[Art] Homecoming + 'What do you mean...?' + Gorecki

[kasche]

...

Wait. We WON? O_O

Er. What does it say about me as a team-member that I wasn't expecting that at all? :P But CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE PLAYERS! We all worked pretty hard, whichever the team, and we all deserve it! :D

(And my face does not resemble Lisa's icon. Nope, not at all. *g* As they, you're all young once, but can stay immature forever... ;D)

(Which reminds me that I REALLY need to see that movie. Ni showed me some YT clips a while ago and I was so laughing my head off.)

Because really - yup, that was two brackets ago - this fest was so much work. Seriously. I am considering just sticking to regular exchanges after this. ;P Not that it wasn't fun, because it actually was, but... let's just say that I've drawn more in the months since I started working on these than I have in the past couple years. ;)

...of course, in the past couple years drawing had gone a little on the downside, but that's not the point. Er.

Also, weirdly enough, this time I've got something of a commentary at the bottom. It's just this once, though - I don't really see this becoming an habit of any kind. And it's really almost all about Gorecki. I don't know, it's my first time doing something like that, and-- I'll continue below. ;P

Homecoming Rating: PG Warnings: Boykiss! Summary: Remus comes home after a long day at work. Genre: Fluff/Romance

What do you mean, not me? Rating: PG-13 Warnings: NWS. Naked butt! Summary: Because even reading the newspaper can give ideas. Genre: Humor/Crack

Gorecki Rating: G Summary: November 1981. Genre: Angst

(Last I checked, there was some problem with the rs_games website - so, in case the original pages are still down, it might be worth mentioning that I have a backup art archive on kasche. There might not be much more, but these ARE on there. :P)

Gorecki - which wouldn't get its title until the very last moment - is really the first idea I decided on, and the one I would have done if we'd been asked to do just the one submission. Homecoming came to me only in a second time, as I was rereading the prompts list - and in many ways it's like most of the stuff I've done up to now, is it not? Lighthearted, linear, somewhere between silly and sweet. Kind of. (Same goes with Why not me - though that one's really just silly. Then again, it was a last minute pinch-hit, so I guess it's natural that I instinctively fell back on a trusted ground.) So, I suppose I could say that I played it safe on one side and went out on a limb on the other? I don't really know. It might be.

Gorecki was more of a wild card. The inspiration for it came to me sometime around last Nov/Dec, as I was reading sekhmet2's story for The Ni Project. In it, Remus (at some point during the 12 "missing years") thinks/says it only brings back memories of a man that doesn’t exist anymore (referring to Sirius) - and my mind went off thinking how, after Halloween 1981, he really must felt that he hadn't known Sirius at all. That the person he first had been friends with, then fallen for, was not the one that had actually been in front of his eyes all that time - and if he'd see him again, before the other got shipped off to Azkaban, Sirius must have looked (and felt) like a complete stranger to his eyes. Hence the "who are you".

As for the actual setting of the strip, I can tell you what I had in mind - though it's nothing binding. I mean, as we all well know, if it isn't stated expressly in the work itself? We're really kind of free to imagine whatever fits. ;D At any rate: whether or not Sirius had an actual process, it's not unlikely that they had him face the wizarding population. (It's one thing to just tell people that the culprit has been caught, and quite another to show the actual face and see "here, it's all his fault", isn't it?) Gorecki takes place right before that: while Sirius, still in the previous day's clothes, is being carted off to either the process' room or the gallows*, his path comes close to the same crowd that's going to face him (which is why we have human guards instead of dementors) and Remus is part of it. (I dunno, I liked the idea of an uncaring crowd flowing around their own personal "tragedy". :P) As I was deciding what I should have Remus wear, I realized that he might be coming straight from James and Lily's funeral - which would be kind of an early time for it, seeing as usually the funeral takes place the day after (where I live, at least), but I guessed that people might want to rush things, in order to leave it all behind as soon as possible. And, all right, I just wanted an excuse to have Remus in a black suit.

What actually surprised me was how ridiculously nervous I was, when I realized they would be posting it any day. O_o I just really, really wanted it to work, you know? And... probably it was also the fact that, as I was drawing it, at some point I ended up putting in it some of the anger and frustration I was feeling at the time (over other matters *g*) and while that didn't really influence the storyboard or anything, it made the strip feel more like a child of sorts than the other stuff I've done. ;D And, all right, it guess it was also that I was afraid it would make people yawn. :P I'm really not experienced in that genre.

But I got beautiful, beautiful comments, on all three of them, and... oh, that made me really so glad. It was so much more than I would have expected. ♥ Thank you!



* Not actual gallows, since he's never sentenced, but just... shown. To people who are not head over heels for him at this moment in time.

Comments

[thilia.livejournal.com]

*dies*

Homecoming is SO cute and made me AWWW!

What do you mean, not me? made me giggle.

And the last one... *dies some more* Seriously, that couldn't make anyone yawn. I almost had tears in my eyes. So... expressive :( Poor Siri.

Anyway, I don't think I've ever commented on your work, so I just wanted to tell you how much I admire you. You're one of my favourite fanartists (if not THE number one) and your style is so beautiful. I'm always amazed by how you manage to make every single one of your drawings so emotive and... just beautiful. Really, there are no words for it.

I also draw, myself and I've tried to copy your style on many occasions but I never managed to even come close to your brilliance. How do you do it? Seriously, I think you should do a tutorial sometime because your use of pencils is amazing :) *fangirls*

[georgierae.livejournal.com]

*wibbles at Gorecki*

love them all tho!

And, all right, I just wanted an excuse to have Remus in a black suit.

damn right ;)

[jou.livejournal.com]

I'm going to comment on Gorecki here, because this is where your commentary is. Also, incidentally, I love the Lamb song. <3

The THING with Gorecki that is so nice and wonderful is how moody it is. There are only about two lines spoken amidst all the panels that you've drawn, and you've spoken the rest of the piece's meaning through pictures.... which is awesome, if you ask me. I love silent-ish comics, they're always the most powerful. But yeah, be proud of this! The dark dispassionate crowd adds a lot, and as usual your character "acting" is top notch. (Yeah, see that panel where Remus looks back at hopeful, frightened Sirius? TOP. NOTCH.)

So yeah, really really beautiful work! I feel sort of inspired to do something similar sometime, though I don't know what it could be. *pins a medal on you*

[spacedye-vest.livejournal.com]

1-congratulations for the win :)

2-You already know how much I adore your pieces, but since you're hard to convince: WHOAH! WHOAH! Your work is beautiful and full of emotions, and funny (well, not Gorecki, but the others) and wonderful :)

I love them. I LOVE YOU.

[loveangelstar.livejournal.com]

I've already left you, what two comments and a few messages about Gorecki? lol but there is just something about it that makes me get all fired up. Like it is just so sad and it makes me feel so goddamn much. I think maybe the fact that you pointed out that it is different to the subject you usually do that makes it really stand out. It has so such passion in it and the feelings really leap out of it. I loved your thoughts on it, and why Remus was wearing a suit. The part where Sirius is just pleading with Remus with his eyes and then Remus cold face, gah it just makes me want to cry for him so much.

Ahh but moving on from the sadness :)
In homecoming Sirius' 'srs bsns!' dog face cracks me up! And Remus being all cheeky with the hand in front of his mouth like oops :D

What do you mean not me - thats just racist LMAO! Remus' laughing face looks ridiculously good in this, I mean gah! how can you make it so convincing like that O_o *is amazed*

Just well done with all of these. I can't wait for round two where we'll kick your ass this time ;)

[ourmutualfiend.livejournal.com]

Heh. You drew a butt.

[imeander.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaahhh I love Gorecki so much. And with the song, ahhh. WAH. Staring at Remus and his 'who are you', I'm just speechless. It just reminded me what I love so much about S/R in one big rush, like whoosh. All their sadness and the misunderstanding from hell and the bittersweet regret and ahhhh. Somehow S/R, as much as their story spans decades, many years, somehow it's still about moments to me-- that moment when it seems like the world stopped and they looked at each other across that crowd... and it's like a shot in the silence, y'know? And it missed. And I could just feel it, with the way you drew them, it's so palpable. Wah.

Remus's expression totally slays me. And the way Sirius just deflates. And the focus on their mouths seems both appropriate and symbolic of the things they don't say, and sensual. There's still a visible connection between them, that's what makes it hurt. And they're just beautiful. I mean, your Sirius and Remus are always beautiful, but here they're really beautiful, and Remus is somehow luminous. Ahhhh, Sirius's kicked-puppy expression <3333 And his beautifully drawn eyes <333 And the way he sets his mouth and it just all falls away <333333333 Ahhhhhhh. I love them so much. Thank you for reminding me.

And thanks for the pick-me-up. The giggling with your other entries definitely helped. ^^; They're so cuuuute and aaangsty and ahhhhh <3333333. *sigh* Adorable <3.

[red_squared]

I was afraid it would make people yawn

Oh, no way. No way at all.

I loved how totally uncaring and wrapped up in their own lives the other characters were. For them, it's just one more prisoner, it'just one more atrocity, and you can see the war weariness and their refusal to get involved.

I was kinda worried that Remus would just walk away, too, but what he actually does is so, so, SO much worse :( And the way you've drawn poor Sirius, you can actually see the life and vitality drain out of him, and, just... *sniffles* *cuddles Sirius*

No yawning whatsoever!

[aunt-agatha.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I've been virtually feeling up gryffindor_j in celebration.

*cops a quick feel*

[gryffindor-j.livejournal.com]

What does it say about me as a team-member that I wasn't expecting that at all?
Huh? You didn't think the whole time that we would win? Did you not know the brilliance that is us?? I didn't think we'd win either

You more than pulled your weight for our team. You were brilliant and perfect.

Thank you for sharing you Gorecki journey with us. I love hearing how an artist got somewhere. Amazing job! Remus in a suit is always perfect.

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

See, I can't even bear the thought of Remus seeing Sirius after his arrest because the thought alone breaks me, so you can imagine how much your piece ripped my poor shippy heart to shreds and stomped all over it. The expression on Sirius' face alone when they're taking him away, and Remus, standing there like a stone, his world completely shattered (and I STILL go back to that pic of Remus sitting on the floor with the broken lamp, and just...)

*cries*

I need fluffy pirates and sappy dorky boys snogging in school corridors and cuddling with umbrellas and licking lampposts in the snow!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, I love the urgency of how tragic their story arc is, but you will have to drag me kicking and screaming and biting from my happy land of Denial.

Congrats on the win!! (she says grudgingly :-P Yay icon! And OMG! What do you mean you've never watched that movie??? RUN, don't walk! It is beyond awesome!! The best dialogue for quoting ever! And then you have to draw Marauders-as-Knights of the Round Table crossover art with coconuts and shrubberies!!!)

Oh! I ordered those buttons! I'll send you a few when I get them! Hee!

*smooches you, even though you made me wibble and cry and broke my heart* ♥ ♥

[brighty18.livejournal.com]

Hi! Yay! I can actually comment on how lovely (and, often quite funny or moving) your submissions were. But, good Merlin... Gorecki?!?!? That actually made me cry. It was beautiful, but very difficult to take.

Part of me felt for poor Remus, too, and the other part of me wondered if this actually happened or if it was one of Sirius' Azkaban nightmares.

I've always had great difficulty in thinking about his lack of a trial. It was predictable of the Ministry, but wrong on so many levels. But could he even have been given a fair one? I also rather imagine that he at least had a sentencing which means that, like in your scenario, he would have had to face the people. That makes sense to me. I think it's pretty clear that the Crouch was using this as a political move and, of course, he's make it public.

[mustntgetmy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for all the commentary on Gorecki cause I thought it was a showing of Sirius to the public before Azkaban but I was all 'where the dementors at?' So all your commentary was helpful to my feeble mind :D Every picture here is so well done, but there's something about Gorecki that's especially striking. Especially that one panel of just Sirius's eyes after Remus responds.

[aislinntlc.livejournal.com]

All three of these pieces are as wonderful as is all of your artwork, but Gorecki just completely blew me away. Sirius looks so numb and resigned to his fate in the first panel, but when he catches sight of Remus, you can see the reality of the situation he is in just crashing back down on him. The anguished look on his face when he screams Remus' name and wrenches away from his guards is just soul-shattering, and the slow, measured turn of Remus to face him so chilling. The feelings of both of them at that moment - Sirius realizing that the love of his life believes him to be a killer, and Remus believing that this man he adored is not the person he even knew - oh, my heart breaks into a thousand shards for the two of them. The complete crumpled defeat in Sirius' final expression - he seems to be just as devastated as if he were already in the Dementor's thrall. I love that the rest of the crowd is dark and sort of indistinct - for Sirius, the only person he would see would be Remus. This is just magnificent - off to get more tissues...

[texmas.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, today, I looked at Gorecki again while LISTENING to Gorecki, and, in the words of Dennis from 30 Rock, "I cried. I cried lie a big, dumb homo."

[sundappled.livejournal.com]

Okay... I will admit it... occasionally art can make me yawn - not literally, but in the exaggerated way that you meant. Yours never has, I might add, hence the reason I check your journal for your lovely art updates every now and then (which I apologise for doing without introducing myself!) Gorecki was just ... so not yawn. I got to the slightly blurred panel with Sirius's scream and I was sold. Your beautiful use of light and dark in the panels of Remus is wonderful and as gorgeously-drawn as the crowd is, I really couldn't drag my eyes from their little tragedy in amongst it all as you so aptly put it. I just adore how you can convey this entire story through what appears to be the look in their eyes, but must be an incredible attention to detail in expression on your part that makes it appear this way - appear so life-like. I don't like the last panel, purely because of the bitter edge to Sirius's mouth; the fact that it is imperfect and so unlike the scores of other Siriuses I have seen you draw and tells in the imbalanced curve the story to come. So because I don't like that last panel, I am in love with the whole.

Thank you so much ♥