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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Date: 2006-02-13 06:45 am (UTC)