kradeelav | (no subject)

I think i've successfully resisted the idea that my artwork has to be within a "brand" (at least compared to 2-3 years ago), and i'm really loving the ... bite? that i'm seeing grow in my art year over year. "sleaze" is one of the few words that I'll consistently use to describe it.

but i'm always a little curious as to what's like. that thematic thread that loops it all together. not "technical" wise so much (a fondness for inky darks, neons, expressive emotions etc), but the "feeling" themes, abstract tropes that keep popping up. Some artists are deliciously obvious where there's a sense of adventure and happy-end freedom, sometimes it's as short of a word as "defiance", sometimes it's a keen sense of, mm - story-with-taboo when the artist plays with achingly close fraught relationships and the fuckery within.

it's hard to see from the inside because I always think I'm wildly swinging from like, gunplay one day to, say "vanilla" fire emblem drawings but I know there's something that links both, because what would the appeal be otherwise?

anyway if you have the bandwidth and have seen my shit, i'd be curious as to what you think it is. :v

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clonecumber

I went through your gallery, though I mostly know your work from your Republic Commando art. Trying to word this, but...Personality? Intensity? I fiddled around with the phrasing of "always seems like something's about to happen" and "coiled spring" but I know that doesn't really work when applied to things like art of someone who's just lazing around and chilling, though I still mean it.

I think intense is the best description I've got, with that intensity always being a constant on a sliding scale between fierce and playful.

EDIT: Wait, you wanted a theme. Um...I guess I'd describe it to someone like: People existing a whole hell of a lot, for better or for worse, and isn't that something.

Edited Date: 2022-01-02 09:17 pm (UTC)

kradeelav

oooh i love this, especially your intensity line since it tracks with what I search out in other folk's fics and art. you know, your words make me think "charged presence", almost? which is fascinating to consider because it "would" envelop my, ahh, tamer works as well. thanks for the kind words and the thoughts~!

kaasknot

I'm looking through your gallery now, and the main thought I'm having is "I can def see the fashkink"—by which I mean there's a lot of implicit threat, casualness/comfort with having power over others, and affable evilness. Almost all the villains are smirking: they control the outcome, they're holding all the cards, and they're going to enjoy watching their victim squirm. If the subject isn't a smirking, in-control villain-type, there's usually some element of being loomed over, or bound, or otherwise visually restrained—e.g. the hellsing cover with the character reading in a chair? The chair is massive and looms over her almost like a hulking, smirking villain. There's a strong sense of power dynamics in your art, specifically power dynamics that are grossly uneven and either held in abeyance for amusement or very soon to be abused.

ETA: it's the exceptions that prove the rule. The one of Vau creeping through the swamp: there's clear power, but it's in the form of competence, and it's not being held over another person. Then the other one, under the hellsing tab, of the two ppl kissing up against a building: I don't know the characters or context, but going on pure visuals there's no power imbalance there either. Also no one was smirking in either of these pics :P

Edited Date: 2022-01-03 04:00 pm (UTC)

I may have cackled outright at the last smirking line xD

oohhhh lord tho this was fascinating, revealing, and I thank you for it. the threat and lopsided power dynamics, yeah, I can see it - ironically even in that last picture you were talking about, exception proves the rule, as it's technically that kind of ship anyway, just less obvious.

it's fascinating to think about favorite, mm, media, shows games etc, and have them viewed in that angle of power dynamics. even repcomm - since we're both more familiar with it - has that in spades given how much can be talked about the various degrees of unhealthy-but-oh-so-interesting-lol bonds.

you've given me a lot of (good stuff) to think about~!

flowersforgraves

Teeth. Positive, negative, emotional/raw/visceral. I just think about teeth.

Ooooh I love the implied visuals with that. thank you~

mizerable

I definitely see fashkink, but particularly like ... a lot of attention to shadows and light on clothing. Lots of leather, even if they aren't uniforms!

Exaggerated facial expressions, focus on teeth + long tongues, and longer faces (you draw Zihark and Alucard with sort of long faces IMO).

ahahaha leather's just too much fun to render xP

very very interesting (and accurate imo) note with the slightly longer faces with those two! you're also not the only one to mention teeth which is wild because that never entered into my thoughts before, but I can see the implciations in hindsight. thank you. ;D

If it isn't weird to ask, do you have a long face irl? I find that a lot of artists actually draw features that they have unknowingly. If you know the "face your art" meme that was popular on sns, that allowed a lot of artists to go "holy shit I look like my art sort of".

If not, I'm blaming it on Alucard and Sephiroth being huge inspirations for you lol

ahaha almost the opposite, actually, a round enough face and especially nose that people have commented on it too much xD I've come to appreciate it these days (ergo the front cover of my website with "me" in the leather; it's actually a pretty dang close self portrait), and what's funny is i TOTALLY know what you mean with artists vaguely taking on traits of what they draw, slightly. it's like that whole scene in 101 dalmatians where the dogs look uncannily like their walkers/owners.

that bit about alucard / sephiroth being huge inspirations is bang on the money though LOL

seasaltmemories_14

This is just my swing at it, but there's always I think a tension between power and ease, I feel like this is obvious in the gunplay/fashkink stuff, but even in your more relaxed pieces, there's still this sense of confidence I would say, like the subject is luxuriating in the fact they know they are the scariest/most badass thing around

power and *ease*, oooh that's a fascinating way of putting it, and would agree. this pairs really well with somebody else mentioning 'affable evilness' which i have to grin at because yea, that's a thing i look for and it seems like it's reflected in the works as well, heh.

thanks so much for your thoughts, this is super interesting to hear!

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