Woman - Woa Man!

Character design artwork for 'Good Witches Bad Witches'

It's a woman's world today. Did you know it's International Women's Day?

I'll be an optimist and assume that the men who read this blog have not checked out, and I'll continue... Yes - it's International Women's Day apparently (yeah, I'd never heard of it either) and it's the 41st year of this being a thing.

'Zootopia' Image courtesy of Disney

Naturally as the person who created 'Good Witches Bad Witches' - a subculture of female characters of every sort, I care about gender representation in film. Today I want to give a shout out to Disney's new animated feature - 'Zootopia'. Thrilled to see several rounded and relevant female characters in one film. Not only that, but the film's message to the children in the audience is that you can be anything and do anything (a message more often given to little boys alone). It was wonderful to watch female characters who are not portrayed as annoying, weepy, frightened victims, accident-prone idiots, on a quest for a boyfriend, dependent on men, unambitious, attractive rewards for male heros or just plain irrelevant. The last time I felt Disney hit this nail on the head was 'Mulan' and to an extent 'Tangled'.

Rolling Stone praised 'Zootopia' for its "potent feminist streak" The Guardian talks of 'Zootopia's "feminist credentials" and Variety references the gender topic.*

Go and see 'Zootopia'. It's incredibly well-written, visually flawless and hysterical. Have children? - Take 'em. Don't have children? - Have some and show them this film.

If you're a woman in the industry who read to the end of this post I have a final suggestion. Join Women in Animation. Fantastic group.

If you're a man who read to the end of this post - thank you! Gold star.

Finally, the women of Tall Tales Productions have grouped together to say "Happy Women's Day!" and posed for this iPhone shot.

The image at the beginning of this post is some new character artwork I just did for 'Good Witches Bad Witches'. Sketched using ink and white pencil. Don't forget to check in here or at the Facebook page or Instagram or the website to follow the project as it unfolds.... thank you!



* However Variety film critic Peter Debruge doesn't give 'Zootopia' their due credit, with the line "the movie is less about race than gender, dredging up equality issues that might have been fresher in the days of “9 to 5” and “Working Girl”: Hmmm.

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

Comic Relief

Just got back from San Diego where I experienced my first Comic Con adventure. Wow... 130,000 people in one space... many in costume, many huge fans of fantasy, sci-fi and comics. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be!

For anyone who does not know, Comic Con is a nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to creating awareness and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms. (Yes, I just got that from their website). 

Anyway, I had a blast. It was 4 days of fascinating talks and professional panels and admiring artists' work in the main hall.
I found the artists talented, friendly and eager to talk about their work (many of them had used Kickstarter to fund a beautiful book or game).
However, I was prompted to draw this silly cartoon for comic relief when I got back to the hotel on day one. I just coloured it in now using Photoshop. It was inspired by a row of male artists who had their 'verging-on-porn-superhero' artwork stacked all around them, and at the same time ignored all women who came to their booths. Kinda a funny thing I thought, as one artist who drew only redheads totally blanked me when I came to chat to him. After a couple of failed attempts to speak to him I finally slunk off, with a real déjà vu high school flashback thing happening!! ;)

In other news.... my Tall Tales Productions website is back!

The site's been down for a few months as I redesigned it and switched to a different server, but it's back now. However, during the time it was down I had it redirect here to my blog. Now the site is back up it may still redirect you, but the quick solution is to follow the link - www.tall-tales.com and then quickly hit the refresh button (as shown below) if it starts trying to redirect you to my blog. You'll only need to do this once and then it'll always work.

Thanks for taking a look.

Here are a few photos from Comic Con, San Diego, 2015.

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