December Daily Meme - Day... er, lots of them!

[motetus]

Yeah, I suck at posting regularly, I know. Here's a million answers in one go, then!

carmarthen asked: Your favorite character to draw and why

I'm going to cheat and give two answers. Neck up, Qui-Gon Jinn, because to me someone who's fun to draw is someone with really distinctive features that make it easy to capture their likeness no matter what angle I'm drawing them from or what expression they're pulling, and Qui-Gon has that fabulous hair and beard, Liam Neeson's prominent broken nose and all those beautiful wrinkles, and best of all, it doesn't matter if you end up with the eyes looking a bit wonky and asymmetrical because they totally are! Also, he's a rather fun character to stick into ridiculous bondage, vegetable, or Jar Jar-related situations. Sorry about all that, guys.

Neck down, Eames (I like his face very very much and it is usually a delight to draw, but I've had too many emails from my art beta telling me to sort his nose out to claim it's that much fun). Clothes on, his wardrobe is terribly fun and imaginative, and clothes off... I suppose he's a great deal of the reason I'm much more comfortable drawing smuttier fanart these days because damn, that's a body I can happily stare at for hours in the name of research - it's not perfect at all, but it has all the things that make it interesting and appealing to me. Those ridiculous traps, the perfect pectorals with their lovely fuzzy hair, the awful, hot, awful, awful tattoos (which I prefer to change because they really are awful, and also a bit too personal for me to assign them to Eames), the rather adorable squinty bellybutton - ticks all the distinctive features boxes and also all the, um, really fucking hot boxes. Let's have a reminder...



Very good, Mr Hardy. Very good indeed.


eames asked: What would your totem be, if you worked in dreamshare? :D

My Wacom tablet pen, because it seems like I have that wretched thing in my hand every second of my non-working, non-sleeping life, and so I know the balance perfectly. In dreams, the most beautiful and moving drawings would flow forth from it, and I'd create exquisite and tasteful and very hot smutty fanart that everyone would love... and then I'd know I was under because in reality it takes me two evenings to try (and fail) to get a mouth looking halfway decent, and when I try to draw sex and penises the poor wife hears GET THAT FUCKING THING AWAY FROM ME I NEVER WANT TO LOOK AT ANOTHER ONE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE a lot.


bauble asked: What sort of things do you like to read in fanfiction? Do you read fiction as well, and do your tastes differ between the two?

I suppose what I really want from fanfiction is an exploration of the canon universe and the characters in it, and I really don't care how the author goes about it - I like to be surprised, and nothing makes me happier than coming across an idea or plot or characterisation that I could never imagine working but somehow does. The one thing I am incredibly picky about is characterisation, because it doesn't matter how well written a story is, if the characters sound or act in a way that doesn't feel true to their canon selves to me, I'm never going to be able to enjoy it. The exception to this are AUs - I don't mind so much if the characters are quite different so long as they're well-developed, interesting ones, not, say, Hot Perfect Boyfriend Character A who's there to sweep Poor Stressed-Out Possible-Self-Insert Woobie Character B off his feet... god, do I hate those type of stories, I hate them so much.

My favourite things to read in fanfic include (but is not limited to): cultural differences, slow-build relationships, loads and loads of sexual tension, people being assholes to each other but also having feelings for them (hello there, Inception fandom!), dysfunctional relationships, betrayal and its consequences, canon-divergent AUs, people having to make difficult choices and decisions that don't have a right or correct option, and stories about older people, because older people are so much more interesting! They have the possibility of having so many more things happen that shape and change them than those young things do. And okay, I may prefer at least more than half of the stories I read to have a happy ending with my OTP/OT3 ending up together, but I am not someone who refuses to read anything that ends differently; I love bittersweet and ambiguous endings, and have no problem with the occasional sad or character-death-laden fic. I guess I really, really like variety, more than anything else.

I think I'm a lot less picky when it comes to non-fanfic - I like all of the things I listed above, but really, all I want is a captivating story. I'm not fussed about relationships like I am with fanfic; subtext and slashy overtones is fine, but I don't think I've ever read a book where I've found myself longing for an explicit sex scene. Maybe I do wish that more of the fiction I read had characters that I really fell for and more development... which is kind of funny, because I often find myself wishing that there was more plot in fanfic!


arvok asked: Could you please talk about one book that really influenced you? Even in small ways, but a book without which you wouldn't be the same, which taught you someting or changed your perspective. The if you really want to know me, you gotta read it kind of book. If you have one.

I think I mentioned this once before, or possibly more than once, so apologies if you've heard this before, but Carl Zimmer's Evolution. My uncle picked it up at a second-hand bookstore while I was on holiday with his family in Luang Prababng, Laos, the year before I started university, and it was this battered thing with the first few pages missing and oddly perfect circles cut out of the front cover. I still have it though, because it was really after reading it that I think I truly fell in love with biology - I was in the middle of applying to university to study it, but was still feeling rather half-hearted about it, like I was only going for it because it was the only subject I felt I could handle. And this book made me love my subject, really, really love it, and I remember being so angry that none of my high school teachers could make me feel a fraction of the fascination and enjoyment that it did.


bunn asked: Are there particular artists that have influenced your drawing style, or that you find inspiring outside of fandom?

Uh... boring answer, I'm afraid! No, not really, I don't think. Um, my favourite artist is Caravaggio, though I don't think he really influences how I draw that much? It's more lots and lots of different artists, both from or outside of fandom that shape how my drawing style changes - I'll see a painting I like and steal a little bit of it, like the lighting, or the colour scheme, or how they draw fabric, though I don't worry too much about stealing too much and it looking obvious, because I'm truly terrible at forgery and most things I draw end up looking completely different to how I thought it would.


weekend asked: Favourite people from ancient Rome

JULIUS CAESAR. I think I imprinted on the Asterix version aged six - oh, that marvelous nose and the swishy red cape <3. I'm still very much in love with him, because he's got all that arrogance and self-confidence that I really shouldn't find attractive qualities but I do, I really do. I also love Cicero - admittedly a bit of this is down to David Bamber's portrayal in Rome, but I adore how rather vain and pompous but also insecure he comes across. I don't know a great deal about the later ancient Romans because my podcast is only up to the end of Caesar Augustus (I don't like him, what a prick), but I have a soft spot for Hadrian because of his fondness for beards and walls, and he actually seems like a decent bloke, at least when compared to some of the others. Oh, and Catullus! I have sineala to thank for pretty much all of my knowledge of him, and he does seem like the entertaining sort. I want to go out for dinner with him, steal his napkins, and then have him write rude poetry about me.


the_little_owl asked: Favourite people from ancient Rome (or history in general) you want to paint or draw one day

Well, I did want to try Cicero for a while, and I got to do that for one of this year's holiday cards! (I shall post them all tomorrow, I promise.) I would like to try drawing Mark Antony and Lucius Vorenus from Rome one day, but time, I never have enough of it. :( I suppose I don't want to draw people from history as much as I do costumes (I have books full of illustrations of historical dress), so someone hurry up and give me an idea for a Byzantium-themed AU, please.


eames asked: Assuming all animals and humans are safe, what few items would you save, if your house was on fire?

Hm, hard one. I don't usually get very attached to physical objects, and nothing I own is too expensive for me to replace eventually. I suppose I'd go for my cello and a few handmade gifts people have made for me over the years that I couldn't replace, and then with my arms full, I'd trip and fall down the narrow, windy stairs up to my flat and break my neck.


bauble asked: Food related, because food is all important: chocolate or vanilla? Coffee or tea? Nuts or no nuts?

Damn right it is. I choose WHITE CHOCOLATE *AND* VANILLA so I can have both! Has to be quality vanilla though, the stuff with all the little black seeds in, though if I have a choice between milk chocolate and vanilla, I'll probably go for the chocolate. Dark chocolate is great, but I prefer it with things like chilli or mint. TEA, TEA ALL THE TIME. I like the taste of coffee in food (I have the wife slaving away in the kitchen at the moment, making me a delicious tiramisu) but cannot stand it as a drink - it's too bitter, and four hours later my stomach starts getting very, very grumpy. Shame, because I am a terrible morning person and it might help me be less of a zombie. Nuts: acceptable in moderation.


I have had more cards arrive to hang up on my (freshly-painted, oh my god my flat is finally starting to look like it's mine) living room walls! Thank you very much to arvok, lezzerlee, obi1mcgregor and honscot - they are all lovely! :)

Comments

[weekend.livejournal.com]

Those are all excellent choices for favourite ancient Romans, especially Catullus; I love poems 5 and 7, and 50 (especially Charles Martin's translation), and I'm increasingly coming round to 16 now I realise the point of it is that a poet's art is no guide to what he's really like, and so the final joke is that just because he says in a poem "pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo", it says nothing at all about the kind of person he really is, if anything the opposite, and really he is just as soft as Furius and Aurelius accuse him of being. Catullus is one of those people whose poems appear really straightforward but are wonderfully ironic. :D

Augustus was a total prick though, you're right.

Also, I hope you do get to draw Mark Antony and Lucius Vorenus sometime! And yessss I would love to see some Byzantine drawings from you; their clothing was so cool! You can see how it evolved from Roman dress in some places, but it just looks so different and I love how elaborate it was. The Byzantine Empire as a whole is really fascinating to me, because in many ways it is Roman but the Christian and Greek influences make it something completely other as well.

Finally, I love Caravaggio too--his paintings are so striking and I always feel moved by them, in a way I don't with other painters.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

I am such a fraud when it comes to looking knowledgeable and well-read! I'm afraid pretty much all of what I know about Catullus that isn't Odi et amo or about face-fucking comes from Sineala (but she explained them all brilliantly!) - have been meaning to get a book of his poems for ages now, but none of the translations had anything more than a mediocre average review. The Martin translation is available though - would you recommend that one?

You know how I want to draw my Byzantium AU? I want to do it in the mosaic style they used! With lots and lots of gold everywhere, and also some fabulous headdresses. I have absolutely no idea how I'd go about doing something like that, though! But hey, I figured out how to draw greek pottery fanart this year, so it might not be completely beyond me...

[weekend.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it, it's not like I know anything about his poetry myself! I'm just fascinated by his relationship with Clodia, and how he likes to portray himself as a suffering woman, like Medea or Ariadne, when treated badly in love. (are sineala's explanations on her LJ, or was this the two of you chatting? I'd be really interested to see them if I could!) And likewise, I'd really love to get a book of his poems, but there doesn't seem to be a clearly ~definitive~ translation in the way that if you want to read Sappho you should go for Anne Carson, or if you want to read Ovid you should go for A.D. Melville for the Amores and Ars Amatoria (poss also the Metamorphoses but I've not read his version) and Clare Pollard for the Heroides. I'd check with sineala, but I think Martin's version is the best -- Josephine Balmer's Poems Of Love And Hate is apparently also good, but she only translates some of the shorter poems rather than the long ones. (and the long ones are really good! I love poem 64, for instance.)

OMG mosaic fanart would be so cool, and I definitely agree with the gold and fabulous headdresses. I don't know how you would do it, though, e.g. if you were to do something like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zoe_mosaic_Hagia_Sophia.jpg) then I'm not sure how you'd get across all the tiles in the background....

[sineala.livejournal.com]

I must confess to also being a fraud -- everything I know about Catullus comes from my girlfriend and the bit where I decided to improve my Latin by reading and translating, very badly, (okay, more like taking notes on) the ones that interested me. I think I got up to the mid-50s before I wandered off a couple years ago and got bored. I might have made an LJ tag. I know nothing about what a good translation would be because I actually have never read him in English.

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

I LOVE your Tom Hardy art meta. <3

people being assholes to each other but also having feelings for them
Oh man. How hard would I have to work to get you into due South fandom? The show only delivers on this a teeny tiny bit, but the fandom! The fandom has TONS of Ray/Ray that is ALL ABOUT THIS.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Aw, I was actually trying to find due South on Netflix the other day, to give me something fun to watch in between all the Serious Depressing Dramas we're going through! Unfortunately it's not on there, but I'll try to find it online somewhere (torrenting is just so much more difficult these days, boo). Assholes with feelings? GIVE ME.

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

It is all available on the Youtube, or I could send it to you. :D I am invested in getting people to watch it, obviously.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Ooh, so it is! Excellent, I will give that a go (later, because apparently it is rude to spend all Christmas day behind one's laptop with headphones on? Weird) and tell you what I think!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The millisecond that I have a good idea for a Byzantine AU, I will send it over to you so fast that it will leave a flaming path behind it. Sadly at the moment I am somewhat hampered by my lack of knowledge about the Byzantine Empire (I think everything I know about it, I learned from Rosemary Sutcliff), but...this is just a good reason for me to learn more, right?

Also I would be so excited to see you draw Vorenus and Pullo! Maybe they could, uh, be part of the Byzantine emperor's bodyguard? The Varangian guard was made up of Vikings, and Vorenus could sort of pass for a Viking, so...

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not like my knowledge of the Byzantine Empire is much better - they had awesome clothing, the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church are some of my favourite places to visit in Istanbul, and um... I think they did a lot of blinding? But the costumes, so pretty! And the Varangian guard look awesome - maybe I will offer Blood Feud if Sutcliff Swap is running this year.

(oh man, do not tempt me into Varangian guards Vorenus and Pullo with Mark Antony as a truly depraved Byzantine emperor, do not)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

You know you want to! Vorenus and Pullo, Varangian guards, kneeling before Mark Antony the depraved Byzantine emperor! Who is possibly wearing a giant jeweled cross, being a Byzantine.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

I do, I do. :( Oh, damn. I don't know when I'm going to have the time to do it, but that's not going to stop me from hunting down a few references now...

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

You could read Blood Feud! CANON BYZANTIUM. Early Varangian Guards! Vikings AND Byzantines!! Also a pet gazelle.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

This is an excellent set of answers, also, fuck yeah, Catullus. :)

Also, oh, yes, please do a Byzantium AU of something. All the historical costumes! I totally thought of something historical the other day that I should have asked you to draw for Christmas, but I forgot what it was...

[motetus.livejournal.com]

I loved all your Catullus posts! I'd be even more woefully ignorant without them, and I think you should totally turn your translations and commentary into a book.

Well, if you remember the historical thing, do come back and tell me! I will love and cherish every single historical idea I am given. :D

[pronker]

I guess I really, really like variety, more than anything else.


Yes!

And yes to freshly painted walls -- off-white? sage green?

[motetus.livejournal.com]

That is all I want from fandom! ALL THE THINGS WRITTEN ALL THE WAYS. :D

The paint's called crochet, which apparently means light grey with hints of blue/green. Sounds boring, but I like neutrals so I can have ALL THE COLOURS in everything I decorate the rest of the room with.

[fififolle]

Yes, it's a shame coffee does that to one's insides *g*
That made for a fascinating read, thank you :D
Funny how Liam Neeson can be so distinctive, and yet so unrecognisable from role to role. Top marks, that actor!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Heh, I think I have to disagree with you about Liam Neeson being unrecognisable - I love him dearly and I think he can be fantastic in a well-written role, but I don't think he's that much of a chameleon (being 6 foot 4 with an obviously broken nose can't help!). I just hope he gets back to making at least halfway decent films soon, I'm still traumatised from Wrath of the Titans...

[arvok.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the answer! As for the card, once again, you're very welcome. I love the idea of hanging greeting cards on the walls; it's something I've never seen before coming to Edinburgh and I think it's great, so simple, convenient (no cards falling from the shelves or needing to be removed for dusting) and pretty! Now I have my own string of cards on the wall, with Darth Maul proudly hanging in the middle. He doesn't look impressed by hs sideways position. ;-)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Poor Maul, very little that isn't pain and suffering impresses him. :D

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

because to me someone who's fun to draw is someone with really distinctive features that make it easy to capture their likeness no matter what angle I'm drawing them from or what expression they're pulling

My god I wish I could lure you into my current wacky fandom, although so far Szilveszter's face mostly seems to make artists cry (it's really distinctive, though...).

[motetus.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on how they're distinctive - heavy, sharp, angular features are the best. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has very distinctive eyebrows and mouth, but I still struggle with his face because the shapes of it are so delicate.

I was going to bleat about no, I have no time for another fandom because two nearly-dead ones are still gobbling up far too much of my life, but then I googled Szilveszter and though I didn't find anyone who looked like a Hungarian actor, I came across a picture of a little pig dressed up as a leprachaun, and now I shall choose to believe your fandom involves thespian piggies. That sounds bloody fantastic.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Haha, probably...not, then. But this guy (http://image.hotdog.hu/user/valko17/musical/1258234965_85.jpg) (or with less glitter and more funny faces (http://carmarthenfan.tumblr.com/post/66661811064/parizsi-elet-la-vie-parisienne-budapesti)). No thespian piggies, but many things equally peculiar.

(No, but you seriously don't. No one has time for this fandom. It's like some kind of eldritch horror that steals your sanity.)

[island-of-reil.livejournal.com]

so someone hurry up and give me an idea for a Byzantium-themed AU, please.

Not quite what you asked for, but: Have you ever read Guy Gavriel Kay's "Sarantine Mosaic" books? Their world is an analog of Europe and Byzantium in the day of Justinian and Theodora. That would give you some new characters to enjoy and to draw in pretty clothing. Some GGK fans didn't care for the books very much, but I quite liked them. (I lent sineala the books so you can ask her for her opinion of them too.)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for the rec! I have not read those books, nope... I may look into them once I lift my self-imposed book ban (no more until I buy a bookshelf! They cannot live on the floor forever!).

[fruityshirts.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeames. True story, half the time I end up starting my drawings of Eames at the arms/shoulders and regardless of whether or not I intend him to be clothed...most of the time he ends up being at least shirtless, because by the time I'm done drawing his glorious torso I just don't want to cover it up again. Mr. Hardy, I blame you!

I love your idea of byzantine mosaic art! I wish I had a good AU idea for you...I'm so bad at those. But your greek vase fanart was FANTASTIC and your attention to detail is so lovely that I'm sure mosaic-style art would be amazing!

Also A++ totem!!