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Josef Diamant Blog Entry |
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February 3, 2022, 1:53:16 PM February 5, 2022, 5:01:24 AM February 5, 2022, 5:01:40 AM September 23, 2022, 3:00:06 AM September 23, 2022, 3:00:24 AM August 13, 2024, 12:00:11 AM 2/3/22: I need to figure out how my canine Trench Rats characters look, if I hope to ever dump out all the new info I'm coming up with for them. (I just finished writing up Capt. Otto Himmel's Toyhou.se profile, and holy yikes.) I'm just not good at the whole anthro thing. 😞 Anyway...I figure that the Nazi characters are most likely to be purebred dogs like German shepherds and Doberman pinschers (I mean c'mon...a main character is literally named Inspector Dobermann) and Dalmatians or whatever, whereas with the others I can be more flexible. All I can vaguely picture when I try to imagine Jewish freedom fighter/former jeweler/career criminal/work camp escapee/borderline terrorist Josef Diamant is that he has dropped/folded-over ears and isn't any known breed of dog. Aside from that and his outfit and arm tattoo (these aren't exclusive to Auschwitz in my story), regarding his looks, I got nothing. I really need to get something, because CRUD I haven't been able to stop brainstorming this storyline for like two months now. What's wrong with me. 😫 [Rough Diamant Sketch 2022 [Thursday, February 3, 2022, 1:53:16 PM]] 2/5/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Dreams." Fiddle! I thought today was Friday, so I missed Free Draw Friday! 😩 I like today's theme, but I really need to keep working on my character portrait attempts, plus I already had a character in mind, so I have to go off theme today, sorry. (My drawing for the recent "Twister" theme was based on a dream of mine anyway.) This here is Josef Diamant, without a cap (top drawing), and with a cap (bottom drawing). He's my first attempt at one of my canine characters in my Trench Rats series. I'm not entirely satisfied with him (the cap somewhat bugs me and I think his eyes [EDIT, and ears] are a bit big) but he'll do for now. He's quite a new character considering how old this storyline is but already has an extensive backstory which is nonetheless still being worked out. Long story short is he's a former jeweler (and occasional document forger) who escaped a labor camp and ended up starting the Diamond Network, a sort of Underground Railroad of safe houses and secret connections to spirit Jews and other victims of the Nazis out of Germany. Since he occasionally also bombs Nazi buildings they consider him a terrorist. (This isn't a comedic/cutesy storyline BTW, it's serious but just happens to feature rodents and canines rather than humans. I changed most of my characters into humans over the years but with this particular storyline that wasn't possible.) Incidentally, I originally drew him without hair, wasn't planning on any, but after I added the cap I added in hair and then put it on the capless drawing as well. So, I guess I'm giving my male canine characters hair now. That'll be fun. 😐 There'll be a lot more about him in probably not too long in my art Tumblr (tehuti88-art) and my Toyhou.se (tehuti88). TUMBLR EDIT: Okey-doke, I hadn't planned on writing more just yet since most of this'll end up on Toyhou.se soon but I'll add a bit of detail. Josef (pronounced "Yosef") Diamant is a skilled jeweler with his own shop when the Nazis rise to power and first make him and others wear a yellow star, then begin "deporting" them. Sensing something else is up, Diamant expands his skill set by forging personal documents for a close friend to escape the country. Not long after, clients begin showing up requesting "custom" work, and he begins doing more of a trade in forged documents than in jewelry. Eventually, however, the SS pays him a visit, torturing him with a few of his own jeweler's tools in an attempt to get him to rat out (no pun intended--Diamant is canine) his clients; when he refuses, he's taken to the nearest railway and placed on a train to a labor camp. There he meets fellow prisoners Arno Spiegel and Lukas Mettbach. Camp commandant Ernst Dannecker takes a special interest in him, first forcing him to participate in a Russian knife game (intentionally stabbing Diamant in the hand with a needle file, forcing him to switch to using his left hand), then repeatedly subjecting him to rounds of Russian roulette. Needless to say Diamant quickly grows to despise him, and starts plotting revenge. Noticing how Dannecker's stepdaughter Margarethe shows pity toward the prisoners (and is quickly reprimanded by her stepfather) on a visit, Diamant sees his opportunity. He slowly starts winning Gret over by smiling at her and then making her a ring out of spare materials he finds in the camp, planning to manipulate her into gaining him access to Dannecker and probably killing her afterward; when he finally gets the chance to talk to her, though, he learns she hates Dannecker as much as he does, and is perfectly willing to help with his plan. Gret cajoles Dannecker into ordering her a custom ring as a gift; knowing Diamant used to be a jeweler, he orders him brought in to do the job. (Diamant knows that the gold Dannecker provides him with was taken from murdered prisoners, which further fuels his hate.) The slow process of designing and making the ring makes the Nazis let down their guard a little, allowing Gret to smuggle a gun to Diamant; he removes all but one bullet. When he finally presents Dannecker with the ring, he pulls the gun as well, and plays Russian roulette until he shoots him. Gret distracts the guard who comes running at the sound, and Diamant convinces her to join him, since "It doesn't matter who you are--they'll kill you now." Another prisoner distracts the guards outside so a small group of them, including Spiegel and Mettbach, can escape the camp, making their way into an underground network of passages running between houses until they reach the countryside. This is the start of the "Diamond Network," which rapidly grows to include numerous escaped prisoners, refugees, and allies shuttling people between hiding places and safe houses (which come to include various country estates such as the Dobermann house), as well as occasionally blowing up Nazi meeting places and providing aid and information to the Allied forces. Diamant occasionally leaves a jack of diamonds card behind, while others often paint a diamond at the site of their activities, contributing to the Nazis considering them terrorists. The Diamond Network has its rodent faction as well; a group of them, for example, are responsible for saving SS Capt. Otto Himmel's life and convincing him to sabotage Project Doomsday. Diamant is very active in the network despite having to always keep on the move; he almost superstitiously avoids the railways, as Spiegel explains to Sgt. Gerhardt, "He says that the next time he ends up on a train, he won't come back alive." Diamant's jewelry shop, BTW, is left standing in the city, though the inside is gutted, the front window is partly broken and boarded over, and the words "Der Juwelier" have been defaced into "Der Jude." There's a bunch more but like I said, it'll end up on Toyhou.se eventually. [Josef Diamant 2022 [Saturday, February 5, 2022, 5:01:24 AM]] [Josef Diamant 2022 2 [Saturday, February 5, 2022, 5:01:40 AM]] 9/23/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Moving Water/Free Draw Friday." (I did Free Draw Friday.) Two portraits today. This week's (first) character from my anthro WWII storyline is merely a redo of an older character, Josef Diamant, sans cap (top drawing) and with cap (bottom drawing). He's a former prisoner-turned resistance leader. His old portrait bugged me; I'm still not entirely satisfied but he'll do for now. He isn't any particular breed of dog, BTW. [Josef Diamant 2022 3 [Friday, September 23, 2022, 3:00:06 AM]] [Josef Diamant 2022 4 [Friday, September 23, 2022, 3:00:24 AM]] 8/13/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Card(s)." My character Josef Diamant, AKA the Jack of Diamonds. [Jack Of Diamonds [Tuesday, August 13, 2024, 12:00:11 AM]] |