art of [insert all of my writing projects]

namio

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I just have a thing for narcissistic jokes and banters on the pretty face. And making them do silly things that totally destroys their image


Yep, the pretty face will always be the secondary thing, just there to bring in some comedy. Just too lazy to think properly about their appearance.
HAHAHA
Narcissistic characters and that kind of jokes is frankly not my cup of tea but I hope you're living your best life with them :blob_joy:

I edit fan translations of this one danmei author, and he is so unbelievably thirsty, I swear. Random moments and suddenly someone is getting horny over abs. It makes me laugh every time. I guess it amuses me because I'm pretty sure a good chunk of his readers aren't even into guys; sure a whole bunch of lesbians in the translation groups...
 

Reisinling

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Oh? I'm not familiar with most western comics and my type of games tend to be Japanese RPGs (and Harvest Moon types LOL), but I can imagine, I suppose? Both comics and games are also pretty much, outside of indies or artsy projects, power fantasies. I do think the problem is universal, though. In Chinese webnovels, it's arrogance. I have NO idea why people like arrogance so much, my first instinct is to deck those types in the face at first meeting. Cold, brash, quiet, loud, they just really like arrogant characters be it female, male, top, bottom... Wistful DILFs (heheheheh) are honestly a rarity. Sometimes you can get a nice older brother in a story, but they tend to be a minor character.

It still tickles me that you're calling him wistful, though, because one of my other characters is that but tenfold. Though that one, I think the proper description is severely clinically depressed.

Not that I think about it, I suspect its just easier to write arrogant characters, as those are usually proactive, and more expressive. Someone says something bad about you? Well, crying in your pillow later that night is not exactly easy to write in a way that will make the story still enjoyable, while punching them/snapping at them with witty remark is relatively easy to do.

Also, I think that romantic interests are often arrogant, because people have some traumas from school where they wanted to date popular girl/guy, but were too scared of being brutally rejected, either because of how they perceived the popular kids, or maybe how they were, so now they fulfill their wishes in the story
 

namio

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Not that I think about it, I suspect its just easier to write arrogant characters, as those are usually proactive, and more expressive. Someone says something bad about you? Well, crying in your pillow later that night is not exactly easy to write in a way that will make the story still enjoyable, while punching them/snapping at them with witty remark is relatively easy to do.

Also, I think that romantic interests are often arrogant, because people have some traumas from school where they wanted to date popular girl/guy, but were too scared of being brutally rejected, either because of how they perceived the popular kids, or maybe how they were, so now they fulfill their wishes in the story
Perhaps... I can see it being the case in less well written novels, I suppose. This is probably especially true for love interests, since it serves the dual purpose of "catharsis" of "justice dished out" as well as resolving problems. It does have a lot more to it, though, I have to say. Pretty sure palace dramas consist of like 70% prideful women who just want their revenge, but at the same time it does still have to tap into a lot more emotions for it to have enough depth to not be wooden.

I think that might be the case in some western media, but I'm not sure about Chinese fiction. It's a thing that started long before webnovels were a thing, and I doubt such a long-standing thing can be attributed to "popular kids". Honestly I'm tempted to ask my friends about this...
 

Reisinling

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I think that might be the case in some western media, but I'm not sure about Chinese fiction. It's a thing that started long before webnovels were a thing, and I doubt such a long-standing thing can be attributed to "popular kids". Honestly I'm tempted to ask my friends about this...
Yeah but notice how, while "popular kids" trope might be new, there were its equivalents in odler literature as well.
- In pride and prejudice - one of the sisters was what we would call the popular kid, the protag was what we would call a step above nerdy kid in modern world,
- In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov is a nerd with popular-guy MC friend (there is a long description of how much of a chad he is, and how much of a looser MC is)
- I've not read them, only seen adaptations, but I thought Count of Monte cristo and 3 musketeers also have these themes?
- Great Gatsby - Gatsbys motivation, becoming a "Chad" (rich chad, but still)

A slavic mythology book I read in the past started with sentence that stuck with me- that most stories, that survive, and mythology, are about justice, about how people normally opressed get their revenge against their assilants. So I would say this is not a unique trend to chinese fiction, though their revenges do seem to be much more vicious than western ones, and far more often concentrated on female perspective (from what I understand at least)
 
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namio

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Yeah but notice how, while "popular kids" trope might be new, there were its equivalents in odler literature as well.
- In pride and prejudice - one of the sisters was what we would call the popular kid, the protag was what we would call a step above nerdy kid in modern world,
- In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov is a nerd with popular-guy MC (there is a long description of how much of a chad he is, and how much of a looser MC is)
- I've not read them, only seen adaptations, but I thought Count of Monte cristo and 3 musketeers also have these themes?
- Great Gatsby - Gatsbys motivation, becoming a "Chad" (rich chad, but still)

A slavic mythology book I read in the past started with sentence that stuck with me- that most stories, that survive, and mythology, are about justice, about how people normally opressed get their revenge against their assilants. So I would say this is not a unique trend to chinese fiction, though their revenges do seem to be much more vicious than western ones, and far more often concentrated on female perspective (from what I understand at least)
You know what, you're right :blob_hmm:
Social standing and hierarchies are big in arranged marriages or at least, what is considered a "proper match" too, regardless of location.

Stories of justice really do always resonate throughout the ages. It most likely reflects the tendency of things continuing to repeat over and over again, regardless of lessons learned.
It might be just the culture I grew up in, but the stories and morals I tend to find around here are largely about either self-sacrifice in the face of cruelty (to a gross degree, at times), or where sticking to your morality is rewarded at the end. It was VERY jarring for me to see arrogance as such a common thing that is celebrated in these stories; in Indonesian folklore, they'd probably be drowned in a newly-made lake LOL
 

namio

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themst-1.jpg

Sketches from Sept 2019... It's from my first idea for a webnovel that I shelved to research more for. Honestly, it's a bit awkward to revisit-- the premise heavily revolved around the MC having a background in biomedical engineering and dealing with transmigration to a country ravaged by both civil war and................. a plague. It's tuberculosis, though. Also, it was extremely depressing to write. Teaches you to not just write a depressed character with extensive, long-term trauma without giving him some damn hobbies 🤡
 

Reisinling

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View attachment 7257

Sketches from Sept 2019... It's from my first idea for a webnovel that I shelved to research more for. Honestly, it's a bit awkward to revisit-- the premise heavily revolved around the MC having a background in biomedical engineering and dealing with transmigration to a country ravaged by both civil war and................. a plague. It's tuberculosis, though. Also, it was extremely depressing to write. Teaches you to not just write a depressed character with extensive, long-term trauma without giving him some damn hobbies 🤡
Nice. Not the dying and trauma and sickness, that's not nice. It seems you have decided to do more digital art? (I realize this is an old sketch, but with the previous one It looks as if you were going through your old digital works, while working on new stuff)
 

namio

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Nice. Not the dying and trauma and sickness, that's not nice. It seems you have decided to do more digital art? (I realize this is an old sketch, but with the previous one It looks as if you were going through your old digital works, while working on new stuff)
I've been balancing it a bit, more or less. Digital stuff is easier to zone out to (and needs no set ups, while painting has dubious water my cats keep trying to drink), and currently for traditional I've been doing some practicing for a commission, so it's not really something relevant to writing-project characters...

I HAVE been digging through old digital sketches, though. Some of them I ended up retouching and finishing. I think I've been writing for about a year before I started posting on this thread, and amassed some stash :blob_hmm_two: Over 2.5 GB of it... Not individual sketches numbering in the high hundreds ofc, since watercolor scans can be 12 MB at original size, but it's in the hundreds.
 

namio

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Well, now with the story posted on the Spring BL anthology, I can post this here LOL

taobai13.jpg


It feels good to have at least a oneshot of them posted, because I've been obsessing over this 'verse. While trying to get a bit more of an understanding of the relationship between food and sacrifice in ancient China, I started reading this book on exactly that. It's interesting, if contains far too many names I will never remember, but boy all the bits about Confucius was getting a bit annoying ngl. Not eating something because it was cut wrong is! a! waste! of! food! Say it louder for the ones at the back, Mozi...

I think my favorite part was probably the sacrificial rite-specific terms. As a sort of "pure" offering they have water as a sort of "perfectly harmonious" medium, but they called it "mysterious/dark liquid"...
 

namio

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photo_2021-04-12_10-43-11.jpg

I don't recall if I ever showed this off... I printed keychains of Wan Yu and Ye Xiyang (left) and Yan Xu and Xiao Lan (right) last year. Since my main focus right now is For February's Rain, I've had the main characters of that dangling from my writing pouch hehe
 

namio

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lu ying001-3.jpg

Not my OC, but I wanted to post because it's what I've been doing almost all day. Lu Ying from Dinghai Fusheng Records.
Had to downgrade quality because I have problems with files bigger than 1 MB here, but eh you can probably find a somewhat better version on twitter or sth
 

Ruyi

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View attachment 7351

Not my OC, but I wanted to post because it's what I've been doing almost all day. Lu Ying from Dinghai Fusheng Records.
Had to downgrade quality because I have problems with files bigger than 1 MB here, but eh you can probably find a somewhat better version on twitter or sth
saw this on twitter, it was incredible!

a little scary, but since he's not carnivorous i can deal hehe
 

tiaf

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View attachment 7351

Not my OC, but I wanted to post because it's what I've been doing almost all day. Lu Ying from Dinghai Fusheng Records.
Had to downgrade quality because I have problems with files bigger than 1 MB here, but eh you can probably find a somewhat better version on twitter or sth
I’m in awe :blob_aww:
 

namio

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saw this on twitter, it was incredible!

a little scary, but since he's not carnivorous i can deal hehe
It ended up looking a bit darker than I kinda thought it'd be, but I can't help it. I think I just gotta make everything look sad and sort of intimidating :blob_joy: Happiness is a farce and but a prelude to the return to the shitshow that is life. Thank you!

I’m in awe :blob_aww:
Thank you!!! :blob_melt::blob_melt:
 

namio

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I found remnants of my old hobby of impulsively starting VN projects... This was based off of From Tomorrow On, but I call it Social Anxiety Simulator 0.2
fxx_placeholder.png
sj_default.png

1618582733642.png

(Yes, don't worry, I got rid of the white outlines around the name, it was bothering me too)
 

LinXueLian

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namio

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Oooh!!! A sim where you get to greet your da-shixiong!! NICE
It has a semi-random anxiety value and probably hell to play because you get exactly nothing done
Wonders of social anxiety

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN I hope you've been healthy?
 

LinXueLian

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It has a semi-random anxiety value and probably hell to play because you get exactly nothing done
Wonders of social anxiety

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN I hope you've been healthy?
nothing done??? Sadness

Been ok! Hehehe! Short break for now~
 
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