Kai

Went cherry picking!

Conquest, as promised! For those wondering, there are only four horsemen of the apocalypse but Conquest is often replaced with War or Pestilence, so I decided to make a version of it as well.

Again, these are the reasons why I drew them the way I did.

The symbolism is for you to chose, there is no wrong answer.

CONQUEST:

-''You’re blinded by what you're meant to represent, clutching blank-slate children to be painted in your colors. The weight of your growing flag suffocates those you’re meant to protect, yet you can’t stand without them. Your horse stays still and only gazes into the past'' - My twitter explanation

-Yes, that is thread and needle, to sew more into their growing cloak/flag. It can be mistaken as a tool of help and union. It is also a reference to the bow and arrow the original Conquest horsemen has.

-Someone asked whether the needle is a symbol of re-sowing maps, altering borders. Good eye! Hence why there's thread lines across their cloak.

-The double-headed eagle commonly represents empires. I had a specific one in mind for this.

-The horse has radiation/biohazard symbology embedded into its skull. Those horns are meant to be a threat. Someone said it represents the ultimate conquest of mankind, which is a very interesting concept

-A variation of this design has been in my drafts for over 5 years but got re-purposed as Conquest

People added a lot of beautiful interpretations for this particular drawing. Especially those who speculate why I added a child in the drawing. I love to read through them and once again, it is a big surprise that people reacted to passionately to these designs. Thank you very much!

My horsemen of the apocalypse! I will add the original commentary and some extras, less about the symbolism and more about what brought me to design them the way I did.

The symbolism is for you to chose, there is no wrong answer.

WAR

I can't bring myself to represent war with a cool knight. It's horror. War is a bound child crowned with shrapnel, tied to a wounded horse that is being pulled forward by unseen people.

I've read a handful of books regarding war. A lost quote said that it should be shown as horror, it should make generals vomit, it should make you sick. I haven't seen war but my family has.

It was the first horseman I've designed, and it was in my sketchbook for months (maybe over a year, maybe even more) before I had the courage to draw it. I was really scared about how people would react to a mutilated child.

Recommended reading: The Red Crown - Mikhail Bulgakov, a short story about a man coping with the loss of his brother in the war

FAMINE

Someone who lived thro a famine shared that their head was only occupied with thoughts of food. Famine consumes your mind. All animals were eaten. Neighbors gave their pets away cuz they couldn't do it themselves. People walked around town as if in a dazed dream, slowly

Recommended reading: The Last Witnesses - Svetlana Alexievitch, a collection of testimonials of people who were children when WW2 began. Some quotes below;

'''A cat! A cat!' Other children saw it and started chasing it. The educators were local habitants, looked at us as if we were insane. In Leningrad there were no living cats left...A living cat was a dream. Food for one month...We talked about it, but they didn't believe us.''

''During the first year of evacuation, we didn't notice nature, everything that was nature provoked in us only one desire - taste to see if it's edible. Only a year later I noticed the beauty of the Urals''

''I dreamt of catching a sparrow and eating it...''

''A candle burns and the shopgirl cuts the bread pieces. People follow her with their gaze. Her every movement...with burning eyes...crazed...and all that in silence.''

''People walked slowly through the city like shadows. Like in a dream...a deep dream...As in, you see it, but you think you're seeing a dream. Those sluggish movements...floating...As if a person walked on water and not on land.''

''In Leningrad there are a lot of monuments, but one is missing that should exist. They forgot about it. The monument to the dogs of the seige. Dear doggy, forgive me...''

I don't like talking about it. It made no sense to draw Famine with a horse.

PESTILENCE

Based on the notes of a doctor who said the most frightening thing about viral disease was how it didn’t frighten. People didn’t know or didn't care. They lived and spread until it was too late and they became another name on the record

The clothing being made out of shredding plastic is no coincidence; pollution is a form of pestilence too

Recommended reading: Notes from a Countryside Doctor - Mikhail Bulgakov. Roughly translated quote below;

''Ah, I verified that here syphilis was frightening precisely because it did not frighten. That was why I evoked that woman.* I remembered her with a kind of affectionate respect: because she had been afraid. But she was the only one!''

*Early in the chapter, doctor mentions a woman that appeared in the clinic with a letter from her soldier husband, where he wrote that he had syphilis and told her she should go to the doctor too.

DEATH

Recommended reading: Voices of Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievitch. The Death of Ivan Ilitch - Lev Tolstoi

“Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one's ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone - the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there's no fairness on earth.”

Death is the only horseman that doesn’t need to mount their horse; they will reach everyone eventually. Who is the saddle for then? Open ended question because this one you have to figure out personally

Many people pointed out how the horse is a Clydesdale. Good eyes! I purposefully asked a friend to guide me towards what type of horses are the sturdiest and most-friendly looking. I drew the horse grazing. It's not injured, it doesn't gallop. It's grazing peacefully because life moves on.

This is the only design that had a painting serve as a base - The Reaper, by Alexey Venetsianov. Not much or nothing at all is written about, I saw it in a book. It is a literal reaper but it haunted me, as if it's portraying more than a person.

The choice to make it a woman was due to a book about a crematory (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Caitlin Doughty) that connected women to death because everyone born is bound to die.

Ahhh, I don't want to give it all away. It's fun to figure things out. About them all. From the enviroment, to the movement, to the horses themselves. Many people even mentioned details that I did not notice and didn't add purposefully that were so inspired and amazing. I truly mean that the interpretations of the public enrich the works even more than my own words. And it's an honor to share that work with everyone.

"Turn the Rusted Key of Fate"

This is a project analyzing and taking a look at the fashion design and application in the multimedia series, The IDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors. This section is about the gothic themed unit of the series, L'Antica! If you want to jump to a specific section, go here!

(This is a reprint of my thread on Twitter. I put it on Tumblr for easier reading and for archiving purposes. Enjoy!)

A little aftermath tale of an uncertain girl and a timid boy.

Series: Mob Psycho 100 Characters: Shigeo Kageyama & Emi (slight one-sided Emi -> Mob)

Read right to left.

My morning was almost always awful, but it’s different today. I went to work smiling, and I planned to buy a new tiny notebook for the new MP100 fancomic after I’m off from work tonight.

Today’s Featured Artist on PaigeeWorld is @ hk017!

hk017’s art is so pretty and cute, not to mention that all their OCs are so precious. Their pieces are always so detailed and brings out the personalities of their OCs. Please leave them lots of love and support!

Discover this artist and more on PaigeeWorld! Find PaigeeWorld on web, iTunes and Android!

LINKS:

• PaigeeWorld

• PaigeeWorld for iOS

I know the anatomy and shit is wrong, but, well c’mon bro, consider this shit. Yeah.

(for those lazy to open the links, go under the cut. Maaaybe spoiler-ish)

[WARNING: Long post ahead!]

So while I was browsing through Deviantart (and sometimes pixiv) I noticed that there are a lot of very talented Indonesian fanartists, especially in the Hetalia fandom. As a fellow Indonesian, there’s this urge to introduce their art to the rest of the world (read: tumblr). But as it turns out, most of their pictures are already floating around in the internet. Now, I believe you guys are already familiar to the term ‘reposting with permission’. But the available templates are mostly in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

Then, if there are no Indonesian permission templates, how do you ask for permission? Well, use the usual English template of course!

No, not that simple. Sorry guys. There’s a reason why people make templates in languages other than English. Here’s why.

While most Indonesian artists are capable of using fairly good (or understandable) English, some of them may not be able to reply or understand complicated words. Furthermore, misunderstandings can happen if the artists themselves only have very limited vocabulary. So, to avoid that, people make permission templates in Japanese, Koreans, and other languages as well.

With that in mind, I decided to make an Indonesian permission template. This was taken from my message to an Indonesian pixiv artist and FYI, I was successful. She let me post her art on my tumblr, as long as I keep the URL intact. (But she already has a tumblr so I just reblogged from there instead)

So without further ado, here is my template:

Yth. Kak (insert artist name here) Kakak, perkenalkan nama saya (insert your name here). Saya pemilik akun tumblr [insert your tumblr url here]. Waktu saya browsing galeri Kakak, saya tertarik sama salah satu (use ‘beberapa’ in place of ‘salah satu’ if you want to post more than one picture) art Kakak (insert pixiv ID(s) or picture URL(s) here) dan ingin sekali mengenalkannya ke tumblr melalui akun saya. Bagaimana menurut Kakak? Apakah Kakak merasa keberatan? Tentu saja, saya bakal mencantumkan URL illust dan profile pixiv Kakak.

Oh iya, kalau Kakak kebetulan mempunyai tumblr juga, apa nama akunnya? Barangkali Kakak ingin saya me-reblog saja langsung dari Tumblr Kakak Sendainya Kakak mengizinkan, apakah kira-kira nanti saya harus meminta izin lagi kalau ingin repost gambar lagi? Itu saja, Kak. Terima kasih atas perhatiannya. Mohon bantuannya ya Kak. ※ maaf, Bahasa Indonesia saya nggak terlalu bagus. Jadi, tolong jawab dengan kata-kata yang sederhana. [OK] atau [NOT OK] juga cukup.

Translation:

Dear (pixiv artist)

Kakak*, my name is (sender name). I’m the owner of (tumblr url). While I was browsing your gallery, one/several* of your illustrations, (pixiv illust id ) caught my interest and I would like to introduce it on tumblr through my tumblr. What do you think? Would you mind if I do so? Of course, I will also include the illust ID and the link your pixiv profile .

Oh, and by the way, do you have a tumblr? What is the name of your account? Just in case if you want me to reblog from your tumblr instead.

If you give me the permission, do I have to contact you in the future again if I want to post another illustration?

That is all. Thank you for your attention Yoroshiku onegaishimasu*

※ Sorry, my Indonesian isn’t good. so please answer using simple language. “ok” or “not ok” is fine too!

Some notes:

*this is actually a honorific, similar to Senpai. We Indonesians literally have hundreds of way to address somebody depending on the age, gender, and even the area we’re currently in. But I’m using ‘Kakak’ which can be used for just about every situation, gender, and even age provided that you don’t know the artist’s actual age.

*no kidding, this is the closest translation to that last sentence

* ‘salah satu’ means ‘one of the (illustrations)’ while ‘beberapa’ means several

And that’s pretty much it. Now all you gotta do is to wait for their reply. This is where Google translator comes in handy. I suggest you actually use the template. Artists would feel a sense of familiarity if you use their native language. Trust me on this one.

-I didn’t see it

-It got eaten

-I’m still replying it just takes me a while to think of what to say

-I couldn’t think of what to say but I still appreciate it

-You sent anon hate and that gets blocked

Literally not because:

-I don’t like you

-I don’t appreciate the message

-You were being stupid