Syconium
69

June 24th, 2016






Name (optional):
Link (optional, and omit the "http://"):
Your comment on this,
Syconium page #69:
       


(Hide comments)

(Turn off comments)


48 . by: Dani September 1, 2019, 8:53 pm

Oh, it is Apple's color! Thanks.
47 . by: Zack September 1, 2019, 4:30 pm

I believe that that's Apple's speech bubble color. It is rare to see her speak.
46 . by: September 1, 2019, 4:03 pm

@Dani That's Cherry reacting :)
45 . by: Dani September 1, 2019, 3:51 pm

Hi Zack,

I was "captured" and began re-reading some of the earlier pages, and I noticed that one of the text bubbles might be colored incorrectly in panel 12. The topost bubble: "Is that why?"
44 . by: camila November 8, 2017, 9:45 pm

the conversations between Fig and Açaí are always a highlight...
43 . by: kuu June 27, 2016, 5:21 am

so XX/figgy has "mood fur" for us to represent what we can't see or them, when they say her pelt color is fake and she is not really that white?
42 . by: elk June 27, 2016, 1:32 am

People, please check when you see new unfamiliar word on the internet, especially in another language.

Well played, @9, well played... -_-
41 . by: June 26, 2016, 7:13 pm

Awesome observations Nobody! I've been wondering that too but kept forgetting to pay attention to it when I'd scan back through the comic. It's interesting to find out that there is in fact some correlation to her darkness and certain contexts.

Also I'm happy that discussions are picking up as of this point in the story, I was missing the active comment section.
40 . by: Nobody June 26, 2016, 6:02 am

a really astute observation, larkspear. i just went back and re-read to see if there was a correlation, accounting for the fact that the lighting of a given setting and color exaggerations for compositional drama were probably not symbolically significant.

her coat is consistently lighter when she's involved in her art, whether talking about it or making it.
pages 16, 19, 39, and this page are good examples.
her coat is also consistently darker when sex is distracting her from art, most prominent on page 8. pages 38 and 55 are also examples.

her coat is lighter when she is more confident and darker when she's put down or insulted.
pages 13, 14, 27, 28, 32, 37, and 62 are all examples.

her coat is also significantly lighter whenever the association with the fig comes up, as in pages 31, 34, 61, and 65.

since i was already looking, her coat was actually not pure grey until after the title card, when she largely stopped having shading also.
39 . by: kuu June 26, 2016, 5:56 am

so all fruit is food? all food is food. or would any of these animals be called "yam"

do they still eat anthropods and fish?
38 . by: larkspear June 26, 2016, 4:54 am

While we're looking at color symbolism - has anyone noticed any pattern in how light or dark her grey is rendered? I haven't had a chance to look, but it does change, even in this page.
37 . by: Witticaster June 25, 2016, 5:56 pm

Nobody, I didn't realize that! Huh.
36 . by: Nobody June 25, 2016, 4:47 pm

i'm glad we're all so on the ball about any changes in her color.
has anyone else noticed yet that her speech bubbles are actually not completely grey, but have a very, very slight tint of red?
35 . by: Witticaster June 25, 2016, 4:25 pm

XX: No one knows. No one knows who you are.
Açai: *stares into the camera like he's on The Office*

I really love this page!! So happy that he 'gets' her. You can see just how affecting it is for her. She's so used to being treated superficially, it must be a real shock to have someone put forth some effort to understand her - and in the lunchroom of a brothel, of all places.

I'm similarly obsessive with symbolism in this comic so I took it into an image editor to check panel 9 and she is still completely gray - it is a red/green optical illusion like Natoon said.
34 . by: Seven June 25, 2016, 4:13 pm

I did a screen grab and used the eyedropper tool, neither gray came out looking redder to me.

URL : http://i66.tinypic.com/1zvq4qv.png
33 . by: hazard June 25, 2016, 12:17 pm

I agree with #10: DITCH GREENIE DATE THE FOX
32 . by: Ñire June 25, 2016, 11:31 am

I'm loving Açaí already :') it's really nice to see XX/Fig finally has someone who understands her style!

URL : http://nothofagus-obliqua.deviantart.com
31 . by: Kaidona June 25, 2016, 10:48 am

Baw, my screen is too bright to see that.
30 . by: natoon June 25, 2016, 10:40 am

Watcher: that may be because of red-green optical illusion. The background is very pale green, making xx look a little pink. I'm not saying that it was unintentional, however :) Or could just be my screen! Try covering up xx and looking at the background. To me it looks very pale green, and xx alone looks neutral.
29 . by: June 25, 2016, 8:19 am

@Watcher Wow nice catch, I didn't even notice! Things like that are for sure done intentionally and with meaning, since XX's lack of color holds symbolism in the story.
28 . by: Tenka June 25, 2016, 1:33 am

Açaí's stare...
"Nice to meat you."
27 . by: Watcher June 25, 2016, 1:11 am

XX/Fig almost has a touch of color in panel 9. A very faint rosy tint brightening her usual dull gray. Pity that it was but a fleeting moment.

Reminds me of the "strawberry" moon we had in the sky the other day -- it really did look ever-so-slightly rose-hued when it first appeared above the horizon (not amber like other people were saying). Five minutes later and it was back to looking like an ordinary off-white full moon.

Yeah, I simply can't help looking for symbolism and visual metaphors on nearly every page of this story, even if (or more likely when) none were actually intended. It's just one of the things that keeps bringing me back here every day.
26 . by: Jen June 25, 2016, 12:16 am

hmm, that URL was too long? trying a shortened version

URL : http://bit.ly/1OKBKxj
25 . by: Jen June 25, 2016, 12:14 am

Oh! You folks might be interested in this article about how humans didn't used to be able to see blue:

URL : http://www.sciencealert.com/humans-couldn-t-even-see-the-colour-blue-until-modern-times-research-sug
24 . by: Audrey June 24, 2016, 8:11 pm

Thanks for answering the question, Zach! It was eating me up, lol.
23 . by: Artribution June 24, 2016, 8:10 pm

Humans can also see ultraviolet, when our lenses (which absorb it) are removed in surgery. Those who do describe it as a strangely vivid color.
22 . by: Kaidona June 24, 2016, 7:42 pm

As far as animal color spectrum vision goes, I remember reading in multiple places that birds are able to see in UV. Their world looks extremely different from that of the rest of us.

URL : http://kaidona.deviantart.com
21 . by: kuu June 24, 2016, 7:05 pm

is was acai's art horticulture or flower arranging maybe?
20 . by: Seven June 24, 2016, 4:36 pm

So no "red light districts" in the NOFNA world, huh? :)
19 . by: Zack June 24, 2016, 4:00 pm

Hi Audrey,

Açaí is a silver fox, a red fox color morph. However, drawing the silver top coat against the black undercoat requires more time than I had, so I approximated the color with a solid gray.

Natoon, as I understand it, green, blue, and gray are the main colors available to animals who lack our kind of full-range color vision. If I remember correctly, some eyes can even see beyond the visible spectrum of these colors, into the ultraviolet range.
18 . by: natoon June 24, 2016, 3:37 pm

Although, I think some animals with little color vision can see some blue or yellow.
17 . by: natoon June 24, 2016, 3:36 pm

How many of those guys have enough color vision to see the change in the light? I'm so nitpicky. Might explain why XX tends to paint in monochrome, though!
16 . by: Nobody June 24, 2016, 3:24 pm

*cough* PAGE 69...

xx is so cute when she's happy.
15 . by: June 24, 2016, 3:02 pm

It's so sad that she's so exasperated to see someone actually understood her 'art', or at least was on the same wavelength as her. You can tell she's felt so isolated and alone having nobody understand her ideas, and not even those close to her attempt to understand. To have someone naturally, automatically 'get it' must be shocking to her.
14 . by: Seven June 24, 2016, 2:37 pm

"Our world is full of concepts we can't see!"
13 . by: Pearly June 24, 2016, 1:27 pm

@Tabbz, It was stated earlier that he's a "gigolo."

While not necessarily a sexual position, it's a position of attempting to make a living on youth and/or good looks by courting the attentions of a wealthy patron-- though it is usually implied that sex is part of the deal. Put another way: he's got a sugar-mama (or possibly a sugar-daddy) supporting him.

Whether this was a toungue-in-cheek reference to the (financial or socially unequal?) relationship between Cherry and Açaí, or a literal description of his living situation, Açaí's actual expertise is as an inventor of household alembics, like the lamp he fixed. So he's definitely an artist, but I think we might also call him an engineer?
12 . by: Witch June 24, 2016, 12:18 pm

Or a silver fox??

Some variant of red IMO
11 . by: Witch June 24, 2016, 12:17 pm

I'm pretty sure he's a cross fox.
10 . by: June 24, 2016, 12:12 pm

ditch greenie date the fox
9 . by: June 24, 2016, 11:23 am

I'm so happy to see Açaí (the fruit) being mentioned because it's from my country, hehe
8 . by: Seven June 24, 2016, 11:02 am

He looks like some color morph red fox to me.
7 . by: Audrey June 24, 2016, 10:29 am

Is Acai a bat-eared fox, or some other species? He has the right markings but his ears are kinda small, so I've been having trouble figuring it out.
6 . by: Nigel June 24, 2016, 9:29 am

Wow, I totally ship them. That was a deep connection, and if Acai truly has an R-Body kink...
5 . by: max June 24, 2016, 9:28 am

Her flower's on the inside. *snerk*

Srsly, it's nice to see the two of them "get" each other.
4 . by: North June 24, 2016, 5:15 am

Its sweet to see Fig interact with someone that gets what she's going for with her creative self-expression, when her boyfriend is usually so down about it. I wonder if she'll be able to paint again now that she's surrounded by other people like her?
3 . by: June 24, 2016, 4:42 am

Hmm... once again, emphasis on the fact she's not flowerless, but that the flower just isn't visible. I wonder if that has to do with the running theme of the value of art as well?
2 . by: Artribution June 24, 2016, 2:34 am

This is turning out to be a very creative whorehouse.
1 . by: Tabbz June 24, 2016, 1:27 am

Is Acai a sex worker, too? Would they trust the courtesans with alembics?