assume that his girlfriend/victim Shaelin makes enough money as an artist to support the both of them. My avatar is from one of her drawings and is super spooky and cool. She's such a great artist.
(I'm honestly just hoping to trigger @Blav into writing a thesis on why she doesn't understand color theory or some shit. She's actually a terrible artist and my suspicion is that she must have wealthy parents that give her enough money to live on)
Yeah, I believe Tiny said that his personal theory is that Shaelin's parents are wealthy, and even tho she seems to be estranged from them or something (typical Max/abuser tactic) they probably still send her money so she can survive.
Don't know whether that's true or not. But there's no way in hell that Max and Shaelin make enough money on their own.
Now if you want me to give an honest criticism of Shaelin's art. I'm personally not a fan of her artstyle, and she makes a lot of beginner mistakes. But at the same time she shows skill in certain parts.
So, a lot of women get into art as a way to cope through their traumas, I'm rusty on my Max lore but didn't Shaelin get raped by someone before she met Max? (which is why Max's kink is even more fucked up, as him asking her to keep still and don't pretend to enjoy the sex is in a way making her rp her own rape lol)
There's that famous saying, which is cringe, but it's completely true:
"You have to know the rules before you can break them"
If I had to guess, Shaelin probably went to an actual artschool, but it didn't have that much of a focus on realism, that's the reason why she makes a lot of mistakes in the shading/keeping the darks away from the whites.
This is a semi-recent picture of hers, it's clearly stylized (big eyes, exagerated proportions, higher contrast, etc.), which there's nothing wrong with that. However, when you do art that's stylized you still want to follow to an extent the rules of light (how light interacts with surfaces. You can exaggerate it, but never completely abandon it). You also want to keep the darks way from the whites, the picture needs to have a harmony.
To explain better let's take a look at the picture again.
All the highlighted areas in red could have been done better, there's actually more, you can argue the nose and center of the forehead has the same problem, but I'm already being nitpicky. This is her most frequent mistake, you can see it in her hatching drawings, you can see it in her renders, and she also seems to have a very poor understanding of how to shade hair.
The eyes are also all wrong, too bright/too white, which is also a beginner mistake. "Normal" people tend to think that eyes are "white", which they technically are, but they are almost always either in partial shadow or complete shadow. You should always void using "white" for the eyes.
However, it's important to note that she's making them in traditional (if I'm not mistaken). So these are actual pencil strokes and watercolour or charcoal she uses (depending of the drawing). So it's harder, I'm basically talking down to a person who uses a harder medium (which I personally avoid).
Two drawings from 2015, which are on a similar level (personally I think they are better, she regressed).
If I had to guess, Shaelin has probably drawn/painted for the majority of her life, used it as a coping mechanism, likely went to art school, reached a "good enough" level in "realism" and immediately started to abstract her art:
Which is fine, some people don't have much interest for "stylized realism", or "realism" and very early go down the abstraction road.
Before we continue I want to show a "stylized" "realistic" digital painting, which shows none of the mistakes that Shaelin makes in her own "stylized realism", even tho the following is far more stylized:
-First of all, extremely attractive shapes.
-Beautiful composition.
-It's a perfect balance between "soft" and "hard" contrasts between the shadows and the lgihted areas.
-Look at how none of Shalin's mistakes are commited here, the skin is never "too bright", even in the highlights, even tho you can perfecly make out which parts are the highlights
-Hair is even more abstracted but it has a correct source of light that's congruent with the rest of the painting.
(Also, squinting can sometimes help the "untrained" eye to notice these mistakes, as everything becomes blurry and it's easier to see the comparison between Shaelin's muddy ("incorrect") shading, which reaches almost metallic contrasts when it's supposed to be human skin, to the examples I'm showing, which are correctly harmonized)
Even more abstract. And with far fewer strokes he's able to convey a perfect amount of "form" to the figure. It's not a muddy mess.
This is the difference between someone who "breaks the rules" too soon, and someone who became proficient in realism first before they decided to go down the abstraction/stylized rabbithole.
Now let's take an even more exteme case. This is Peleng, also known as Sergey Kolesov, these are the "stylized realism" paintings he did for the Dishonored series (there's more but there's are the ones I will show):
You can argue that Peleng's style, specifically the one that he was forced to develop for the Dishonored games, was a HUGE inspiration for the popular style that you see in the RIOT games, be it Valorant or whichever others (he's not the only inspiration, that style is more of an evolution of the style which they already used for the League art). That huge emphasis in geometrical shapes, extremely exagerated features (although the RIOT style is more playing towards Asian features, while Peleng plays more to Slav features).
Peleng is basically that nigga. However, if you look at his current instagram page you will see:
That he's completely over realism and stylized realism, he's completely down abstraction, and even more than anything Shaelin makes. YET, all his art STILL follows all the rules that he learnt during all his years as a realistic artist (when he was studying) and his stylized artist (as a professional artist). You can't find any of the mistakes that you see in Shaelin's art, everything is in harmony, be it the shading, the colours, the composition, the strokes.
I'm not a fan of his new abstract style, I was also not a fan completely of his Dishonored style, but I can easily see a complete mastery of his ability as an artist, he completely reached the peak of his potential which is why he now decided to pivot towards abstraction.
So I wouln't necessarily say that Shaelin is a bad artist, she has reached a level in which she's "satisfied", I would probably call her mediocre indeed, but she's able to make money from her work and she's happy with her abilities, so who cares what I think. She seems to have backed away from more "complex" or detailed drawings and paintings anyways, and she seems happy making her little comics every once in a while.
She's a case of someone not reaching her potential, but neither lamenting it, so it's fine. The thing is that Shaelin doesn't pretend to be good, but even if she pretended to be good I wouldn't have a problem with it, she's certainly not my style, and she doesn't show any interest in improving, but she has certainly earned the ability to call herself an artist.
NOW. The snow chimp is a completely different discussion.
Melina (who is a stupid subhuman) ( a barely sentient being, if that) (a retard), has never showed any potential and has never showed any interest in improving (or worse, she has tried to improve and she only managed to get where she's at).
https://www.instagram.com/p/c2Od4Vi5PX/?hl=sv Fine for a 13 year old, she probably spent a lot of time in it. That's pretty much the only thing I can say, she shows a very basic understanding of how light works, but she's copying it from a still from the movie (this isn't from imagination), and still didn't manage to make it resemble it. So good for a kid I guess? Definitely doesn't show any "talent" (I don't completely believe in talent in the way people often talk about it, but that's a discussion for another time).
https://www.instagram.com/p/XBAcxgC5Fa/?hl=sv Awful, you can tell that it's from imagination, but doesn't show any skill in anyway, other than a basic understanding of how humans look I guess? Awful is the only thing I can say.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_q8PzRC5M5/?hl=sv I would actually consider this one better than the previous two, as she seems to have a vague understanding of how light works. Everything is wrong tho. Awful again. She's 15 or 16 in this if I'm not mistaken.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BC-SQo7i5Bj/?hl=sv Now this is the important one. This shows that since 2016 Melina hasn't progressed at all, there might have been some vague improvements to the structure, and understanding of shapes, but her strokes, her shading, her colours, her lighting, her composition. Everything is the same as it is now. AND EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY: She has pivoted to drawing landscapes, she realized she can't draw humans so she has decided to take the easy route: draw nature (which is fine, some people prefer to draw things rather than people, but Melina did it because she's awful at everything, and nature is better to fake).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKdPBL4A6hE/?hl=sv another landscape, awful again.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBigJ1ei5I4/?hl=sv horrible
You see. Melina neither shows skill, nor understanding, nor interest, nor an ability to draw/paint fast (it takes her months or years to make a landscape). She's a trauma/therapy artist, but not even a skillful one. Shaelin shows an interest in art, a love for art. Shaelin is an artist (I dislike all her art, except Code Cave's pfp probably, but she's still an artist who creates art).
"bUt WhAT iS aRT? hOw Can U PrEtEnd tO kNoW?" I just know, I don't need to be able to define a chair to know one when I see one no matter how abstract it is. What I appreciate in an artist is a mix of ability, passion, and personality. I don't really like realistic art (there are exceptions but I won't get into that can of worms rn), I like stylized realism as it mixes both the anatomical knowledge that someone who has studied the human body (be it male or female) for thousands of hours, while also allowing the artist to express themselves by exaggerating with colours and shapes to extreme extents.
Melina neither has ability, nor passion, nor personality. She's a retard. And a smug one at that, she's a subhuman smug retard. (and three time champion, at getting raped)
Shaelin does have a certain amount of ability, she likely had passion (although I think she has lost the vast majority of it) and she has personality, although I don't think she's really that good nor do I enjoy her style I still can respect her (even tho she's a retard too).
*Edit: On a closer look, I'm not sure if Shaelin's painting is traditional, maybe some of it but it might also be partially digital. I know she often scans her drawings and paintings and completes it digitally (some of the mrpedo shirts are like that). Still, all the points still stand whether she did it traditional (which is harder) or digital.
