Secondlina's Panels

I drew a lot of silly Korra stuff. Honestly, i'm fangirling like crazy. This series will be the death of me.

I was disappointed to see the Legend of Korra was available on itunes for Americans, but not Canadians. Seriously Nickelodeon, why don't you want my money?

Today I went to the dentist to get a clean-up (I love the feel of clean teeth) and a doctor to do some more tests about the lung thing. Surprise, surprise, 200$ later I was told my lungs were fine, so that the asthma was probably just stress. Awesome. They can't give me a pump because they haven't found a medical problem. They told me it was probably panic, so I could breathe into a paper bag next time it happened (you know, to get more carbon monoxide in the body and therefore make the breathing more regular). Urgh. This is the third doctor, so I guess i'm going to have to accept that whatever is making me feel sick is apparently all in my head.

Maybe taking a vacation to an exotic location may help. I have been wanting to go back to Disneyworld. Or Hawaii. Yesssss.

ON TO THE ART.



This drawing isn’t really about feminism. But it kinda is at the same time. I guess this is about perception. I’ve been enjoying some shows with a lot of great ladies in them. I even drew a top badass of 2012 drawing. I love my ladies. I love them all.

I’m a bit disappointed that a lot of people out there take some of these badass ladies, like Korra and Katniss, and draw/write fanworks where the characters are weak and dominated by their significant other. It’s like, as soon as their significant other kisses them, their uterus quivers and suddenly they can’t remember how to toss a punch.

Now, I don’t have anything against dudes being the dominant energy in a relationship. I tend to prefer relationships where both parties switch sides at being the dominant one, but at the same time, girls being the lovey-dovey ones that are cared for most of the time doesn’t bother me in itself, when the character’s personality works with it.

Some girls are more… for lack of a better word, the stereotypical “girly”. They speak softly, are graceful, like cooking and cleaning and being pretty. This does not make these girls less badass. What makes a girl badass is her determination, her ability to be true, to live well, and to be generally awesome at whatever motivates her to be herself. Fluttershy is shy, but she is still badass, as badass as Korra, as Rainbow dash. A housewife is as awesome as a time traveling girl from the future with a gun (i’m looking at you, River Song). As long as both stay true to their hearts and have a sharp mind and clear motivations.

It takes all girls to make the world, and all girls are magnificent. Just like all boys are awesome. May they love sports or anything else.

What bothers me is when fanworks take a character’s personality and tosses it out a window to fit a fantasy, to fit what is right according to a stereotype. I’ve seen a lot of great Legend of Korra fanworks, but also a few that made me sad. Because Korra was acting as a damsel in distress. Not that Korra will never need to be rescued, or helped. We all need help once in a while. But she certainly won’t throw herself in the guy’s arm and praise the gods that he’s around to fight the big bad equalists and top her in bed. We all need comfort, we all need help, and guidance. But we don’t magically change personalities when we get it.

So, fans, when a girl is strong, keep her strong. When a girl is introverted, keep her introverted. A good artist should be able to identify and expand upon a character’s personality.

That said, I had fun drawing Korra swooning the crap out of Mako.

Hehehe.

The next two drawings are just silly things I drew because I was tired and practising bodies and poses.





- Isa

 

After a looong conversation with an artist friend last night, we decided to switch the gender of popular video game characters. I chose Mario (Maria), Luigi (Louise) and Princess Peach (Prince Paul). I also drew Daisy (David? Derek?) but I didn't manage to fit him in the sketch... so later... I'll try again.

Today, I saw "Rango". It was good. Though, it's really not for young kids. The movie is kinda violent and a lot of characters clearly die. It's a bit like "The Guardians" (you know, that armored owl movie). Pre-teens and parents will enjoy it. It uses a lot of amazing things from the western genre, re-creating scenes from classic movies almost frame-by-frame. The humor is subtle enough most of the time. There's a few fart jokes, probably in an effort to make things more kid-friendly. I loved the strange visuals, the western themes and the really, really strange mystical desert visions. If you like Clint Eastwood, definitely go see Rango. I mean, really. There's a Clint Eastwood easter egg. Basically, I really liked Rango. It's a bit weird and gritty, which is probably why it appeals to me... Also, one of the characters was a spunky female lizard, another a crow, and of course, there was a chicken with an arrow permanently stuck in his eye.... Heck yeah, strange creatures. and strange cacti... The whole thing kinda feels like a strange dream, in a good way.

Happy birthday to yukinoomoni ! Have some Suki and Mai sketches!



- Isa

Oh, yes, it's the time for summer movies again.

This weekend, the dreaded "Last Airbender" movie comes out. The movie is dreaded by many fans for being an silly, over-angst-y , potentially racist re-make of a pretty darn good youth tv series called "Avatar the Last Airbender".

For those of you who don't know, this is basically a movie where 4 nations themed by elements are at war, mainly the nation of "fire" is kicking everyone's collective ass. In every nation, you have "benders", people who can manipulate the elements using martial arts moves. And you have one spirit, always reincarnated, the avatar - the only person that can use all four elements. And his job is to keep things in balance. War is not balance apparently. So basically, this plot mixes adventures, action, martial arts and "magic". The tv series also had a good dose of humor, which I found might be lacking in the movie.

I have been debating whether I wanted to see this movie or not.

On one side, the terrible racist attitude towards the casting, the costumes and the apparent lack of humor make me NOT want to go.

On the other side, the martial arts seem excellent and respected (everyone went to boot camp), I love the idea of an Hindou inspired firenation (Devi version of Azula.... My god. I'm in love), and the special effects look computastic.

So this weekend, will I go see "The Last Airbender?"

Not this weekend. But the next one? Yes.

Why?

I guess you could say my curiosity got the best of me. And I want to see if this movie is truly as awful as the fans make it to be. I can at least agree with everyone that the costume feature horrible mistakes (like being folded the wrong way, indicating that a character is "dead").

The main thing that convinced me to go was this TV spot. Because in this spot you see Sokka being funny, as he should be. Sarcasm and a giant yelling of "WOO-HOO". And i'm thinking, if they kept that instead of turning Sokka in pure angst, I mgiht as well give the movie a chance. Yeah, I have a soft spot for Sokka.

So, fan friends who are less curious then me and stick to your boycotts, i'll be glad to inform you later if this movie is fail or win. Though i'm thinking, it's probably going to be neither. Somewhere smack in the middle. Like so many fantasy movies these days, it's going to be neither good or bad.

Fantasy movies nowadays seem to generalize the "magical country". See Narnia and Tim Burton's Alice. The country doesn't seem to have any specific cultural elements other then "generic fantasic medieval setting à la King Arthur miniseries". And this movie seems to be going the same way (due to several asian elements being "americanized"). Countries on the same WORLD are dramatically different. I don't know why fantasy lands are so darn similar to us. Needs work, people.

- Isa

EDIT : GAAAH The reviews so far are painful.

 Well, I haven't posted a drawing in about a week. Artist fail. 

I was pretty busy this week at work, pulled in some extra hours. But despite that, I still didn't draw much at all. So, this week, I pondered a bit on my lack of motivation.

I love to draw, there's no question there. I've got a few projects, solo and with partners about to hit the ground running, so I really need to focus my energy in drawing. So why can't I focus long enough to sit at my drawing table?

I though about it, and maybe it's because i've changed environements. I was pretty depressed for a while. I kinda jumped into a job (even jobs, plural) before really being settled in Montréal. I isolated myself from some people, put a lot of effort into meeting others, and never really took care of making my studio creative-friendly. Some of my material even died (death to the computer and some of my favorite paintbrushes). So really, this kinda seems like the good old saying "If you don't love yourself, you can't love others" but reformalated as "If you don't feel stable, you can't create". 

It seems kinda true. I need to find my center again. I need to find the fun in creating again. I was doing really well for a while and suddently it went "poof" after I got ROSE published and moved. Isa needs to meditate on her creative side for some. Drawing needs to stop being associated with stress in my brain. 

In other news, the "(avatar) The Last Airbender" movie trailer is out (and on youtube). Obviously, the internet exploded (much like when the dub cast for the new Slayers seasons got announced). I think the imagery looks cool. It kinda sucks that they put giant rock music instead of a more traditionnal, epic, asian-y tune, but that's hardly the director's fault. It's the marketing department. And often, marketing departments know NOTHING of the movie when they make the trailer (seriously. I worked marketing. All we get is a tiny report to created something. No joke.)

Personally, I think it would make a great trailer if they just re-did the animated show's opening narration and associated it to images from the movie. In any case, here's an image to celabrate the potentially good or bad movie (i'm still waiting to see it to give judgement...)



Cute neh? I love drawing Katara and Aang.

Here's a question to the slayers fans on my list : Don't you think the voices kinda sound different despite the fact that it's the same cast? Aside from Crispin Freeman, you can really feel 10 years passed. Oh well. It's still cool that they did that.

Over and out.

-Isa