you died

Just jotting down how I went about fleshing out Word/Zulay/Abyll/Priesthood pre-series

I’m sorry I’m just extremely fascinated by this mysterious time period which is rather eventful for the orange traffic cone exposition man. I think this is more of a jotting down references to canon lore (QnA with the creators + The Alchemist) for my design/drawing/writing choices for Zulay and Word lol.

Injected some old sketches into this because so much text.

(Idk if anyone cares about this stuff but yeah I am invested XD)

I love Dragon Eye leader Zulay meeting essentially homeless Word lkjwgdsfg (shhh growing up in a cult means he’s got the social skills/street smarts of a bucket in dragon city, don’t @ me.) This is what prompted the whole “Actually, Zulay’s intentions for recruiting Word into the Dragon Eyes was rather self-motivated and sketch/immoral.” aspect of my version of Zulay haha. I admit my initial wanting her to be just as evil was prompted by the tired idea of her being a... good/kind influence on Word. She *is* an influence, but not necessarily for him to be a better person. She’s got more experience than him running her own crime ring afterall, Zulay is a bad cookie herself and I love her for it. I’ve briefly written about what I think are their brands of evil here.

I’ve tried to make my Zulay and Word stick somewhat to the lore, if with a little more needling into Word’s character as someone who just got kicked out of a cult. (Reading actual stories of cult survivors paints a very different picture as to what that would look like. It’s the equivalent of being abandoned by family, combined with the culture shock of growing up in Old City then booted into the slums of Down City. No wonder he’s distrusting of humans.)

((No matter how noble or well respected a cult, a cult is still a cult. Also the Dragon Priests...... are very morally grey. They’re a doomsday cult, believing the inevitability of the Dragon Human War, rather than interested in preventing it. They raised two orphans into believing it too, and ushering the war to come.))

I’ve tweaked to give Zulay more agency, more goals, more personhood beyond being an influence to Word for his character development. She initially sees Word as more of an asset to her own plans for crime and amassing of power in Down City. Not quite Word’s supervillainy (aka outright war), but not far from it either. Think mafia boss to be. Her plans of course, are less about building weapons and more about amassing money, resource and manpower in Down City. (Down City Council first, then work her way up.) They evolve when she finds a brilliant gear engineer to join her. Abyll is her right hand man, Word eventually joins them.

In Ep 12 Misjudged, I was perplexed by why Word mentioned being kicked out of racing (not the cult haha) when we have the below:

I’ve spun this to mean his initial debut gear on the tracks were too violent and he gets booted off the All City Races. (From here is me fudging with canon now) Anyway, unable to race to get into the academy with little support anywhere beyond his dragon, he’s perfect to be snapped up by... ambitious, fearless and reckless Zulay. With her experience in dealing with illicit goods and general criminal underbelly of Dragon City, she’s a major help in getting Word’s gear marketable and scalable.

Word is easily manipulated into her fold because of both affections but also holy shit getting booted out of a cult and onto the streets in a foreign city is lonely and sucks. In my doodles she falls for him, her extremely smart but also extremely dorky gear forger/scientist. We don’t get to see nerd Word because he’s essentially exposition man in the series haha. (And lol we’re focusing on the teen characters so he’s a complete slime ball :’D)

Okay ramble over. TLDR I just really love the idea of two very terrible, very different people being in love okay. Makes the death or one or the other more tragic or something to ponder about. I think if Word died instead of Zulay, things like the Dragon Eyes stealing Beau would be very different... potentially more dangerous due to their cunning. That’s a story for another time haha

( tom hiddleston, 38, cismale, he / him, (November 18th) Was that CONRAD ODAIR? I heard a rumor they work for the FAUST family, but who knows for sure ? They can be a bit SULLEN & TEMPERAMENTAL, but I also heard they can be CHARISMATIC & HONORABLE. You’ll usually find them at THE PINT in their spare time, when they’re not being an BLACK MARKET GUNSMITH & CARCANOS. You may want to keep an eye on that one !

                       “ʏᴏᴜ’ᴠᴇ ɢᴏᴛ ᴇɴᴇᴍɪᴇꜱ? ɢᴏᴏᴅ. ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴇᴀɴꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ’ᴠᴇ ꜱᴛᴏᴏᴅ                                      ᴜᴘ ꜰᴏʀ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ, ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴛɪᴍᴇ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪꜰᴇ”

- B A S I C -

Full Name: Conrad Barthelemy Odair Age: 38 Occupation: Black Market Gunsmith / Arm’s Dealer Frequented Locations: Port of Chicago, Tony’s Guns and Sporting Good, Cook’s Gun Range, Wolves, The Den, The Pint, Faust Manor Gang Affiliation: Faust Gang Role: Carcanos Birthday: November 18th Zodiac: Scorpio Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

- F A M I L Y -

Father: Edmund Odair (deceased) Mother: Ursula Harker-Odair (deceased) Sibling(s): Three younger sisters and a younger brother (22 - 36) Uncle: Patrick Harker (deceased) Children: 2 - Son, Ellis (7) & Daughter, Cora (3) Significant Other: Estranged Wife

- P E R S O N A L I T Y -

(+) Charismatic, Friendly, Amorous, Honorable, Persuasive (-) Pedantic, Neurotic, Temperamental, Resentful, Manipulative

- L I K E S   /   D I S L I K E S - 

Globetrotting / Traveling

Hiking

Thrill Seeker - Reckless Driving (Need For Speed style), Cliff Climbing, B.A.S.E. Jumping, Skydiving, Free Soloing

Going to the gym

Going down to the shooting range

Tinkering with machinery and mechanics

Woodworking

Sketching

Day Drinking

Cooking

- B I O G R A P H Y -

Conrad was born in London, England and spent most of his earlier years there, alongside his four younger siblings and his parents, before eventually being sent to live in Chicago, IL.

His father, Edmund, owned a construction company and his mother, Ursula, was a housewife who also ran a hair salon side business from their home, so they weren’t exactly wealthy but they certainly got by just fine. His father’s company made pretty good money, more than enough to support the family of seven.

That, of course, changed when Conrad was fourteen. His father was tragically killed while on a job, when he accidentally lost his footing and fell from the eighth floor of a hotel he and his crew were in the process of building.

Edmund’s death devastated the family and it’s what inevitably tore them apart. Left with many bills and a lot of debt from her husband’s death and unable to cope with the stress of trying to support herself and her five children on her own meager salary, Ursula sent the oldest three of her children - Conrad and two of his sisters - to America, specifically Chicago, to live with her older brother, Patrick.

Life in America and with his uncle was...interesting and enlightening, to say the least, but by no means was it something he initially welcomed. As a young teenager, fresh of of mourning for his father and having just been shipped away by his mother - leaving him with the feeling of being abandoned by her - Conrad lost it. He developed severe anger, attachment and abandonment issues towards the world around him. He grew extremely close to his sisters, and oddly enough to his insanely strict uncle, but he had a hard time trusting anyone else outside of his now small family unit. He had very few friends and the friends he did have were not great influences.

He became unruly and reckless, daredevilling it through his teen years (and beyond) by chasing thrills and the accompanied adrenalin rush, while steadfastly ignoring all risks to himself and to others. He was a total speed demon and an acrophile (a lover of heights) - so he loved getting into his car and driving as fast as he possibly could, which resulted in a lot of reckless driving charges, and he would climb to the highest points of the city on dares from his friends just to spray paint stupid and immature messages where literally nobody else could see them - just to prove that he could and because he wasn’t afraid.

That wasn’t the only trouble he would get up to, however. He was often getting into fights, rebelling against every sort of authority figure who dared to try and curb his behavior, whilst acting impulsive and breaking many laws behind their backs by committing minor crimes like petty larceny and vandalism.

Conrad became a smug and very smart-assed delinquent and he reveled in it. Even getting arrested a few times and being forced under house arrest for six months and probation for another six, and having to serve community service didn’t deter his behavior - despite his uncle trying to beat some type of sense into his thick skull on many occasions.

It wasn’t until he got his first real job as a dockhand down at the Port of Chicago at 17 (forced upon him by his uncle), where he got introduced to the Faust gang and their illegal smuggling, that he learned to moderately quell his ‘I do what I want, when I want’ attitude. He eventually joined the gang, going through the initiation at 18.

He has been with the Fausts for going on 20 years now. He started out working mainly down at the port helping with loading and unloading shipments, although nowadays, his days as a mere longshoreman were pretty much over.

Sure, he was still heavily involved in the Fausts’ smuggling business, but he is mainly focused on gunsmithing for the Fausts and also selling his work on the black market. 

He designs and hand-crafts all of his guns, and he also does gun repairs and makes custom modifications to them. Most, if not all, of the work he does is extremely illegal.

Conrad learned how to make guns from his uncle, Patrick, who had been an engineer and gunsmith for 40-odd years, having owned his own smithy and artillery repair shop.

Even though Conrad more or less mentored under his uncle when it came to learning the art of craft of firearms, that wasn’t to say that the old man himself was by any means a kind and gentle soul. Patrick Harker was very much an old school 'tough love' kind of guy, who was beyond strict and had no qualms with throwing fists and verbal punches and generally using a heavy hand whenever it came to dealing with his unruly nephew. Patrick had high expectations for Conrad, he saw the potential the young man had and refused to let him get away unpunished with his shitty behavior. He might not have gone about it the best way, but his intentions had certainly been good.

Despite Uncle Patrick’s rough handling and borderline abusive tendencies, Conrad eventually learned to greatly respect and appreciate the old man. He came to realize just how much the man actually cared for him - which turned out to be a lot more than his mother did...and that meant something.

Throughout his early and mid-20′s, Conrad spent most of his time working, honing his craft and of course charming his way through women. 

He was a serial romantic - he loved and laid with more women than he could ever care to admit; the idea of settling down and actually committing to a single person for the rest of his life was something he truly abhorred.

That is, until he met his now estranged wife. He met her while at Faust party and there was just something about her that had him utterly smitten and forgetting all his previous reservations on relationships and long term commitments. The two got married within a year and a half and started a family of their own immediately.

Of course, it didn’t taken them long after their wedding to realize their relationship was perhaps not as healthy and happy as it should have been. Their lust blinded them from seeing just how incompatible they were for each other. With his still lingering attachment issues and terrible temper and her own stubborn and hotheadedness, their fights were often quite explosive. They loved each other, that much was obvious - and their attraction for the other was still intense and unmatched - but their clashing personalities were too volatile.

It was after the birth of their second and last child, Cora, that they finally called it quits. That was three years ago.

- W A N T E D   C O N N E C T I O N S -

Toxic Estranged Wife (and casual hookup) - They’ve been separated or two and a half years. They have a strong love/hate relationship - their fights are often very intense and loud and leave the two of them extremely hurt and angry, and yet it usually ends with them in bed together somehow. Angry sex, passional sex, lust-filled. They do love each other, but at the end of the day their relationship was fueled more by their lust than any other actual feelings. It was definitely not healthy, and so for their children’s sake and also for themselves, they decided to separate. Still married for the time being, but no longer living together.

Younger Sisters / brother - Conrad has three sisters and one younger brother. Two of his sisters (the oldest two - between the ages of 32-35) came with him to Chicago when he was 14, while the youngest sister and his brother (between the ages of 24-28) never left England. Conrad is very close with the first two, but has no real relationship with the youngest siblings.

Flings / One-Nighters

Love Interest(s)

Faust Affiliates 

Rival Gang / Enemies

Drinking Buddies

Best Friends / Friends

ANY AND ALL CONNECTIONS! I’m open and down to do whatever!

* . day to night , dark to light     fall the  s a n d s  o f  t i m e .

                         { ross lynch, twenty-one, trans male, he/him } Have you seen ZELD CYELN “CIEL” NOHANSEN walking around?  Little do they know, they’re the child of LINK & PRINCESS ZELDA from THE LEGEND OF ZELDA, and they HAVE TWO SIBLINGS ( one older, one younger ) .  I guess that explains why they’re so CHARMING & ARTISTIC and GUARDED & INSECURE.  They are a STREAMER. — penned by eve.

FIRST THINGS FIRST.

Hello hello again , folks !! It’s EVE and if you thought I went completely feral about Resident Evil earlier you are . . . sorely mistaken because now we are in Zelda territory and Zelda encompasses literally every fiber of my being. This OC is my most beloved ( despite the fact he’s an absolute prick ) and I have been itching to write him as a next-gen of Zelink , so VOILA , but just a few things !!

I love The Legend of Zelda . . . a lot. That’s the first thing. And my friends call me the Zelda lorekeeper since I know pretty much everything about the games like that back of my hand.

Another - as it’s always been a fact about his character , Ciel here is diagnosed with Type II Bipolar. Now , I want to clarify that I also am the same , and he was originally written as a comfort character to sorta see myself in a character I wrote ( and he became his own dude over the years. ) It’s not something that’ll pop up often , but I just wanted to let y’all know since I’m not gonna erase my own rep , I write from experience since I’m the same. 

TWS AHEAD : Manipulation , mental illness

I. THE PAST - DO YOU REMEMBER ??

The second of The Hero & The Princess - Prince Zeld Cyeln Nohansen , carrying on the traditional naming conventions to keep the name Zelda in the family with obvious corruptions. Your older brother could not - and AS WELL , you are the only child in the family that possesses the holy powers of the royal bloodline that your mother carries , as shown by the brand of the Triforce on the back of your right hand. And immediately , expectations are thrust upon your shoulders before you can even walk.

It’s because of your power that you , instead of the eldest , are to succeed the throne as the next king of Hyrule once you become of age , and although your mother vows to not treat you the same as your father treat her , she often reminds you that the beautiful , sunlight-bathed kingdom will be yours. 

So you grow. You grow & you adapt to the life of royalty , the CROWN PRINCE , and your relationship with your parents is better than most. While you’re significantly closer to your mother than your father , spending your days in the library with her & learning how to paint her visage , you also follow your father out to scope the kingdom on horseback. You grow up kind & gentle , the intelligence of your mother but the softness of your father , and it is well-known throughout the kingdom that you are DESTINED for good things.

It’s when you’re fourteen years old that you meet a boy.

A boy your age , a boy who smiles at you and you get fairies fluttering in your stomach. A boy who tells you that you’re pretty and by Nayru are you getting your first crush ?? 

Hm.

But you can’t see through the lies - that even though you’re young , manipulation knows no age and you are heartbroken to find that this boy leads you to a group of bandits that go on the attack and aim to STEAL the raw power you carry. After you’re tricked into bringing magical artifacts to their clutches , that is , that your family has gathered over the years - the goddess harp , the ocarina of time , and the cursed , wicked Majora’s Mask.

Your father sweeps into rescue you , and although you feel guilty , you aren’t berated for your mistakes. He only wants to know what happened , and if you’re alright , and you’re a sobbing mess but you tell your parents everything and they recognize that the evil forces that plagued them are NOW targeting their offspring. 

You are only fourteen. But the betrayal turns you cold , and you close yourself off , now hesitant to trust. And you learn that there are DANGEROUS forces out there who want to hurt & use you in the same way , hence why you use your mother’s old study connected to her old bedroom ( now currently yours ) and you begin to research , research , research. You look back on the legends of old , and start practicing the magic of not only your bloodline , but the taboo power of shadow - such as that of the TWILI , a project aiming to recreate the mirror. You also use the mask , hoping to tap into the wicked power it carries to turn it around. You train with the Sheikah , as Sheikah blood runs in your veins as well , to master the art of using the shadows & the unseen to your advantage. You become a teenager devoted to your work - a mad scientist & magician , and the whispers of a ‘ mad alchemist prince ’ sweep throughout the kingdom due to the rumors you can stay awake for DAYS working on one thing , before crashing and moving onto the next. 

But there is still pain - a loneliness & a hurt which you try to bury deep down , but it’ll still consume you to the point where you don’t know how to think clearly. You try and mask yourself best you can , but there is still a little boy , deep down , who only wishes to be loved and cared for and cherished by people his own age. Your work is your comfort but you are also learning to sink yourself in it to the point where it’s becoming a hindrance. 

One day , maybe , you’ll get what you want - and everything will be okay. But the world is currently at your throat , so . . . how long will that be ??

Your sixteenth year changes everything. The Crown Prince goes missing , and he is lost without the comfort of his parents.

And he awakens in another day , as a new being , with only his wit & his charm to carry on.

II. PRESENT - WHO ARE YOU , YOURSELF ??

Okay so IN A NUTSHELL Ciel is the crown prince of Hyrule due to the fact he’s essentially the ‘Zelda’ of his generation - the only child that carries the sacred power of the goddess Hylia , and this kid is incredibly smart and artistic but due to being manipulated by dark forces when he was young , he’s EXTREMELY insecure and lacks trust , instead trying to become as powerful as possible by any means possible so he isn’t hurt again since now he’s a target like his parents were.

HIS CHARACTER . . . is incredibly complex. It doesn’t change much with or without memories because even though he hasn’t experienced that same shit , those trust issues & insecurities are still well-embedded into him. The main difference is that he’s still smart , but not because of excessive research on Hyrulean magic & history & technology.

ON THE SURFACE , Ciel appears to be honestly very exuberant , quick-talking , and , to some , annoying. He’s a bit of a loudmouth , he seems harmless in the aspect that he isn’t downright mean or anything , he’s just . . . a nuisance. Charming in the aspect that he knows how to talk his way out of any situation since he has a MOUTH on him , but he knows how to use it. He overshares , it seems , but in turn , he’s actually not revealing anything about himself of any importance. He’s just keeping his cards to his chest but he doesn’t anyone to see so , so he places counterfeit cards on the table.

Ciel is always one step ahead , and the best way to be is to convince everyone else that you’re far behind. 

NOW ON THE INSIDE . . . Ciel is extremely caring & gentle. He cares a lot about the people he loves , but he’s hesitant to open up or trust other people given the fact he doesn’t want to be hurt , and he doesn’t want to make mistakes. He’s very observant & again , incredibly intelligent , knowing well how to read the atmosphere and pick out things that most don’t notice. He is insecure in the fact that he constantly thinks horribly of himself , and although he’s great at hiding it , it’s easy to get his feelings hurt. He hates that he has to keep on a mask since it makes him easily unlikable , but he thinks it’s the only way to stave off the most damage. But he’s a good kid & has a heart of gold , it’s just that . . . his heart has a few booboos on it. He CRAVES love & validation & affection but he’s afraid to ask for it or to take it since he’s gone down worse roads before by opening up to the wrong people.

He’s an artist - very talented in drawing & painting !! His apartment is littered with sketches & drawings and supplies and he would’ve gone to art school but money is tight and he doesn’t know he’s a prince in his actual reality so . . . yeah.

But his day job is that he’s a VERY popular video game streamer named Alchemyst , mainly doing let’s plays of adventure games & stuff with friends to get a good laugh. He also has a tendency to go on hilarious rants in a lot of his videos , resulting in MANY fanmade compilations & memes. He’s got a dedicated fanbase that he openly adores , and streaming also sorta helps him since he is a bit afraid of going into the outside world slightly. 

It’s funny , because as a streamer , he isn’t at all obnoxious or annoying - it’s the closest he gets to acting like himself , even if he has to act a little more EXTROVERTED than he actually is. 

THAT’S THE BASIS again , much more of a show than tell character but . . . Love him. I love him.

I DON’T have much ideas for wanted connections at this point aside from like . . . friends , exes , crushes , enemies , fans of his stream , etc. When I get more of a braincell I’ll put specific stuff down , but if it HELPS his fake life is shrouded in mystery bc Ciel doesn’t like talking about it ( aka , his fake past was p bad so he just prefers to act like he came out of fucking nowhere. )

But that’s it !! I’ll b responding to starters & calls soooon ~ ! I am ALL for plotting if u guys want , so just hit me up on here or Discord n I’ll respond as soon as I can !!

[ ROMEE STRIJD, FEMALE, SHE / HER] — If you’re strolling Derry today, you might see [ PRISCILLA GOLDWYN ] along the way! The [ TWENTY-THREE ] year old can usually be found at [ THE GOLDEN SPOON DINER ], when they aren’t busy with [ FREELANCE ART or WORKING OUT ]. I hear they seem to be [ BUBBLY and FRIENDLY ], but they are also rumored to be [ NAIVE and GULLIBLE ]. I’m sure they’d never admit it, but they’re terrified of [ NEEDS & INJECTIONS ]

- G E N E R A L -

Full Name: Priscilla Yvette Goldwyn Nickname(s): Prissy - it’s rare that she’s addressed by her full name, as everyone she knows calls her Prissy Age: 23 Occupation: Waitress at Golden Spoon Diner / Freelance Artist Birthday: March 4th Zodiac: Pisces Height: 5′9″ Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Blue

- F A M I L Y -

Father: Patrick Goldwyn Mother: Jane Goldwyn Siblings: Older Brother, Older Sister

- P E R S O N A L I T Y -

(+) Bubbly, Friendly, Creative, Compassionate (-) Naive, Gullible, Clumsy, Scatterbrained

She’s probably the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, but due to her being rather sheltered by her parents growing up, she is way too naive and gullible for this harsh world. Also, she’s a bit of a ditz, so forgive her for that. She’s not by any means dumb, but because of her naivety and gullibility, it can often appear that way, initially. So don’t write her off as just another ‘dumb blonde’, because she’ll certainly surprise you if you do.

- H E R   B I G G E S T    F E A R -

Trypanophobia -  is an extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles.

Prissy has always been terrified of needle and injections and by extension, hospitals. There wasn’t anything traumatic in her life that caused this fear or anything, so she knows that it’s quite an irrational fear to have, but just the thought of needles had her feelings extremely anxious and uncomfortable.

- B A C K S T O R Y -

Is the youngest daughter and third child of Patrick Goldwyn - the owner and CEO of Goldwyn Timber & Logging Co, a large-scale commercial timber production company, founded by her great-great-great grandfather in 1907 just outside of Derry, Maine.

They were extremely wealthy.

Prissy was born and raised in Derry.

Has two older siblings - a much older brother and an older sister.

Grew up right next door to the Lancasters, so she and Leona have always been really close friends.

Did not go to public school. She was home schooled by her mother throughout her entire childhood and adolescent years, and so because of this, she was very sheltered, which really prohibited her social and mental growth as an individual. Thankfully, she did have a few neighborhood friends that she hung out with quite a bit, but she was still quite a lonely and rather shy child, and because of this, has a great aversion to being alone as an adult.

She has always been very creative and artistic, being into painting, sketching and sculpting since she was very young. Proud of their daughter’s artistic talents, her parents encouraged her, which allowed her to freely explore and expand her artistic ability to multiple media. By the time she was 18, she was phenomenal at most mediums of art, and she knew that she wanted to go to school to study it, and make it a career.

After turning 18, Prissy went to an art school in Portland for four years. After being sheltered her entire life, going off alone to college had been a terrifying experience, but she’d had Leona there for the first two years so that made everything slightly better. She wasn’t alone, at least. Although it often felt like it, with the way Leona’s partying and substance abuse seemed to pretty much take over her life, although Prissy was unaware of her friend’s problems for a great portion of the time Leona was in Portland.

College brought out the best in Prissy, and she quickly grew out of her shy little shell and become an extremely extroverted young woman, even though she never quite lost her naivety or scatterbrained tendencies.

She graduated after earning her bachelor’s agree in Art, and was quick to  move back to Derry. She now does freelance and commission work, while waiting tables at the Golden Spoon Diner for a just a little extra money. She also runs her own YouTube channel, where she does arts and crafts tutorials.

Often has her head in the clouds, and is very rarely grounded to reality. She has a way of zoning out a lot, as she’s constantly daydreaming.

When her paternal grandmother died last year, Prissy inherited her large colonial home. Neither her brother or sister had wanted the responsibility of taking care of the massive property, and her father was never home to do so himself, so it fell on Prissy. She loved the property, and the house, but it quickly became a little overwhelming, even with her father’s money to help her, so she had Leona move in with her to help with the costs. But after a year, it was obvious that the house was still hugely a burden, so they agreed to open the house up even more, in the hopes of finding a full house of roommates, to help them out and to take off some of the financial cost.

- W A N T E D   C O N N E C T I O N S -

Older Brother - He can either work for the family company or he could do his own thing. He’s quite a bit older than Prissy, but they’re still really close. She looks up to him quite a bit. (30-36 - Chris Hemsworth, UTP)

Older Sister - She and her sister are very close, as well, being that they’re likely relatively close in age. (25-28 - UTP)

Housemates - The colonial home is a massive 5 bedroom / 4.5 bathroom home, with lots of space. It’s got a grand entrance, larger sitting room, smaller parlor, beautiful kitchen, two offices, a full basement where a rec room and Prissy’s art studio are located, and there’s a garden and greenhouse in the back.  ( 4 / 5 rooms taken)

Prissy, obviously, has the master bedroom

Leona Lancaster is the 2nd roommate

Killian Daniels is the 3rd roommate

Summer Vincent is the 4th roommate

Needs ONE (1) more to make a full house.

Co-Workers - She works as a waitress down at The Golden Spoon, so having a few people she to connect with through work would be nice.

Frequent Customers - Locals who go to the diner on a frequent basis wouldn’t go unwelcome either.

Friends - She could ALWAYS use some friends around town. Whether they’re friends she’s known her entire life or newly developed friendships...either way works.

Hey Luna!

 It's so great to hear from you! I've been alright, had a few health problems last week but I'm back on track and doing much better now. And yeah isn't Emfy awesome?! I should draw her sometime :D As for you sketch request, I thought you might like this Light in the Dark inspired picture instead! (Don't fear, I haven't given up on the story, I've just been super busy with work!)

And though I can't give you a date, I can give you a preview of the next chapter, The Star Gaze! Hope you enjoy, and may the force be with you, always!

The Star Gaze snippet below the cut:

...

Sabine's POV I turned to my side, the wooden frame of the bed creaking at my unrest. The room was shrouded in darkness, and the painted walls and colourful murals seemed dull in the dim glow of moonlight from outside the window. A cool breeze wafted across my skin, but I didn't feel the chill. I didn't feel anything, in fact. I was completely and utterly, empty. Shifting my gaze across the roof, my eyes fixed onto the painting directly above my head. It was a simple tribute to the family I'd grown to love, with Kanan, Hera, Zeb, and even Ezra held in a headlock by the the older boy. I had added the blue haired orphan to the mural not long after he'd joined the crew, specifically the day after he stood up to that bully in my defence. It was an act of loyalty, one he continued to show in the weeks that followed, treating me as an equal, and as a friend. And for that reason I thought it was only fitting to include him in the painting. In fact all of them had proven their friendship over the two years I had stayed with the family. When I first met Kanan, leading him on a wild chase through the streets after trying to steal some food, he hadn't treated me like a thief, but rather someone who was lost and in need of guidance. I had only been planning to linger in the city long enough to regain my energy after running away from my border school back in Mandalore, where my parents had dumped me and the Imperials reigned over the city from the shadows. So not knowing my way around the new town, I had accidentally trapped myself in a dead end alley, the officer blocking my only escape. But he didn't approach, even as I spat sharp insults at him. 'We don't have to fight,' I remember him saying. 'I can help you.' 'I don't need help by the likes of you,' my words had tumbled out, eyes narrowed into slits. His teal gaze was gentle and understanding, stating rationally 'The nights get cold here, in Lothal. Without proper shelter you'll freeze to death.' 'I'd rather die," I hissed, knowing fully if he arrested me and learnt my true identity, I'd be shipped back to Mandalore without a second thought. And I would never let that happen, not after everything I'd seen... But the officer didn't falter, quickly gazing over me before he observed 'You're Mandalorian.' I scowled at the man. 'I can tell by the way you hold yourself,' he said calmly. 'You're bold, and fierce, and strengthened with pride.' I remained silent, but continued to glare at him with sharpened vision. 'But even though you're stubborn, I also know mandalorians aren't stupid,' he added sharply, gesturing to the towering, grey alleys as he spoke 'So you can stay here, with no shelter and no source of warmth. The snow is unforgiving, and some people in this town can be colder than the temperature.' I paused, my muscles bunching up tensely. 'Or," he continued, his voice softening. "You can come with me. I'll take you back to the station, and see if there's any available foster parents that would take you in-' 'I'm not joining any foster family!' I hissed, switching back to an offensive at the mere suggestion. 'You don't have to stay with them,' he explained cooly. 'You can just stay the night, and once morning comes, you're free to be back on your way.' My body froze for a few seconds, before I arched my brow suspiciously. It all seemed a little too good to be true, and I wasn't about to be stabbed in the back once more. 'Why would you do that?' I growled. His teal gaze clouded for a moment, darkened with memories as he glanced up at the abandoned, looming structures above. He seemed lost, and somewhat saddened, before he finally returned his gaze to me, and spoke softly 'Because I remember sleeping in these streets when I was a kid. And I remember wishing someone, anyone had offered me a house, or a bed, or a blanket, just for one night.' My anger stilled, and I immediately felt the adrenaline seep from my veins. I could see from the haunted look in his eyes that he was telling the truth, and the comforting warmth in his tone that he did genuinely want to help. Allowing my shoulders to sag in exhaustion, I took a deep breath and thought over my options with extreme care. 'No questions?' I finally asked, levelling my gaze with his. 'None what so ever,' he replied, adding lightly 'Not even a name.' Thinking over it for a few moments, I finally made my decision. And with that, I'd reluctantly approached the officer, shaking his hand to confirm the deal. By the time we'd made it back to the station and he'd contacted suitable foster parents, I realised my trust in the man was far more than that of anyone else I'd encountered in the town. And when the foster parents arrived, and Kanan shook my hand goodbye, I found myself hesitating. And as if understanding my thoughts, he'd offered his home instead, where he and his partner fostered abused and orphaned children with open arms. I accepted his offer to stay the night. One night became two, and two became three. Days turned to weeks as I continued to prolong my leave anxiously, until by the end of the month, Kanan and Hera sat me down and proposed an idea. The idea to become their foster child. I took their offer willingly, and from there on my life became brighter than ever. They never pried or questioned, always allowing me to tell them things in my own time. They gave me so many opportunities and freedoms, and with each passing day my hardened exterior soften towards a more optimistic, carefree teenager. I'd grown to love art and music, and often found myself getting lost in the colours and sounds as a way to forget my former life. I was a new person now, so much more different to the girl who'd stumbled through the streets two years ago... But as I stared at another figure in the middle of the mural above, gazing down at me with bright hazel eyes and a cheerful smirk, I felt my muscles tense. I almost didn't recognise her, as the bright glow of her stare had disappeared in my own. The image reflected myself like a mirror and yet I seemed to be staring at a stranger. Or maybe, I was the stranger... Shifting uncomfortably under the eyes of my family -or at least, my old one-, I shrugged off the layers of blankets and sat up. The cool air hit me immediately, the hairs on my arm standing on end as I stretched and gracefully rose to my feet. Standing in the centre of my room, I couldn't help but feel my chest ache when my eyes scanned the walls of the space. End to end, it was painted and coloured with some form of artwork, engulfing the room with clashes and swirls of paint that wound together like the waves of an ocean. And the figures I once imprinted onto the walls to express my joy now only enlightened my sorrow within. I couldn't bare to look at it anymore. The place that had been my home, my life for the past two years lacked the sensation of safety it once possessed. My nerves began to buzz as I anxiously shifted to foot to foot. This wasn't right... I needed to leave. I needed a way to escape-! I jumped when a faint knock on my door vibrated through the stagnant air. For a long moment I just stared at the handle, oxygen trapped in my lungs as I tensed my legs to run. But forcing my mind to calm, I reminded myself that there was no reason to run from whoever was behind the door. It could only be someone from the crew, and hence there was no reason for alarm. Composing myself, I stepped forward and took hold of the door handle before cautiously creaking it open. I was surprised to see a pair of ocean blue eyes gazing back at me, widening the gap a bit more to get a clear view of the boy's face. "Ezra?" I murmured softly, tilting my head in confusion. He pressed a finger to his lips as a signal to be quiet and gestured towards my room. Understanding quickly, I stepped to the side and allowed him inside, gracefully sliding into the room as I shut the door behind him. Turning to face my guest I watched curiously as he approached my window, jiggling the hinges carefully and tapping on the lock. Crossing my arms I asked sharply "What are you doing?" "Seeing if your window is as secure as mine," he replied nonchalantly, running his fingers along the rim. I blinked in surprise, before approaching the distracted teen and hissing "Are you trying to run away?!" "No," he smirked, glancing over at me with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "We're running away." I froze. "We're what?!" "Only for the night of course. Corporal would kill me if I ever tried to run agai- Ah, bingo!" he grinned, cutting himself off as his fingers found a grove in the frame and pried it open with a sharp jolt. I was surprised to find it had made hardly any noise, the window sliding open with no resistance. Stunned and a little confused, I watch blankly as the boy climbed through the window and onto the tiled, sloping roof beyond. Gazing back at me, he gave me a puzzled look. "Well?" he asked. I scoffed, replying "Are you serious?" "Completely," he smiled, leaning against the frame as he added swiftly "Now get dressed into something plain and old, I'll be waiting on the ground for you." Stepping forward I muttered "We can't just leave!" "Why not?" He quizzed. I hesitated for a moment, before replying firmly "I have to go tomorrow, you know that." "So what's wrong with going out for the night?" He quipped, his eyes beaming with electricity as he spoke "We'll be back before they know it." My brows furrowed sceptically. "Aw, come on," he spoke, gazing towards the city that shone beyond the suburbs before asking "Surely you want to blow off some steam before tomorrow?" "What makes you think that?" I growled lightly. "Would you be awake at two in the morning otherwise?" He pointed out sharply. My eyes narrowing, I turned and shifted my gaze around the dull room. The shadows shifted along the walls, and the colours seemed flat and unappealing. I wouldn't be able to sleep... Not like this. I was far too wound up to rest, and old habits began creeping back as my anxiety took hold of my limbs. I knew I needed to go to bed. Tomorrow was a big day, and this was the last night I'd ever spend with the crew... And yet I found myself turning towards the boy, his blue orbs focused on me intently as he awaited my answer. Crossing my arms, I stated firmly "I'll be down in two minutes." His lip tilted into a lopsided smile, replying cockily "Knew you'd come to your senses eventually." I rolled my eyes at his retort, before asking sharply "So where exactly are we going?" He stepped away from the windowsill with great care and began to descend the roof. But just before he went to slide down a drainpipe, he shot me a playful smirk and replied "It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you now, would it?"

Assignment 5:part 2

After researching Jenny Saville and finding out that her main reason for drawing plus size women is for the amount of skin, I was inspired to have a go at sketching some of my own playing with different mediums.

For my first sketch, I used oil pastels to try to mimic the texture of skin. I found this piece difficult to work with as my sketch is on a4, I couldnt add the detail that I originally imagined. I struggled to add definition to the face and resulting in blending the different shades with each other rather then using my fingers.

For my second sketch, I used a black charcoal stick and I love the way this turned out! Eventhough it’s black and white and most of Jenny’s artwork is in colour; I feel as though this sketch most related to Saville’s work. To lay down the layers of shadows, I used my finger to rub the pigment into the paper in order to create a more realistic illusion rather then having harsh stroke lines.

As I loved how the charcoal turned out so much, I decided to use coloured conte sticks for my third sketch. I didn’t want to focus to much of my time on the bikini as I wanted to spend my time focusing on the skin like Saville. I used 4 different shade in my set and used my fingers to blend the colours together.

For my fourth sketch, I used 5 different colour brush pens and coloured in from dark to light to create the gradient of the skin.

As much as I do like my sketches above, I feel like they don’t really tell much of a story. This then led me to look at another artist Tracy Emin.

Tracey Emin Research point:

Tracey Emin’s expressive and visceral art is one of disclosure, dealing with personal experience and heightened states of emotion. Emin’s practice includes painting, drawing, film, photography, sewn appliqué, sculpture and neon, all of which are transformed into highly personalised mediums for her singular voice. Rather then drawing something that she’s fascinated by like Saville; Tracey creates through emotion and experiences that she has either been through or is going through in that moment of time. ‘Emin makes reference to her family, childhood, and chaotic teenage years growing up in the seaside town of Margate. Her relationships, pregnancies and abortions are recounted through drawings, photographs, found objects and videos in a manner that is neither tragic nor sentimental and which resonates deeply with the audience.’ https://whitecube.com/artists/artist/tracey_emin

The two paintings below are figure drawings from Tracey Emin. The first piece ‘Terribly wrong’ is a drawing showing the horror that she went through having an abortion in 1994 after splitting with her ex. “She exhibited drawings, together with documentation and remnants of the events of this disastrous week in Minky Manky at South London Gallery in 1995 under the collective title A Week From Hell.” The second image is a painting ‘They Held me down while he Fucked me 1976’, 2018 is a painting that shows the movement in her imagination of another tragic event that she went through. ‘When Emin was 13, her 14 year girlfriend and her 19 year old boyfriend held her down whilst the boyfriend’s mate raped her. They thought she needed to lose her virginity not knowing that she had been raped four months before.’ https://200-percent.com/tag/tracey-emin-they-held-me-down-while-he-fucked-me-1976/

Seeing how these two artists create figurative work for two completely different reasons defiantly opened my eyes to show me that the experience of art really is different for everyone.

I then wanted to dig deeper into researching art throughout time and how the figure has changed to do with factors such as culture, propaganda and fashion.

As much as i wanted to be able to research art throughout time for all continents, i focused on researching about European, African and Asian art throughout time.

Art throughout time Europe:

“European art history began with early mobile anthropomorphic carvings in the Paleolithic era, as well as cave paintings reflecting the natural world. Europe took a distinct turn from other regions with the rise of the Greek empire, and Greek classical art and architecture influenced later European art for centuries. The Christian church influenced much of medieval art until the Renaissance, when a revival in classical ideas turned artistic attention to humanistic themes. Subsequent artistic movements were alternatively progressive and conservative, typically developing as reactions to previous movements.”

https://www.softschools.com/timelines/european_art_history_timeline/366/

In the 1400’s the renaissance period started. During the Renaissance period art was used as a religious tool to help people who could not read and write to understand the bible. Most artworks, particularly paintings, contained symbols or icons which held extra meaning. Some of the most recognizable Renaissance symbols were embedded in paintings by using imagery of animals, flowers, fruits and many other symbols. The use of color was used as well to give a certain meaning to paintings.

Colours: The symbolic meaning of the following colors is not directly related only to the Renaissance period. Their meaning has been rather universally accepted. Red denotes excitement and intensity, Pink stands for feelings of tenderness, Yellow symbolizes joy, happiness, optimism, Blue reflects peace, tranquility. Green represents nature and health, White stands for purity and cleanliness, Black represents power, sophistication formality and death.

Animals: Serpents and snakes indicate the reason for the fall of mankind or something evil, the Swan symbolized purity, Dogs had a double symbolism of fidelity and seductiveness, Rabbit was a symbol of purity and fertility, Birds had several meanings which represented sacrifice, resurrection, the soul, and death, Butterflies were indicative of resurrection, the Ox represented calmness strength and humility, Dragon stood for Satan or devil, Lion for the resurrection and also courage, Cats represented lust, desire, treason shrewdness and treachery, the White Horse was a symbol of victory, lamb stood for peace, and innocence, Unicorn was a symbol of purity and harmony, Wolf symbolized compassion,

Flowers: A red Carnation was a symbol of love and pink carnations, symbol of marriage, a white Lily was the flower used as the emblem of the Virgin, Orchids represented jealousy and deceit, Rose symbolized the Virgin Mary, the meaning of Tulips was wealth and prosperity, a Lily represented purity, virginity, the Iris represented spring, the Lavender was desire and the Dandelion was a symbol of innocence.

Fruits: The Pomegranate stood for desire and eternal life, the Apple represented evil as in the forbidden fruit of Adam and Eve, a Pear meant marital faith. The Strawberry stood for harmony. Peaches symbolized virtue and honor. A rotting or half-eaten peach symbolized an immoral woman who has tarnished her reputation. Orange was the symbol of free will, the Lemon was symbolic of a bitter heart or a sour disposition. Grapes signified lewdness and lustful thoughts.

Other symbols: A depicted Garden represented paradise, Key stood for many things mainly access to heaven or knowledge, the Mirror had many symbolic meanings such as prudence, clarity, and fidelity or vanity and introspective nature, also truth and objectivity by reflecting a precise image, the Boat mainly associated with Christian symbols, was symbolic means of transport along a spiritual path, an Open book as expected, signified education or knowledge, the Lute was symbolic of a romantic love, the Hourglass symbolized the passing of time, Bells were a sign of clarity and transparency, a Sword and arrows were martyrdom, Trees represent spiritual nourishment, triumph over temptation.

The renaissance period produce innovated thinkers and artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci. Art during this time is known for its realistic scenery, linear perspective and its innovative light and dark shadowing.

Italys intermingling of maths, science and art led to the discovery of perspective in the arts. Perspective was an achievement that allowed new space to be configured in a painting and meant that images were now mathematically accurate with dimention and depth. This meant that art started to appear 3D rather then 2D. Two examples of this are shown below.

The painting above is ‘The Coronation of the Virgin by Agnolo Gaddi’. Eventhough the painting is extremely detailed with a great vibrancy of colour; the lack of linear perspective makes the painting appear 2D. This painting is believed to have been painted around 1370 which was just before the idea of perspective really got explored.

A great example showing perspective during the Renaissance is ‘The school of Athens by Rafael’ painted in 1508. As you can see in the painting below; the piece appears 3D and as if the canvas is literally protruding backwards with the room. After comparing the two, its safe to say that from 1370-1500’s; the fashion didn’t change much but the skill and knowledge behind a painting dramatically changed.

During the Renaissance period, the church was one of the most powerful and wealthiest institutions in Italy. This meant that church’s were able to commission artists to create sculptures and architecture. Christian saints were painted and sculpted to replace the Byzantine mosaics and murals. Artists began incorporating and fusing the Christian iconography with the Greek and Roman symbols and imagery.

Another factor which influenced artists during this period was the Medici family. ‘The House of Medici was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.’ The Medici needed images, particularly portraits, to establish their power. They used portraits as a propaganda weapon. Artists would use the symbolism as mentioned above to get across the message that the family wanted. The portrait below of ‘Eleanor of Toledo painted by Agnolo di Cosimo (also known as Bronzino) shows the use of symbolism very well. ‘The portrait is of Eleanor of Toledo with her son Giovanni in 1545. It is considered to be the first state portrait to depict a rulers wife with his heir. The painting was made to demonstrate the wealth, domesticity and the continuity of the Medici family.’

The first colour that hit me while studying this picture was the royal blue background surrounded by the black shadows. Blue represents peace and tranquility while black represents power and sophistication in this case. Eleanor is also draped in a black, white and yellow patterned dress which is showing how she herself is powerful, sophisticated, happy, optimistic with purity and cleanliness. Eleanors infant child is dressed in mainly blue with a golden shimmer with white frills insisting that he is also peaceful, happy and pure. Both Eleanor and her son have very pale white skin with a blush of pink on their cheeks. Not only would white skin represent purity and cleanliness but it also screamed wealth. In the past, most people of European decent worked outdoors, so only those who were rich enough to stay inside were pale. Paleness was exclusive, and therefore fashionable. The blush of pink on their cheeks creates a feeling of tenderness and kindness. In total the propaganda painting below screams that the family are full of harmonious and power and wealth.

in too deep / playing for keeps

Yes, I’m not gonna lie: I woke up with Phil Collins in my head as an analogy for my enthusiasm about programming. You can mock me now.

Seriously though, this is how my last 24 hours went:

- Woke up late Saturday morning (around 10:30), got ready to face the day and less than an hour later I was ensconced at my favorite café to work at.

- Ordered some coffee and a grilled cheese sandwich and started tackling the final CS50 Week 1 homework problem. Problems 1 and 2 were extremely simple, so there was only one version of each; but for problems 3 and 4 there was a simpler version and a more complicated version of each. As I mentioned in my last post, I went straight to the more complicated version of #3. For #4, though, both versions looked interesting – and the more complicated one was starting to actually get complicated! – so I started off by tackling the easier version. That was fun. It took me about an hour, I think, to get a working version that passed all the automated tests.

- Then I moved right on to the complicated version of #4, and people, I think I have a problem: I spent a solid five and a half hours coding and debugging that thing, and I enjoyed every second of it. Even though I still didn’t have it working by the end! Aren’t people supposed to be annoyed by days like that? Why did I enjoy it so much? Who knows, but I’m not complaining :D

- Anyway, it looked like the issue that was blocking me from passing the tests for that one was most likely a data type error, so I posted a question on the StackExchange community for the course (my first ever Stack-something question!) – which I just this moment noticed finally received an answer that appears to solve my issue, NICE – and finally headed home from the café towards 6 p.m.

- When I got home, flying high on my successes and failures of the day, I decided to re-tackle the Odin Project Etch-a-Sketch that I still hadn’t entirely debugged. Remembering some advice that a fellow TOP student on the Gitter channel had given me, I clambered right back up into that project and dashed off a few lines of code – and voilà, it was done in five minutes. BOOM. Still pretty ugly, but functional, and that’s the point. I was too impatient to complete that challenge and move on to Ruby – maybe I’ll come back and pretty it up at some point in the future.

- So I pushed the fix to the repo (I still feel so legit when I spout out lines like that) and then, just for shits and giggles, started trying to add a new feature: a color picker (HTML actually has a “color picker” input type, can you believe it?!) that would change the color the user was currently painting with. It didn’t work, but in a very interesting way: instead of leaving the blue lines the user had already made on the canvas and then switching to a new color like red for the rest of the lines, after the color picker was clicked it changed all the OLD lines to the new color, but when the user kept drawing it was still with the original blue! So that was weird and interesting. I know exactly why it happened, though – I won’t get into the details now, but basically my app is dynamically adding a class to each square that the user hovers over, and my new code changed the color of that class, which of course would immediately change all the previously-hovered squares too. So that shouldn’t be too hard of a fix when I eventually return to this project.

- But like I said, I was too eager to move on to waste any more time with that now :) I had forced myself to try something I was nervous about – creating new branches in Git for each new feature, and then merging them back into the master branch when the feature was finished – so I started off by doing that; and while merging my “keep-it-square” branch (created in order to solve the overflow issue I mentioned in my post of a week ago) to master, I ran into another nerve-racking but important-to-tackle problem for the first time: a merge conflict! Gotta say, though, it was exciting to see Git jumping into my JS file and indicating the conflict with those surprisingly easy-to-understand lines. And it felt great to fix the conflicts, attempt the merge again, and see everything go like clockwork.

- My Git studies for the day weren’t over yet, though. I returned to the project page from TOP and checked the instructions on how to submit my solution. The answer was: submit a pull request. Yikes! I had done this once, ages ago, when I first started TOP’s curriculum, but in the interim I had forgotten all about how to do it. So, Googling to the rescue once again. I did a whole bunch of reading, discovered I still had an old fork of TOP’s curriculum on my own GitHub page, cloned it to my computer, pulled down changes from upstream (that was new to me!), then once I was all in sync with the original upstream repo, I went ahead and made my pull request. And logging into GitHub just now, I saw that it was accepted. SCORE!

- By now (yesterday evening around 11 p.m., I think, or possibly even later) I was so psyched to get all set up to tackle Ruby that there was no question of going to bed. I marked the Etch-a-Sketch project as “completed” and jumped feet-first into the next section of the curriculum: “Ruby Basics”. First issue to tackle: my ancient computer had very out-of-date versions of Ruby, Rails, Homebrew, Heroku – basically everything. Time to update. Or more specifically: time for an Installfest. TOP directed me to the charmingly laid-out Railsbridge Installfest site, and I started plugging away at it. Dang, but that took a while.

- An awesome side effect of the Installfest, though, was that by the end of it I felt even MORE comfortable with the command line environment than before. I mean, I had already gotten pretty comfortable with it at this point, but during the Installfest I got a bunch of warnings saying stuff like “WARNING: linking not completed. Enter [long command] to force the link and overwrite previous files. Enter [another long command] to see what files will be overwritten.” In the past this would have scared the crap out of me, but this time I was feeling plucky, so as all these warnings scrolled past my face, I copied each one that looked important into a separate text document, and once each new technology was as installed as it was going to get for the moment, I copied each command back into the terminal and worked through all the conflicts, overwriting old files (let’s hope I didn’t kill anything important! it didn’t seem that I did, though) and “forcing symlinks” and all this stuff I barely understood – but at least understood a hell of a lot more than I did a year ago. And what do you know: in the end all the installations worked, all my verifications passed, and Railsbridge even took me through creating a test app on Rails and deploying it to Heroku to confirm that everything was connected properly.

- WOW! By that point it was 3 a.m. – do you know how long it’s been since I last stayed up that late? I don’t, because I’m old and my memory’s gone (j/k. but I actually don’t remember. that’s how long it’s been). So I forced myself to shut down the computer and go to bed. I lay there in the dark all pumped up for ages, wishing I would just fall asleep already so I could wake up and start coding some Ruby!

- Finally I did fall asleep, but I was so psyched to get started on Ruby that I woke up without an alarm only six hours later, at 9:30 this morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to get going (although I normally require at least eight hours of sleep). So I got up, drank some good black tea (Yunnan Noir with honey and goat milk, yum yum), and started writing this blog post. And now I’m done, so you know what that means... TIME FOR MORE CODING! :DDD

    ABOUT KANG SEHYUN ! ( tw for death ).

C H I L D H O O D ―

kang sehyun was born to jeon mi-yeon and kang yo-han on the evening of november 5th, 1996, in the seo district of busan. while the newly-weds had married because of the occurring pregnancy, they had little doubts about being the right fit for each other. and what do you know ; the two were right and had a consistent love for each other and their child.

sehyun was always a bit of a quiet baby, and it took him longer than average to speak his first word, which always alarmed his parents quite a bit.

but when he was between the age of three and four, sehyun developed a set of skills rather quickly. he was always inclined to various problem solving techniques, and soon after he had picked up on drawing. needless to say, his parents had little to worry about when it came to their son not talking or being as energetic as other kids his age.

when he was five, his younger sister sister, sora, was born. sehyun developed a rather nurturing nature after she was born absolutely adored being an older brother. so much so that a few months after she was born he went as far as to tell his mother that he wanted a little brother.

his younger brother jaewoo was born a year later, which thrilled then six year old sehyun, and his youngest brother jinwoo was born shortly after the boy turned ten years old.

sehyun was close to both of his siblings, and his mother considered him her ‘little helper’ when it came to them, and often joked that he was like a third parent to each of them, as he was very mature and parent-like from such a young age.

his childhood was a rather comfortable one; he did well in school and there never seemed to be problems at home. apart from not having too many friends growing up, sehyun’s childhood seemed rather picturesque.

T E E N  Y E A R S ―

art was a big part of sehyun’s high school career and grades were always a breeze for him. but he always struggled with making and keeping friends. he tried to present himself as if he didn’t care, like he could get by with only a small number of friends; but he was always rather lonely.

after graduating he’d gotten accepted into an art school in america that he had applied to as a long shot. although he’d never left busan prior, and it didn’t quite match up to what his parents wanted for him, the opportunity seemed too large to pass up.

being thrown into the world of new york was a whirlwind; sehyun had never been one to adapt to change well. but he was doing what he loved, and for once, he had gained himself a group of friends.

his friends were older and into drinking and smoking, which lead sehyun to picking up a rather bad cigarette habit because it seemed to take quite a bit of the edge off.

a few months before finishing up his first year, sehyun ended up going to a house party with the friend he was closest to in his friend group. while sehyun wasn’t inclined to drink much ( i.e. Never, esp because he was underage in the states ) his friend was drinking, and drinking heavily at that. this annoyed sehyun beyond belief, but he couldn’t go back on his word of being the one to take his friend home that night.

except they never got home. when the party was separated sehyun couldn't find his friend anywhere; and god did he look everywhere. after an hour of searching, though, he had found them passed out on the bathroom floor, and upon further investigation he had found that they were actually dead. they had choked to death on their own vomit, and sehyun had been the first one to find him.

so of course sehyun blamed himself ; he was supposed to be responsible for his friend that night and he failed completely. his friend was dead because he was stupid and drinking and he didn’t, nor couldn’t, do anything to stop it.

he withdrew from school in new york shortly after finals and went back home. he still hasn’t really talked about what happened to his friend and prefers it that way. his parents aren’t even aware of what happened in new york.

P E R S O N A L I T Y  &  R E C E N T S ―

growing up in a big & loving family, he developed an extremely nurturing and family oriented nature that he’d kept throughout his life. he tends to treat people older than him as if they were younger because of this, much to the dismay of his older friends.

rather quiet. terrible with small talk. doesn’t really enjoy hearing the sound of his voice unless he knows what he has to say is important. and that isn’t too often so he opts to keeping his mouth shut.

he’s in his own head a lot. while it’s a mess and there’s always so much going on in it, he really enjoys analyzing most things and figuring them out. basically ; his head is a problem with puzzles to solve and it’s his favorite way to spend his time.

for someone who enjoys analyzing himself as well as others, one thing he’s always been prone to ignore figuring out is his sexuality. while he’s definitely Not straight, he’s ignored that fact for years and pushed it down ; but it’s almost painfully in his face now, and he’s really struggling with it.

he loves art more than just about everything. sketching, painting, sculpting, you name it, he’s probably in love w it. although he believes he has more talent in drawing and sketch landscapes, he’s more inclined to draw whatever is around him at the moment. most of the time, it’s people.

decided to move to seoul a few months after being home ! which was easy enough to get into a university with the grades and transcripts he had. especially since he just wanted to go to school for art.

full time student, ( architecture major ; english literature minor, & another heavy focus on visual arts ), and half time waiter at a local restaurant. he doesn’t like his job all that much, but he has to pay for rent and art supplies somehow.

he has the worst sleeping schedule. insomnia mixed with a need of a cigarette often has him wandering around seoul at ungodly hours, which has often gotten him into unlikely situations. 

he’s stressed just about always over something, and extremely worried he wont find a way to make money as an artist.

Time for another batch-answer!! Sorry if this is impersonal but I didn’t want to spam people’s dashes!!

1. Yes I like to try and avoid white backgrounds when I can! Even if it’s just a simple block of colour.

2. This is a FAQ - I use Fire Alpaca, which is amazing and free for the PC and Mac. I’m not sure if it works on a Chromebook but I assume it does? You could also try Medibang Paint which is very similar and also free!

3. Congrats!!

4. My animation professors have told me that if you’re doing it properly you actually should lose track of time - something about using the right brain. References are ESSENTIAL to creating accurate art, so yes, they are extremely helpful and I’m glad you’re using them!!!  DAPGO is a treasure trove :D

5. Yes I think you should post your art!! People will give both negative AND positive feedback - I believe you have to receive constructive criticism to grow as an artist. That’s literally all that working in a studio or for clients is - creating your stuff and then getting revisions (but it has to be constructive, not just empty feedback like “that sucks” or “that’s great”). Please read these posts on self-esteem!

6. Haha I love that phanime, and I’m so grateful @arctoids let me collaborate with her for the third episode!!

7. Hello! Thanks :D There are some ideas on this art challenge list I made here: http://incaseyouart.tumblr.com/post/155100106331/31-art-challenges

8. See answer 5! And don’t focus on notes/likes/social currency so much as creating stuff for YOU and your friends - if you genuinely are happy about the stuff you share, then people will enjoy it more, seeing you’re happy.

9. Thank you!! I have had a lot of practice drawing Phil hahah~

10. My favourite thing about being an artist is creating my own content - like, not original characters because mostly I draw fanart - but seeing inspirational things (like Dan and Phil), having a vision in my head, and being able to translate that vision into something visual.

11. HAHA DID YOU JUST ASK ME FOR EDITING TIPS?! Basically just practice with timing I guess? I’ve been editing videos for like, 10 years now, with various software (Adobe Premier, iSkysoft, Windows Movie Maker, and recently iMovie which is the best ever omg) and each time I learn more about how to cut clips and time them to music, how to add in sound effects, change opacity of the clips etc.. I’ve kind of just been learning it all on my own slowly - I’m sure there are tutorials on Youtube!!

12. It’s okay to take a break! Here’s my advice about getting over art block.

13. http://incaseyouart.tumblr.com/tagged/watercolour%20tips I’ll try to make a video soon!

14. I’m glad you’re feeling better and that I could contribute to that :D Thank you! Have a good one ^_^

15. Try some of my art challenges!!

16. Can you go out to a cafe or maybe a library or some other public venue with table space?

17. Wacom Intuos Draw (Small) is what I use (see my tags about drawing tablets here)

18. Being able to critique your own work is an essentially critical skill to growing as an artist. But you have to balance self-critique with positive feedback - try to find two things good and one thing you need to work on. For example maybe the head and eyes are really well drawn, but you can work on the hands? Seeing your mistakes and then knowing how to correct them is a REALLY really good skill, NOT a bad habit. For tutorials on shading, Google has some good ones - the most important thing is figuring out your light source(s), and knowing the physics (plane changes) of whatever you’re drawing.

19. Yup pretty sure! If you scroll through all my palette challenges here you’ll see them~

20. Just drag & drop the image file directly into the software and it becomes a layer, and then lower its opacity - BUT I WOULD HIGHLY DISCOURAGE TRACING DIRECTLY FROM IMAGE. INSTEAD YOU SHOULD REALLY TRY TO REFER TO/COPY FROM AND MAKE IT YOUR OWN.

21. I would just use a mouse, personally!

22. So, with realism, it’s more difficult because there’s the expectation that all the details and proportions have to be EXACTLY accurate - as realistic as possible - and that takes a more time and patience than a caricature of a human figure/face. But, to accurate caricature something you need to be able to draw it realistically first. So in my opinion cartoon-style is both easier (you can communicate the same body language/emotions with less lines/detail) but also harder because you need to have everything be SIMPLE but also ACCURATE.

23. I often think a sketch looks better than the lineart because with a sketch you are more free as you draw - it is messy but also all the lines flow well and it just looks more organic. When you focus on making the lines perfect or cleaner you lose some of that organic flow. My suggestion would be to do an extra step in between the sketch and finished lineart - so draw your image 3 times - sketch, rough lineart, clean lineart. It might help transition your cleaned version a bit better!

24. Break down the figures into LINES OF ACTION and basic shapes before adding ANY detail at all. Check out my life drawing gestures here!

25. Aaaah sorry I hope I answered in time - regardless of medium you have to break down the face into basic shapes and guidelines before adding any details. Charcoal can blend really well to shade easily!  

26. When I have time, yes!

27. Just a simple “hello” would do, I think! That way the person on the other end can greet you back, and then you’ve established a connection without the pressure of thinking of any topics of conversation - you could put the ball in their court, so to speak. Also you could just like and reblog a bunch of content you like, and leave nice comments!

28. Haha I don’t know if any of it is natural talent - it took me 14.5 years of almost constant practicing to get to where I am now!

29. Yay, more fanart!! ALL THE ART!

30. Oh my God thank you that’s so sweet (this makes me think of what people say about Phil Lester because he’s such a ray of sunshine <3)

31. It’s okay to take breaks! Step away from drawing for a while and just write a story, or read, or play outside, or do a sport, or anything else you like! Don’t force yourself to draw!

32. Watch my video on self-esteem for artists and hopefully it’ll motivate you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5AjCbYrPlk&t=95s You’ll only get better at a skill if you practice it :D

33. I would just get the better drawing tablet first if you can afford it - unless the cheaper one is a good brand like Huion or Wacom!

34. You are improving if you use references, trust me. An easy way to see improvement is looking back at your old art, and maybe redrawing it?

35. Yay! Yeah tools can be common amongst artists - it’s just the level of practice and time put in :D

36. It can take a while to gain a strong following, but keep doing what you’re doing and people will come!!! Keep creating and sharing with the world :D

Thanks for all the asks guys~

Pixar Animation Studios’ tour and its minor Hawaii connection

The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Coco, and many more hit films are all generated by the masterminds at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville. I was lucky to meet director of animation James Ford Murphy and executive producer Andrea Warren, and be invited for a look at where the magic is made.

We pull in on a sunny October day, pass through the security gate, and walk towards the main building, named after founder Steve Jobs. The campus is incredibly creative, with airy buildings, green lawns, and recreational spaces to recharge.

Squirrels scamper up manicured trees, and a flock of plump Canadian geese graze at the outdoor amphitheater. A large plastic seagull – Nigel, from Finding Nemo – keeps watch over the small soccer field (rumor: the grass is FIFA-approved). It gives off the feel of a college.

An immense lamp and ball sit outside the main building- well-known logo Luxo the lamp, which actually illuminates after dark. We would later learn on the tour that Australia’s Museum of Modern Art constructed the piece for a Pixar exhibit, and shipped it to California when the show was over.

We checked in and waited for our tour guide, Xanadu, at the Steve Jobs Building, a huge, bright, glass-enclosed warehouse with concept art from the latest movie to greet folks; the Parr family stands poised to fend off questionable visitors, because Pixar’s next movie is Incredibles 2.

Characters from Cars and Inside Out lounge near the ping-pong tables and the glass case full of Oscar awards. As you look further into the Atrium, you’ll see a gift shop with items only available there (not in Disney stores), a USPS post office, an employee lunch room, and a bustling cafeteria.

Xanadu explained that Steve Jobs oversaw the design, and he wanted a building made by hand, like the films Pixar produces. He was so meticulous; he searched for the perfect shade of brick color, ultimately settling on a dark brown mix inspired by the Hills Bros. Coffee House in San Francisco.

Jobs also laid out the floor plan for the departments in accordance with the brain’s hemispheres: the creative sides are on the right side of the building. The technical sides are on the left. The level of thought Jobs put into each detail is mind-blowing.

This is a two-story building, but the second story is like a loft, with offices only along two sides. From the ground, you can still look up – and slightly into the rooms where people are meeting.

In the Steve Jobs Building, the patio floor extends into the building, separating the inside and outside only by a wall of glass. That’s to create a seamless transition, and an “Alice in Wonderland” effect, as Xanadu told us.

Xanadu said Jobs believed strongly that face-to-face contact resulted in the best ideas, so his initial plans called for only one restroom in the entire building. This mother cringes.

After pushback from the rest of the team, Jobs capitulated and made it two, but they’re at the front of the building, still forcing people to leave their desks and interact with others.

She says he also advocated healthy practices, so there are two large staircases to encourage walking in the Atrium, subsidized health classes in the “Breathing Room” (fitness studio), a salt-water lap pool heated to 74 degrees, basketball and sand volleyball courts, a BBQ area (“Palm Grove”), large herb gardens the chefs use in their cooking, the aforementioned soccer field, and monthly visits from a team of therapy dogs for stress relief.

It’s near lunch now, and droves of staffers are coming out to Café Luxo for their subsidized lunch. There’s a table of today’s specials to choose from, in addition to other cafeteria staples. Beverages are free, and lunch is cheap.

If employees want to bring their own food, there’s a beautiful, wood paneled break room. Jobs, we’re told, didn’t want workers to go hungry, so there’s always free cereal and milk, PB&J materials, and fruits.

As we near the end of the Atrium, we see a door in the wall leading to the Steve Jobs Theater. The 235-seat arena is used for the final review of movies.

Sometimes, Pixar uses the space for educational talks for staff development, organized by the so-called Pixar University committee. Monday nights, it’s dedicated for recreation when theater manager John Hazelton shows old movies on 35 mm film.

Then we duck past a Closed Set sign, into the hallway where the voice actors lay down their tracks. We are not allowed to take photos for the next couple sections.

The hall leading into the recording studio is painted brick red, and autographed with many names like Owen Wilson, Jeff Pidgeon, Amber Kroner, Patton Oswald, Dame Edna, Alexander Gold, and Elle Docter.

“Who are some famous people you’ve seen?” we ask Xanadu excitedly.

“We have a no gawking policy,” she says, “so we aren’t allowed to take photos or go up to famous people.” Also, there aren’t celebrities walking around all the time. Xanadu says if an actor is working with Pixar for the first time, they’re invited to come to the headquarters to get a feel for the company’s culture. After that, Pixar travels to the voice actors.

She adds that sometimes, celebrities visit just for a tour, and the biggest star she’s seen in her five years there is actor Keanu Reeves. Xanadu permits me to blog about that.

From the audio booth area, we walk upstairs past rows of colorful offices on the second floor. The wide hallway is lined with art from 2017’s Coco. Xanadu says every piece of art connected to a movie is saved – even concept sketches on napkins – and archived in the art gallery for future exhibits in places around the world.

It took seven years to research Coco, which won an Oscar. Pixar has two full time sculptors, Jerome Ranft and Greg Dextra, whose job is it to create a 3-D sculpture of the main characters. This gives the 2-D artists a better feel for who the character is and how they should animate it.

We see clay molds, sketches, and digital paintings of the Coco characters, and a short informative movie about the challenges for this film: how to create the world of the dead, and how to light, color, and animate such a fantasy world?

We were fascinated to learn there are animation artists dedicated to extremely specific jobs. For every movie, there is an art team dedicated to just creating crowds of people.

There is an exquisite guitar inlaid with pearl and gold on one of the walls. Xanadu shares that it’s one of only 11 created in conjunction with Coco, and that the director and producer of that movie each have one. She’s not sure where the other nine are, but informs us the Consumer Products team commissioned a limited run of the instruments.

At the end of this art gallery, we come to a sitting area with what looks like a storyboard on the wall. It’s a color script, Xanadu clarifies, whose purpose is to show the mood, color, lighting, and tone of each movie.

There are quaint, brown leather chairs here that belonged to Walt Disney. The Walt Disney!

We’ve concluded the viewing of the first art gallery, and it’s time to walk across a bridge to the other side of the Atrium. The bridge is slightly arched, and Xanadu says it’s because Jobs didn’t want a straight line to cut the view when looking up from the ground floor.

This art gallery is Incredibles-themed, and the color script is more retro. Incredibles 2 is due in summer 2019.

The film after that is an untitled piece by Dan Scanlon, the creator of Monsters University. When that movie comes out, Xanadu tells us, the Coco art will make way for the new movie’s pieces. That includes repainting the walls to match the feel of the new movie.

We stop to watch a deleted scene from Incredibles. It’s a runway show in which Edna features her retro designs, which are actually the creations of staffer Deanna Marsigliere.

Scratch actors voiced over the rough cut; those are Pixar employees who want to do it just for fun. Every other year, they can audition for an unpaid role.

Voice actors’ unions make it hard to hire non-union talent, though they weren’t as prevalent when director/writer Brad Bird worked on the original Incredibles 14 years ago. As Xanadu tells it, Bird was seeking a specific voice for Edna, and nobody could match what he envisioned, so he ended up playing the part himself.

Lastly, Xanadu directs our attention to a raised 2-D cityscape hanging on a wall. Some of the lights in the buildings are on. It’s a timeline, she says- as each part of Incredibles 2 is completed, another light comes on.

When the entire city is lit, the movie is done. “It’s a way to track the movie’s progress and to build excitement,” she pronounces.

Tracking timelines are themed for each movie. Cars, for instance, measured progress with a racetrack that had moveable cars.

We leave the Steve Jobs Building and head towards a building called Brooklyn. The other buildings are named West Village, Uptown, SoHo, and Ellis Island (the archives building). The big, grassy area out front is called Central Park.

What’s the Manhattan connection? Xanadu says it’s a riff on their address, Park Avenue- the famous New York City street.

Brooklyn is a quieter, more secretive building where new concepts are developed. Like the Steve Jobs Building, it’s open, with a second and third story added only along the sides of the building, giving this a very high ceiling. A five-foot-tall Day of the Dead skull sits in the reception area, across an employee café.

The Presto Theater takes up a corner of Brooklyn. At 135 seats, it’s the second biggest of the five film venues on campus.

There are “Easter eggs” in the metal artwork above the theater doors; look closely, and you’ll see the triangular design is Luxo lamps stacked on each other. Embedded in the floor, little movie characters are scattered about, waiting to be found.

We cruise down the middle of Brooklyn, pausing to look at dozens of artwork on the wall, or 3-D art in cases. They’re all for sale at a silent auction fundraiser for one of the charities Pixar supports.

The artists are staffers, and they were allowed to use any medium. No close-up photos were allowed of the art.

In the center of Brooklyn’s massive foyer is where we find a slight Hawaii tie-in. It’s a three-story tall brick chimney. Dole Food Company used to own this property, and this building was previously a cannery. In a nod to this history, Pixar turned the chimney into a fireplace and seating area.

Before Dole, the Oakland Oaks minor league baseball team owned the land, which explains why there’s a glass case with old-fashioned baseball equipment and memorabilia on display. Nearby, staffers are using the billiards tables.

We don’t ascend the stairways here, but Xanadu says the third floor has a terrace with a sweeping view of the East Bay.

Two-and-a-half hours later, we finish the day with lunch back at Steve Jobs Building, and shortly thereafter, we drive away from Pixar- amazed at what we learned, and with a deeper appreciation for how much thought goes into each movie. One might say it’s incredible.

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