Manips: Drag Queens Of The Art World?
Jun. 7th, 2011 01:29 pmI've finally gotten that itch back to get on with making some slashy manips. I have been neglecting my poor OTP and this needs to be rectified immediately! Of course I must point out just how inspired I am by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eilidh17 's work of late, do check out her brilliance.
But, I have noticed recently a small backlash against manippers as to how realistic their work is as a favoured character's head (and this is how I see the image I am using - as a character, not the actor) is photoshopped onto the most buffed, oiled bodies one can find with Google images at their mercy. What is more important, the realness of the image you are creating, or the fantasy you are projecting?
I work predominately with Stargate, many a pairing, but by far most of my photo manipulations are of the Jack/Daniel variety so I will be writing with that frame of reference.
Firstly, I will admit that a fair few of the images I have created over the years don't look all that realistic. They're not particularly skilled either, but hey, we're all learning here. ;D I have given Daniel a hairy bum and Jack pecks of doom...
Now that I am older and marginally wiser, I do take the time to search for bodies that look similar to those of the characters. I want to make it easy for my audience to fall into that image and gain from that what they will - be it a laugh or a fic bunny etc. Jack is slightly taller than Daniel, Daniel in the later seasons is more muscled, yadda yadda. A nice hard look at the original bodies of those you wish to portray can go a long way to helping you find images that will closely match and 'fit' when the head/neck is attached. Hey, it's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it... ;D
But, that is just my personal preference. I want to go for the more 'realistic' look because I want to bring to life a possibility, a little slice of life, a scenario that someone like me who thinks more pictorially than anything else can look at as a 'reality' somewhere, somehow... If that can develop or continue to grow in someone else's mind or work, great!
That said, I have absolutely no problem either, with using more (subjectively) unrealistic bodies to create images of fantasy. I don't see this as the artist being unskilled or stupid, but rather wanting to stretch the boundaries or confines of the character's perceived 'reality' and giving us something that is rather damn pretty to look at. Hell, throw in some wings or tentacles and we've got ourselves a party!
They're varying degrees of the same damn thing.
All artistic endeavours and opinions on thus are subjective. There are varying degrees of skill with all of us and I've never thought of art as being in need of particularly strong judgement anyway. All we can do is present an idea, what the viewer takes away from that can be good or bad, but nonetheless varied and invocative of both parties.
eilidh17 's work of late, do check out her brilliance. But, I have noticed recently a small backlash against manippers as to how realistic their work is as a favoured character's head (and this is how I see the image I am using - as a character, not the actor) is photoshopped onto the most buffed, oiled bodies one can find with Google images at their mercy. What is more important, the realness of the image you are creating, or the fantasy you are projecting?
I work predominately with Stargate, many a pairing, but by far most of my photo manipulations are of the Jack/Daniel variety so I will be writing with that frame of reference.
Firstly, I will admit that a fair few of the images I have created over the years don't look all that realistic. They're not particularly skilled either, but hey, we're all learning here. ;D I have given Daniel a hairy bum and Jack pecks of doom...
Now that I am older and marginally wiser, I do take the time to search for bodies that look similar to those of the characters. I want to make it easy for my audience to fall into that image and gain from that what they will - be it a laugh or a fic bunny etc. Jack is slightly taller than Daniel, Daniel in the later seasons is more muscled, yadda yadda. A nice hard look at the original bodies of those you wish to portray can go a long way to helping you find images that will closely match and 'fit' when the head/neck is attached. Hey, it's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it... ;D
But, that is just my personal preference. I want to go for the more 'realistic' look because I want to bring to life a possibility, a little slice of life, a scenario that someone like me who thinks more pictorially than anything else can look at as a 'reality' somewhere, somehow... If that can develop or continue to grow in someone else's mind or work, great!
That said, I have absolutely no problem either, with using more (subjectively) unrealistic bodies to create images of fantasy. I don't see this as the artist being unskilled or stupid, but rather wanting to stretch the boundaries or confines of the character's perceived 'reality' and giving us something that is rather damn pretty to look at. Hell, throw in some wings or tentacles and we've got ourselves a party!
They're varying degrees of the same damn thing.
All artistic endeavours and opinions on thus are subjective. There are varying degrees of skill with all of us and I've never thought of art as being in need of particularly strong judgement anyway. All we can do is present an idea, what the viewer takes away from that can be good or bad, but nonetheless varied and invocative of both parties.
