❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
official daine visual archive
The Bowery Presents
hello vonnie
Xuebing Du
@theartofmadeline
YOU ARE THE REASON
#extradirty
occasionally subtle
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
RMH
Keni
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
blake kathryn
The Stonewall Inn
trying on a metaphor
Noah Kahan
cherry valley forever
h
if i look back, i am lost
seen from Algeria
seen from Moldova
seen from South Korea
seen from Vietnam
seen from United States
seen from Venezuela
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Mexico
seen from United States
seen from Italy
@darenk8p
NAVIGATION POST
Hi, it's Darenk. I am a storyboard artist, illustrator and VA, but in the internet I post fanarts for fun.
Other social media:
Telegram (rus): arts, animatics, yapping about animation and life.
TikTok (rus/eng): animatics and arts.
I absolutely ADORE your sketchbook spreads!! Do you have any info on how you make them?
Thank you <3
I havent't checked my mailbox for a while (aaand real life completely consumed me), but I was able to prepare a step-by-step process how i draw spreads in my sketchbook:
First of all, I choose the character I'm going to draw and the palette for the pages. For this one I chose White Lily Cookie in her Moonflower Fairy costume. You can glue any materials: paper, tapes, candy wrappers, something from newspapers and magazines - literally anything you want.
2. Next step - sketch:
3. Line! I hate this part and usually get messy, can fix it later:
4. I use different materials but for the base I always use watercolor markers, because I can mix colors. Also I decided to try my new ink for a background color:
5. Here comes my favorite material - acrylic markers! I'm still learning how to pick colors for a skin, especially for Lily, because it's hard to keep her olive skin tone both natural and still sickly pale AND NOT TO MAKE HER ACCIDENTALY YELLOW. I love Willy, but coloring her on paper is a very painful process.
6. Finish! Man, I love stickers...
I do things like this because the process is so relaxing and helps me to keep my passion for drawing at the same level as when I first fell in love with drawing... Like, when I was 2 or 3 year old and i could touch the paper, paint with fingers, ruin the drawing and still keep drawing or simply make an applique. Your sketchbook is a place where you can do whatever you want, just keep it fun!
There is a really frustrating thing where some kinds of speculative story are hard to write because they will be assumed to be bad (clumsy, harmful, regressive) metaphors for real-world events or people, rather than exploring completely speculative ideas. Like:
"What if a small group of religious extremists, persecuted in their own country, moved to an inhospitable uninhabited island and had to rebuild society there?" - But the Americas and Australia weren't inhospitable and were full of Native nations, why are you perpetuating the idea of Terra Nullius and manifest destiny? - Yes, that's because this isn't a metaphor for the British invading other countries, it's a metaphor for finding out how much of a person's religious practise is rooted in worldly concerns, vs how much they will really stymie themselves for the sake of God.
"What if 1/100 children born was a werewolf?" - But queer people are no danger to straight people, and disabled people don't have predictable patterns to their illnesses, and most people who have uncontrollable rages really CAN control them and are just lying, and no minority group has superpowers... - Yes, but that's all immaterial, because I wanted to talk about a load of other metaphors about the passage of time and responsibility and the relationship between humans and wildlife.
It almost feels like death of the author, like "Death of the most obvious metaphor" - If you couldn't reach for the (tormented) parallel between being an alien species and being stateless, what stories could someone tell? If your changeling-baby was neither disabled nor adopted, what would the story be about? Etc.
I was literally just thinking about this yesterday! It's a trend I've seen a LOT in recent years in lit crit, particularly when discussing fantasy.
I think it particularly comes up the moment an author includes any sort of marginalisation/oppression for their fictional/fantasy world. I've lost count of the times now where I've seen people read a book on, say, the terrible oppression of the Gwyllion, and immediately gone "Oh, so the Gwyllion are a metaphor for the real world X people, either deliberately or accidentally through the author's inherent racism. This is therefore super problematic because the Gwyllion are also described as Y, which means the author is also saying that about X people."
There will always be real world parallels when discussing oppression. Always. But that's because oppression is oppression - precise details may vary, but it follows the same pathways the world over, and that will naturally be copied into fiction as well. This does not mean the author is intentionally telling the exact allegory that you've projected onto it. If that's how you read everything, then yeah, everything becomes super problematic, but also, why are you reading any fiction that isn't solely about real world historical events? It's clearly not for you
And, you know, obviously there are works that are racist/misogynistic/etc, including deliberately so. But I really don't like the way people have started going "I have spotted a PROBLEMATIC ALLEGORY here, I'm ever so smart" and acting like they're the cleverest little critic that ever lived. You have to meet a work on its own terms. Lovecraft was a big ole racist, sure. Someone who has written a book about the oppression of magic users in their fantasy world, however, is rarely writing a story about how queerness lurks in family lines and must be controlled; they are way more commonly writing a story about a world with magic that they then wanted to take seriously, and while there might well be elements of queerness there, those magic users are not a 1:1 replacement.
Sometimes these lines are blurry! But we're going way too far to one end of that spectrum
The post that got me thinking about this yesterday was someone talking about how they'd love to write a vampire story exploring vampirism as a disability (dependence on a substance to manage the condition, blindness/weakness in daytime, can't enter buildings without accommodation, etc). But, they said, they can't, because they don't want to be making the point that disabled people are parasites, and vampires are generally considered parasitic.
And like. What an incredible shame. That we'll lose that, because they're already afraid of the "I have spotted a PROBLEMATIC ALLEGORY" crowd. That would be a great story for exploring disability themes, OR just a great new take on vampires, and either of those things would be so good to read. But there would be so many people who would jump in with "So you think disabled people are draining the life force of the ableds around them?", never stopping to actually think "Vampires are not a 1:1 stand in for real world disability because they are fictional and do not exist."
Anyway sorry I've rambled here, not sure how coherent I'm being. But yes, I was thinking about this just yesterday! Wild.
ok, for context: me and darenk came up with a conclusion that there's 15 million of matcharoll fankids, represented by our mycookies, in the wild. this number is based on the number of active crk players (5 million) multiplied by the number of mycookies slots available (3 for each user). so, yeah, that's a lot of children-
character credits (in order):
frosted sugar cookie - me
chak chak cookie - @darenk8p
cici cookie - @susemulsion
matcha roll cookie - @haenim0
black nougat cookie - my brother
LOL
Hmmm…
HMMMMMMM….
some of my cr art the past two months. first is a refresher wip since its been 3 years since i got back into it.
I love this art with Matcha so much...
original below
first year of college finished yaaay
Siblings
@darenk8p @susemulsion
BABIES...
Thinking about it but what I think one of the things Butter Roll Cookie's character really needs is to be a part of a dynamic where he can actually lose control of a situation and sweat a little. Because a constant theme of his character is that he always has this controlled air about him, even when things are going wrong.
Matcha Cookie is trying to cause a disaster in the lab? Just snaps his fingers in an "aw man" kinda way (not literally) and asks his researchers to restrain her. Matcha Cookie ACTUALLY causes a disaster in the lab? Ah well. Time to move on and get back to work. Dark Enchantress Cookie is fucking dead and his laboratory is entirely destroyed. Feels gutted that DEC isn't around to say what ingredient Matcha Cookie is missing but otherwise is already on his feet and ready to get a move on.
And this is fine as a character trait; the problem is that, from what I can tell, he has nothing that could actually challenge that control he has. It has been shown that Matcha Cookie, the one he is currently paired heavily with, can't really do anything to him in regards to making him lose control. And in theory this means that his screentime could get stale and repetitive pretty fast. Which is a shame because I think he has a lot of interesting potential; but he needs to be a part of dynamics that actually bring out that potential
As you said it's fairly well-established that a significant aspect of BR's personality is his tendency to pick himself up and move on with cheer after experiencing a setback. Just my interpretation (as will the rest of this post be) but I don't assume this means he does not care about what occured - we literally do not know.
BR is a minor character and has never been given significant screentime, which I think is the problem you've identified within your post. He doesn't have a sense of interiority, because his innermost thoughts, his internal narrative, remains unexplored. This presents him as a somewhat one-dimensional character if he's only viewed through the lens of the main story. (I wrote a post on the Hotel Costume story which I believe expands on his character beyond the scope of the primary text).
I think the theory that none of this bothers him doesn't necessarily have a canonical basis. We don't know what he's thinking or feeling, as it's not depicted. I also think part of his tendency to remain cheerful and composed IS a facet of his need for control - control over oneself is the basis of that desire. If everything else falls apart around him, he can still wear a bright smile and restrain his emotions. However, I still think he did experience a loss of control in the lab story - in a literal sense.
He doesn't look angry but his sprites all lean towards a smiling demeanour. That was a purposeful design choice. But one of his subordinates calls him out for almost dropping Batch 99 - what can we infer from this? That he was distracted?
He can't control Matcha, so he ends up having her restrained.
But that doesn't work either. BR has underestimated Matcha - actually, all of them have. The team of researchers, the other COD - none of them could anticipate what came next (note: I'm omitting some scenes between that last part and the next).
Butter Roll immediately tries to assure others he's got the situation under control, but he doesn't. Again, his own subordinate steps in to remind him of the bigger picture here, the actual problem - not the crack, but the imminent explosion!
I think it's interesting how Butter Roll's first instinct appears to assure others that everything's fine, he's got it all in hand, under control - but doing so stops him from locking in and actually putting his focus on what needs to be done (trying to deal with matcha and not minding the product of their research potentially dropping from his grasp; trying to fix a crack when the lab is about to be totalled). He also looks agitated to say the least in that above screenclip.
It's difficult to determine what effect this has on him emotionally, but I agree with you that he doesn't look terribly put out by the aftermath:
But if you consider the above incident as the direct result of Matcha, who he could not control, having him lose control of his own lab, with this particular clip:
His tone sounds distinctively resigned to me compared to all other points he's spoken - as if he can't maintain his perfectly composed mask in that moment. That's the single moment I think we see his emotions slip. He can't do much else after that but rally together his team.
After all, what would losing control achieve? He has a team of subordinates that rely on his direction, and direct colleagues who are judging his performance (Pomegranate being one). One of those colleagues is Matcha, who is trying to undermine him and succeeded - what is he to do? Lose his temper? Shout at her? As an assumed newcomer? There's little he can do. In any case, he knows part of this was precipitated by him directly:
He admits his part in provoking her and that he underestimated her - both behaviours were problematic and contributed to this situation, that he lost control of! So to further antagonise Matcha by taking out whatever negative emotions he had would only cause more issues. And he's there to do one thing: research. It's his purpose. He isn't going to jeapordise that by causing his own failings in this situation to be highlighted more than they are.
I agree that an exploration of BR's internal narrative is needed to develop him as a character. But Matcha Cookie is paired with him by the writers because she represents his inverse. A controlled, composed and cheerful cookie with a messy, temperamental and moody cookie. He can't control her.
To this end, you would think he would act as the rest of the COD do and ignore her, right? But he wants to interfere or be involved with her business. Why? I think the writers just wrote it that way because it's humorous to have them bickering. But I can't help but view it as him being competitive with her. She undermines his control in the work he does - not just in the lab, but in the hotel:
and of course this results in the luggage tumbling, which poor Licorice has to clean up (again).
The way BR agitates Matcha is clearly visible to us as Matcha Cookie is written with her internal narrative depicted to us. It's why she reads as a deeper, more emotive characterisarion. BR lacks this onscreen depiction, so he appears more superficial. But I think the assertion that Matcha doesn't perturb him at all isn't quite right, respectfully. And I also think the dynamic he has with Matcha is unfairly dismissed in a way by the fandom at large because of the general lack of onscreen time either character has.
[note: the voice clip I referenced in my prev post is at 30:13]
as a side point I wanted to address something that I thought of when reading the tags of your post
I appreciate you weren't the one to make this comment, however, I think there is a difference between character development as written being contradictory or poorly thought out versus not being what a fan or multiple fans desire to see. When it comes to underdeveloped characters, any development or further depictions beyond what is initially shown can certainly be more polarising due to the lack of base material in the first instance.
I certainly was surprised not to see some confrontation between Espresso and BR in the final chapters of Beast Yeast, but all the characters in the COD suffered the issue of being sidelined for the ~main act~ (shmilk lol). However, his alignment with Matcha as the story sets out is not inherently deterimental to his character nor hers - we literally have so little to go off of to confidently make that assertion from the perspective of literary analysis. [And I think people should read the hotel costume story. I think more people should consider it!]
Also...
Now I really don't mean this directed to this tag specifically because you outline your thoughts with nuance that it is just your perspective/notion and not an assertion of what is right/wrong. I have just seen a few times people dismissing Matcha's presence in BR's narrative as problematic in some way - from a social standpoint to problematic for their writing as characters. It's an issue for female characters in general that many others have observed and outlined several times across various fandoms. Female character's presence skews the writing of male character's, the pairing isn't compelling etc. And the inevitable solution appears to be replacing the female character with a male character.
I'm not saying this is problematic in of itself. In some instances I'm sure it'd make for a better story. However. However! I think it's worthwhile perhaps to consider if that notion is precipitated by an underlying bias against female characters. Because what occurs then is the female character tends to be sidelined. Which again...is an issue that plagues fandom spaces.
👆This
Birthday gift for my friend
i wondered if DE had intended to make a beast cookie of matcha cookie and what that could look like
It's a beautiful day to draw Matcha and Licorice working at the hotel. Well, Licorice at least trying
I once promised you that I would draw them
me and who
nightmare
i'll be honest it gets kind of annoying when ppls immediate canned response to an m/f ship is "she deserves better" because over half the people who say that then proceed to hyperfocus on some yaoi with the man involved and never give the woman a second glance. forgive me but i think she deserves better than being girlbossed off screen and never mentioned again
matcha indeed
💐~Butter Roll and Matcha's Wedding Costume~💐
I haven't finalized the details, but since it's a wedding, a bouquet is essential. The concept is based on the White Rose Butterroll, which is perfect for a bouquet, and the Small Tea Flower Matcha, which is so tiny it doesn't stand out even when placed inside. The reason the costume is named "Pure Love and Memories" is because those are the flower meanings.
