#i haven't made as many designs or illustrations as i'd have liked this year because i've been at SO many cons omg 😭😭😭

[peachcott]

[ store ] 🌱 august update ❥ new:     ↳ link (totk) charm + prints     ↳ "lovely" + "bunny" sticker sheets! ❥ restocking all charms/stickers/sticker sheets/prints! 🌱pre order 🌱 ‪peachcott.bigcartel.com‬

everything is expected to ship in late sep or early nov, and i ship worldwide excl. germany!

use code GOODMORNING for 10% off during the first week (til august 18th) :D

[bigfrozenfan]

10-year-old mystery finally solved

One of the biggest riddles of Disney Frozen is how the choir gets up to the gallery. Nowhere in the movie is an entrance to the gallery or an access of any kind to be seen. All we see during Elsa's coronation scene is a completely open construction of the chapel, but there are twelve singers above the altar. How do they get there? Many fans have wondered how this is possible for ten years of Frozen's existence and everyone has puzzled over it. Even in books and comics, not a single clue is given and, stupidly, nowhere can you see the back of the chapel, i.e. from the west. Not even in Mindcraft designs is this side more clearly visible, which proves that the fans have no idea. However, there is Disney concept art and two, almost identical books about Arendelle Castle. The latter is clearly intended for children, but even there you can see the beginnings of a solution to the problem.

I myself was at a loss until yesterday, when I suddenly realised something while downloading screenshots and concept art. And tada!, suddenly everything was completely simple and logical. I could hardly believe it. You're probably asking yourselves now, "So how does that work? I don't believe anything without proof!" No problem. Let's go!

But first I'd like to show you my initial approach - until it turned out to be rubbish and couldn't work at all because of the open construction, no matter how you twist and turn it. Maybe you've already got there yourself.

Then I looked at the concept art of the chapel from the outside and the floor plan. Suddenly everything was clear to me and it made perfect sense. The only thing that didn't quite fit is the illustration in the book "All Around Arendelle" and the almost identical book "A Frozen World". There, the lower windows of the chapel are not shown, which can be seen in the concept art and round off the picture - also to the original model, St Olaf Church! But hey, it's a children's book and, in my opinion, the only incorrect depiction of the actual situation.

Here is the final proof:

Some side thoughts:

it makes no sense whatsoever to see a ladder or stairs in the church. It also makes no sense for something like this to be brought in from outside before every service.

a permanently installed staircase, but invisible to churchgoers, makes much more sense. But it must be easily accessible for the choir singers who a) want to rehearse independently of church services and b) do not enter the chapel at the same time as churchgoers. They arrive in their everyday clothes perhaps half an hour early and only need to put on their robes, which are c) always ready for them in a locked room behind the altar.

The entrance is well hidden behind the altar screen, and it is very likely that this door is even wallpapered in the style of the immediate surroundings, so it can withstand a casual glance from a curious person. In the room behind it, there is either a ladder to the gallery or - more likely - a permanently installed, narrow staircase leading to a hatch in the gallery. The singers' robes are always hanging ready for changing and the hatch at the top is there so that none of the singers accidentally tumble down the steps when closed. The stained glass windows around the small room also let in enough light for the singers to get changed in daylight without being seen, to talk face to face before the service and to get into the right mood with the coloured light from this type of window. There is another good reason for having a room separate from the church. The pastor or bishop can prepare there in peace, store things for the sermon and talk to the choristers undisturbed. I'm sure there are other reasons for such a room that I just can't think of right now, but you can certainly think of them yourselves.

This is how it would look like if the tapestry wall wouldn't be there:

PS: the only thing I haven't been able to solve yet is how to get up into the bell tower. There is a staircase that leads nowhere and no rope to ring the bell. Very strange… But on the real model, St Olaf's Church in Norway, you can see a ladder leading up to the bell tower.

Credits to: Art of Animation for the concept art images, and to GETTY images, David Nikel (for Forbes), Visitnorway.com for the images of St. Olaf Church in Balestrand, Norway.

Here are a few more pictures of St Olaf's Church in Balestrand, Norway, for those of you who are interested:

UPDATE 04/2024:

I stumbled upon a screencap from Frozen Fever where you can clearly see the rear left side of the chapel. And there are windows to be seen! I would say: because it's not only a part of the concept art but is seen in the Frozen Fever short too, my theory is confirmed now.

[crow-girl-cock]

Hai :7

I love you!

yes you!

click this.

now for introduction.

my name is Renée Corbeau

but you can call me ren or crow

I love crows! they feel like family to me and I hope next cycle I get to experience the life of a crow.

I have gone through alot in life and fancy myself some sort of activist by proxy of that pain, am I perfect? fuck no! I am still learning and probably operate under toxic bias still despite all the effort I have put into growth.

I'm adhd, autistic, anxious, depressive, dissociative, probably some degree of plurality.

I'm a gender non-conforming transwoman, definitely puppy coded, and severely down bad for women, especially butch women!

that being said the human body is beautiful. especially fat bodies, I'm a sucker for meat :3

all my guys, gals, and non binary pals deserve kisses (assuming that they want them)

I love gender fuckery, people who actively blur those lines are doing the lords work.

despite being very friendly and appearing slightly outgoing sometimes, I am very shy and dont have a very large social battery.

if I ever dont respond dont take it personally there are loads of reasons why this could be.

U⁠^ᴥ^⁠U U⁠^ᴥ^⁠U U⁠^ᴥ^⁠U

I am kind of a red mage when it comes to special interests, I know a little bit about alot.

(all lists are not ordered and not exhaustive)

some examples include;

from gaming~ pokemon, zelda, elderscrolls, darksouls, minecraft, osu!, space sims (elite dangerous, astroneer, dyson sphere project, hardspaceshipbreaker), roguelikes (noita, deadcells, gungeon, vagante, slaythespire)

from other media~ pokemon again, bluey, adventure time, atla, bee and puppycat, studio ghibli (nausicaa is goat), csm, bleach, dragonball, naruto, she-ra, dungeon meshi

from *gasps* real life~

space (and metaphysics), nature (it's peculiarities and the many funky adorable little guys born in it) I'm definitely a poser but skateboarding and rollerskating (I really want to get into rollerderby) philosophy (to the extent that any skid is);

History!

(not as well read as I would like because there is so much of it, and so much of the truth is buried under misinformation, but I have deconstructed the whole western myth of how things went and painted myself a much clearer picture as to how things got so bad and am learning new things about the world all the time, please feel free to info dump about anything history related I'd love to hear it. anthropology and archaeology too obvs)

Art!

(this is my chosen field for better or worse >⁠.⁠< I am going to college for web and graphic design (2024-2026) I might extend that an extra 2 years to make it a bachelor of design and hope to one day make graphic novels, beautifully illustrated with deep thought provoking stories)

໒꒰ྀིっ˕ -｡꒱ྀི১ ૮꒰՞⸝⸝- ༝ -⸝⸝꒱ა ໒꒰՞⸝⸝. ̫ .ܸ⸝⸝ ꒱ა

Kink! (definitely subject to change)

petplay, musk, intox, bondage, impact, cnc, degradation, somno, hypno, blood, knives, size difference probably more I haven't thought of

I'm poly and very t4t

I'm a switch but this hellsite has been steadily turning me into a bottom day by day heheh

but no actually

I used to be a hypersexual dom pre-transition

but E has made me alot less uncontrollably horny and far more sensitive and inclined to seek vulnerability, all my drive to dom has dissolved

also I suck at tagging and will sometimes will reblog art/random things from tags without checking bios

if that upsets you or makes you uncomfortable please see the block button for more info ;3c

.♡. .♡. .♡.

anyways since you made it this far

here have some headpats

spread kindness please and thank you ^v^

As above, So below.

Hai :7

I love you!

yes you!

[awkwardosthe3rd]

oh wow so glad to see you have a tumblr! your art is amazing and i was wondering if you could tell us a bit about your oc ipos? she has to be my favorite design of yours but how did she die? was she a werebear before or is that recent? if she's a hollow one is she trying to get her soul back? :0 sry if that's too many questions!

Ohh I'm so glad you like her! She was my first DnD character, so her story is a little lackluster tbh. I by far didn't think I'd stick to DnD as long as I did, but here we are--

also, exciting since... I haven't actually gotten to write more in-depth responses in a while, having used Twitter for a good while.

Basically, I went the vampire route, she was born human, and she chugged some bear gods blood when she was young because she was a big bug fan growing up, and thought that it would give her the ability to speak with them, due to being the only other person she knew growing up being rather reluctant to talk much. (I keep forgetting how simple and silly her reason was to do this)

The blood itself didn't quite "kick in" and she just assumed it failed and moved on, but when she was killed later by the person she lived with (who went vampire apeshit, which is why she got the bitemarks), she came back in the hybrid form (according to DM 1500 years later-) and now seems to be in somewhat of a symbiotic relationship.

This was at least the layout I gave the DM, but at this point, I'm not sure how true some of this information is anymore.

Some stuff the creature she merged with stated, seemed to relate to the remains of a dying/dead god that is trying to get away from its original body, due to the original body it came from being corrupted by something fiendish, seemingly trapped in some dark cavern...

Atm, I got a bit of a theory that her shift might actually be a genetic thing, but I haven't quite gotten the full conclusion of all that yet. Basically recently she saw her (supposedly) father in a painting, however, he had his eyes closed... which could either serve as a hint or a false bait laid out by the Dungeon Master.

Idk too much on the state of her soul atm :'0 but I remember the DM referring to her soul being rather the opposite to gone, but possibly rather resilient instead. So no idea tbh.

As well as some pieces made to illustrate the "mindscape" or visions that basically displayed her and the being she is merged with interacting.

Additionally, there is this piece done by @rema-rin which I rather like for it as well-

[d4rm4nd4]

How do you as an artist feel about AI generated art? I’ve seen so much of it lately on here and twitter and IG and I feel like it’s a dangerous thing.

Hey nonnie! Thanks for the nice question. Short answer is: no, I'm not worried abt it in the slightest and neither should you💜

Here comes the long answer. Please bear with me and allow me to use some irl examples. Short disclaimer: I'm in no way a market expert or career couch and this is my personal opinion and observations.

When years ago I was entering Foreign Languages faculty, all the internet gurus and influencers were screaming that learning languages as a main occupation is useless and soon machines gonna translate everything for us. Now, much time later, phrases like "did you do it with Google translate" became a swear, derogatory term among translators and related specialities.

Have automated AI translation programs became important part of the workflow now? Indeed, but they didn't manage to steal the work from real people. The results still need heavy proofreading, checking and etc, not even mentioning things like poetry that mostly needs manual translation, and person doing this job still needs to be perfectly fluent in the language. AI still haven't "conquered" the market and pushed human element out, but became an optimization tool.

Now many web designers and clout chasers saying all the artists will be left without work because of AI art, blowing things out of proportion to get more attention (surefire ways to attract people online - fear, hate, lust, cute baby animals).

Some of the AI generated results are pretty impressive. MidJourney kicks absolute butt when it comes to complicated backgrounds, Dall-E 2 perfectly gets all the keywords from request, and there's a new one - based off Octane Render that specifies on realistic lighting - coming out in New Year which I'm extremely excited about.

But the resulting pictures STILL need extra work put on top of them. It may impress people online at the very beginning as a fun toy to test each own's "artistic abilities", but companies and people with taste still would need professionals to work with those AI results same way translation market did. Because those programs cannot trick human eye yet. Our brains still can perceive repetitive patterns in those gorgeous AI backgrounds, and human faces made in My Heritage still have uncanny valley effect because they're eerily symmetrical. Or remember that Twitter drama where anime AI program drew girl with 6 fingers and poor OP didn't notice that?

AI doesn't understand emotions, symbolism, storytelling and many other important art things. Yes, it will generate catchy icons for phone apps like no problem and junior artists in big enterprises like Tencent would have to learn something else. But I don't see AI creating storyboards, comic, movie concepts, complicated portrait paintings/illustrations and animation fully without human involvement any time soon. I don't even mention complicated 3D render with textures for character concepts.

AI makes a wonderful tool to save time or do the work that you don't like to do. So I'd rather try to benefit from it. Here's an example of work made with MidJourney, it was fast and I had tons of fun. IMO the key is staying up-to-date, working on one's unique style, skills and nurturing your visual library - no AI would ever compare to a human mind 😄 sorry if answer was too detailed but I hope you found something useful in it!

Nice vid on it:

[illusioncanthurtme]

Ooh this is a perfect opportunity for me to rant about my life experiences thus far!

I have been doing comms for the past few years since I've graduated, because I need money, etc. And as much as I LOVE every person who's commissioned me, (seriously, super grateful that people like my work enough to pay me to make them something) unfortunately, this is ALL I've done. I made the same mistake multiple times of taking far too many comms at once, and then working for months at a time to finish said comms. How did this affect me? Well first of all, it sucked out any time for working on personal projects. I have passions other than traditional illustration: I want to animate, practice character design, make prints. But I couldn't do any of that because at any given time, there was a time crunch to get people their drawings. And my everyday became sitting in the same corner of the same table, drawing with the same technique. I'm essentially a shut in at this point. Doing something like that with no variation is like a depression speedrun.

SO - recently I've closed comms. And I've pretty much vowed to myself to find another way to make money as an artist. For me, that means focusing on making silly little products and selling them at conventions (prints, stickers, zines). HUMAN INTERACTION - that's fucking important and a big reason why this is something I'm interested in.

And although I agree with op, im also interested in applying to industry stuff. I just never had time (what with all the comms and stuff) to actually focus on making a real portfolio. And instead of looking at the full picture of my life thus far, I'd find me kicking myself like "why haven't you applied to industry jobs?? What's wrong with you?? It's been so long since you've graduated!" As if at any given point I didn't have a mountain of drawings to make for very kind people who gave me their money. And that's a very stressful and hard place to be in.

I wasn't expecting to type all this (I just woke up) but this post was so relevant to me. In summary: if you're an artist looking to make money, heed my warning, do NOT rely solely on commissions. It is no way to live, and it is not sustainable over a long period of time. Find some other outlet to put your creative juices into, and it's a big bonus if it gets you interacting with people face to face.

I think at some point in time we need to sit down and start explaining to artist who want to make a career out of art that there are FAR more options than just "living off of commissions" and "posting my art online and praying I get paid for it".

[md3artjournal]

Guess I should check in. I haven't made art in such a long time, it seems. I was already off my daily drawing practice. I didn't do half or most of MerMay.

Failed to stay on Creatury---AGAIN. I really thought I had it this time. I should have done another January of daily flower sketches.

Skipped Faebruary. I don't know why. It's one of my favorite monthly challenges. I get to draw flowers, tiny chibi, butterfly wings, and my OTPs. I don't know what happened. I think it was just my overall drop off of daily drawing practice. ;_;

March should have been Magical March. Every year I gather up costume design reference, and I say I'll draw Magical Boys to go with Magical Girls. But I'm usually burnt out from Faebruary. I really should have been able to do it this year, since I skipped Faebruary this year. I drew ONE random maho shojo OC. That's it. x_x;

April is supposed to be my own challenge that I made up: "AprilAngelsAndDemons". And it worked out well for me in 2020…But I haven't been able to bring it back since. x_x

MerMay is one of my favorite challenges. It's pretty a well-known challenge, so there's a lot of exposure, so a lot of encouragements. Plus, I don't have to draw clothes or the entire bottom half of the body. ^^ Bonus: I love drawing wavy, flowy lines, so fish tails and fish fins really work for me too. ^-^ …But I only did part of the challenge. ;; My May got taken over by some depression, and drawing cards for Mother's Day AND my mom's birthday.

June was supposed to be another one of my made-up monthly drawing challenges: JuneBridesGrooms. But I haven't done it since 2021. x_x; That was a really good challenge for me. I don't know why I haven't kept it up. ;.; But this year, I know. May 2023 got taken over by that photography contest with unlimited entries, and I think I took some days to recover from that. Still, it couldn't have been that many days. And then I had to draw my dad's Father's Day card, though that didn't take more than 2 days. And I'll still trying to continue that MerMay2023 DMCL fancomic I started last month.

Maybe I'm just burnt out. And I know I have a hard time getting back into drawing, if I don't keep it up frequently. That's why I always take on those monthly drawing challenges and try to draw every single day. But lately…I've just been letting it slide. Tired. Needed several days to do laundry. Writing too many nonsense journal posts and random Tumblr posts; fandom type analysises that I don't even post, half the time. Maybe I'm just tired.

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting more serious about returning to cons or at least finally opening an online shop. I've let the online shop ideas get postponed, because I was too busy, constantly restocking for convention tables. The pandemic let me slow down and reassess, but that just left me staring in the face, the intimidating prospect of online sales. Years, I've followed artists and read their posts about horrible customers. I've got too much social anxiety for this. So when I recently heard about "print on demand" services, I thought this would be perfect for me. But now I'm hearing it's called "dropshipping" and has a bad reputation? I feel like I can't win. I can't even figure out what name to rebrand to. Because that would require knowing how to summarize my art style and what I want to do. But all the commonalities in my illustration style, are unflattering. All my best work is flat, 2D, and monochrome, but that's not exactly the best impression. Maybe it got me dwelling too much on how I don't know how to describe my style. But more likely, I'd get disheartened, looking through my Archives, to give me ideas for what name best fits my rebrand…and be reminded how badly I draw. I can't compete with the competition. I can't even get the guts to order stickers of my art. x___x;;;;;;;;; My best art is photography and sculpture. But my photography can't compete with most other figure photographers. My 2 figure photography contest wins don't really count for anything when you see how objectively worse, even my winning photos were, compared to most others'. And I've ruined my reputation with sculpture. I'm beginning to think I've been buying weak, non-durable, polymer clay all this time. I've always had to worry about it breaking during shipping/travel, people shittalk my work's resiliency, while passing by my convention tables, and people just expect it to be as strong as some cheap Walmart industrial-plastic trinkets. I don't want to deal with more problems with materials/packaging, making more customers mad at me. Just that one incident completely ruined my ability to sculpt for my business ever again…even though it may be my best medium. I cannot deal with conflict on any kind of level. …So that's made me wonder if I should give up on art, and return to some office job. I know I heard getting a job is nearly impossible these days, especially since I don't have the basic socializing skills that are usually expected. But maybe I'd be better off if my art is just a hobby. No more worrying about competition, and not measuring up. …But I decided a long time ago, during my last office job, that if I wanted to stop feeling suicidal, even though I had all the money and medical benefits that everyone said I needed to be happy, I needed to make art my job. I was too tired after office days to do any art as a hobby. And without it, I was getting more and more, inexplicably self-destructive. I may be too lazy to really study illustration and improve, but I need to do art as my career. If my job takes up all my time, and I'm too tired in my downtime to do art, but I need art to be sane/happy, then making art my job was my only logical conclusion. …But I'm so bad at it! x________x;;;;;;;;;;;;; Even aside from my quality, I just don't have the guts to even open an online shop or take commissions. I've avoided the stress of it so much, that I don't even know where to start---Well, I know where to get the information about where to start. I've subscribed to a lot of independent small business artists on social media, who talk about all their business stuff. But I still avoid actually reading or listening to their videos…because it's all too overwhelming. More and more, I think I'm not cut out for this small business artist thing. But at the same time, I don't see anywhere else for myself.

Well, that sounds like an artist block, if I ever heard one. I guess that's why I haven't been drawing daily lately.

People say that drawing every single day is unnecessary, or even bad for you. But it works for me. It more than works for me. I NEED it. Not just because my drawing muscles instantly atrophy as soon as I stop practicing. But I also really enjoy drawing everyday. I need that feeling of accomplishment everyday. Even when I draw badly, compared to the competition in artist alley, it just feels so good to have been able to make something, and additionally be so much better than past me. Past me couldn't draw what was in my head this easily or this quickly! I feel so proud of myself after I manage to finish drawing. But then a day or 2 later, or when I have to think about which illustration to pick, to become merch in artist alley, I just fall apart.

I don't know what I'm doing.

Also, my best art isn't actually photography, sculpture, or even jewelry or printmaking. (And my storyboarding has gone to hell, since I stopped reading manga daily.) It was always writing. I'm bad at it now. I haven't been confident in writing narrative stories in years. And maybe most of what I write lately is just journaling and fandom analysis essays, that I'm too afraid to un-Private on Tumblr. But people have been telling me for years that my writing is good, I've repeatedly seen my writing get me out of situations through its effectiveness, and I know what it feels like to work hard at a craft and really enjoy the WORKING HARD at it. And I enjoy working hard at writing. I think that actually ENJOYING the "working hard" part is a big sign that it might be what I should be doing. But I've completely let this skill atrophy. x_x I've thought about maybe submitting essays for publication as articles anyway. But I just don't have to confidence to put my real name on anything public. Especially something as incendiary as writing. I could write an opinion piece about how much I love chocolate ice cream, and the trolls would come out of no where to tear me into pieces. I don't think my social anxiety would let life be tolerable with that.

Maybe that's why I just keep ping-pong'ing myself in limbo, doing nothing.

[bunn--y]

I've been watching Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette. Ie, the World Masterpiece Theatre version of Les Mis. I probably wouldn't have given it a chance if it wasn't for the fact that it is WMT since seeing Cosette as the main character wasn't something I was looking forward to. I should also note before continuing that my attempts to read the book have only got around 20 or so pages in. I might try an audiobook at some point.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this anime version. I'm currently midway through episode 21 and it's interesting. The censoring for kids is well done. Usually I prefer laugh at badly done censorship but there is something of value here. There's certainly a debate to be had on if it is right to censor Les Miserables if it is to be shown, but right now I'm not really interested in that.

I'm more into just collecting some random little thoughts than anything else.

Sister Samplice feels like an anime original and I was surprised to found out that she's from the book. Chou Chou would have been a bigger surprise but no, he's as much of an anime original as he looks like.

Cosette is very much the sort of moe character who I don't like, but there are a few things that I like so far. I like the fact that we see clear cut signs of PTSD from her abuse from the Thénardiers. I have a vague memory of reading once that she doesn't in the book. Considering that even decades after the book was published it was believed that child abuse couldn't lead to PTSD, I find that believable, though i have not been able to find the source that she didn't again. I also like that more focus (in comparison to the musical) is put on her relationship with Jean Valjean. This does allow the annoying parts of her moe characterisation to at least have justification. I should note that according to all sources, they didn't change how moe she was... though I doubt that her riding a dog was in the books. But that was genuinely cute (because she's an anime girl and hence won't break the dog's back) so I count it as the third thing that I liked.

I suppose I'd better address the elephant in the room. I dislike the character designs. I want to like them, especially when I checked out the book illustrations and found them to be quite cartoony too. For the most part individually I have no issues with them. However, when put together, there's too much of a 'beauty equals goodness' feel for me to like them. It's particularly annoying since The Book has a good sense of creating morally complicated characters. Javert has always fit into the idea of a anime villain even though he predates anime by so many years. Seeing him made out to look so obviously like a villain was disappointing.

A few months ago I came across a video on how Avatar The Last Airbender isn't popular in Japan and China due to existing in an uncanny valley but culturally rather than aesthetically. I feel something similar with this series, which is odd because it's often with things that I've been impressed with WMT for portraying well before like Christianity. I don't know how much of this is due to it being an anime and how much is due to it talking about catholicism when I'm used to protestant conversations. There's a lot of little bits though that just feel really off.

You know how I said this is censored and in this case, I'm amused by it though it's done well. I'm going to explain that now. It's things like Fantine not becoming a prostitute so she has instead work really unpleasant jobs, including one with dead fish bones. There's more of a focus on her feeling that she can't trust anyone and we get to watch her homelessness and abuse get to her. Again I'm comparing to the musical and not the book here, but I did enjoy that she got to attack those two men who attack her. (They put snow down her back). Yeah, let the abuse effect her, please. This censorship is well done since it's taking elements that kids haven't had the experience to understand and turns them into ones that kids do. While as an adult, I'm like 'fish bones and selling your body are two very different things' on a level of 'this is a gross thing to feel forced to do for money' it is a stronger idea for kids. Kids aren't supposed to know about sex on the level of understanding how sex work could effect Fantine and most of them wouldn't. At best they might understand that this makes her hard to employ, but she is already a begger on the streets just for having a daughter, so what difference does it make? As an adult who tries to understand children, it could even be argued that this is a stronger way of showing the sexism of the time.

That said, I'm hoping that the kids who grew up with this version went on to either the book or more adult adaptations.

There is another type of change that was made that I actually have a more solid ground on my feelings on. For anyone reading who isn't familiar with WMT they tend to do three things with their adaptions: make them slow, keep as much of the depressing stuff as possible even adding stuff sometimes and make them beautiful. So it wasn't a surprised that this is a slow adaptation. It also wasn't a surprise that there's a lot of focus on the abuse Cosette and Gavroche go through form the Thénardiers. WMT likes to focus on child abuse and not necessarily in a good way. It can often be guilt tripping in the attitude of 'look at what this child goes through and they're not making a fuss'. From what I have seen of this adaptation so far, this attitude is not here. In fact, the show goes out of its way to show that there are good people in the world who will look out for abused children. When Cosette goes off with Jean Valjean, we get to find out that the blacksmith and his wife who took Gavroche on for work is kind so we don't need to worry about him having to stay with the Thénardiers. Another example is discovering that the anime original character Alain is going to be taking over as mayor in the city that Jean Valjean had helped as mayor for so many years. This lighter and softer feel really stresses the hopeful nature of the story without undermining the sadness that it is also very important.

The thing that I like about these more hopeful additions is that they're small. From what I've read spoiler wise, the show still keeps a lot of the character deaths and has already kept Fantine's. As much as I think that doing a kid's version of les mis is interesting and that toning down some aspects is understandable in this instance, I would like to as a les mis fan see as much of the story kept as possible. As a WMT fan though I'm happy that they are showing restraint.

I imagine that I'll have a lot more to say once I finish the series. Especially considering the changes to some of the character deaths I've read about. One of the spoilers I'm already having real concerns about a big one involving an adult character.

[mirukimary-artarchive]

"Mary's 2021 Summary of Art" - Published: Dec 31, 2021

(Warning: This is going to be a wall of text.)

January in January i was asked by a friend "Hey, i wanna learn how to make Live2D models. Wanna join?" At first i thought i couldn't do it, but in the end decided "Why not?". That's the mindset i wanted to carry through the year. Pictured is the result. I've been asked to try and complete said model, so next January will be fun! This month i also took part in a FFXIV tag on twitter, where we made fake screenshots for a dating sim. That's where i decided i wanted to try and work on a visual novel, at least once. It has always been one of my dreams after all!

February ...And so i jumped on the lemmasoft forums to look for work. Found a person making a cute little self-love tale for the Valentines Jam and figured it was a good idea to give it a try. It was so much fun. Took the challenge as far as i could, and i'm still really proud of being part of this! Still not sure if game art is for me, but felt great to finally give my dream a try. If you take anything from this text wall, let it be "Wanna do something new with your art? Try it out!"

March I think it's around this time we started playing our TTRPG game (Asera)? Ok i forget when we started, but this was the month i sat down and designed my little thief (Layla) and my boyfriend's fighter (Daimyorus). Also made designs for Layla's family. It was a rather busy month (character design is time consuming!), but nothing really 'wow' to show off for it.

April This month i drew some memes for Asera, and sketched a bunch of illustration ideas... That are still sitting there, unfinished. You see, this same month i got accepted into my first zine ever, as a merch artist! Trying new things continued to pay off~ I got stickers done from sketch to flat colors around this time.

May Finished the sticker sheet for the zine (pictured), then proceeded to take...around a week on the phone wallpapers. I restarted it so many times before... When the idea finally clicked i stayed up till 4am drawing >>;;; I was terrified I'd miss the deadline, and had an apology letter on the back of my mind the whole time LOL Thankfully, it worked out and they were delivered in time. Sadly had to skip Mermay because i was busy with miscellaneous projects (only drew 1 mermaid for it, which I wanna redraw someday). Started making little chibi faces for my OCs so i could have a catalog... Which is an idea I wanna revisit later. Having a good reference of everyone would be really nice! (...even if i never do anything with them lol)

June Asera bug bit me again, and i spent a while making chibis for our characters. Also made chibis for NPCs. Designed more NPCs. Designed some of our weapons. For work, got commissioned by a VTuber to draw them and their pet (pictured). Technically finished on July3, but worked on it most in this month so eh LOL

July I made an off-hand comment about working on commissions a month or two before, then on July my friend approached me like "Hey, so you said you're doing comms... Can I get one too?" I had! So much fun! This is also the first time i recorded my drawing process (i do have plans on making a youtube channel eventually). It made me realize i... Take a bit too long. This one was 36hs. That's a bit much LOL But hey, i'm proud of it and both friend&his girlfriend like it, so 100% worth!

August Another busy month, drew some twitch screens for a friend, updated an old drawing (xmas chibis), filled some ff14 memes, experimented with a more sketchy style so i can have a faster type of drawing (...why didn't i post it?) Pictured is the bday gift i made for my boyfriend. Still haven't posted it here, but it's on my stash somewhere >>; It's filled with love!! Maybe that's why I'm still proud of it.

September Made the final twitch screen (pictured), and designed more outfits for Asera (fashion design is indeed my passion). Cleaned up twitter and started working on a TOS so i can maybe open commissions soon... Speaking of commissions, this is when i drew the Dauntless illustration. Nature BGs are my favorite thing ever!

October A very busy month. Worked on commissions (all 6 of the characters O_O) + bunny boy for the EW countdown. The original sketch for the commissions was.....interesting....idk how that got approved LOL But the final result is something I'm very proud of! For the rest, drew more sketches and outfit designs for Asera, plus a chibi sketch to commemorate EW's release (bf's wol and mine ON THE MOON)... Having no idea it would be delayed very soon LOL

November Got into a bit of an art block, which was broken by... Asera characters as Animal Crossing villagers!! Why are drawing memes/challenges the best thing ever?? After that, i managed to start working on a commission my sister asked. Drew all of her students and their favorite toys. They're all so friggin adorable ;_; Was stressful, yes, but also a great experience. Also i think this was my first time drawing real people? Well, my first time doing that for a commission at least!

December Sadly another art-block month. Made yet another Asera sketch (bc i don't have enough of these!), and twitch badges/emotes for ADigitalKing (pictured, also sorry for the hideous watermark, but they paid for it ok TT). Currently working on twitch emotes for my friend, but struggling to have them on a quality level i'm comfortable releasing.

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Phew, what a year! My journey for a year where i have finished art to post on every month continues, but i'm proud of how much closer i got this time. Also got to try so many new things too! Overall, a good year.

Onwards to 2022!

[sueandoc]

My message to Himeno-san

Dear Himeno-san,

I'm Sue from China, who has been a little fan of you for two years☺️I appreciate all of your fantastic works about the Iberian family! I'd love to send you many thanks for your fascinating-designed original characters, especially your Castillia, Aragon, Catalonia and Andalusia❤️

        Not only your characters, but also your long stories astonished me very much. I first got to know you from your most laborious work: “Romano and Armada” Your unique interpretation of Armada Spain during the Age of Discovery in 16th Century, it's so great that even make me unable to express my feeling properly......_(:з」∠)_

        My best friend and I are both very keen on historical and cultural knowledges, also we like the form of personalizing countries or regions. Because of this, we love to discuss some particular periods in history together with some of your nice works! （We can understand your story in a hazy way by your illustration and some kanjis）

        My friend says she loves your character design of Aragon! Also she speaks highly of your various interpretation of Spain. She considers your early work "Story of Andalusia" to be a very ingenious conception and a pretty nice example of personalization! Our favourite elements can always appear in your drawings, and we feel very happy to see so.

        Anyway I really love your drawings/doodles and your long/short comics. It's excellent that you've got such a skill of reading and understanding history, then interpreting it through your very nice and styled ways.

        Himeno-san, I'm feeling really eager to get in touch with you now, because you haven't posted anything new on Pixiv for a very long time, and seemingly you have quitted the community as well as giving up your creation of Iberian family characters? Oh no, please don't do so! There are always many enthusiastists of your art, looking forward to your new post（especially the rest of “Romano and Armada”! We all desire to know the ending of this amazing story!）and calling you back, like me

_(:з」∠)_

        Could you please check out my following request? Among all your Iberian original characters, I found that I've developed a special passion of Miss. Catalonia......However, I think there's a tiny flaw of her design: It's too rare for a Catalan to have such Germanic/Nordic blonde hair together with blue eyes��From this point, I took reference from your Miss. Catalonia, mainly her hair style and the relationship with Aragon, Valencia and Spain, then I made my version of Catalonia.

        Here's my design text for her with a drawing (They're yet to be modified)

♀ - Mireia Montserrat Vallvé i Rossell

♂ - Jaume Càstor Vallvé i Rossell

【The semi-sister younger than Aragon and older than Valencia. She doesn’t have a rather intimate relationship with Valencia, Aragon is their common elder brother. Ever since Aragon was united with Castille by royal marriage, the three has become members in the family of Spain. However, Catalonia detests Spain on sight, especially when she envies Spain and Castille snatching Aragon’s intimate care and love, which she believes she, Aragon’s real family and sister in flesh, deserve them more.

During the Civil War, Catalonia firmly stood by the left side of Spanish Popular Front and fought against the Fascists, but was hit twice in the back during faction of the Republicans, and masscre made by the Nationalists. Afterwards she was shot in her back waist, even once sank in the mire of hemiplegia. Fortunately she got entire, considerate sessions of treatment after Franco’s death. And further after acquiring autonomous right in the Constitution Revolution, she was aglow with health once more.

In recent years she behaves mostly in the manner of a radical protagonist of Catalan independent movement, evertheless, sometimes feeling ambivalent about the issue and even inclined to anti-separatism.

She’s proficient in Catalan language, literature, art, history and culture, also able to speak fluent Spanish, though she refuses to speak it occasionally.

Additionally, Catalonia entertains an innate passion for football. She’s born to be a faithful fan of FC Barcelona, and has been together with her team for years. It’s an astonishing fact that when it comes to something intense such as a match or an argument about football, especially Barça, then she inevitably convert herself into the boy form, a real Catalan boy as her counterpart called Jaume.】

   ��    ——Thus you see how I “took reference” from your Catalonia......And I'd like to send you my kind request in order to ask if I can do my art and character design in this way.If you agree, then I will always mark out “the character of female Catalonia personalization BELONGS TO MASUDA HIMENO (HEIDOS) AND ME, SUE LIU”

        Also I've made up human names for your Castille, Aragon and Valencia (Andalusia will be soon) Different from Catalonia, I believe these four characters all completely belong to you! I'll just make FANART for them because of my Iberian passion😄And I'll explain to you the meaning of each part of the name, if you'd like to know!

Castilla: Calista Isabel Fernández de Ávila

Aragón: Ferran Llorente Zurita Carriedo Aragonés

Valencia: Joaquín “Ximo” Ossifar Vallvé i Martorell

        According to the Spanish naming custom, it's more appropriate to consider that FERNÁNDEZ the paternal surname is Aragon's, while CARRIEDO the maternal surname is Castille's......However, I think it looks better when they exchange. Also, for the surname CARRIEDO I only found one notable person on Wikipedia named Raquel Carriedo-Tomás, who is from Zaragoza, ARAGON. Maybe it's reasonable to give CARRIEDO to Aragon as Spain's paternal surname in ancient medieval times😂

I'm rather eagerly looking forward to your reply! And in case you find the English messages too hassle to understand, just tell me and I'd love to ask some of my friends to help me translate them into Japanese, though the process may be difficult for me😂(I've read that your work is related to translation so I guess perhaps it's possible for you to read my longggg English messages _(:з」∠)_

Please check these messages, much love and kind regards from your devoted fan, Sue❤️

[towns-end-bindery]

1. What are you excited about binding right now?

I have a Divine Comedy text block I haven't cased yet, and I'm excited to see how it'll turn out.

2. What is your latest binding?

My most recent binding was of Paradise Lost by John Milton.

3. What was your first binding?

My very first bind happened when I was a kid. I used cardboard and cardstock and sticker paper and it all worked out pretty well. Then for a few years I stopped binding until someone came to my local library to teach bookbinding. We made an envelope book, which was a lot of fun. Then in April 2023 (probably a decade or so after my envelope book), I decided to start again. And I haven't stopped since.

4. What is your favourite binding so far?

I feel like each new bind I make keeps getting better and better. I'm pretty satisfied with my Paradise Lost, since it's the best looking cover I've made, but I was also very proud of my Pride and Prejudice bind, which was my first time trying to round a spine.

5. When did you get into bookbinding?

When I was in 5th grade, I remember we were given a project to write our own book. We had to type out a story and add illustrations. I was so excited because I thought we were going to make our stories look professionally published. But instead, they provided us with the pre-bound books (which did look really nice) and then had us GLUE our text and drawings into them. It was more like scrapbooking. I hated that. It wasn't what I wanted at all. I thought about that project for a long while after, and was determined to one day make my own beautiful books that would be 500x better. It took a while to get there. About 20 years. But I got there in the end. And here I am. All thanks to coming across one tiktok video by hana_bob, and my passion was revived.

6. What is a binding by another binder you really love?

That's a really hard questions to answer. I feel like people are making such beautiful books all the time, and so many of them are constantly blowing me away. One that I found myself staring at for a long minute recently was excineribusbooks' recent bind of symmetry by bleuett. I love the cover design so much. I desperately want to achieve a similar level of quality and class in my books.

7. What’s your favourite type of binding? (coptic, stab, fine, Bradel, etc.)

I'm most experienced with French link stitch with square backed bradel bind, but I do want to learn other methods.

8. What’s a binding type you’ve never done but that you’d love to try one day?

I really want to try them all. There's one I saw from one of bitter melon bindery's videos showing a method of sewing onto tape supports without kettle stitch that I plan to try next.

9. How would you describe your binding style?

I'm still so new to all this, but I guess my style tends to be bold and simple. I think a lot of people easily fall into the trap of doing too much to their typesets and covers, and it ends up being a little gaudy. I currently don't have the courage or the resources for more ornate decoration. I would love to one day get a machine for cutting/embossing in the future to make the HTV covers I see everyone else doing.

10. What’s your favourite bookbinding tool?

I recently got myself a punch cradle. It's not the easiest thing to use, but I love it anyway. It's saved me so much time not having to measure my sewing holes and hope they all line up. Thanks to the cradles, I'm now a little more prolific than before.

11. Do you have a DIY press/what is your press like?

I bought a finishing press and it's the only thing I have. It's really not the right kind of press for most of the things I do (I don't paint my book edges), so I'd love to get a proper press in the future. Maybe a vintage cast iron press from an antique store, if I'm lucky enough to find one.

12. What is your workspace like?

It's my kitchen table. And it's still not enough space. I would love to one day own a proper house (and not be renting apartments anymore). Then I could turn a room into a workshop and have lots of workspace and shelves and cabinets for all my supplies and tools. That's my dream.

13. Do you have a favourite cover material?

I have worked with a few different kinds of book cloth, and lokta paper. Honestly, they're both great. I do love that I can print onto book cloth for my covers though. Discovering that I can create beautiful cover designs without having to invest in vinyl and a cricut or silhouette has made this my new favorite way to make covers.

14. Do you have a favourite paper for textblocks?

Currently I am using cream-colored short-grain 24/60 lb paper from Church Paper. It's beautiful, and gives a very professionally published feel to my books.

15. What are your feelings about headbands?

I never gave much thought to them when I first learned to use them. I would never exclude them when I make any book, but I will admit that headbands are a very small detail compared to the rest of the book. Nonetheless, I can see the appeal of putting in the time to make beautiful headbands. It certainly gives a very traditional look (I don't recall ever seeing any mass market hardcovers without a headband). I hope to one day learn how to sew my own. For now I just use premade ones from Hollanders.

16. What type of text do you usually bind?

So far, I mostly make blank books or stories from the public domain. I aim to start doing some fanfiction in the near future, starting with Dirty Sympathy, by Ideny.

17. Do you match the aesthetic of the bind to the text?

If my aesthetic were more defined, I'd certainly try to be consistent, just as personal preference. But there are no rules. People should bind however they want, and if they want a goofy cover for a serious book, I'm all for it.

18. Have you ever done a rebind?

I want to! I've several books lined up. They are all waiting for me to find the courage to tear their covers off. I'll eventually do The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Circe by Madeline Miller, and A Hero Born by Jin Yong.

19. Do you have other craft hobbies besides bookbinding?

I've dabbled in paper cutting, drawing, and miniature painting.

20. If you had to give past!you one advice about bookbinding what would it be, and is it the same advice you give newbies?

I'm so new to all this! But I guess if I'm talking to my little elementary school self, then I think I'd show them the books I've made now. I don't want to give them advice as much as I want to give them hope that one day they're gonna make beautiful books. I want them to feel good about their future, and not despair about their own present. Things suck as a kid. Our life, and our skills suck. But in 20 years, they're gonna get so much better.

20 questions about bookbinding

What are you excited about binding right now?

What is your latest binding?

What was your first binding?

What is your favourite binding so far?

When did you get into bookbinding?

What is a binding by another binder you really love?

What’s your favourite type of binding? (coptic, stab, fine, Bradel, etc.)

What’s a binding type you’ve never done but that you’d love to try one day?

How would you describe your binding style?

What’s your favourite bookbinding tool?

Do you have a DIY press/what is your press like?

What is your workspace like?

Do you have a favourite cover material?

Do you have a favourite paper for textblocks?

What are your feelings about headbands?

What type of text do you usually bind?

Do you match the aesthetic of the bind to the text?

Have you ever done a rebind?

Do you have other craft hobbies besides bookbinding?

If you had to give past!you one advice about bookbinding what would it be, and is it the same advice you give newbies?