The New Day is a Great Big Fish
Feb. 12th, 2006 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinAll right, Batch #1 of Monstrous Regiment stuff!
Okay, I have to establish the way I approach gender in this book. One of my very favourite things about it is that it supports my position that, for the most part, people are just people, when you get right down to it, and gender isn't in the top ten things about a person unless they put it there. (Frankly, people who define themselves mostly by their gender, no matter which one it is, can really get on my nerves...) So, it's like this: Basically, if the character is established as female for 66% or more of their 'screen'time, the pronoun is she. If less, then he. (Unless he is really male, in which case ... yeah.) So, Polly is obviously a she and gets called Polly because we're riding around in her head, where she is named Polly. Tonker, Lofty, Wazzer, and Igor are shes but called by their male names because that's how they call each other. Maladict and Jackrum are hes. That's how I think of them, more or less, so that's how they are. Okay? It's a bit idiosyncratic but you get that as part of the package when dealing with my brain. Anyway, you're already in Cut Land so you can just scroll down and not have to bother with the clicking.
The Duchess - the person, not the inn. The way she's described in the book makes it hard not to imagine Queen Victoria, so I kind of drew on that but didn't look at any specific reference in order to not make her look exactly the same.
A Rough Lineup - my main purpose to doing all these drawings is to finally do what I've wanted to do since I read the book last year, which is to make nice a lineup of the Ins-and-Outs. Here's a sort of rough version of it, with what may be my favourite Maladict drawing yet.
Polly - This'll be her pose in the lineup.
Shufti and an alternate head - I keep trying to get this pose right but it never works.
'Johnny', Johnny, and more 'Johnny' - Shufti's 'fiancé' (ha ha ha) - but if you've read the book and are reading these cuts, you already know that, so that was kind of a waste of time. I'm not teribbly good at drawing utter cads as they don't interest me much, but he really stood out in my mind so I thought I'd stretch my comfort area and try drawing him. It's a shame the Borogravian army is so tough on facial hair because it would be easier to give him a stupid little goatee and be done with it.
Thome Igorth - Where would the thquad be without their truthty lurching medic? Her face isn't nearly lumpy enough and I tried to make one eye a different shape than the other but that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. [sigh] I do kind of like the look I've got going, though... maybe I can play with it a bit.
Tonker - looking a lot like my drawing of Bigmac from the Johnny Maxwell series ... kind of the same character but not quite. I like my earlier one better... I'll have to cut the hair to canon length though. (And change the darn filename...) Please ignore the aborted Lofty in the background.
Lofty - ... because this one is better. I kind of want to take her in a Zoë Wanamaker/Teller (of Penn &) direction, structurally – a delicate, meek little face but capable of lighting up in ... the right ... circumstances.
Wazzer - Possibly a little too strung-out looking even for Wazzer. Possibly.
Wazzer in action - A pose that's significantly more in character than any design I've drawn.
Corporal Strappi - he never really stood out, visually, until this last time reading it, when he looked like somewhere between Clayton (from Tarzan) and the creepy bitter guy in the café in Amelie. He had to have at least one little gross stringy bit of greasy hair hanging down in his face, but it was a challenge not to make it look dashing instead of repugnant, so I think I ended up with neither, which really doesn't work.
Flashsides - Maladict goes to ground. (This'll be coloured too, because I can't help myself.)
You are my little lads, and I will look after you - Jackrum and some of the company when they set up camp after the incident with the Zlobenian prisoner. I'm going to colour this one (so much of the description in the book focuses on colour) but for now I've just very roughly shaded it, mostly to separate the lines of the characters from the mess of lines that make up the background). Okay, he says this line to Polly, who sees him backlit, so really she shouldn't be at the fireside, she should be where the audience is. BUT, I wanted to include the sort of suspicious, uneasy look with which she'd likely greet this statement after what just happened, so I fudged it a little. I'm probably the only person who cares, but ... oh well. Just had to get that out.
I've always had a problem with my designs looking too androgynous, and here I get to play it up! Woo! ... do they work?
I can't guarantee spoiler-free comments so proceed at your own risk!
Okay, I have to establish the way I approach gender in this book. One of my very favourite things about it is that it supports my position that, for the most part, people are just people, when you get right down to it, and gender isn't in the top ten things about a person unless they put it there. (Frankly, people who define themselves mostly by their gender, no matter which one it is, can really get on my nerves...) So, it's like this: Basically, if the character is established as female for 66% or more of their 'screen'time, the pronoun is she. If less, then he. (Unless he is really male, in which case ... yeah.) So, Polly is obviously a she and gets called Polly because we're riding around in her head, where she is named Polly. Tonker, Lofty, Wazzer, and Igor are shes but called by their male names because that's how they call each other. Maladict and Jackrum are hes. That's how I think of them, more or less, so that's how they are. Okay? It's a bit idiosyncratic but you get that as part of the package when dealing with my brain. Anyway, you're already in Cut Land so you can just scroll down and not have to bother with the clicking.
The Duchess - the person, not the inn. The way she's described in the book makes it hard not to imagine Queen Victoria, so I kind of drew on that but didn't look at any specific reference in order to not make her look exactly the same.
A Rough Lineup - my main purpose to doing all these drawings is to finally do what I've wanted to do since I read the book last year, which is to make nice a lineup of the Ins-and-Outs. Here's a sort of rough version of it, with what may be my favourite Maladict drawing yet.
Polly - This'll be her pose in the lineup.
Shufti and an alternate head - I keep trying to get this pose right but it never works.
'Johnny', Johnny, and more 'Johnny' - Shufti's 'fiancé' (ha ha ha) - but if you've read the book and are reading these cuts, you already know that, so that was kind of a waste of time. I'm not teribbly good at drawing utter cads as they don't interest me much, but he really stood out in my mind so I thought I'd stretch my comfort area and try drawing him. It's a shame the Borogravian army is so tough on facial hair because it would be easier to give him a stupid little goatee and be done with it.
Thome Igorth - Where would the thquad be without their truthty lurching medic? Her face isn't nearly lumpy enough and I tried to make one eye a different shape than the other but that didn't work as well as I'd hoped. [sigh] I do kind of like the look I've got going, though... maybe I can play with it a bit.
Tonker - looking a lot like my drawing of Bigmac from the Johnny Maxwell series ... kind of the same character but not quite. I like my earlier one better... I'll have to cut the hair to canon length though. (And change the darn filename...) Please ignore the aborted Lofty in the background.
Lofty - ... because this one is better. I kind of want to take her in a Zoë Wanamaker/Teller (of Penn &) direction, structurally – a delicate, meek little face but capable of lighting up in ... the right ... circumstances.
Wazzer - Possibly a little too strung-out looking even for Wazzer. Possibly.
Wazzer in action - A pose that's significantly more in character than any design I've drawn.
Corporal Strappi - he never really stood out, visually, until this last time reading it, when he looked like somewhere between Clayton (from Tarzan) and the creepy bitter guy in the café in Amelie. He had to have at least one little gross stringy bit of greasy hair hanging down in his face, but it was a challenge not to make it look dashing instead of repugnant, so I think I ended up with neither, which really doesn't work.
Flashsides - Maladict goes to ground. (This'll be coloured too, because I can't help myself.)
You are my little lads, and I will look after you - Jackrum and some of the company when they set up camp after the incident with the Zlobenian prisoner. I'm going to colour this one (so much of the description in the book focuses on colour) but for now I've just very roughly shaded it, mostly to separate the lines of the characters from the mess of lines that make up the background). Okay, he says this line to Polly, who sees him backlit, so really she shouldn't be at the fireside, she should be where the audience is. BUT, I wanted to include the sort of suspicious, uneasy look with which she'd likely greet this statement after what just happened, so I fudged it a little. I'm probably the only person who cares, but ... oh well. Just had to get that out.
I've always had a problem with my designs looking too androgynous, and here I get to play it up! Woo! ... do they work?
I can't guarantee spoiler-free comments so proceed at your own risk!
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 11:19 pm (UTC)These are totally awesome. MR is definitely my favorite Discworld book, and these work really well. Plus I love Jackrum. He(she) is the best.
Great work.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 11:34 pm (UTC)yayayay!!!!!
Date: 2006-02-13 12:02 am (UTC)gotta love Wazzer. Shuti's great! (so Neville)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 12:19 am (UTC)You made being snowed in a foot of snow enjoyable. That's saying something.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:31 am (UTC)Amazing sketches. I enjoyed looking at them.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 05:54 am (UTC)Also, Maladict going to ground? Best. thing. ever. :o)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:43 am (UTC)Trade pweeze?
Date: 2006-02-13 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:Must...be...strong...!(sweat beading up on forehead, quivering with effort)
Date: 2006-02-13 06:22 am (UTC)-It's a really good book, worth reading
-It's a fast read
-It's easily available somewhere close
Otherwise I am in touble.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:51 am (UTC)1: Yes
2: Yes
3: It was on the bestseller list when it came out and is now in paperback so I'd say probably.
Any input on the drawings? Please?
(no subject)
From:P.S.
From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:09 pm (UTC)Ahhhh!!
You wouldn't consider pitching this to some animation studio with you as the head animator? No? Doesn't work that way? But it would be so awesome.
*squeaks some more*
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 05:24 pm (UTC)It's not the drawings, it's what they'd do with the story that would count. That's not my department. I don't know if I trust anyone with it. At least, anyone I know of at the moment...
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:46 pm (UTC)Where's my dashing vampire? :-)
(Question: Since this is visual art, rather than literary art: Does ignoring the gender police -- making Mal and Jackrum 'he' instead of 'she' -- include messing up their skeletal structure? Not that I can tell the difference, but in terms of how you draw? :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 01:53 pm (UTC)But that's not 'dashing' so much as "creeping at a fast-pased scuttle". ;-)
The 'rough lineup' was good. You could tell who they were based on body language. nice job. :-)
Incidentally, Wazzer was not too strung-out even for Wazzer. Good work on her. :-) (I thought Lofty was a little too... perky for someone so *quietly* intense. But that's just me. :-)
I liked your Tonker with the slightly longer hair.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:54 pm (UTC)Although I hadn't imagined Strappi that way.. XD
Wazzer's face looks awesome.
Hi.
Date: 2006-02-13 05:10 pm (UTC)Hannah
(I think I'm going to read something by Prachett next...)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 06:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 10:02 pm (UTC)I think my favourite is Maladict in camouflage.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 10:03 pm (UTC)Monstrous
Date: 2006-02-14 04:13 am (UTC)I read MR a couple of years ago so my memory for details is fuzzy at best.
I think my being male sometimes colors my opinion of how characters look who are supposed to be semi-androgynous. Sad, but true.
After reading more of the comments and your responses to the comments, it is clear that you don't want these characters to look very female since that would give them away.
Having said that, I think the characters look a little too male. It may be a cop out but anime lends itself to the androgynous look--just a thought. I like your style, it has character and...uniqueness; but maybe, just as an experiment you could try drawing them in an anime-esque vein. I really like Polly and Maladict; it'd be funny to see an illustration of when Maladict is losing his mind from lack of blood or coffee. I also think Wazzer is hilarious but since I don't really remember the character I have no idea how accurate it is; Polly and Maladict are more or less how I pictures them.
On a side note, I was suprised to find out that you were doing a lot of illustrations for MR because I thought I remembered a conversation with you a few months after I had finished the book where you said (in so many words) you were dissatisfied with it and that Terry Pratchett was speading himself too thin. I suppose my big problem with the book is I saw it as setting out to make some sort of political statement about war and so at the end of the book I felt cheated. Perhaps if I had had a more open mind about it I would've liked it more. Hard to say. Well, after just having talked to Mark and him leading me to your page thought I'd take a looksee at your work and read what you thought about the book. So, there's my .02 of a dollar.
--Jack/John Walton
no subject
Date: 2006-02-14 04:53 pm (UTC)Sure, anime lends itself to the androgynous look – BECAUSE EVERYONE LOOKS THE SAME. Honestly I don't know what they'd do if they set an anime show at a nudist colony on chemotherapy (you'd be able to tell which gender people were, but beyond that...). AND anime doesn't leave much room for expressions and acting which I love ever so much. So, anime = out. I'd rather throw myself at the brick wall of interesting and effective featurey design than just take the easy way out.
As for the androgyny that may or may not be achieved with my current designs, I'm pleased to hear you think they're too male. They do end up fooling everyone but a select few, so they can't be too girly. And if you look at ordinary girls, not movie stars or comic book girls or teenyboppers at the mall who want to be Britney Spears, there's a tremendous variety of facial features, and often 'femininity' is achieved more by affectation than genetics, especially when comparing young women to adolescent men.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-14 08:32 pm (UTC)Thank you for putting in coherent words what I've been arguing about for years with my father.
Apart from that, your art is gorgeous. I don't think Polly looks too feminine--androgynous is the key word here-- and the shaved-head Tonker looks great. I actually prefer her that way-- she strikes me as the sort of resolute, definite person who'd go all the way with her intended look. She also looks as hard as she is. Maladict is spot-on (and hilarious), and I feel Igorina is also right-- 'normal' enough not to stare at her, but 'off' enough to make you go 'wait there...'. It's a thin line, and you stay right on it.
I wonder if I'm making any sense. :)
Also, may I friend you? I'm not an artist, more in the lines of a failed-writer person thingie, but I do love art and devour any that comes my way, and I try to be as constructive as possible in commenting (I don't necessarily succed at that). That, and a Pratchett fanatic.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-14 08:34 pm (UTC)MONSTROUS REGIMENT!!!
Date: 2006-02-15 02:37 am (UTC)-Gyakutenno
Amazing!
Date: 2006-02-15 04:09 pm (UTC)Needless to say, your interpretation of the characters are well though out and it shows!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 12:42 am (UTC)