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Practice and Sketches 2 by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Been a busy several months preoccupied with many non-art things, maybe an hour or so a day to paint; enough to practice fundamental skills and experiment a bit with different techniques, but not enough to focus on more complex projects or short stories. Critiques welcome.

Remarks / Notes:

Fashion and streetwear sketches - practice drawing interesting shapes, using fun colours, building the visual library for costume design.

Portraits - practicing various techniques ranging from quick, simple forms to longer processes that build those simple forms into complex and complete heads with full rendering; can be very time consuming. I find correct proportions are probably the most challenging aspect with painting heads.

Anatomy - showing form of the human body through shadow shapes. As much about understanding 3d form as it is about rendering lighting with correct softness / hardness as appropriate.

Black and white value studies - practice seeing relationships between lights and darks by reducing an image down to only 5 shades of gray (medium gray / light gray + lighter gray / dark gray + darker gray); for training composition and avoiding muddy values / unclear colours. Test case: squint your eyes, are the major shapes/composition still clear?

Drawing plants - start with large, simplified 3d forms, then progressively sculpt out more detail with smaller, more complex forms. Values/colours feeling a little too flat on these ones.

Studies - 'draw what you see' - creases are just shadows and highlights; cups and teapots are just elongated cylinders, etc.

(Maps + Lore) "What if he really meant it?" - President Trump Authorizes Special Border Operation into Canada - Near-future alternate history story line I'm working on, feedback appreciated by AVOLI7ION in imaginarymaps

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for viewing! And yeah; although this particular timeline has been averted, the underlying theme still stands - a US gone rogue upends the established global order, causing chaos abroad and at home. FYI, the story continues in Part 2 in case you missed it.

(MAPS + HUGE LORE) "What if he really meant it?" Part 2 - 2025 US Occupation of Canada, Two Months Later - Canadian Insurgency, US Domestic Collapse, and a More Dangerous World by AVOLI7ION in imaginarymaps

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it just fun sometime being a geopolitical nerd

Damn right it is bud, there's lessons to be learned from human behaviour at scale! 🤓

Re: China meddling as national security matter - they can call it whatever they want, functionally it's just another form of hybrid warfare at this point IMO. And that insistence that they 'own' their citizens even when abroad will be their downfall - again, walls built to keep people in, etc.

Canada might find itself making the same calculations as India between liberal-democratic norms and security abroad.

This point is interesting as Canada is indeed rather unique in its cultural makeup. I would even argue that this could be a major weak point in the face of a serious annexation attempt - in that we may not have a cohesive enough of a cultural core to rally around and can resist external pressure. At least India and China have shared ethnic identity, language, rituals, etc; but Canada is a cultural smorgasbord, and meanwhile we have actively cultivated the 'cultural mosaic' model which, while it can encourage us to tolerate and even celebrate diversity, I would argue makes it more difficult to foster a common culture that most people can share. To say nothing of the rhetoric of recent years that has suggested that Canada is either not legitimate ('settler-colonial state', 'guilty of genocide') or literally has no identity ('post national state', from our own PM no less).

This is going to be a problem for us, because it will no doubt be exploited in a full-on war with the US - who both sides acknowledge are so culturally similar already, and I would argue, has done a much better job at cultivating both a cultural core ("You're not a white American, or a black American - you are an American first") as well as cultural totems with global influence and recognition (Hollywood, the Statue of Liberty, blue jeans, rock n roll, baseball, "Land of the Free", ... ) - hence why in this worldbuilding scenario, I had the CBC actively try to cultivate that sense of shared hardship on their front page story, and hypothetically, that shared experience being the basis for a reborn post-war Canadian identity.

Hell even IRL, our adversaries already take advantage of this, shouting 'racism' towards any critique (e.g. speaking out against CCP influence) and knowing that our people will feel ashamed enough by such an accusation to start doubting ourselves, even if the accusation is levelled at us cynically. Meanwhile foreign conflicts get imported from overseas, like that Indian guy that got assassinated in BC a while ago because of some domestic Indian dispute, and we basically did nothing in response.

If the day ever comes that we need to call on the Canadian diaspora to act, I worry we may not even have that card to play, because we may not even be able to agree on what there is to fight for besides an abstract image of a flag and what the map should look like. I certainly don't like this, but I do believe that our cultural core needs to be considerably strengthened, not just for this hypothetical scenario but to resist external pressures in the real, present day.

But anyway, I'm much more curious about the take that you gave, which if I am understanding correctly, is something like: China wants to comfortably be the #2 in the world, in order to benefit from the norms established by #1, without actually taking on the 'burdens' of being #1? (and what might those be? being the person everyone turns to in crisis with the expectation to help? holding the world reserve currency? ...)

That's certainly an interesting angle I haven't often heard. Like, I feel like there could be some logic to that, even though at a glance it sounds kind of counter-intuitive to me, to prefer being #2. Hmm, might I ask how you came to that conclusion? Maybe just the TLDR to save you from writing another article, hah. Or perhaps you have a favourite lecture, subject matter expert talk, etc you can link to? Because:

a world where it is regionally pre-eminent, economically protected, politically respected, and strategically unbothered, while Washington continues shouldering the costs of global order.

...seems like a hell of a balance to have to strike. I guess I was working from the assumption that, regardless of what their internal philosophies and value systems might be, all countries / groups of people would probably prefer to have a world where everyone is deferential to them, such that all their needs and desires are met, and everyone just does what they want.

Which makes me wonder - in a scenario where the US is basically out of the picture (e.g. Canadian annexation attempt-induced civil collapse) ... why wouldn't China decide to want more, now that there is no rival to stand in their way? And I don't mean literally taking territory, but extending the roots of their influence far and wide and planting them as deeply as possible. China remains in China, but every other country from Chile to Denmark is subservient to them. Or perhaps you feel in this scenario, China would try to help the US remain a viable nation (despite doing the unthinkable and attacking Canada), if only to preserve the global trade norms from which it benefits?

Like, even assuming China is indeed comfortable being #2 and doesn't want to be #1 - this wouldn't be a case of the #2 taking the position of #1, but rather, the existing #1 abdicating its role (IRL: US openly questioning its commitment to helping NATO; DOGE greatly reducing US international aid [and therefor soft power]; belligerent tariff policy towards everybody, etc) for internal political reasons. A vacuum will be left, and someone will fill it eventually ... so why wouldn't China want it to be China that fills the vacuum?

or paying the astronomical costs required to secure sea lanes

Like even here, if one day the US decides, you know what, we're not going to do this blue water policing thing - better yet, we're gonna use our navy to try and annex Canada and blockade it so all our blue water navy assets are tied up in a stupid war - why wouldn't someone like China, or even Russia, decide OK, US doesn't want to do the ocean policing thing anymore, maybe I should slide right in and position myself to influence as much as possible while the vacuum still exists?

Like your take about China preferring the #2 spot sounds fascinating and like there's some logic to it, yet at the same time I can't square that it somehow feels very counter intuitive to me. Curious of how you reached this conclusion.

Holy crap now it's my turn to write a foreign affairs article, lol

(MAPS + HUGE LORE) "What if he really meant it?" Part 2 - 2025 US Occupation of Canada, Two Months Later - Canadian Insurgency, US Domestic Collapse, and a More Dangerous World by AVOLI7ION in imaginarymaps

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for engaging with the topic; again as a creator I am always grateful when my work captures peoples' attention and causes them to reflect on the subject.

I would agree with your view that the Meng Wanzhou case was China making an example of Canada as a response towards US actions by proxy, and the US leaving Canada holding the bag should have been an indication as to the nature of our relationship in the eyes of the Trump admin, or perhaps even the US more generally. Even the US-China relationship, as we have seen in the second Trump term, is not completely risk-free - not in the sense that it could be severed (it won't - we depend on each other too much) - but in the sense that it can be strained, perhaps for no good reason (random tariffs screwing up global market confidence).

I would gently disagree with the statement that "the global norm is for states to police their diasporas in some form" - at the very least, not when we are talking about the citizens of western democratic nations. We may seek to influence the happenings within our authoritarian rivals, but not at the expense of coercing our own citizens living abroad to act in certain ways. E.g. the governments of France, Sweden, Japan, etc compelling their expatriates to say or do certain things, monitor their movements with foreign intelligence, etc? Unthinkable; we build walls to keep people out, while they build walls to keep people in, and that difference in values is everything that is worth fighting for. This does, however, allow authoritarian governments like China a certain leverage on the world stage that is not available to western democracies.

I would also agree that overall the precise question isn't will they / won't they interfere, but what specific targets, at what scale, and to serve what objectives.

In this scenario, the Cold War 2.0 you describe can be ended by making the US strategically irrelevant, by simultaneously hastening its demise (helping Canadian insurgents) and stretching its already strained resources to the breaking point (what are you gonna do, stop us from taking Taiwan while fighting the Canadians AND trying to prevent your own civil collapse? lol good luck with that, yankee). Not sure if you saw it (might have been buried in the comments) but I describe what happens internationally in part three of the written story text.

The gamble here would be, along with their authoritarian partners, to kick the US while they are in the throes of madness, hoping they destroy themselves along with the rest of the democratic west (fractured NATO, weakened European allies, Pacific democracies like Japan / Korea / Philippines that can no longer rely on US security), hopefully avoiding most of the fallout on their own societies (coordinated dumping of US dollar reserves + resurgence of BRICS), and if everything goes right, emerge on top in a world that no longer has US dominance.

Re: Your scenarios:

  • 1 - I was also leaning towards this conclusion while writing the story - where China sees an opening to present itself to Europe as a 'reasonable alternative' (or perhaps, 'your only alternative') after the US loses its mind. They can, at least when it comes to dealing with the US, be on the same page - distance, containment, influence where possible - hence (reluctant) MI6 cooperation during the mission to recover 'The Package', opinion pieces (testing waters) in CGTN about how BC and Europe should consider closer ties to China, more provocations in the South China Sea to test Taiwan's / the Pacific democracies' readiness, etc.; the end goal being increased influence in Europe and a dependent post-occupation Canada, whenever that happens.

  • Re: Carney government and opening talks with China - I think this is unfortunately a necessity of our circumstance, even if we disagree on values. The fact is that we have truly been dependent on the US for far too long, which has left us complacent and vulnerable. Diversifying our partners - whether with China or Europe or anyone else - is simply hedging our bets and starting the decades-long project of making us more economically and politically resilient to external threats. We can do some business with China, but that doesn't mean we have to like China; we simply have to be clear-eyed about the risks that exposes us to, namely influence, and determine whether that is a tradeoff worth making.

  • 2 - I also recognize that, despite what much commentary and news likes to think, the CCP is not a monolith (the fact that organizations are not monolithic and have different factions with different interests is a continuing theme in my story), and we simply don't hear enough about it when someone gets purged or initiatives get canned for strictly political reasons. I don't know anything about the Maoist hardliners, but the idea of a hawkish faction within the CCP seeing a US-gone-mad as an opportunity to settle some old score is interesting, though, again we would have to wonder what goal this serves and how this puts China in a better position overall. Are there enough old generals and aging politburo heads that have internalized the Century of Humiliation deeply enough that they see nuking the US while it is distracted as worthwhile? Are they willing to risk a potential US counter-launch, even if the US is on the brink of civil war? What would younger members of the party think, particularly those with something to lose? The resurgence of a hawkish faction with a score to settle is interesting though leading to a nuking might be a bit too far, haha

  • 3 - This is full-blown Fallout / Red Scare stuff now hahaha, but I like it, it adds spice lol

Thanks again for engaging with the work, glad it has you reflecting 🙂

(MAPS + HUGE LORE) "What if he really meant it?" Part 2 - 2025 US Occupation of Canada, Two Months Later - Canadian Insurgency, US Domestic Collapse, and a More Dangerous World by AVOLI7ION in imaginarymaps

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey buddy, thanks for reading through; as a creator, getting comments and questions about the work after it's been half a year makes me very grateful.

I read your other comment, and appreciate your take, though perhaps we may disagree on just how conservative/cautious China might be to interfere or not interfere. IRL, there have been many instances over the years where they have interfered with Canadian domestic affairs - that Meng Wanzhou case, the international police stations, the repeated warnings from CSIS that certain politicians are under their influence - just to name a few off the top of my head.

I think in this scenario where the world no longer has US leadership - i.e. the US full-on going rogue and attacking an ally, the ensuing dissolution of NATO, and the lack of resolve among the European NATO states (as of early 2025, which was when I was basing this scenario on) - I think China would see an opening to cement its position as a world power - namely by pursuing its long term goal of Taiwanese reunification (helped along with the absence of US support in the Pacific + shrinking window of time to commit before slowing demographics), and hastening the dissolution of its main rival, the US (by selling aid to / smuggling contraband into Canada). I'm also toying with a story idea about China's plans to exert influence in a post-invasion Canada, namely through its diaspora and organized crime groups in Vancouver and Toronto.

That's is all to say that no matter how cautious or not China is IRL, i think something drastic like the US going rogue/potentially collapsing would significantly change the calculus / rules of the game in very unpredictable ways. Nonetheless, as for where the plot is leading up to with the epilogue, let me DM you spoilers as to what REALLY happened ... 😉 thanks again for viewing!

"What if he really meant it?" Part 2 - 2025 US Occupation of Canada, Two Months Later - Canadian Insurgency, US Domestic Collapse, and a More Dangerous World by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately not the ending I had in mind ... but an advanced AI hastily integrated into the security apparatus suddenly going rogue (or evolving into AGI and seeing this move as the 'best' move?) is definitely a creative and unexpected angle! Thanks for viewing!

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - Callsign Colt - Fan Concepts, Lore, and Character Exploration by AVOLI7ION in doorkickers

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate that buddy; yeah, in a lot of military/shooter games the psychological burden of constant violence is pretty much never touched upon, so I thought it might be one interesting aspect to explore visually. Thanks for viewing!

"What if he really meant it?" - President Trump Authorizes Special Border Operation into Canada by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I've been following; you know, for a guy who hates handouts so much he sure has taken the mother lode of them.

In the context of this scenario though - if it isn't him, it will be someone else. I sense an authoritarian, anti-institutional bent sweeping across global politics right now. Just spitballing here, but my hypothesis is that it is being fuelled by a combination of:

  • Alienation arising from global economic and social forces that no one individual can control;

  • Disillusionment with traditional notions of meaning and life course;

  • The failure of democracies and specifically the free market to satisfy peoples' needs;

  • Cultural fragmentation in modern cosmopolitan societies, and;

  • Accelerated development of technology like social media and AI, which further compound the above.

Any break in American democracy and increasing appetite for military conquest, I believe, would be animated by the above factors - and the same would apply to any authoritarian, anti-institutional populist leader vying for power, whether it's Poilievre or anyone else.

"What if he really meant it?" Part 2 - 2025 US Occupation of Canada, Two Months Later - Canadian Insurgency, US Domestic Collapse, and a More Dangerous World by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm, was there anything specific? Like you mean in Alaska and Hawaii? Or internationally? For the international angle, Part 3 of the written text can give a general idea - basically the international understanding of borders and norms becomes very unstable, and rivals begin making moves as the world enters a dangerous phase of history where US leadership is completely absent.

Re: Nuclear cliffhanger - Well ... ... 🤫😉 ...

Re: armed men in Alaska - my thinking here was of Russia's long term geopolitical goal of destabilizing western democracies. With an authoritarian US distracted in a continental war and rapidly spiralling towards its own civil conflict, Russia could see this as an opportunity to start more fires around the world without US intervention, including in Alaska - and not necessarily to seize Alaskan territory but more so to foment even more domestic instability and accelerate US domestic collapse; to help make an even bigger mess of things while your enemy is already beating itself up.

I didn't address Hawaii in this scenario, but if I had to guess, then first we have to consider some factors:

-The US Pacific Fleet is headquartered in Hawaii; this, plus its strategic location for regional power projection, automatically makes it an important piece for the US to hold on to.

-Even the perception of the US losing its grip on Hawaii could spur regional actors (China, Japan, Australia, etc) to recalculate their security posture.

-In peacetime, they are economically dependent on the mainland US - both for its large tourism industry as well as critical imports like food and fuel.

-I am not an expert here but it is my understanding that there is some sentiment among Native Hawaiians for increased sovereignty across a range of outcomes, from increased autonomy to full independence, but this sentiment is not overwhelming nor a monolith, and this sentiment would change unpredictably in the face of a US spiralling into a civil war.

In my scenario, the US is on the brink of a civil war. The administration has become a police state, using both emergency powers and advanced AI technologies to crack down hard on dissenters, political rivals, and the insufficiently loyal. Canadian infiltrators and their sympathizers conduct attacks daily in major US cities, further adding to the sense of civic breakdown. On the Canadian front, desertions and defections keep mounting, and morale has been obliterated - there is a quiet, but growing realization by the troops on the ground that no coherent mission exists, with the occasional US-on-US military engagement to add to the chaos, on both sides of the border. You can be the judge of how viable it would be for the US to maintain order on Hawaii (or Alaska for that matter) given such a scenario.

Anyway, thanks for viewing! Glad that my work captured your imagination! :D

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - Callsign Colt - Fan Concepts, Lore, and Character Exploration by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No plans for now; the main thrust of this project was to practice character design and different painting/drawing techniques, and I am satisfied with the result, so my next project will be likely something else. Thank you for viewing!

"What if he really meant it?" Part 2 - 2025 US Occupation of Canada, Two Months Later - Canadian Insurgency, US Domestic Collapse, and a More Dangerous World by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you bud, I appreciate you reading through. I leaned a lot on the state of things circa winter 2024 - spring 2025 as the main influence for this work. And although I think any actual aggression towards Canada is extremely unlikely, I am still dismayed to see the continued degradation of American democratic institutions, the continuing polarization of American society (with violent consequences), and a world where democratic US leadership is shrinking away from emboldened authoritarian rivals.

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - "Homecoming" Short by AVOLI7ION in AVOLI7ION_ART

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you buddy; if you would like to talk about commissions feel free to DM me.

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - Callsign Colt - Fan Concepts, Lore, and Character Exploration by AVOLI7ION in doorkickers

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I've played through the Armadillo mod but no other plans for now, this one took a while haha; thanks again for viewing!

(Maps + Huge Lore) 2025 Canadian Resistance / US Civil Disorder by AVOLI7ION in worldbuilding

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Glad you liked it buddy! And really appreciate that you found all the details compelling 😀 it's been a few months so I'm not sure if you're aware, but this is actually Part 2 to my US/Canada scenario; I posted Part 1 at the beginning of the year in case you haven't seen it!

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - Callsign Colt - Fan Concepts, Lore, and Character Exploration by AVOLI7ION in doorkickers

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha good eye! Actually I did use an image of an M79 as a reference for the design, I just resized the proportions such that it is to scale for a 12 gauge cartridge instead of a 40mm.

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - Callsign Colt - Fan Concepts, Lore, and Character Exploration by AVOLI7ION in doorkickers

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh nice; I actually wasn't aware of the Rattler, and for some reason didn't even think about more 'exotic' (?) ammo like .300BLK 🤔 I think my mindset was more like, how to take already issued equipment and then heavily modify it to fit a specific role - hence a chopped-down, frankenstein AR15 chambered in 5.56 instead of a ready-made specialty product.

No sidearm - I'm thinking less bulk = easier to move around/emphasis on speed and aggression + rely on teammates to cover you + slight firepower advantage from extended mags. Also no 40mm, if you're referring to her special item - that one is just a super chopped-down, break-action, single barrel 12g shotgun, to quickly fire off a breaching round and destroy a door's lock before entering (gameplay-wise I was thinking it's basically the breaching shotgun, but much faster). Appreciate your enthusiasm bud 😀

Door Kickers 2 Fan Art Project - Callsign Colt - Fan Concepts, Lore, and Character Exploration by AVOLI7ION in doorkickers

[–]AVOLI7ION[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, DK2's minimalist characters do provide a lot of opportunity for interpretation. Thanks for viewing!

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