![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This was... Tough. I wanted to do people who are/were cool but who weren't primarily famous for being beautiful. So no one who got their start as actors or models or anything particularly glamorous. Even though there are some deeply cool people who got their start that way.
So then, I did my overthinking thing for, like, three days because what am I defining as "cool"? Is someone worth drawing if they seem to have done some pretty awesome stuff in their life/career which I know of, but don't really care about personally? Is someone cool if they've made art that has had an impact on me, despite how shitty they might be as a person? Is someone cool if they are in the echelon of culturally agreed-upon cool people even if I barely know anything about them?
So, I figured I would pick people who had some kind of positive impact on me and/or my interests. Maybe they just brought me a huge amount of joy or introduced me to things I never would have originally been interested in. Maybe they were hugely influential in my obsessions/interests. Either way, they would be on the list.
But then, the overthinking came in again. Should I include Jean M. Auel, whose Earth's Children series gave me the obsession with Neanderthals I have today, even though I find those books DEEPLY embarrassing now that I'm no longer 12? Should I include Guillermo DelToro who has a vast body of work of which I only REALLY care about Pacific Rim, but I care about Pacific Rim A Whole Lot? Do I include people like Leonardo da Vinci who I loved so much that I legitimately cried reading his biography because he died at the end even though he was alive 450 years ago and could not, therefore, have been photographed? Do I include musicians?
So, I cobbled together an extremely not comprehensive list of ten cool people who did not start as actors. Who they are and why I chose them are below.
Click to enlarge:
The McElroy brothers: Hosts of the comedy podcast "My Brother, My Brother, And Me" and, like, 9000 other podcasts/YouTube series. They are hilarious and made me like podcasts which I didn't think anything on earth was ever going to do. Griffin McElroy loves the video game Stardew Valley which makes him a-ok in my book.
Julia Child: I used to watch her Cooking With Julia and Jacques show she did with Jacques Pepin in the 90's. She was a FASCINATING lady and, even though I'm not actually all that into French cooking, I am easily drawn in by her passion for it.
Fred Rogers: Mr. Rogers is perfect.
Emmy Cho: Host of the YouTube channel emmymadeinjapan, Emmy is just a beautiful ray of soft spring light in the morass that is YouTube. I love how kind she is and it's nice to see someone who is just joyful and enthusiastic and excited to try new things! I have made Poppin Cookin sets because of her.
John Mulaney: What's to say that everyone doesn't already know? He's one of the most hilarious people on earth without ever punching down. He's a wonderful antithesis to "edgy" comedy.
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Author of the "Little House" book series which I still love today. I used to idolize her when I was a kid. I don't really have heroes or lionize people anymore, but back then, she was The One. I had to eventually realize that she was not, actually, a perfect person. She had some pretty ugly racism in her books, some really gross opinions about white expansion into the American West, and was super opposed to the New Deal. But those books... God... It is not possible to ever overstate how much those books changed my life and molded lifelong interests.
Carl Sagan: I just love the way he approached science education. He, like Julia Child, just LOVED what he did and he was able to draw others in and make them love it just as much. I love how staunch he was about his own atheism and how beautifully he was able to articulate his passion for his chosen field of study.
Terry Pratchett: I came to Pterry later than most--I was fully an adult before I ever read a single Discworld novel and, man... It was like being hit with a freight train. I still can't think about the fact he's gone. It's basically instant tears.
Tomorrow is day 10! The last official day of the challenge and I'll be trying to do some original characters. I am terrified!
So then, I did my overthinking thing for, like, three days because what am I defining as "cool"? Is someone worth drawing if they seem to have done some pretty awesome stuff in their life/career which I know of, but don't really care about personally? Is someone cool if they've made art that has had an impact on me, despite how shitty they might be as a person? Is someone cool if they are in the echelon of culturally agreed-upon cool people even if I barely know anything about them?
So, I figured I would pick people who had some kind of positive impact on me and/or my interests. Maybe they just brought me a huge amount of joy or introduced me to things I never would have originally been interested in. Maybe they were hugely influential in my obsessions/interests. Either way, they would be on the list.
But then, the overthinking came in again. Should I include Jean M. Auel, whose Earth's Children series gave me the obsession with Neanderthals I have today, even though I find those books DEEPLY embarrassing now that I'm no longer 12? Should I include Guillermo DelToro who has a vast body of work of which I only REALLY care about Pacific Rim, but I care about Pacific Rim A Whole Lot? Do I include people like Leonardo da Vinci who I loved so much that I legitimately cried reading his biography because he died at the end even though he was alive 450 years ago and could not, therefore, have been photographed? Do I include musicians?
So, I cobbled together an extremely not comprehensive list of ten cool people who did not start as actors. Who they are and why I chose them are below.
Click to enlarge:
The McElroy brothers: Hosts of the comedy podcast "My Brother, My Brother, And Me" and, like, 9000 other podcasts/YouTube series. They are hilarious and made me like podcasts which I didn't think anything on earth was ever going to do. Griffin McElroy loves the video game Stardew Valley which makes him a-ok in my book.
Julia Child: I used to watch her Cooking With Julia and Jacques show she did with Jacques Pepin in the 90's. She was a FASCINATING lady and, even though I'm not actually all that into French cooking, I am easily drawn in by her passion for it.
Fred Rogers: Mr. Rogers is perfect.
Emmy Cho: Host of the YouTube channel emmymadeinjapan, Emmy is just a beautiful ray of soft spring light in the morass that is YouTube. I love how kind she is and it's nice to see someone who is just joyful and enthusiastic and excited to try new things! I have made Poppin Cookin sets because of her.
John Mulaney: What's to say that everyone doesn't already know? He's one of the most hilarious people on earth without ever punching down. He's a wonderful antithesis to "edgy" comedy.
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Author of the "Little House" book series which I still love today. I used to idolize her when I was a kid. I don't really have heroes or lionize people anymore, but back then, she was The One. I had to eventually realize that she was not, actually, a perfect person. She had some pretty ugly racism in her books, some really gross opinions about white expansion into the American West, and was super opposed to the New Deal. But those books... God... It is not possible to ever overstate how much those books changed my life and molded lifelong interests.
Carl Sagan: I just love the way he approached science education. He, like Julia Child, just LOVED what he did and he was able to draw others in and make them love it just as much. I love how staunch he was about his own atheism and how beautifully he was able to articulate his passion for his chosen field of study.
Terry Pratchett: I came to Pterry later than most--I was fully an adult before I ever read a single Discworld novel and, man... It was like being hit with a freight train. I still can't think about the fact he's gone. It's basically instant tears.
Tomorrow is day 10! The last official day of the challenge and I'll be trying to do some original characters. I am terrified!
