Bottom teXt

Something interesting that I noticed on my latest rewatch is the way physical contact factors into the progression of Luca and Alberto’s relationship, particularly in regards to Alberto and his insecurity/abandonment issues. It’s a subtle thing, but I think it’s a really nice detail and now I want to talk about it.

Here’s Mckenna Harris’ caring redraw:

Here’s my original from a couple versions earlier, notice how I only did a goofy reaction shot, and how she went full on HUG, of all story artists on the film, she loved these boys the most, and it shows!

These were part of a longer bit where we had plenty of shots, them speeding down those terraces towards town, exchanging dialogue. -But the dialogue kinda stopped the flow of the energy we had started at the tower. 

-Also it’s dramatically more interesting to see humans in town react to sea monsters on a bicycle, then just the 2 alone on the terraces  (where there are less spectators)

-A 3rd problem is the line ‘and you thought me how to’; it’s one-the-nose and stating the obvious. We were shown over & over throughout the movie how Alberto gave Luca a push. No need to ram it in there. As always: Show, Don’t Tell.

-Another pro to the cut is that any Alberto/Luca love budget saved in the rest of the race could be spent in Parting Ways, at the train station. You don’t want the movie to end on the hill; you want to let the sweetness all out at the end, because it’ll feel all the more earned.

Being older now and having an art job it’s…kind of essential. 

So: a quick primer for those of you who are like ‘ok but how do i actually go about doing this warmup thing.’ 

1) you may be tempted to do ‘a warmup drawing’ which is just a drawing that will take longer than it needed to and probably be frustrating and kind of bad because you didn’t warm up first. It’s tempting but always a trick your brain is playing on you! Do not trust! 

2) warmups will vary based on what feels good to you/what task you’re about to do/what motor skills you want to practice. That being said, some good standbys:

a) circles. Just a whole page of circles on whatever drawing surface you’re going to be using, whether that’s your tablet or your sketchbook or a drawing pad on an easel. For these circles you should make sure that you’re drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist. In fact, you want to be drawing from your shoulder rather than your wrist most of the time! forever! your wrist is delicate please preserve it! 

In order to ensure that you’re drawing from your shoulder, when you’re holding your pencil or whatever drawing tool you’re using, the only part of your hand that should be touching the drawing surface is part of the last two fingers–some people prefer the finger tips, but I tend to favor the first knuckles. Either way, the fingers should really be ghosting over the surface, providing guidance rather than support. 

I usually start with big circles and then go to smaller circles and lines of ellipses, and then try to fit circles and ellipses inside other shapes i’ve already drawn as a precision exercise, but i don’t do that unless i’m feeling loose

b) spirals! i don’t always do spirals, but if i’m stiff and the circles just aren’t cutting it, spirals are a good fall back. I start from the center and work outward, going both clockwise and counterclockwise until i feel comfortable with the whole range of motion. Some people really care about getting perfect spirals but for me it’s all about making sure i’m comfortable with how i’m moving so who really even cares about how the spirals look. Not me! 

c) lines! straight lines! in parallel! i do a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. These are often more from the elbow than the shoulder, especially if I’m working on a smaller surface. For this exercise, I recommend holding the drawing tool perpendicular with the surface

d) connect the dots. This is a precision and accuracy exercise and takes two forms. The first is to draw two dots and then draw a straight line between them. The second is to draw three dots and draw the curve that connects them. This sounds a lot simpler than it is in practice. Take time to ghost over the line you plan to draw before actually committing to your line. (I don’t always remember where I picked up my warm up exercises, but I’m pretty sure I got this one from Scott Robertson. His how to draw and how to render books are very technical but also accessible and worth checking out)

e) cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. These help get your brain into a more volumetric space. I draw multiples of each, rotating the forms around, and I’ll often take the time to do some rough shading on at least a few of them

f) spidermans! This one is really good if you’re going to be storyboarding or working on dynamic poses. Just fill a page full of spidermans doing all sorts of acrobatics. 

g) beans. I don’t do beans too much anymore, but I know a lot of people like it so I’m mentioning it here. Fill an area with different size bean shapes without lifting your pencil off the paper. 

h) short medium and long line repetition. draw a short, medium, and long line on your page, and then draw directly on top of them 8 to 12 times, doing your best to exactly trace what you’ve already drawing. Repeat with a wavy line. I’m bad at this one, which means I probably need to do it more. 

And there are lots more options too! Hit up youtube to see what other people recommend, put together your own go-to list, mix it up when you’re getting bored, etc. 

This is a long list, I know, but I usually don’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes to warm up, and I can warm up one handed while I’m drinking coffee, so, multitasking hurrah. 

Sometimes I’ll advance to a precision warmup and find that I haven’t loosened up enough yet; it’s totally ok to go back to an earlier exercise! Also, all of this has the added benefit of kind of ritualistically getting you into the drawing mode so even if I’m not feeling it before I start, by the time I’ve gotten to the end I’m usually Ready For Drawin’. Brain hacks. 

https://youtu.be/NBE-RTFkXDk

Luca leitmotifs: Giulia Marcovaldo

things i love abt this: - the way u drew massimo, he is so perfect - outfit design lets freaking go - big baggy shirt heck yes - HAT HAT HAT HAT HAT

- freckles so cute and freckles on arm !!! 

- lineart looks like irl ink looks so good 

- little bun in da back probably knotted beyond belief

I can do whatever I want and face no consequences because I'm white

being white gives me special secret services like a vip club

white privilege IS:

my life is not made any more difficult because of my skin color

I KNOW RIGHT !!!

I think we should talk more about it, the way alberto was clearly trying to dodge all of luca's questions to avoid crying because it was supposed to be something that makes luca happy and he doesn't want him to regret anything.

alberto was willing to push down the fact that he’d be alone if luca went to school with giulia. he was willing to face it. out of fear for luca’s safety, he showed giulia what a sea monster looked like. he wanted to demonstrate to luca how giulia reacts to seeing sea monsters. after the initial shock, she’s actually fine with it. she realized that it’s still alberto, he just looks like a fish now. 

I think she would have react differently if Luca didn’t panic and scream “sea monster”. She was in shock sure, but it was when Luca was also afraid she treathes Alberto with the stick. Because Luca was Alberto’s close friend, they ran away together. So if Luca is also afraid of him, that means bad things. Because for Giulia, Luca also discovered Alberto was a sea monster.

Luca wasn’t more in shock at the end because he discovered a secret about his friend (Giulia’s pov) but because he said something awful he can’t take back.