[TW: cissexism, binarism, transmisogyny]
Dwarf ladies in Dale
I still say they’re not nearly beardy enough, but still pretty rad.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, the fluffy mutton-chops are adorable, but combined with the dresses they’re not enough for anyone to mistake dwarf women for dwarf men. When you read the comments in the art and design Chronicles book, the design team seem to have felt great discomfort about actually making the dwarf women look masculine. Snotty comments in square brackets mine.
Alan Lee, Concept Art Director: If you had a beard and you were a woman, you wouldn’t just let it grow wild and wiry. [Why not? Have you seen some human women’s head hair?]
Scott Spencer, Weta Workshop Designer: The Dwarf women and children’s hair and beard brief was a lot of fun. I didn’t want to fall back on the old ‘bearded lady’ cliché, so I explored how Dwarven culture might entwine feminine ornamentation with facial hair styling. I wanted the Dwarf women to be beautiful. [They couldn’t be beautiful unless they were still fairly conventionally feminine.]
Daniel Falconer, Weta Workshop Designer: It would have been so easy when designing Dwarf women to make them look foolish or funny [masculine-looking women are foolish and funny], but as these bearded ladies were certainly not being played for cheap laughs in the script, it was of paramount concern to me that we maintain an air of dignity and beauty in them as we set about to decorate our ladies in hair. [Masculine-looking women are undignified.]
The earliest concepts had a lot of facial hair in quite masculine growth patterns, in reference to Gimli’s comment that they might sometimes be mistaken for men, but as we went along we reduced their beards, placing more emphasis on richly adorned hair-styling that would reinforce their wealth and majesty, and help preserve their femininity. [Femininity is adornment and styling; it can’t just be what grows naturally.]
All of which makes me quite sad and mildly cross on the dwarf ladies’ behalf. If proper Discworld movies are ever made, I don’t want to see Cheery Littlebottom with only fluffy muttonchops. She needs to have a fine, full dignified beard - and wear lipstick when she feels like it.
reglobbing for excellent commentary
I agree on the comments, but I wouldn’t be too harsh on the design choices. A movie has been made that was that expensive and placed in a fandom that is that sensitive for some people, that I completely understand it was cooked to be fed to a cis audience with little to no understanding of trans* things.
And therefore, they managed quite well to make the idea of facial hair on a woman appealing and attractive. Why I think it’s a good thing? Because carefully spreading the idea is more important than full-thrusting all aspects of trans* into peoples throats.
E. g. you won’t make homophobes understand homoerotic and same sex love by binding them to a chair and forcing them to watch hard core gay porn. The Clockwork Orange method doesn’t work.
It’s the same with all things trans* related.
In fact, spreading little snippets like the idea of bearded femininity in a careful manner will sink in, eventually when still presented appealingly for a cis-mind and thus carefully raise the acceptance for such things.
I think it’s the right way to go.
![[Art] remember when no one wanted to buy my coloured ball point sketches? This is what they would have looked like.
Scale Wolf - concept Art for Himmelstürmer. #comic #rpg Every warrior of the Predator caste has a certain spirit animal. The male scale wolf is Katan’s.
The armor of an initiate will be vaguely decorated with ornaments featuring the spirit animal. When the warrior advances skill and progresses in their way, more impressive armor will be assigned to them.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/84cba3ea5e6c3fffa10ee300e6d303bd/tumblr_mj37su2p5p1qholvdo1_500.jpg)
[Art] remember when no one wanted to buy my coloured ball point sketches? This is what they would have looked like.
Scale Wolf - concept Art for Himmelstürmer. #comic #rpg Every warrior of the Predator caste has a certain spirit animal. The male scale wolf is Katan’s.
The armor of an initiate will be vaguely decorated with ornaments featuring the spirit animal. When the warrior advances skill and progresses in their way, more impressive armor will be assigned to them.
Crappy sketches of the day.
-Some OC dwarves. Includes an attempt to create a dwarf who’s neither chubby, muscular nor bearded to his knees and still recognizable as a dwarf. Not like I’d mind them clichès. Dwarves are very short vikings. Yep they are. I’ve decided against bearded dwarf women, though, even though I actually like those. And one single human OC. Yes I know I draw more dwarves and elves instead of humans even though there are about ten times as many human characters than all the others combined. And they’re usually also more important. But… yeah. Some day I’ll draw all them humans, too. Maybe…
-Quick concepts of Morgan le Fay and Ragnelle. My Arthurian legend stuff is usually 10% The Once and Future King (and thus, Malory), 10% Mabinogion and 80% weird head canon. Means, all of it moves to 5th century Wales in my head. Don’t yet what to do with Ragnelle’s name, but she ends up a genuine Celtic fairy lady. GO ME.
Haha it would have been interesting to see you do bearded dwarf women. I like the Morgan Le Fae.
Hope this doesn’t make you go “augh” but have you seem Starz Camelot? It wasn’t that great but Morgan was really interesting and Merlin was amazing. (If you haven’t seen it, or if you have, Arthur himself is horrible)I only watched a trailer and half an episode of it or so. After watching some episodes of Merlin (which is so bad that it’s not even funny anymore), I didn’t feel like trying to get hold of more of it (or any movie material on the matter in general). Because, truth be told, the only movie on Arthurian legend I ever liked is Disney’ Sword in the Stone. Sad but true. Maybe I should watch more until I finally like one… On the other, no, I’d rather not *shivers*. As for Camelot Morgan, my first thought was “Hey, Eva Green is a witch AGAIN.”
I envy you so much, Toradh! ;_; I wish I could draw all the bitches like you draw bitches!
In other news, regarding King Arthur movies: have you ever seen Excalibur?
Sure it’s ancient, but it’s still my very favourite. It’s covering the whole plot without getting old.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082348/?from_app=ios&mode=desktop
when i was little and my parents were driving id pretend there was a man/being/thing running alongside the car who had to follow certain rules like “he can only travel by jumping from streetlight to streetlight” or “he can only walk on fences”
i was so surprised to find out that other people did similar things
i wonder what the underlying psychology behind it is
like its a really specific thing to do but almost everyone did it without telling other kids about it because we all thought it was probably weird or unimportant
holy fucking shit I did this and I literally thought I was the only one, too. Like I did it ALL THE TIME.
Now I’m really curious— what IS the underlying psychology behind that?
Dude I did this too! And so did Monster omg wut
Obviously it’s because there really was something there.
for me it was large cats and dragons c:
Yep, I always did and still do this! In my case I imagined all kind of creatures (mostly my own designs) or my characters racing each other. It’s quite fun and really helpful if you need some help to figure out how your creations walk/run, how their body moves and so on :)
Wow. Some revelation, here. I also wonder if kids all over the world are doing it? I’m from Germany, so where are you from?
I think it has something to do with focussing, eventually. Because as kids we have to learn to cope with the feeling of movement and velocity while not moving our own bodies.
I never got sick in the car, when I did it. But I still find stunning, yet creepy, that so many people did the same AND never told anybody.
Really curious to read more reactions!
VFX/Animation Industry to protest the Oscars
Life of Pi (Fox) and Snow White and the Huntsman (Universal) together grossed almost a billion dollars worldwide. Rhythm & Hues Studios, the company that brought Richard Parker to life and created the bulk of the visual effects for these two Oscar nominated films, has just declared bankruptcy. Many of the artists who worked nights and weekends to create those effects are out of work and unpaid for weeks of work (including nights and weekends) on new tent-pole films for the same studios, Fox and Universal. It’s time for change!
(via Cartoon Brew)
The disrespectful behavior exhibited by Samuel L. Jackson during the award’s introduction and the trivializing “Jaws” cut off just as Westenhofer addressed Rhythm and Hues’ bankruptcy deserve more coverage than Jennifer Lawrence hitting the stairs just before her speech. These people are artists, not drones, creating visual masterpieces with hours of patience and perseverance. If you are an artist, of any measure, this should concern you. The company responsible for making you have feelings for a ship-wrecked predator, Rhythm and Hues, has declared chapter 11 bankruptcy. These studios are underpaid and under-appreciated. Spread the news, call out the Academy on its tactless dismissal of the hundreds of visual artists struggling to stay afloat.
