#ali danesh

[alidanesh]

so fresh, so green!

[eregyrn-falls-art]

So I was reading through some comments on very old Gravity Falls reviews, the way you do, and I came across this comment:

(From the AV Club.  Tip of the hat, willieparker of 5 years ago.)

I didn’t remember seeing meta about this before (which doesn’t mean there wasn’t any!  And if anyone has a link to any, please drop it in the comments or tag me in a reblog!)  But I thought... Surely not, because if it had really been Portal Ford, the fandom would have gone nuts; either at the time Blendin’s Game aired, or after ATOTS aired and someone remembered.  And I definitely WOULD have seen a lot more posted about it.

So I went to look for myself, and took the above screenshots from the  “Blendin’s Game” opening.

And I gotta say... that IS interesting!  It’s clearly NOT Ford (count the fingers), and it’s really not quite Ford’s hair; and the outfit is only superficially similar to the one Ford is wearing when he comes out of the portal, not the same.  But I can see how, with just a remembered quick glimpse as it goes by, someone could think that.  It’s interesting that the hair is kind of similar; kind of Pinesian.  And it’s also interesting that this figure’s posture is one that we would come to associate with Ford (that hands clasped behind the back stance).

It made me wonder who the boarder was for that sequence, and what they were thinking when they decided to put this guy in there.  (I actually went and checked the DVD commentaries for the episode, but who boarded which bits of the ep is not mentioned.)  I feel pretty certain it wasn’t an official, purposefully planned easter-egg.  By this stage in the game, only a few episodes before NWHS, the crew was aware (even during the ep’s production) that part of the fandom had cracked the Stan Twin Theory.  (There was even art of “Stanley” going through the portal, although I’m not sure if anyone had expanded on that to show him having badass adventures on the other side yet?)  If they had given this guy 6 fingers, the fandom would have EXPLODED. You can’t put a clue that obvious in there, they already knew the fandom was going through eps frame by frame, and would pounce on something like that immediately.  

Still, I wondered if one of the boarders was someone who’d worked on Ford’s development, and kind of put an allusion to him in there, even if it wasn’t meant exactly to be HIM.  (Hmm.  And Emmy Cicierega, who has posted Ford sketches from the production before, was one of the boarders; but of course we don’t know if she did this sequence; there were 4 boarders on the ep. The director was Matt Braly.)

Okay, looking further into it... we know that Ali Danesh was the one who designed Ford’s portal outfit.  (See here.)  It turns out that he also did character designs for “Blendin’s Game” (see here).

Above is the same opening sequence with the glimpse of not-portal-Ford, and Danesh posted that he designed the two guys at left.  They were re-used later in the ep (he did the designs of all of the crowd below):

So although Danesh doesn’t specifically include not-portal-Ford in his selection of designs he did from this ep... it actually seems kind of likely that Danesh did design him as well.  He seems to have been given the task of designing a bunch of background characters for the episode.

So maybe that guy IS a kind of private joke... someone portal-Ford-ish, but not truly meant to be Portal Ford; put in there by the crew artist who did design Portal Ford.

Hmm.... maybe a Portal Dipper, anyone?

(To be clear -- I do NOT think Danesh MEANT that to be Portal Dipper!  To the best of my knowledge, Relativity Falls and Portal Dipper are purely fan creations.  I just thought I’d have some fun with the design.)

[alidanesh]

creepy crawly

[alidanesh]

Don’t miss out Big City Greens “Hiya Henry” and “People Watching” airing on 8:30 AM, Sat, Jan 26th! Two epic episodes back to back :o

[alidanesh]

Hey! Does anyone use Tumblr anymore? :P...little fan art I did for a gallery piece few months ago, Good old Wrong Trousers!

[alidanesh]

Hey guys,

I’ll be sharing a table at CTN this coming weekend with my talented friend Toniko Pantoja. This is my first year and I haven’t prepaid anything haha. I’ve been super busy with my current job so I wasn’t able to make an specific sketchbook or other goodies BUT I can still make some signed prints like weirdmageddon and Sock Opera that I made for Nucleus Galley Art Show if you’re interested. It’ll be great to see you in person! comment, message or email me and let me know what art you like me to bring to CTN. Thanks, Ali

[alidanesh]

FAREWELL TO THE FALLS! Thanks y’all for coming to the show and waiting in that never ending line to see art pieces! So many great arts and so many great fans, I did two pieces for the show “Sock Opera” and “Weirdmageddon” hope you enjoyed them!

[fabthings]

"Weirdmageddon" by Ali Danesh

One of many awesome new Gravity Falls prints debuting at the Gravity Falls Art show, Farewell to the Falls.