Become Cartoony

I've seen advice on how to design cartoon characters. And while I love some cartoon styles, I never bothered to try my own cartoony style. I've only ever drawn characters from existing cartoons. 

My drawing style is a little more realistic. Even when I draw comics (I'm very mediocre at that) the style isn't at all cartoony. But now there's a character I want to use in some comics. I did a practice drawing, which turned out pretty good. But I can tell that if I try to draw him like that in a comic, it won't look right. Now I have to figure out how to draw him so he looks good as a comic character. So far, I haven't found any reference pictures that are in the direction I want to go. 

Yeah, I have no experience in this kind of thing. I guess i'll just have to do some experimenting and see what works. 

Recovering Villains

I seem to have a category of character that I find endlessly entertaining:  Recovering villains. 

And I can finally use my new warning sign! 

I think it first started with Once Upon a Time. There's a span where Regina isn't evil anymore, but she sure ain't nice. Snow says something optimistic, and Regina goes, "do you get a quarter from the hope fairies every time you say that?" That cracked me up. 

In Steven Universe, we get Peridot. The angry slice of pie. Once she's captured and her tech taken away, she's not really a threat. She doesn't even try to deceive them. She's too honest for that, to the point where she has to be reminded if she's supposed to lie. But even when she's no longer dangerous, she's quite the stinker for a while. Like when she learns that bopping someone in the face hurts them. 

For Strange Magic, there's the Bog King. Especially when he's trying to get Dawn to stop singing, and he can't help but feel touched by her kind gestures. 

Then of course there's Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, with my favorite crazy monkey. Even in prison, he still had plenty of attitude. It's a lot of fun to watch. But the reason I like this category so much is because it's great to see these characters steadily become good. 

Then we get She-ra and the Princesses of Power. After everything Catra did, I was certain I'd never forgive her. But she's a cat. Which means I couldn't help warming up to her when she stopped being nasty. Even if she still is pretty prickly. She deserves all the teasing, like how cute she looks in her helmet. At one point, she says she's working on anger management, and Adora is so excited. Aah, fun stuff. Angry cats trying to be a little less angry. 

And most recently there's Spiderman No Way Home, with Dr. Octavius. It's not actually him that's being evil. But when he's captured, he takes every available chance to be a jerk. He just can't back it up, so his threats are laughable. I find it far too entertaining how he gets dragged around by his own machine. 

Spoilers

This is one of my many schemes that became more complicated than expected. For a while, I've been wanting to have some sort of icon or picture to use on my blog as a warning for spoilers. I hadn't yet thought of a good character or image to draw. 

I just rewatched my favorite season of Doctor Who - the one with Donna. I had kinda resisted starting it again, but I enjoyed the heck out of it. I forgot how much fun the Doctor and Donna are. It was like being with old friends again. I even went back and watched some of the episodes again with Nicole a few days ago. 

I also noticed something new. In the library episodes, I always assumed that Donna's fictional husband really was fictional. But there are about three seconds at the end where you see him try to call out to Donna, and just miss her. Come on, Donna's story is already tragic enough without that! (This is where I send Fern in to interfere ;) which contributes to the feeling of these characters being old friends). 

This episode where we meet River Song solved a problem for me. One of her iconic lines is "spoilers." This show does a fascinating thing where River's timeline kind of flows backwards to the Doctor's. They're not supposed to share any information that the other doesn't know yet. I didn't think I could draw River well enough to let a casual viewer know it was her. I tried to find a picture, which ended up being hard. I just couldn't find an image of River that worked. I wanted that mischievous look she sometimes has when she says "spoilers." And I wanted the picture to have some hint that this character was from Doctor Who. I finally stumbled upon a book cover. It's a great picture of River, and she's holding her cool Tardis book. 

Then came the second hurdle. I no longer have simple access to the program that lets me add text to an image. At least not text that will be legible. But after combining a few different programs and websites, I finally got it! 

Now hopefully I'll actually remember to mark spoilers more often in my blog. Since I spent so long making this freaking image. 

Being Good Doesn't Earn You Money

I just saw a depressing Youtube video that interviewed a successful author. She's a full-time writer, and not married. So what she earns from writing is all she gets. And despite her work selling well, she said that she can barely keep her head above water. I knew that writing can be a lousy way to earn money. But I thought successful authors would have it better. 

It's so insane that people working full-time can barely make ends meet. And writing is only one of many examples. Plenty of people that work their tails off can't even stay afloat. 

Yes, I will keep complaining about this society and economy, which give people fame and unimaginable wealth by trampling on so many others. 

The Right Time to Tell Stories

Story-telling is incredibly important to cultures all around the world. I don't mean movies, but word-of-mouth tales. Some cultures have rules about when they tell stories. For example, many American Indians will only tell mythology during winter. Other tales can only be told to men, maybe. And some stories weren't told to outsiders simply because outsiders wouldn't understand them. That person would have to get to know the people before they understood what some of the story referred to. 

The San people of Africa wouldn't tell a newcomer any of their stories until they'd danced with them. And not just any dance, but a special dance after a successful eland hunt. I want to know more about that. Is there something about eland and stories? 

When Memory Beats the Actual Experience

My cousin told me something fascinating. 

He loved spirited Away as a kid. But when he saw it again many years later, it was just a little bit less great than he remembered it. 

He had watched Ponyo many years ago, and really liked it. Now he didn't want to watch it again, because he didn't want to lose the way it made him feel. He remembered the scene where Ponyo and Sosuke wake up and the house is surrounded by ocean, so they go out on their boat. He said that scene made him feel like he was being surrounded in peace. 

(It's amazing that Miyazaki can make something like a flood feel peaceful, and fun. Though it is a metaphorical flood - cleansing the earth). 

I commented on that scene, laughing about little details like an octopus climbing into the house. After our conversation, he said, "Screw it. I'm gonna watch it again." 

And somehow, I was almost sad that he had decided to watch Ponyo again. 

Movies I shouldn't like, but I do: Part 2

Last year, I wrote a post about a movie I should have liked, but didn't. And a movie I shouldn't like but do. I thought of another. 

Field of Dreams. There was a summer camp I went to as a kid, and the lady who ran it loved this movie. We watched it a few times, and I've liked it ever since. 

I have absolutely no interest in watching sports. They can be fun to play, but that's it. So why do I like a movie about baseball? I'm not really sure. I do like its quiet magic. Unlike the flashy magic in many of the movies I like. 

I think I mostly like some of the characters. Annie is great. But Terence, the author, steals the show. He's awesome. Apparently one of his speeches left all the cast and crew entranced. But my favorite moment is when one guy says that Terence is lying about who he is, and he's just laughing. I mean, he probably finds it refreshing that there aren't fans swarming him. 

You can actually go visit the field! It's cool that the farm kept it. 

I forget what I originally meant...

When people read a book or watch a movie, they'll often find meaning throughout it. We had to learn a lot of that kind of thing in high school English. "The distant green light represents money!" And so on.

Some of these meanings weren't intended by the author. The audience will find their own meanings. Which is just part of the creative process. 

The problem is, sometimes I forget what I intended for some themes. Maybe a broken unicorn horn represents a broken sense of innocence, which heals and becomes something new. Or maybe I didn't intend anything when I first thought of it. If anyone ever does ask me about the intended meanings and themes, how many will I have forgotten by then? 

With my head full of straw

Willow is Underrated

Willow doesn't get enough attention. Sure the cg is old, but there are some really fascinating things about the storytelling. 

First of all, you never see parents going out on big fantasy quests. How could they? They have a family and a job. They can't go galavanting off across the country. And that's exactly the problem Willow faces. He has to leave his wife and kids behind, and risk losing his farm. But if he doesn't go, his entire village is at risk. As well as baby Elora. 

And a follow-up to that is that you never see a grand quest where there's a baby along for the ride. Because babies take a lot of caring for! Having to go on an adventure with a baby is hard. And it's hard for Willow! Elora needs food, and she gets sick, and she cries. Heck, she even cries when they're trying to hide from the bad guys. It's only Raziel's quick thinking that disguises the sound. 

And speaking of Raziel, her story is so tragic! It's mentioned so quietly that some people don't even notice it. The evil queen turned her onto a possum. Raziel thinks that she'll be a beautiful young woman when Willow transforms her. But when she's finally a human again, she's an old woman. "Has it been so long?" She whispers, as she sees the wrinkles on her hands. She never knew that she spent most of her life trapped on an island, as a possum. 

Then there's the love potion. No, not the one from Strange Magic. George Lucas clearly likes love potions. The love potion in Willow came first. And it always struck me as rather silly. The evil queen's daughter gets swept off her feet when Madmartigan is under the potion's influence, and starts "spouting poetry" to her. But this last time I watched the movie, I saw that scene in a different way. Sorsha has never experienced love before! She sure never got any from her mother. Madmartigan's love may not be intentional, but it was love. Sorsha can't stop watching him after that. You can just see her thinking, "wow, this guy's a great fighter. And he doesn't fight to destroy. He fights to protect." So I suddenly felt much better about that love potion part. And it worked out pretty well. Better than the love potion in Strange Magic, anyway (although that did kind of help the Bog King open up some). 

(I have not yet seen the sequel series to Willow. I will eventually, but I'm always a little afraid of sequels...) 

The Ever-Present Naming Woes

Ugh, I just spent a few days and a several hours trying to come up with a better name for one of my main characters (the "beast" in my version of Beauty and the Beast). I've had a tentative name for him for quite a while. But I'm trying to come up with something better. I wanted his name to come from a certain group of cultures, and I wanted it to have a certain meaning. I did tons of digging and made a list of interesting names. I could keep digging, but I think I've gone about as far in this direction as I need. Right now, I'm almost numb to it. I no longer feel anything from looking at the names. I'll have to come back tomorrow. 

But I'm concerned, because the original name still looks the most appealing... 

Chocolate!

I just made chocolate!

I like to try cooking all kinds of strange, new things. I never really mention it here, but it's been fun experimenting. One part of that is looking up native plants, and common garden plants, and making syrup and jelly and stuff out of them. My cousin just visited this afternoon. He knows a lot about plants. But as we walked through our garden, he was stunned that I could go around picking all these common flowers and stuffing them in my mouth. 

"I've been around fuchsias my whole life and never knew you could eat them!" 

"How is alyssum not in salads?" 

The lilly pilly tree had berries, and he loved those too. None of these were planted as food. But I've been getting all kinds of interesting edible plants since I've been learning about them. I've even dug up some weeds to bring home, like dock, purslane, plantain, and mallow (I can't wait to make marshmallow!). 

I've been trying plenty of normal recipes too. Including foods from around the world. 

I never thought I'd get to make my own chocolate. I'd never seen a cocoa pod outside of pictures. The closest I'd gotten was when there was a bowl of raw beans at some informational table. They let me taste a crumb, and it was like strong dark chocolate. I once even found dried cocoa fruit at Trade Joes, but it wasn't that great. 

Then last week, we spotted whole cocoa pods at an Asian market. They were expensive. About $20 for a single pod. But I had to try. Some of them looked a bit moldy, but I picked one that looked okay. It was huge and brown. Apparently there are many types. I actually saw some wild cocoa trees in Peru, which was awesome (see the flowers growing right out of the trunk). 

I had to open the pod within a couple days, because some fine mold was growing on the outside. Luckily the inside is what counts. I cut it open, and there was a cluster of white juicy fruits clustered together. Mom and I chewed off all the fruit to reveal the dark seeds inside. 

I did some minor internet digging. It said to leave the beans to ferment for a week. But after a couple days, some were getting mold on them. I pulled out the moldy ones, and found a simple recipe that worked fine for my purposes. I roasted the beans last night. Today I ground them up with a bit of sugar, and some avocado oil (because I didn't have cocoa oil). I didn't have many beans, so it wasn't enough to fill my small blender. I couldn't get to a creamy texture because of that. I ended up with something that looked like a damp clump of coffee grounds. And it was really good. Like a crumbled chocolate bar that was crispy. 

I'm going to see if I can sprout the moldy beans. Attempt to grow my own! 

What Happens to Characters After the Story?

In The Fault in Our Stars, the character Van Houten refuses to discuss what happens to his characters after a book ends. 

I listened to the audio commentary for The Fault in Our Stars movie. It's the first time I've heard an author speak on one of these! John Green says that he's the same way. He doesn't want to think about what happens to his characters after the end of the book. 

I can't think that way. All of my stories interlink, so characters often reappear in other stories. And I've written many short stories that go into events before and after the main story. It's pretty fun to do. Even if I haven't written a story yet, I may throw in references to it. So I often have to know what happens to many of the characters. 

That being said... there are some pretty big things I have no clue about. For example, I have no idea who my single characters end up with, if anyone (unless it's in the actual book). I'm working on a short story right now that takes place many years after the end of the main story. And it just occurred to me, I have to figure out if the two main characters are seeing anyone. Or married! I have no clue! I may just cheat and only vaguely reference it... 

While I'm here, I have a couple other comments on TFIOS. I once watched the movie with someone who I had thought was a friend. Isaac's girlfriend leaves him before he's going to have a nasty surgery. And the ex-friend was so matter-of-fact when she said, "well maybe she really just can't handle it." I was shocked. But after the way she acted, I can't say I'm surprised. 

Real love doesn't mean abandoning someone when they're going through a bad time. 

Anyway, I just wrote a post about Westside Story - a movie I'm not particularly familiar with. I've only seen it a couple times. After I watched TFIOS, I looked up what other movies the actors were in. To my surprise, Ansel Elgort (Augustus) is in the remake of Westside Story. I'd completely forgotten that there was a remake. I looked up a couple clips to his songs. Dang, he can sing! I guess I'll have to rent that movie now. 

How to Play a Villain

Tim Curry is one of those actors that has done tons of villains. I don't think I've ever seen him play a good guy, though he was in that gray area as Long John Silver, with the Muppets. And he did do an audiobook I heard once. 

One of his villains is Hexus, from FernGully. In the bonus features, he was talking about his song, "Toxic Love." He said it was a lot of fun because he rarely gets to be that bad. 

That made me laugh. Well, if that gets it out of your system. 

Some actors say that villains are fun to play. But I wonder about actors that do mostly villains. Especially if they're typecast, and don't prefer those roles. A good actor becomes the character. I don't meant to say that playing villains makes someone a bad person. But it must take some emotional toll. 

(That being said, I always get a kick when an actor plays a villain, but the cast and crew says that the person is so nice in real life)

In Les Miserables Anne Hathaway plays Fantine, who is definitely a tragic character. She's only in part of the movie. And because she didn't have to stay in character for too long, she said she just "stayed down" during that whole time. That stuck with me. Even when not filming, she lived as though she felt like Fantine. Damn, some acting roles must really wear you down, in unexpected ways. 

Sometimes if an actor plays a bully, they'll talk about how bad they feel being so mean to the other character (like in Wicked). 

Anyway, like I said, I wonder how that affects actors who do mostly (or all) villains. I suppose there are a number of reasons this might happen. Like they're just typecast that way. Or maybe they have a roguish personality. 

And as a follow-up, what if you have to write a villain in a story? I try to have more depth in my characters, and not just have people as "good" or "evil." But I do have some pretty evil villains. I think the one I've worked with the most is Dahlia, from Evva's story. And I have to admit, she's rather fascinating to write for. 

I'm a little concerned for myself. 

Jar Jar's Unseen Contribution

I always seem to end up in movie theaters when the audience is relatively empty. Which can be nice. But it can also be really fun to get sucked into the audience emotion. 

I rarely get to hear much crowd reaction. There are a few exceptions. For example, I have never heard so much weeping in a theater as I did during Les Miserables (both the ending, and when Javert pins his badge onto Gavroche). 

I can only think of one instance where the audience started cheering while I was in the theater. It was in Star Wars: Attack of the clones, when Yoda pulled out his lightsaber. The entire audience started chanting, "Yoda! Yoda!" 

I remember that scene quite fondly. 

And I just learned that we have Jar Jar to thank for that battle. 

In the script of the movie, there was a single line saying that there's an epic battle between Yoda and Dooku. The guy in charge of creating this scene stared at that single line and went to George Lucas to ask for some more information. George Lucas basically smiled and said, "good luck." So this animator was at a loss for how to turn a single bland line into an entire epic battle. 

This was when Ahmed Best - voice and motion capture for Jar Jar Binks, found him and asked why he looked so down. 

It turns out that Ahmed Best is a black belt. (Man, that feels like a wasted opportunity - they could have used that in Star Wars!) He brought the animator over to watch a bunch of anime and martial arts movies, as examples of epic fights. 

It also turns out that Ahmed Best was in Stomp. My mom took me to see Stomp when I was a kid. I loved it. It's like a percussion concert, where the guys climb around on the sets and play all kinds of strange things as if they were instruments, such as trash cans. I wonder if he was in the show I saw! 

Wish for a Lovely Year

Happy New Year everyone! 

Wow, it was a hell of a year. For so many reasons. Let's hope this coming year gets better.