Friday 30 October 2015

Bottoms Up

I rarely write about anything that isn't film / sculpture / art / miniature related, but that's going to change a little here and there. This post is a response to butt implants specifically. There's art in here too (I drew my second ever cartoon) so hopefully it will hold your attention for about a minute!

I sketched this out yesterday and used Photoshop to add colour. It was an idea I came up with whilst being blasted with media images of various celebrated women who have had butt implants and who influence millions of women with their (celebrated) bodies. Examples here, here and here...

Click to enlarge.


My point being, it disappoints me that years roll on and women still put their energy and focus into looking the way they think will garner attention from men, getting their self-worth from men's approval. The hot issue in this post is butt implants. In the US there was a 98% increase in butt implant procedures since 2014 (a staggering 75,591 butt implants were performed worldwide in 2011 alone). It's yet another body part women feel pressured to address, and here I'd thought that making your arse look bigger had finally died out with the Edwardians.

I champion all women. I am not attacking women who go under the knife to gain these kinds of curves and I am certainly not attacking women born with curves. I am not body-shaming. Rather, I ask the question - couldn't we women do better by investing energy somewhere other than worrying about and changing the way we look?

Dr Caroline Heldman says it so much better (please do watch her Ted Talk here). 

Some of her best nuggets of wisdom in the above talk were...
With pictures of objectified women everywhere, "we women are being sold this idea - that this is how we get our value ...we see male attention as the Holy Grail of our existence. "

"We raise our little boys to view their bodies as tools to master their environment, we raise our little girls to view their bodies as projects to constantly be improved. What if women started to view their bodies as tools to master their environment? As tools to get you from one place to the next, as these amazing vehicles for moving through the world in a new way. "

She talks about the negative effects of self-objectification and habitual body-monitoring (which western women engage in every 30 seconds) and points out that it "takes up more mental space that could be better used completing math tests, completing your homework.... " and also that "it lowers political efficacy and the belief that you have a voice in politics, and it lowers the ability to get along with other women.  "

She concludes with this powerful thought.
"I'd like you to imagine a world where girls and women don't spend an hour every morning putting on their makeup and doing their hair.
I'd like you to imagine a world where women are valued for what they say and what they do rather than the way they look.
I would like you to imagine a world where instead of spending time on dress and appearance, we actually direct our energies to dealing with serious problems like human trafficking, sexualized violence, homophobia, poverty, hunger. "

Worth thinking about, isn't it?

In other news, I am working on my next character for 'Good Witches Bad Witches' (bit slowly as I've had other things to juggle) and she'll be up here soon.  kim kardashian butt implants ass coco ass

Sunday 25 October 2015

Which Witch Won?


You know how I love to have fan involvement, getting feedback for character design on 'Good Witches Bad Witches' etc. It's great! I encourage your comments here and on the Facebook page and Instagram. I read them all.

Well 2 weeks ago I asked which witch should be next and got so many responses! I said I'd make whichever witch got the most votes, and now the results are in and I'll start on her tomorrow!

Scroll past these previous witches from around the world, and then look at the results below to see which witch won your vote!

English witch (see more here)








Scottish witch (see more here)








Welsh witch (see more here)



Irish witch (see more here)








French witch (see more here)








German witch (see more here)








Italian witch (see more here)








American (Texan) witch (see more here)








The results: - 

Dutch / Netherlands 18 votes ... the WINNER. This will be the next witch made.
Russian 17 votes
Indian 16 votes
Australian 16 votes
Polish 12 votes
Greek 12 votes
Canadian 9 votes
Spanish 9 votes
African 8 votes
Norwegian 8 votes
Swedish 7 votes
Japanese 6 votes
Chinese 5 votes
Asian 5 votes
Mexican 4 votes
Haiti 3 votes
Portuguese 3 votes
American (Pacific Northwest) 3 votes
Swiss 2 votes
Finn 2 votes
Romanian (Transylvanian) 2 votes
Denmark 2 votes
Scottish 2 votes .................already made this witch! 
Hungarian 2 votes
Belgian 2 votes
Italian 2 votes .................already made this witch! 
Kiwi 2 votes
German 1 vote .................already made this witch! 
American (Massachusetts) 1 vote
American (Alaskan) 1 vote
American (Wisconsin) 1 vote
Welsh 1 vote .................already made this witch! 
Turkish 1 vote
Czech 1 vote
Jamaican 1 vote
French 1 vote .................already made this witch! 
Argentinian 1 vote
Bangladeshi 1 vote
Austrian 1 vote
Brazilian 1 vote

So, a huge thank you to you all for participating with your vote comments at the Facebook and Instagram pages. It's great to know that you care about the project 'Good Witches Bad Witches'!

The next with will be Dutch, as per your votes. Stay tuned...!

Thursday 22 October 2015

Trick or Trick...


If you send your children off trick-or-treating and they call on the address of a witch, then you'd better be wary of who is being tricked. These children in Texas didn't fare so well.

Here's a promotional image from the in-development film 'Good Witches Bad Witches'! It's almost Halloween so it seemed appropriate!

Also, I know how people who enjoy my work like to see how things are made, so you can see some work-in-progress photos below. You may have noticed I don't post as many work-in-progress photos as I used to, but this is simply because I am holding back some content for the book. Still, there's plenty to see and don't forget you can see more on these other platforms -
the website, Facebook page, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter.

For more photos of this Texan witch, see the last post all about her here.











Friday 9 October 2015

Old World, New World

We have a meeting of worlds today - I finished my latest witch for 'Good Witches Bad Witches' and she joins the others - last photo below. She is American (Texan, specifically) and I really hope I've done her justice!

She stands at 5.5 inches tall and is a little more portly than I intended. She wears denim, a plaid shirt, cowboy boots, and a western style witch's hat. Her familiar is an armadillo (see, that's why I wanted to do Texas!) Incidentally, there will be three American witches eventually, as I didn't feel that one is enough to represent the vast United States. Also, I carved out her miniature Jack O' Lantern and put an LED light inside so that it glows under her warty chin.

A note to my American friends...
If you follow this blog, specifically the project 'Good Witches Bad Witches' (which is being developed as a film based on my books), you'll see that I am creating my characters based on all sorts of stereotypes and that they come in all sorts of funny shapes and sizes. I am creating this world and these characters because I love the subject matter (I even wrote a book called 'The Witch's Day" when I was 6 years old and got a little write-up in the paper). I mean to entertain and certainly in no way offend, so please take this character in the spirit in which it is intended, take a look at my other witches, and if you have any feedback please do leave a comment (they're never censored here) or email me. I'd love to hear from you! :)

See my work in progress below and a final shot of some of my European witches and the American (Texan).


STAY IN TOUCH!
Don't forget to follow my progress on Instagram, Facebook and find out more about me (Caroline McFarlane-Watts) and Tall Tales Productions at the website here.







stop-motion film, Disney Pixar film, Tim Burton stop-motion film, Laika in development, Laika Studios, Aardman

Thursday 8 October 2015

A Witching Time of Night

I must have lived in the US too long because I started creating a Halloween scene in mid September! This is for a book, but (as is often the case) you can buy props from the scene from my shop.

Here's a snippet of what I've been up to. All kinds of pumpkins and squash in one inch miniature scale. Everything made by me. You can see my sketches below (one of these designs didn't end up being made as it looked a little too reminiscent of Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'). 

You may recognise photos of the green warty pumpkins from almost two years ago. They ended up not being needed until now, so I just finished that scene this week.


If you're still following the 'Good Witches Bad Witches' project then don't worry, I've almost finished the next addition! I haven't stopped creating witches from Europe yet, but I am skipping straight to North America for this next witch. (I'll get back to European witches soon and you'll start seeing Russian, Polish, Swiss, Swedish, Dutch witches...)

If you follow my work on Instagram or Facebook then you've probably already seen this photo of my Texan witch.



Pumpkin / Halloween work-in-progress photos.









In other news, just after I last posted I went to the Stop Motion Festival out here (in Glendora) and it was enormous fun. If you're in California next September then you must check it out (details here). I even had a great chat with Joe Clokey


-----
Quote from Shakespeare.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
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