Wednesday 1 February 2017

TCS/VanillaManila



1. "Vanilla and Manilla"
(cream and tan)

Corrugated card and grades of parchment,
printer paper white to watercolour weight for pen and ink,
photocopy powder to sumi-e.

Burlap (Hessian), Hemp, Linen, Cotton, Silk:
increasing refinements of texture,
grades of fabric based on the production expense. 

These are colour schemes, texture themes. 



Originally I associated V&M aesthetic with old whitewashed art studio's I grew up in and canvas textures, along with brown envelopes and parcel packaging used to wrap them and the cultural lifestyle of having a snail-mail system.

As I grew up and discovered sexuality and sexual hygiene, fluffy white kittens and experienced cougars. There is a scene with 'the white fox' in American Graffiti, cult coming of age in 1950s movie which associates V&M with (the non 'vampiric black & red cabaret' half of) burlesque and thus the burlesque side of Steampunk: suede and fur where it blends with purity and light hearted teasing. Innocence meets fond nostalgia of accumulated experience to create flirtatious faux-naivety and the promiscuous hope of more yet to come.

These themes are difficult to ascertain with precision hence the colour and texture doing the talking for itself, abstract expressionism of synaesthetic delight where representational imagery would be too graphic, too obvious for the delicate sensitivities. Snow melts in sunlight. A symbolic worship of fertility, life, longevity in the form of the gift of cum. Respect of and worship of Men by the white tiger society. Skin soft as jade, chemical free, organic and natural, wholesome.

Recently I have been hugely inspired by Tales of Kausao City rpg by Ryan M. Danks which has given me a chance to develop the "Vanilla and Manila" theme, largely through 3D architectural design although it is not the design but the colour scheme which holds it all together.

Protected by sandstone and wood there will be cream and brown leather seats, furs and skins of the same colours for her soft feminine comforts as she sits in a cafe watching men, drinking coffee and cream, perhaps with a small hint of spices and brandy, the honey.




"too good not to steal"
possibly the best chat up line ever


It's that colour scheme - brown, sand and tan. From the "Vanilla and Manila" idiom (where things ain't quite so black and white). I love how Kausao City is sepia, yellow, aged and faded, bleach bone and stale, grime encrusted, yellowed with age like uncared for caffeine dyed teeth and smokers lungs, stained city, polluted and literally jaded with experience. 


And then there is Jade itself, no yellow Jade but blue, green, red, black, white, colourful against the monotony of a smoggy sky and dirty waters, sandstone sky-rise glories of corporate traditional design. The purity here is the aspirations of the living, something the characters bring to the forefront of the story.


Ancestry, ritual, tradition, lived for the first time: every time. 



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