Dad Thoughts (repurposing Twitter)

Any advice on artists who want to consider making comics? Or general advice on how you do expressions and canvas composition?

All of my advice is trash because I’m still SUPER inexperienced in the comics making department but general comic making tips:

• Read lots of comics. Watch lots of movies. Read lots of stories.

• Have an idea of where you’re going with your story before you get into the heavy duty work of making the comic. Trust me. You’ll be glad you had a direction to go in, instead of wasting your entire pilot episode like I did.

• TRY to keep the cast small and give good character introductions before adding new characters. (I didn’t do this. My story has suffered for it.)

• Make ref sheets for your characters. Bare minimum, if you don’t want to draw new sheets entirely, compile a collage of all the existing images you already use as ref for each character.

• Save your color palettes for each character.

• Draw your KEY panels first. Filler can be done last. Working linearly might cause your art to deteriorate as the page/episode progresses, so get those bigger impact panels done first, and smaller/less impactful panels done last.

Expressions?

• Mirror. Selfies. Etc. When idk how an open mouth looks from a certain angle, I’ll use my own face as reference. It’s fool proof.

• Use OBSCENE amounts of reference. YouTubers. Actors in movies. Etc.

• Appreciate the Art of Subtlety. Not every expression has to be big, dynamic, and bold. Practice working in both extremes. Soft, gentle expressions can be just as good storytellers as bold, extreme expressions.

Canvas composition?

• WOOF IDK IM STILL SUPER BAD AT THIS LOL

VOLTRON WOULDNT GIVE ME /AT LEAST/ ONE SEASON OF CLONE!SHIRO ANGST SO I GOTTA DO EVERYTHING MYSELF (electric boogaloo)

“Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes. The violence comes from a combination of giving up, not caring, and a resignation that getting past it is all you can hope to accomplish. So you kill the hour. You do not work, you do not read, you do not daydream. If you sleep it is not because you need to sleep. And when at last it is over, there is no evidence: no weapon, no blood, and no body. The only clue might be the shadows beneath your eyes or a terribly thin line near the corner of your mouth indicating something has been suffered, that in the privacy of your life you have lost something and the loss is too empty to share.”

— Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves

11.02.2020 - cluttered thoughts, reunion with yuka, etc.

So, I was cleaning up some shit in the garage, and decided it might be nice to keep a blog. Mostly for cluttering up the hoarded thoughts, mental baggage. And also, possibly for reflection and writing. It might be nice to do lit/learning reflection too, though I feel pretty removed from that sphere. Who knows. It’s very possible I’ll write a LOT tonight, then, not write again, for months.

I’m not sure what to say. Recently, I talked to Yuka over Google Hangouts for the first time in.. well, almost a year. Despite her falling under my ‘closest irl friends’ category. While it was mostly pretty darn heartwarming and just, pleasant.. at first, it was scary, and a bit awkward, and uh, especially when I tried to open up to her, and started being honest about my feelings of not feeling able to face her.

It’s kind of odd, to be honest, that I am pretty fucking in touch with my emotions - maybe too much, and I ruminate enough that it’s likely a little unhealthy, but I have trouble talking about or articulating that shit to other people. I talk about my feelings a lot but I’m not very open? I suppose in conversation, I substitute opinion with impressions/emotions, haha.

It makes sense to struggle with vulnerability though. Even writing out that word makes me cringe a little. Vulnerability. Oh, to be vulnerable, bare all, your weaknesses, flaws, self-hatred, worries, fears, anxieties, shame, and all. That’s not easy. Ok some things that came to mind: Ben Whishaw, Dealer (the band), that final memory scene in Eternal Sunshine, and dreams where all your subconscious, selfish desires come out.

I can’t tell if being vulnerable is a good thing or not, really. Would people read you as being weak and sensitive? Too uncomfortably open? Is that kind of person likeable? Or should one stick to that comfortable, surface level banter? I know it’s stupid asking those questions, like everything, it depends, it’s all about balance. I really think there’s something beautiful about vulnerability, but actually *being* that, w-wew.

To be honest, I shy away from DnMs. I don’t know how to talk that stuff out. And can anything be solved? I guess it’s about trust, and having someone you CAN open up to. I always much preferred listening to people about their problems and empathising, than talking about my own. Yuka said I ‘bottle things up’, and I really do, until it bursts out (with tragic consequences, far too late) or slowly slowly sinks me.

Where did this come from, this secretiveness? I think it comes from fear of consequences, ultimately. If I act, there will be consequences. If I speak out, voice, express, things might not result in something better. :’ ) Threat of punishment, being ignored, already being a negative presence (outsider, poor, stinky), probably compounded that. And even now, it’s much the same, I don’t like to stand out or speak up, and it’s self sabotage, essentially.

[…] it only takes two facing mirrors to construct a labyrinth.

Jorge Luis Borges, Nightmares; Seven Nights (tr. by Eliot Weinberger), 1977 (via megairea)

Máster Diseño Gráfico 2017-18. Diseño de folleto para bicicletas Stella (segunda parte). Proyecto de Esther Sepúlveda.

The air of the room hung heavy with smoke from the doctor’s cigarette. The draught kept us from opening the windows. It would have been silent—but my mother had protested when I tried to smash the cuckoo clock on the wall. So now, it wasn’t silent.

Selma looked dead. If I was anyone else, I’d say that she looked beautiful, even with the sunken cheeks and the skin-wrapped bones that passed for her limbs.

The doctor took his eyes off of her, and searched for the ashtray, which he was pleased to find was sitting nearby. After tapping his cigarette on it, he resumed smoking, lighting up a tiny little orange-red circle at the end of the cigarette.

“If you just want to pay your respects, we could invite you at the funeral,” I said. It was not meant kindly. I’d learned how to say things like that from my mother—how you can take a word and wrap a handkerchief around it, so that you can stab with it less conspicuously.

The doctor tapped off some more ash and sniffled. “No, I can heal her,” he said at last. He seemed tired, but that should not be surprising. It was nearly 9 pm, and there was no telling how long he had been working all day.

“Do you want to?” I asked.

The doctor took a deep breath, which resulted in more of a wheeze, and and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “But I need the patient to co-operate with me.”

I looked at Selma, who looked dead, and I imagined her hand shaking. I imagined what her moan would sound like, as she came to. If she came to.

The doctor shook his head before I could say something mean to him.

“You called me here because you know me and what I do, right?” he asked. “Then you have to let me do my thing. Being impatient and passive aggressive won’t bring your wife back any faster.”

“What exactly is your thing?” I asked. “I only called you because I heard you were a doctor around these parts. We only moved in here last month.”

Now the doctor looked at me with eyes that looked at once endangered and curious. He loosed his tie a little. “Oh,” he said. “That explains a lot.”

After rubbing his eyes with two fingers, he sighed. “Look, I am in contact with your wife—telepathically. I can tune my mind into hers, and we’re trying to negotiate a healing. She isn’t co-operating, though, maybe because she’s not used to what I do. Now I understand why she’s being so resistant to her own treatment: your family is not from around here.”

I held up a hand. “What exactly do you do?” I asked. “What is the negotiation about? What are you talking about?”

The doctor chuckled, which shook his entire body. “Funny, you ask the same questions she does, and in the exact same way she does.” After composing himself some, he resumed. “I offer to heal your wife from his situation, and in exchange, she will pay me with some of her lifespan. That’s the best I can do.”

I build fights like I build conversations and dialogue, if one person does something, how is the other going to react?

Yo, do you have any tips on writing fight/action scenes? Yours are really good so I thought I'd ask someone who seems like they know what they're doing lol

oh thankee!!

I’m not sure what to say exactly, I usually just use my instincts or research I’ve done previously. The best thing I can say is to know your character’s ability levels when it comes to fighting or combat. If a character is a good fighter, they might end a fight easily with a few movements. If they’re up against a fight that’s as good as them, then it might be longer.

Do some research into different types of fights, I took a class last year on self-defense, and as a result, I watched a bit of fight choreography, and did some myself. A gun fight is gonna end differently than say, a fist fight. Research is your best friend for this!

Describe the actions in detail, make sure to add both actions and reactions, if your character does something, say, throw a punch, (your action), then the person they’re fighting is going to do something, (reaction). I build fights like I build conversations and dialogue, if one person does something, how is the other going to react? This is where you can thread in skill level. If a character isn’t well versed in fighting, their action might be to throw a punch, but the punch might be weak, and therefore the reaction would be to either catch or block the punch. Other details that are important are the characters own reactions to the fight. If they throw a punch, are they prepared for their knuckles getting hurt? If they get hit, can they handle both the pain and the shock? Is their adrenaline pumping because they’re afraid or are they calm and cool? Research into how certain things feel, (like where you can get hit with a knife and not completely bleed out), can also be good.

Figure out how you want the fight to end before it begins. If you want your character getting out without a scratch, then they should reflect that in their fight. If they get hurt, show that too! 

hope this helps!

Do you listen to classical music/Piano/Instrumental? If yes can you suggest me some?🤍

classical music is my whole life. my highest highs, my lowest lows, everything in-between. a few of my favorites, categorized by mood:

music that wrecks me:

tomaso antonio vitali: chaconne in g minor

ludwig van beethoven: string quartet no. 15 in a minor

arvo pärt: cantus in memory of benjamin britten / spiegel im spiegel

gregorio allegri: miserere mei, deus

frédéric chopin: nocturne in g minor / prelude in d-flat major

ludwig van beethoven: symphony no. 3, mvt ii

j.s. bach: toccata and fugue in d minor: ii. fugue

johannes brahms: ein deutsches requiem: ii

music that brings me back:

ludwig van beethoven: moonlight sonata: iii. presto agitato 

henri vieuxtemps: violin concerto no. 5 in a minor: iii. allegro con fuoco

antonio vivaldi: violin concerto in e minor

j.s. bach: harpsichord concerto in d minor / piano concerto in a minor: iii

ludwig van beethoven: symphony no. 7: ii. allegretto

camille saint-saëns: introduction and rondo capriccioso

niccolò paganini: violin concerto no. 2 in b minor: iii. “la campanella”

franz schubert: quartet no. 14 in d minor (“death and the maiden”)

edvard grieg: piano concerto in a minor, op. 16

pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky: the nutcracker: scene xiv - pas de deux

music that makes me yearn:

w.a. mozart: piano concerto no. 21 in c major, k. 461: ii. andante

ludwig van beethoven: piano concerto no. 5 in e-flat major, op. 73: ii. adagio / sonata “pathetique” op. 13: ii. adagio cantabile

g.f. handel: sarabande in d minor, hwv 437

j.s. bach: adagio from concerto no. 3 in d minor

ludwig van beethoven: piano concerto no. 3 in c minor, op. 37: ii. largo

erik satie: gnossiennes

claude debussy: suite bergamesque, clair de lune, no. 3

franz liszt: liebestraum no. 3, notturno

gabriel fauré: après un rêve

frédéric chopin: nocturne in c-sharp minor / nocturne in b-flat minor

w.a. mozart: piano concerto no. 23: ii. adagio

franz schubert: 4 impromptus, op. 90, d. 899: no. 3 in g-flat: andante

christoph willibald von gluck: dance of the blessed spirits, orfeo ed euridice

music that feels like a dark fairy-tale:

béla bartók: romanian folk dances, sz. 56 - iii. 

claude debussy: children’s corner, l. 113: iv. the snow is dancing

hildur guðnadóttir: leyfðu ijósinu 

christoph willibald von gluck: melodie, orfeo ed euridice

gabriel fauré: pavane op. 50

jean-philippe rameau: le rappel des oiseaux

camille saint-saëns: le carnaval des animaux: aquarium

jean sibelius: nocturne op. 51, no. 3

heinrich wilhelm ernst: grand caprice on schubert’s der erlkönig, op. 26 

pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky: swan lake (suite), op. 20: i. scene (swan theme)

franz schubert: schwanengesang: ständchen, d. 957

music that reminds me of dusty practice rooms, quiet cobblestone streets after the opera, and resonant cathedral bells:

w.a. mozart: piano sonata in c-major, k. 545: ii. adagio 

w.a. mozart: piano sonata no. 11, k. 331: i. theme (andante grazioso)

ludwig van beethoven: piano sonata in g-major, op. 49, no. 2

franz schubert: impromptu op. 142, d.935: no. 3 in b-flat, var 3

w.a. mozart: deh vieni non tardar, le nozze di figaro

j.s. bach: invention 1 / invention 6 / goldberg variations

stephen heller: 30 études mélodiques et progressives: op. 46, no. 8

j.b. cramer: 60 selected studies: étude no. 10

arcangelo corelli: concerto grosso in g minor: ii. allegro

some devastatingly beautiful soundtracks and instrumental pieces:

sufjan stevens: untitled (all delighted people side d - ep) 

ólafur arnalds: improvisations /  loftið verður skyndilega kalt / erla’s waltz 

hildur guðnadóttir: strokur / torrek / Þoka / elevation 

keaton henson: romantic works / la naissance

coeur de pirate: pilgrims on a long journey / leave your castle

dario marianelli: atonement / pride and prejudice

abel korzeniowski: evgeni’s waltz / come, gentle night

yann tiersen: comptine d’un autre été, l’après-midi 

and some vocal shout-outs:

g.b. pergolesi: stabat mater

j.s. bach: quia respexit, magnificat in d major

a. scarlatti: mentro io godo, il giardino di rose

g.f. handel: ombra mai fu, serse

gaetano donizetti: il dolce suono, lucia di lammermoor

vincenzo bellini: casta diva, norma

w.a. mozart: requiem in d minor