Melanie Surani's Blog, page 74
January 29, 2017
mooncalfe:
Here are a couple designs I did for a one-shot Jem...
Here are a couple designs I did for a one-shot Jem story I was going to do but probably won’t end up doing, I thought you’d all like to see because GRAPHIX! ;)
January 28, 2017
January 27, 2017
I’m excited and sad at the same time
I’m excited and sad at the same time
Writing prompts for artists who are not feeling productive, because of all the nightmares
Has the end of Western Civilization got you down? Called your reps, donated percentages of your meager artist income to ACLU and Planned Parenthood, but still can’t help getting angry, hopeless, depressed, tired, hungry, sad, and cry-filled when you start to write?
Here are reasons to make things, despite the horror.
People are sad. People work long hours at meaningful jobs, and meaningless jobs, and afterward they are tired and sad. Make a song/a poem/a book/a game/a painting that will make them happy. That will remind them of a happy memory, that will help them process a bad memory they had almost forgotten. Write a song that will remind them of “the one who got away” and tell them they are better off. Write a song that tells them they are better than their sexist boss, because they know how to shake that booty.
People feel alone. People sit in their cubicles, on the bus, on the Internet, at dinner with their family, in the grocery store, and see racism, homophobia and transphobia offered with no resistance. They think they are the only one who cares. Write them a song to show that you care, that they are not alone. Perhaps this will give them the final bit of strength they need to stand up to a bully, because they know you are backing them up in spirit.
People are ignorant. By no fault except the accident of birth, some folks are never taught the history of xenophobia, nazis, the civil war, and hate crimes from the perspective of the marginalized groups. They go to church and school, weigh the opinions equally, and do not learn facts about the earth. They get their morals from folks who prioritize the Republican’s promises of “the good ol’ days” and small government over the golden rule. These kids get their entertainment from things like the Transformers movies, and perhaps the allegories of good vs. evil, on a macro vs. micro level are not quite internalized on a meaningful level. Write a cartoon, a top 40 hit, a kid’s TV pilot, or a Transformers movie to teach these children empathy for those who look and think different from them. Maybe when they grow up to be Republicans, they won’t be so sexist about it.You can turn sadness into action. Not just for yourself, but for others, too. You can give someone the strength to convince their uncle to accept transgender identities, without yelling. You can help a poorly-paid teacher get some peace and rest so he can go in the next day and teach some egalitarian social studies in an authentic, energetic way. You can convince somebody with too much money to give some (to you, for art, but also) to a charity that makes a difference. You can inform, amuse, rebel. We need all of it.
Make something new. Creation is an act of resistance, even when it doesn’t change the world.
Angela M Webber is a musician and writer. Check out her band at thedoubleclicks.com and sign up for emails of occasional new writing and creations at tinyletter.com/angelaser.
January 26, 2017
pascalcampion:
The Red Eye.One thing that is funny( sort of...
The Red Eye.
One thing that is funny( sort of funny) as an artist… sometimes you try something different, like drawing with a different pen, a different way a different technique and you put a lot of effort into it and you’re super proud of it, but the majority of people who look at your image just go…”meh……it’s ok..” and you’re slightly upset.( I’m kidding.. you get really depressed ) And sometimes you just throw something on the page in a few seconds and people go” WOW!! THIS IS THE B.E.S.T. thing you have EVER done”..and you’re just befuddled( I just like that word, Befuddled.
It use to really bug me .. but then I realized… IN GENERAL.. your audience doesn’t really are HOW you did your work… they just care about the result and the first impression they get when they see the art. If it speaks to them .. they respond to it..if they have to work at understanding the image, you’ve lost the emotional charge of the piece and just becomes a technical piece.
For us though.. we know how much work has gone into the piece and we feel like BECAUSE of the amount of time and effort and sweat it took to do it we should be rewarded with this particular piece being HA-MAI-ZZZING!! but it just doesn’t work like this. In art.. in my experience, people are dazzled by skills, but they are really moved emotionally by spontaneity and truthfulness which usually has the look of being effortless.
Lightness of touch…
SO… IF ever you are in that position of putting a lot of effort into a piece and feeling like it just falls flat with your audience….know that you’re not the only one and that you should NOT give up being an artist.
You should also NOT stop trying hard… you have to put the hard work over and over to discover, understand and eventually master something so you can use it effortlessly the next time.. if you don’t do that work, you won’t master it. ( And you WILL master it, you will instantly discover something totally different that you can’t seem to draw/paint/sculpt… but that’s another post).
All that matters in the end is what the audience sees and feels.
Just a thought.
#pascalcampion
This is important for artists
1979semifinalist:
Jem: The Misfits #5
Kelly Thompson (w) • Jenn...
art by Jen Bartel
art by Jenn St-Onge
Jem: The Misfits #5
Kelly Thompson (w) • Jenn St-Onge (a) • M. Victoria Robado ©
OUR SONGS ARE BETTER Part Five! The Misfits Reality Show has been
unearthing all of the bands secrets since day one. Jetta’s secret is
bigger than all of them, but she’s also better at keeping it. Still,
when coming clean might mean saving the day, will Jetta show her true
colors and save her band, or just save herself?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99SO. Yes, Misfits was every only planned to be a 5-Issue mini series and then we were going to see what happened…and what’s happening is something very big and exciting…things that are going to CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Read here for a bit more info about that and keep an eye out (in March?) for the big announcement:
http://www.cbr.com/idw-publishing-jem-and-the-holograms-ending-in-april-will-return/
Excited and sad. I love this series so much – even more because it was one constant, stable thing in my life when so much was changing for me. And now that things have evened out, it’s ending/changing. Everything does. I hope the writers and artists of this series read this: thank you ❤
