Dream Interpretation, continued

(...Redrawn somewhat from the last post. May not have improved significantly, but at least the shape consistency, anatomical correctness of (admittedly cartoon) faces, and line rhythm - so far as I can tell - seem decent enough when viewed in thumbnail format, nothing too jarring, though nothing overly dynamic in the Cyril Pedrosa sense. Found also that falling back on the usual M.O. of using a light blue/violet for secondary light source - or shading other than the core shadow - helped negate some of the more awkward shape solutions when it came to color. Again, so far as I can tell. 

Primary rule of redrawing, which I didn't necessarily follow here: Start from scratch. Just like most anything in life, trying to rig something workable from a bad start or weak structure isn't going to have the same sort of pay off as opposed to hitting it fresh. Pull on one thread and the rest follows: Redrawing the head usually means redrawing the neck, which means repositioning the trunk and shoulder line, which means etc. Same goes for color/tone. Beauty of Photoshop is having layers that one can reposition or free-transform so as to match with previous drawing structure; in this case, the trunk and hands/arms, which turned out ok. Redrawing from scratch though can have its own drawbacks, namely innumerable variations on the actual design that can go on ad nauseam if one is either uncomfortable or bored with the drawing, or one simply hasn't nailed down the character design... or both.)

Dream Interpretation

(Bath robe not included. Don't remember if there was any cape or cowl sported.)

Had this dream several weeks ago. Was in a courtyard of some sort, a campus I'm guessing. A girl - who I didn't see at the time but knew she was there - was apparently about to draw a massive mural on the ground, so she was busy sweeping up the dust from what looked a cobblestone courtyard (the actual stone in the paving was crazy small). The wind started kicking up and kept making a mess of the ground she'd just cleaned, blowing the dirt back onto it and whatever. So with one hand I was apparently able to make the wind speed up, concentrating it into a sort of dust devil, compacted it further, and as I brought my right hand down into my left, completely obliterated it. And whoosh, all of the dirt from the ground was cleared away.

~ Image Removed Until Further Notice ~

(Since I don't have a Facebook or Instagram page, this is the only venue I have for public narcissism. No greytone pass on any of these before adding color; just straight fiddling around with base tones and later cell shading. Which probably shows, for better or worse.)

I don't remember if it was me thinking this in the dream, or if it was someone else talking, but the basic upshot was that although you think you've done well in getting rid of the wind kicking up - as well as all of the dirt - the act of cleaning the ground before painting/drawing anything was part of her ritual; a sort of prep-mandala that served as much meditative purpose as the drawing itself.

Later on in the dream, was in some sort of work studio that resembled the art dept. at an old community college I went to years ago (the Animation Hellhole for you one or two old timers reading this). I was explaining - either to the girl or someone else - that the right hand represented either element or vitality, while the left represented nirvana; bringing the right down into the left thus ceased whatever element one was controlling at the time. I think there might have been ideograms, shapes or schematics in the dream that represented each concept that I had in both hands, but I don't remember.

And I've been reading Isocrates, for f*ck sakes. Don't know where any of this Korra or Kundun action came into play.