artist followers whose family members pay little to no attention to their work because they’re “used to it”: i love you and im so proud of how far youve come and how much youve put into your art and art style. youve come a long way and still have plenty of time to continue your artistic journey. other people not appreciating your efforts in no way reflects on you or your skills. may you continue to grow and thrive in peace. 🌸
Tag Archives: on art
My painting is not violent, it’s life that is violent. Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves, the insects are eating each other; violence is a part of life. We are born with a scream; we come into life with a scream and maybe love is a mosquito net between the fear of living and the fear of death.
Francis Bacon (via phytos)
(I don’t know if this is a legit quote, but it’s worth posting one of his most famous paintings with it, Figure with Meat., under a cut. Warning: graphic depiction of animal carcasses and the person depicted in the work is also deeply unsettling.)
According to Mary Louise Schumacher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
“Bacon appropriated the famous portrait [Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X], with its subject, enthroned and draped in satins and lace, his stare stern and full of authority. In Bacon’s version, animal carcasses hang at the pope’s back, creating a raw and disturbing Crucifixion-like composition. The pope’s hands, elegant and poised in Velázquez’s version, are rough hewn and gripping the church’s seat of authority in apparent terror. His mouth is held in a scream and black striations drip down from the pope’s nose to his neck. It’s as if Bacon picked up a wide house painting brush and brutishly dragged it over the face. The fresh meat recalls the lavish arrangements of fruits, meats and confections in 17th-century vanitas paintings, which usually carried subtle moralizing messages about the impermanence of life and the spiritual dangers of sensual pleasures. Sometimes, the food itself showed signs of being overripe or spoiled, to make the point. Bacon weds the imagery of salvation, worldly decadence, power and carnal sensuality, and he contrasts those things with his own far more palpable and existential view of damnation”.[2]
when u dont like ur art take a deep breath and remember u created it from nothing, like a god
Buonasera. Lately it seems like my imagination is completely blank and I don’t really know what to do ’cause writing, singing… they are two of my greatest loves. How do I deal with inspiration? How do you do it? Hope you can give me some advice. Have a good night, Lestat.
♛Ah, the creative blocks! They happen to us all. When I lose musical inspiration, I turn to listening to – or doing my own – variations on existing works.
I might try a song and sing it in another singer’s style. Have you ever heard of Richard Cheese & Lounge Against The Machine? Lounge applied to any other song, preferably one in a very different genre, is almost a guarantee of comic relief, and that can be the first crack in breaking through my creative block.
Collaboration with others can help, too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been creatively stifled, I’ll call my mortal band to meet at a karaoke place and we’ll just go through our favorites, works very well.
But there are going to be times in your life where the muse won’t speak to you for no apparent reason, and other times when you can’t shut her up, ebbs and flows are normal. I hope your muse returns to you, post-haste *winks*
the only reason your art looks awful to you is because you had an image in your head and the art you created doesnt match it
other people have no image, so when presented with the art you created, they’re usually pretty impressed, because wow you made that out of nothing!! its so cool!!
so next time you want to judge your own art badly try to remember that you’re comparing it to the perfect picture you had in your head as opposed to recognizing that hey u made a thing out of nothing how cool is that
Wow, thank you for all the things you said about writing. (Same person) I will say I do think I’m a very good writer when I really try and have good ideas, I struggle with being burned out in that class after having taken it for almost an entire school year. And thanks for the fic reccs! It’s funny how you say you have a fear of failure bc I DO TOO and struggle with it daily. I’m also an artist and question my abilities a lot. I’ve kinda out of practice and am a perfectionist so its hard. (1/2)
(2/2) And now that I think about it I might try some A/L art. I drew Armand once and it actually turned out pretty good. I always appreciate what you say. You offer extremely helpful advice (:
You’re so very welcome! (Anon refers to this post) <333
It’s great that you recognize that you are a very good writer when
you’ve got good ideas and when you try. Yes, burnout is a very real thing that can happen when doing smtg for a class for so long… both with writing and arting. Lemme tell ya, if you can push past the start-up inertia, it gets easier. There will be ebbs and flows of your writing/arting/etc. muses, that’s totes normal and fine.
(^Don’t listen to this guy, that’s a false dichotomy, Do the thing.)
I’m also an artist who’s wayyyy out of practice with drawing. I really need to take a figure drawing class and have that experience of a teacher guiding me and the inspiration of being with classmates. I don’t think I’d be at risk of burnout as much since those classes only meet 1-2x/week, thankfully.
BUT ANYWAYYYY. Here’s an old chibi Lestat I did in MS Paint, drawn with a mouse, and I purposely did it that way bc I didn’t want to take it too seriously. I could blame it on MS Paint that it has crappy lines and basic colors, and I could blame it on the mouse that the lines aren’t as smooth as they could be w/ a tablet. Despite those limitations, I think it turned out well and I really like it for what it is. It felt good just to do it.
^His expression was pretty much my own expression as I was drawing it. LOOK HE EVEN HAS VIOLET-BLUE EYES.
YES so do it! Draw the A/L fanart, and please share with us, if you feel comfortable doing so. We have an insatiable thirst for more fanart, but especially pairings like that that which don’t get as much attention.
I always appreciate what you say. You offer extremely helpful advice (:
That really means alot to me and I am so glad to help, your message really made me smile (ppl are going to think I sent this to myself! So you better come back here, off-anon, w/ your writing/fanart/ideas!) *hugs*
Feels like your interaction with anons goes YOU: *produces art because you enjoy it* ANON: Have some unsolicited advice. You should do the art I want you to do. Because that would get you more followers/be more respectable/be more worthwhile. YOU: I’m good. I enjoy my art. I’m not doing it for *outcome they offered* ANON: You!! Enjoy your own art!! You create it without me in mind!! How dare!! Here are reasons you shouldn’t!!!
This is accurate, but it isn’t just anons. It’s virtually everyone to some degree.
I don’t mean offense by that. Most of the time, people just want to help. Or they’re excited. I even do it to other girls myself sometimes. We give unsolicited advice, suggestions, “you should”s and so on.
We try to control, even in the most well meaning way, what women do with their talents. We want to have a say in a woman’s behavior.
It’s a cynical way to think, but in my experience, it’s not a big step all to go from “You should try this” to “I was just trying to help” to “Wow you’re a bitch for not letting me control you.” It’s breathtaking to me sometimes how quickly and willingly people turn on you this way because of the expectation that you exist for them rather than for yourself. And it’s a very strong expectation, one you probably don’t think you have.
But it’s there when people tell me to turn off anons or say nasty things because I’m not dealing with hate the way they want me to. It’s there when people tell me who I should draw. It’s there when people say, under their breath, “I wish she wouldn’t copy photos.” “I wish you would behave according to me.”
And we’re not shy about it, especially when we think we’re being helpful. The need to rescue (and the expectation that women need to be rescued, even if from no one else but their own inherent bad judgment or “sin”) is deeply ingrained in our society. It’s in our laws, our religion, our commerce.
Think about all the ways, even the ways you believe to be harmless or helpful or barely there, that you feel you’re allowed, entitled, or even expected to take personal sovereignty from a woman. ❤
If I had your talent and I was wasting it on fanart where all I did was copy photos I would seriously kill myself. You’re basically a plagiarist in visual form. This is all just appalling to me, and the sheer amount of life wasted here is mindblowing. How do you live with yourself? I feel so bad for you that you think this is art. I sincerely hope when realization sinks in that you’ve done so much nothing that you have people who care because it’s going to be a rough awakening. Damn this is sad.
Uggggggghhhhh
The jealous cruelty of this anon aside… there’s such a weird expectation that artists need to be creating some kind of socially-valuable “art” at all times… or that what’s created needs to be for the consumption of others. Artists are allowed to make things for their own pleasure, things that are meaningless to anyone other than themselves, things that are practice, things that are ugly.
Happiness is valuable. It’s like, y’know, how much time do people “waste” making themselves happy? Why is it better to spend your free time watching football or playing video games or reading articles on Reddit? Why is it that as soon as you’re making something, the thing itself needs to be valuable, rather than the joy of making it?
Fanworks are valuable too, particularly for women. They’re empowering to create because you are usually taking male-created, male-marketed media and recreating for female consumption. It’s validating to consume because it gives women a place to enjoy media spaces. Its also a way to network and form communities in empty places. It’s not “wasteful” to spend time on fanworks for this reason as well.
Ugh. I wonder if guys drawing Black Widow getting nailed by aliens get these sorts of “what are you doing with your life”/“why are wasting your talent” messages. Prolly not, because this sort of hyperbolic go-kill-yourself missive is pretty much tailored to female recipients.
This is important. When I dabbled in art classes in college I had one teacher who was deadest that all our projects had to have a ‘meaning’ and be ‘socially relevant’. If you were me, and just wanted to make a faerie house full of miniature food because that sounded like a fun way to fulfill her architecture assignment, this teacher would berate you. She spent a lot of time calling me unoriginal and uncreative. She made me cry in front of the class after a particularly nasty insult suggesting what I wanted to make was meaningless drivel and that she ‘expected better of me’.
It feels shameful to admit now, but I seriously considered leaving the art field all together because of this teachers insistence that the things I enjoyed, and enjoyed making, weren’t worthwhile. And looking back now, I think that teacher did a real disservice to countless young artists. Creation itself is valuable. Every act of creation has social significance and is a product of its time. You don’t have to be political for your art to matter. You just have to love making what you make. That’s it. That what makes it art, that’s what gives it value. Anyone who tells you otherwise has bought into the bizarre status-based BS I see sometimes in the fine art world.
And if my old professor from community college happens to see this: making life-size animal sculptures out of recycled plastic in order to send a message about the environment isn’t any more unique than the faeries I wanted to make in your class. I’m glad it makes you happy, I’m glad that message resonates with you and your collectors. But try to look outside yourself and recognize putting others down when you can tell they are passionate about creating is not the right way to teach. Ever. Encourage and nurture more young artists in the world. This isn’t a race to find out who can ‘make it’ by putting people through tests. There is enough room for all of us to shine.
Look at these smart babes who follow me though
/beams with pride
I think this is beautiful
Ive noticed a lot of fanart of IWTV makes the boys look like girls. its not just one artist its the fandom’s thing to draw them w not “feminine” but *female* features. Im a ftm trans artist so ive spent a lot of time looking at how male vs female faces differ and the iwtv fandom draws men with smaller jaws, bigger eyes, softer features, bigger lips, small/arched eyebrows. Besides long hair and elaborate dress the characters dont look female so do u know why the fandom draws them like that?
(1) First of all, I would encourage you to post your own interpretations, share with us how you see these characters, we have an insatiable hunger for more fanart ;]
If your headcanon is different, that’s great! Variety is the spice of life.
(2) In my experience, having been in VC fandom for 20+ years and on tumblr for about 3.5 yrs, yes, I’ve seen a lot of IWTV-era fanart depicting the male characters with feminine features, you may be right about that. But not all of it is.
[^X Louis, Claudia and Lestat, IWTV-era, by @superhiki, who often uses Daniel Tighe as a reference for Louis, and fandom favorite Danila Kovalev for Lestat (and, not pictured here but worth mentioning, Hiki uses fandom favorite Bjorn Andresen for Armand)]
(3) I get the impression from your message that you consider that “fanart of IWTV makes the boys look like girls” is bad/wrong/incorrect. If that’s not your point, I apologize, and you can skip to (4), but if it is your point, please see this post about fandom policing, here’s an excerpt from @spiderladyceo:
“And no matter how well-meaning you are, you don’t get to tell other fans what they can and cannot write, or draw, or enjoy.
When you start telling people what they can create or enjoy, you invalidate the purpose of fandom, and create a situation where instead of free exploration, we have something similar to mainstream media in which certain tropes or topics are not allowed. This limits the free expression, exploration and innovation so highly prized in fandom.
…You don’t get to tell fans how to enjoy fandom. You mind your own path, your write your own fic, you write meta on why x trope is offensive/problematic/bad but you do not tell other fans how to enjoy fandom.”
(4) I don’t quite understand your distinction between “feminine” and *female* features, except that I consider “female features” specifically to mean female genitalia and secondary sex characteristics (breasts). So I’m only going to address “feminine” features.
On that point, “smaller jaws, bigger eyes, softer features, bigger lips, small/arched eyebrows” are not exclusive to female characters. Jason Momoa is a man with
BIG EYES, thick lashes, arched brows, big lips, soft jaw, round face,… and I think he is a cis man.
(5) I don’t speak for all the fanartists, but I sent your ask out privately to several fanartists, fic writers, etc., and the general consensus was that if you want to know why a fanartist or writer has made certain artistic choices, you should ask them directly about it and they will answer if they choose to do so.
Some reasons they gave for drawing characters the way they do:
- Some fanartists have a different idea of what is “masculine” than you do. It just varies, even in people who express their assigned gender, features differ wildly.
- Anne Rice often describes the characters in feminine and androgynous ways.
- Many of her vampires were turned young, before developing your idea of “masculine” features, or they never did. Armand was “perhaps seventeen” (TVA) when he was turned and had stopped growing, had not developed masculine features by that time. “My hands are as delicate as those of a young woman, and I was beardless,” (TVA)
- It was more fashionable for men during the IWTV-era to be fashionable and cultured, the style of which might be considered a little more feminine by today’s standards. See Dandy.
- Their own aesthetic taste may be inspired by anime/manga. One example is Dany&Dany.
- Fanartists often use models and actors as references. Many male models and actors have feminine features. One of them, Andreja Pejić, was a fan favorite as Lestat for many years, and she transitioned MTF in 2013.
^[X] fanart of Lestat/Louis by @sheepskeleton based on
[X] this picture of Andreja Pejic (left) and Erika Linder (right).
- Fanartists may have been inspired by movie!IWTV. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt already had somewhat feminine features in the early 90′s, which were enhanced in movie!IWTV. This is one of my fave fanarts of Lestat, and it’s based on Tom’s Lestat:
^X Lestat by *HRFleur is so lovely. And someone commented on it that they think he is handsome w/o looking feminine.
“I don’t think he looks like Tom Cruise. I think he looks better! it’s as if you took the essence of Lestat from Tom and pulled the real Lestat out. He looks as though he’s about to say something sarcastic or perhaps become peevish over something. I like that you made him handsome without looking feminine.”
Feminine Jesus Christ:
- The idea of drawing men with female or feminine features predates fanart. People depict Jesus Christ with feminine features when there is plenty of controversy about what he actually might have looked like:
^Not my comparison pic, I took it from Janet Carr @ THIS BUG’S LIFE’s post about the Jesus depiction issue. Carr writes that the more feminine Jesus depictions are “actually pictures of Cesare Borgia, son of Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, and brother of Lucrezia Borgia… Pope Alexander VI had all previous depictions of Jesus destroyed in about 1492, and replaced with images of his son. Henceforth, these have been the images used to depict Christ.”
^Here’s our feminized Jesus and early 90′s Brad Pitt, for comparison. I remember Brad being criticized
in the early 90′s
by men for looking too feminine. The pic above is from a magazine, the Italian caption is “Blond, blue eyes, beautiful in spite of himself, and with a smile <<capable of reversing feminism 25 years>>.”
//end. Sorry for the long post, everyone.
I didn’t put any of that under a cut bc I spent a lot of time on this response and I have found that people will reblog, trying to make a post into a discussion, without reading what’s under the cut. People may still want to try to do that, as this is a social network that encourages discussion, but I’m probably not going to engage any further in this topic. I think I’ve made my point, which is that fanartists draw what they want to draw.
I-want-my-IWTV 