#discussions: concept art/development
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firadessa Ā· 17 days ago
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I sometimes question Pixie Hollowā€™s geography when it comes to the book continuityā€¦ Like where exactly is the Home Tree located on Neverland? Or how much of Neverland do the fairies occupy?
The Pixie Hollow in the movies feels more like a dimension separate from Neverland, that I sometimes forget that Tink and her friends live in Neverland.
I've thought about this too! Pixie Hollow's geography and where exactly it is located in Neverland is a very messy part of the lore throughout most of the continuities. So this is gonna be a long answer
In the books the Pixie Hollow with the home tree, it's supposedly in what I think is "a clearing", like behind some foliage. In the third guide book "The Hidden World of Fairies" which is made up of book and movie canon (a lot of elements from the books and movies together) we see that Pixie Hollow is located behind a leafy clearing somewhere in Neverland.
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According to this map, Pixie Hollow is located towards the right of Neverland next to Skull Rock and Mermaid Lagoon
However, it's still sort of complicated!
In In the Realm of Never Fairies, we have some illustrations of areas that seem to be around Pixie Hollow- that seem to be quite vast and empty, including concept art.
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Here, we have a lovely concept drawing of Tinker Bell near a waterfall- note the waterfall, it will become important later
This is the original illustration of that image:
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Here's an interesting illustration with Havendish Stream, the dust mill, and several mountains:
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We also have a detailed explanation of Prilla's arrival in Quest for the Egg and world building in the trilogy which suggests it is located in the island somewhere near the mountains, but also somewhat close to the Lagoon (after all Soop could flood Fairy Haven/Pixie Hollow) with the cove seeming close- but also still a several days journey for fairies, with it taking at least couple hours to get to both locations. It can be assumed Torth Mountain where Kyto resides is close to the fairies, as well as the Tiffens which are creatures that trade with the fairies unique to the Levine books. A fire almost destroyed Neverland (Kyto I believe) and Mother Dove survived and made the island magical. So I have an idea that it's close to the mountains, but still on a flat terrain. In the forests of Neverland, in like the center leaning a bit to the right. Likely the "heart of Neverland"
In the books, I think it is also heavily implied that the Dust Mill is further away from the Home Tree than it is in the movies.
It's very interesting you say that "The Pixie Hollow in the movies feels more like a dimension separate from Neverland, that I sometimes forget that Tink and her friends live in Neverland." Because, in the original version of Pixie Hollow it was a distinct place behind a secret portal in Neverland, and had a unique apperance different from Neverland! They try to connect it to the book lore, and the story was even on the website at one point. In this version, Pixie Hollow is located in the waterfall in the middle of Pixie Hollow, and the waterfall is a magical portal. However, the idea of Pixie Hollow being located behind the waterfall- even if it is not magical, is scarcely used in the final canon. I mean in the Pixie Hollow game, there is the speedchat phrase "See you around the waterfall!" for a goodbye phrase and maybe the waterfall is mentioned one or two times in Never Girls. Personally, I'm very biased to this design of Pixie Hollow because I really like the style and how it feels both separate and unique to Neverland. It shares the design of Neverland but is still it's own unique and original place.
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Compare to the final version, which takes a lot of cues from the books, down to the Pixie Dust Tree being modeled from the home tree. Design wise I don't hate it, but it always felt a bit "off" to me and rushed. (very likely wise, considering the timeline of the movie's development)
Ironically, it's said by the director they used a lot of shots of the mountains (Discovering Pixie Hollow DVD documentary) to give some sense of Neverland in Tinker Bell. But Tinker Bell, imo- also has felt too different from the world of Neverland and also not similar enough. And a lot of that art was not from the final version of the film!
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But when it comes to the movies, we can get an idea where Pixie Hollow is located based on certain scenes in the films- which I believe is more similar to the books, a forest area- but still close to the falls and closer to the coast of Neverland. It is very hard to see where, but I have an idea.
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Very close to the center and the falls, but also an elevated forest area as we can see from Tinker Bell's arrival. So the waterfalls were relevant in some ways.
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When they leave Pixie Hollow to go to the Mainland, this is the direction they are coming from.
In Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, she goes north and this is what she sees behind her when she says "Goodbye Pixie Hollow, I'll miss you."
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This shot to me, shows the strong differences of Pixie Hollow and Neverland. How in some cases, they went too realistic imo...
TLDR- So, Pixie Hollow's location in both the films and the books (as well as everywhere else) is quite messy to me! I get there's some mystery in not knowing where it is, but there isn't really any indication besides "in the forest clearings of Neverland". Very odd to me that they never directly say where Pixie Hollow is located- anywhere besides a few random places. Also there's the implication that the seasonal meadows of Pixie Hollow are a speck compared to the full world of Neverland in the films, which is surprising to me. It's magical and yet sort of surreal in some ways too I guess hehe
But I overall, prefer the concept movie designs for Pixie Hollow compared to the movie designs, as the design feels very intentionally crafted. The idea of Pixie Hollow being hard to find makes sense, so I wish the movies had it be behind a clearing of some sort as well and not in the middle of the mountains/forest
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firadessa Ā· 4 months ago
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More crown anaylsis:
My working theory is that the second crown is actually the crown for autumn like Sarena suggested. But was never supposed to be the "normal one" she wears
We see from many concept arts and even a deleted scene that the fall scepter was originally going to be a crown
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Not only that, this is a piece the original concept art of the mirror of encanta. One of the plot points of the movie was that pieces of the mirror would be used to rebuild the scepter, same would go for the crown right? LT and TB were also being worked on the same time, explaining on how the crown could end up in Tinker Bell, which I'm thinking it did during the Vidia confrontation scene
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This is from a scene where Blaze returns home instead of going to Pixie Hollow
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Now the PHG crown looks very detailed right?
Well, the crown is so detailed and ornate- I can't believe I missed it because I was so used to the so called "default". Well there is plenty of reason that this crown can look like this. The original working title for the movie was "Race through The Seasons" and it was originally a full length film, the 5th and final one before it was condensed for TV. I believe every movie prior, which should have included SoTW, would have had a different design. However, the directors lost interest, and there was general confusion regarding the crowns. Only PHG got a crown design for the special.
I believe it was supposed to be a more "seasonal" design, it could also be a a design reject from Lost Treasure.
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Another interesting thing is this magazine or some source I read mentioned Clarion's first crown is the "Arrival Day" crown and the flower crown is the "Spring Celebration" crown. However, I am inclined to believe that her first crown was always supposed to be her normal crown design was always supposed to be the Arrival Crown. This crown features a white floral motif, her favorite flower is white cala lily and symbol of her regal status. I believe this crown, was always meant by other artists to be a regular everyday crown, though somehow the autumn crown/swirly design ended up being the regular day crown.
A weird thing about Clarion's ROB/pre final design was that it had no crown but a necklace instead, making her seem like she's more humble. It would make sense for the notes to say, make it more regal, using the books lily thing as inspiration. Many of her merch at the time seems to have the pointy crown or the Ring of Belief style, meaning the Arrival crown could have always been the normal one. Maybe that's too much thought into a small difference but still. Last one is the edited website image
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On Queen Clarionā€™s crowns. After Mary and anon had mentioned it, I had to look for all the crowns sheā€™s worn in the movies and do some quick analysis!
The first scene, Tinker Bellā€™s arrival, takes place in Winter, and Queen Clarion is wearing a glowing white crown. Later, when she attends a review of Spring preparations, she changes into a flower crown which she keeps for the rest of the film (and presumably the season.) In the next movie, the fairies are preparing for Autumn, and Clarion again has a new tiara. Finally, the Pixie Hollow Games special introduces one more crown, and this just so happens to take place in Summer.
Was this coincidental, that we only see Clarion wear certain crowns in certain seasons? Or was it an intentional design choice? I donā€™t know, but I donā€™t care. My headcanon is that she has a tiara for each season.
This would solidify the timeline of when the rest of the movies occur, which is something obvious for the first few filmsā€¦TB = winter-spring, LT = autumn, GFR/PHG = summerā€¦But not so much for the others. The next three films take place only in Never Land and we arenā€™t told what season the fairies are bringing to the mainland.
But the answer is hidden in Clarionā€™s crown! She wears her Autumn crown for the rest of the movies.
We can even prove this at least as far as SotW, judging simply by whatā€™s going on in that movie. The winter fairies are all in Pixie Hollow, practicing their frost and packing snowflakes into baskets to take to the mainland. Theyā€™re in Autumn, preparing for their upcoming season.
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aroaessidhe Ā· 5 months ago
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2024 reads / storygraph
Outdrawn
f/f contemporary romance
two cartoonist whoā€™ve been rivals since uni, and now have competing webcomics online, have to work together on the relaunch of a cult classic at the comic press they both work at
they both struggle with art-related physical and mental health issues, and complicated families
#outdrawn#aroaessidhe 2024 reads#sapphic books#I thought this was decent! I liked the concept (even if I got distracted by some art related thingsā€¦)#and the dynamic between the characters was good. I enjoyed their relationship development broadly speaking#and the emphasis on communication; though it was a quick flip into being together all of a sudden.#The sketchbook doodle flirting was cute. Some interesting exploration of their complicated family situations too.#Thereā€™s a lot of exploration of burnout and carpal tunnel and the dangers of artists overworking which I think are important conversations#and are done with some nuance. But itā€™s pretty much all discussed in the context of the personal pressure they put on themselves#rather than the industry corporate greed and artificial competition created by the comic platform - which are significant in this story!#It felt odd that that connection wasnā€™t really ever made?#I know that this is a romance and nitpicking the background plot is beside the point and also that I am not a big romance reader#but the premise that the comic hosting site archives everything; wipes the leaderboard; and out of nowhere has a comic competition for#new weekly chaptersā€¦Iā€™m sorry but the art world would riot. Even if people enter because theyā€™re desperate for the cash theyā€™d be pissed#People live off the income from their webcomics! if they were erased (temporarily) with no noticeā€¦..there would be crimes committed istg#I simply donā€™t believe that it would be doable to create a new weekly webcomic with no notice while you also have a full-time comic job#(especially as the only stylistic choices mentioned are full-colour) - not to mention what happened to their 8-years-running webcomics#that were archived? they donā€™t think about them at all after the beginning? surely theyā€™d care about that?#And then with their new comics they make for this competition (after work I guess) we get vague snippets about them but barely anything#- if theyā€™re consuming that much of your time I would expect to feel like theyā€™re thinking about them all the time#rather than the vaguest discussion about genre and cast numbers only.#I guess I just think the whole comic site stunt felt unnecessary for the plot anyway -#it would have worked exactly the same if they were just competing on the normal leaderboard with their normal comics???#anyway - Iā€™m not judging TOO hard about all that because again I know itā€™s not the point and maybe the industry is like that in some place#Unfortunately it was distracting enough to affect my feelings on the book tho lol.#Lastly: the audiobookā€¦ā€¦ā€¦oof. The narrators talk at different speeds; for one.#And Sageā€™s VA does this deeply weird raspy-anime-teen-boy voice for Noah which is such an odd choice#and doesnā€™t match her character at all.#unforch my library only had the audiobook (what I usually prefer) so I just had to sort ofā€¦.translate the narration into a normal voice lol#anyway the romance is good tho
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king-crawler Ā· 1 year ago
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Short excerpt from the art book about Vanellope's kartšŸ„ŗ
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troythecatfish Ā· 11 months ago
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firadessa Ā· 11 months ago
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I'm still thinking about her...who were you... Rani???
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We're all still bitter šŸ˜­
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dani-the-toad Ā· 2 years ago
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character google doc for all my ocs! some of them have info, some are still being worked on. all of them have basic info though (age, height, pronouns)
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weirdmageddon Ā· 3 months ago
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this is the biggest pokemon leak weve ever seen. holy fuck.
a gamefreak employee got phished in a dev portal. i feel really really bad for them. but at the same time so much of this is amazing. i love cut content. i love seeing the process of making stuff. so i have mixed feelings, but iā€™m going to set that aside.
ive been here for multiple beta leaks since the spaceworld gold demo in 2018 and the diamond and pearl beta leak somewhere after that. this is by far the most intensive leak of beta pokemon stuff ive seen.
source code and beta builds for gens 3, 4, 5, and later 6 and 7. it is MASSIVE.
there is so fucking much and you can see coverage here
edit: if you dont have twitter (elon is a shitbag i dont blame you) you can go on r/PokeLeaks
this document from junichi masuda made in 2005 is the highlight for me, the symbol used in the hgss arceus event. it seems the legendaries are like a greek pantheon of deities
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but we got more
internal development and discussion. universe creation lore, character profiles (e.g. skyla is a sexy latina pilot inspired by jennifer lopez and isabella fontana), never before seen designs, seen-before designs (latiken had a fucking sprite!), concept art, gen 3 had some darker looking discarded dev art. WHAT IS THIS IT RULES
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here are compiled beta sprites from gens 3, 4, 5
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jesncin Ā· 3 months ago
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Thinking about Disney and how we talk about Cultural Representation
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(concept art by Scott Watanabe)
Old essay originally written on Cohost in November 2023. With additions.
With all the promo stuff about Disney's upcoming animated film Wish, I can't help but think about Raya and the Last Dragon again. I spent a year intensively researching things about that movie and the discourse surrounding it for a series of videos on Xiran Jay Zhao's channel, and oh boy did that reveal a lot about the current way we talk about cultural representation in casual media criticism.
Lately we've grown a habit of looking at signifiers to culture, things like aĀ cultural dish, a nod to aĀ martial artsĀ style, a piece ofĀ clothing, maybe aĀ hairstyle, aĀ weaponĀ and so on, and then projecting a bunch of intentions onto the work regardless of authorial intent. I witnessed this a bunch of times in discussions surrounding Raya and the Last Dragon.
You basically get a bunch of 4d chess-style justifications for the lazy implementation of culture in Raya.
random examples cuz there's too many to name:
The movie will do something like make the leaders of the villain nation women, and people immediately assumed it was some kind of bespoke reference to Minangkabau matriarchical society.
the art book of Raya specifically stated that they purposely misplaced things as a stylistic fantasy choice "we could take something that is known and place it in an unexpected location, like coral in the desert and cacti in the snow". But when people saw a water buffalo placed in the desert they assumed it was some super clever environmental story decision.
The movie will tell you it includes things like Borobudur, Angkor wat, Keris, and most people will take their word for it without hesitation. Never mind that Southeast Asians could barely recognize these nods to our culture through how amalgamated the designs are.
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(early concept art by Scott Watanabe)
Moving forward, I think we need to talk less about "what" parts of a culture are being represented in these movies, and more about HOW they're being included, we need to ask:
What is this piece of media's relationship with the cultures it represents?
Because Raya and the Last Dragon is not a cultural movie, it's a monolith film pitched and written by white people and a Mexican director with 2 SEA writers added later in production to avoid backlash. Culture serves the purpose of aesthetic set dressing in the film, as opposed to something that informs its themes and characters.
it wasn't even initially pitched as a Southeast Asian movie. The white writers who pitched it were going for a vague East Asian sci fi fantasy story under the working title "Dragon Empire". Southeast Asian culture was an aesthetic change added much later.
This is what happens when a corporation tries to put representational value on a shallow aesthetic. Because of the way Disney constantly marketed Raya as this big authentic cultural film, it primes its audience to read cultural intention in the most benign details. And when we get lost in the details, we lose sight of the bigger picture.
Contextualizing Cultural media criticism
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(visual development art by April Liu)
We need to start demanding more context in our analysis. The next time we see a reference to culture in media we consume, take a step back and ask what purpose it serves in the narrative. And most importantly!! What Is Its Relationship With The Culture It Represents? We shouldn't just accept things at face value.
start asking yourself,
through what lens is thisĀ cultural dishĀ and its spicy flavors being presented to us? Are the customs surrounding the food being respected?
IfĀ martial artsĀ orĀ danceĀ is represented, how is it translated in the adaptation? Are you getting generic hollywood-fu or are you seeing specific movements with purpose and motivation? Are the philosophies or spiritual contexts of these traditions present in the text?
Are theĀ clothing, hairstyles, and presentationĀ of the characters being de-yassified through a colonial filter? Is the non-conformity of the cultures' different framework for gender presentation being adjusted to fit a more recognizable binary?
IfĀ languageĀ is present, what role does it serve? Is it presented as other through being exclusively used by villainous beings? Is it being made a monolith as one "non-English" language?
is thisĀ templeĀ actually a place of worship or is it just a set piece for a goddang Indiana jones booby trap action fight sequence
This way, instead of unquestionably defending a piece of media because a character wore a traditional outfit one time, or because some characters took their shoes off at a temple, or because there were Arnis sticks in that one fight scene, we can approach the text with a more nuanced and holistic understanding of how culture informs narrative.
To quote Haunani K. Trask (author of From A Native Daughter):
ā€œCultural people have to become politicalā€¦ Our culture canā€™t just be ornamental and recreational. Thatā€™s what Waikiki is. Our culture has to be the core of our resistance. The core of our anger. The core of our mana. Thatā€™s what culture is for.ā€
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themisscuy Ā· 6 days ago
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(AAA I want to punch smth cuz there were a mistake and I had to make the whole post again- oh well)
OKayy, I don't know what name I could give to this AU yet, or if someone already made smth similar, but I liked the concept (and the story that I'm making in my head) and I wanted to share some of it here!
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This is a kind of concept art KASBDK The main idea is that, in this AU, which is contextualized before The Showdown, Dark is captured by Victim (through the mercenaries) and is used to be a kind of weapon to take revenge on Chosen and Alan. The extended version is below!
I imagine it like, Dark and Chosen had a big discussion, so Dark decided to go away to have some time alone. The problem is that neither of them know that Victim already found out where they were established and were spying on them. Victim knows that Dark is the only stick which Chosen has a relationship with, and a very close one, so they decide to take him away from him. So, as soon as they noticed that they got separated, they decided to put all the effort into the capture of Dark. They got it.
First, they decide to check Dark's memories to get information about Chosen, and well, they end up discovering everything about Dark. One thing that got their interest is that Dark was making his first sketches of Virabot's first model, and that one of his first targets to use it was Alan's PC. So, Victim decides to use Dark's ideas to take revenge on both Chosen and Alan, and after achieving that, they would get rid of Dark (since he's an accomplice of Mitsi's death, so they really, really hate him too). Since they know that Dark is very loyal to Chosen, they decide to design a device to control him. This device, divided in two (for the head and the neck), is made to alter Dark's memories and temper, so in that way they can turn him against Chosen. This device is also designed to kill him rapidly in any case, and Victim has the control of that. I want to point out that Victim tried to manipulate Dark's code first, but he had developed a big will against it (since he didn't want to hurt Chosen), so they went for the device.
I have more ideas, but I prefer to keep working and defining them before sharing! Here's a lil sketchy comic to illustrate some of what I said before.
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And here's some sketches of when I was brainstorming >:)
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Hope you like it!
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shmaba Ā· 2 years ago
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Iā€™m going to assume that at this point youā€™ve all seen Critical Roleā€™s new show Candela Obscura and at least skimmed through the Quickstart Guide (you have done all that riiiight??) So I wanted to compile all the things Iā€™ve done that have been shown so far. Its long so read below the line!
Iā€™m going to try to avoid spoilers. So feel free to read without worry. Iā€™m also going to try and avoid breaking any NDA like a good professional. So I will not be doing some deep dive behind the scenes thing. Only visuals that have already been publicly shared are going to be on here
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The very first thing I did on this show was the concepts for the main set. Everything is practical. Nothing is green screen or cg or whatever. Some people think itā€™s just good cg but nope that's all real. You could touch it! (donā€™t touch it, there are ghosts)
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There were multiple iterations on the design, each with their own vibe and statement piece. CR narrowed it down to what you see in the show: a sort of storage hall with an odd clock contraption behind the GM. I think I called this design version theĀ ā€œAbyssal Hallā€ or something like that (I gave the different versions names to better keep track of which design was being discussed)
The company Flip This Bitch built the physical set. They turned my silly little art into a real thing. So they did all the actual magic of making this set come together in the end! They deserve a lot of the credit for it looking so good in the end.
Also that little piece of art in the bottom left of the preshow is a section from the final concept art of the set.
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That contraption behind Matt is based on astrolabes and clocks. This isnā€™t really meant to be a literal astrolabe or a clock as we would use them in our world. Narratively this isnā€™t a device that measures either of the things that a traditional astrolabe or clock does. This is a special magickal tool that does a secret third thing.
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Also I did concepts for the GM screen. You don't really see it besides in the fancy-shmancy preshow. There were a number of more intricate designs for it but CR went with the simpler option since the only part that would be visible on stream is the top, so that's where I put the most detail.
I should also note that I did not design the logo! Itā€™s pretty prominent on the GM screen but I was supplied an already existing logo for this.
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NEXT is the Taliesin enclosure set that you see in the trailer. This is actually meant to be like the lantern room on the top of a lighthouse, minus the big light beacon (You could say Taliesin is the beacon).
Also in the trailer you see a couple brief sketches I did for some world building concepts:
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Speaking of sketches there are a number of art pieces of mine in the Quickstart guide
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A lot of my art is sketches. Theyā€™re all meant to be like notes and drawings from members of Candela as they travel and notate their findings. Most of the notes on these sketches are my actually my notes when I was doing world building concepts, but they replaced my handwriting with a font because my handwriting sucks lmao (also likely for ease of future localization).
Also the cover of the Quickstart guide uses line art of a part of that astrolabe clock set piece. This line art was part of the deliverables that was sent over to Flip This Bitch for construction. Theyā€™re just using pieces of those set concepts everywhere!
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As you can see Iā€™ve done a lot of art for this project. I was part of this project when it was still early in development. Itā€™s changed quite a bit from where we started.Ā 
I wasnā€™t the only one that made all this art happen though. Other artists, writers, and designers got to add their own vision to this. It was very much a collaborative effort that took a long time to happen. Itā€™s very exciting to see everyoneā€™s hard work come to fruition and there is a lot more to come!
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usagifuyusummer Ā· 3 months ago
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More silly and fun practice sketches on the Victorian Era FOP AU lol. Just gonna post them here first while we're still developing this and busy with our real-life duties as students.
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There's actually a ton of my thoughts in the alt text of these images lol. I hope it's still there. I will also include the links of the existing posts relating to this AU to keep track of what has been created.
Origin Discussion Posts
Updated Character Designs 1
Updated Character Designs and Concepts 2
Concept Art 1: Boy with a Parasol
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Credit: @keyintheeye-blog original creator and the default character designer of this Victorian Era FOP AU.
I will post my other thoughts (something like a what's happening update) on the repost of this later. Gotta get back to my unavoidable university duties... Have a nice day tho šŸ’
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firadessa Ā· 5 months ago
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Me walking up to the witches grotto make a soul bargain in desperation for the movie that almost killed the Disney Fairies franchise but the witch sold their soul to the Disney company
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Me and the crew if we ever get our hands on some new material
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Me trying to guess plotpoints based on random concept art/prototype thing
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Me if some one had it on their hard drive under ransom
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Disneys security is slaking rn please
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xadianglyphs Ā· 19 days ago
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Seventh Source: The Dark Magic Symbol
In honor of Book Seven: Dark, I want to revisit and expand on analysis of the dark magic symbol, itselfā€”something I'm always low-key thinking about, but now I'm going to make you think about it, too.
We are lucky enough to have a fascinating window into the design process for all the primal source symbols (both individually and as a set) through the portfolio of Samuel Thompson, the designer. This includes the dark magic symbol:
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I've scaled up the secondary, "also-ran" designs so they're all the same size, because I do want to talk about some of them. There are several paths of development visible, and each one reveals something that was seriously considered as a possibility for representing dark magic as a whole.
It's in the Blood
So to start out, we know on some level that, during story development, what became dark magic was originally blood magic. Two years ago, when I first looked at the concept art for the symbols, the filename used for the dark magic symbol image was "blood." That was corrected at some point when the designer uploaded new images with better presentation (as one does when maintaining a portfolio), but it happened.
There's also more than enough association between dark magic and blood developed over the course of the series that it seems pretty clear that the name changed on a surface level but the underlying concept remained.
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It's even visible in the designs that not only was a blood droplet considered as the entire symbol, but it was incorporated into variations of multiple design directions.
Dragons in the Dark
There's a bit of a problem when you go from "blood" to "dark," which is "how do you represent darkness in icon form?" The primal sources are ultimately elementalā€”you can see in their design process that a lot of it was about creating a balanced set where the symbols are both individually distinct and yet related enough to fit together as a group. Earth has the usual "do we do rocks or plants?" decision-making, but otherwise it's just... the sun is the sun, water is water, etc. But what the hell is the iconic form of darkness?
Well, apparently it's dragons, because pretty much all of the rest of the designs are a clear evolution of what began as a dragon symbol. It gets stylized into a set of wings that is then further stylized, and in combination with other influences discussed in the next section, we eventually start getting something like the final symbol.
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There's one other direction kind of explored here, which is the ouroboros dragon(s). I actually wrote out a whole thing about the ouroboros as a symbol historically vs. through the lens of modern Christian-influenced western culture to use here, but really none of that is the point. The most likely scenario is that they told the designer, "let's explore some possible directions dragons" and the ouroboros designs are just something you do in that situation. Obviously you don't want to actually choose it for the final direction, because then you'll never escape the specter of Fullmetal Alchemist.
But like... why dragons? I mean, this is not an accident. The designer dragon-ed the fuck out of this shit, and the only reason to do that is "that's what he was specifically told to do." So at some point during development, there was apparently a consensus that dark magic should be represented by something related to dragons.
Now, this could be as simple as "dark magic uses the essence of magical creatures, and a dragon is pretty much the epitome of a magical creature," or something like "dark magic elevates humans to being equal with dragons." After s6, however, I feel like there are enough weird little things connecting the Celestial Order, the archdragons, Aaravos, Laurelion, the Staff of Ziard, and various other stuff that it could be... something else. Something we're not yet able to see in its entirety.
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But that's something we'll have to wait to find out.
The Staff of Hermes Ziard Hermes
Now to return to reality: the influence of the caduceus on the dark magic symbol is a done deal. It has literally been said. Even if it hadn't, it's also just... kind of obvious.
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Like yeah, that sure is a set of wings with a little knob between them and a twisty stem, just like the the final dark magic symbol and all the designs that most resemble it.
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I'm not going to go over the caduceus in depth because I did that once already. You can tell I was naught but a wee, innocent babe by the way I use the words "wiki" and "confirmed" in the same sentence. In that post, I spent a lot of time digging into the associations of the caduceus and Hermes/Mercury as if that was a window that would tell us something about dark magic. It was a fun post but largely irrelevant, nowā€”this time, we're going to come at it from another direction.
Setting aside the more distinguishing features of the caduceus like the wings and snakes, what is it? It's a staff. (Or a rod, depending on your interpretation of the distinction between the two.)
Well, interestingly enough, we happen to have another staff to bring to the table for consideration. One that's important within the setting, inextricably linked with dark magic, and with an iconic design.
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Now bear with me, because here's my argument: the dark magic symbol is based on the caduceus, but in relationship with the Staff of Ziard, with either the staff influencing the design of the symbol or vice versa.
To see what I'm talking about, we can take a look at the staff from a few different angles. Personally, when seen closed and from the front, I think it already looks plenty like wings.
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But if we put it in profile I can do a little overlay to show what I'm talking about more easily:
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It's not strictly the most anatomically accurate setup, but stylized in a way that's interestingly similar to the stylization of the "wings" in several of the symbol designs. This could be related to the the "dragons" stage of the designs, assuming that there is some connection with the dragons, or it could just be visual influence from the caduceus itself.
We should also consider the shape of the staff from the front when it's extended (unfolded?):
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The rounded rhomboid/oval shape, the diamond in the center? Come on, work with meā€”it could conceivably resemble the symbol, right? Though yes, I do know what you're thinking. A professional would call that "yonic" and definitely not giggle about it.
As for the twisty bitā€”what would be the coiling snakes in the caduceusā€”there's a certain iconic spell associated with the Staff of Ziard:
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Maybe a stretch. But you don't get much twistier than a tornado.
Contexts and Meaning within the Setting
Now that I've chewed on my tinfoil had enough that I'll never get the taste out of my mouth, I also want to just touch brief(-ish)ly on the actual use of the symbol within the context of the series setting. Like the primal source symbols, the dark magic symbol doesn't actually show up very often. The two biggies are Claudia's spellbook and the Key of Aaravos in Callum's dream:
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I'm going to ignore Callum's dream because the use of the dark magic symbol there says more about Callum's psychology than it says about actual dark magic, while Claudia's spellbook is a use that its author presumably intended to be meaningful for other dark mages.
Ignoring the garbage symbols in the corners, the central hexagonal symbol is reminiscent of the geometric tree of life diagram, which you may be familiar with if you are into either one of several varieties of religious mysticism... or anime. Let's be real, it's probably anime.
I'm not going to explain it in detail because honestly I don't know a lot about it and it's (intentionally, as with most mysticism) pretty complicated. Extremely summarized baby version which suffices for my purpose here is: the hexagonal tree of life diagram is a hierarchical arrangement of nodes and connections between them, with each node representing a distinct facet through which we are meant to recognize a single greater truth or divinity. On the cover of the spellbook, we have the dark magic symbol surrounded by smaller symbols for each primal source. This is a clearer arrangement that could be conveying the same conceptā€”each of the primal sources is only a facet of a truer, deeper magic, which we are to take as being dark magic.
None of that is particularly important, I just think it's neat. Anyway, what I want to do now is propose that there is, as of season six, one additional appearance of the dark magic symbol within the setting context. This one:
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Like... rhomboid shape, little diamond in the center, twisty stem? This isn't something unique to the Hearts of Cinder spell, it's an early or ritualistically stylized version of the dark magic symbol.
To contextualize this further, allow me to draw attention to this image from Tales of Xadia, part of a larger graphic showing a scroll that illustrates significant events in the history of dark magic:
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We have a sacrificed creature, from which dark magic flows. On it appears to be carved some symbol composed of straight lines, which because of the size and angle we can't really see clearly. I spitballed a while back that it could be a straight-lines version of the Star primal symbol. We also have use of the actual dark magic symbol, which I'll spare you my analysis of since really it's just more of the same.
It's still a little bit fuzzy how dark magic spells get the magic resources from reagents, but generally a living reagent (used in its entirety) is killed and non-living reagents (harvested from a larger source) have some destructive act performed on them, like crushing. We have a spell that uses a living(?) human heart, which is apparently distinct from a human life in some way, even though the latter is not going to be getting very far without the former. For casting such a spell, unless you're currently holding someone else's still-beating heart in your hand, you probably want to be at least a little specific about exactly which heart in the vicinity is gonna get consumed. I'm putting forward that there's a way to mark a reagent such that it connects properly with the spell in cases where squishing it in your fist or whatever is impractical.
Like with a symbol, right? And what better symbol than the one for all of dark magic, the staff that may or may not be behind everything?
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With that, thanks for coming to this long-ass TED Talk that was entirely an excuse to say "the symbol Viren carves over his heart to mark it for sacrifice is an ancient or stylized version of the dark magic symbol, which itself likely on some level derives its shape from the Staff of Ziard, which he is literally holding in his hands." I've wanted to say it since s6 released. I cannot be stopped.
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patricia-taxxon Ā· 5 months ago
Note
Hey! I was wondering what your opinion was on some of your tracks being used for audiovisual productions? Iā€™m a digital arts and animation major studying down in central Mexico and I have been a huge fan, now that Iā€™m being tasked with making actual animation and I just wanted to know if you are comfortable with making concept art or actually developed animation to accompany your work! If not then I can just animate over anything else, I'm open to the idea of discussing this in private too! ty!
my purpose as an artist is to beget more art
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letsatomicbanana Ā· 1 year ago
Text
Ink!Sans Cultural Character Coding (OUTDATED)
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art by @/sakuramochi64 on twitter
Disclaimer!
This post is meant to present and analyse obvious and obscure East Asian (Jpn-Chi) ethnic and cultural influences on Ink!Sans character. If any of the material in this essay is incorrect and/or considered morally offensive, please contact me!
Ink!Sans by @comyet
ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“ā†“
/Despite the fact that Ink is a non-human monster skeleton character, he is often portrayed with human-like traits and characteristics that range between a bunch of topics. One of them that's portrayed as very predominat to his character is his etchnic cultural background/inspiration. Again, this post is meant to analyse and to discuss such inspirations and how it affects his character./
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INSPIRATIONS
According to Ink's creator, Comyet, the concept of Ink!Sans was conceived by a Japanese and Chinese ink calligraphy brush. These are known as Fude brushes (ē­†) and Xuan brushes (宣ē¬”Ā Xuān bĒ) respectively. This ultimately inspired his ink abilities and powers, just like his concept of being an 'artist' (In simple words, it inspired Ink as a whole).
'The history of ink brushes and the ink material is a long and complicated journey to cover, but it's important to know that these were invented in ancient China around 300 B.C (traditional Chinese:Ā ęƛē­†;Ā simplified Chinese:Ā ęƛē¬”;Ā pinyin:Ā mĆ”o bĒ) and are used in a vast variety of East and Southeast Asian countries, like Korea; Vietnam and Japan.
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example of the brush Ink!Sans was inspired by.
At glance, ink (the material) is an enduring medium that still surrounds society till this day and it's used in multiple cultures across the world.
Writing with ink calligraphy brushes are common in the Europe and the Middle East as well, but the material was crafted of iron salt and oak galls. When written, ink is often a dark color but fades to brown tones of rust'. Such phenomenon was detectable in the Middle Eastern Bible manuscripts and even ancient European literature as an example.
Ink!Sans was based of the ink material created in East Asia, most commonly made with carbon-base black substance, which preserverd the dark coloration even after hundred of years.
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ā†‘ Example of an ancient Japanese painting, such arts are called 'Sumi-e' (Japanese, å¢Øēµµ) or 'Ā Shuimohua' (traditional Chinese,ę°“å¢Øē•«).
Unlike iron gall ink, carbon based inks are still very common to this day.
'Throughout the long history of East Asia, writing with ink was a very important ability to have. The Materials were made with precision, long traditions of training in calligraphic skills were developed, and writing and literacy were often wrapped up in questions of social status and class.
Although the development of major Chinese calligraphic scripts was completed by the fourth century, the art of calligraphy continued to evolve over the millennia. Master calligraphers with years of training and dedicated practice were recognized for their personal styles, and later generations of artists often adapted brushstrokes and designs to their own style. This stylistic evolution of scripts continues to enliven Chinese calligraphy to the present day.
Calligraphy was an important mark of personal learning and aesthetic sensibility in Japan. Portable, lacquered wood boxes were designed to hold an inkstone and water dropper in the base, with trays to hold writing brushes and solid ink sticks. Inkstone boxes (ē”Æē®±,suzuribako 'ink stone box' ) could be easily carried to a pleasant location, even outdoors in fine weather, to write correspondence, diary entries, or poetry.'
Fun fact: Ink's font 'Note This' is inspired by such ancient writing.
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Example of Ink's canon speaking font and Japanese calligraphy (ę›ø道, calligraphy)
'However, when it comes to the subject of painting with the material, different schools of painting existed in China, the scholar-painters of Song-dynasty China generally preferred ink-based paintings over the more colorful, pigment-filled paintings produced historically and at the painting academy. Chinese painting manuals and commentaries from the Song (Sung) and Yuan dynasties (rarely mention pigments, possibly because it was assumed a painterā€™s skill shouldnā€™t depend on the use of colors.
Japanese artists are known for using media appropriate for the subject matter. Images depicting traditional Japanese narrative tales were typically rendered in opaque colors with outlines created in ink and later obscured by color overlay. Ink monochrome was closely associated with Chinese styles, particularly those transported to Japan via Zen Buddhism. Ink-based forms created with modulated strokes and layered washes suggested introspection and spiritual exploration.'
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Ancient Japanese paintings that uses dull colors and ink outlines.
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Exhaustive examples of ancient Ink paintings. Dragons and Clouds 雲龍図屏é¢Ø ļ¼ˆå·¦éš»ļ¼‰and Seitei kachō gafu ēœäŗ­čŠ±é³„ē”»č­œ
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DESIGN
Also clarified in an ask on her main blog, Comyet describes that traditional Japanese clothing inspired Ink's 2020 outift redesing, such inspirations are very obvious in first and second analysis.
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Ink!sans reference sheets for the 2020 design, which can be found in Ink's official F.A.Q
Starting off, the pants.
Ink's pants were inspired by Hakama pants (č¢“), a traditional Japanese garment designed as a skirt-like pants often worn over any type of kimono. His pants seems to be inspired by umanoriĀ (é¦¬ä¹—ć‚Š)Hakamas, whose had a division in the middle and often used in horse-riding activities.
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Example of a Hakama.
The Hakama is a wide pleated pants (seven pleats, five in front and two behind), with a rigid backrest (腰 ęæ,koshi ita) placed at the level of the lumbar region. It is tightened with four straps, on the left and on the right, as well in front as behind.
Historically,Ā the origins of the HakamaĀ datesĀ back to the Sui and Tan dynastyĀ were thisĀ garment wasĀ worn by the Chinese imperial court. Later, the Hakama exported itself to Japan during the Kamakura period (1185 to 1332) and became a traditional garment for the upper classes of Japanese society as well as forĀ samuraiĀ warriors who wore it over a kimono (Hakama-shita).
During the history of Japan, the Hakama took on different styles and was mainly madeĀ for men, although in the beginning it was a unisex garment. During the Asuka and Nara era (6th to 8th century), the Hakama came in two versions. The first oneĀ was open on the front and was tied on each side of the waist with two straps. The second one was open on the left side and closed on one side only.
During the Edo period, the Hakama was worn by the nobles as a complement to the outfits of the time such as theĀ noshiĀ and theĀ kariginuĀ (ē‹©č”£; a sleeveless jacket with very pronounced shoulders). Very functional, these pants were also adopted by samurai warriors who usually wore them asĀ Kamishimo (äøŠäø‹/č£ƒ). It is a combination of kimono, Hakama andĀ kataginu. When the warrior visited the shōgun, he wore a Hakama calledĀ naga-bakamaĀ which greatly restricted his movements.
Edit:Currently, hakamas are both worn by men and women.
However, under the scarft, Ink also seems to use a jacket that features a collar that has striking similarities to a Mandarin collar (or Mao collar)
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Ink!sans reference sheets for the 2020 design, which can be found in Ink's official F.A.Q
Mandarin collars originated in ancient China and were worn Ā by Qing-era bureaucrats.
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Picture of a Chinese man in a traditional Mandarin collar (early 1900's)
These are short, stand-up collars and sometimes fasten in the center with a small hook. Such collars are still used today for both fashionable and practical reasons. One example of modern usaged of the clothing is seen in the U.S Amry combat uniform, that features a stand-up collar of Chinese origin.
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Picture of the U.S Army combat clothing
Regarding of color palette, Ink!Sans redesign uses soft but dull colors and a sinple silhouette and fabric for the outift, such design choises are similar to male kimono's dressing codes which uses dull colors (like dark blue, grey, green and occasionaly brown). Male kimonos are always more simple in design compared to female kimonos.
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Photo that shows the difference of kimonos used by men and women
Although not specified, Ink seems to wear brown thigh-high socks, also known as 'tights' under the outfit. Japan has a long-standing cultural tradition of wearing such piece of clothing, this trend is particularly popular among young people and is often associated with the "gyaru" subculture, which emphasizes fashion, beauty, and individuality. Additionally, thigh-high socks are often worn with school uniforms, and are considered a symbol of youth and innocence. Additionally, it is also considered fashionable and trendy in Japan, and you can see many young people wearing them.
In regards of physical appearance, Ink also seems to follow ancient Japanese and Chinese beauty standarts, specially one's targeted towards women.
In ancient japan, specially towards the Nara (儈č‰Æę™‚ä»£, Nara jidai), Heian (å¹³å®‰ę™‚ä»£,Ā Heian jidai) and Edo period (ę±Ÿęˆøę™‚ä»£, Edo jidai) the beauty standarts for Japanese women were of those with slim eyebrowns, flat oval face shape and narrowed eyes.
Such attributes can be observed on Ink!Sans apperance.
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Visual representation of old Japanese beauty standarts
/Keep in mind that some of such standarts presented are now out of fashion due to the westernization of asian countries. Specially regarding eye shape/
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MUSICAL THEMES
Ink!Sans has a long history of being associated with East Asian music, specially those of Japanese origin.
Themes that comyet associated with him includes, 'Code Wu- Asia River Album ę±Ÿę°“/Asia River' ( post can be found here), 'Dullahan under the willows' and 'Futatsuiwa from Sado (äŗŒćƒ„å²©ć§ä½ęø”) both from the japanese game 'Touhou'. (post can also be found here.
He's also associated with East Asian musical instruments, something quite noticeable in Ink!Sans theme for the the web-series 'Underverse'. Such theme is called 'Brushwork'.
The theme starts with an instrument similar to a Shamisen (Japanese-äø‰å‘³ē·š) and a Guzhen (Chinese-古ē­) and also uses a traditional flute.
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Photo of a Guzhen and a Shamisen, respectively
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TRIVIA
On Underverse's opening for season 2, Ink!Sans can be seem between a field of Sakura trees or Cherry Blossoms (ę”œ).
Cherry blossom trees are anĀ iconĀ of Japan. Some people even call the cherry blossom Japanā€™s informal national flower. The Japanese school year starts in April, during cherry blossom season. The flowersĀ symbolizeĀ goodĀ luck, love, and springtime. Since they bloom for such a short time, cherry blossom trees also represent humanĀ mortality. They remind us how short and precious life is.
In the same series, Ink is also drawn in a Sumi-e inspired style for the 'Soulless Heart Instrumental' video. Such artwork features Japanese writing in black ink.
Ink's canon instrument is the flute. Although invented in ancient germany, the flute is highly associated with East Asian cultures and it's music, chinese and japanese culture are the main ones . Other than that, Comyet already made a connection to Ink's asian influence and the instrument itself.
According to research made by the University Microfilms International (UMI) affirms that the moderny performance and melody of the instruments has clear East Asian roots, mainly from Chinese and Japanese style of music.
'The flute is a particularly appropriate instrument for such a
study because of its versatility of pitch and timbre, the latter being
one of the most important elements in Eastern music; it is capable of
'pitch-bending' and infinite changes in tone quality which are impossible
to achieve on instruments of set pitch.
The flute music selected for stud/ shows varying degrees of Eastern
influence. Depending on the nature of the composition, the Eastern
elements may be extremely subtle and difficult for the untrained to
decipher; in other instances the composer makes clear those sounds or
concepts with Eastern roots, either through accompanying explanation or
within the context of the music.'
Sources
1.National Museum of asian art (materials & techniques. Ink section)
2. Asian Brushpaper (an-overview-of-chinese-ink-history)
3. Wikipedia (wiki Hakama-pants)
4. Aikido Journal (Hakama-101)
5. Wikipedia (Mandarin-collar)
6. Kirrin finch (What-is-a-mandarin-collar)
7. University Microfilms International (UMI) (east-asian-presence-in-modern-flute-music)
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