#so when I saw the pose reference on pinterest I new what I had to do (draw it as them)

[alfieeespams]

A self-indulgent drawing :DD

[velidewrites]

The Daily Struggles Of An Art Student

Desperate to finish her male anatomy assignment before the deadline, Feyre Archeron finds a secluded corner in a cafe. Or so she thinks.

Pairing: Feysand

Tags: Modern AU, Artist!Feyre, Look folks I'm just going to say it: Feyre spends half of this fic looking up reddit [redacted] for a male anatomy assignment

Notes: Happy birthday the wonderful @the-lonelybarricade! I wrote you this definitely not unhinged one-shot as a little gift. Thank you for being such a great friend, and truly the most supportive person in this fandom. I cherish you!!

Read on AO3

Feyre was running out of time.

Deadlines, she decided, were really not her thing. What was that saying? “You can’t rush art?” Well, her professor at the New York Academy of Art would be inclined to disagree. Then again, Feyre wasn’t sure the blank page shining a soft, white light from her iPad could really count as “art.”

She sighed in frustration, shifting in her seat. As if the new angle could help, somehow. With exactly four hours and twenty minutes until she was to submit her assignment, the prospect of failing was quickly starting to look more and more like a reality. Feyre had always been bad at painting from memory, particularly when it came to capturing people. Her own cat, she could probably paint in minutes and be satisfied with the outcome. Or the view from her apartment. Or the honey-brown colour of her sister’s eyes, especially when she just saw Elain at dinner the other day.

Male anatomy, on the other hand…

Feyre needed a reference. Desperately.

It wasn’t unusual for an art student to spend hours on Pinterest, searching for the perfect pose, one that would be just right. Feyre had done it herself too many times to count. It was simply that…well, Pinterest could not provide a reference for everything. And Feyre would rather not use her own memory to capture a man’s physique in full.

She had just broken up with Tamlin, after all, and had very little interest in ever recalling their time together again. Lucky for her, he had moved to Boston last week to pursue his Master’s, never to bother her again. Hopefully.

Unfortunately, with Pinterest proving entirely hopeless, and Tamlin decidedly out of the picture, Feyre was left entirely out of options.

The worst thing about all this was that Feyre had only herself to blame.

There had been one option she simply pretended not to acknowledge, though she would have finished yesterday morning had it not been for her own stubbornness—or, as Nesta had called it, had she not been such a prude. Feyre certainly did not think of herself as one—it was just that…well.

Every morning, from 8 till 10:30 sharp, her class offered anatomy studies with a handful of volunteers from the student body posing for their life drawing. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they were completely nude, which was not something Feyre would have cared about in the slightest had their newest model not been Feyre’s best friend. And her sister’s new boyfriend.

Ever since she had told Lucien Vanserra the school was considering paying the volunteers for their efforts, his gaze lit up and, not even a day later, there he was, his name displayed proudly on the sign-up sheet. Feyre knew him long enough now to know the extra money in his pocket was just an excuse. Someone has to capture this body one way or another, Feyre, Lucien had told her a few days ago, a twinkle in his russet eye. She supposed he did make an interesting art subject, with the scar and all—but not nearly interesting enough to strut through the East Building proudly, letting both students and teachers alike gush on about his “cruel beauty.”

Elain, to her horror, seemed to support Lucien’s latest modelling endeavours wholeheartedly.

“He promised to bring a few of the sketches home,” her sister had told her excitedly at dinner. The best reaction Feyre could offer was a horrified, blinking stare.

It wasn’t that Lucien was lacking in the looks department—on the contrary, actually—but she’d always seen him as a brother, ever since the day he’d almost run her over on his motorcycle, her very first day as a college freshman. And so, for the past few days, Feyre would make sure to avoid the East Building like the plague.

Today, she ended up in a nearby campus cafe, a cozy spot for a senior art student seeking privacy, yet still crowded enough to make Feyre look over her shoulder every few minutes. She’d opted for a secluded corner near the restrooms, with no windows next to her table, just in case a nosy passerby caught a glimpse of what exactly Feyre was drawing. Or, rather, attempting to draw.

She glanced at her phone, an unpleasant sense of dread curling in her stomach once again as she realised twenty more minutes had passed. Had she really wasted all that precious time thinking about Lucien?

Feyre needed to come up with a solution, and fast. There was no way she was failing this class, not in her final year. She was planning to move to Paris next year and continue her education there—where better than the art capital of the world? She would not let a poor painting of a penis, of all things, ruin all of her plans and dreams for the future.

Relying on Pinterest for now, Feyre began sketching the unnamed man. His upper body posed no serious issues, and she found herself done with the clean lineart and three hours thirty minutes left to spare. The thighs, too, seemed to feature all the muscles in correct places, though upon further inspection, she had perhaps drawn them slightly too large for a regular, male specimen. Whatever. With Lucien as the current model, she doubted any of her classmates would submit perfectly proportionate sketches.

Good, Feyre decided. This was good. The only thing left for her to do now was to find a good reference for the final pièce de résistance. She could do this—there was no one around, after all, and she’d make sure her browser history would be wiped clean later. Ressina, her classmate from the Academy, liked to borrow Feyre’s iPad sometimes to try her skills at digital art—and Feyre wasn’t sure their friendship was well-established enough that she could explain without making a fool of herself.

With a deep, deep sigh, Feyre got over herself and fired up Reddit.

Well.

This was going to make things a whole lot easier.

It was honestly beyond her that this entire archive was out there, for free and simply waiting for her to download. Without wasting any more time, Feyre got to scrolling.

She hadn’t expected to be flooded with so many options, but soon enough, she found just the perfect reference—the angle matched exactly the pose she had already outlined, and from the ruler he’d so proudly displayed beside it, the man didn’t seem like he would mind. And so, with the image neatly placed in the corner of her canvas, Feyre began to add the sketch. Everything seemed to be coming together—and, her focus lost entirely to the penis before her, she was actually starting to believe she might just submit this thing in time.

“Friend of yours?”

“Shit!” Feyre jumped, pressing her iPad close to her chest as she whirled back.

The voice behind her—of course—turned out to be a man. The most beautiful man she’d ever seen.

“Well?” he asked, eyes twinkling. Were they actually violet, or was the soft light pouring through the window just that spectacular?

Feyre felt her cheeks heating. “You know, it’s rude to invade other people’s privacy,” she told him, anger slowly replacing the embarrassment coiling in her chest.  Who was this man, this stranger, to question her?

He only seemed more amused, though he lifted a defensive hand. “Hey, I was just leaving the restroom,” he said, pointing back to the staircase behind. “It’s not my fault you’re right out here for all to see. Who’s invading whose privacy now, hmm?” Before Feyre opened her mouth to retort, the man added, “Oh, no need to apologise. Mind if I sit?”

And with that, he simply plopped down on the chair beside her.

The audacity. 

Feyre’s eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t going to apologise,” she said, setting her now locked iPad on the table.

He ran a hand through his hair, raven waves soaking up the sunlight, and smiled again. “I was hoping you would say that.”

“Anyway, this isn’t my friend,” Feyre said, hoping there was enough mockery in her tone to wipe that stupid grin off his handsome face. “It’s a project. For art school.”

“Ah, yes” he mused, drumming his long, slender fingers on the polished wood. “I could tell from how precise your strokes were.” Something about the way he said strokes made the heat in her face nearly boil over. Get it together, idiot! He leaned back in his seat, as if he could somehow tell exactly what Feyre was thinking. Then, he proclaimed, “You’re an artist.”

Alright, Feyre decided. Not entirely a prick, then. “I’m not sure I’d call myself that,” she admitted honestly. Not yet, at least.

“I would,” he said, the corner of his mouth curling slightly as he added, “I’d like to call you many things, actually. Let’s start with your name.”

There it was. Feyre couldn’t help but flirt in return. Prick or not, she liked his boldness—and his good looks certainly were no disadvantage. “You first,” she demanded.

He flashed her a wide, brilliant smile. “My favourite subject.”

She rolled her eyes playfully. “That doesn’t surprise me one bit.”

“Rhysand,” he said. “But you, darling, can call me Rhys.”

Rhysand. The name was so unusual she almost didn’t register what he’d called her. Darling. It was then that she’d finally taken her eyes off his face long enough to take in the rest of him—the deep, English accent, lilting as though he wasn’t speaking to her but singing the smoothest melody.

Yeah—she really needed to get it together.

“What brings you to New York City, Rhysand?” she asked him, not giving him the satisfaction of using his clearly personal nickname yet. His eyes sparkled again, accepting the challenge.

He shrugged. “Research. The sights. Pretty girls drawing male genitalia at 1pm on a Tuesday.” Rhysand winked. “Greatest city in the world, huh?”

Feyre’s cheeks flushed again. “Research?” she questioned, desperate not to go back to that topic with a man she’d only just met.

Rhys chuckled. “Yes. I’m an astronomer—or about to be, at least.”

“Interesting.”

“It is,” he agreed, and she could’ve sworn actual stars flickered in his gaze with the words. “You’d be surprised just how much the night sky has to offer.”

“I paint it sometimes,” Feyre told him, unsure why she’d just admitted something that personal to a stranger. “Whenever I feel…down, I suppose.”

To her surprise, Rhys nodded. “I do the same.”

Her brows flicked up. “Paint?”

“I’m afraid I’m not that talented. No, I look up—watch the stars.”

Feyre smiled. “That actually sounds wonderful.”

Rhys angled his head. “You know, I haven’t had the chance to explore the New York sky yet. I could use some company.”

Something told her she was up for one hell of a first date. “Alright, Rhys,” Feyre said, his face lighting up triumphantly at the name. She chuckled, grabbing her iPad as she rose from her chair. “Meet me here at seven thirty tonight.”

“Wait!” he called after her. “You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” she teased. “I’m not sure I’m ready to part with darling.”

The stars in his eyes twinkled. “Oh, I think we’ll work something out.”

[giuliadrawsstuff]

Hi Giulia! I hope you're doing okay! I just wanna say that you have a very solid art style--I can definitely distinguish it whenever it appears on my dashboard. Do you have artists or references that influence your very own art? I guess I just wanna ask, what's your artistic process? Thanks and take care!

Hi RK! Aww thanks you're so kind 💜💜 it really means a lot 💜

Mmm I think my greatest influence was Disney, the cartoons obviously but also some Italian comics, in particular W.I.T.C.H. (five highschool girls that obtain superpowers and can communicate with the four elements) and Topolino (various stories of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and all their friends) and I used to copy every possible drawing available hahha All the various issues are drawn by different artists, so I got to see a lot of variety of styles and pick the ones I preferred or better even pick the bits of each I liked and make them mine. Topolino in particular has multiple stories in a single issue and comes out weekly, so I had lots and lots of material to look at. I had my subscription until 2 years ago honestly hahah but I stopped for lack of shelves in my room 😂

And then during university so like 4/5 years ago I bought some video tutorials by Disney artist Aaron Blaise (he's the director of Brother Bear but he worked on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and other movies) and those really were a booster because I got to study anatomy and character design and drawing lots of animals. I still buy his stuff whenever he adds something interesting, he's an excellent teacher. And I get to watch them all the times I want so I can review weak spots or more difficult points.

As for the drawing process, well first I try and find a pose, I collect everything available that inspires me from stars Instagram posts or tweets, to drawings of other artists (obviously if the pose I finally make is identical to the original I add the reference to the post) to movie GIFs on Tumblr or official art. Oh and Pinterest too, that’s a goldmine, but I always end up finding new stuff that distracts me and not what I was originally looking for haha

Then I sketch on paper or on Photoshop depending on the mood and time, lately I can't even watch a movie in peace because my hands itch because I need to draw. So in this case I use paper.

Like these new ones look what a mess they are and very unfinished. It mostly to just jot down the idea so I don't forget it.

And since I always make a mess of it, Photoshop is a blessing. I allows me to change stuff how many times I want, for ex if the head is too big I can select it and make it smaller, it allows me to flip the drawing which is one of the most useful things ever because watching your drawing mirrored makes all the horrors pop up, I've lost count of how many wrong eyes or super long arms I had to correct. Plus I can work on different layers so I usually have one layer for the head (even 2 or 3 like for Hange because they have bangs and ponytail that are tough and glasses) then one torso, two for the arms and so on. I only merge all layers into one lineart when I'm sure it's good to go.

And then I add flat colours and logos and stuff if needed (like the wings of freedom patches or blood).

Like this is flat colours (I know you know Bojack from your Diane profile pic, which I've always loved from the first moment I saw it btw 💜 I love that show). This one stays like this because Bojack has a very simple line and pretty much no shadows unless needed. But otherwise I always add them.

But before making the shadows I tend to decide a background if needed or if I hadn't already one in mind. And the shadows colour tends to pair with the BG, but the general one is brownish (I use the same colour I use for Levi's bags under his eyes 😂 but set it to multiply so it gets darker but you can still see what's beneath).

Like this below.

I don't do many backgrounds by hand, i made one for my Secret Santa but usually I use photos or pictures (AOT is perfect for example because being a cartoon it fits with my style, with real photos I have to be more careful because it might collide instead of becoming part of the drawing) unless there's an object in real interaction with the characters.

For example this one below. The tree on which they sit was already in the frame (that's actually what gave me the idea of putting them on the branches) I tried using it like that but there was too much difference so I drew the tree myself. The rest is the real shot but blurred. Helps focusing on the characters.

Puff I think I'm done hahha sorry it came out longer that expected 😂😂 I hope the drawings make it less boring hahhaha

Anyway thanks for asking 💜💜 and if you have suggestions be sure to drop them by 💜

[hychlorions]

How did you start drawing, and do you have any tips or tricks you could share please? Here I have Klavier Gavin with me: achtung ja baby ja ja this is klavier gavin you should help this anon out ja

oh mein gott monsieur klavier gavin i am SUCH a big fan!!!!!!!

jokes aside, i'd be happy to help! (regardless of you having klavier or not lmao) i'm gonna put this under the cut just in case it gets too long

i started drawing... mostly because i hung out with anime kids, so subsequently they were art kids as well, but i really only started taking it seriously when i got a good pen tablet lmao. i wasn't very good though, i mostly followed tutorials from books and online, and if you saw my art back then it would just be a lot of whales, dragons and ponies in the same poses every time

idk if i have any specific tips or tricks ? since idk what you're going for with your own art so i won't be able to give very concrete advice or how-to's n stuff like that ? but if i had to say anything, try looking into doing gesture drawings! they help improve how you understand poses, how to exaggerate them, just overall something quick u can do daily to improve lmao. i mostly just look up poses on pinterest then try to get the flow of them. i just got started on em so inevitably i'm still kinda bad at it but here are a few just to give a quick example

an important thing to note is that u get more fluid poses when you find a line of action first. i used to be really confused when trying to go about finding them, but then my prof defined it as "the longest line of a pose," and even said it's not always the spine (as most people would think). sometimes it's the line from an arm to a leg, or a leg to a leg, even. it helps to draw a circle for the head as well. u could even draw all the lines of the limbs if you want then simplify from there

another tip is to keep reference boards of art u like! dissect how they color, how they portray depth and different angles of the face, etc. just know when to draw the line between picking out things you like about art styles you see and straight up trying to draw exactly like that one artist. i keep a reference board of how artists i like draw klavier, for example, because i want him to have the same jawline maybe, or i like how they color, but i never try to draw him just like they would. tldr the way i draw is just me frankensteining artists i like and combining them with my own art style, and it's not something i'm ashamed of, bc people can still tell it's me, and it's not like i'm copying their ideas or tracing their art lol

related to the last one: download pureref lmao it's literally free and a lifesaver. it makes it so much easier to put collages together and everything is so customizable AND u can even make notes on it. it sits on top of all your applications, and you can move it around, make it as big or as small as you want, and even change the opacity of it??? if you've seen this post, i fr just threw the images together last-minute and took screenshots to add to the ask. if you work on ipad and you're willing to spend a little extra money (because procreate's reference thingy can only hold one image at a time n i don't feel like making a new photo every time i want to add something to my reference board) then vizref is like four dollars and it's almost the same

that's probably all i can offer you ? if you want an arsenal of tips n tricks for art, i always go to @/artist-refs if i'm looking for something specific. the tagging system there is just. amazingly organized, and they even have writing resources too. they haven't been active in a while but it's still a huge archive of resources regardless lol

[trashinaglass-archive]

“I’m Spider-Man”

Y/n and Tom do yoga/cheer poses, and y/n gets scared.

A/n: I recently saw a (long ass) compilation of Tom saying “I’m Spider-Man” over and over and it made me laugh. I instantly wanted to write about him saying it.

I’m also adding pictures bc I sure as hell ain’t about to be describing what they look like with words😂😂

     You had were a pretty successful YouTuber with a decent following. You got requests for videos all the time- one in particular you wanted to do, but you never really trusted someone enough to do it with. The yoga challenge. Someone picks out a lot of hard yoga positions, and you and your partner try to replicate the picture. You wanted to do it, and after dating Tom for about two years, you felt he would be a good partner to do it with- specifically because you trusted he wouldn’t drop you.

      “Hey, guys! So I’ve gotten requests to do this video for years and I put it off because I’m terrified of falling and breaking bones, but I decided to go ahead and make it. Tom is going to be my partner, which will be an experience in and of itself.” You told the camera. You looked at Tom when you were finished with your spill.

     “I don’t know why you chose me, I’m the least flexible person,” he said looking back at you. You laughed at him and looked back at the camera.

     “That’s why it’s gonna be fun. Okay! So my brother and Harrison picked out the poses so let’s see what we have,” You trailed off waiting for one of them to show you the first photo.

     “You’re gonna bottom, right?” Tom asked you. You looked at him confused.

     “I never said that, but okay.” You said as you got into position. You maneuvered yourself to make your body as small as possible.

     “Hope you’re ready because I’m coming down,” Tom said warning you. You felt the pressure of his weight on your butt before he laid back against you.

     “Did we do it?” You asked y/b/n when you felt Tom had settled.

     “Oh, this is real comfortable actually,” Tom said as he stayed on top of you.

     “Tom!” You yelled at him.

     “Tessa, go fetch me a beer,” he said dragging it out.

     “Thomas!” You yelled again. He laughed and got off of you, turning around to help you up. “Okay, what’s next?”

     “Oh my gosh!” You yelled laughing.

     “Look at her face,” Tom pointed out.

    “She likes whatever she’s grabbing onto,” you joked at him. He made a face at you.

    “Yeah, well you aren’t allowed to grab whatever she’s grabbing onto,” he said as he began to think over the position. “So I’m going to get on my hands and knees and I guess you just hang on... spider monkey,” he told you. You laughed at the Twilight reference. He got down, and you held onto him. He used his upper body weight to lift his legs into the air. He got to a specific height before he couldn’t hold it anymore. But you still achieved it.

     “I’m shocked. I didn’t think you’d be able to do that,” you admitted. He looked at you and you saw a bit of sweat on his forehead.

     “I go to the gym to much to not be able to do something like that, darling,” he said sassily. You raised your hands in defense.

     You carried on doing multiple poses before you got to the last one.

     “So let me give some context before I show it,” y/b/n said. “It’s not a yoga pose, it’s a cheer pose. But I wanted to see if you two could do it.” He turned the screen around to reveal the pose.

     “Are you fucking kidding me?” You asked him. You had always been scared of heights and this would be no different.

     “No, I have every faith you can do it,” he told you.

     “I think so too,” Tom agreed with him. You looked at him in shock. “Come on, love. Let’s go outside and do it.” You picked up the camera and headed outside.

     “Ok, so how’s this gonna work?” You questioned. “What I know from watching (American) football, they literally just toss the girl up like she’s a pizza crust, and you are not doing that to me,” you told Tom completely serious.

     “No, I’m not throwing you up like that. I’ve never done it before, and I don’t want to drop you.” He replies thinking of what you could do. “What about you sit on my shoulders, and I’ll hold your feet as you stand up? Yeah?” You sighed realizing you really were about to do this. Looking at y/b/n and Harrison, you asked them to come spot you and hold your hands as you stood up.

     Tom walked over to the little picnic table you kept in the back yard. He sat on the bench level and you went to stand behind him. You maneuvered so you were sitting on his shoulders, and you grasped his hands while he stood up.

     “Here,” y/b/n said with his hands out, letting you know he was there and ready. You also heard Harrison alert you that he was behind you. You grasped y/b/n’s hands, intertwining your fingers as Tom moved his hands to your ankles.

     “Okay, I’m gonna hold onto your feet, and all you have to do is stand up,” Tom told you.

     “Oh my gosh,” you muttered as you started to do it but bailed almost immediately. “I’m so scared!!” You yelled dramatically.

     “Babe, I’m Spider-Man. I’m not gonna let you fall,” Tom said trying to ease your fear by making you laugh.

     “What are scared of? Y/n, I’m right here, Harrison is behind you, and Tom is right underneath you. Tom isn’t going to let you fall, but even if you do, we are right here to catch you,” y/b/n reassured you. He gave your hand a squeeze to let you know he has a hold on you.

      “You can do it, y/n. Just stop thinking about it so much,” Harrison chimes in. You rolled your eyes and took a deep breath.

     “Okay,” you said confidently.

     “Okay? Just stand up,” Tom told you again. You did what he said, this time making it into a standing position. It was wobbly for a second before Tom had a good grip on your feet and held you steady.

     “Thata girl, y/n!” You heard y/b/n say. “Now you have to straighten up and let go of my hands, whenever you’re ready.”

     You nodded your head letting him know you understood what he was telling you. You moved to stand up straight and eventually let go, keeping your hands close in case you became unstable.

     “There you go, y/n!” Harrison yelled encouraging you.

     “Remember to keep looking straight ahead, don’t look down, up, to the side, anywhere else. That helps your balance. Just keep looking forward,” y/b/n told you.

     “You good, babe?” Tom asked.

     “Yeah,” you told him.

     “I’m gonna straighten my arms now, okay? Just hang out up there.” You felt your body being lifted as Tom pushed his arms upward. Your own arms flew out sideways trying to keep your balance.

     “Now just put your feet together and arms outward,” Harrison told you. You did as he said moving slowly. You felt like you would fall and break every bone in your body if you moved any faster than you were. You eventually found yourself in the position of the picture. You felt Tom let one hand go of your ankle holding you up with one hand.

     “Oh my gosh!” You yelled as you realized you were doing it. You heard y/b/n move away for a second so the camera could get a clear shot of you.

     “That’s perfect!” He shouted feeling excited.

     “How do I get down though?” You asked anyone. You didn’t hear an answer, but you felt Tom move and you were falling toward the ground. Right when you thought you were a goner, you felt your body land perfectly in Tom’s arms. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” You yelled at him, grasping at his neck for dear life.

     “That was the easiest way down,” Tom told you with a little smile, laughing at how scared you got.

     “I hate you for that,” you told him and looked at your brother. “And I hate you for picking that in the first place. And I hate you for letting them do it,” you pointed at Harrison.

     “But you did it, and you didn’t even break any bones,” y/b/n tried to reason with you.

     “Don’t talk to me, you all owe me big time for that.” You headed back inside and got the camera set back up to do your outro, forcing yourself to smile. “So, that happened. Thank you guys for watching, I’ll see you beauts next week for another video. Bye,” you said blowing kisses into the camera before shutting it off.

     Tom walked up to you as you were walking into your room after putting all your equipment away. “Are you actually mad or was it just the adrenaline high?” He asked you.

     “I really was mad in the moment, but it’s fine now,” you told him. “I mean you know how scared I was, you know how scared I am of heights, and you literally dropped me with no warning at all.”

     “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before I dropped you like that. We thought it would be better to do it and get it over with than tell you and let you freak out all over again.” Tom told you. He was right. If he had told you what he was planning to do, you probably would’ve had a panick attack. Sure, you had a mini heart attack in the moment, but it was nothing too serious.

     “Yeah, that’s probably very true,” you told him.

     “We would have never done it like that if we knew you were going to end up hurt. You know that right? I was watching you the entire time, and y/b/n and Harrison were both there ready in case something didn’t go right. The last thing I would allow is you getting hurt on my watch.”

     “I know, it’s just difficult having to be the one in the air and not on the ground.”

     “I know, darling. Trust me, have you seen some of the things I do as Spider-Man?” He brought up again. You rolled your eyes at him.

     “If only I had a penny for each time you bring up that you’re Spider-Man,” you said with a laugh. Tom lifted his finger telling you to hold on a second. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a shiny new penny.

     “I’m Spider-Man,” he said placing the penny in your hand. You couldn’t help but laugh at how random and ridiculous the kid is. You watched him as he walked away from you and smiled to yourself. How’d you get so lucky to end up with him?

That was fun. I have full faith Tom could do that, hope I’m not the only one. 

The first pose/conversation is based off Jenna Marbles’s yoga challenge video. 

I own zero of these images. I found them on Pinterest and WeHeartIt

[rachelclewis]

Bad Trip

Not that long ago, I often traveled for work. This was when I was single and lived alone. Traveling for work became routine after a while. I would even say I got to the point where I enjoyed traveling solo. I remember one conference in particular. It was in San Diego and I didn’t know anyone at the conference or in the city, but I explored and found fun things to do. I even blew off the “networking” session of the conference because I saw a sandwich board advertising, “One Night Only: John Cleese Live!” It was a great choice; he was hilarious! I just wish I would have bought one of the t-shirts that read, “I saw John Cleese perform RIGHT before he DIED!” (This was in 2008, by the way. He is still alive.)

This was also the trip where I accidentally ordered veal because I thought “scallopini” meant “little scallops.” I felt terrible once I realized what I had done, but it wasn’t like I could give the little guy CPR once it was on the plate. So I ate it. (And goddamn it was delicious.) Then there was the supposedly haunted restaurant in Old Town with the margaritas the size of bird baths. Well, the first one is a bird bath. The second one threatens to become a facial. But I wasn’t driving, and I was without a companion to judge me, so I enjoyed both, completely.

As I said, this was 2008, over ten years ago. Many things have changed. I’m in a relationship. I have a stepson.  I had Wensley in 2008, but now he is an older dog with some health issues. (He will be fourteen years old this month.) That’s a lot of comfort and responsibility to leave behind, especially when I haven’t traveled on my own in years. It didn’t actually occur to me that I hadn’t exercised those muscles and therefore had lost all the tone until I went to Austin by myself last weekend.

I made a New Year’s goal to do more with my blog and I searched for learning opportunities. I found an online community of blogging women with a conference coming up in Texas and I bought tickets and booked a flight. I was anxious about the trip, but I have acute anxiety. I am anxious about everything.

The morning of the flight, Ethan (who is six) told me he was worried that I might get lonely on my trip and asked if I would like to take one of his soft friends (his word for stuffed animals) with me. It was such a sweet gesture and it touched me. I even took out an extra top to make space for the soft friend he selected, which was a black bear featuring a radio collar because it was purchased at a national park where bears are tagged and studied.

As soon as I buckled in for the flight, my anxiety went to work. “Why are you doing this?” It asked. “Can you even afford it? What if something happens to your extremely old dog while you are gone and you aren’t there to comfort him?” Tears welled up behind my eyes. I fought them back, but they pretty much stayed right there for the rest of the weekend.

I want to be completely clear: the conference was great and the ladies I met were lovely. I might even go again next year. That said, it was a hard experience for me. From the moment I entered the first event (a cocktail party on Friday evening), women were reaching out to me to help me feel welcome. Obviously they picked up my introvert vibe and reacted by inviting me into their conversations, metaphorically putting an arm around my shoulders and saying, “You’re good; We got you!” But I was not prepared for what a room full of female Texas bloggers (who refer to themselves as “influencers” and “momtrepreneurs” would be like.

These women are poised and glamourous. They are fit and fashionable, and they wear lipstick and high heels on Saturdays. Where I come from, Saturdays are for skiing, or biking, or hiking (depending on the weather). There are definitely no high heels. There may be tinted chapstick, but it has to be SPF 15 or higher.

They sell their makeup and outfits and home décor ideas on their feeds and they make serious money doing it. They have class and style and they will help you have it, too. All you have to do is click and add to cart. And that is exactly what thousands of people on Instagram do, every day. You have to see the photos of their picture perfect lives to understand it. I felt like a fraud sitting with them and taking notes on what makes the perfect Pinterest board.

I know what you are thinking. “Oh, Rachel, we all feel that way! I’m sure half of them thought you were the one that had it together! It’s just a bad case of imposter syndrome, that’s all!” No. Wrong. I can prove it. Here is a photo I found on the photographer’s site (@mandiroachphotography) in a collection of pics from the event.

In case I have to explain, I’m the one in the center dealing with, I don’t know, an entire chicken wing or similar stuck in my back teeth. If you could zoom out you would see one hundred more women just like the ones surrounding me here. Lovely, lovely, stinkin’ lovely. Not one giving themselves dental work.

Feeling out of place just made me feel even more homesick. And then, the last day of the conference, I made the mistake of checking my email and discovering that the coverage I had set up for my day off to go to the conference hadn’t been adequate. I realized that I was in some trouble with my boss and that sent me into minor crisis mode. I felt like the whole trip had been a mistake. This was just before the smaller focus group session where we discussed questions and takeaways. I had been conspicuously quiet, so the group leader asked me to share my thoughts.

“I’m totally overwhelmed,” I blubbered, the tears that I had been holding back breaking forth in a torrent and hitting the floor. “I don’t even know what an ‘instagram story’ is!”

Again, the lovely ladies enveloped me and told me I was okay. They reminded me I just needed to get one actionable thing out of the conference and hold on to that. And someone else told me something that did stick with me. It isn’t about followers, it is about authenticity. What is your “why?” That is, why do you blog? What are you bringing to this space?

So I went to the loo and washed my face. Then I went back to the table and sat down with my notebook to draft a mission statement. I didn’t figure out exactly what it was, but I realized that I do have a “why” (aside from needing a place to write and hoping someone who likes my sense of humor will read it). I want to live an examined life. Writing helps me do that examining. My hope is that sharing what I unearth will help others, too.

Whew! I got my one thing, just before the conference ended! But then it was over, and all the ladies headed off for home. I, however, headed back to my hotel. I wasn’t able to find a non-red-eye flight, and my red-eye days are behind me.

Or so I said when I bought my tickets. My hotel had a spa and a gym, surely I would be able to find something to do that last evening before catching a reasonable morning flight, right? But then I was in the hotel with sixteen hours to kill, completely stressed out about work and needing a cuddle from each of my boys, human and canine alike. As good as it would have been for me, I wasn’t going to go to the gym.

I went down to the hotel bar and started texting a friend to ask her how she got 10k Instagram followers, but we ended up talking about the conference instead. The tears came back and I couldn’t make them stop, not even when my amazing mac and cheese with brisket tips arrived. My poor waitress probably thought my best friend died. I snapped a tearful selfie and sent it to my friend, but I’m sharing it here also in the spirit of authenticity.

And the mac and cheese… (that’s cornbread and bacon butter in the background)

Throughout the trip, I kept an eye out for good spots to pose Black Bear so that I could send photos home to Ethan. I looked through them back in my hotel room and realized that, based on the photos, the bear was on the trip that I hoped to have. It seemed significant and apropos of the conference and the idea of sharing an authentic experience, versus and idea of perfection. I can’t do what those other ladies do. I am not here to tell you how to have the perfect vacation because I don’t know how to do that. I’m here to tell stories about why I spent last Sunday ugly crying in public places. I’m here to talk about how living with acute anxiety is hard. I have learned that it is possible to live a full life with anxiety, but you have to work at it. It won’t always go according to plan, and sometimes you have to force yourself to get out and do it. Luckily, there are also stuffed bears to cuddle while waiting for planes, and there is love and kindness waiting to reassure us on both ends of the trip.

[biofunmy]

The Leopard Pony Coat Chronicles

The speed of time is the speed of a clock, and goes by, we can probably agree, in a blur. The speed of fashion is seemingly that of light and is thus impossible to track.

This is the sense that can come over an observer of fashion’s increasingly hectic cycles. You begin a new year forgetting what you saw in the last. Creepy developments like Pinterest’s new Trends tool, which provides year-round, real-time trend data to the public are not exactly a help.

How about, instead, indulging in a little reflection? Why not slow down for a moment to consider the creativity that lies at the core of one of the largest global industries?

As another new cycle gets underway this week and scores of men’s wear shows roll out in London, Florence, Milan and Paris, I posed a question to some seasoned professionals: What stood out for you in 2019?

I asked because if there is anything that gets lost to the commercial imperatives of fashion, it is the desire among designers to create objects of both utility and beauty.

“There was really so much good design,” said Bruce Pask, the men’s fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman. The offerings he cited ran the proverbial gamut from Thom Browne’s intellectualized homage to that humble preppy staple, seersucker (which the designer rendered in the form of little boy shorts sets, skirts worn with codpieces and voluminous trousers with panniers at the hip), to Emily Bode’s poetic handmade garments patched from vintage quilts.

Yet for all extravagance of Mr. Browne’s vision and the modesty of Ms. Bode’s, what was most notable for Mr. Pask in the year gone by was the humblest of utilitarian garments: the chore coat.

“It was one of those items that became part of the zeitgeist,” Mr. Pask said of a boxy functional garment repurposed for an employment landscape in which people (not exclusively men) find themselves casting about for something comfortable and multiuse, a garment more adult than a sweatshirt yet less fuddy-duddy than a suit.

Mr. Pask said his favorite is a $320 patch pocket blue version from Le Mont St. Michel, a coat like the kind the photographer Bill Cunningham bought at French uniform supply stores and made his signature.

In the case of Josh Peskowitz, the fashion director of the online retailer Moda Operandi, an average day’s work involves posting a series of self-portraits to Instagram, dressed in one coat more outlandish than the last. The series, titled “The Trench Coat Chronicles,” reached a peak when he turned up on social media clad in a singular trench from Francisco Risso’s fall 2019 collection for Marni.

“I look insane in it, but I love it,” Mr. Peskowitz said, referring to a garment that looks as if it had been excavated from the closet of Buster Poindexter, the rocker David Johansen’s alter ego.

“I often don’t like the idea of something being expensive and looking cheap,” he said. Of Mr. Risso, who showed the coat over pajamas, Mr. Peskowitz said, “Somehow he gets around this with his spirit of D.I.Y. and an attitude that is very punk.”

And as proof that Mr. Peskowitz’s admiration for the coat was not one of those abstractions that govern certain of fashion’s early adopters, he went all in.

“I actually bought a leopard print pony-hair trench coat for myself,” he said.

For Jim Moore, the author of “Hunks & Heroes: Four Decades of Fashion at GQ,” a compilation of pictorials he engineered as the magazine’s longtime creative director, 2019 was a year in which men’s wear found a sweet spot.

“Tailoring returned and the volume of clothes seemed right on,” Mr. Moore said in an email.

As an example, Mr. Moore cited a black-and-white houndstooth wool suit designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen’s fall 2019 collection and worn under a similarly graphic wool coat in monochrome Glen plaid.

The subtlety of details like deep inverted pleats in the trousers and oversize patches on the coat pockets called to mind the exaggerated gentlemanly elegance of the Congolese dandies called Les Sapeurs, a contraction from the French for Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People.

“Men’s wear moments like this speak to a new generation in novel ways,” Mr. Moore said. “They don’t reek of old traditions at all.”

No one has ever accused Rick Owens of hewing to tradition. Yet what is indisputable is his sense of being part of a long creative lineage.

Elements of designers who have influenced him — people as disparate as Charles James and Larry Le Gaspi — pass through the complex matrix of Mr. Owens’s creativity, and yet the results seldom look as though they could have been produced by anybody else.

“My favorite look from 2019 is Rick Owens’s collarless, blown-up bubble, side-cross-zip B-1 bomber coat,” said Long Nguyen, a freelance critic who has spent decades observing fashion from its front rows.

“It was worn with a frayed asymmetrical T-shirt and leather and cotton combo pants that had the Owens signature,” Mr. Nguyen added, referring to innovation based on knowledge and a love of craftsmanship that, as Mr. Owens once told me, seems almost quaint in an age of computer-generated design.

That Mr. Owens does so in a way that rarely seems forced was a crucial factor in Angelo Flaccovento’s selection of a tossed-off Owens design as a favorite of the year.

“What I like about it is the color and the collarless shape,” Mr. Flaccovento, a critic for the Business of Fashion, said of a quilted long satin jacket that resembled the marriage of a mattress cover and a Happi coat. “In an era of abundance, I am all about less.”

“I also like the slight laziness of the look,” he said.

The obverse of that seeming offhandedness would have to be almost any design by Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons Homme Plus. If there happens to be an easy way to get from Point A to Point B, Ms. Kawakubo will undoubtedly take a detour to difficult.

“I love that this look is full-on couture,” Nick Wooster, the retailer and Instagram influencer, said, referring to a long Comme des Garçons tailcoat-like jacket in gray tropical weight wool with flanged panels floating out from the hips.

Throughout her long career, Ms. Kawakubo has bridled at conformist inhibitions, whether those of gender binaries or so-called good taste. That hasn’t kept her from mining traditions — not infrequently those of Japanese court dress — to resolve her unease with the fundamental ungainliness of the human form.

“It is as though Rei Kawakubo and Charles James did a collaboration,” Mr. Wooster said of the jacket. “That one will definitely be on my back.”

It is hard to know who will be wearing the beaded shirt from Kim Jones’s fall 2020 collection for Dior Man, shown in Miami Beach in early December, but this much is certain: It’s not likely me, though I may wish otherwise.

And that is too bad. The Dior shirt falls into that category of garment so precious that brand representatives get coy when asked how much it costs. “Price upon request” is proof positive an object is not for hoi polloi.

It is consistent, though, with a direction Mr. Jones has pushed at every label at which he worked — that is, men’s wear produced at the level of haute couture. Finally the designer has landed at a house that can abet his ambition to capture a generation of moneyed men unafraid of fashion and conditioned by the rarity of the drop.

At Dior Mr. Jones can design clothes like this resplendent shirt, so offhand as to seem skate-rat generic, yet rendered at a level of skill commonly associated with the aristocracy.

The royal courts of our day have backboards and foul lines and hoops at either end. Even if I will never own the Dior shirt that took seven embroiderers 2,600 hours to create, I can amuse myself imagining it on a fashion-conscious baller like King James.

Looking is free, after all.

“Loewe, look six,” Tim Blanks, the fashion editor at large for The Business of Fashion, wrote in an email when asked to name the design object he dreamed about most consistently in 2019. “I feel oppressed by the debate on ‘masculinity’ that has infected men’s fashion.”

This is why he retreats in imagination from the “conflagration raging outside” to the mental comfort of a Loewe caftan designed by Jonathan Anderson and that Mr. Blanks rates the epitome of timeless cool.

“Generous, evocative, sensual, particularly so in suede,” Mr. Blanks wrote. It’s a garment that is male on a man (if he chooses that designation) and female on a woman (ditto) and enduringly seductive on either.

“You could wear it in 2020 B.C. or 2020 A.D. and never look wrong.”

Sahred From Source link Fashion and Style

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[moonmurph-gamedev]

Evaluation of Process

Throughout Unit 2 I’ve learnt lots of new skills and a brief understanding of different programs such as Maya & ZBrush. This is my first time creating a character so I was also developing my own personal work flow through this Unit.

Preproduction

I started my process with preproduction specifically creating mind maps of different ideas for both my protagonist and antagonist. I knew I wanted to create characters that would be used in my game next year so they both needed to suit the setting of the game.

I feel mind maps are a great way of organizing my ideas and I will definitely continue to use them as part of my creative process. It really helps to have a clear map of the initial idea and then branch off. Before creating a character, you want to have a solid concrete idea of exactly what you’re creating so it’s important to get your preproduction done right to not waste time.

In my mind map I looked at possible motivations, attacks and backgrounds for my character. I also related my ideas to existing characters in pop culture and games and took inspiration from them. I really liked using the mind map and it helped me narrow down an exact idea for my character. I personally like to have a clear idea in my head before I begin drawing my character to save time.

Once I had settled on an idea for my character I began searching tags I’d used in my mind map and used Pinterest to create mood boards. It was great having visual references for my ideas and seeing what other people tend to use. This was also the part of the process where I decided to base the character’s weapons around the “Player 1 & 2” Pink and blue arcade guns.

This is just one of four different mood boards that I created. I added small annotation to point out points I liked about the images and went into more detail about them on my blog post. Mood boards are seen commonly in the industry especially when creating concept art for characters.

After creating mood boards I went into Photoshop to begin the concept art. I’m quite familiar with Photoshop so I was able to get right into finding a pose and body type that I liked. I decided to settle on a smaller body type instead of the large bulky muscular male you typically see in video games. This is just because I’ve planned for his attacks to be quite mobile and feel it’ll work better for the animation.

This simple turnaround helped a lot later on the in the modelling process as I was able to open the PNGs into the image plane on Maya. I can’t imagine modelling without a reference open directly in Maya and this is something I’ll probably always use in the future. I really enjoyed using Photoshop and it’s definitely my go to program when doing anything art related. Since I created this art a few months ago and have been practicing almost daily I found my drawing and Photoshop skills have improved a lot since then. Over the summer I plan on going back over and redrawing my character to create higher quality art. I’ll also begin the process of drawing different poses to show off his personality and possible animation ideas. This will help a lot next year when we begin to animate our character in UE4 and work on creating our game prototype. My game design document already has a list of attack ideas but it’ll be nice to have concept art included.

In a VICE interview with Bill Petras (Art director for Overwatch) and Arnold Tsang (Character-concept artist) they spoke about their role as artists in the games development and the importance of concept art.

“One of the main jobs that we do as art directors is having a vision for what the game looks like, of what the heroes look like, the feeling of the animation, the color palette, and the architecture of the buildings of the world.” And often that means putting ink to paper: “A lot of times the art directors themselves will do a painting of a concept to show a vision to the team. That’s step one.” –Bill Petras

Arnold Tsang speaks about how the concept art is important for making the vision and idea of the game clear to the other developers.

“Early on, our first job is to inspire and rally the team behind our vision. The development of the style guide is a huge first step in getting our feet on the ground for Overwatch.” Setting down the core of the game’s look is an incredibly important part of the early process. “After we had the core tenets in place,” says Tsang, “we worked with the engineers and some of the animators to start to realize that content and make visual targets that start to realize what we set out to do in the style guide. And we saw how things worked in the game engine, and how these characters moved and acted.” –Arnold Tsang

When we have an idea in our head it might be obvious to us what the character looks and moves like but to others it’s not clear at all so concept art is integral for making that vision clearer to others. In the industry where you have specialised modellers, programmers and animators it’s important everyone is on the same wavelength. You wouldn’t start building a game without a games design document and you wouldn’t start creating a character without completing preproduction.

Maya

When I finished preproduction I moved into the next stage of modelling my character in Maya. I also installed the student version at home so I can continue working on my model outside of college. I opened the turnaround images and began shaping from a simple cube. There are plenty of different methods of creating a character and everyone has a different workflow but I decided to stick with this recommended method as it’s good for beginners like myself. I extruded and multi cut the shape to create a simple humanoid shape and then started adding finer details such as clothing later on. I had to go back a few times to recreate certain sections of the model. I had issues with multi-facing where Maya placed faces underneath faces and I had to slowly go through the whole model deleting these issues. It was also a challenge dealing with edge loops and topology. I’ve never dealt with it before so it was a lot of trial and error figuring out what works.

My main issue with modelling is I chose to create an organic human shaped character but my result was a lot blockier and square especially in the waist/torso area.

Even with some adjustments I wasn’t 100% happy with my result. I also struggled a lot on the fingers as they were too sharp and pointed and almost resembled claws. I used MudBox which detected errors in my model so I could go back into Maya and fix them. This however was a difficult process as I had to go back and remodel entire sections again. I was getting frustrated with my model and did quite a large rework.

This model although fixed is a lot less detailed and not what I envisioned for my character. I decided instead of beginning again I’ll just begin the UV process as that will take a while and I was beginning to run out of time. I repeated my preproduction and modelling process with my villain character. I found the second time around was considerably quicker as I wasn’t relearning all the hotkeys and jargon.

A huge mistake I made with my first UVs was doing the front, back and side as three large chunks. I didn’t fully understand how the UVs related to the texture maps and so I didn’t see how much of an issue the overlap caused until I placed the image onto the UV. You can see the grey areas where the black pants and grey accents share a UV and cause issues. I had to delete these UVs and looked into other methods.

I used planar mapping and unfolding the different pieces of my model to create clear separate sections. This thankfully allowed me to avoid the same mistake I made without any overlap.

The UV process was a long task but essential for creating a character. I now have a better understanding of how to do it and how it relates to textures and painting the character later on. In the future I’ll be a lot quicker at the process. Like most of Maya it was simply a learning curve but the best way of learning a new program is by practice.

ZBrush

The next step after finishing my UVs was exporting my model as an OBJ and opening it in ZBrush. I decided to keep the Hair and Eyes as separate subtools.

My first attempt at Polypainting was rough as I didn’t fully understand the tools and brushes I was using. I looked at different methods online and went back over my model. I found the ZBrush youtube channel as a great resource as they do really quick tutorials on the different tools in ZBrush.

The spotlight is a really powerful tool that allows you to paint directly onto the model with other images. You can scale, rotate and adjust these images and apply them directly onto the model with total control. I was using a tablet too so the amount of pressure I applied also determined how strong the brush was. I saw the potential with the insane detail you could put into the skin with ZBrush. I’m not going for a super realistic human character though so I didn’t want to add loads of blemishes so just simple colours and blush was enough for me.

My favourite tools and brushes in ZBrush was the DamStandard, Curve and Curvepinch brushes. This was useful for creating folds around the eyes and also definition on the welded sections of the face. I spent a lot of time experimenting with different brushes but next time I create a character. Surface, Noise Editor and the Deformation tools were also great ways of quickly editing large portions of the model.

Because I like Photoshop so much I decided to go back on the hair and see if I could try a different method of texturing them. I opened the UV as a png and a simple hair texture with Photoshop brushes.

I like the different layers of opacity and think it looks more interesting than just block opaque colour. I’ll probably stick to ZBrush in the future however as it’s a much more powerful tool than Photoshop.

I was able to create the texture maps from Polypaint and then create Normal maps directly in ZBrush. If I wanted to neaten up or edit my textures, I could open the JPEG directly in Photoshop and paint on that.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this Unit. I found it really interesting to go from having a character concept to a 3D model. It was my first time ever modelling something as complex as a character and I’m really proud it’s my own original idea and not an already existing character.

I didn’t have much trouble preproduction with generating ideas and creating mind maps/mood boards. The majority of my issues this Unit came in the production phase but that was mainly due to inexperience and some issues with the programs. I have however begun to enjoy using ZBrush after painting my character.

I got quite frustrated at points as I felt I wasn’t at the quality I wanted. I’m still not happy with the end product but I now have a much better understanding of the tools and programs and know I could work at a faster pace. I’m planning over the summer to do a full rework of my hero character.

As my game concept has changed my characters have changed slightly. I want to go for simpler cartoony proportions for my hero instead of realistic. I think this style would suit my game better. I also think a more cartoony player character will blend better with my very wacky cartoony robot villain. At the moment they contrast and look like they’re from different games.

I’m excited to redesign my character and think this will a much better style for my game concept. I think it’ll also be great for creating fun dynamic animations as the games attacks and mechanics I have planned are very fast paced and colourful.

[mvga17]

1000 Word Post

My focus in for Semester B was to create more captivating characters. In order to do this I looked at the details that were missing and the changes that I should apply to my workflow. I did this through looking at what current practitioners are doing, but also by talking with artists. It is essential to realize that there is a certain kind of order to the learning curve and everyone takes different steps to get into the industry. This semester I have learned that I was missing some essential steps.

To find out why my art was lacking something I started comparing it to other big artists. This is when I discovered Jonas Ronnegard (2018), a freelance artist with eight years’ experience in the industry focusing on environments and specializing in textures. He has created among other resources a set of seam brushes for zBrush.

While analyzing I noticed felt that my 3D sculpts were missing detail. I didn’t understand why because I was adding very small details like skin pores and cloth normals. The JRo seam brushes made me realize something: Detail is defined in certain different levels. The first level are the big details and big surfaces on the silhouette. The second level are smaller details, which you still can see in the silhouette, but they don’t contain big surfaces. The third level is that of the small details, like stitches. The last level is that of the skin pores, almost invisible to the eye. The brushes made me understand that I had been missing the third level of detail. This level of detail made my models look much more interesting.

From the brushes from Ronnegard I discovered about Tobias Koepp, an environment artist who has worked on big games like Horizon: Zero Dawn, Call of Duty and several mobile titles. Comparable to me he keeps a blog for every project, where he shares every single step he takes on his artwork. One artwork in particular, “Oasis” (Koepp, 2017) has inspired me a lot. While keeping my own blog I was always felt I was doing it for no one in particular. However, over the last few months I received a lot of questions from people following my blogs. They wanted me to go into further detail about things that I had written.

In addition to this I also compared his workflow to mine. Koepp works for months on one project. Even smaller projects take a lot time. My own projects had only taken a few weeks up to this point. I have come to realize that it is better to take more time, than to rush it. As a result of taking more time, you can change the concept to your own liking. If something is not working out you can cut it out and recreate it. Instead of making something that I will not like completely, I should change the model until it actually is good enough. This way I will truly find satisfaction with my works.

This semester for me was more about psychological growth rather than a growth in skills. The most inspiring Game Artist I have met yet was Moby Francke at the Playgrounds Festival. He is an art director currently working for Riot, but he also worked on Team Fortress 2. His presentation was all about research, and how to apply this.

One of the biggest marks he made was about inspiration. A lot of artists including myself tend to look at Artstation or Pinterest to become inspired, or to define a concept. Moby declared that it is not good to look at other game art or games when creating something. It already exists and recreating it doesn’t make your concept unique. Instead to make something truly unique it is better to look at references from the old masters, or from real life (Francke, 2007). At that point my entire project was based on looking at other game art. I understood that while I am recreating an exciting environment it is still important to look at new things, instead of that what already exists in the game. Francke also mentioned that being an artist is not a vocation, it is a way of life. And I completely agree with that.

The visit at Rewind made me aware of something that had been missing in my art, which was a story. Having a story in your art intrigues the watcher, which is important if you want to be remembered. I evaluated why Dishonored 2 has such good environments and came to the conclusion that this is because their environments tell a story. Art Director Sebastien Mitton mentioned in an interview (Shepherd, 2016) that in order to create a good story it is incredibly important to use good references. Everything you see in their environments has a purpose, everything has a history or a future. The art is created with a story, not a separate part that is created just for the sake of existing.

The feedback from Rewind also made me understand that there are different steps of learning. For a long time I just focused on having the skills to create a character, learning programmes and techniques. Yet that is not enough. In order to get a job the art should be remembered, and the way to do that is to intrigue the viewer. To add a story.

Another issue in my art that I wanted to address this semester was the lack of soul in my characters. To achieve this I started posing their bodies to give them expression. However, when I saw the facial rig animation created by Snappers (2017) I realized that I had never actually rigged a face before. Each character of me always had the same expression. The first time I applied some facial animation was on the Rewind project. Even while I just animated the eye, the character came suddenly to life! Yes, I specialize in character art, which is a small branch if I just do the modelling. But actually going through the whole character pipeline I should try to become better at rigging/animation as well, to truly give my characters life.

There is still so much to learn, but the master has already paid off. My goal was to be good enough get a job in the UK AAA-industry.  I have actually been contacted to visit two companies. Now it is mostly important for me to remember: research, time, story, soul 

References:

Ronnegard, J. (2018). Jonas Ronnegard - Store. [online] ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/jronn/store [Accessed 3 Mar. 2018]. 

Koepp, T. (2017). Oasis. [online] ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mK011 [Accessed 24 Apr. 2018].

Koepp, T. (2017). #Blocktober. [image] Available at: https://twitter.com/TOBSn08[Accessed 9 Mar. 2018].  

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[ourlittledinosaur]

Our Little Dinosaur

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Our Little Dinosaur

Our Little Dinosaur

This endearing term refers to my son. The name was coined by my husband (aka Lil Dino Daddy) a few weeks before he was born.

One day, while he and I were shopping for baby clothes at our local resale shop, my husband would only consider items that had dinosaurs on them.  After my son arrived in early November, 2016, we finally gave those cute little clothes a purpose. Remembering our shopping adventure, I stealthily selected one of the outfits my husband had picked out – one featuring dinosaurs. I then dressed my tiny baby boy and took him into the other room to show his Daddy. Once my husband saw him in his “stegosaurus” outfit, his eyes grew wide in excitement as he exclaimed, “Aww, come here my little dinosaur!” The name stuck, along with many other endearing pet names we have come up with as time passes.

Our Journey

My husband and I were married nearly six years when I discovered I was pregnant. Those nine months of pregnancy were so very special to me. I loved being pregnant, despite some of the side effects and less than enjoyable symptoms. I enjoyed watching my belly grow and feeling my son move around as he developed and grew strong. I nested from day one. My first baby project was throwing a gender reveal party. We wanted to share our important news with those closest to us, who had prayed with us and supported us.  After that, building the gift registry was especially enjoyable. I researched everything and read dozens upon dozens of reviews before adding them to my list. Browsing through all those cute little baby things only added to the imaginings of my child as I thought of him smiling, playing, and growing. Then the baby shower day arrived! Mothers of all ages shared their tales of pregnancy and parenthood as we shared a meal, played games, and laughed together.

The Learning Curve

Then there was the learning curve. I especially loved the learning part that is involved with a first pregnancy. There is so much to know! The research I did and the knowledge I obtained before delivering my son, (along with the support of my husband and the midwives), was definitely the most positive contributor to the birthing experience.

Now that my baby is here, the learning continues. Oh boy, does the learning continue, whether you enjoy it or not! Learning everything one needs to know to be a hopefully good…ok, Lord, at least decent… parent is all the more challenging while struggling to function through sleep deprivation. This lack of energy in those early months…ok, ok, the first year…has made the time to research and read is as fleeting as those z’s I longed to catch. I realized just how little I invested in the learning that would have been most helpful to me… What I really needed to know was what to expect AFTER my son was born.

This is record of our journey from a mother’s perspective. (Although, I plan to ask Lil Dino Daddy for his perspective too. Where would we be without our Daddies?) I’ll share with you as much as I can from the first moments when we learned we were going to be parents, to the challenges of breastfeeding, tricks for encouraging tummy time, and guiding our son as he learns to walk and talk, and obey. This is our story of “baby makes three” and maybe beyond one day.

My desire is that readers will find this an insightful resource, with stories that both entertain and encourage. My goal as I recount this adventure, is to build this site to be a helpful to mommies-to-be (and daddies too!) as well as new parents. We’ll talk about marriage too, as this is the building block to a healthy, thriving, functional family.

I hope that as readers have questions, you will feel free to pose them, and find many of your answers here.

So, let the journey begin….

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Do you have a nickname or an endearing term for your baby or child? Share in the comments below.

Read More on Pregnancy:

I’m Pregnant! Announcing My Pregnancy Getting Pregnant: It’s Not Like What You See on TV

Read About Breastfeeding:

Prayer, Perseverance, and the Path to 100% Breast Milk 6 Tips and Tricks for Efficient Pumping Oops, I Just Pumped and My Baby is Hungry Fed is Best

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