Karachi but Haunted- Drawing body language

What's today's blog about? Contents:

• Karachi but Haunted blog #1- Drawing Body language

  • Karachi but Haunted, ep 12

  • The importance of drawing body language as a story point
    

• Personal blog #1- Strange Connections

  • A diary entry about my life

  • Rare, unusual ways I've connected with people

Karachi but Haunted blog #1- Ep 12- Drawing Body language

Because Instagram limits me to 10 panels per post, Karachi but Haunted has always had short episodes. The constraint bugs me because I have to put a lot of text in a few panels, and I also have to move the story forward in just 10 panels at a time.

Episode 12 was particularly frustrating. I had a few panels that were just reaction shots with no text, which made it feel really short. But I LOVE reaction shots without dialogue, because it makes the character expressions an additional way to tell the story.

I like to make each character look like they're thinking or feeling something, even if they aren't talking in the panel. I want them to seem like distinct people, as if you can look at them and feel they're really thinking something. It adds depth to the drawings.

For example, in this panel, as the fairy queen is leaving, she’s scowling at everyone- is she suspicious? Does she feel disrespected?

I always try to give Laila more extreme and expressive body language than the others, which helps communicate that she’s younger than the rest. I don’t think her design communicates her age as well as her gestures do. And Sabeen of course, looks uncertain and has a bit of concern for Laila.

In this panel, I have dejected Zafar in a corner, realizing he is stuck here, and Sabeen’s guilty/nervous body language. She's always tightly wound, sort of compressing her arms while Laila tends to wave her hands around.

In this group picture, you can see that while everyone is staring ahead in shock, Sabeen is looking at Laila. That’s 3 different panels in this episode where I’ve tried to make Sabeen look empathetic without any dialogue or narrative indication. Most people may not consciously notice it, but might subconsciously get the vibe that she seems like a nice person.

All the expressiveness of the others also makes the blankness of The Sky One stand out- she seems stiffer and scarier because of this contrast. She doesn't look alive like the rest.

So basically, body language is really important to me because it makes you compare the characters and tell them apart by how they behave. It makes you believe the characters are a bit more real.

It used to reallyyyy annoy me when I would see group pictures of characters in comics or animated tv shows where I would get no information on their personalities.

Here are two examples where I know nothing about the characters by their body language. All the Sailor Moon characters look nice and sweet, and are standing the same way.

All the X Men characters look aggressive, with open stances and angry faces.

Instead, check out these Street Fighter images. Also aggressive, but everyone looks so different and distinct. I love referencing fighting game characters, because they are literally all designed for iconic body language- gestures, stances, movements. It’s still not the best reference for female characters because they are almost always broadly sexy or cute, so sometimes I just look at the body language of women I know and try to remember it.

Lastly, what really frustrates me is that I can’t really draw as strongly as I want, so I can’t put as much perfection into the body language as I’d like. But hopefully I’ll keep getting better! It’s very sad that sometimes the limit is my own skill level.

Anyway, to summarize

• Think of how your characters show their personality in their gestures, facial expressions and body languages

• Make them all different from each other in how they do the above

• Think of their reactions to things as based off their personalities

• Think of people you know who kind of stand out and think of what stands out about them- mannerisms, clothes, facial expressions, movements

• It makes a big difference because then you don't rely on just dialogue to build a character- people start inferring and guessing based on how they present themselves

My Diary #1- Strange Connections

I think a lot about probability math- what’s likely and unlikely to happen in my life. I have already accidentally dated one murderer, which means it’s very unlikely that I’ll run into another one. I’m safe for the rest of my life, because it’s mathematically unlikely that I’ll run into two. If I do, at that point it’s just Darwinism. Take me out the gene pool sir.

But, the best part of thinking about probability is that I really appreciate unusual human connections. An odd moment or bond that makes you wonder “what were the chances of this happening?”

I met a girl at my workplace. Her name’s Rachel and we guessed each other’s birthdays.

“We’re both winter birthdays? I was born in December.” I was telling her in a zoom call.

“I was born in February. Let me try to guess your birthday.” She paused for a second. “17th?”

I was stunned. That’s a 1/31 or a 3% chance of her guessing it. “How’d you do that? Did you look at my HR profile?”

“Is it really 17th? That’s crazy! You’re lying to me right now!”

“Let me try to guess yours. February 22nd?”

She stared at me. “Shut up. Shut UP. You’re KIDDING. You’re KIDDING ME. That’s it, that’s my birthday!”

That was a 1/28 chance of me guessing it.

The chance of us both guessing each other’s birthday was 1/28 into 1/31, which was a 0.003% chance. That’s magic right there.

That’s not even everything. We ran into each other 3 times in the street. Once while I was on a run, once while I was at a grocery store, and once when I was at a coffee shop. At the coffee shop she said “I manifested you didn’t I? I was just thinking about you and here you are.”

I told her at that point I was afraid I might be a character in her mind, and if she fell asleep, I would disappear.

Then there’s Barb. Barb was a pretty 74 year old woman with bright coral lipstick whom I ran into at a clothing store in my neighborhood. It was August. We were in the coat section. “That one looks good on you.” She said about a white fluffy thing I was trying on, so I bought it. There it is >

I noticed that under her cloudy white bob and milky skin, her lipstick really stood out.

“I love your lipstick!” I said to her.

“Oh thank you, its Revlon! I know that’s an older brand, but they’ve reinvented the formula. It’s nicer and creamier now.”

We talked a little bit about a few things, and I left, happy to have talked to a lovely stranger.

Months later, in January, I was thinking about her today while I sat at a café. And suddenly there she was. She picked the seat next to me, we were both in plum colored shirts, and we had matching shoes.

“I know you!” I said excitedly. “We’ve met before!”

She didn’t recognize me at first. “Oh I’m not sure that we do.”

“Do you wear Revlon lipstick?” I asked her. And then I saw recognition in her eyes.

“I do. In the shade fire and ice.”

“Yes! Exactly!”

And then she remembered me. She was with a friend, but they sat next to me, and occasionally we talked to each other. She tapped my boots with her foot and said we had similar shoes on. She watched me draw Karachi but Haunted. She called me “brave” when I told her I moved here all by myself, alone. We exchanged numbers.

I couldn’t believe that I saw her again right when I was thinking of her!

Of course, I live close to downtown so it’s likely all these people just keep coming downtown. But some of the magic itself is that someone stops and talks to you, and you get along. I just love it when strangers talk to me in the street.

And, there’s other things too that I think are unusually magical, like the girl selling me face wash who decided she wanted to hug me. That doesn't happen often.

Yesterday, I went to buy face wash and this new salesgirl was there. She was very bubbly and showed me 3 different brands like a mother showing someone baby pictures. I was tired and wanted to leave and her energy was too much for me.

I bought a Drunk Elephant face wash instead of the 3 she recommended, and while cashing me out she told me her whole stream of consciousness: she personally loves Mario Badescu and trusts the brand with her life, she’s sensitive to fragrances and every face wash makes her cry no matter which. She said I have beautiful hair, and I told her she looked Iike Lily Collins.

“Oh no no no!” She said. “So far from her! But thank you!”

“You do!” I insisted, and she kind of did- trim, doe eyed, flower like head, red lip.

“Where are you from?” She asked.

“Pakistan. I moved here a year ago.”

“Me too! I moved here last December!! And I’m from Iran, we are neighbors! Can I give you a hug neighbor?”

“Sure.” I said, and she gave me the biggest hug. She was very small and I felt very large. Her name came last. Razhine.

I’m probably going to go back to that store and buy her something she likes as a welcome to the city gift.

Finally, I also sometimes feel I’m a little unusual, like maybe I shouldn’t exist.

The circumstances that built me should maybe not have resulted in who I am.

I think all things considered, maybe I should have been more broken, more incapable, less wild, more conservative, more feminine, sadder, less determined, more risk averse- but I’m not. My mom sometimes says “I don’t know how I made you or where you came from.” Sometimes she’d say it disapprovingly, and sometimes in appreciation. She does not really understand me, I ended up too alien. But I don't mind.

Random Brain dump-

• The tall barista at the coffee shop I’m in does the Apu accent when saying my name. “Kohn- mahnullll”. I bet he’s very proud of himself for thinking he’s saying it the “right” way smh.

• A girl at work was telling me about her life, and she said “I’ve changed so much, and my exes are the same but somehow worse.” Sometimes people don’t get better with time. I thought about how time is not always progress, and it made me worry a little, for myself and the human race.

• My sisters and I have decided to call ourselves “coworkers by blood.”

• My sisters and I have decided we only share problems with each other because we are basically the same person. It’s like “Time to assemble my clones to figure out what is wrong with me.”

• Wish I'd taken a pictures with Barb in our matching shirts.