Strangetown extras: Double dose of Beau spoilers

[strangetomato]

I've been picking away at the next update (Yeah momentum!), and I'm seriously tempted to run in here and show off every little thing before I post it. I'm not going to do that, but it's so tempting when there are cute sims doing ridiculous things. I am, however, going to share a couple of things I made in Photoshop for the chapter, both involving Beau. If you'd rather wait to see it in the chapter, just ignore this.






First, a tee for Beau:



This is the main reason I even made those shirts. The project was called "Beau's pink tee" in my project folder.

This is when he meets Tank. You can just imagine what Tank's thinking, right?

Then there's this little "masterpiece":




Lucy will be painting this in the art studio.

That would be Beau posing as St. Sebastian, for obvious symbolic reasons. (Anything longer than it is wide is a phallus in Art History, don't you know.)

Slightly religious for my sim world, but it's hard to conceive of an art class without some religious imagery. Take Renaissance art, for example. I've always loved saint imagery too, and I did a photo project based on it when I was in art school (like this, using friends as family posed as modern-day interpretations of iconic saints).






 

Comments

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Losing My Religion.

That is all.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the same idea.

Great video.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

I want that shirt. What does it say? I'm still faily at reading simlish.

Also, that's an awesome painting.

*eagerly awaits next chapter*

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I could share it. I'd need to make a "good" version, though. This one was a rush job.

It says, "Real men wear pink."

I've seen a couple of guys wearing that slogan before, which brings me to believe that they're a little more advanced than other guys.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's brilliant. <3

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I considered some others, like, "I can't even think straight," but that one seemed like the best choice. It fits with his devil-may-care approach to life.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

The 'real men wear pink' is in pretty common use for breast cancer charity, although I believe I've also seen it in less serious context too.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw a couple of breast cancer examples when I searched it, but the last one I saw in real life was not connected to that. It was just the text, and being worn by one of the groomsmen at my cousin's wedding.

[themhooligans.livejournal.com]

Real men *do* wear pink. Because real men don't separate the laundry properly, and manage to get that one red sock in the load with the whites.

On further examination, that shirt is awesome.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, what does the shirt say? I MUST KNOW.

(Poor Tank, LOL!)

And HEE HEE HEE St. Sebastian, eh? I'm loving it. (I also love Lucy, Beau and Buck's art class. The whole dynamic of it was awesome. More Lucy/Buck interaction, yes? :p )

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

"Real men wear pink."

Beau may be a wuss, but he's a cocky one. He strikes me as the type who'd like to wear something like that, just to make a point.

Tank will remember that fateful day. *snicker*

Beau's not in the art class. He's doing business and other profitable things in university, but he's always available to model.

I'm going to have Beau drag Frances to the art building, where Lucy and Buck will also be, so your wish is granted.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I forgot about that. I have NO idea why I added Beau there, he's not even in that class. *feels dumb*

YES!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Don't feel dumb. I swear you know the details of this story better than I do. I'm continually suprised by things I've already written ("I said that? Oh, really..."). I'm not really that sharp.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

LOL, I guess I just assumed Beau and Lucy went everywhere together. Silly me! xD

And it's probably because I recently reread the entire story. (Not to mention I'm good at remembering random things, but not important things.)

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

I love the painting! It really looks as though it's on canvas, too, which is a wonderful touch!

I'm really looking forward to the next update. I'm playing my game vicariously these days. :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it has a canvas texture. I hope it makes the painting look more like a painting and less like a photo on a canvas.

Well, I'm not going to promise anything, but I would love to get back to regular updates. I'm going to see how this week goes. It would be great to manage even a biweekly update.

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

sweet! I'm not too fan of that mesh, but i'm loving that shirt!! :)

The color you used its great. Pink still, but a bit darker so its not totally girlish. Really cool! and with the text and the sim heart too, perfect! <3

(sad me, i do know what it says lol)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

No? It's not my favourite either, but I like it better than most. The tee is just about ideal to me, and I'd love to have the shirt liberated from the bottom. The jeans are acceptable, but I'd greatly prefer sneakers to the shoes.

I'm really picky about pinks. I was really aiming for a dustier, faded version of bubblegum pink, and it's not too far off, I think.

LOL - "If you can read this, you are a nerd." (Shhh, a secret... that simlish secret was one of my only contributions to simsecret. I've only posted there a couple of times.)

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

Imo its a bit messy, dunno, it just makes me feel a bit like the guy wasn't sure about wearing the shirt on top or under the pants lol

Don't think I saw that sekrit, but nerd I am in so many ways, not only sims :P (I did notice, tho how 'normal' people is asking what its says, when I read it like nothing. That shouldn't be right lol)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, haha. I actually quite like that it's doesn't hang perfectly straight. It seems more realistic to me, and it's not so off that it bothers me (like with some meshes - one sock up, one sock down and that sort of thing *snicker*).

Yeah, it was just that phrase written in Simlish. People seemed amused by it, and that was what I was aiming for. It's nice to have a joke in among the secrets (most of which I don't even seem to understand anymore when I go there, but maybe that's for the best. It can get ugly in there.)

You've learned a new language. Don't forget to put it on your resume. :P

[dgjamie.livejournal.com]

"(Anything longer than it is wide is a phallus in Art History, don't you know.)"

LOL! I'm actually an Art History Major and I very much know this to be true.

San Sebastiano is actually a popular form for pincushions in Italy as well, morbidly enough. Fun facts that I know.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Heheh. You know it. My prof was all about finding phallic symbols everywhere. It was like Where's Waldo. (Where's Willy?)

I find that to be an awesome fact, and I didn't know it. Now I want a pincushion like that. I love when really brutal things become commonplace like that. After a while, eveyone is pretty immune to it.

Playing sims right now (What else?)

[onlycreated4st.livejournal.com]

I was afraid this would ruin the story for me, but you've given just enough for me to dread this wait for the next chapter...once again. Ahhh, I love art with symbols and meaning behind it. Also, if you're not too busy to answer this one day...how did you learn Simlish? lol ! I used to think that the "words" in the game were just crazy symbols until I read your works/entries!

Re: Playing sims right now (What else?)

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

There's this simlish downloadable font somewhere.

Re: Playing sims right now (What else?)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it doesn't spoil anything, really. Just the novelty of seeing these things for the first time. You don't get any details.

I'm pretty excited about the next chapter, so I'm hoping the wait will be a short one.

Like xel_squirgle_ox said, I downloaded a Simlish font, which just converts your text to an interpretation of Simlish. Someone else did all the real work, so I must thank them for it.

Unfortunately, the only one I could find to link you to right now is this handwritten one:

http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=312270

There were others at MTS2, but they're not turning up in my search right now.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

That shirt is adorable! And I found it extra funny because Tank's maternity wear in my game was pink. XD

I love that "painting" too, and how much thought you put into it. Beau is most definitely like St. Sebastian, from what I found out about him the last time you mentioned it.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Pink on Tank is pretty funny. I'll bet he was horrified. :P

I think it's a good match for a number of reasons. St. Sebastian is usually pictured as a youthful boy type, which suits Beau.

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

To be honest with you, he was a very happy sim all throughout his pregnancy. He would even stop and just stand there rubbing his stomach sometimes.

And of all times, that's when he decided to take up tai chi. o_O

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That's so cute. I can see Tank being all "I can't believe I'm effin' pregnant!" in front of other people, but then he secretly loves it when they're not around.

I love when they rub their stomach like that. I remember all Circe did was rub her aching back and look angry. She was an amusingly hostile pregnant woman.

Hey, it's a good idea to excercise while pregnant. I'm not surprised that Tank found something low-impact that he could do to keep fit. :P

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I had absolutely NO idea that St. Sebastian was a gay icon! Which is amusing, because my local church's patron is precisely St. Sebastian. My parents got married there and I was baptized there too, along with my sisters and nieces. And I'll most likely get married there some day. It is a very small but beautiful church, although its huge St. Sebastian painting and sculpture terrified me when I was little :P.

You really learn something new every day!

Anyway, I love both the t-shirt and the painting! Must have been hard to make it look just like that! Both are amazing :). And yup, there's always religious imagery in an art class. My sister had to take some pictures for her photography class and asked me to pose as a Renaissance Virgin a couple months ago. It was quite fun!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

What a coincidence! From the sound of it, I would love to see your church. Is it very old? The painting sounds lovely, but you're right about religious images being a bit gruesome at times for children. Some of saints met with very horrible ends.

The connection to gay culture was the first thing out of my prof's mouth when he started talking about those images in art history class. He was all about the feminist and gender analysis angles, so I really enjoyed him as a proffesor (plus he was just really nice and cared about his students). It's interesting how the image can be taken in that context, and it does make sense, once you consider it.

The painting wasn't too hard. Finding the "loincloth" was the toughest part (I did a wcif post a long time ago). The rest is a little image adjusting and filter use, and a touch of handpainting. I think it will look pretty decent in-game.

I've been tempted to make some sim versions of some of my favourite artistically significant photographic works. I think I'll sit on the idea for the next time I feel like making some cc.

That reminds me of all the things I've had my cousin pose for over the years. With her long (waist-length at one point) curly hair, she was an excellent model for all sorts of things, from takes on Pre-Raphaelite paintings to characters in a fantasy setting.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is a very old church. It's from the 18th Century, as far as I know, perhaps older. It's located right in the middle of a small square, surrounded by huge trees and with a lovely fountain in front. Actually, I found a picture of it:



My uncle painted it. He lived with my mom's sister just behind the church for more than 40 years. Next time I go there, I'm gonna take a picture of it (now that I FINALLY have a camera :P).

Yes, now that I read the link you posted, the whole St. Sebastian connexion really makes sense. I don't think most of the people I know have realized that context yet, though. I'm gonna ask my sisters later, perhaps they are more observant than I.

That sounds like a very nice project ^^. Yup, you should take note for the next time you feel like making CC.

And your cousin really seems like the perfect model for those works too :).

[catladymeow.livejournal.com]

Loved the peek into the future there. Makes me want to see it in the final result. The picture of Beau as the saint was well done.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm hoping to keep the progress moving. I'm not going to promise I'll have it up by a certain date (because I always make a liar of myself), but I'll trying to keep a rough update schedule in my own mind.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

Supposedly, it's the piercing arrows combined with the religious ecstacy (well, among other things). Mostly, it's a claiming of something after the fact, I think. You take your small victories where you can. There's a lot of that with women in art too. After you get past the Madonnas and the odalisques, women are slightly harder to come by in art.

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

Woah! Your art history professor were way cooler than mine *lol* We did see some St. Sebastian pics in classes but our profs never once mentioned him as a gay icon - it fits when I think of it, though :) And Beau makes a wonderful Sebastian :D

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

*nods* He was cool, there is no doubt. On our very first day, he posted a bunch of ads and picked them apart the hidden gender, sexuality, and racial messages in it. It's shocking how many things are implied implied in these things, intentional or not. I'm a big fan of interpeting visual language like that.

Beau does fit the type very well. And he seems like he'd be game for posing half naked for Lucy to paint.

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

Interpreting images (paintings, movies, what have you) is very satisfying - I pretty much spent all my years at Uni doing just that (still not too good at it though *LOL*). Using different variations of post-structuralism (psychoanalysis, for instance) to interpret images (and stories) is a bit iffy where I come from but MAN is it fun!! (And has, of course, been very very important - what would film studies be without it?)

Ahem, I'll stop now. My point was the same as yours: interpreting visual language can be a lot of FUN :)