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skyflyinginaction · 8 months

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Clamp Art Style Analysis: Part 1: Creation Process and Materials

Introduction

Clamp is a manga artist team of four women. They are a prominent distinguished manga artist team known in the West and in China. The thing they are most recognized for is their highly detailed art style many people may have known and many may not. They did several manga you might have known such as Card Captor Sakura, Chobits, and even Tsubasa.

Clamp is one of the artists whose art style I highly admire and want to imitate in my art. I created this post so I can understand and take apart their art style and better understand it. It is going to be difficult since there are four people with different specialties and years of professional experience in their belt. They are constantly changing and adapting to every genre.

I am going to analyze Clamps’ art style in this post and this may take a while to crack due to how extensive the Clamp style is. I am going to pile up everything and explain this in this post which is going to take time to explain in this post. I am going to take apart interviews from different sources while explaining their art style in this post.

I am going to examine their art style and the materials they use. I am going to split into sections talking about the art style and what they use for materials for the manga.

To understand the art style and how it is defined I need to understand Clamp themselves since they created an entirely individual style that is going to talk about other things, not about the art style there is going to be so much I might miss while explaining in this post. I could be wrong while explaining this is an analysis I am going to take my crack at understanding the art style.

Influences

Though the members of Clamp are largely self-taught they are inspired by many figures that influence their art. The list consists of Reiji Matsumoto, Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Hirohiko Araki, and Moto Hagio. The other works that influenced Clamp are animated cartoons and Galaxy Express 999. Reiji Matsumoto and Osamu Tezuka are major influences in their works Clamp used Osamu Tetsuka’s star system in their works which is seen often in the crossing over of characters from their series into their other works. You can see this prevalently in Tsubasa, X, and Kobato where you would find characters from the different series crossover.

Nekoi's favorite cartoonist was Moto Hagio in high school and Mokona mimics pictures by Reiji Matsumoto when she was younger.

While working on manga Nekoi started copying Shinji Wada and Rumiko Takahashi, in which She copied her art in drawing legs. She drew them thick and big. She liked the legs Rumiko Takahashi drew since they seemed long until short feet. She took them to make them more delicate and feminine. Clamp used other artists to help them while drawing.

Go Negai influenced the creation of X, taking inspiration from his work of Devil Man featuring two main male characters, and the murder of the lead's sweetheart triggers the apocalypse. Devil Man is used in creating x The extreme levels of violence depicted in X came from Go Negai's works. Clamp knows about Devil Man. They did a doujinshi of Devil Man in their works as doujinshi artists a while back and even had a doujinshi about the lead character's relationship in their works.

X was inspired by Go Nagai the heavy violence in x inspired from Go Nageis works and the assembled cast of x is inspired by Kyokutei Bakin's Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, The fight sequences of x were inspired by the manga Dragon Ball specifically Akira Toriyama's use of white backgrounds.

Mokona influences are H.R Giger and gérard di-maccio are used for the RG veda backgrounds.

Mokona likes Alphonse Mucha who is a considerable influence in drawing XXXHolic art.

Hirohiko Araki is another influence of Clamp with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fan manga back when they drew doujinshi and starred in Clamp in wonderland animation with Jojo animated.

They drew a doujinshi on Jojo a while back starring Josuke and Kakyon and even they drew Jolynn once.

There is a lot of Kakyoin and Josuke fanart with Yaoi art drawn by these two characters.

Jojo was used in drawing wish with Kohaku and Shuichiro strongly resembling Jotaro Kujo and Noriaki Kakyoin and Kohaku's hairstyle strongly identical to Kakyoin and Shuiichiro resembling Josuke.

Members

Nanase Ohkawa

The main leader of the group, the main writer of the scenario, is in charge of the original story, script, and design. The other three artists are Mokona, Nekoi, and Satsuki, who are in charge of the art.

Mokona

Mokona is the artist and designer in charge of drawing. Mokona is in charge of sketching out the construction of the characters by hand. Mokona draws the storyboards and sketches out the characters. Mokona is responsible for drawing female characters.

Tsubaki Nekoi

Nekoi is in charge of character design, background scenery, finishing touches, and charge of the foundation of the art in their works. Her booth has been painted for design and screens for finishing touches.Nekoi likes to doodle and throw pages. Nekoi is in charge of drawing male characters.

Satsuki Igarashi

Satsuki Igarashi is in charge of design and drawing and is in charge of the finishing touches. She is in charge of designing the cover of the book itself.

Bio

Three members of Clamp were classmates in high school who took art-focused classes in school; none of them studied at school for manga. Nekoi tried using colored pencils and opaque watercolor in school when she was young. Satsuki and Nekoi were in middle school when they first started drawing manga. Mokona was in an art club in middle school. In high school, she started drawing manga with proper frames and dialogues. Mokona, Nekoi, and Igarashi studied art in high school Nekoi, Mokona, and Igarashi met in high school as a kid She found a friend who loved manga, Satsuki went to an art-type highschool and Mokona high school and college had art-focused classes, Igarashi was at an art department in highschool then to computer graphics vocational school. Clamp started as doujinshi artists who first published doujinshi fanzines Back then they had more people it went down to four in the year of their commercial debut.

The group never worked as assistants with most of the members being self-taught with Tsubaki and Nekoi being more self-taught.

They never used assistants to help them with their work since they wouldn’t be able to understand the years of jargon they created among themselves They created work for years without any help from assistants since assistants would slow them down and wouldn’t understand when we would tell them to do the same thing as before disrupting the workflow they created for work.

For inspiration, Ohkawa gets her ideas from dreams or inspiration based on events she hears or sees on the news a lot of times its deadlines. Ohkawa doesn’t always take notes and she usually loses ideas.

Clamp’s daily work hours while working on manga is in the morning, get in the studio at about 10 or 11 in the morning and in the afternoon they eat dinner at 6 in the evening then stop working at midnight.

The members share a single workspace and are separated into three booths while they work.

There are four separate studios and the member's workspace accommodates all four of them. Clamp work requires complete perfection with members having their own space where they have to work to create one of their works

The art of Clamp is lush layered and amazingly detailed. It has a high-quality art style with extensive details. Due to this, it's almost difficult to adapt to animation.

Each of Clamp’s titles has a different art style depending on the genre or magazine they are running in; their art styles change to suit the work and magazine the manga will appear in. The art style of the work is based on Ohkawa’s decision in charge of the art direction of the work. The art styles and pictures have changed but not their methods.

There is a lot to talk about the Clamp art style which may not be enough to explain one segment

Creation process

Clamp's work process is similar to an animation production; they work like a small animation studio. if you look closely at the work process for creating works it's more like an animation with the director, playwright, character designer, painter, background artist, creator, and publicist treating the manga or story like a script for a movie or anime, the creative process for creating manga is similar to that of animation and movies.

Ohkawa is the storyteller and writes the scripts other three draw drafts and original design, Mokona is the chief character designer, and Tsubaki and Nekoi work for the background Sometimes they they take turns doing different jobs

Ohkawa writes then it goes to Mokona who draws out the outline of the storyboard and sketches the characters

They would normally go to Nekoi for the finishing touches Igarashi and Nekoi work on the final touches the team may shuffle roles. Clamp members do get outside work with computer graphics. For drawing sometimes the members do character backgrounds or may draw everything depending on the story. They have a work where one person designs the character and another draws the actual story. They make storyboards and start drawing. Sometimes they decide who is going to make storyboards and then start drawing. The art is drawn by Satsuki, Mokona, and Nekoi, Nekoi draws the rough draft and thinks about how the story is going forward to next month's script. The designs are handled by Satsuki and Mokona. Satsuki worked on the design for the cover page. In the beginning, they believed that everything in the comic from front to back was important to the story. They take turns completing the rough sketch depending on the story. They divide the story into frames; they mostly draw it on art board paper after they create characters and scripts. Ohkawa explains what in each frame props and the characters in they have how they turn around and include emotions in the panel. Ohkawa and Igarashi never drew manga with split frames. They Look like frames from a movie

When Ohkawa comes up with stories Ohkawa drafts the outline of the story and the story setting The ending for each story is determined from the last scene back to the first scene and the end last and deciding the thing and heading into this way makes way for change drags the reader along for the story Ohkawa drafts the outline the other three members formulate characters designs by creating character profile sheets to avoid confusion. Ohkawas style of writing is considered a color woodblock print in the way it conveys and portrays things the manga is close to picture books and elimination of everything unneeded. Ohkawa thinks about the setting of where the story takes place and Ohkawa constructs a visual image at least in their head then splits up panels in their manga. for the writing process, they come up with the story Ohkawa gets together to discuss the story with the members about the purpose of the story and the main characters when writing and drawing After the members get well used to the story they write it down when creating a story for a weekly magazine they first decide on a rough story from beginning to end Ohkawa works backward from the ending for the story to have an ending like this the members don’t always know how the story develops. Ohkawa's style of writing for stories is not telling anyone the progression of the storyline before it happens reason for that is that when the members of Clamp learn of Hokuto's death one of the members couldn’t draw Hokuto's smile the same way this is how badly shaken they were since that the way Ohkawa created her stories changed for most of the works it was until Chobits she could tell them again. Ohkawa kept using memos in the beginning when she wrote the stories where she kept track of the flow of the story.

Before they start drawing they decide the flow of the story up until the end as well as the materials used for color and monochromatic drawing and the direction of the illustration. The members consider the art style during the planning stage and the materials for the manga, for materials Clamp uses color samplers In the order of how they draw. They draw them the same size as manuscripts, they draw rough sketches, and the size of the manuscript is b4 size and genkou size. They seldom use computers to create manga but only to color pictures, sometimes Clamp uses the scanning method when they draw or draw the rough draft using tablets. They don’t use references for their designs except at one time for Ohkawa she drew inspiration from a perfume and drink package she gathered together she drew more influence from the business art and art from Alan Chai's design.

The amount of lines and the thickness of the lines in the manga depends on the work. When you look at the manga, there are a lot of lines in the characters, Clamps can make the lines, and the thickness of the lines depends on the nature of their work from the thicker lines shows how serious and heavy the story thicker lines match the nature of their work that fits with a heavy theme like works like Tokyo Babylon, which have a heavy atmosphere. Mokona draws with thicker lines and uses pens with strong pressure when drawing. Clamps drawing methods changed with Tsubasa and xxxholic.

In the process of launching a serialization first is to decide on the major storyline work out the details of the characters later and consider the number of chapters needed to tell a story, second Ohkawa has a meeting with Mokona and Nekoi to decide on the design of the main characters Ohkawa asks for designs once they are finished they go over one more time. They go about creating manga and have two processes, one creating a manga based on the request from a publisher The second Clamp decides on the story first and then thinks about the magazine to write it for. Clamp comes up with an outline for the story First after they create the outline they discuss who's going to draw pictures or if they all draw together. They turn the project into a movie telling how a story goes and who the main characters are among themselves. They talk about the rough story and how they should do it when they bring a story to the publisher, attach the rough story and characters, attach characters' settings to them and draw the appearance in the manga to the publisher. Then after they show the work to the editor if the editor thinks it's okay they start the story. After receiving approval from an editor, Ohkawa assigns roles to each group member and then chooses the visual styles depending on the factors such as the complexity of the story and chosen art style the artwork depends on the genre and magazine of the story. Ohkawa provides a rough draft for each chapter with things such as dialogue panel size props and movement and characters' emotions. Storyboarding takes 12 hours while the script takes 8 hours to write. To Mokona from rough draft to inking 10 pages per day, the average Mokona puts into how many pages of black and white manuscript draws in a day the number of pages they draw in a month to finish one installment For example if they're in two monthly publications like Tsubasa and xxxholic one is about 19 or 20 pages other takes one day to finish 6 pages for the foundations for the fishing touches and inking takes a couple of days every 2 weeks when it comes to two weekly series its 120 and 130 pages a week. xxxholic takes two days and x took four days

Ohkawa will specify the proper production for the story and character. After the story, they will choose a person to perform the character design. Clamp switches up who works on character design and the drawing. Igarashi and Ohkawa do it together. One of them directs the work for design and the person in charge of the drawing for that work will draw a rough sketch which is discussed. Mokona is one of the concept artists When the scenario is specified in detail, Mokona listens to the basic story and consults the original concept with Ohkawa Mokona will show what she designed on the spot of the drafting and period. Mokona and Clamp often decide on the design first, then Mokona draws the illustration from format, paper, and photoshopping specifications to color specification. Mokona does pencil drawing first then ink and color it the pencil stage first so Mokona can fix errors in the pencil stage. Ohkawa as the main scriptwriter Ohkawa determines the story and setting and tells the members about it and the rest give their thoughts on it Ohkawa maps out the location, ideas, and character design Ohkawa gives the character's figures hairstyles, and clothes she envisions to the designers or sometimes Ohkawa draws them herself only sketches the rest get the art close to Ohkawa original version. Ohakwa doesn’t talk about the characters until it's time to create their visual design, Ohkawa decides the design of the character and the group visualizes it She explains their appearance she sometimes brings sketches instead of explaining Ohkawa decides the characters they have long or short hair their style of clothes and complexity. Clamp discusses together and thinks about how to make characters, Ohkawa makes requests and discusses them with the other three Ohkawa gives concrete and specific thoughts on what she wants the main characters to be. Ohkawa is the one who decides on the details of the characters and Clamp crafts their characters. They explain the story in the works that include the drawing of the clothes of what the character wears. Ohkawa takes all the info she gathered and has them design the characters based on the descriptions she gave like body build, hair length, and small details, next decide who is going to design the characters either Nekoi or Mokona design them characters and pick one of them then make a character setting chart and decide on the character's height. After the story they choose a person to perform character design. When that is happening, they use specific proper proportions for the story and character. They come up with a story through a character design phase Clamp and choose different styles and proportions for the characters. When it comes to designing characters they determine the head and body ratios since the person drawing can change the proportions in their sketches without knowing. They reference the proportions of the characters in case the person drawing it gets it wrong. Igarashi and Ohkawa consult each other and ask for revisions so that the proportions don’t shift, so it can come in tandem when working for 4 people. Mokona had difficulties drawing Yuko's proportions; she considered drawing them constantly a nightmare. Mokona found it reassuring to have partners who can check your work. Sometimes they decide on the colors to get the approval of the publisher to work on the storyboard and then agree on the birthday and height of the characters. The height is important because it's for drawing proportions that are made to keep consistency when drawing characters. The character designs look like character sheets like the ones you would see in anime. When they first set out to draw the members consulted such things as whether or not thin lines mesh well in the manga. what color materials they would be using the members play it by ear as they go along when they draw. Before drawing the portraits of the characters, Nekoi takes special care of the characters by differentiating them with their hairstyles.

For creating the clothes for the characters, Clamp dresses their character in stuff based on their own or things their acquaintances wear. Clamp reads a lot of informational magazines and fashion magazines on a personal basis which serves as inspiration for characters. Some of the clothes and other items that characters in Clamp wear are inspired by real-life pieces but most of them are done initially by Mokona.

Once the main characters are completed, they decide on the detailed settings for those characters, The members decide on each character's birthday and height. The height is used for doing the proportions of the characters. for the character settings the group goes into detail about the characters like what food they eat, special skills, how and when they do things, how they grew up, when they were young, their hobbies, the type of house they live in whether its Japanese or western style, if they are sleeping wearing pajamas or negligees and whether they like sweets or not; for example if a character is eating sweets it means that a character grew up in an environment where sweets can be easily eaten and if a character has long hair it can be tied or untied these details reference the characters way of life and polices the reason Clamp focuses on what a character likes to eat is because what a person eats says a lot about a character in personality. There's a lot of thought that goes into making character settings. It's mostly to advance writing their characters or fleshing them out as individuals. The character settings are important when writing the characters in the story These details are important for them to write for the characters the character profile is used so they won’t get confused when writing a character for the story to keep the writing of the character to remain consistent throughout the story.

Materials

When drawing manga and illustrations the group often determines the materials they use to draw during the meetings

Once they set out drawing they first consult things like whether or not thin lines and colors. Clamp used different techniques, art materials, and paper when they did manga and color illustrations Clamp used different materials at their disposal. For drawing Rayearth, the materials they use to draw manga are used include other works as well. The heavy colors are used to suit the tone of the story. This goes to show that you can change the impression by changing the pen you use and the paper used.

You can change the impression based on the paper you use. The paper makes a great first impression on the manga. Paper is not the only thing that changes the impression of the manga they draw, also the materials they use are used to change the impression.

Clamp uses different paper sizes for each work, the manga paper is sorted for each one of the members to use. Clamp has strong drawing pressure for their strong drawing pressure they chose thick paper. They use paper made by Daieidou printing for manga drawings because the members have a strong drawing pressure so they chose a thick paper that's three times thicker than manga paper. For the paper that the members use for illustrations Igarashi, Nekoi, and Mokona use Watson paper, BB Kent back of manga paper of copy paper. Both Ohkawa and Igarashi like acid-free paper, they love the sandy texture and don't like smooth art-coated paper. The reason for that is that if the paper is too smooth the texture will not be the same. Clamp uses many materials for works such as Copic markers and alcohol-based products, They use Kaimei Indian ink, and for color inks, they use Holbein and Holbein special black The screentone they use Brans that Clamp uses is I.C. 's and Letraset.

When they first used computer equipment, they were instructed by Takeshi Okazaki and Katsuya Terada. satsuki was into photoshop so Takeshi Yamazaki gave satsuki lessons in photoshop.

For the materials that Clamp used in their past works, rg veda used color inks, aeroflash, Liquitex, and modeling paste, Rayearth used Copic markers, Mokona used color inks for Mask of 20 faces, Tokyo Babylon used color tones and angelic layer had them use thick fountain pen like liner markers for drawing the manga.

Mokona’s pen uses a Kabura and a Marupen. Depending on the weather she draws a line to see which is better. Her favorite pens are Zebras Maru pen and Kabura pen nibs. with lnks, her favorite is Kaimei Indian Ink and Holbein’s Grey or Nouvel’s Burnt Sienna. What she used to draw backgrounds is Pigma 0.05, Mokona has strong drawing pressure. The G pen is too soft for her. She tried using one but it is hard to adjust and prefers using a harder pen. She uses a magic marker with a pigment ink called Prokey she used to draw letters on paper and uses Pentels water-resistant brush pens for solid areas like hair. She uses a powder board for paper with larger pieces and Baron Kent paper stretched with water. For RG Veda backgrounds Mokona used a lot of airbrush techniques. Mokona draws with thicker lines, and her drawings have been drawn with thicker lines. In the beginning, like in the third volume of Tokyo Babylon, the character's faces are angular and have thicker lines which show that her art is changing. Syaoran was Mokona’s favorite character to draw in Tsubasa.

Nekoi uses different nibs for the maru pen and g pen; she uses the Kabura pen for concentrated and close straight lines, also Pigma 0.5 for backgrounds.

For paper Nekoi uses whatever paper they have at hand to the back of wrapping paper bits of cardboard that have fallen around the back of cosmetics box envelopes from the publisher, the wrapping paper from a cup of tea that is Japanese style. She uses an eraser to reduce the tones in the screentone and sandpaper to reduce the large areas of tone she uses. A fine grit sandpaper will decrease nicely but not allow for fine adjustment which she had to fix with an eraser later. Nekoi loved experimenting with new painting materials; she especially loved painting in color.

Step to Step in Creating Manga

When it comes to drawing manga there are steps taken to create manga. these are the materials they use for drawing manga The list of materials and things they use in the steps to create manga are listed as this

1.) plastic eraser, mechanical pencil 0.5 HB

2.) Pigma 0.5, magic marker

3.) brush pen

4.) screen tone, tone cutters round sand eraser

5.) pen white, liquid paper ink, Mython

lastly, for writing the script, they use a pc

For the steps they use to create manga Rayearth I think it might be the same steps they use to draw other manga that come after it might be the same steps they did for Tsubasa,xxxholic, and other manga that come after it, and the materials they use. I bet it's the same materials used for Tsubasa, Card Captor Sakura and xxxholic.

1.) The plot is written by Ohkawa on a personal computer with manuscript paper, For the rough they draw frames with a pencil and roughly insert characters and other elements, they draw the rough while paying attention to the composition and balance the draw the panel as to what you want to show most when you are doing a specific scene. The rough is a lot of lines and its way is less detailed. The rough is used for the placement to know the place of things to ink. You can see the same rough stage with Tsubasa and xxxholic.

Clamp pays attention to the distribution of lines in the panels, the reason why Clamp pays attention to the number of lines is because it's a manga and they are going to ink over and over again. The reason they pay attention to the number of lines in the rough is to calculate how much you ink while you draw. the number of lines you use while you ink is important because you are going to use it over again

the rough is drawn with a pencil, they used a regular pencil for the rough rather than a mechanical pencil since the mechanical pencil has fine lines

2.) Next is the sketching phase, in the sketching phase the characters are drawn with a mechanical pencil they check the drawing by looking through the rough manuscript and back. Once the sketch is finished the member will fix it until they are satisfied The background is only included briefly in the sketch.

3.) The inking stages for the steps of Magic Knight Rayearth are inked mainly using a Pigma 0.05 or Kaimuji marker or brush. When Mokona was drawing Rayearth Mokona had strong drawing pressure so her lines became thicker She changed pens as soon as she noticed it her strong drawing pressure caused Mokonas tip of her pen to break quickly they often used 4 to 5 bottles a day for inking.

4.) Next up the beta stage, after they are done with inking they erase and check it again After that the members add solids the tool used is a brush pen to fill in areas like hair and stuff. They use ink that is resistant to water because if it is water resistant the area will become thin when the eraser is applied.

The steps for rough and sketch are used in their other works only the materials that are used for inking change consistently Depending on the series

5.) Next is the toning stage when they add screentone traditionally to a manga page, when it comes to screen tone they make sure that no more appears in the overlapped areas Clamp use a circular blade type cut when they apply screentone traditionally to a manga and small areas might be scrapped with a sand eraser scrapping the tone can change the texture of the object. They consider the effect and carefully cut it and their grain to the tone and know in which its neatly scrapped directions are not scrapped.

In Rayearth tint and gradation tones are used, and a little gala for the screen tone of the manga.

6.) This is the last stage of Clamp creation in drawing manga. The last stage is to express light and create glamorous images white is used for it. when applying white fluid to the image which is done by flicking the brush on the correction fluid with the rim of the container the effect changes depending on the concentration of the liquid. You can add white to the toothbrush or flick it with your finger. It changes the effect of the image. If you add fine white dilute it with water to adjust for the white. Clamp uses quirk drawing because the pen can be put on the white later.

This technique was applied in other manga like Tsubasa, Card Captor Sakura, and their other works. They used the same white ink to make a beautiful panel.

#clamp #x/1999 #meta #card captor sakura #card captor clear #tsubasa reservoir chronicle #chobits #tsubaki nekoi #Nanase Ohkawa #Satsuki Igarashi #Mokona #magic knight rayearth #xxxholic #kobato #angelic layer #tokyo babylon #my meta

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estelian-01 · 3 months

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well, I did say that my next drawing was one without line art so here it finally is! It’s been interesting experimenting with different styles and oh boy was the face hard! But I’m really happy with how it turned out! So here’s a mer Legend for you!

let me know what you think! I think this is like one of my first drawing without line art

(Credit to Jojo for Legends character design)

Strongly inspired by Murkier Waters by @skyward-floored! Thanks for the inspo!

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu #lu art #lu legend #mer legend #mermaid legend #merman #estelian draws

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oddygaul · 3 months

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Tunic

Tunic is clearly inspired by, and aims to recreate, the sense of mystery you have when playing games as a child - you don’t quite know the rules of the medium, you believe anything is possible, and you approach the world of the game with a mindset of curiosity, learning, and awe.

Wonder is a tricky emotion to capture in art; you have to strike the perfect balance of revealing enough to pique a viewer’s curiosity, to get their mind racing to try and fill in gaps and explore possibilities, but not revealing so much that you set hard boundaries and begin to limit the space. I think this is especially true for games. As a child*, games are a land of endless wonder, because you simply haven’t played that many of them. As far as you know, anything is possible: you’re not thinking of things like invisible walls, skyboxes, AI routines, limited possible player actions - you just feel like you’re exploring a virtual world. As you get older, unless a game is really pushing boundaries, or you’re dabbling in a genre you’re totally unfamiliar with, your brain starts to apply time-tested heuristics to understand what you’re looking at: what was once a vast, sweeping city teeming with life, residents and lit-up windows becomes a bunch of big empty rectangles which you know likely can’t even be entered. Now, part of this seen-it-all sensation is likely also due to games as a medium maturing, and certain techniques and design philosophies becoming standards rather than innovations; mostly, though, I think it’s getting older, having more experiences under your belt, and the loss of novelty.

*As someone first getting into gaming, I should say, whenever that may be.

All that to say, it’s an incredible feat when someone can create something that inspires those feelings in even a hard-hearted 30-year old, and Tunic joins the hallowed ranks of Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn in succeeding in that task for me. There’s a lot of overlap in the techniques these games use to accomplish this feeling:

A lack of overt directions / instructions on where to go and what to do

Trust that the player will pay attention, take time to think about what they’ve seen and read, then draw their own conclusions and make their own decisions

A more open-ended game structure that allows for a player to follow up on what interests them most

Perhaps most importantly, as mentioned before, that exact balance of knowledge and mystery to set a player’s head spinning, while leaving them hungry to explore & learn more. Each of these games has different solutions that create this information gap. In Obra Dinn, it’s the passage of time leaving you only able to pick up the pieces of what happened; in Outer Wilds, it’s the passage of time combined with the vastness of space. In Tunic, it’s not being able to fucking read.

As someone who’s spent the past 15-odd years more and less successfully trying to learn Japanese, Tunic’s manual system perfectly nailed how it feels to bumble through a piece of media that’s not in your native language. Particularly, Japanese has a weird thing about it where one of the alphabets (katakana) is primarily used for loanwords, and it’s perfectly phonetic. This means that as soon as you learn that set of characters, even if you know hardly any Japanese vocabulary or grammar, you can often pick out one or two intelligible words from amidst the sea of kanji - and usually end up more confused than you were before, because the English that gets used for loanwords is often fucking wild. If you haven’t had that experience but have played Tunic, it’s literally the exact feeling as opening a page of the manual and seeing: “?????, ??????????????. ????? THE POWER TO DEFY DEATH ?????, ??????!” or “???? ????? ?????? THE HEIR ????, ????????. ????? HOLY CROSS ????, ?????.” Just say ホーリークロス! ザ・エア!! in your best JoJo voice and you’ve pretty much got it.

Of course, Tunic’s real strength is that it manages to provide that sense of wonder from a multitude of fronts, with clever design and storytelling around every corner. Some of my personal favorite touches:

When you first get (well, figure out how to use) the warp ability, and it immediately lets you warp to areas you have no context for, like the Heir's arena with the giant floating sword, or the closed-off chamber in the Ziggurat

The repeated iconography that you don't question when you initially see it, but which becomes more unsettling with each new instance. The first time you see a Here Lies the Hero gravestone, it makes sense; this must be where the fabled Hero was interred. After seeing like, the 4th gravestone with the exact same statue and epitaph, though...**

After spending hours in-game searching across the entire map for the RGB keys, you trek back to the temple in the overworld, slot them into place, the vast rings sink down, and... nothing happens, the world around doesn't seem to react in any way, and nothing pops up to indicate where you should go next. Love it.

Getting to the Cathedral, seeing the sacred carvings of what appear to be eldritch tentacle monsters, and having no fucking idea how that ties into anything - if that's not a Bloodborne reference, I don't know what is.

**I had a similar ominous, growing feeling with the decoy items that look exactly like your little fox. At first, due to my Gamer Knowledge™, I didn’t question it - surely this is just using my character’s design to make its gameplay role clear, right? By the time I was at the Ziggurat, though, walking through chambers full of writhing, captive foxes, it didn’t feel so harmless finding a little me-shaped doll locked up in a chest.

I think it’s great that even after beating the game and seeking out all the secret content, you’re still left with lots of questions and just enough answers for your own headcanon to start coalescing. Personally, my conclusion is that the denizens of this universe learned they were in not just a simulation, but a game, which is why all of their religious iconography looks the way it does. The obelisks, with their RGB symbol prominently featured, indicate the nature of their reality; the Holy Cross is a technique developed by devotees and scholars that found a way to alter the fabric of their own plane using the sacred geometry of the controller's d-pad. Sure, at its core it’s basically a video game becoming aware it’s a video game - which, you know, has been done a thousand times - but the supremely cryptic, desolate nature of this story just makes it hit different.

I certainly had my issues with Tunic from a gameplay standpoint. Design-wise, it bothered me that a lot of the level knowledge you learn in this knowledge game is map shortcuts and hidden passageways - only for those shortcuts to be removed in the second half of the game, i.e. right when it would actually be useful again. Also, I was not a fan of the combat. I dunno how to explain it other than just bad gamefeel. Your character’s controls feel relatively loose and clumsy, yet all the bosses can leap across the arena with no endlag, all while having five times your reach. At first, the unforgiving nature of the combat managed to make the world feel hostile and alien, like in a good Souls game, but by the halfway point I was just fed up with the overly punishing fights and wanting to get back to the parts I actually enjoyed. Fortunately, the game does have accessibility options, so I just turned the combat slider down and didn’t look back.

Anyway, while those slight misgivings stop it from being one of my all-time favorites, Tunic is still an incredible game. Years from now, I’m not going to think about my frustration with the lazy boss gauntlet - I’m going to remember the night I spent with my partner decoding The Golden Path, frantically scribbling on pieces of paper like lunatics and awed at the secrets that had been sitting right under our noses since the very beginning.

#will's media thoughts / virtual brain repository #games #tunic #tunic game

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minty-and-fresh · 2 months

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JoJo undoubtedly caused some of the most significant and noticeable change in my art style. It caused me to experiment with new styles and inspired me to learn how to make better art.

The difference is insane to me now, looking back, over just little more than a year, the change from early-mid 2022 and these two from late 2023.

#mintyfresh's art stuff #jjba #jjba fanart #jojo's bizarre adventure #art improvement

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judgedarts · 3 months

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hi!! proud owner of i think 5 atp jojo chibi charms and VERY new artist alley vendor here and i was just wondering, how do you budget/manage costs for non local cons that might have high transportation costs or more expensive tables? do you usually make back what you spent on transport + table/tickets + merch production/ordering + etc at the con or is there a slight loss? this is mainly for my own reference asking someone successful so ty for answering!!!

hey! congratulations on becoming an AA vendor :,) im very honored that you've bought from me before and that you consider me a 'successful' vendor haha!

i'm really passionate when it comes to talking about AA stuff so I'll be putting my answer in the read more since it's pretty long lol!

to be honest, I'm in a very lucky position to be able to travel to conventions beyond the east coast because it can really get expensive T_T i think the most honest answer i can give you is that your first couple of cons most likely are going to be a slight loss for you income wise if you are planning on traveling for a convention - tbh, i generally don't recommend doing a convention out of your state/out of your means if you're very new to tabling. my very first conventions were in driving/public transport distance (i love you new york and new jersey!!!) so i never spent money other than the table cost and ordering product. so if you're starting out and live in a state that has local cons, id HIGHLY recommend doing local events to get experience and cutting down costs as much as you can so you can get the most out of it! if you do intend on doing out-of-state cons because your state doesn't have many small local cons, i totally get it, but again, just try to keep your costs as low as possible. here are some suggestions and things to keep in mind:

1.split costs with a friend

split the table, split hotel fees, split ubers, etc! if you have family/friends in that state, consider crashing at their place for the weekend! maybe treat them to dinner haha

2. save up funds

honestly, there's really no getting around it - you might have to get income from somewhere else besides selling merch @ cons! i worked a part-time job throughout college, did commissions/freelance, and had my store open to save up for cons.

3. remember to deduct all expenses for your business

keep in mind that table fees/travel and hotel fees/products/meals are all deductible. these are considered investments for your business and they're completely necessary for you to run said business so when it comes tax time, you'll be able to breathe a little easier haha.

4. know your limits and be cautious

unfortunately, not all cons are going to be successful or will go your way no matter how much money you pour into it. if you know a convention is going to be out of your means, you can always apply the following year. I've had plenty of cons i couldn't go to because i simply couldn't afford it at the time, but the more money you save up, the more experience you get, and the more connections you make, you'll be able to afford to go and be successful! i'd also do plenty of research about the convention (especially the attendance #s, how previous vendors feel about the con, etc) before you decide to go. 5. have fun!

even though the upfront price can be intimidating, you are still paying the price to travel, visit a city you've never been to, meet new people, fans, your friends, and make connections! not to mention the really inspiring and motivating atmosphere that artist alley can be. i hope that regardless of the money you make you take the time to enjoy the experience to the fullest and appreciate that you are sharing your awesome art with others :,)! i try to make the best out of a con even if i barely make even, and make new friends and connections because trust me, they are so meaningful ^^<3!

besides all that, i highly recommend joining the Artist Alley Network discord if you haven't already - there's a plethora of info, advice, etc that you can take away from there. https://discord.gg/artistalleynetwork i hope this was helpful! if you have any more specific questions I'm more than happy to answer them for you. if they're too specific or i don't feel comfortable answering, i hope you can understand too! good luck with all your AA endeavors - i believe in you and i really hope we will table at the same con soon!

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xxarmchairphilosopherxx · 1 year

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A rational explanation of why Jojo’s is a great anime

I have no doubt you have some expectations of how this is gonna go down. Lots of bombastic and strange praise, many odd memes, and references that are without a doubt… biza- peculiar. But I’m not. This will be a calm analysis and thorough dissection of just why I love this anime and think it is one of the most creative stories ever made.

I detest over exaggerations. They tend to be very misleading, though for purpose entertainment, are all fine and good. But even still are buy and large ,overused and thus have lost all real meaning. I do all of this to tell you that I am not over exaggerating.

There is no other work of fiction as creative as JoJo’s bizarre adventure. I would go so far as to say the series itself is nothing more and nothing less than a love letter to creativity. Araki is more than willing to reference, remix, and reexamine anything and everything that crosses his path; while seamlessly and shamelessly experimenting and creating new, fascinating abilities, designs, and character concepts. Now some of you might be thinking “how can one be called creative if he makes so many references?” Allow me to show you the greatest truth of storytelling that no one is really comfortable talking about.

Story telling is really like the wheel. No one knows where it came from and all we have done and will ever do is make simply make it better. That means taking things that came before, mixed with some other thing you saw another guy do, and maybe some weird stuff you found in the back alley. You put your own flare on it and send it running. And there is no better example than JoJo’s. From turning song lyrics into characters, their abilities, and even entire plot points. Like how under pressure defines Kira’s life in hiding. Or how killer queen’s allusions to explosives made his stand a bomb creation stand. And that’s just one character how about the band areosmith inspiring one of the few and greatest nonhumans stands of Narancia’s plane. I could go on for a while but there is still more to discuss. In a different genre of art…

Fashion, anatomy and shot composition. JoJo’s has exiled So much in these categories that even real-world art galleries and fashion brands have taken note of its pure genius. JoJo’s characters whether emulating the muscular vibrato of the 80’s action movie, or the subtler elegance of the slimer frames of the latter parts. There is an expressed mastery of anatomy, not only its natural forms but it’s almost surreal combinations. These poses are not just done for strangeness’s sake but are done to express the pure artistry of the human form and its myriad of forms and positions. The outfits also are not random and without design they are meticulously selected and obey the fundamentals of high fashion. All of these combing to ground a story featuring such seemingly conflicting ideas like Victorian vampires, to serial killers, evil priests, and president in search for the pieces of Christs body... Into something that not only defies the mind but celebrates the strangeness most people want in their stories anyway.

Then there is a wholly different way which makes JoJo almost infinitely enjoyable. Unlike many stories featuring combat and violence as the main conflict resolution system, which tends to be one of the most engaging of conflict resolution in fiction. I mean come on court cases and investigations are all good and exciting. But nothing can be as pure in establishing steaks and motive then the conflict between bodies against each other in a struggle for survival. But JoJo’s avoids the greatest flaw of these purely physical combat systems while gaining usually something lost to it.

You see in a normal combative setting, a story can only do so much. There are only so many ways a combat encounter can go and eventually one expects the heroes to grow in power and so too the bad guy. This can unfortunately however spiral into the absurd feats of power to the point where the audience becomes bored or unable to really relate to the struggle. This is commonly referred to as power creep and JoJo’s dodges this masterfully. In JoJo’s the fights remain physical and intensive but avoid power creep because in JoJo’s no fight is as simple as power levels. But instead are based on the application of those powers and abilities, turning mere brawls into a beautiful and ethereal game of mind and body. How will the stand that can leap through any reflective surface defeat the stand who can increase the gravitational pull on any object? With this no two fights will ever be the same and yet each fight can maintain the same levels of excitement and stakes just based on the characters abilities presented. Simply brilliant.

Following this point is something I think really sets JoJo’s above and beyond. Any show can have great and thought provoking conflict, but what sets JoJo’s beyond is the struggle. It’s a true and universal experience I think every life that has ever drawn breath can relate to. That moment where that breath is called upon and one must put everything one has to achieve ones goal, to overcome the obstacles before them to grit one teeth, to bear ones lashes and push on. This is JoJo’s

From bullets to overwhelming odds to near physics breaking hurdles, the characters fight on even to the presence of death. They push beyond the walls and fires and see the path to victory and through blood sweat and tears obtain it, in a usually karmic and cathartic fashion. Showing all they are and all they have learned up to that moment and shine like gold, better and stronger than before.

For those who don’t know JoJo’s is it is known as a generational story. Ever new season or part, has a new member of the JoJo family facing a new threat. Sometimes these relate to a previous part or sometimes its something new altogether. This is what I think makes the story so great. Not the Joestar family itself but the idea of family both by blood and the found ones we make ourselves and how sometimes those can coincides or not at all. No man really acts alone, he is always supported by and supports other around him. There’s a reason why we have the term Joe-bro in our fandom it’s because each and every JoJo has that most trusted companion or group of companions and JoJo’s does not treat them as mere support or comic relief each one has their own unique personality, backstory, and reason for staying by the Joestar’s side and it’s not in the combat or the mysteries or peril where these moments shine the brightest. It’s in the little breaks the show takes to let the characters eat or rest, the conversations they have in long car rides or the little handshakes or dances they do. The jokes and teasing the share with the other. Its with these moments of calm and pearl that these friends become more than friends but family.

Then there is the actual family itself, and I think it’s in here where the show gains such respect from its fans. It’s not like most shows where there is a deep connection between ancestor and descendant and sometimes the bloodline isn’t even so clear. For example, my favorite is the relation between Joseph and Josuke. You see Joseph is Josuke’s father from an affair. Now most shows would treat this revelation and their inevitable meeting with allot of drama and try to maybe alleviate this into a proper father and son relation. But JoJo’s chooses not to. Josuke when he meets his actual nephew Jotaro who is much older than him (yeah family trees can get strange like this). He doesn’t really care all that much he doesn’t want to butt into Joseph’s family or cause them any trouble he even refuses any chance at an inheritance and is perfectly happy with his one not so traditional family of his single mom and loving grandpa. Eventually of course he meets his father Joseph and they basically get some closure, but they don’t become instantly father and son close. It’s awkward and strange, they both get the closure but Joseph doesn’t gain a son and Josuke didn’t get a new dad. And they were both ok with that and even a little happier for it. But the show isn’t afraid of the closeness a family can share either. You see Jotaro and his daughter Jolene were quite at each other’s throats and didn’t have that great of a relation but during and after the Crisis of Stone Ocean their bond grew stronger and impart that bond gave them strength. Its honestly some of the sweetest imagery to see Joslyn embracing her father, the character we all know and maybe even look up to like she does. It’s a beautiful display of all a family can be and what it means blood relation or otherwise.

And I find it so shocking in show of life, laughter, family, and friendship. That there is so much death... But when you think about it long enough, doesn’t that just make so much damn sense? How could someone, anyone set out to write about life and its nearly infinite experiences, and not touch on that one universal experience. Death. From tragic losses of fate, like a mother lost in a carriage accident, or loved ones dying at the hands of murders, heroic sacrifices made for the sake of ones friends, and the sudden unexpected loses of those so young and full of life. There is not a single part free of that pain. And if I may be so bold Arkia is at his greatest when depicting loss, both its grief and even its sometimes ethereal beauty of not only what could lie beyond, but the spark of life that was lived. For greater love has no man to lay down his life for his friend.

So yeah, there it is, a very serious analysis of a show that most people think can’t even take itself seriously. I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe you can enjoy the show for yourself now. Or if your already a fan maybe you got an even deeper appreciation of it. Or hey, if you didn’t like it, maybe you can now see why other do. No pressure bud. Well, see you guys latter.

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ilovejojo · 7 months

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something that's so amazing about araki's approach to art and his creative process is the way he talks about his characters and story as having developed and grown their own will, and it just, makes so much sense considering his view on drawing directly from REALITY and lived experience (rohan is such a funny vessel for these beliefs), it's such a breathing living story

^ from jojonium interviews. besides being really funny it's just amazing how he just. changes what he's doing so freely and unrestrained (over the years, yes, but even within the same volume of a manga) and at the same time expresses a lack of control over his own work because his characters are really so HUMAN.. one big example of this for me is jolyne and just how much of a real feeling person she is. just, his general approach and the way he can draw characters completely differently in superficial style changes over the years but also in attitude. take rohan in TSKR one shots for example. like. what the fuck. there's no real point to this post, i just love jojo and arakis shamelessness and what it inspires in people

#hirohiko araki #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure

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gummybugg · 4 months

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hello! i really like character making and character design :]

i'm wondering if there's anything in particular that inspires you. and who/what jumpstarted you into creating your own characters and stories

-🌈

(This one's gonna be a bit all over the place, sorry about that I got a bit excited)

So hi! I really love character creation, it's one of my favorite things to do :')

i'm wondering if there's anything in particular that inspires you

Music like the Beatles, ELO, Queen, Will Wood, indie, punk rock, and really whatever I get when I hit an interesting recommendation (I'm eclectic)

Video games: Persona series, Fallout, Hypnospace Outlaw, Undertale, Sally Face, umm also indie horror games are generally where it's at for me

Jojo's bizarre adventure, one punch man, neon genesis

I was a theater kid at some point and am inspired by Chicago, Cabaret, Cats, Rock of Ages, and Rocky Horror for their wackiness/vibes

Webtoons/comics: Paperteeth!, After Dark, I'm the Grim Reaper, Lovebot, Space Boy, Solid State, The Prince of Southland, Yuna and Kawachan, Electric Bones...

Besides media, I am inspired by people I interact with (which can help me build character relationships) and qualities I pull from the inside. Also, I have had a strong interest in psychology for a long time, so my stories are very character-centered. I also like throwing in a funny edge to most things I create because I don't like being serious 100% of the time. I like to experiment with irony a lot, as you do.

I'm inspired by ideas I wish people talked more about, what'd I liked to have seen as a child, untraditionally beautiful characters, wacky characters, and characters flaunting who they are because they're proud to be themselves. I love unfixable characters who learn to find worth, characters who are overly complex, characters who fall from grace, blah blah blah. Or sometimes I just write characters for fun and with no real motive, who gain a purpose later on by chance. But not all stories need lessons or purposes or morals or whatever. Some things are more fun when they're just existing because they can. I feel like my wip Crater City is like somewhere in between having a purpose and having none at all.

Other things that help inspire oc: drawing them with random art generators, scrapbooking their very own page, filling out oc interviews, participating in writeblr events/games, spending a whole day listening to their playlist, forcing myself to write one scene with them in it, pinterest-ing, creating a blog/journal/site about them, etc.

who/what jumpstarted you into creating your own characters and stories

I started writing as a small child and would create illustrated "stories" based on real events that happened in my life but lowkey exaggerate them because I was like 6, hehe. Or play with barbies or legos or whatever and that's its own thing right there. Then I moved on to big boy things like writing in notebooks about girls with horribly made up names that mysteriously resembled Disney princesses' names because I'm bad at naming things (see: my webkinz pet named "the blue whale").

I'm not sure what jumpstarted character creation for me, I guess it was always this ✨️💕thing inside me all along 💕✨️. I think it was because I was a quiet child and kept to myself, which meant a few friends and a lot of introspection at a young age. But I was/am inspired by things all around me. Things that make me feel nostalgic, bittersweet, or whatever other emotion that's hard for me to explain because emotions are weird for me.

As a child, I created ocs based on who I wanted to be more like. Ex: an outgoing hero with bold hair, a strong anti-hero with a bit of edge, an adventurous hero who easily befriends others, etc, etc.

As a teen, I created ocs fueled by spite ("I can make better ocs than half of you seasoned authors even if I'm just a kid") and also my knowledge of the dsm-5. I think I was inspired most by my trauma, so yeah, that'll do it to you. I still dig deep down for some inspo from my Deep Dark Past™, which has helped me understand myself and ocs better, who would have guessed? But this doesn't exempt me from research.

As an adult I am motivated to write because of the impending doom that we all die some day so I better wrap it up before something happens to me and I lose my ability to write by some chance I'm out of college and I have my whole life ahead of me and have no more boring essays tying me down :'DD

#thanks for the ask!#writeblr #writing #creative writing #writing things #writing community #i think thats everything #i had to rewrite this many times #because of how off track i kept going

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freechaostyrant · 2 years

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Another wonderful experience at the convention this weekend was getting to show Jensen some art for the Winchesters. Some people may have seen @wigglebox 's thread about this on Twitter, and I don't have anything new to add but just wanted to share it here.

A few months ago wiggles and I started a Twitter account (@thewinchestersupdates on Tumblr, @twdailyupdates in twitter) to document and share the latest news about The Winchesters. We were both really excited about the show and she'd already written up some meta I'd read of hers. So when I told her I'd wanted to surprise her by getting her something signed by jensen, but didn't wanna do it without her permission, she shared this art with me to have Jensen sign. Funny enough it matches a photo Nida shared on her Instagram (wiggle had been inspired by a trailer scene) and so we knew it was the perfect art to show Jensen.

I had Jensen autos on Saturday evening. This was about an hour after his m&g I attended (where I also praised The Winchesters and told him how much I loved the show and the cast) so I was already mentally prepared for seeing him in person thankfully.

I walk up with my art and I start rambling about how my friend and I run this fan account and how she drew this and I'm getting the art signed for her. He's quiet and takes the artwork, looks at it for a second, and reaches down into his lap to grap his phone and takes a picture. His handler next to him says "this is the first art we've seen" so I said that there's already a lot of art out there (and if y'all haven't seen it yet, start with @wigglebox 's account cause she has ton!!!) And then I told Jensen my friend was gonna freak out because he took that picture 🥹

He signed it and gave it back to me and I have no clue if he spoke to me the entire time or even looked up - I was running on nerves and adrenaline so he could have said "Wow! " Or "Will you marry me?" And I wouldn't have heard him. But it was a wonderful experienice and I'm so glad I got to show him his first fanart for his new show.

And then of course the icing on the cake was seeing Drake and Jojo share Wiggle's post on Instagram on Sunday morning. Here's hoping Jensen sent the cast a picture of the artwork. I can't believe he'll have it on his phone forever (or at least until he gets a new phone) ♥️

#spnvan #vancon 2022 #jensen ackles #wigglebox #autos story #the winchesters #twdailyupdates

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basedkikuenjoyer · 1 year

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Jojolands - First Impressions

That’s what we’re doing here. I know I haven’t really delved into Jojo’s much before, but I know several of my mutuals are big into it and I am at least a fan of this bizarre multi-generational adventure. Still need to finish Part 8 but honestly...I’ll probably just wait for the anime. It’s too confusing for me to properly binge the manga. I’ll keep any actual spoilers under the cut, but first...

I’m sold. This intro chapter hooked me more than Stone Ocean. I’ve never really been into JJBA for the plot, I like what my boyfriend said when I got him to watch the dub. “This is one where you’re just here to enjoy the experience.” If I put it in art terms, something like One Piece is a very traditional story. It’s not exactly breaking a lot of new territory, more perfecting an established style. Jojo’s? That’s abstract art. Sure there’s an overarching story to each part and how they tie together, but you’re mostly just enjoying the vibe. And oh my god do I love everything about this vibe in Part 9. First and foremost though...

My newest beloved blorbo Dragona. Just gonna say this now and get it out of the way; it’s as worth getting hung up on pronouns as it is that clip of Izo referring to Kiku as his “brother.” Differing norms are going to make this finicky, especially when we’re talking about a Japanese author writing about Hawaii as a setting through the viewpoint of a 15yo younger brother. Little different, but I live in an area with a lot of Marshall Islanders. You sorta get used to it. We could ultimately find out Dragona is as much a “woman at heart” as someone like Kiku and referring to him as such still makes sense in context. Especially with an older Japanese author and there still very much being a mindset of like, not using “transgender” to refer to anyone except someone who has fully transitioned and treating it like a man becoming a woman there. Make sense?

All that to say, use your eyes and common sense over getting hung up on specific words. I’ll probably casually use she/her most of the time because it’s hard not to. Everything I see so far suggests Dragona also acts pretty girly and hell...I’ve known 18yo trans folk existing in a space like this while they sort themselves out. We’re clearly going for something in that bubble, I’m sure Dragona will have more room to clarify...it’s Jojo’s, just roll with it. Because by all accounts we’re looking at the sane, reasonable one in the group. And that’s cool, I’m definitely keeping an eye on this pair from the perspective of wondering if maybe, just maybe Araki was a little influenced by a certain pair of samurai “brothers” who like to play with similar territory. If nothing else, our introduction does show, not tell that absent being informed most people are going to read Dragona as female. Curious about those “cosmetic injections” as well.

With that out of the way, I adore our introduction to these new Joestars. Sets the time, locale, everything so well. They’re rocking out to Dua Lipa, hassled by dickhead cops, name dropping covid, cops one up the racism with transphobia. Then our best bros fuck em up. Awesome. These parts since Stone Ocean all track with an AU version of a previous part, and I love that we don’t waste time showing off our new cast as a twist on Passione from Vento Aureo. Though this time we aren’t screwing around with noble intentions. This is all about getting filthy rich and I’m here for it. Especially with my second love from this first chapter.

This bitch. Who is, without a doubt, 100% that bitch. If she has a Stand please let it be Lizzo inspired. Speaking of Stands, Jodio’s November Rain is cool looking and I like the reference...but of course Dragona is the better one with a nod to the absolutely legendary slow jam Smooth Operator. Given the similarities I love the jokes about “Sex Reassignment Pistols” Fun fact, 80s wrestler and guy who looks like he walked straight out of a porno “Ravishing” Rick Rude would sometimes use that song as entrance music. Does it sound like fight music? Nah, but he made it werk. Where the hell was I?

Right, let’s steal this diamond! Good hook, I’m invested and we have the gang together. Although I know this series well enough to know we’ll probably find a better motivation along the way (please be nice to momma and Beach Boy’s reference Barbra Ann Araki, she’s so loving) for now I love focusing on a gang of scrunkly criminals who make no bones about it. Jodio’s going to school solely to sell drugs, Dragona and Boss Bitch Meryl seem to have a lovely bond. Like I said, a part hasn’t hooked me this well since introducing Jolyene ashamed to have been caught paddlin’ the pink canoe. Part where I just died though...

Two words were all I needed to see to know Araki did his research on the islands. Spam Onigiri. It makes sense if you know the history, soldiers in WW2 brought Spam with them to a lot of these islands because it’s easy meat to ship and stockpile. It became popular trading fodder with locals, they still very much consume a lot to this day. Because it’s also something you don’t have to worry about taking a while to ship. And there are some dope Polynesian recipes built around using it these days. I’ve just personally always found that a fun quirk from the Marshall Islanders I know and past experience with people from Hawaii, Guam, etc. Will never forget a lab partner from Guam in college, said something about it and he was just gobsmacked. Had been going his whole time here wondering why it was so hard to find certain flavors on the mainland.

Anyways, that was a lot of disjointed rambling to say I’m very excited about Part 9. Disjointed rambling is on theme though because it’s Jojos. Nothing bad is allowed to happen to Dragona or Barbara Ann. Paco and the weird guy? Meh. Jodio’s great because he’s a scruffy no-goodnik and proud of it.

#jjba #part 9 #Jojolands

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waheelawhisperer · 1 year

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Since I have OCs of my own, I'm curious, how do you go about making yours?

Oh God there are so many ways

Sometimes a stupid idea pops into my head and won't go away until I turn it into a story or character (FUCKING @norondor put Rhine Labs Arthurian Yuri into my brain and now I want to write about hot babe knights and beautiful courtly ladies kissing in secluded castle gardens, for example). This is how I got Greedy, a powerful and ancient dragon who is obsessed with VTubers.

Sometimes I just want to have adventures in the media I consume and come up with a character that lets me do that. In these instances, I typically start by making them someone I'd want to be (skills, personality, physical features, etc) and then decide to give them flaws so that they feel like people instead of strict wish fulfillment. Blatant self-indulgence is nice, but I would typically rather my characters have enough complexity to feel real. Feilan came about when I decided to just make an OC to project on instead of using poor Jaune for the purpose.

Sometimes I have an idea for a story, whether that be in terms of plot, setting, themes, and need characters to bring that to life. For Agara's story, which I still need a title for beyond "Hot Demon Lady Causes Problems On Purpose", I needed Calvin's life to be shitty enough that he'd be socially ostracized and more open to her manipulations, so I created a classist bully to make him miserable. In a lot of ways, this story is about how vulnerable, isolated young men can be groomed and radicalized and how dangerous that pipeline can be, wrapped up in a fantasy setting, so when I created Calvin, I made him the type of person who would be very susceptible to that kind of manipulation - low social status, unpopular with his peers, not particularly conventionally attractive or charismatic, lacking a useful support system, and desperate to change all that. I am not ashamed to admit that I drew on my own experiences here.

Other times I just have a cool idea for a character design that needs a story to go with it, which is how one of the characters of my high fantasy WIP came into being - I thought he was interesting and crafted a world around him.

Sometimes (a lot of the time), I am inspired by other media (fucking Arknights God damn it it keeps giving me brainworms) and create characters based on that. I saw a lovely art piece depicting Texas Arknights permanently removing Mostima from Exusiai's life in a fashion very in sync with her mafia roots and built a setting, plot, and group of characters from it (including a woman who is The Worst Bisexual Representation Ever but I'm pretty sure would also make tumblr sapphics feral on main).

Sometimes I am just horny and create Women I Think Are Hot.

In terms of the actual character creation process, I first identify what caused me to create the character (and thus what's already in place) and then go from there. Sometimes the design/role is already there and the template is already partially filled, but if I'm making a character from scratch, I start by figuring out what their purpose in the narrative is. With Feilan, I knew that the goal was at least in part to let me live out self-indulgent fantasies and have adventures in a world I found interesting (later on, he became my chew toy. This bad boy can fit so much trauma and comedic suffering in him), so I designed a character with physical features I had or wanted to have at the time: tall, built like a linebacker, attractive (but not too attractive. I wanted him to be good-looking, but not so hot women swoon when he walks in a room), deep voice, smart, compassionate, good at adapting on the fly, etc - and I will leave it up to you guys to figure out which traits I have and which ones I want. Then I figured out how I wanted him to dress. I was big into Jojo's Bizarre Adventure at the time and Jotaro's hat/coat combo has infected my brain ever since I first saw it, so I gave Feilan a cool hat and a long black coat. Since he was built on the Jaune self-insert template, I armed him with a sword and shield so I didn't have to modify too much.

Then it was time to figure out, more or less, what I wanted the plot to look like and what traits Feilan needed to have to make that happen. I kind of folded this together with the "give him flaws" stage because I needed those flaws to prevent a quick (and distinctly unsatisfying) resolution in either direction, so I made him good at thinking on his feet and outmaneuvering people (often half by accident or because they overestimate him) and able to plan effectively, but I also made him a bit of a hypocrite, prone to lashing out, self-centered, and afraid of facing the consequences of his own mistakes and then packed him full of some wonderful self-loathing.

The next step was deciding what themes I wanted to delve into. I knew the plot (roughly) of the first Feilan story and what it offered in terms of thematic exploration, so I decided to investigate masculinity, specifically through the lense of male isolation, male insecurity, male physical and emotional vulnerability, and male physical/emotional/sexual abuse. I realized this gave me a great vehicle to discuss masculinity in general, particularly toxic masculinity and what it means to be a man, so I gave Feilan daddy issues by creating Sten-Bjorn Varg (how do I do the symbol on top of the o on my phone someone help me), a Tough Manly Viking Man who has no idea what to do with a son that is very much not a Tough Manly Viking Man and picks a terrible strategy for dealing with that conundrum. I gave Feilan a set of beliefs about how a man Should Be (strong, stoic, doesn't need to ask for help) and started challenging those beliefs and breaking them down over the course of the story.

Then I considered the relationships I wanted him to have with others. I knew I wanted him to be close with Team RWBY, so I needed reasons they'd want to be around him. Being good-looking and not a dickbag is a good start, but if I wanted a real bond, I had to give him a little extra. I made him very laid-back and friendly and a good listener (and willing to cover for/go along with their shenanigans) so they'd be comfortable opening up to him and made him good at book learning so he could help Ruby with her schoolwork and otherwise serve as a mentor figure (and all this gave me the opportunity for delicious angst that fed into his self-esteem/self-loathing issues because every relationship he has is built on the lie that he deserves to be at Beacon).

Then it was time to just come up with the little things that made him feel like a person but weren't specifically plot-relevant. He has a sweet tooth and likes hot chocolate, he enjoys reading and playing video games but isn't a huge fan of watching TV, he's not particularly artistic, he enjoys exercise but not really fighting (outside of a spar. He doesn't get a thrill from it like Yang does) or the brutal training most of his mentors put him through, he doesn't really understand how to dress formally (or dress himself to best advantage in general), he's not very good at flirting or handling being flirted with, etc.

Meanwhile Bluebonnet came about because I thought the world needed more tall blonde big titty bisexual cowgirls with thick Texas accents and I was so right for that. I've been haphazardly slapping bits of characterization onto her like a clay figurine ever since. I started with her appearance, then moved to her personality and fighting style, and built a backstory from there.

Tl;dr there are a ton of ways I make an OC.

#feilan varg #bluebonnet mckiernan #agara

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