reenka

EDIT: nevermind all following.

eleveninches' funny!smutfic is probably a -much-, much, much more enjoyable way to spend your time :D
read it and choke on your overwhelmed wheezes of pure piggy joy. yes that is my very objective review :D

ahhhhh, pure smirky wheezy goodness....

"You know," Harry began, "when they said you joined a cult, I really didn't believe them."

...and ok, the harry/snape funny!smutfic by

sloaneywoney was also hilarious. but my heart wasn't in it, you see. not like my heart is in drag-queen!draco and horny-barrister!harry :D
~~

wah. moby rocks my world. my world is insane. here i am, in my old dorm, where i haven't lived since '98, and it feels like home. i see it and i meep, "home!" like i was a bird flying south again. it's been so long, and i still obsess over the same old feelings, same old things. it's like nothing ever goes away, only recycles. in the dining hall, i sit where i used to sit, because my friends and floormates used to sit there and it was cool, but now they don't, but i'm drawn to it, i feel more comfortable there, even sitting alone. this is just wrong, isn't it? well, as far as any of these things can be wrong. it's not even that i don't form new attachments easily. it all accumulates. by the time i die, i'm going to have a close personal relationship with more things than i could even remember. i'm a strange bird alright.

anyway, if any of you are wondering why this isn't an entry devoted to

vanityfair's (or

ishuca's) new chapters, it's because i haven't gotten to reading -anything- these past couple of days, what with all the stupid creative stuff. ick. anyway, broken printers and unfinished fanart was hounding me.
this is the guilty party for today, being a (random) illustration for

lasultrix's `veela magic' chapter 5, wherein cho's seduction of harry really begins. i was just drawing some asian-looking girl, who became cho, and well-- this happened.
~~

um. i was thinking, after

penelope_z's post, what is it that makes a good harry (or draco) as far as fanart, and why so many seem to fall short. (like, the way daniel looks in those posters, all uber-heroic and everything, seems wrong, yes.)

the quality the good harry portraits seem to have is they show a humorous, perceptive, mischievous-seeming boy who sees more than you'd think and yet seems open, his smile infectious. you couldn't hold his slight devilishness against him. you could believe this boy would come out unscathed, that nothing would really be beyond him, and yet it's not heroism as much as a certain peter-pannish boyish recklessness.

you want to like him, you want to believe in him, and yet something tells you he's up to no good, heeheheh. in a charming sort of way. this portrait of him is instinctively sympathetic to me, but i realize he may look too thoughtful, too wistful-- though of course everyone has a myriad expressions over time, usually you can still see the essential "them" shining through.
    with "normal-boy" heroes (and `villains') especially, the temptation is great to make them either too `boy-next-door' sexy and bashful or all suave and lithe and heroic. with an archetypical character, it's hard to strike the right balance. too much realism and he's someone else. too much embellishment and he's lost what little humanity he had. plus everyone wants to give their favorite character way more charm and sex-appeal than they probably have. you have to "look the part"-- and if the part isn't to the audience's liking, you have to look sufficiently close yet not too close.

all pretty was created equal, to my eyes. i can appreciate all sorts of pretty representations of the same thing, and they'd all impress me equally depending on the level of skill involved. what makes it stand out though, is the character the skill created. it's not so much what it looks like, but rather how it uses its appearance to transmit meaning. in and of themselves, physical characteristics aren't exactly bursting with connotation. it's the associations that the piece of art inspires in the viewer that is important to the impact it eventually leaves.
    i'm obviously not discovering america here. this is obvious. but it's the basis of my direction in any (fan)art critique. you add physical characteristics together, mix the right colors, get the nose shape right-- and 9 times out of 10, it's going to be a poor imitation of life indeed. i've said earlier that the life in a piece is essential, and i guess this is what it comes down to, again, except with fanart, you're trying to capture a -particular- life.

this is difficult. you can draw 50 blonds with sad grey eyes and narrow faces and sneering mouths, and they could all not really touch upon that spark of a particular identity that says "draco malfoy". i never really try to say anything in particular with my sketches-- mostly because i'm just doodling anyway. my amount of forethought in writing -or- art is sadly lacking. but this is me, and i'm no one's role-model. though how i do it is, of course, beside the point.
    not that i had a point, really. do i ever have a point? i doubt it. hee. though i think there's something to this whole decharacterization in popularized heroes (and villains, what have you). it's just hilarious that draco & eminem could actually look similar ^^;
~~

my other not-so-brilliant realization today was inspired by

ethrosdemon's response to the h/r/h story i wrote for her. while other people liked it, she was the only one (so far, i guess) that it really spoke to. there's definitely something to be said for existing emotional investment affecting how deeply a piece moves you, and how well you're able to pick up on the intricacies within it (if such exist).

it was just kind of startling that the same piece could be "decent" to one and "wonderful" to another. while again, this seems obvious-- it's just that i think this underscores the role of emotional vulnerability and receptiveness to a particular subject matter in the responses a story receives from readers. it's even more clear in this case because i'm kind of in the middle, so i can see it both ways. while i am invested in the story because i wrote it-- and i was drawing on my own emotional palette and as usual, various other deep emotional resonances to write it-- the threesome-fic isn't my cup of tea, really. so i can see it from a distanced pov, but also from the perspective of someone who actually -cares-. and it's like, if you -care-, every word shines brighter, and every visual is more striking, and of course, not to forget how much a piece gains by having the power to make you sad or happy, besides just appreciative of a job well done.

i realize good fiction should be able to make its own case and make you care on its own merits only, but-- in general, i think a large number of the pieces that mean the most to us, do so because our hearts are open to start with. bleh. now i can t00b off and finally read all my piled up fic.

guh! still haven't reviewed

epicyclical's cookie, or maya's latest chapter, or

vignette00's ficlet, or read

hackthis' jammy sequel, or

holographis' latest ficlets, or

ashkitty's ginny ficlet, or, or.... *weeps*