#long pose

Patrick Robinson (brn 1999)

Felt good about:

The front leg! I feel like I gave it the amount of contrast & focus I intended

Had time to properly draw the face this time

Still struggling with:

I still need to get better at intentionally reducing the details/contrast on the areas that shouldn't be focused. Like, the back leg I feel was successful for that treatment, but I should've put a lighter touch on the upper torso so that the front arm could pop more.

Should've exaggerated the pose to be more expressive, but at least it was accurate enough (and I properly fit the whole figure on the paper... barely)

Bonus photo below the cut of the halfway progress:

modèle vivant - life drawing 20 min

honestly I’m so in love with that design

I wanted to write down the things Mr.Swery tells you about the number theory because there is a lot of symbolism here and I think it’s really fascinating how it connects to Yuppie Psycho as a whole. Also another random fact, Mr. Swery and Forrest Kaysen are both references to the game series Deadly Premonition.

Zero: Doesn’t exist, it’s the void. It is neither good nor bad, it is neither odd nor even. It is the purgatory of numbers. It has no meaning. It is infinite. Zero is what you have lost and not realized. It’s what’s to come but you don’t know it yet.

One: the hero of the adventure. It’s the sun in the sky. It’s the wrow that sticks right in the center of the target. It’s unique, it’s the truth without any possibility of doubt. But it’s also the authority, or the loneliness. The strict and unchangeable. It’s the ultimate expression of odd numbers.

Two: Beware of Two. The Deuce is the worst number of all. It’s the extreme example of even numbers. The Deuce is pure evil. It is doubt and indecision. The number of different paths. The Two symbolizes the most profound human duality, the diabolical mannerism of the impossible symmetry, the profound fear of the unknown. The disturbing duplicity. Two, is without doubt the worst number of all. It’s the god of evil. A mirror.

Three: Is strength and action. It is an unstoppable and safe weapon that enters attacking and breaking everything in its path. It is indestructible. Solid, compact, and sharp. It’s a triangle and it has a great magical charge. The Three can achieve anything. One of the best numbers, it only has one weakness. It’s a number that suffers a lot of wear and tear. And it has a tendency to become a Four.

Four: The fake number. It hides behind its weakness behind a facade of security and solidity. It’s a stationary number, and it never accomplished anything. It is the pact between the Four Kings, where one of them betrays the others. It’s an old castle that’s in ruins and has never completely collapsed. It’s a lump chair, and even if it holds your weight, you know it’ll break.

Five: The tight-knit team. It’s a number that can either move forward or stand still. It’s the patience, the logic, the rational. The balance. It’s a number with hardly any magic power that works because it’s pieces fit together perfectly. Balanced too much. It lacks a soul. It’s a function-focused number. Assotic. Boring.

Six: The number of the lie. A number that hides more than it teaches. It draws your attention to something, but behind that, it’s doing something else. It’s usually related to the snake. It slithers quietly and, without you noticing, it bites you and injects its venom. ( Ah, it’s a sex number, too! Uh, uh, uhhhhh!)

Seven: A number with a great magical charge. The one with the most charge. It’s the number of the wizards. Of Good luck. Of the festive meeting. Of the good mood. Also of the inspiration of the art! It is one of the numbers traditionally most related to luck and mysticism. It’s a number that, although not perfect, makes its defects wonderful. It’s perhaps the most humane number.

Eight: Lacks the malignant connotation that other even numbers have, but Eight is the opposite. It’s a number of goodness. It’s a number of abundance…but from humidity. It is a community, sharing with others. It is that older person who at first sight imposes, but who in reality has a heart of gold. It is an open temple without walls.

Nine: A dark number. It’s a number with a certain magic change, which remains on the sidelines. Nine is an impenetrable countenance, which seems to hide a great secret. The Nine is the observer. It is a nobleman in a black mask who stares at you without coming out of the shadows that hide him. It’s an elegant - and even sensual - number. It doesn’t take part in anything, even though it could. The selfish number.

“She feels compassion for everybody, so she never stops fighting. She doesn’t want a single person to die in this rebellion.”

“No casualties? The world is full of peace-loving fools like her. Easy for someone who’s never seen a real battle, don’t you agree?”

“That’s right. But as long as you’re still around she’s going to kill herself trying to stop you. So I’m going to finish you here.”

This speech gives quite a bit of insight into Luffy’s character and plays off of his argument with Vivi earlier on. Again, he’s stupid, not naive. High wisdom, low intelligence. However you want to slice it. 

And Crocodile’s line is interesting here as well, because it’s a similar thought to Doffy’s famous line during Marineford. Even with the kidnapping incident as a kid, Vivi has for the most part only known peace. The true scope of war is something she can’t really grasp, in comparison to Crocodile who has likely only known violence going out of his way to cause more violence and destruction.

Much, much later we will be introduced to the corrupt nobility of Dawn Island, who despite only knowing peace knowingly orchestrate the deaths of their poor population in order to gain a little bit of clout, and learn that Whitebeard--who grew up in a terrible situation--spent his fortune turning his war-torn homeland into a paradise. 

One Piece’s ridiculous length allows it to do is examine certain themes or ideas from a bunch of different angles. So while on the surface Doffy’s (and I suppose Crocodile’s line as well) seem like a contradiction, but when you dig deeper it’s not that simple. 

The World Nobles (and other regimes that follow their practices such as those on Dawn Island) build a false peace through violence and oppression, whereas Whitebeard never really abandoned his violent ways as much as find a constructive outlet for them on the high seas.