Watched An Hour Long Lecture On Face Drawing To Be Able To Draw Monsoon Better... I Doubted I Would Be

could you draw venom snake or naked snake with rodents? i like how rodents are a recurring theme in mgs: snake's "friends" in mgs1, a picture of gerbil fulton in the chopper in mgsv, a closet full of venomous hamsters that instakill you in mg2, edible rats in mgs3 etc. i choose to believe that bog boss is deliberately filling every mother base with rodents. could you depict him engaging in activities with them? could be extracting rodents from the field, being covered in rodents, petting them, observing each other, engaging in feral behaviour together - anything, i just think that'd be cool

you really had me pondering about the mgs rodent lore & then I realized Raiden is once again a different Codename Snake Bearer as there are no rodents in mgs2 (nor mgrr either as far as I know) ... he gets water bugs instead

Calling my gf “girlfriend” in the same cadence Solid Snake would say “colonel” is so fun

i only like the longest one, except for his private bits but i'm not interested in that much so don't really care. thought the 10 minute one will be decent too, but its shading doesn't convey where the darkest/lightest parts are. the smiling lady one is atrocious even though i had 5 minutes for it; drawing rotated people is cool bc as soon as a head is at 90° angle compared to the "normal" i fail to recognise the parts and proportions properly.

have you noticed how the title of boss in mgs is almost mocking, and those who have it are a tool of some forces they are unable to deny?

the boss has respect and obedience of people around her, such as strangelove and other researchers, snake, the cobras, volgin etc. but she earns it exactly by giving her all to whatever task she's assigned to, which were often harmful to her or suicidal. she clearly doesn't want to kill the sorrow or convince snake she's a traitor, and mb she didn't want to go to space and do other stuff either, but she either was blackmailed into those missions by threatening her child or thought it was her responsibility to tie up loose ends or smth. so, what leads to her being the boss is really extreme obedience, often contrary to her own interests.

when snake is "awarded" the title of big boss, it already looks like mockery as it is: he and you, the player, know there's not much heroism in killing the boss. i haven't played mg, mg2 and mgs4 yet, so this might be canonically disproven, but mgsv seems to me like it takes the extreme obedience even further: some organisation says "we're giving your identity to some other guy" and he's like "ok yay ❤️ 🚬🏍️". it is also notable how in portable ops and peace walker he fights people whose ideas he will directly adopt (nation of mercenaries and metal gear). of course he is the next legendary soldier and his followers respect and obey him, but it seems he earned that by fulfilling some organisation's plan (not in form of direct missions this time) with great skill and dedication. it was interesting to see his path from solo stealth operative to a leader in portable ops, and it does seem like people follow him bc of his field skills (and bc of being put in the brig) than management skills (although he is a charismatic leader).

if you replace "boss" with "tool" or "weapon", it makes just as much sense in terms of passing down the code name. their authority only exists among soldiers and scientists and pows and doesn't exist at all for the people who use them. and it seems that in metal gear when there is a super soldier, the government (or patriots or whoever else) is always training a new one that could kill them if needed. so, both people who get the codename get it after proving they can be made to do anything no matter how much they dislike it, which is ironic.

"spam like = blocked" if you spam like me i am going to cast 1000 protection spells on you so nothing bad happens to you ever

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it's past 12 AM here so i'm technically late for the daily practice, but i think i cooked with the 25 minute one (which actually took me ~40 minutes) to the point i am going to post it separately.

i tried drawing the 10 minute guy as ellipses and then filling in, it was fun but the result is meh. i am also trying to draw faces when there's enough time. won't post the sheets with all the short ones bc there's nothing interesting there, but i am satisfied with the 5 minute guy bc i drew him fast and had some time for shading and details, and with the 1 minute lady lying on her back doodle.

i love how if you look at low poly rats, the less polygons there are the more it explores the basic shape of a rat, the rat shape essence. i am always excited to see a lower poly rat model. which even more simple shape can a rat be boiled down to?

Rat by @intenselyfloofyartist

MGS3 arguably has the most relevant symbols of what I call the MGS Cycle (MGS1, MGS2, and MGS3... and MGS5. Though MGS5 is more like a supplement and less a cyclic element. )--

--The reason MGS4 doesn't count, is because it breaks the narrative cycle, by convoluting its characters, turning the symbols meaningless, and well, ending the story without use of the cycle motifs--

MGS3 is a kind of map legend to the MGS Cycle motif. It breaks down the basic archetypes into their most obvious selves. EVA represents the Love Interest, Ocelot still dominates his archetype as the double-triple-crosser, the Sniper character in the End, the Ninja in the Fear, the in-over-his-head science-tech type found in Sokalov...

Ecctra, ecctra.

But the one prominent one that's important, that MGS3 puts in your face Look-Here Blazing-Signs because it is that important... and that's who the Boss stands for.

The Boss appears out of the fog of her first introduction, like a legend out of the fogs of myth. She is constantly praised as not just a Legend, but The Legend, the Mother of Legends even. She is the mentor, to where even Big Boss is but a student.

( Character analysis? She is also a broken women that has had literally everything robbed from her, including cognition, but still marches forward regardless. She is the embodiment of the saying that one can control nothing in life but their attitude. Quite frankly, I got real sick of hearing people praise her and questioned how come nobody is trying to actually Help her. She says things that come out of left field and don't make a whole lot of contextual sense, like she's not always present, and that's saying something given that we're in Metal Gear. The only time she ever seems to truly focus and is present is when she's on mission--Yes she was a legend, we know, but fuck, she needed Help, not Praise. What the hell is wrong with the MGS3 Cast. )

The Boss is represented by a snake, yes, given she leads the Cobra Unit and she is arguably where Naked Snake himself gets all his icons (which he will later drop as Big Boss), but she is also represented by the Horse.

And not just any Horse either... though we do see her literal horse, which is why this narrative symbolism is even being considered.

And Remember that MGS3 is when we get introduced to Chinese elements through Eva, just as Ocelot introduced / introduces Wild West elements.

One of the more important Chinese Horse symbols, is the Idea Horse or the Horse of Will. It is the embodiment of the indomitable human body and spirit, and often paired up with the Monkey of Mind, or the embodiment of the unfettered human mind.

There was a famous Chinese story that ran with these exact motifs--and that's Journey to the West.

Only instead of Sun Wukong (Who is arguably the more fitting of an setting filled with Hollywood Action Films that MGS likes to mimic), MGS embodies and centers around one of the other disciples--Bai Long Ma, the White Horse Dragon, and representative of the Horse of Will.

( And that's not getting into how horses and snakes are often combined mythologically anyway )

Through both narrative motifs, ancient literary symbols (The Horse), and of course, MGS cycle archetypes (The Snake), the Boss represents the indomitable human will.

There is, in fact, no opponent in the MGS Cycle that we face, that represents that archetype, though it is the most important archetype of all MGS.

Because we've faced them as an opponent before, but we have played them as a player character.

And that's Solid Snake.

ADDENDUM: THE REASON MGS IS (MEANT TO BE) A CYCLE

The reason I call it the MGS Cycle, is because it is a repetitious story, inspite of background elements.

The Indomitable Will (Solid Snake) is at the end of his trials of Self, and takes his last trial of self--Facing the Building Blocks of Life and History experienced (MGS1 whose key word is Gene, the literal building blocks of Life and all villians in MGS1 will claim that the steps experienced in their history has made them who they are), and facing down his worse self, his shadow, (Liquid Snake).

A new trialer begins their trials of self (Raiden), which starts facing what makes up their mind (MGS2 keyword is Meme--is your mind real, or is it merely made up of what you're informed is real), where the rookie asks himself what is real, what to believe, what led him to this point, and facing himself lest he fall into delusion.

The Indomitable Will, seeking to break the cycle to allow the world to remain as it was, mentors the new trialer (often through grueling methods) as he takes on his new trials.

Now the mentoree (Jack / Naked Snake), strong through his teacher's teachings, after succeeding his Trial of Mind, he now must face his Trial of Reality (MGS3's keyword is Scene, the World is a stage, now that you know you are real, is the world you're in real?) as the warrior he was built to be. Unfortunately, this trial involves facing off against the Indomitable Will who has already taken all her trials (The Boss).

... and the Mentoree fails, because by defeating the Indomitable Will, he breaks his own will in the process and, wins the mission but fails the trial. He becomes an aspect of the trials for the next Indomitable Will to face down.

This is how the cycle, by its motifs, works. If MGS4 had followed the set narrative cycle, it would've resulted in Raiden killing Solid Snake, just as Naked Snake killed the Boss, and setting Raiden up to become the next "Big Boss" archetype.

... And then the cycle starts over.

MGS5 is an odd supplement, because its worth more if you place its story motifs between MGS2 and MGS3, rather following after MGS4. It details how the Indomitable Will, in spite of its rebellion against the cycle, would get re-entrenched into the cycle. The Boss, for all her will power, is, for some reason, insanely shackled by loyalty to something that she knows means her harm. MGS5 shows the metaphorical shackling--how do you shackle the Indomitable Will? By forcing it into a false form.

another attempt

line of action warmup below