The wildest cinematography in the world

Sion Sono has already made an appearance on this blog – as you may remember, I reviewed his "Love Exposure" in February 2021. Because of that, I had already expected "Red Post on Escher Street" to be truly wild ride. And I wasn't disappointed.

 

More, I loved it.

Sono's craziness my beloved.

Similarly to "Love Exposure", it's hard to describe the plot of "Red Post on Escher Street". While it isn't that long ("only" 2,5 hours), there's still a lot of happening. It tells a story of a new movie of Tadashi Kobayashi (Tatsuhiro Yamaoka), a very known and liked director. Kobayashi decides to cast amateurs instead of experienced actors and organises a giant audition. It catches attention of many people, who'd love to star in the film, including an independent theatre troupe, a little loony Kobayashi's fanclub, Yasuko Yabuki (Sen Fujimaru), a lady who stopped giving a fuck about anything some time ago, and Kiriko (Matsuki Kohira), a widow, who wants to follow steps of her deceased husband, an actor. As expected, during the audition (and later filming) chaos ensues, additionally fuelled by Kobayashi's own struggles with screenwriting and his battles with selfish movie producers.

 

Thanks to the overall idea revolving around auditions, there are many characters introduced. Actually, two thirds of the movie are basically character introductions. However, all of them are developed, have a unique backstory and serve a certain role in the plot. And while the huge number may seem hard to follow at first, thanks to them all being fleshed out and very different from each other, it's impossible to confuse them. All of them also have some impact on the finale, which ties all storylines and provides a very satisfactory ending to the whole movie.

Sono really did the impossible here.

This all wouldn't be possible without a good pacing. The movie is dynamic, but doesn't advance too quickly, allowing viewers to focus on important plot points and learn better about the characters. There are also some elements that repeat from time to time, like sending a letter via the titular red post or recurring subplot with construction workers blocking the road, which offers something familiar in the clusterfuck of events and helps organize it. Because of that, while there's always a lot happening, it's not tiring or overwhelming.

The acting is great too. Whole cast brings the best out of their quirky characters. They're very emotional and often overdramatize, but it matches the tone of the movie. It is supposed to be loud and overdramatized... Similarly to the film made by Kobayashi – from the fragments we can see, there's a lot of shouting and exalted behaviour in it, which may be a some kind of a meta joke about Sion Sono's own works.

In general, this movie is one, big meta commentary on filmmaking. Sono actually admitted, that some of the subplots were inspired by his own experiences – the arguments with producers being the best example. Kobayashi himself is also a good example of a realistic portrayal of an artist – he wants to create, but is burned out, struggles with artblock (which is why it's later Katako, his friend, who takes over writing the script for his newest movie) and has to fight with expectancies of other people and their attempts of meddling with his work. I have to admit that the scene, where he finally loses his shit, is extremely relatable to me – there's nothing worse than when you're trying to work, but others are constantly disturbing you...

Being an artist is hard. Period.

"Red Post on Escher Street" is a one wild movie. It's loud, colourful and, at the same time, just full of love. Despite the difficulties, Sion Sono loves what he's doing and you can feel it in this movie. I don't want to go into cheesy claptrap, but this work is an awesome love letter to the cinema as a whole. An absolutely enjoyable one.

I just love it.

Image sources:

Poster: https://twitter.com/escher_akaipost/status/1466252030192893954

All stills were screenshot by me from the official trailer and belong to Hikoki Films International and AMG Entertainment.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp8iF9v54KU

(En)Be proud!

Hello, sweethearts!

Huh? It's already June? Last one has just been... A year ago. Well, time is weird, isn't it?

I have to admit, this year's Pride Month is special for me. It's the first one since I came out as genderfluid femandrogyne. First one I'm celebrating not only as a biromantic ace, but also as an enby. My first Pride Month as a trans person. 'Cause yes, non-binary people belong under a trans umbrella – that's what the white stripe of the flag symbolizes.

I came out in January and, I have to admit, I've never felt so peaceful with myself like I'm feeling now. With both my body and my mind. Coming out and the support I received with it has given me so much strength, I can barely believe that. I finally feel comfortable with who I am and how I am. I love myself. And I love my gender.

And this is what I want to wish you all: a lot of self-love, comfort and acceptance. You deserve it. You are valid.

Happy Pride, sweethearts! 💜

You can find high quality, downloadable version of this image on my DeviantArt!

Pride and 2020

You can download high quality version from my DeviantArt.

Happy Pride, sweethearts!

Sorry I'm kinda late, but I was drawing this during breaks in learning. The university is really kicking my ass now. But damn, I needed something cute and colourful to cheer myself up during this shitty times and no, I don't mean my finals.

First, we have the escalation of racism. The situation is really serious, so remember to support People of Colour in their fight. This Tumblr user links to a very convenient list of things you can do. And don't forget that black live matters. Always.

Second, the president signed a document which basically legalised queerphobia in Poland. Due to my exams I don't have time to prepare any longer post about it, but here is a good explanation of everything (also, follow this artist, they're amazing). I'll only say that I'm scared. Really fucking scared. I wish I could move abroad, but with my weak health, studies in progress and lack of money it's impossible, at least now.

To be honest, with every passing month 2020 is getting worse and worse. I don't want to know what will happen in July...

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me, I want to pass this term (and not go crazy).

Take care, sweethearts! Stay safe and healthy!

The most cursed crossover nobody asked for...

...but I had to do. But let's start from the beginning.

My relationship with "Boku no Hero Academia" is pretty complicated. To be honest, it's one of the series I'm interested into, but don't want to read/watch. I mean, I'm very much into fan works: fan fiction, various AUs, fan arts, just everything. I also like the lore and several characters (or rather fans' interpretations of said characters). However, the story itself isn't interesting enough for me to get involved. That's why I prefer sticking to fanon, while supplementing information about canon with other sources (all hail TV Tropes).

Of course, my little interest in the plot doesn't stop me from making my own stories and OCs. I even created a lovechild for my favourite ship.

Meet Reimi. Isn't she cute?

However, as you can judge from post's title, OCs aren't what I'm going to focus on now.

Several days ago I was procrastinating taking a break from university's stuff and somehow ended on "Midsommar's" subreddit. After spending almost whole evening scrolling through memes and edits I got a crazy idea: what would happen if "Midsommar" got mashed with "Boku no Hero Academia"? Of course, random concepts like that tend to be the most absorbing and, after some time of thinking about it, I decided to draw Tomura Shigaraki as Dani.

And this is what this post is going to be about: drawing. So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!

But I can't draw without music, can I?

I just needed an excuse to say Technolorgy is my latest musical obsession.

As always, I begin with head. This time the drawing was done solely digitally, so I didn't have to worry about scanning it and transferring to my laptop.

Drawing without any references is a big no-no for me, so I had to have my browser opened. I always peek at photos of characters and situations I'm currently working on. This time I wanted to do something inspired by "Midsommar's" ending.

And I needed a good picture of this dress.

Because most of Shiggy's body was meant to be hidden by flowers, I didn't have to focus on it that much.

I only had to determine how big the dress would be.

However, I had a problem with face. Horikoshi's style differs much from mine and I couldn't decide if I wanted to copy it (which would look weird with my lining and colouring) or draw the face as I usually do it. I finally settled somewhere in the middle.

But let's be honest: Tomura's eyes are strange in general.

I also did a rough sketch of hair, so it would be easier for me to draw them later.

Don't mind the line above the forehead, I will explain it later.

When the sketch was ready I could do the line art. I decided to do the colourful one. However, it always causes problems with choosing right colour. But there is one MyPaint's feature that is extremely helpful with it.

Meet Scratchpad!

Before doing the line art I had to choose the skin colour. I decided on something similar to the one from anime: very pale with slight, sickly yellow tint. The line art had to be similar shade, but much darker.

I needed a few trials.

After this I could do the proper line art.

Not that there was much lining to do.

The album ended in the middle of lining and I decided to change the mood a little.

I had to make a break after second track, because my crush sent me a song to try. I usually don't listen to other things during albums, but a song from crush is a song from crush, I couldn't help it.

For me, line art is often one of the longest parts of creating an art piece. Not this time.

The reason is obvious.

After that I could upload the file to Krita and colour it.

Then I went back to MyPaint to work on face.

That grin came out creepier than I planned.

From what I've notices, there are two main schools of drawing wide smiles: with all teeth contoured or only slightly highlighted. I think it's obvious which one I follow...

Artistic choice or laziness? Decide for yourself.

Then I drew the scars...

Fun fact: I think scars are sexy.

...and proceeded to hair. And this is where the real fun started!

First step: determine the colours and paint the base.

I'll be honest: it was horror. Tomura's hair are long and unkempt and with my way of drawing... See it for yourself.

If you focus, you will be able to hear me screaming profanities.

Especially while cleaning the picture.

Quick check, if everything is fine.

After finishing hair, I could start drawing flowers.

And this is what the line was for.

It helped me with positioning the flower crown.

Painting the crown was tiring. And then I glanced at the dress' outline...

...and realised how fucked I was.

As my ex-girlfriend summed it up: "You chose a character with million tiny scars on his face to dress him in million flowers. Congratulations on ambition".

I planned to paint all flowers manually, so yeah, I was ambitious...

 I was painting flowers in layers to make it easier. I managed to do three...

I made layers I wasn't working on semitransparent to avoid confusion.

...before going "oh, fuck it!" and switching to Krita. Why? Because then I could just copy and paste this shit!

It sped up the work a little.

This artwork made me question my own sanity.

No, really!

When I was satisfied with amount of flowers, I switched back to MyPaint to fill the gaps.

This time the active layer is semitransparent.

 I also had to arrange the layers a little bit to make them look nice.

I think I'm done with painting those little assholes flowers for at least a year...

The last layer was just some splashes of colour to cover empty places...

This dress will haunt me in my nightmares.

...and done!

Never. Again.

Of course, that wasn't the end: I still had million tiny scars to do!

Stop fucking staring at me!

I drew the scars with a pencil and used a lighter colour than the big ones, so they wouldn't blend. Then I chose another pencil, drew a second layer around eyes and on the neck...

...and made it semitransparent.

After that I only had to choose the background.

The dress is very vivid, so plain colour was fine.

And done! After exporting the image to PNG I only had to frame it and add a copyright note. You can notice I decided to abandon my "standard" note in favour of my DeviantArt account link. No particular reason, I just got fed up with the previous one.

Anyway, here is the finished piece!

The May Queen... King... Damn, you get the idea.

You can see and download the HD version on my DeviantArt. (I hope everything works, I still don't get how to use Eclipse...)

And please, don't ask me, why Shigaraki. To be honest, I have no bloody idea...




Image sources:
Dani and flowers: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8772262/mediaviewer/rm1884590593

Dear 10 Years Old Kiki

Today is our birthday. A very important birthday: you've already lived one decade, I – two. I know you are longing for my age. You think you will finally be important, independent, that people will finally take you seriously. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Hitting magical barrier of adulthood (not even coming of age, being 18 doesn't really matter) doesn't change anything. There is no change in your mind that suddenly makes you more reliable, mature etc. It doesn't change the way people think about you, either. Actually, for most of them (especially your family) you are still a child. But does that mean I want to be 10 again? Hell, no. I've learnt too many things during last 10 years and I want to share them with you.

Before I proceed: I know, you hate being given advice. Damn, I hate it too. Problem with giving someone advice is you never know full context. What works for one person, doesn't have to work the same way for other and vice versa. Actually, universal piece if advice doesn't even exist. That's why I never take others' advice blindly. I always analyse it and then, eventually, do as I was told. Do I make mistakes? Of course, everyone makes them. But sometimes it's much better to do as you please and make a mistake than to follow someone's advice and then be dissatisfied with an effect.

Actually, rules work similar way. Of course, there are situations, where you must follow rules and doesn't matter how absurd they are. But sometimes you can rebel. How can you tell apart these situations? Again, there are no general rules about it. You just have to think. And this is the only rule I want you to follow: never stop thinking. Analyse. Give anything you encounter a careful consideration. You are still not sure, what to do? Think, if anyone gets hurt. Because everything is okay as long as no one gets hurt.

Always.

To be honest, there is one, peculiar situation in which I would like to encourage you to rebel against rules. This situation is art. For me, art is free. It should never be bound by any rules. Damn, the best artists always rebel against common rules. I know, people may laugh at you. They will say that your art is horrible. Some of them may try giving you advice. Actually, I often have heated discussions with others regarding art. I usually am given advice. Do I obey? Mostly, no. I don't doubt others' talents and competence, but you know... Art is very personal thing and even the best piece of advice has no sense when person getting it doesn't like it. When you create something, you must like it first. You and no one else.

Oh, and fuck all people, who constantly babble about improving your technique. If you like it, there is no reason to improve it. Of course, I don't discourage you from experimenting, experiment as much as you like. But don't surrender to pressure of constantly improving, especially, when nothing's wrong. You are the only person that knows what your art needs and aiming for impossibly ambitious goal will only make you hate what you do. You don't have to be the best, being good is enough... But, of course, if you want to be the best, it's okay. Your life, your art, your choice.

As I mentioned, many people won't like what you do. This always happens, pleasing everyone at the same time is impossible. It applies also to other things: school, private life, relationships... There will be people, who like you, people, who hate you and people, who "generally like you, but...". The last category is the worst. In general, people who want others to change are horrible. I don't get why they can't accept others the way they are. How to deal with them? Just ignore them. As long as nobody gets hurt no one has the right to tell you who you should be. You can be sweet, dark, creepy, vulgar, deadpan, everything at the same time and it will be all right (of course, swearing in front of your teacher, boss or someone like that is a bad idea, but, you know, that's the context I was talking about). You will still be the same decent goth lady you are and if people don't accept it, then they aren't worth your attention. Egoistic? Maybe. But goddammit, everyone should be a little egoistic to maintain good mental health.

I know, you are thinking now that you want me to shut up and stop telling you what to do. Well, you don't have to do everything I said (actually, wanting you to follow it all after my earlier rant about taking advice would mean I'm a hypocrite, wouldn't it?). You are the queen of your life and you choose, what to do. Everything I said is based on various experiences I had in my life, but yours can be completely different. Just go on. Live. Analyse. Try new things. Or stick to the ones you know. Because no matter who you are and what you do, as long as no one gets hurt, it's okay. I know I'm repeating myself. But this is important: you are okay. Always.

And I love you.

Happy birthday, darling.




PS There is one thing I want to ask you to do: take better care of your health, okay? I've just hit 20 and I can't function without pills. I've been damaging my health for years just because I tried to be the best at school and, in the end, it wasn't even worth it. No one gives a fuck about your grades when you are an adult...

Do goths dream about electric waifus?

Hello, sweethearts!

As you have probably noticed, I'm quite keen on drawing. And is there better topic for drawings than my favourite character from my favourite game?

Of course no, she is the best!

Because in "NieR: Automata" it's common to run into waterfalls, I decided to draw Binnie (yeah, I gave 2B an affectionate nickname) washing herself in one. I wanted to picture clash of her two characteristics: sexiness and innocence. For me, she is the most attractive character in the world of game characters (and rivalry here is strong!). In the same time she is also very sweet and innocent. Remember the part of the prologue when 2B observes birds? Or, later, is astonished by the rockets? Or every time when the game is left idle and she starts to stretch? Then you know what I'm talking about.

But this post isn't mean to boast I drew something... Okay, not only. I actually want to show whole drawing process!

Before I start, I want to set some things. Yes, there will be a little bit of nudity in this fan art (who takes bath in clothes?), but only a little bit. No, I have nothing against very sexy fan arts as long as they are kept tasteful. And no, I don't mind fanservice at all if it's done fair. What do I mean by "fair fanservice"? Well, for example, if male characters in the game have "normal" clothes, armours and so on, and females have only very revealing ones, that expose most of their bodies, then it's not fair. If there are characters who are only meant to be an eye candy, without any personality, then it's not fair too. Actually, a prime example of fair fanservice is in "NieR: Automata". Characters not only look amazing, but they also have deep personalities and different, complex motives. Player can blow up 2B's skirt... But there is no problem with blowing up 9S' pants and admiring his legs. And if someone prefers sexy, not-always-dressed men, then there are Adam and Eve.

Waiter, there are shirtless bishounen in my game!

 Tl;dr: Yoko Taro is a genius fair fanservice is when everyone are treated equally. And Yoko Taro is a genius.

Okay, enough for the start, let's get down to drawing.

The picture itself is digital, but I still started with a traditional sketch. Reason is simple: it's much easier for me, especially, when the drawing is more complicated.

As you can see, I always start with a head. I don't know if it's a proper way of drawing, but damn, I've been doing it for years and it's worked. After drawing the head's silhouette I proceed down...

...and down...

By the way, while drawing this I realised I can't draw boobs. Well, fuck.

...and after I'm done with the rest of the body (this time it was only waist, the rest would not be visible) I go back to the head. I draw face...

Eyes must be big and innocent!

...and hair.

After I finish the sketch, I scan it and transfer to my laptop.

I used to do the line art with fineliner, but after I changed my pencils it's not necessary.

Then I can proceed with drawing the digital version. Now, I use three programs: MyPaint 1.0, Krita 4.1.5 and GIMP 2.8. This time the last one wasn't used except adding the copyright note before uploading the picture to my DeviantArt account (old habit).

My main workplace.

I usually do the line art with PenBrush. I don't change the default brush settings, they're okay

The fact I can rotate the picture while drawing makes it much easier.

After I finish line art of the body, I upload it to Krita...

Person who invented OpenRaster extention is my hero.

...and colour it. I used to do the colouring in MyPaint, but, sadly, it lacks the filling tool and colouring with brushes would take ages.

Because Krita allows filling lines on other layer than I use, I always do that out of convenience. I also set the tool to add two pixels of filling under the line art. MyPaint's PenBrush doen't have sharp edges and I don't want any half-transparent pixels in my drawing.

The layer with filling looks like that.

Then I start doing the face.

Problem with eyebrows' colour is inevitable...

Doesn't matter, how hard I try, eyes never have the same size. Never.

Then I do the hair.

They are wet so they are a little bit darker.

I could finish with just one colour, many artists do something like that... But not me. Hair must look like hair, not a colourful stain.

But I must admit, drawing every fucking hair separately is annoying...

I mostly use three colours: one for the "hair base" and two for hair strands. Because I always end beyond the "hair base", I need to clean it up and erase the addictional pixels.

It's even more annoying...

A little checkup how Binnie looks with her face and hair...

My precious darling.

And I can take care of the water. Because I drew more body than will be visible, I had to cover it with addictional layers so it wouldn't look odd after I draw the background (erasing it would be too risky, I didn't want to touch the already finished layers).

I also added some water dropping from 2B's hair.

And, last but not least, the background (or "being pissed because I suck at drawing water").

After swithing off the colour layer I could position the waterfall more easily.

For waterfall I used two brushes: a half-transparent drawing one and a smearing one.

Because falling water was visible behing the foam, I had to make it a little bit transparent.

And a thicker foam.

Then I did the waves. I painted them on two layers, one behind 2B and one in front of her. I used the similar brushes to the waterfall ones.

Then I had to export the file, frame it and...

...it's done! Then I added the copyright note and uploaded the piece on my DeviantArt account. If you want to, you can download it there.

To be honest, I'm quite proud of this drawing. I think I captured Binnie's personality pretty well. Not to mention how much time it took me. Drawing isn't easy, especially the digital one...

PS Answering the question in the title: yes, they do. You have no idea how many times I have dreamt about "NieR: Automata" and its characters, especially my sweet Binnie. But I don't mind...




Image sources:
My beloved Binnie: https://www.polygon.com/2018/7/9/17549578/nier-automata-long-story-short-novel-release-date
Adam and Eve: https://nierautomata.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Nier-Automata/Adam_And_Eve.jpg?v=1516112364869