Whispers from Twisted Wonderland

The first piece I examined was "the Lady of Shalott" by John William Waterhouse. (If you look it up without my notes and scribblings all over it, you'll find it's a PHENOMENAL piece.) I actually spent a lot of time with this piece - a whopping 45 minutes when I was live on stream. You can see here in my notes, I examined his usage of the rule of 3rds; when he used thick brush strokes; how he used light to draw our attention to the woman in the boat; and of course the usage of warm and cool tones contrasted with lights and shadows. And you'll actually find that all of these things are motifs throughout almost every Romantic era painting that I studied prior to doing this piece. The cool shadows are used in such a way that they almost frame the warm oranges and pure white of the woman on the boat. It really draws your eye into its off-center, focusing almost solely on the woman. But as you look out beyond her, hidden in the shadow, there is so much detail. And I really tried to capture that in this painting with Kalim.

The next painting I examined was "the Bard" by John Martin. Here again, we see the usage of the rule of thirds, but we especially see a fibonacci spiral here dictating the movement of the piece. Our eye is drawn first from the vibrant sun, down to the lamenting bard, all while the shadows again frame the man and bring him into focus. We again see an image where there is a MYRIAD of detail hidden in the landscape. And both of these elements, I tried to intentionally capture in the piece above. I also especially loved the whimsical oranges and yellows captured in the sky here, especially as they contrast with the darkness off to the right. Though my painting in particular doesn't have much in the way of light, I tried to use this color theme to create the illusion of an oncoming rainstorm.

The last and most messy of my study notes comes from the painting "The Voyage of Life" by Thomas Cole. If you were to look at the actual painting, you would once again notice the angelic, all white figure in the boat, framed by shadows as light pierces over the mountain tops. Once again, we have the fibonacci spiral directing our line of focus, and the rule of thirds indicating the placement of our subject.

In all three pieces, we see a lot of the same placement, coloration, and movement, of which I tried to evoke in my depiction of Kalim. And here is a comparison of my thumbnail, mapping out my painting versus the final once again:

Happy Birthday (Part One)

INT. IGNIHYDE DORM - BIRTHDAY PARTY VENUE

KORE: I wonder who my presenter for this year will be? 

KORE: Better not be someone absolutely annoying. 

???: Hey, I’m here. Hope you don’t find my presence “absolutely annoying”.

JIAWEN: Happy birthday, Kore. I hope your special day is going as well as you hoped it would. 

KORE: Ah, Jiawen. Certainly a welcome presence.  

KORE: I definitely rolled a Nat-Twenty with this year’s Magical Birthday Dice!

JIAWEN: An auspicious sign of things to come for sure.

JIAWEN: Here’s the present I picked out for you this year!

KORE: A CHAIR MASSAGE CUSHION!

KORE: BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT! TEN OUTTA TEN! NEVER LEAVING MY CHAIR NOW!

KORE: Oh Great Seven, thank you so much, Jiawen!

JIAWEN: You’re very welcome, Kore! Glad to know that my gift will definitely be put to good use. 

—

Happy Birthday (Part Two)

INT. IGNIHYDE DORM - BIRTHDAY PARTY VENUE

JIAWEN: Okay, I suppose with gift-giving out of the way, it is time to begin the interview proper. 

KORE: Go right ahead, I’m all ears!

JIAWEN: If you could bring one person with you on a deserted island, who would you choose?

KORE: No offense, Jiawen, but absolutely NO ONE from our dorm. 

KORE: Idia一definitely useless.

KORE: You一a smidge better

KORE: Ortho一probably the best option unless he runs out of power, then majorly screwed. 

KORE: Someone I would want to bring on a deserted island...

KORE: Malleus. 

JIAWEN: Malleus? Interesting choice. Why?

KORE: Two possible ways this goes down.  

KORE: One, the international community freaks out when the heir apparent of Briar Valley goes missing, prompting a search party that quickly gets us rescued from the island. 

KORE: Or two, snap of his fingers, we are both back on the mainland. 

KORE: The most efficient and practical answer. 

JIAWEN: Honestly, I have to agree with you there.  

—

Happy Birthday (Part Three)

INT. IGNIHYDE DORM - BIRTHDAY PARTY VENUE

JIAWEN: Okay, now for the next question. 

JIAWEN: If you were to join any dorm other than here, which dorm would you choose?

KORE: Hmm, now that one is a bit trickier. 

KORE: I definitely don’t mind the conditions of our dorm. Would need to be one with easily livable conditions, so Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, and Scarabia are easily out for me. 

KORE: Heartslabyul is livable, but I doubt I would want to follow their ridiculous rules, so that’s out. 

KORE: That just leaves Pomefiore and Diasomnia. 

KORE: I guess aesthetically and just personality vibes, Diasomnia would be the best option for me. 

KORE: Got the gothic vibe I like and not too proper like Pomefiore. 

KORE: Maybe if I was raised in the Household, Pomefiore would be more my taste一but alas I was not一so Diasomnia it is. 

JIAWEN: That all makes perfect sense. 

JIAWEN: Well, this concludes the interview portion of the celebration. 

JIAWEN: Are you ready for the next part?

KORE: Just don’t mess up my hair! 

KORE: LET’S SEE WHAT YOU GOT, JIAWEN! 

Quick summary of what have going for this dude.

Pulao (Mushu-inspired): a Long/Loong Fae who is impulse, cocky, and yet caring. He is the weakest in his family, as he hasn't been able to activate his true strength. Which regulated him to less important tasks, which he is not happy about. For generations, his family acted as the guardian to the Zhu family, who are humans. In the current day and age, the Zhu family believes this history /relationship is just symbolic. When Yulan (Mulan inspired character) left for RSA in secret, Pulao decided to go after her so he could prove himself to everyone. While in RSA, he acted as an older relative (mom) to Yulan. He also takes the Zhu family name.