Category: Uncategorized
Cyrene Update
Modified Cyrene a bit. I change how her hair frames her face. I made her tattoo artist apron into one of those full body aprons too. All the more to store ink with. She looks more disarming this way.
I haven’t been doing a lot of development stuff this week. Which is odd because I got two dnd one-shots sprung at me for spring break. I had fun making my new PCs but something awesome came up during my last session that I had to draw.
Fine Art Fables: The Story of Isis and Osiris
In the early 2nd century CE, Plutarch wrote a complete ancient account of the Story of Isis and Osiris, and several other Egyptian religious beliefs. However, the oldest known depiction of Osiris dates to about 2300 BCE. Because of his status as a god of death and the underworld, his worship was widespread across all of Egypt, and even spread to other parts of the Mediterranean.
In Egyptian Mythology, the god Osiris came to Egypt to rule as its King and brough isis, his wife and goddess, with him. He was wise, and kind, allowing humans to flourish. However, his brother Set (Seth, spelling varies) was jealous, and set out on a plan to kill him and take his place. Set was able to trap Osiris in a chest as a form of competition at a party, then threw him in a river to never be found again. Isis, his wife, went to the river and searched until she found the chest. However, Osiris was already dead. Distraught, she went to get the necessary religious supplies to pass his spirit on to the afterlife. Set was enraged at this, and cut Osiris up into fourteen pieces so that he could never come back in the afterlife as one piece. Despite this, Isis was able to heal him with her magical, godly powers and wrapped him as a mummy. This allowed Osiris to come back briefly, however he was unable to stay on Earth. This is how he became King of the Dead.
Here is a longer summary and translation of the story. It will download a PDF file.
My image depicts Isis using her magical powers to heal Osiris back into one piece. I used the classical pose of the mummy, or a pharaoh, with arms crossed over the chest for Osirus. I tried to keep their iconography similar to the hieroglyphics which describe them. The border is inspired by hieroglyphic symbols as well, but does not have any real meaning. I wanted to keep the pieces of this series (Fine Art Fables) similar to each other visually in order to have a body of work that is all cohesive. Because of this, I used more desaturated colors for the piece, as well as the repeating border motif to make it look similar to my previous post about Snow White.
Evolving Emotions: Blizzard
My legs are like columns of sheeted glass
They burn with an anger
I have neglected them
Left them to be battered
By a blizzard, hardly forgiving
My hands chip like old plaster
Revealing the life underneath
The pain of red
Numbed in the cold
My hair discourages logic
Protests order
And wreaks havoc
In front of my eyes
Shielding my face
Enough to obscure
But not enough to warm
A cry inside
Screaming for
Something
Anything
To feel again
To know that all will calm
The ice sets in
Hardening the bones
Congealing their marrow
Hindering the joints
Straining the throat
The blizzard takes hold
Despite my hope
For a light flurry
Following the storm
Industrious Illustrating #1: References
Hello, and welcome to Industrious Illustrating! This is a new weekly column updating on Fridays which will show process pictures, sketches, and sometimes finished works that show what goes into making character designs, illustrations, and the like.
This week we will look at two different pieces I created based on photographs I took on a 2019 summer trip to England.
Last night, I digitally painted this piece of two girls hanging out in an alcove on the University of Cambridge campus. I directly painted over my photograph for the background, but I took liberties in the exact details and drew two figures who weren’t present in the original picture. I had to construct the lighting and proportions on the two characters based on my own understanding of how lighting and scale would work in that environment.
I traditionally painted this piece with watercolors and alcohol-based markers in the fall of 2020 based on a photograph I took at the Bridge of Sighs in Oxford. I had to eyeball all the proportions and perspective and then draw the environment by hand, albeit while referencing a photograph. In retrospect, I think some of the details and perspective look a little off. But that was the best I could do at the time without the ability to directly paint over the original photograph.
For both paintings, I had to rely on my own understanding of lighting and perspective to construct the scene. The original photographs were also unquestionably my work. Since I wanted to depict real places in the United Kingdom, I couldn’t just rely on my own imagination to recreate existing scenery, and it wasn’t practical for me to return to the UK in person every time I wanted to paint a real-life scene. So my best option was to use photographs as a tool for inspiring interesting illustrations.
Digital art programs make image adjustments such as brightness, contrast, and saturation much easier, and they also have the blessing known as the undo function (ctrl-z). They also have the ability to directly integrate photographs into paintings for textures and references, which professional concept artists and illustrators often use so that they can finish detailed paintings on a timely basis for their clients. Using these tools isn’t cheating, as no amount of fancy tools can compensate for a lack of artistic skill. Rather, digital art programs enable artists to speed up their workflow and create finished works faster for both professional and hobbyist purposes.
I’m still proud of both pieces, and I think they both have their own merits. But this comparison should hopefully show that while digital art programs didn’t teach me the fundamentals or my current skills, they do help smooth out the process as a tool akin to a paintbrush or a pen.
My First Drag Pageant
This past weekend I had the pleasure of competing in Basement Arts’ first-ever drag pageant (in recent years), Lady Walgreen 2022. As someone who considers themselves a “look queen” and a bedroom queen (ie, someone who focuses on my makeup and looks and generally creates my drag in my bedroom without showing it to many other people or going out in it), this was actually my first time going out and performing in drag. And it was the best experience I could’ve ever asked for. Quite literally, I’ve never seen an audience as packed or as excited as I did in the Newman Studio last Saturday night.
The pageant had three parts: fashion, interview, and talent. For fashion, we got scored by a panel of judges (aka other students who are drag aficionados or style icons). As a look queen known for outlandish makeup, this was the category I was focused the most on. My look was a demon-like creature who had all my skin removed from my face and sections of my body, a ribcage peeking out on my chest, and muscles exposed all across my face and body. This has been some of the most extravagant and ambitious makeup I have ever done, and I couldn’t be prouder of what I ended up creating.
The makeup was all done by me, mainly using eyeliners, face paint, and a ton of powder and patience. The ribcage is made out of cardboard I stole from a housemate and covered in duct tape, and the hair is similarly held up by a cardboard frame for the horns. The skirt is a long, ugly thrifted skirt I found, cut up, and stained with fake blood just hours before. Who said you can’t create stunning drag on a budget?
A lot of my drag is freaky, alien, and just a tad bit insane, and this look was no different. And the audience loved it, from the cheering I got the moment I stepped out. Not to brag, but I was the only queen to get a perfect score of tens across the board for my look, which honestly was the biggest win in my book. Listen, I’m a look queen through and through and to be validated on my effort in my looks is the most amazing thing for me.
Next came the interview, which might have been the most chaotic part of the night. I’d like to first apologize to the couch, which has incurred a large red mark from when I decided to man-spread across it during my interview. Rip to that couch (and the one section of my body I didn’t set with powder well enough).
The final part was the talent portion, which included performances of incredible dance numbers, live singing, a spoken-word version of “I’m Sexy And I Know It”, and for me, a pair of rollerblades and licking blood off the floor of the Newman. I may not be the best dancer, but I did create a memorable performance of falling flat on my face, spilling blood all across the floor, and then getting up to lick all the blood off my fingers and garner the most wonderfully disgusting responses from the audience as Kim Petras played. Honestly, what more could I ask for of my first live performance?
While I didn’t make top two (congrats to ElleXL, our Lady Walgreen winner, and Tampa, the runner-up), I don’t think I’ve ever cheered louder during a lip-sync than I did for those two going CRAZY to “I Will Survive”. Seriously, you’ve never seen a performance like theirs. Plus, who cares about winning? I not only got to show off my art to a huge audience of my friends and classmates, I also made some of the most wonderful friends. There’s truly something so joyful about a room of queer folks all half in drag, taking shots and helping each other out. When I couldn’t find my eyelash glue, Tampa offered me hers. I did Mrs. Worldwide’s makeup since it was her first time in drag, and Olympia offered me hairspray to keep my wig down. There could not have been a more different group of performers up there on that stage, but each and every one was incredible and it was such an incredible honor to see them all perform. Shout out to the UMich drag scene and shout out to everyone who came out to the Newman last weekend! And to Basement Arts for hosting!
