Creativity Hour works thread

[SirMustapha]

I would never think you were implying that an actual slice-of-life story has less artistic merit; what I imagined later is that straight out asking "is that story autobiographical?" could be pretty invasive, and also because that beach has been the setting to so many stories of mine, I realised later that this story could look like a backstory to one of my characters. And no, I couldn't build a character out of this story, because they'd be a literal copy of me--and I already have too many characters trying hard not to be copies of me.

There's a lot of very deliberate roughness and lack of polish in the story, though I don't know if that's what's coming across to you, or if there's some other roughness I didn't notice. I wanted it to feel a little rambly and unstructured, because that's how my thoughts usually are, and I was also trying to surprise myself, trying to see what stuff would come to mind as I wrote it. The bit about road signs changing colour in the night (which is an odd side effect of retroreflection, I believe) is one that came to me in the middle of the process.

Totally understand the embarrassment over your taste in music: no, it doesn't make any sense to our adult brains, but it did back then.

To be frank, it makes an awful lot of sense to me as an adult, because, unfortunately, it still happens. Among grown ups, especially the more "tribal" minded (and I do hang out with people who fancy themselves as the "indie/alternative" kind), there's this sense that you have to like certain artists and dislike other artists, and some people won't be shy in making fun of you if you don't comply. I see this happen with friends, and it's no wonder that I'm a lot more intimate to those who don't make fun of me (or those who know at which point the making fun can become hurtful). This is one reason why I mentioned the music so much: some grown ups haven't lost the cruelty that they had as kids, and I want to be immune to that. I mean, Richard Clayderman is one of the kings of kitschy easy-listening music and instrumental versions of popular tunes, and lots of my friends would twirl their noses at the mere mention of his name. Yet, my father introduced me to him because he trusted my ear for music, and I listened to that stuff in a profound, spiritual level like no other kid I knew back then. If it wasn't for that, maybe I would have never start writing songs; it's a vague guess, but a plausible one.

On a related side note: my mum has been regularly watching my weekly music live streams, and earlier this week, when I called her, she requested a song. When I was a kid, we had a record from another master of easy-listening instrumental music, Franck Pourcel, and it had a rendition of Va Pensiero from Verdi's Nabucco, and mum asked me to play that. I already know I'll have a hard time keeping myself together when I try to play that, because it's such an honour to fulfil a request from my mum. And this is all thanks to Franck Pourcel.

[c_nordlander]

The "roughness," I think, was the slightly meandering and aimless nature of the story, which is totally fine if that's what you were going for. There were a couple of cases of awkward English as well, but if you're not planning to publish it in English, that's a moot point.

About the "tribal" nature of groups and their taste in culture: yeah, I see that everywhere, even on this forum. Sadly, I guess it's as old as time.

And congrats to your mum being a fan of your music stream. That must feel so nice.

[c_nordlander]

Chris can't draw... yaoi?

Well, No Shame November is still in effect, right? They're actually two characters who have yet to appear in something I'm writing. Feel free to con-crit, I know I have way to go when it comes to anatomy.

And something I drew earlier and couldn't post since we were without a scanner. Just some prettygirl showboating while doing a cool jump.

[SirMustapha]

Glad to see you're still drawing, Chris! I think the jump pic is pretty impressive and she looks real nice. Only criticism is that I don't get a feel that she's actually moving, but please, don't ask me how to give a sense of motion to drawings 'cause I have no idea. It sounds tricky as all hell. The two guys also look good, particularly the one on the left. Very convincing and nice looking face. The face on the right is a little odd; something about the shape of the eye and the protruding chin, I think, but it's not at all bad. Also nice work on the pose!

So, I really couldn't attend creativity yesterday, but said I'd try to make it up. Here's what I intended to do yesterday. As you might remember, a little less than three years ago, I wrote a waltz to perform in my eldest niece's 15th birthday, and I had it in my mind to write another waltz for my middle niece, who's turning 15 in December. As you can hear from the abrupt ending, it's not yet finished, but it's already got the main portions written down. Notice that I didn't do everything in one hour; the melodies and chord progressions were created a few days before, in a mostly improvised session, and I worked out some other things in my head before I got down to write. I still haven't made up my mind on the arrangement, whether it'll be a solo piano piece, or piano+flute, or whether I'll orchestrate some background strings, but I can figure that out when I have the whole thing written down. I confess that one of the motivations for writing this is to try to use a Neapolitan chord, which happens twice, at 0:53 and 1:12, but the main thing is that I like the melodies enough to carry this one on to the end.

The recording was generated by MuseScore, and I do intend the final version to be played by hand.

[c_nordlander]

Unfortunately, I'm not able to listen to it at the moment, but I'm looking forward to doing it as soon as I can. Thank you very much for the con-crit, it's really useful! Weirdly, while I agree that the left-hand guy is better drawn, I'm not so happy with him: I didn't really have a clear concept for how he would look, and it still didn't come through properly. The right-hand guy is sloppier drawn, but corresponds better to my mental image.

[SirMustapha]

So here's a completed version of Pequena Valsa Nº 2, complete with string arrangement. Granted, it took me more than one hour to do this.

[c_nordlander]

Pretty, restful, and quite complex. Feels quite old-fashioned, in a good way. Thank you for posting this.

[c_nordlander]

A little comic of X's battle against Storm Eagle in Mega Man X. Sketchy, and not finished (just one more panel to go, though). I've never actually played the Mega Man X games (lol fake nerd girl amirite?), but I got inspired by this fan song. Con-crit welcome as always!

[archonix]

One thin coat.

[c_nordlander]

I ain't played Among Us, but I guess it's a bit like this. Con-crit welcome as usual. Content note: blood, brutality.

And a little story to go along. Inspired by this cool fanart.

Possibly interesting note: I drew them wearing IVA (intravehicular: less protective and more flexible/comfortable) suits since they're on board the ship, and the reference photo I used was of SpaceX suits. So I guess now we know who's bankrolling the Skeld expedition.

~

it's me. your colleague white.

it's really me. my little buddy promised to leave my mind unaffected for the occasion. i want to be all present and accounted for for this. what are friends for? i guess for some of us, the answer is "throwing out of airlocks."

you cast the deciding vote. i know you didn't enjoy it. you probably experienced a really grim and bracing satisfaction as you went off to write to my family before sitting down to dinner. "that thing is not our friend any more. this is what the real white would have wanted."

there's nothing like watching cracks form on your visor and feeling your blood reduce down to a blue slurry to make you realise who your friends are.

did you know, i never killed anyone. i tried to tell you as you led me out, but you'd probably muted my radio by then. i understand that. how else could you sleep at night?

oh yes, sleep. i didn't do a huge amount of that either. i fought it, every conscious moment i had to fight it -- my new friend. if i ever let my guard down, i knew what it would make me do, and now i just wonder... why did i fight them so long?

don't worry about your crewmates. they're out of their misery.

as for you? i think i'll come up with new ways for you to feel sorry.

[gkscotty]

Cool picture and a haunting bit of text, Chris. Nicely done.

[c_nordlander]

Thanks!

Still have problems drawing more than one character and keeping the scale, but I guess White could be really short and Unfortunate Crewmate #14 quite tall.


Also, a note: I won't be able to attend the next Creativity, so just keep going without me. Might whip something up when I have the time.

[SirMustapha]

I second Steve. I enjoyed the story, and the drawing is quite well done, Chris! Nice piece of work.

[c_nordlander]

My ears are burning. And I didn't even light a Q-tip this time.

[Stretch_Dude]

Excellently unsettling stuff, Chris!