Fairy tale illustrations!
Sep. 9th, 2010 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Reason #1 why I love working on Namesake :

Yes, the Fairy-tale themed illustrations :D
I kinda missed drawing these. I took a giant break for a while. Fairy tales are awesome.
Today, I was looking for reference shots of various versions of Munchkinland and I discovered there's a wannabe-real-munchkinland in China. No, really. It's a full village in China with nothing but dwarves who train to sing and dance and perform various tasks. They basically formed their own tourist attraction. And the images of this village are kinda mesmerizing.




At first I was all "cool!" and then I realized the horrible social implications around physically different people being forced, or feeling like they are forced, to go live in a place that turns them into a circus show. A high-quality circus show, but a circus show none the less. It's a bizarre situation that can be seen as good or bad depending on your angle (some of the artists seem to like being there, others think it's a symbol of abuse).
Still reminds me of what a real munchkinland might look like. And heck, I think a real munchkinland would have a lot of social abuse. Maybe not as much as in Wicked, but it does hurt to be at the bottom of the length chain.
- Isa

Yes, the Fairy-tale themed illustrations :D
I kinda missed drawing these. I took a giant break for a while. Fairy tales are awesome.
Today, I was looking for reference shots of various versions of Munchkinland and I discovered there's a wannabe-real-munchkinland in China. No, really. It's a full village in China with nothing but dwarves who train to sing and dance and perform various tasks. They basically formed their own tourist attraction. And the images of this village are kinda mesmerizing.




At first I was all "cool!" and then I realized the horrible social implications around physically different people being forced, or feeling like they are forced, to go live in a place that turns them into a circus show. A high-quality circus show, but a circus show none the less. It's a bizarre situation that can be seen as good or bad depending on your angle (some of the artists seem to like being there, others think it's a symbol of abuse).
Still reminds me of what a real munchkinland might look like. And heck, I think a real munchkinland would have a lot of social abuse. Maybe not as much as in Wicked, but it does hurt to be at the bottom of the length chain.
- Isa
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Date: 2010-09-10 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 03:14 am (UTC)That Dwarf village is cool looking but...yeah, the social implications of a place like that (especially in an oppressive country like China) make me uncomfortable. I don't think I could ever bring myself to visit it.
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Date: 2010-09-10 05:53 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's one of those weird situations where this being done elsewhere would have been completely innacceptable or something. It's really weird.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:08 am (UTC)The weird thing about the real munchkin land is that these people might not be permitted by their country to do anything else. This might be the only way they can make a living. So, while it might be an awkward place to visit considering it sort of symbolizes the plight of many people in China, it would probably help support them at the same time. I guess - it could be considered a necessary evil? I don't know. If I faced such a choice, I'd probably buy a ticket, but I'd have a hard time going in.
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Date: 2010-09-10 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 04:31 am (UTC)When it comes to the village... Yeah that is a tough call. On one hand it's a shame they have to live that way to get by. But on the other hand they would have equal or greater hardships trying to get by in China's competitive marketplace as well. And they have free choice to be there (At least seemingly so.) so that makes it a little better. Not that I'm saying it's right that any human being should be put on display to survive. But yeah over all it's a really tough call, definite food for thought.
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Date: 2010-09-10 05:56 pm (UTC)Food for though for sure. I still haven't decided what I though about beyond "good reference material"
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Date: 2010-09-10 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 09:53 am (UTC)P.S. Did you ever get a chance to check out your hawk girl pic?
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Date: 2010-09-10 06:09 pm (UTC)That's...really sad about the dwarves.
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Date: 2010-09-12 07:16 am (UTC)It is sad about the dwarves :( I learned that when I was going to school studying genetics, it's crazy how intricate the gene map is and the ways it's affected
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Date: 2010-09-10 11:36 am (UTC)<3
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Date: 2010-09-10 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-10 03:54 pm (UTC)I agree with you on the munchkinland. On the one hand the structures and buildings are neat to look at, and it's good income for them, but on the other hand I couldn't bring myself to actually go there.
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Date: 2010-09-10 06:21 pm (UTC)Heh. At least it makes good references picture, even though somewhat depressing.
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Date: 2010-09-10 10:28 pm (UTC)But you're right, munchkinland is... kinda creepy. And if you throw in the social and maybe even economical implications, I guess nothing good comes of it.
Can't wait until Namesake comes out!
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Date: 2010-09-11 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-11 05:27 am (UTC)Are you going to be having Namesake available for purchase as well?
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Date: 2010-09-11 11:06 pm (UTC)Urgh, amalthea is waiting in the back seat with a bunch of other things because Namesake is bossy as hell and pushed her off. I,m sorry. I'll draw her eventually for sure. :(
Er, maybe. Namesake is first anf foremost a webcomic, but it would be awesome to have them in book format too.
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Date: 2010-09-12 12:31 am (UTC)Well, as long as I can read it at some point, the format makes no difference to me whatsoever!
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Date: 2010-09-12 11:34 pm (UTC)My favorite is the guy in the suit with shades in the second picture.
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Date: 2010-09-13 01:00 am (UTC)