongi grabs your leg hard as he laughs at “Gobble, gobble, motherfucker.”

You look down at his hand on your knee and stare at it for a moment. You feel weird seeing it there, but it doesn’t feel wrong. It feels warm, calming, and comfortable. Yoongi turns and sees his hand resting on your leg. He immediately pulls it away and looks up at you, cheeks turning pink. You turn away and try to pretend like you didn’t feel something in the pit of your stomach.

The rest of the movie, the two of you sit a little further apart from one another, still laughing and commenting the whole time. When the movie is over, you chat, turning slightly toward one another, joking about the turkey and school with one another.

After an hour, your roommate walks into the apartment from her study group with her friends. She looks up at the two of you on the couch and raises her eyebrows.

“Sorry, yn, I didn’t realize you had a date tonight. I would have stayed out longer.”

You feel the heat coming to your cheeks, and you drop your head. “It’s not a date. It’s just Yoongi,” you snap as quickly as possible.

You don’t look at Yoongi at all, so embarrassed by Jinhee’s comment.

“Well, I gotta go,” Yoongi mutters awkwardly next to you.

He gets up and stalks out the door quickly past Jinhee. He barely tosses a “goodbye” your way as he makes his way into the hallway. You glare at your roommate, and when she closes the door you roll your eyes.

“Thank you so much for making that as awkward as possible,” you say and begin cleaning the food off the coffee table. You sulk off into your bedroom as soon as you have cleaned up. Jinhee shouts sorry after you.

***

Near the end of the semester, the professor assigns you a project. Any medium that you want to use to draw. 5 human figure drawings.

Passion.

That’s it. That’s the whole prompt. He didn’t give you any more information. He just said passion. When asked by students, he did say that it could be the same figure or 5 different figures. Any size. Any paper. Any style. And an author’s statement about the techniques used and how it represents passion.

Easy enough. But challenging in so many ways. You decided to draw your 5 best friends - Jungkook, Jimin, Hoseok, Namjoon, and Seokjin. The passion there would be the different passions you see within all of them. Jungkook’s passion for boxing. Jimin’s passion for baking. Hoseok’s passion for dance. Namjoon’s passion for social justice. Seokjin’s passion for acting. Together, the five of them were the most passionate people that you know. They were chasing their dreams, and it helped you feel like you could absolutely complete the assignment.

Yoongi was a different story. He seemed panicked from the moment the professor said that it was figure drawings. You could see him wracking his brain for something that could represent passion to him. You wanted to grab his hand and comfort him, tell him it would be okay.

You and Minju chatted excitedly after that class about the ideas that you had. Yoongi lagged behind, dragging his feet slightly. At the lunch table in the dining hall, Yoongi seemed distracted, poking his food and barely eating.

“Yoongi, what’s your deal, man?” Minju asks, a small smirk on her face.

“I’m not sure,” he says in a faint voice.

Minju turns to you and shrugs. You keep working on your bowl of cereal. You know it’s not the most nutritious meal, but hey, you’re in university. This is the time to eat cereal for every meal. You aren’t sure what you could even do for Yoongi, and you’re pretty sure the project is getting to him. He was fine before class started.

“Hey, Yoon, is it the project getting to you?”

“I just don’t know what to do,” he grumbles.

“Well, that’s okay, Yoongi. You have some time,” Minju pipes.

You stuff another bite of cereal into your mouth, looking between the two of them. You aren’t sure what you could even encourage him to do because you know him, but you don’t really know his passions beyond painting and music.

“Maybe you could draw something that has to do with painting?” you ask between bites.

“I just don’t know,” he says and turns his eyes back down to the plate in front of him.

The three of you sit in awkward silence eating your food. You are unsure how to comfort your friend, but you don’t want to push him any further. When lunches ends, you all go to your classes, saying brief awkward goodbyes.

*******

You hardly see Yoongi except for in class over the course of the next two weeks. He’s a little distant and stoic in class, so you just focus your attention on drawing your final project. You love the way that the shadows you create on the paper show the love and beauty within your friends. They aren’t perfect drawings, but you see each of your friends in each of the drawings.

For your artist statement, you decide to describe the technique and medium normally but write the statement about them into poems. 

Seokjin. Charcoal on paper. The faces you wear Hide the pain within you You put on each of your masks Dazzling the crowd Your eyes sparkle They tell the story Of your life And the thousand others You play

Namjoon. Graphite on paper. Someone said You couldn’t do it When in reality You were doing it all along You hold up the world Against the light To see it for what it is Examining it like a researcher Like a warrior You won’t stop

Hoseok. White charcoal on black paper. Your movements Fluid Like water Dancing Lapping at the shore

Your passion Love Like the moon Pulling Pushing the passion from within you

Jimin. Graphite on paper. Like the cinnamon roll. You are warm and sweet. Filled with love and spiciness. Without the tang of the cinnamon, The sugar would be too sweet. Without the sugar, The cinnamon would bite too hard. You, like the cinnamon roll, Are a comfort A joy A love To be savored.

Jungkook. Charcoal on canvas. The sweetest and softest. The kindest and brightest. The golden boy. The strongest and the fiercest. The boldest and the truest. My golden maknae.

You looked at your drawings and the pages, the short poems. You feel a pride inside that swells in your chest as you breathe deeply, looking down at it. The way that you feel like the aura of each of your friends radiates from the pages. Even from the black and white, you can feel Hoseok’s orange, Seokjin’s pink, Jungkook’s red, Jimin’s purple, and Namjoon’s blue. The warmth of them jumps off the page.

You wonder to yourself how Yoongi is doing.You send him a text, and he doesn’t respond. You assume he’s working hard on all of his classes because it’s the end of the semester. Personally, you’ve put together a portfolio of 200 poems and completed a photo folio. You were burned out, and you felt like the drawings took the most time for you. You can imagine that with painting and drawing, Yoongi is swamped.

You see him on the day that you’re supposed to have a gallery walk for all of the classes final projects. He isn’t in the room at first when everyone starts setting up, their pieces and their statements displayed together. He jogs into the room a little late with papers stuffed under his arm, pressed against his side.

He lays out his drawings hastily and flops down a paper in front of them in the last open spot. He doesn’t greet you and Minju, but you figure he’s just stressed. The class begins, and you make your way around the room. You read each artist’s statement carefully, feeling self-conscious about yours when you read the explanations that your peers wrote. Much more in-depth about the topics and the subjects. You worry about your grade.

You make your way to Minju’s, and you smile at the drawings of cameras and photographers. Minju is so committed, so passionate about photography. You can feel her smile in each of the drawings. They’re not perfect, but they are pretty good. Minju was the most talented of the three of you. The smile creeps across your face again as you read the words detailing her love for photography, the way a camera feels in her hand, the joy she feels when the developer starts to reveal the image.

When the timer goes off, you continue to move. There are a few more that you read before you arrive at Yoongi’s. You stare at the pages, your eyes darting around the page at each of the features. Your breath catches in your throat, and your stomach does a flip. There’s no way.

On the pages before you, you see the curve of your own nose and cheeks. The way your hair rests against your collarbone. The glitter in your eye. You can’t mistake the face and body that you see in the mirror every single day.

You snatch the artist’s statement off the desk and pull it close to your face. Your eyes scan the words as tears start to well your eyes.

Passion. To me passion is the way that you can watch any B movie and find the good in it. Passion is how you write poem after poem, searching for the precise word. Passion is the way that you want to capture every beautiful moment on film. Passion is your smile as you read a text from your mother. Passion is the way that you bite your fingernails when you’re thinking hard. Passion is the way that your pen moves on the paper as your forehead crinkles. Passion is the way you make me feel. Passion is you. Graphite on paper.

You can’t stop the tears that fill your eyes, and your heart is pounding in your chest. You turn and scan the room. You can’t see Yoongi through the sea of bodies across the room. The feeling overwhelms you, so you decide to take a moment in the hallway. No one will notice you're gone.

Once in the hall, you take a deep breath. You hear a shuffling down the hallway from you. You snap your head toward the sound, and there stands a cat-like man in a black sweatshirt and a gray beanie. He’s looking at you with a sadness in his eyes, and the tears start to fall from your eyes.

“Why are you crying?” Yoongi asks, walking toward you.

You shake your head unable to form the words.

“Did you see it?” he asks, timidly. “Oh my god, you hate it!”

He turns his face away from you, but he doesn’t walk away. He brings his thumb up and wipes a tear away from your cheek. You sniffle and wipe the tears from the other side. Your eyes finally meet his.

“No, I didn’t hate it, Yoongi. So far from that.”

A light spreads to his eyes and across his face. “Really?”

“Yoongi, those things that you wrote. Did you mean that?”

With a smile on his lips, he gently grabs your chin and says, “I meant every single word of it. Over the last few months, things have seemed...lighter. Brighter. You’ve done that in my life. My paintings are more bright, with warmer colors. Hell, I’ve been whistling. You make everything seem okay. Honestly, yn, you make me so happy, it’s stupid.

“Yoongi, I feel the same way. You should read the sappy poems that I’ve been writing. You have changed me for the better. I look forward to talking to you every day. I light up if your name shows up on my phone.”

You mean to say more, but at that moment, Yoongi tilts your chin toward him and presses his lips against yours. His mouth is soft and pillowy; the sweet minty flavor in his mouth draws you in further. You kiss him more deeply and wrap your arms around his neck. When the two of you separate, you smile at him. You can’t help but be reminded of Cho Chang in Harry Potter. You kiss the boy that you like so much while there are tears on your face.

The classroom door clicks, and you hear a familiar voice from the room.

“Oh god. It’s about time you too,” Minju calls toward you. She giggles then you hear the door click shut.

“As much as I love this moment, we should probably get back inside and get back to class,” you whisper against Yoongi’s lips.

“I don’t want toooooooo,” he whines and kisses you again.

You pull away from him and lace your fingers through his. You pull the reluctant man toward the classroom. He whines and moans the whole time, but eventually, he gives in and enters the classroom with him.

After the class period is over, you and Yoongi walk down the hall with Minju, you two holding hands. You kiss him on the cheek, and Minju murmurs, “gross.”

“I don’t even care what grade I get,” Yoongi says. “I got the best possible thing from that class.”

He looks at you and both you and Minju, and the two of you groan at the cheesy comment.

“What? I mean the ability to draw better,” he laughs. “Oh!? Did you think I meant you? Look, you’re great, but I mean...I’m an amazing drawer now.”

[fmdjaewonarchive]

► ‘our songs’ audition.

date(s): 20 july 2020 mentions of: jiah, ash, andy & sooyeon (all briefly namedropped) word count: 1617 warnings: n/a details: jaewon decides to audition for ‘our songs’ and somehow, manages to already stress himself out before the show has even begun. he also covers ‘q’ by onewe (note: the original version of the song features hwasa but this stage was my main reference point for this)

it’s not that jaewon has been putting this off but that’s exactly what he has been doing. which, truly, is stupid. he’s the one that decided he wanted to sign himself up from this, it’s one of the very few things in his idol schedule that he gets to weigh in on.

unlike his own music these days.

oh right, that’s why he’s been so stressed about this. dimensions entertainment had kickstarted his 2020 with a big fuck you and the announcement that they’d be taking away his creative freedom for something that would hopefully be more… lucrative than his own work. and their strategy had been proven effective, the sheer commercial success of fiancé has been a thorn in his side, a constant mocking reminder that maybe, jaewon doesn’t know shit about making music after all.

it has also only solidified dimensions position meaning that truly, jaewon could write any creative freedom apart from the odd co-writing jobs for unity and songs he featured on goodbye.

until our songs came along.

sure, the company hasn’t said it in that many words, nowhere has jaewon actually gotten the confirmation that maybe, if he does well on this, they’ll consider letting him weigh in on his own solo work again. but hey, there surely is no harm in taking some initiative right?

-----------------------------------------

which circles right back to where jaewon is right now, in the home studio of his and soo’s apartment at some awfully late hour at night -because apparently his brain does not function during common office hours- to sit down and record this video for once and for all.

(for the 5th time this week but really, who is keeping count).

jaewon is glad he’s in a space so familiar to him as his own home, it takes away just a little bit of the stress and if he tries hard enough, he might even be able to forget just how much he has riding on this already, a pressure that for some forsaken reason he’s put on this all by himself.

he turns on the camera before leaning back into the office chair. it might look relaxed almost but anyone that knows jaewon also knows that the pen he’s twirling in his left hand is to keep the nerves at bay. luckily enough he can pass it off as a means of concentration for now.

the questions are displayed on the monitor of his computer in such way that jaewon can read them without having to make an obvious effort to lean forward. he has no answers written down but truly, he has mulled over these questions for so long by now that there is no need for that anyway. jaewon knows what he wants to say and he knows himself well enough that he can’t truly rehearse those words without sounding stiff and insincere.

“what inspires me to write songs?” he allows a brief silence to settle, a light frown on his face. “i’m not the best with words, not when i have to say them at least. i’ve always had struggles communicating, i just kinda… froze up. writing has helped a lot with that, it’s made it easier for me to put my feelings into words and to get messages across i wouldn’t have been able to get past my lips otherwise. i’ve written songs about difficult subjects in the past and hearing back from people that those resonate with them has really been keeping me motivated to keep pushing the bar further for myself, even if it’s a little hard sometimes.”

“what is my favorite song that i worked on... that’s kinda impossible to answer. i’ve been very fortunate to release quite some music already and to work with a lot of really talented artists. they’re all very different songs too so it’s hard to compare them so i don’t think there is really one ultimate favorite. if i had to name a few though-” he let his voice trail off for a second. “i collab earlier this year on we don’t talk together, i really enjoyed that song and working on that, i think it turned out well. oh and i got to feature and work on jiah-sunbaenim’s easy which has been released recently. i don’t get to take too much credit for that one though, taeyong-sunbaenim worked on that too.” his free hand moved to rest under his chin. “if i’m thinking about my solo work though i’d probably have to say am 4.44 and rebirth, both from my biorhythm album.” jaewon didn’t know if it was necessary to name what album they were from, especially since he hadn’t gotten to write a single word on love language but it would have to do for now. “i think those two are kinda a package deal for me? am 4.44 is about a pretty low point in my life, just mentally and all and rebirth is kind of the process of recovery from that.”

“songwriters i look up to? i worked with a lot of people and they all brought their own strengths to the table, all of those experiences have been very useful and incredibly pleasant.” he nods absent-mindedly. “i’d say i look up andy-sunbaenim, i got to work with him twice, on both bermuda triangle and on his latest album, i really like his style, i feel like it’s a bit different from my own but i do think they go well together. i also admire sooyeon from wish a lot, she’s very talented at a very young age. she balances both wish’ style and her own very well i think, i have a lot of respect for that.”

“my goals as a songwriter? i think to continue to grow till i can hold my ground by myself amongst other songwriters. i’ve learned a lot from all the people i already worked like i said before but i don’t think i’m near their level yet. i want to reach the point where i can continuously put out high-quality songs for other artists. like, i know my own sound and songs that work well for me but i think the real skill is being able to write well for someone other people. i want to be able to do that someday.”

“what do i hope to achieve by participating on this show?” to tell dimensions to go fuck themselves, jaewon thinks bitterly. but he can’t say that, not now he’s supposed to be all camera friendly. “i want to prove myself. towards other people on the one hand of course, you know, get my name out there and show everything i’ve learned up until this point, show that i know what i’m doing.” and yes, of course, other people in this case could just as easily be replaced with dimensions entertainment but there was no hard evidence for that. not like anyone was aware of jaewon challenging his label, not even dimensions itself. “but also to prove myself towards me. i’ve been writing for a while now, mostly when i felt like it or when i had an idea stuck in my head. i want to push those boundaries, to write specific themes within specific timeframes instead of just on a whim. i think that’s an important step i have to take for myself.” jaewon nods firmly. if he didn’t know himself so well he could believe it looks confident even.

-----------------------------------------

after he pauses the recording, the first thing jaewon does is roll his shoulders and let out a deep sigh. he’s definitely not an interview person he can’t help but think to himself, at least the worst part is over now.he takes a sip from the water bottle on his desk, letting his eyes fall shut for a second as he leans against his seat. just a brief moment of recovery before he forces himself back into action.

the interview might have been the worst part but he still has a cover to record.

first he gets up to retrieve the electric guitar they keep in their home studio, getting it plugged in and getting the microphone all set up, before pulling up the audio file from his desktop and hitting record on his camera.

there are some changes to the original song. after all, onewe is a band and q is not a rap song but jaewon toyed around with audio some, emphasizing on electronics of the backing track rather than the instruments. he has taken some liberties on expanding on the rap parts in the verses and together with the monotone, repetitive chorus it makes it sound so much more like a laidback hiphop song rather than the band song it was before.

another big change is made to the bridge. jaewon has taken out the vocals at the beginning of the instead opting to extend the guitar solo that follows. which is where the electric guitar on his lap comes in. admittedly, it’s a risky choice because while jaewon doesn’t have to worry about hitting notes he can’t reach, he also isn’t as gifted of a guitar player as he pretends to be.  it works though, maybe it’s because he’s been practicing this particular riff until he could barely move his fingers and he has to admit, it sounds pretty good.

he finishes recording, switching the camera off nearly immediately after and then spends another hour rewatching both videos -the interview and the song cover- fixated on finding a fatal flaw, any reason to tank this whole idea and just not send in his audition for the show.

he doesn’t find it.

so instead he sends it in before finally calling it a night.

 here goes nothing.

[moonraccoon-exe]

Hi, dear moonracoon ! May I ask for your advice ? How do you think an artist can get noticed in the ffxv fandom ? I really wanted to ask you since you're so kind and amazing ! ( >^

HELLO, MY DEAREST BEAUTIFUL ANON!!!! ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ♡♡♡

First of all, I’m sorry that I took longer to this than expected, at least for a personal ask. I didn’t mean to make you wait. (｡•́︿•̀｡)

Okay, let’s check your question!!

Hm! 

First off, I want to tell you that I’m not an artist. So the advice I’m giving you is the best I can think about, but thinking about what I write/post, and what I’ve heard other artists say, but it’s not entirely from experience. So know that if none of what I tell you works, it’s not on you, I may have missed an important advice that didn’t cross my head!

If you’d like, you could ask someone from the drawing/painting world. Yuu-senpai, Hana-senpai, even Solaris-senpai, or many others are very friendly and open and they could give you advice from experience if what I tell you doesn’t convince you. c:

1. The first 5 tags

The first 5 tags under your artwork are the most vital and important, because they’re the ones that actually show up in the Tumblr search section!

You want to use the first five tags under your artwork as the best. Final Fantasy XV and FFXV would be the first two I used, and then something more specific (if your artwork is an Ignis one, then next comes the Ignis and/or Ignis Scientia tag, etc.).

If you want to/like to talk in the tags (like yours truly!), use the last tags or, at least, start from the 6th tag and ahead. The rest of the tags won’t show up in the search section when peopel browse the tag; the rest of the tag space are there for personal use (so you browse the tags in YOUR blog, not in the Tumblr site). 

WARNING: I HIGHLY advice you to NOT use the first 5 tags to fish for attention! If your artwork is a Gladio solo artwork, you have NO REASON to use the Ignis tag or a Noctis tag or even something like a Lunafreya tag!! DO. NOT. USE. UNRELATED TAGS. 

It may work to catch the attention, sure. Someone that follows the Ignis tag may see your Gladio artwork because you used the tag. You’ll catch their attention, but it will be NEGATIVE ATTENTION.

This IS from experience. You do make your artwork reach more people, but all you get is for people to go “Ugh” and scroll past your stuff because you’re spamming artworks unrelated to the tag in the tag. So do NOT!

2. Reblogs

Reblogs are possibly the most vital, most important part to be noticed.

While tagging is GREAT and the first step to make your art go somewhere, I’d dare say the majority of people don’t necessarily follow a tag. I don’t; all that I reblog, all were reblogged from another blog. I only follow the Corqi tag because of how scarce material there is for it, so I don’t want to miss anything. But, for example, I don’t follow any Ignis or FFXV tag (mostly because I want to keep my dash as short as possible lmao, but also) because I follow enough blogs that reblog enough artworks, so why follow a tag if the rest of the people are doing it for me?

Reblogging is a very, very vital part to get noticed because your art is reaching those blogs that don’t follow the tags.

This is, however, not on you. You need another blog to reblog your artwork; one reblog opens many chances so someone else reblogs, and so on and on. The more reblogs, the more chances for more reblogs, and hence, the more people will see it. 

You know what I just thought and I have no idea why it never occurred to me before?

Let’s say you have your art blog. Do you have another one where you reblog stuff? Do you already have followers? Reblog your own artwork; post in your art blog, reblog in the fandom one. That way, you’re your first reblog, and because your reblog/fandom blog will probably have more followers than the art one (at least in a beginning), it has more chances of reaching more people. 

So it’s very important that someone else reblogs your work. This is not on you, as I said, but rather in people giving you a hand at it. Except we don’t always reblog everything we see. 

So why not try to get a friend that starts doing it? 

You’re on anon for a reason, but if you want, you can tag me in your art, or tag me in it pretending to be someone else who happened to see the artwork and thought about me, so I won’t know it’s you (and don’t worry, I won’t get suspicious; I have no way to know it’s you, and I often get tagged in other artworks by people even if we don’t talk often, so I won’t look at the tag and say “Ah! It’s that anon from the other day!” I’ll just think it’s cool someone tagged me in something. Your identity is safe with  me, whether you keep it anon or not

To be honest I don’t reblog EVERYTHING that I see, but there’s big chances I will do it. I really like all the art in this fandom, it’s crazy how skilled you people are! But yeah, showing me can lead to me reblogging it, and there you could find that beginning of the reblogging chain.

Or if you’re too shy to show me, show someone else!!

Any of your friends, or someone you feel confident with, or comfortable with. The point is getting one first reblog that can lead to a few more, and the artwork will start eventually travelling across the FFXV fandom.

Speaking of reblogs, don’t be afraid of reblogging your own work in your own blog itself!

A lot, a lot, a lot of artists do it. A lot of writers too; I do it often!!

What I mean is, think about the world. It’s not the same hour everywhere. I can post something during my evening because everyone is online on evenings, right? So it wil reach everyone.

Nope. To some, it’s night; to some, it’s bedtime; to some, it’s morning. It won’t reach everyone simply because of timezones.

So what I do is, I post something, and then I queue a reblog of the same post but it’s my “12 hour reblog”. If I posted at 6 pm, I’ll queue it for 6 am. I like to do the 12 hr one because I think it’s more chances of reaching many people, with the not-so-literal thought of “if it’s day time here, it’s posting on nighttime in the other side of the world, so in 12 hours it will be this hour tomorrow for them”. I hope it makes sense.

And sometimes I even make a 3rd reblog. Sometimes I do feel shy about it because I fear to be annoying, but 99% of the times it works and it reaches people it hadn’t reached before. 

It’s a way of sending your own work back to the top of the dashboard, and sometimes a way to give a 2nd chance for people to see it; sometimes we scroll past something without noticing, so a reblog will give us a 2nd chance to see it.

3. Posting silly stuff sometimes

It’s not a secret that sometimes a silly stickman comic you drew in 5 minutes gets more attention than the profound artwork you worked in for 10 hours. It can be annoying, disappointing, even discouraging at times. But it is, nonetheless, a good way to get attention. 

I’m not saying you force yourself to think about jokes; most times forced jokes don’t work. But if you ever get a silly idea, don’t be afraid to draw it!

People won’t think about the art and judge it. They’re just looking at the joke. And if they find it funny, they may check your blog for more, and maybe you won’t have more silly comics, but maybe, from 10 people that look in your blog for more comics, 3 will think your other work is AMAZING and will fave and maybe even reblog some of that too. It can even get you a couple new followers.

Again, this is not NECESSARY. I follow artists that have never once in their lives (of this fandom) posted any joke or silly thing, and I still follow and ADORE their work to bits. The only thing I needed was to find them once. 

4. Asks and requests

If you’re up for it and have no troubles, you could also be open for quick requests in your ask box.

Have you seen some of those memes/charts, with many facial expressions/prompts, and people request something? “Could you please draw (X character) in A3, please? Thank you!” That sort of prompts. That can be very useful!

People really like free art. Some of us don’t have money for big commissions, so sometimes, when an artist can make a 15 minutes sketch or doodle of something we like, that’s amazing, and it can lead to earning followers and/or reblogs here and there. 

NOTE: Remember, however, that you’re not WORKING FOR US. You’re not getting paid. Do it for fun, when you can, and don’t stress or overwork or take 100+ requests and try to answer them all in 2 days. It’s only for fun. Alrighty? 

But yeah; sometimes, requests can lead some people to your ask, and hence tto your blog. And it’s fun! A lot of people in this fandom have some damn amazing creativity for prompts (and boy, do I know this!!)

5. Collabs /Drawing for a fic

This works better for writers; people look at artworks way, way, way more than they read fanfics, simply because it’s less time consuming and immediate. 

However, collabs can be an amazing way to get both artist and writer to be known.

There are some that follow the artist; some that follow the writer. So when a writer posts a fic linked to an artwork, people will find out about the artist’s blog that way. And when an artists posts an artwork with a fic linked, people will find the writing blog. It’s a good way that gives and receives equally. 

There are people that are REALLY passionate about a fanfic, so you can be sure as heck that they will check out any artwork about it. That they like it or not, that’s on them, but they will at least check it out. 

So you can also draw for a fic you like, no collab needed.

This works just fine, maybe even better. With this, you not only get to be known, but you also make a writer HYPED AND ECSTATIC. There ain’t a feeling in the world like getting art drawn for your fic. So you can be sure that 99% of chances are the writer will reblog even if it’s not a collab (unless the writer is some FREAK, I can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t reblog an art of their fic???). And so, the people that follow the writer will see it too. 

This can work very well because it’s a way to get at least one reblog for sure, which is a beginning. :)

6. Join fandom weeks/weekends

This is a good way to have fun and get yourself to get known.

That is because this is a way so you will for SURE have at least one reblog. And what’s best is that that reblog won’t be from a blog who has 1 follower, it will be reblogged by a fandom blog who has dozens of followers.

If someone is a lot into Gladnis, chances are they will follow the Gladnisweek blog. Maybe they won’t participate, but they follow it to see the entries of other people, and they have it for sure that the content will be exactly what they’re looking for. 

There is no way your artwork goes unseen in a fandom week! 

7. Be true to yourself; have fun

I know, I know. The most cliché of the clichéd advices. But it’s very important that you remember that.

Don’t draw for the attention; draw for yourself.

This IS another one from personal experience. I honestly never thought I’d write for this fandom, even less have this many followers or this many requests! And you know how I got here? Because I only had fun, shared my ideas, shared my passion for the game with others, I was honest and literally, literally only had fun.

Indeed, what pushed me to fame was literally just joking around. It was the Gladio’s pick up lines series. Which I did not because I wanted followers, I just wanted to make people laugh, and I wanted to share my jokes. 

All that I did was have a lot of fun and do what I wanted, not what I thought other people wanted, and eventually ended up here.

Drawing for attention is like drawing for money; it’s empty art.

You don’t dance, sing, paint, or write thinking about how much money and fame you’ll make. You dance, sing, paint, or write thinking about what your story will say, what you want to transmit, how you want it to look. You’re thinking about creating and sharing, not about the fame.

It’s as I said about making silly things or comics sometimes; it’s only if you want to and if you’re having fun, you don’t have (and must NOT) force it!! (Think about a gas; if you force a gas out, it’ll come out as poop. It must come out naturally. Same with everything else, art included!)

So stay true to yourself. Draw what you want to draw, as you want to draw it. True, you’re not drawing just for yourself; if that was the case, you wouldn’t post it online. You’re posting it because you want to share with others. But do so like that; draw for you and share with others, don’t draw what you THINK the others want or what you THINK the others will like. Draw what you want and what you like, and show us; you’ll find someone that likes it too.

Don’t stress about what people will like or not. Think about what YOU like, and that’s it. 

I understand the concern about getting your art to be known, but that comes later. 

And that’s all that I can think of right now! Gee, I sure hope I’m not forgetting/not thinking about something more or else. But I’m sure maybe some raccoobo can have advice too, so, while I can’t tell you for sure it will happen, maybe someone will drop a comment under this, so make sure to check the notes if you see any. My raccoobos are smarter and have more experience than me, so they may know something else! ヽ(・ω・)ﾉ

Of just draw the boys in lingerie, for some reason most fandom seem to like that? Lol. I honestly rarely like that and prefer them in fancy, but maybe I’m just old fashioned or a NERD. But really, draw what you like, this sentence was a joke c:

Anyway, buddy, that’s that!!

[I’m gonna add a read more; it’s not more, just my personal thanks, but as this is already lengthy, I’m gonna add this under a cut. Hope that’s okay, buddy :)]

Thank you so, so, so immensely much for asking me. I feel flattered that you decided to put this bit of trust in me. I don’t know what I did so you felt comfortable and asked me, but I’m happy about it!! 

Thank you for coming to this raccoonie for advice. I’m not the best at it, but I try. I hope any of this can be useful, buddy. Thank you again for the trust, it’s really valuable to me and I feel very honored that you asked me. :’)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW, and thank you SO MUCH for saying such kind and nice and sweet things about me!!! YOU’RE SO NICE, AH, YOU STOP THAT! Now I’m a blushing and giggling MESS, I’m too weak at handling praise aklsdj dfskljf klsdjf d (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)♡♡♡ 

The raccoonie is here for any question or struggle that you have, buddy! I may not always have advice, but I can always share thoughts and ideas, or just read you and give you warmy and fluffy raccoonie snuggles, alrighty? c:

Thank you so much again for asking me and for the bit of trust, and for being so sweet with me

Whether you decide to show me or not, I’ll anyway be sending you some of my most powerful, strongest MAGICAL RACCOON VIBES so you get success and the fame and followers you deserve!! And I don’t know if you’ve followed my blog for a while or if you’ve read my other personal asks, but my magical racc vibes... ALWAYS WORK!! So now you ust gotta work hard, have fun, share, and that’s it. :3

So. *grabs pompoms* This raccoon will be HYSTERICALLY CHEERING ON YOU, OKAY. Greatest of lucks, buddy, I know you can do this!! GO, GO, A-NON, GO GO, A-NON!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! o(≧▽≦)o

Thanks again for everything, buddy! I wish you the absolute BEST and I give you lots, and lots, and LOTS of magical raccoon vibes so it works phenomenally!!! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

Greatest of lucks!

I hope you’re having a MOST FANTASTIC day or night!! Hugs!  \(^ヮ^)/

[houseofvans]

SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | MARINA MIKA (CROATIA)

Inspired by childhood storytellings of fairy tales and folklore, artist and illustrator Marina Mika creates beautifully detailed pen drawn works that are not only skillfully executed, but also a “real reflection” of the artist herself–her emotions, experiences, and impressions from life. A self proclaimed “perfectionist,” Mika’s elaborate drawings can take days to weeks to form, and only will be completed if the artist feels 100% about it.  And, we’re 100% stoked to chat with this talented artist who shares with us her process, her influences and provides some great advice for any emerging artist in this month’s Sketchy  Behaviors. 

Photographs courtesy of the artist. 

Introduce yourself?  Hey, my name is Marina Bitunjac but known as Marina Mika over social media. I just got my MA degree at at School of Design university (visual communication – graphic design) in Croatia, Europe. But my expertise was always illustration and illustrative graphics. 

When did you first get into drawing?  I was drawing for as long as I can remember actually.. but the scene that will always be stuck in my head as the most vivid memory that got me into drawing is when I asked my mom to draw my favorite toy for me. (My mom had a natural talent for drawing but she lacked true creativity and ideas.) But, yeah, I had this  beautiful  white  fairy tale  horse toy with long  gold hair and a cape full of beautiful pattern and gold details. I really loved that one ,and was very proud of  owning it, so I asked mom to draw it. I remember her drawing  being (in my eyes then) the best thing ever! It was gorgeous and I fell in love with the skill of drawing, the beauty of it and the so-called magic around the whole process of creating. It is  interesting how peaceful and quiet it is to create but how powerful and ‘loud’ the result can be. 

What were some of your early influences? My early infulences were also the fairy tales that I was told before going to bed. They  had a huge impact on my ideas  since they were so  strange, yet so captivating and  ‘alive’. Also, for some reason I always had  japanese pierrot illustrations (artist: Mira  Fujita) around my room. I don’t even know  how I got them but I still have them with me wherever I go. That is why I tend to like drawing pierrot-like  characters. 

What’s your art background – were you self taught or did you go to art school? In primary school and high school I was drawing for myself, learning and studying art was a hobby. I was always known as ‘the girl who can draw’ but it was never serious. I knew I was not at my best and that I need to learn A LOT more, to find my own illustrative voice. And so, I got accepted to School  of Design after finishing high school. I spent my early uni years discovering myself,  experimenting (with life and drawing) and I really kicked off in my later uni years, after realizing who I was, what I want, and how I want to express myself. I finally figured out how to control drawing with what feels natural to my thoughts  and emotions of highlighted life experiences and memories or impressions. Of course, design school helped  me a lot to figure out ‘how to think’ and how to sort out ideas (what to keep and what to give up on, and more).

Do you keep a sketchbook or work your ideas as you go along? I don’t keep a sketchbook. I never got used to drawing in a sketchbook, so I gave up on it. I sketch when working on and developing  ideas for graphic design, but for illustration I just wait for an impression, emotion or taught to grow really ‘loud and clear’ in my mind and then I just get to work. My illustrations are really just an extension of my mind, they are basically a visual diary.

Your work is beautifully detailed, meticulous and rich in pattern and textures. What is your process like? How long does it take from your idea to a finished piece? Hmm.. well, my process is strangely so similar yet so different for each piece. I really like them to be ‘true’. Meaning, a real reflection of myself, not structured to be ‘just pretty’ because then, they would be somewhat fake and shallow, and people always sense if something is true or not. So, there is really no point in ‘faking it’. Sometimes it takes days or weeks for an idea to form, and sometimes it just hits me with ‘That’s it. Do it.’ I have to feel it is 100% the right one before even starting. And then, sometimes  it is difficult to translate the idea that is so clear in your mind to paper, but I redraw it and redraw until I get it. So some drawings are done really quick and some take time. Also, it depends on how much fine detailing it takes. I care about details in real life too. Details are very important to me, as they define the whole picture (in life and in art), so I spend a lot of time perfecting it. Basically, I am a plain perfectionist. 

In terms of mediums, you work mostly with pen and paper, correct? What are your favorite mediums and are there other mediums you hope to one day utilize more? Yeah, I work with pen and paper. Since I am a perfectionist I like the clean and controled lines I am able to make with pens. But, before I seriously started working with pens I worked with them because I could afford them in any paper shop. As a high school student and in uni I didn’t have time, space and money to buy fancy art supplies just for practice, so I worked with what was affordable and what felt right to work with. I ended up somewhat ‘mastering’ it and created my illustrative style with these mediums, and I am pretty happy with working with them. I would like to try to go digital eventually. All my works are hand drawn and I will continue in creating that way but I love learning and pushing limits. There is no point in being stuck to one thing, change is good, and it is important to discover and re:discover yourself and your abilities.

Folklore plays a part in your works, what about these early stories do you find yourself drawn to illustrating? Do you have a favorite tale you’d like to share? As mentioned before, traditional fairy tales were always told before bed time when I was a kid. We had a lot of fairy books and fairy tale movies at home. So it is natural that I developed a strong bond with them. Also, the place where I grew up is quite like a fairy tale place itself: by the sea side  with lots of nature and woods. You can easily imagine these tales to be true when you are a child in such an environment. I don’t have a favorite tale, or at least I can’t think of any at this moment. Depending on my mood and on what I feel at a certain period of time I bond with a specific tale.

What artists past and present are you really into at the moment? I grew up with Mira Fujita’s work hanging in my childhood room, so she is the first one that had a huge influence on me. Later I discovered Kay Nielsen’s beautiful works and was completely in love. After that, I got hooked on Yoshitaka Amano’s and Erte’s work. They are the 4 artists that influenced me the most. But, I admire so many different atists it is impossible to name them all.  I also love children illustrators, since their work is so creative and imaginative, as well as contemporary chinese art.   What has been a highlight for you as an artist? A certain show, a project or collaboration? The best thing ever, so far, was when I recieved an e-mail from SHOWstudio with an offer to illustrate Paris Haute Couture. I love fashion, I always have. I love the art of designing clothes and I love how beautiful the models are, but I never had the true desire to be a fashion designer. But, also, I always wanted to be a part of that world, and by getting the chance to illustrate it - I was ecstatic.   What would be your ultimate collaboration be like? What’s your experience been like collaborating with companies or other artists, if at all? I don’t have a clear idea what the ultimate one would be.. I approach every collab as the ultimate one. Every single one is different and therefore a new experience. I tend to seek new and fresh experiences trough illustration as it helps me to develop as an individual, what is directly reflected on my work.   What’s a common misconception about artists? And what has been your biggest challenge? From my point, I think the common misconception is that every artist can draw anything and with anything. Personally, I work with pens and I spent so much time perfecting this type of work that I don’t know how to control working with brushes for instance (and it just does not feel ‘natural’). Artists have a certain expertise in what they draw and what tools they use. They spent a lot of time, emotions and personality in perfecting it and making something new and original to offer to the world. 

Also, in my opinion, the common misconception is that anyone can be an artist or an illustrator. I think that artistry is a work field just like any other. I do illustration, since I worked and studied long and hard for it, my mindset is ‘programmed’ to work in an illustrative way, therefore I am not able to make a groundbreaking painting as someone who works as a painter can.  My biggest challenge was discovering myself and reflecting it to a certain style for sure. After I discovered the ‘true me’ and my own way of illustrating I was able to be confident in what I do and what my abilities are. That is when my work started gaining popularity with others.    What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t an artist? If I was not an artist I would work with animals  100%. I have always loved animals and if I was not watching cartoons  as  a child it would be a documentary movie about animals. Also, my family has always had foster pets. All our pets are from the street, so it is natural for me to help and care for them.   What are your favorite Vans? Since I personally mostly wear timeless and classic pieces, I have to say the original ones. But I LOVE all the new and contemporary prints and design you do.

How are you not just ONE thing? What other creative things or hobbies do you find yourself also doing when not drawing? What do you do to unwind in your down time? This is a difficult question.. I do many things, depending on my interest at a specific time. For the past year I am interested in working out and the gym (in my free time), and I found myself discovering the beauty of classic cinema (b/w movies) these past weeks. But, that will change for sure. I tend to spend some time learning and discovering about a specific theme and after gaining enough knowledge I seek for something new.

What are your thoughts on social media? How do you find a balance between work and keeping up with all of it?

Ah I love social media haha, I am hooked on it for sure. Especially instagram. I made an account there quite late actually, and did not use it seriously, but after I got somewhat used to it I started posting my work and it grew. It is not hard to balance work with social media, since it is an extension of what I do. I love the interaction that I am able to get with different people through social media, and the fact that I can discover so many talented and inspirational people with the use of it.

What advice would you give someone thinking about art as a career? I would say: be 100% yourself. Think of what you do and don’t do something just because you saw somebody else do it. When you are true to who you are, it shows, and people recognize it. Also, study hard and practice harder. Learn about your field and interests, get to know the past behind it and after building a strong base: launch something new to the world.

Things are not made over night and it is always quality over quantity. 

What’s on the horizon for 2017? Who knows.. As my mom always likes to tell me when I feel overwhelmed: ‘Marina, always one step at a time.’ So, I guess it is the best to focus on delivering the best of what I can do now;  while growing and discovering new things in life. Anything can happen ‘tomorrow’, let’s be the best of ourselves now.

Follow Marian Mika Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/MarinaMikaArt Instagram | @marina.mika

[onestowatch]

Hollyy Dives Headfirst Into Heartache on ‘Miss The Feeling’ [Q&A]

Photo By: Tess Graham

Chicago alt-soul band Hollyy warms our hearts with their passionate vocals and retro-inspired grooves in their latest EP Miss The Feeling. The release is a skillful blend of something old and something new, embodying a vibrant Memphis soul sound full of heartache and visceral emotion that cannot help but transmit that feeling out into the world for others to see, hear, and feel. Although this isn't the band's first EP, Miss the Feeling is their unyielding introduction into a world that needs unapologetically honest music.

Formed in summer 2018, Hollyy consists of Tanner Bednar (vocals), Brandon Couture (guitar), Peter Giere (keyboard), Rafe Soto (drums), and Dominic Zeier (bass). Ones To Watch was able to chat with the band about Miss The Feeling's creation process amid a global pandemic.

Ones to Watch: With this being the first EP the band has released since your debut "Letters From Lawndale," what are some things you all have learned about the production and creative process that made this an easier release?

Tanner: I think we've mostly just all grown as musicians and songwriters during that span between projects, which is great. We've also changed our process quite a bit for the better. Rafe has really souped-up our basement studio into a magic music-making space, which we love and hold super dear to us. This EP was also the first time we worked with a producer, and it was truly the most incredible experience. We owe a lot to our friend/producer Nick Boyd for this work.

Brandon: This EP was a much more collaborative songwriting process than our first EP as Holly,. We all contributed songs and helped shape each other's ideas. Once someone brings an idea forward, it becomes all of ours, and we all put in a lot of care to make each song the best we can make it. It takes a willingness to feel exposed and accepting of how someone else is going to hear what you write.

Rafael: I think we've all learned a thing or two about collaboration and how we can change certain aspects of a song and get something brand new out of it that plays to our strengths.

This EP is full of retro, warm tones that still touch on themes and feelings of loneliness, lost love, and more. To you, what is this EP about?

Brandon: It's a reflection on times past that you once longed for and trying to find your way forward.

Tanner: Miss the Feeling is kind of a perfect literary send-off for acknowledging you've been stuck in a rut for a while as well as just not feeling yourself and getting back to that point of being internally content again. It could translate to human relationships or emotional struggles not involving human relationships, and I like that.

Rafael: I agree with Brandon. It's about being able to let go of moments in your life.

What was your favorite song from the EP? Why?

Tanner: I love all my children equally hehe. But I have found that rocking out to the end of Turn it Around has been rather therapeutic during quarantine. So I guess that??

Brandon: Beach is one of my favorites to play live, we've been playing it back to back with Miss the Feeling, and it's really fun.

Rafe: I also enjoy the miss the feeling/beach medley because it's super fun to play.

Pete: Like anything, it depends on the mood. The ending of "Beach" has a very dreamy/jazzy vibe and has been fun to expand and jam on musical ideas.

How do you feel Hollyy has evolved not only as a band during the pandemic, not only in regards to your sound but overall?

Brandon: This time has really affected my writing for sure. This year has been challenging on many people, and the future is so uncertain for so many. People need something to look forward to, and I've found myself trying to write about that pain and confusion of not knowing which way forward is.

Rafael: I think it's helped us really streamline our process and figure out what we absolutely have to do in person and the things we can collaborate remotely on. Our writing process usually takes place in person but it has found its way to a million different messaging and document apps, I think this gives us the chance to reflect multiple on what we're writing.

What have been the biggest struggles of trying to record this EP during a pandemic?

Brandon: Luckily, we finished a lot of the recording for this project before the lockdown, but it's forced us to find other ways to push our new music while not having the ability to promote it live. It's also changed how we've had to work on our next project, moving to virtual meetings and writing from our respective homes.

Tanner: Yeah, it's honestly been super cool to see how we've adapted to essentially being a virtual rock band these past seven months while still being very efficient and productive with our tunes, writing, and releases. Personally, I have really enjoyed the challenge of needing to get creative to find different outlets of marketing and content pushing during the Covid-era, and we have a super supportive and talented team that helps us out along the way as well, so that's been great.

What would be a dream collab or feature for a future Hollyy track?

Tanner: We're ready to get down in the writing trenches with Stevie Wonder or Anderson .Paak at ANY point!

Brandon: Kevin Parker from Tame Impala would be incredible, as would the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio.

Rafael: Probably Gwenno or Dex Romweber.

Pete: I think we've talked about having a rapper put down a verse on a song before. I've been listening to a lot of Action Bronson lately, so I would have to put him.

The EP not only goes on a sonic journey but a visually artistic one as well. In all the music videos, fans have seen a mysterious driver in a vintage car driving into the sunset and towards an unknown destination. Who is the artist, and how did this concept come to be? Is there a deeper meaning, or was it just something the band thought looked cool?

Brandon: The artwork is meant to elude themes of escapism and finding your own way forward, which I think are some of the more subtle themes in our music. When I drive alone, I often find myself having intense internal conversations with myself, often to reflect on something that might be bothering me.

Tanner: Yeah, the artwork is definitely super purposeful with some underlying meanings and symbolism, and that's something that I'm glad came together for us in the end, and people are catching on to and deriving their own ideas of what it may mean. We had talked about using the car and the geographic locations to help depict escaping and longing for new and better days. We played with the concept of colors and backdrop settings to allude to what lyric meanings may be included in that single as well. All in all, our friends Lucas and Ariel from Brazil (two super talented artists, by the way) helped us out with these images, and we're super happy we got to use our friends' work for these.

In a time when touring and live shows are on pause, what does Hollyy plan to do from here? Live stream concerts? Do y'all plan on pulling a Flaming Lips move and encourage people to go to shows in bubbles?

Brandon: Giant bubbles would be incredibly fun! We've been finding ways to get together, make some videos and live stream, and certainly plan on continuing, but our big focus now has been writing and working on the next project. The one benefit to the pandemic is it's given us a lot more time to write, and we have a good number of songs that have piled up now. It's helped give us something to look forward to and work towards.

Tanner: Yes, I think nothing says giant bubble mosh pit quite like the intro to Miss the Feeling. I would love to try that out one day. But to piggyback off of Brandon, we're absolutely just enjoying the writing process right now, staying safe + healthy, and looking forward to creating more and more music with each other while we're stuck in the dystopian universe. One day we'll play a normal, carefree live show again :)

Who are some "Ones To Watch" you would recommend people to check out?

Brandon: Chicago is an incredible hub for local bands. Ratboys, Divino Nino, and Sen Morimoto are some really incredible artists that have been crushing it lately.

Tanner: I think some of these artists are going to start/continue to make some noise over the next year: Neal Francis, Fat Night, MICHELLE, and Qari.

Rafael: Lately, I've just been listening to a ton of roots reggae, so checkout Desmond Dekker. I am stoked about the new Fuzz album though.

Pete: I think right now, everyone should check out Wyatt Waddell. He has an absolutely incredible mix of RnB, soul, and hip-hop to his sound. He's also from Chicago, so that helps too!

[saastrac]

Vyond Review 2020: Best Animation Software For Pro-Animators

In 2018 Goanimate Inc. has undergone through few changes and relaunched itself with a new name – Vyond. It’s a cloud-based platform using which you can create animated videos. Here I am writing about Vyond review 2020. If you are in the marketing profession and don’t know how to create animated videos, then you need to check this review post about Vyond one of the best animation software. As a marketer, I know the importance of having a professional animator in your team. However, with Vyond, you don’t need a highly skilled animator.

This tool doesn’t require hardcore animator skills to create animation videos. Anyone can create a dynamic and compelling animation using Vyond animation software. Other than that, if you compare its performance, security, support, and other features. There aren’t many tools that can be Vyond’s competition. With video collaboration, high quality (with resolution 1080), voice-overs, import fonts, and many other useful features, it can be considered as one of the best animation software.

As far as pricing is concerned, Vyond gives a 14-day free trial offer. And after the trial period, you can opt for a monthly/yearly subscription at three different levels of your requirement (Personal, Business, and Enterprise). To learn more about this tool, let’s go through this Vyond review 2020:

Why Use Vyond?

There are many other animation tools in the market. So, why to use Vyond only? You might be having this question in your mind. I have been using this tool for quite some time, and I must say it has all the features to create videos like a professional animator. The best thing about this tool is that anyone can easily create animated videos without having much expertise.

Instead of hiring an animator? That could be a more costly option. Anyone in your team is capable enough to create engaging videos using Vyond. To make you more clear about why to use Vyond, here I have shown some of its top features:

Is Vyond A Free Animation Software?

Although, you can use Vyond animation software for free, but only for its 14 days trial offer. After that, you need to opt for a subscription plan based on your requirements. During this trial period, you can create watermarked videos only, and you can’t export those videos. You can make use of this trial period to learn about how to use this tool most creatively. So, later on, you could be able to create high-quality video stuff.

Features Of Best Animation Software:

Vyond has all the essential video media creating features that make it one of the best animation software in the market. It has a very safe and secure platform for business owners. In 2008, Vyond came live with GoAnimate’s name in the market. And since then, it has grown as one of the most reliable and popular online video creation platforms.  Here, I have shown some of the key features of Vyond:

It is a cloud-based video creation tool in which you don’t need to download data on your device. With the cloud-based system, you can access your saved data from anywhere you want.

Vyond provides online training to its users, and you don’t need to learn too logical technical stuff for that. Any individual can use the Vyond, using its eLearning guidance.

This tool has higher norms for data security and privacy concerns. With highly-secured software encryption and configurable password, users don’t need to worry about data leakage issues.

With professional and enterprise subscription plans of Vyond, you have access to make collaborative videos with your team members. In the case of long projects, other members of the team can contribute and make the video creation process easier for you.

With Vyond, you have a massive number of options with templates and characters. With drag and drop feature, you can easily import them in your video and customize the animation according to the audio you have.

Also, there are plenty of audio options available with Vyond. There are some pre-recorded sounds already available, or you can also add voice-overs for your video.

Here you also have the option to share or export your creation on the different video platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Vzaar, Sproutvideo, and Brightcove, etc.

The best feature of Vyond is its animation capabilities, which make the characters/objects move and bring them to life. You can use your imagination to make your videos more creative and interactive.

How To Create Videos Using Vyond?

With Vyond, the video creation process becomes quite effortless. It has very easy to apply options. You just need to drag and drop templates and characters and then customize the animated movements and actions accordingly. Next, you can overlay text and add voice-overs to bring liveliness in your video.

Video Editor:

Now, if you are ready with the concept and ideas to create videos, you need to learn how to use Vyond’s editor. As you know from above, it is a drag and drop tool in which you can select and manipulate elements with the click and drag of your computer mouse. In between the video, you can add effects, increase/reduce the time length of slides. If you have opted for a professional/enterprise plan, then you can also upload files in audio/image format.

Characters:

With Vyond, you have many options with characters. There you can also create a new character or include a premade one. With intuitive choices given, it’s easier to style characters based on the specifications like face, hair, mouth, ear, etc. While you can also edit the clothing and other accessories of characters.

Audio:

Vyond has the option to record or directly import audio files to your videos. It has a library that contains over 50 audio files. You just need to implement audio and video files in sync to create engaging videos for your viewers.

Export, Share & Save:

If you have opted for the paid version of Vyond, you are eligible to download your created videos. Otherwise, if you are using its trial version, then you can share your videos through Vyond only. There you have the option to download videos in HD quality (720p/1080p).

Here you have the option to create and download animated gifs, as you can use such media for marketing purposes. Though GoAnimate Inc. has no integration with other platforms, it supports sharing to platforms like YouTube, Vzaar, Vimeo, Wista, and Wevideo, etc.

Pricing and Plans Offered By Vyond:

Basically, there are four pricing options you have with Vyond animation creator ( Essential, Premium, Professional, Enterprise).

Essential Plan:

With an essential plan, monthly charges are 49$ per month. And with an annual subscription, there is a discount of 49%, which costs around 299$ per year.

Premium Plan:

In a premium plan option, you have the charges of 89$ per month, and with a 40% discount, it has an offer of 649$ for a year.

The above shown two plans are for individual users. With this, you don’t have access to collaborate your work with others.

Professional Plan:

With a professional plan, you have the option to collab your work with your team. In this, you have a paid plan for each seat in your collab. It has a monthly cost of 159$ per seat, and for an annual subscription, it will cost you 999$ per seat.

Enterprise  Plan:

If you aren’t satisfied with the above plans, there is a plan in which you can quote for the custom subscription plan. In which you can ask for the service based on the requirements of your company.

Bottom Line: (GoAnimate review) Vyond review 2020:

Honestly saying, I think that Vyond is one of the best animation software I have used. In terms of reliability, security, privacy, and many other things, I can give full marks to this tool. Other than that, their support also seems to be very active. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with all its features.

If you are a Vyond user and have anything more to add on this review post, please share them in the comments below.

Originally Published on: SaaS Trac 

About the Author:

SaasTrac is one of the trusted places where users can find reviews on different Saas Products, Software, and Platforms. Our major goal is to let users know the detailed and the most helpful information possible about every product — the good, the bad, and the ugly in the SaaS space.

[rachelkulagodfrey-blog]

A [MUSIC] Review: My 10+1 Favorite Live Acts From the Last Six Months

Originally posted on January 17, 2019.

Some people procrastinate by online shopping, cleaning, or watching the first season of a Netflix show that truly isn’t worth it (Judd Apatow’s Love stole my time and I want it back).

Others make an Instagram post about how they “just can’t focus :/”, masturbate to a point where it’s almost violent, or complete every single task except for the most pressing one at hand.

I am all of these people. Baked to perfection.

As appealing as all of these options are, my favorite way to procrastinate is watching live musical performances. If I said this was my number one choice because I really love to see what each and every artist can do on their feet, I would be LYING; it’s because I’m broke. Imagining I’m in the actual audience sounds like a cute and affordable outing to me.

I was originally going to write a late post about my ten favorite live musical acts of 2018, but then The Holy Trinity™ a.k.a The Goat Trio (Noname, Smino, and Saba) decided to perform on The Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon and fuck up my whole plan.

Fucked up my whole plan, but made my whole life.

Here are the 10+1 live acts that have rustled my big and bright feathers in the last 184 days, ordered by upload date:

1. Mac Miller: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

August 6, 2018

I was tabling at my school’s Student Activities Fair when one of my best friends approached me looking like tears were seconds from falling down her cheeks and flooding the fucking campus. Her “I have to tell you something” was followed by what most onlookers would probably describe as an unnecessarily loud processing of the Five Ws and One H of Malcolm McCormick’s death. It probably looked overdramatic, but it honestly didn’t feel that way.

Mac’s placement in my mind shifted in tandem with his style. In his “Knock, Knock” days, he was the weird white kid who Wiz Khalifa seemed to have taken under his wing. I started high school a week or two before “Smile Back” was released. And I was in attack mode after a girl had used up MY oxygen to talk about me not being a “real” Black girl. While 14-year-old-me did put a hex on her soon after, Mac’s anthem of the opposition not being worth my stress set my mind right. Did not reverse the hex, though. Sorry, sis.

His eventual Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, and Anderson .Paak collaborations reframed the way I thought of him as a creative. I realized how open he was, and how honored he was to share space and thought with a wide range of musical talents. You can hear it in the production of the songs. His NPR Tiny Desk was an elevation of this. His energy was right. Thundercat on bass was right. Watching this performance made me want to bop the shit out of my head but also call all my old niggas and let them know I was suing them for stealing energy I could have put toward studying a cool cat’s artistry. So much love to Mr. Malcolm.

Favorite Moment(s): When Mac laughs at Thundercat’s abrupt tone change during “What’s the Use?” @ 9:10.

2. Rex Orange County performing “Sunflower” live on KCRW

August 14, 2018

I know I’ll get heat for this. But Alex O’ Connor is worth the slack.

In this performance, Rex Orange County looks and sounds like the place where lo-fi, Big Mouth, and driven-over lilacs meet. Doesn’t seem like the most appealing thing that could come out of your speakers, but it’s honestly just one really sweet surprise. And romance may be a capitalist sham, but all I can say is ShamWow! After finding out that he wrote “Sunflower” for his girlfriend of 3+ years, the bridge started to make me feel like someone slipped me a “Would You Date Me?” note in detention. Uncomfortable, but definitely entertained.

Favorite Moment(s): The aforementioned bridge @ 3:02.

3. serpentwithfeet – mourning song (Live on KEXP)

September 11, 2018

Josiah Wise, better known as serpentwithfeet, is one of the greatest storytellers I have ever witnessed. His entire KEXP performance is worth watching to see an immersive experiment in chaos and control using lighting, backtracks, and his voice. Confidence is not something we often associate with grief. In this performance of “mourning song”, he lists all the ways he will allow himself to think and feel through the end of an intimate relationship. Every time I listen to this song, I feel like he actually rips the voices from my head that tell me I am a burden, or that I must hide any part of myself.

I’m not really a church-going girl anymore so I won’t say watching this took me there. But it definitely took me to the Pokémon Center. HP on 255, bitch.

Favorite Moment(s): When he plays around with distance from the mic @ 2:30.

4. 070 Shake – I Laugh When I’m Friends But Sad When I’m Alone

September 14, 2018

My dearest New Jersey babe. The shining star of the 070 Crew, Danielle Balbuena, used to be at the top of my “Anal Sounds Great!” list after the 2016 “Bass for my Thoughts” release. Trevante Rhodes has since stolen her spot.

Shake takes her time with COLORS to sing about her unadulterated thoughts about the negatives that come along with fame, as well as how the perceived positive of always being around people can be suffocating. No matter what life decisions we try to make, no matter what our intentions, we’ll always be criticized. 9/10 times the criticism will come from people who are too scared to live out their own dreams and have decided to try and put their hooks into the dreams of others. I love this performance because she manages to make the sentiment hit relying primarily on her flow, with the beat not coming in until more than halfway through the video.

Favorite Moment(s): The belting at the end. She sounds like Roy Woods and it makes me want a collab.

5. Noname Performs A Three-Song Medley From Her Album ‘Room 25’

October 18, 2018

I am a walking Noname stan account.

I saw her perform during my sophomore year of college, soon after Telefone‘s release. I had never felt so represented in my existential absurdity. She was as wishful as she was uncertain; the last time I had felt that seen was when I heard Paramore’s “For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic” for the first time. But you know angsty white people are always doing something, so it didn’t really click the same. I sobbed in the first row while Noname rapped about the effects poverty has on the Black imagination, battling with addiction, and finding the will to fight our own apathy.

In this performance, she gifts us with a three-song medley, featuring “Blaxploitation”, “Prayer Song”, and “Don’t Forget About Me”, three singles from Room 25. Together, the musical collage tells a story about trying to create in a culture that values what we make more than our livelihood.

Favorite Moment(s): The GIGGLE when the music ends before she does.

6. dvsn: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

November 28, 2018

Roy Woods and Majid Jordan were my favorite OVO acts for the longest time. I had heard of dvsn and didn’t really care for the duo at first. I didn’t even know they were a duo until like a week ago.

One night I was at a party that I didn’t want to be at, and I really wasn’t feeling the music. While I waited to sober up so I could walk home, I put on my headphones and started playing my own music. When the beat in “Mood” dropped and Daniel Daley’s vocals came in, I knew it was the beginning of a spiral into a rabbit hole full of fuck nigga energy… Energy to which I am apparently still very open. In this performance, Daley’s falsetto as he sings about not wanting to pull out of his partner is literally the most disarming sound I’ve ever heard. It’s what I imagine the Sirens in the Odyssey sounded like. I’m 100% certain that behind the sunglasses, his eyes are pitch black. Because Satan.

Favorite Moment(s): 6:13 – 6:35. Mother of God.

7. Rapsody, “Sassy” Night Owl | NPR Music

December 4, 2018

RAPSODY IS ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED LYRICISTS OF ALL TIME AND I WILL NOT REST UNTIL JUSTICE IS SERVED.

Like… I’ll sleep and all that. But I will be dissatisfied. Known for her home-hitting lyrical additions – Kendrick Lamar’s “Complexion (A Zulu Love) and Anderson .Paak’s “Without You” – Marlanna Evans deserves so much more for the brilliance that went into Laila’s Wisdom. When she was nominated for 2018 Best Rap Album of the Year, she was the fifth female-identifying nominee in the 23-year history of the category. This performance of one of Laila’s singles, “Sassy”, makes me want to bounce through the streets in some high tops. It demonstrates her ability to give us all profound lyrics and pop-off sounds.

Favorite Moment(s): Her dance break @ 2:45.

8. H.E.R.: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

December 13, 2018

H.E.R. had already appeared on NPR Tiny Desk before this performance, but five minutes of listening to her voice were simply not enough. Whenever I listen to one of her songs, I have to listen to two or three more. The cool thing is that she’s not using subliminal messaging! It’s literally just carefully-honed skill and talent! These niggas can’t even spell talent!

The transitions in this video are wild. Seeing how many times Gabi Wilson switches the instrument she’s playing is honestly just really fun. “Focus” is my favorite H.E.R. song, and this performance takes it up three whole notches. Considering the fact that she’s an actual child prodigy, I cannot help but smile seeing her get the shine she deserves; hearing people refer to her as “the girl who covered the Drake song” really made me as upset as the people who fight in the comments under Lebron highlight reels seem to be.

Favorite Moment(s): The back-and-forth between H.E.R. and the two amazing background vocalists @ 16:28.

9. JPEGMAFIA – Thug Tears | A COLORS SHOW

December 14, 2018

I really cannot tell if Barrington Hendricks/JPEGMAFIA/Peggy is the kind of person who hates astrology and everyone who mentions it, or if he consults his Co-Star chart every morning. Regardless, as the sole member of the non-Scorpio Scorpio Fan Club, I love this Scorpio king.

One second into his COLORS episode, I thought my speakers were fucking broken. Twenty seconds in, I thought I was having a stroke. I eventually realized that I was not being Punk’d by the peculiar nigga on my screen, and decided to go back to the beginning and try this shit again.

I became so infatuated with JPEGMAFIA after watching this performance. This may mean that I need to call my therapist soon, but I would argue that my interest stems from the healing power I feel is available in his artistry. While different from serpentwiththefeet’s “vibe”, Peggy presents us with a similar sentiment: being unafraid to display your emotions, whether it be grief or anger, in ways that are not respectable or palatable can shake up a nigga’s psyche. Lord knows this shit had me shook all the way the fuck up.

Favorite Moment(s): He starts off stretching. Definitely didn’t realize how necessary it was going to be.

10. KOFFEE – TOAST (LIVE FROM KGN)

December 23, 2018

I first listened to Koffee when she performed with Chronixx on the Real Rock Riddim. This past November, the 18-year-old released the inspirational fucking BOP, “Toast”. In the song, she speaks to her performances with Chronixx and other key moments in her musical journey as well as the bright future she sees ahead. The song itself has been at the top of my morning playlist; you already KNOW I love to bust an early whine while I brush my teeth. But this performance… it’s magic. You can barely hear Koffee herself with the audience screaming all the words back at her, letting her know they’ve got her back. And with a big ass smile full of braces, you can tell she’s feeling all the love they’ve got to give. Everyone, myself included, is ready for Koffee to rise to the top.

Favorite Moment(s): Her disbelief at the room’s energy at the beginning, and when she brings on the girls to help her sing @ 1:30.

10+1. Noname ft. Smino and Saba: Ace

January 8, 2018

One day, I’ll share the story of how Noname was an instrumental part in my sexual “becoming”. It’s the same story that I shared with her after the aforementioned concert (still so sorry about that, yikes). Until then:

I screamed when I found out this performance was happening. I don’t even think I can put into words how Noname, Smino, and Saba’s performance of “Ace” changed my whole attitude. For the last eight days, my sense of clarity has been… well, CLEAR! I realized how much my hair had grown. I finished grant and job applications. I’ve received great personal news and old, important friendships are being rekindled. They have too much power. I’m tweaking.

All I have to say is that this video ran me a bath, put a glass of wine in my hand, and made me dinner. Enjoy.

Favorite Moment(s): I. Cannot. Choose. (But wow. The way they look at Saba @ 1:56. I’m emotional.)

[beatsfortheillperth]

Words with Villette

Villette out of Auckland, New Zealand is one of those creatives that goes above a beyond within the field of expression, consistently producing and writing music that somewhat paints a blessed canvas of life experiences and feeling. With her RnB tones and refreshing approach to electronic music Villette induces soul soothing moments and unforgettable peaks that some what alleviate worry and expands the mind. A creator whoms feminine energy is replenishing soul music and strengthening our generations ability to express. So stay present and enjoy words with the musical talent that is Villette.    

Favourite Food: S&V thin cut or kettle chips - it’s like medicine honestly. Chips in general actually. Headache? Chips. Anxious? Chips. Fight with boyfriend? EAT THOSE CHIPS BITCH

Favourite Beverage: water, water, water

A childhood memory in regards to music: I used to go to these NYE christian camps up until I was about 11 and I remember on the boat ride home one of my friends was listening to her Walkman. I was too young to know what it was but she let me listen for a bit and that’s the first time I remember vividly thinking “this is the best thing in the world, nothing else matters. just this”. It was a Michael Jackson album and I didn’t give the walkman back to my friend lol. pretty buzzy cause from that moment onward all I wanted to do was consume and live music & also upper cut anyone who talks shit about MJ. fuck you MJ haters, bet you don’t like S&V chips either.

Location: Lalumanu, Samoa. or wherever my Mum is. she’s really cool

Last track you listened to: This new one I’m working on with KEV (shameless self promotion)

Views on reincarnation: I think things that happen after death are not our place to know, otherwise we’d all know. get it? neither.

Views on mainstream media: It’s entertainment, mostly mind numbing but it’s entertainment nevertheless . it’s not real lol. I also think if you’re gonna complain about it and want change, stop consuming it and stop giving companies their ratings and views.

A track to chill to: VILLETTE - beige (shameless self promotion, again) or if you don’t like my music try Daley - Alone Together

A track to break it down to: Break it down can mean many things so here is a break down of tracks you can break down to. Dance to: Missy Elliot - get ur freak on. Get pissed to: anything from MIGOS. Sex: the internet - special affair. genuinely feel your feminine power: anything from Xavier Omar

First Album you ever purchased: Michael Jackson - Bad

Thanks for that so how old were you when you realised you were blessed vocally? were you shy about your singing abilities or have you always been quiet expressive in that way, also what drives you to continue singing?

I get asked that a bit and I still struggle with this answer. I think my parents thought I could sing before I knew, then my teachers in school and choir and stuff.

I just sang because I was put into lessons and I knew I could hold a note. I love singing now, and I’m not humble-bragging, I genuinely think I can sing now but it was only recently that I actually felt I had a nice voice. 

I sing only because I write songs, if I didn’t write songs I wouldn’t sing because I’d have nothing to say that’s truly from my own fucked up mind. I’m still shy about it, but more about the words I’m saying, not about how my voice sounds sonically.

You also write your own music, beautifully if I might add, the lyrics to beige are developed in such a poetic way not to mention the love drunk production, the tracks a wonder, much love.

 In regards to your songwriting where do you pull your inspirations from and what do you enjoy most about the creating process of writing a song.

Firstly THANK YOU Sophie <3 with Beige, I remember I was crying on my bedroom floor lol. I find it hard to deal with sadness if I can’t do anything about it but I remembered my friend (NITU) had sent me this beat that I was going to write to so I picked my sorry ass up and sat in the chair facing my speakers and laptop and chucked the song into ableton. 

I don’t remember thinking about structure, finding the right melodies or making the words that I was thinking of sound cooler or more poetic than they actually are. My writing is kinda blunt when emotion strikes so I kinda blacked out & recorded it then went to sleep. 

The next day we had the song & it was just a matter of working with Nitu to make the creation an actual track. I think I pull a lot of inspiration from my past, fantasy & subconscious state. I like to write from a powerful feminine point of view but also the polar opposite.

I don’t always know though, it changes a lot & that’s what makes it exciting for me. I think I enjoy the release of stress & seeing the words on paper the most. 

When I look at what I’ve written and I can honestly look at it and think “that makes sense” or “this is what I wanted to say to someone but I didn’t have the guts to when I had the chance” or even “yes this is truly how I feel but I don’t want to say it out loud”. 

Those moments are like looking into a dirty mirror that you’ve been cleaning for a while and you get a glimpse of your reflection. It’s intimidating & self reflective & raw. Also highly addictive.

Photo By James Robinson

You also dabble with production producing your EP Crimson Girl and various other tracks such as “Ruby” one of your collaborations with another Auckland based producer such as your self known as Troy Samuela. 

How did you get into producing and what inspires you to continue putting together your own tracks?

I honestly just got sick of playing the guitar and only making acoustic songs. I went to music school here in Auckland to “learn how to make electronic music”  and that’s where I was initially introduced to the idea of creating tracks through a DAW on your lappy. 

There was one assignment in particular where we had to produce like 2-3 songs or something and I remember needing those credits to pass the actual course so I made them 2 nights before the deadline. 

I had noo idea what I was doing but afterwards I was like hell yeah this sounds alright I could do this, this is fun. So from then on I committed to learning more & creating more as a self proclaimed beat maker (looool) There is a certain moment after you sit down with the intention to make a beat or just play around, where you lose yourself in between the speakers and your eyes melt into the screen. 

In this space time doesn’t exist and nothing else matters cause nothing is as captivating or emotional or fucking dope as what is going on in your little area. That’s what inspires me to keep putting my stuff together because that space is a hell of a drug to be addicted to. 

Better than chips even. In regards to your “Ruby” with Troy can you share how you went about the collaboration process and what you enjoyed most about the collaboration?

Troy Samuela is a very special person to me. With this song in particular I was at his house and I’m pretty sure we had just eaten a shit ton of bakery food with money we didn’t have. 

We’d been wanting to work on a track for a while and I can’t remember who initiated it first but we ended up sitting there making something. He was at the desk putting sounds together and I was on the bed saying “yeah na cool gross don’t do that SHITTTT YA ADD THAT na I have a better sample” and blah blah you get the point. 

My favourite part was probably when we finished to be honest because we argue a lot whenever we make music together lol. He is hands down my favourite person to make music with and played a huge role in building my confidence and skill set around production. What do you love most about the collaboration process as a whole? Do you have some favourite collaboration from that past that you think worked together perfectly to create a track? Why you feel that collaboration worked? 

For example Jarule and Ashanti - Then Why it worked?

One of my favourite vocal collabs is Michael Buble & Laura Pausini - You Will Never Find, top 5 easy. 

The way their voices intertwine is something really hard to find and a blessing if you do. A lot of vocalists that work together sit on top of each other or there is a clear winner (you totally know what i mean so don’t judge me) who occupies most of the space in the song. 

This track is one of the very few that is sonically perfect to me, it’s so vivid you can almost physically see how their voices come together effortlessly. It totally worked 10/10 as a vocal duet. You recently collaborated with another Auckland based producer LMC on the track “Sideway Love” which was premiered through Noisey how did this come about and did you write the lyrics for this track? What was this collaboration like for you and what did you learn from the experience?

LMC is a cool guy. He sent this song to me as an instrumental and like Beige, I wrote the lyrics & recorded that night and sent the demo back to him. This collaboration was dope although i had to re record the final version and it took me forever (because life got in the way) to send the final vocals back haha. Liam was so excited for this track to come out and he really deserved that Noisey premiere, he’s grinding! #LMC

Are you working on any projects at the moment that we should keep an eye out for and what can we expect from these projects?

Yes!! Exciting projects! I won’t say much, but I’ve got a collaborative music video coming out soon, a new single in May and a surprise that we’re announcing soon. I. Can’t. Wait. Here at beatsfortheill we have a love for spiritual expression. Can you share what inspires you as a person spiritually and how expressing yourself through music helps you in day to day life?

Spiritually, I like to pray & just let go of things that have the potential to take me over & that take my eyes off the prize. I think I feel things very intensely & as a spiritual person I’ve found refuge in my God and a release through making music, like I explained earlier with beige. Day to day life is real fucking hard, it’s some of the toughest times we’re experiencing as a generation as a whole so music for me has helped me be steadfast in my pursuit of joy & fulfillment in such a chaotic, unsteady time. I’m all for people, not just musicians, finding their spiritual safe place and haven where they feel unconditionally loved, protected, refreshed, joyous (not just happy, know the difference), strengthened and inspired. Any live performances coming up that we should keep an eye out for and what do you love most about preforming live in comparison to recording in a studio?

A couple! Again I can’t say too much right now but I’ll let you know as soon I can :D I like being right in front of people and seeing them listen to the words. I’m fairly new to performing live as a “singer” so it’s all still nerve-racking and confusing to me but I’m working on building my confidence around this. 

In the studio I can have my comforts around me like junk food and dim lighting and I can sit down in sweatpants and a hoodie, but as a performer (female as well) there are pressures to come out of my shell and put on a show.. Which I’m okay with, but for someone who’s preference is to be alone in my studio, this can be a bit daunting at first. Nothing a little practice and persistence can’t change though! Have to mention your track “My Love” your production is on point not to mention that sax, much love. What inspired this tracks creation and what did you enjoy most about putting this track together?

Thank you! That sax is actually a sample taken from a drum kit, but it was originally on an old Omarion song. When I first heard the sample the sax took a seat in my soul and I knew I had to do something with it so I added some drums and stuff while thinking of a melody for vocals. 

I think I enjoyed recording this one the most because I was feeling really upset and needed to get those lyrics out of mind so I could move on. I think once I put the song out it was a huge relief for me and emotionally I was able to let go of some personal things. 

When I listen to that song, it’s now a gentle reminder to myself to never again let myself get into that position I was in as a woman & lover. Musical Recommendations? Xavier Omar. Daley. KEV. Noname. and forever Amy Winehouse Any Last Words Thanks for reading my long ass non structured sentences! also, forgive yourself & others, it’s so important.

Villette// Beige 

Support and Enjoy Villettes music here:

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/villettedasha

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamvillette/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/villettedasha

[past3lp3gasus]

“Take that broken heart and turn it into art”

I’ve been having a blast with things that have been in my own head these days.  Since graduation, I’ve applied for over 60 “big girl” jobs.  I’ve had only 2 interviews, and so far neither have hired me.  I opened up an account on Music Lessons US 2 weeks ago.  I’m the only Oboist in the in all of Ann Arbor, Ypsi and Detroit and so far no one has contacted me wanting neither Oboe lessons nor Piano lessons in person or even online.  Well damn.  Today I sat at the dinner table staring into space.  A harsh reality set in.  Not only have I been busting my ass at a job that treats me like shit, but I’ve also gained 40 lbs since I started working there and over 100 since high school.   The more rejection I feel, the higher my drive is to make it as an artist.

 Christmas season gigs were the push I needed to get my oboe chops back, and it was an amazing feeling being able to make the best reed I’ve ever made in life, after not playing for a min. It made me realize how much I’d rather sit on my ass and produce beautiful sounds, than be on my hands and knees attempting to shim a wobbley table that this billion dollar company has more than enough money to replace.

  I haven’t been playing as much lately, but I’m motivated to audition for second oboe in the DSO.  When I told my mom I was auditioning, she laughed at me. I felt sick to my stomach.  I appreciate my dad for taking my dreams seriously.  

I’m also continuing to work on my production.  My current project is a hiplife beat that I’d like to collab with Krayon Lion.  So excited because this bouta be lit af.

Lastly, I opened up my Etsy store today.  I’ve been working on this for about 8 months now.  This is really pushing me to brush up on my acrylic skills, and for the first time ever, I’m learning how to run a business.  

The icing on the cake today was receiving a text message from a family friend saying that one of his wife’s colleagues needs a music instructor asap.  I called him right away and left a message.  Those 2 seconds gave me the hope that I needed, and if I don’t get the job, I’ll just remind myself how annoying kids can be.  

I feel as if these days, my creative mind is in survival mode.  I’m having racing thoughts of ideas and I find myself stopping what I’m doing to jot down a thought or to enter a note into my phone.  It’s almost overwhelming in a sense that I had hit a static wall after Evan and I broke up and I felt like I got stupider when he left my life.  We were constantly feeding off each other’s artistic ideas and when shit hit the fan and we parted, I felt as if the DTE went out and I got stupider from his absence.  So today was a huge milestone for me in a sense that all of my ideas were mine, and I didn’t need Evan to spark any of it.

I’m learning that no matter how trapped you may feel in your financial situation, and even in your own mind, something positive can always come out of it.  It is up to you to find the joy and excitement that resides in your own head.

[olivereliott]

Tribute: A Decade of Design from The Wrenchmonkees

Building custom motorcycles sounds like a dream job, but the reality can be harsh. Builders who can actually make a living from the art are worthy of respect and admiration.

The Wrenchmonkees are celebrating a decade in business this year, which is an incredible achievement in the new wave custom scene. And the Danish twosome don’t just have staying power: their influence has been incalculable.

Per Nielsen and Nicholas Bech are nothing short of pioneers, forging a path ahead when the scene was just starting to bloom. Even if you don’t recognize their faces, you’ve seen their work—or you’ve seen traces of it in others’ work. In short, they are the godfathers of the ‘alt moto’ movement.

I was lucky enough to meet Per and Nicholas a couple of years ago, at the launch of the Yamaha XSR900. I sensed that their status as ‘rock star’ builders sits uneasily with them: they’re approachable and humble, a couple of regular guys who love what they do, and have shed blood, sweat and tears doing it.

It was in 2008—the same year that Bike EXIF was launched—that the Wrenchmonkees opened their workshop in Copenhagen. Per (above) was working at a major cargo handling company at Copenhagen’s airport; Nicholas (below) was a partner in a photography business. Both had been tinkering with supermotards and streetfighters since the late 90s, but felt it was time to up the ante. So, together with a third partner, Anders Ingvartsen (who left after a few years), they opened shop.

“We wanted to express our creativity with a more Danish design approach,” they tell us, “instead of the German, French and UK influences that were available through magazines. It was before all the websites and cafe racer accounts we now have on Instagram and Pinterest.”

“We had a dream to build a business based on creative freedom, building bikes with our basic skills, mixing our different backgrounds into one expression, and trying to make a living out of it.”

“We started with a small basement workshop, simple tools, and no money. We hoped it’d be well accepted out there, and it was. We did dream and hope for success, but we never thought our work would bring us this far.”

“We didn’t think more than one or two years ahead at the time. So we’re grateful that today we still can go to work, and do what we love to do—most of the time.”

Any career this long is littered with peaks and valleys. For Per and Nicholas, the highs include seeing one of their earliest builds, Gorilla Punch (below), displayed at the Danish Design Museum.

Other milestones include the first orders from outside Denmark, and the collaborations: with Shun Miyazawa at Yamaha Motor Europe, with Kedo for bolt-on accessories, and with REV’IT! on the Kawasaki H2 project.

Then there was 2012 ‘Monkeetrip,’ a ten-day adventure with 12 riders piloting 25+ year-old motorcycles across 3,800 kilometers of Europe. More good times came with the launch of WM A.C (Wrenchmonkees Apparel) the following year. “Plus friends and family always helping and supporting us,” they add. “Well—almost always.”

And struggles? “Breaking up with partners who were also our friends. And a major OEM rejecting our collaboration proposal in 2009. Reason: ‘There will never be a market for what you do’.”

Then there was the time they entered the Copenhagen Fashion Fair with their WM A.C collection, only to discover that no one knew who they were, and no one had any interest in their products. The 12,000 brochures they’d printed lasted them four years. And, of course, “never making enough money on custom bike builds.”

Ten years is a solid innings, but Per and Nicholas have plenty left in the tank. When asked what’s next, they simply replied, “More bikes, more parts, more collabs, more clothing…And hopefully better than what we’ve already done!”

Thank you, Wrenchmonkees: for forging your own path, for inspiring a new generation of builders and for giving us beautiful machines to write about.

Here’s a look back at ten of our favorite Wrenchmonkees builds from the last ten years.

Monkee #11: Gorilla Punch By 2008, ‘me too’ Honda CB750s were everywhere—then The Wrenchmonkees flipped the script. Gorilla Punch came in like a breath of fresh air: elegant, minimal and perfectly proportioned. More importantly, it slingshotted The Wrenchmonkees from their quiet workshop right into the mainstream. [More]

Monkee #18 Before street trackers were all the rage, the Wrenchmonkees had the formula down. And even though this Kawasaki Z750B’s orange frame was a departure from their usual dark palette, the bike still carried that signature Wrenchmonkees look—while under the hood it packed a heavily tuned 970cc motor. [More]

Monkee #27 We still wonder how the Honda CX500 became so popular in the custom scene, but this little root beer number probably has something to do with it. Part bobber, part cafe racer and a little rough around the edges, it’s a style we’ve often seen emulated in more recent years. [More]

Monkee #35 I’m not ashamed to admit that I borrowed many ideas from this Kawasaki W650 for my own W650 project—and I’d bet I’m not the only one. I even bought a couple of parts from their web store, and my bike’s battery box wears the same Japanese flag ‘1’ Wrenchmonkees sticker. [More]

Monkee #40 We all know how ubiquitous BMW boxer customs are, but this R100RT bucked most trends at the time it was released—and created a few new ones. The combination of the deep blue tank and silver frame was inspired, but best of all was that the bike’s destination: Mauritania. [More]

Monkee #55: MonkeeFist Yamaha’s Yard Built program is the most prolific OEM-backed custom series around, and it all started with this Yamaha XJR1300. The XJR’s a pretty brutal motorcycle out the box, but the Wrenchmonkees found a way to make it even more brawny, and a whole lot more desirable. [More]

Monkee #59 It took a while to pick our jaws up off the floor when this sweet Laverda 750 landed on our desks. It epitomized The Wrenchmonkees minimal and raw approach to bike building, with a few cracking details in the mix, like the mono-shock rear end, and the elegant new fuel tank. [More]

Monkee #60: Gibbonslap This Yamaha SR400 was Per and Nicholas’ second collaboration with Yamaha, and spawned an entire kit full of bolt-on parts with partner Kedo. It’s also one of the best SR400 customs we’ve seen to date, and marked a point in the Wrenchmonkees’ career where they began shifting to a more refined aesthetic. [More]

Monkee #68 You don’t see too many Triumph Thruxton-based scramblers, but this one caught our attention. Low-key and loaded with subtle touches (like a ‘rib’ that the guys added to the top of the gas tank), it’s easily one of our all-time favorite Triumph builds. [More]

Monkee #81: Revmonkee Dutch gear manufacturer REV’IT! commissioned this project, handing the Wrenchmonkees the space-age Kawasaki Ninja H2 to rework. It’s the most modern and high-performance donor we’ve ever seen the guys tackle—and a departure from their usual vibe—but they knocked it right out the park and into the stratosphere. It’s also a clear indicator that the Wrenchmonkees are always evolving and should never, ever be counted out. [More]

Wrenchmonkees | Facebook | Instagram | Workshop images by Tuala Hjarnø | Other images by Nicholas Bech

[speedknight]

Alyse ,Gamestart official Mascot cosplay by Sharlene 

The 2017 Edition of GameStart (GameStart 2017) happened last weekend on the 14th and 15th of October 2017 at Suntec Convention Halls 401,402 and 403. With this year's bigger floor space and new additions, let's take a look back at the captured memories!

Sony PlayStation/SEA Major

PlayStaion VR

Final Fantasy Dissidia NT

Grand Turismo Sports

SEA Major Stage,Tekken World Tour

SEA Major booth,Blazblue  Preliminaries

If there is any exhibitors that took advantage of  GameStart 2017 expanded floor space this year.

We have to mention Sony PlayStation, Besides the returning SEA Major booth and Stage areas where fighting games competition takes place. Located Right at the entrance was Sony PlayStation booth where visitors get to experience latest launched games like Grand Turismo Sports and yet to be launched Final Fantasy Dissidia NT. Playsation VR also made a cameback this year.

SEA Major Mobile

Shadowverse Finals

Vain Glory Finals

This year, GameStart 2017 saw the addition of SEA Mobile Major . With all kinds of mobile games fast gaining popularity, its about time we see Mobile games in the E-sports arena. The inaugural SEA Mobile Major  saw competitors battle for the top spot in Cygame's Card based game Shadowverse and Vain Glory a MOBA optimized for touch screen devices by Super Evil Megacorp

IGDA SG & Founder's Base

IDGA SG booth showcasing games developed by local studios

Founder's base Allows local and overseas studios to showcase their works. 

Another new addition to GameStart 2017 was IGDA(Singapore) booth. Visitors had their chance to play the games developed by local indie games game studios. They also can vote for their favourite game. While over at Founder's base, both local and overseas indie game studios which are startups get to showcase their work to the massive crowds.

Gamestart 2017 Tabletop

Warhammer 

Magic The Gathering

For people who prefer the slower pace of table top gaming, you were not left out this year! with the addition  of GameStart 2017 tabletop gaming section.  From tabletop wargames like Warhammer to card games like Magic The Gathering the tabletop gaming section has you covered. Other table top game spotted were Force of Will, the Final Fantasy TCG,Exploding Kittens, Dungeons & Dragons  and many others.

Bandai Namco

Taiko no Tatsujin Session de Dodon ga Don!

Ying Tze VS Michael Murray(Game developer for Takken) for Tekken Bowl  exhibition match

A rare treat for the fans: Tekken 7 Exhibition match , Yoshinori Ono-san(BTW he was pick from the audience, its not planned) from Capcom VS Ying Tze who is cosplaying as Eliza.

Yivon as Eva Roux from Code Vein an upcoming RPG published by Bandai Namco 

Game publisher  Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia  returned this with several unreleased games like Dragon Ball FighterZ,Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker,Taiko no Tatsujin Session de Dodon ga Don! and the recently released Project cars 2. Fans of Ying Tze was delighted  Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia. invited her as guest cosplayer.  Not only did they get a chance to fight her in a friendly Tekken 7, her photo book was on sale and fans get to meet her at meet and greet sessions.

HADO AR Techno Sports

Hado Booth 

Hado Singapore  is bringing the concept of AR Techno Sports locally. After hearing it at the press conference, i was pretty hype up about the concept. For the uninitiated AR is actually Augmented Reality take it a step further from Virtual Reality, AR overlays Graphics over a real world environment. A insanely popular example would be Pokemon GO. I did get my chance to play 1 round, it was great fun and it's sure a workout dodging those bullets.   

Retro DNA

A Visitor playing the Sega Dream Cast

How many classical Portable consoles can you name here? Remember the days of blowing cartridges & relying on the street lamps for illumination?    

With the launch of NES Mini,SNES Mini,Famicom mini in the recent years, one can tell that classic game consoles still retain their charm till this very age. Modern Game consoles may have amazing life like graphics. But that doesn't mean 8-bit or 16-bit pixels loses its relevance. At Retro DNA one can experience the game consoles of yesteryear and even grab some back home!        

Secret Lab Grand Prix 

Race in Progress

"Déjà Vu! I've just been in this time before! (Higher on the beat!) And I know it's a place to come home! Calling you! And the subject's a mystery!  (Standing on my feet!) It's so hard when I try to believe! Yeeeaaaaaah!!"  Nani? Multi Chair Drifto????? 

Doujima 

Doujima 

Another fan favourite that returned this year was the Doujima x Gamestart collab visitors browsed thru the alleys to find fan arts and illustration of their fandom.  This year there were a total of 40 artist that participated.  Doujima is held in collaboration with Neo Tokyo Project 

Game on! Cosplay Runway Competition

Guest & Judge:  Vera Chimera

Guest & Judge Carry

Guest & Judge: AstroScary

Junkrat from Overwatch

Snow White from SinoAlice

Game on! Cosplay Runway Contestant and Judges

Game on! Cosplay Runway competition has always been a staple at GameStart.  Continuing its tradition a slight twist to the judging criteria & prizes category  is what sets this competition apart from others . Level Up prize is presented to a cosplayer which is relatively new to the Competitive cosplay scene. While Best in show ( Craftsmanship) and Best in show (Characterization) should be self-explanatory . The top prize of judges (Guest ccsplayers: Carry,Vera Chimera,AstroKerrie) choice award was eventually given to Fiddlesticks(Surprise Party Skin).

Cosplay Galore

Mei (Overwatch) 

Genji (Overwatch)

Derpling (Carbot animations Starcrafts)

Final Fantasy XV (featuring Send nu... I mean Noods Cup Noodles)

Annie (League of Legends)

No conventions of such nature would be completed without Cosplay. GameStart this year has continued the tradition of  free entry for Cosplayers. Here are just some of the many who turn up

at the event grounds!

Nier:Automata

Nier:Automata Q&A(Pre-picked) Session

Emil (Xin Cosplay) 

Add caption

2B( Lenneth XVII x MAKO)

Hmmmm... Why are they holding controllers?

One of the Biggest draw for this year's GameStart would be the NieR: Automata events. In Collaboration with AFASG,  GameStart brought down Yoko Taro (Game/Creative Director,Nier Series,Drakengard series,SINoALICE,Demons' Score) & Yosuke Saito (Game Producer,Square Enix). On the first day, the duo appeared on stage for the Q&A session where fans get to know the  answers of the duo to a set of Pre-selected questions as well as their reactions to certain polls. Returning to the stage on the 2nd day they were joined by Tokumaru Oguri (World Cosplay Summit CEO & Founder) to judge for NieR Cosplay Competition. The Competition was split into 2 Segments while the first was your regular go up the stage and impress the judges with your character portray, the 2nd segment test the cosplayer's skills in game.  While Asayaki Sora eventually emerges the champion, Xin and Lenneth(who came back home to Singapore from US just for this competition!)won the Special Saito and Special Yoko prizes respectively. Selected lucky fans were treated to a close door meet & greet as well.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Solo Competition PUBG match 

This year's GameStart Concluded with a full on Solo PUBG Singapore Community match. 10 Streamers were invited to play the game at GameStart itself while the rest were playing from home. The crowd was thrilled by the action especially towards the end.   With that i shall leave you guys with more of the captured memories below and also the link to GamestartAsia's official Twitch channel for the recorded streams! 

      Game Start official channel:  http://ift.tt/2yMViPu