I’ve seen Moana twice now, and something that’s stuck out to me the most has been the reality of Te Kā. She was– for all intents and purposes of the story –a woman who was violated and had something important stolen from her, and in her protective grief, became a monster.
But when Moana saw Te Kā from the right perspective, she saw Te Fiti. Not “in spite” of her current existence; she understood that Te Kā and Te Fiti were the same creature.
“I know your name. They have stolen the heart from inside you,
but this does not define you.”
The hostility of Te Kā and the legendary beauty of Te Fiti coexisted within the same being, and Moana accepted and validated that without hesitation. I think that’s profound as hell, given how so many women are held to unobtainable static standards of beauty and purity and get shamed if they show any capacity for ugliness or difficulty. Seeing that realistic duality exhibited and validated within a goddess, of all characters, was so powerful.
tl;dr– Moana is goddamned feminist as fuck, everyone should see it.
Why do artists refuse to use references why why why.
It’s not a contest to see who can get by without them. It’s not cheating to look at a thing in order to know what the thing looks like.
You don’t get stronger or better by pretending. Nobody is impressed by the awkward whatever-it-is you just drew. Use references.
I don’t think a lot of people know that it’s not cheating. I recall seeing so many piece of art called out because they referenced a pose, someone recognized it, and then proceeded to shame them for it. There’s this belief, both by creators and the audience, that artists should just be able to translate the ideas from their head to paper, and if they don’t, it’s plagiarism, or not true originality (spoiler alert: there’s no such thing).
I myself didn’t start using references until very recently, because even I was under the impression that it was frowned upon. And that belief has seriously crippled and stalled my ability to improve as an artist.
As a restarting artist, I can confirm. I just never knew. I thought you were just supposed to know how to draw the body correctly and if you didn’t you had no talent.
(( I am going to say this again, loud and clear for everyone:
USING REFERENCES FOR ART IS NOT ‘CHEATING’!!!
If you can draw/paint without references, great! But if you need to use them, and feel that your art can be bettered by using references, please, use them! This is one of the biggest tips I can give to artists, is USE REFERENCES!
Anyone who would dare to attack someone for using references after ‘recognizing a pose’ is a dipshit, who doesn’t know a thing about art.
Do you know who else used references for their art?
Norman Rockwell
Alphonse Mucha
Gustav Klimt
Toulouse Lautrec
Vincent Van Gogh
Paul Gauguin
Edgar Degas
Gil Elvgren
Frida Kahlo
Pablo Picasso
Disney Studios
And thousands of others! So, artists! Go forth, and use references!!! ))
What do you think artists do when they ask someone to stand infron of them for 6 hours and then they draw this person. Do they cheat? Or when they place a still life and then paint it, cheating again? LOL
Soooo. I made this post originally on my personal blog (I’m eliciaforever), and it was nothing more than a little rant about a specific incident that I deleted after five minutes. But before I could delete it, it took the hell off on me, and now it has all these notes. And LOTS OF AMAZING INPUT.
And I just wanted to add in response to the above tags in particular, that shaming people for using references is something that happens to so many of us SO OFTEN. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are. People think art is supposed to be magical or whatever, and anything else is a crime. The reality of course is that art is a thousand times more deliberate than a lot of people think it is.
So yeah. Good info to pass along. Use references, kids. ❤
Reblogging because I think it’s important especially for young artists to gain the confidence to use references.
He is such an underrated character. He was a cinnamon role and just wanted to help the entire movie. No Hans bullshit, no pressuring her into a relationship, just love.
He gave support, he was patient, he was unconditionally kind, he accepted all the difficulties with child services and all the weird alien visitors with barely a blink. He dove into the ocean to rescue Stitch because Lilo was worried. And through it all, he proved that he was more than willing to do everything in his power to help these girls and make them smile, without any thought of a reward or being “owed” for his friendship.
Even his line at the end, when Nani thanks him for helping her find a job (”That’s okay. You can just date me and we’ll call it even.”), is delivered with a certain amount of humor, and his behavior throughout the rest of the film shows that he would still accept it if she turned him down. Because more than just liking Nani, he RESPECTS her.
Steel Phoenix Studios 