What I do on Sundays

It's been over a month since I last posted. I haven't been idle, but I also haven't been playing games as much as I would like to. 

This week is our 25th anniversary, so that is my highest priority. We've actually been together since 1996 or 1997, depending on how we count. That is more than half our lifetimes. 

It's mind-blowing. It feels so long ago and just like yesterday. 

Last month, we went on an adventure to Lake George, Lake Luzerne, and Saratoga Springs. We went hiking, horseback riding, slummed in a few bars, had a wine tasting, and went to two concerts. 

This was our big 25th anniversary blowout weekend, and we had more than a blast. 

In Saratoga Springs, Kitty and I went to see her favorite band, Dave Matthews Band. She wanted a poster from the show, but it was cost-prohibitive. So, I am painting her a copy. 

You'll notice it is horse-themed, thanks to the famous racetrack in Saratoga. It's so much fun that DMB gets in on the local life and events. 

I am, of course, using Meeden Paints but with a twist. I normally use oil paints, but since I have been working on models, I wanted to try acrylic paint. Both links will take you to Meeden, to the types of paints I ordered. I receive remuneration for purchases through the clicked links. 

It's a weird switch, because theoretically acrylics are "easier" to use. Maybe for someone who has always used acrylics, that is true. Cleaning up is ridiculously easy. You spend so little time cleaning up, you hardly have to plan to paint. I love it. 

Also, I believe I can use this paint for models. It's artist paint, but I suspect it will be fine. 

That fired off another side project. I ended up buying several sets of paint brushes, for models, for oils, acrylics, and watercolors. Oh, yeah. Why not take on three different styles of painting? 

Anyway, I kept mixing up the brushes or misplaced them. I kicked myself for not ordering a holder or two from Medeen or running to Michaels for one. 

I have a laser. Why not put it to work? 

I found a free design for a guitar pick box and adapted it to hold paint brushes by putting holes in the lid and a support frame on the bottom to keep the brushes from flopping over. This design uses a living hinge, a technique I've never used. The hinge is easy in principle, but I had issues in assembly. 

I suspect the creator uploaded a file that was "good enough" for their task. I will refine my techniques and the design. If I come up with something unique, I will post over on Etsy or Ko-Fi. 

I have really let my Ko-Fi page languish. I need to fix that. 

Next up: Fiver's saga. The big boy is healing nicely. There is no holding this giant rabbit back. We are uncertain if the screws and plate in his leg took correctly, but he doesn't seem to care. He can jump and climb almost as well as he used to. However, we have not caught him on the counters or dining room table since the accident. 

We have developed a daily routine that pairs with a second hobby: gardening. When I wake up, I get him out of the cage, refill all of the water bowls with fresh water, then feed the cats. Fiver climbs up in my chair and waits for his freshly picked herbs and vegetables. 

I do not let him eat in the chair, despite how he thinks it's his throne. He is such a pleasant boy in the morning, unlike the cats who act like 4:30 am is 4 and a half days without food. 

I have been reading a lot lately. I have slammed through 3 books in about 3 weeks. I read John Scalzi's Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigade. I opted to get a physical copy of these books, but they are also available on Libro.fm. Memberships are cheap. I do the 2 books a month, but they have a cheaper 1 book a month option. 

The third book I am currently ploughing through is A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate NY. I picked it up at the Lake George History Association. This is a lovely little museum next to Shepard Park in Lake George proper. 

The ironic thing is, the book covers the history of the place where I live in Western New York and has little to do with what I would call "Upstate New York", like Lake George. 

Surprisingly, it speaks a lot about what George Washington was up to at the foundation of our country. 250 years later, and sometimes you forget that NYC was the ad hoc capital of the country, that Buffalo was the Wild West, and that the area around the Hudson was (possibly) a hotbed of British Loyalists. 

This book pairs nicely with another favorite of mine: Farm, Shop, Landing: The Rise of a Market Society in the Hudson Valley, 1780–1860 by  Martin Bruegel. If you like Colonial American History, this is a great read.  

Additionally, I have been poring over my new POD BX books. You can order them here (Red) and here (Blue) from DriveThru. While I am locked on to OSE, these are my favorite D&D books. 

Check back later this week; I should have more updates and probably a book review or two for you. I might also talk about how my wife Jennifer got her nickname, Kitty. 

Artwork Update - POP-001

Over on Ko-Fi, I am working on POP-001. This takes place in a lost temple. The artwork for that appeared here several years ago. I didn't mean the maps to be a module, but when I discovered that it survived the fire, I decided to go for it. 

These images are very spare and were not meant to be a dungeon. Through the magic of digital media, I can actually adapt them to what I need them to be. Once complete, you will be able to see the original artwork at the same time as seeing how it was adapted for this title. 

Right now I am working on the main battle map, the cenote chamber. For this map, I need to deviate from the simple one-marker, black-and-white design without moving too far from it. This is for clarity.   

You'll have to check out my Ko-Fi posts for the complete ideation of what is to come from this module. What I'd like to write about is my process. 

A lot of times, people will get cagey about tracing stuff. Well, don't be. 

If you look at the 4 images above, they are digital combinations of 3 images that were traced. Granted, they were traced from my own original work, but this is an old-school version "fix it in post". If you zoom in, you'll notice that the gradient lines of the shoreline are exactly the same because it's a scan. With a lightboard and tracing, it would almost impossible to match the lines over and over again. 

At least for me, because I have a tendency to right to ink, no pencil at all. Usually, to create such things I do pencil on graph paper, then trace right to ink. The image is already set on the underlayer, so why not? 

Interestingly, this type of image can be turned sideways for elevation or twisted by some math to give a 3/4 view or whatever I decide, all on paper before the digital process starts. 

My goal is to generate different layers on paper then scan, then combine so I can have multiple images in a variety of styles. This mixed-style allows me to edit stuff digitally to output documents in 8.5x11", A4, or A5 and 5.5x8.5 booklets.  

As I get closer to completion, you'll see more art from me. However, at the end of the day, you'll want to follow me on Ko-Fi to see more of the behind-the-scenes stuff that didn't make the final cut. 

Tankeren's Defenses

The Tankerenian armed forces are not really what they should be. They have aircraft like the ship below. I call it an H-Wing. In real world terms, it's like an A-10 or a SU-25. However, no conflict has reached the level of needing those machines. Unlike their real world counterparts, they owe their robustness to devolved fighter designs of the Republic. They are incidentally tough, but not as tough as a Y-Wing or B-Wing. 

The whole planet probably has 200 of them. Of those, 20 or so of them are outfitted for training, aerobatic groups and the odd civilian hobbyist. Of the remaining fighters, 30-40% are down for servicing at any given time. Tarkeren doesn't have much a fighting air force. 

They have evolved this ship into a space fighter. The lines are more angular, the engines are bigger and the wings much smaller. Since the planet has a tiny space presence, these little ships are hot rods. They go from ground to orbit when needed. They are on par with an A-Wing in terms of speed, but lack missiles and maneuverability. They do have one advantage over most fighters, the pipe like structures are sensors so each ship acts as control ship. Maybe they have 100 of them.  

I showed this air speeder in my last post. It is unarmed, but a purpose build speed machine. It uses advance technology to perform more like a spacecraft than a speeder. It can reach orbit, but this is more of a stunt than a capability. Citizens of the Republic or Empire would be terrified at the power of this commercial speeder. But like I said, it's unarmed. These speeders are ubiquitous on this planet. 

Green-5 has transformed this air speeder into a power space fighter. It has heavy ion cannons for battle against capital ships, space for an astromech droid and powerful lasers. It can match TIE fighters in speed, Y and B-Wings for armor and has better weapons than both. It does lack missiles and photon torpedoes as the planet doesn't have the ability to produce either. 

The downside of this ship is, it is modification from air speeder to spaceship. That's expensive. Every fighter is a custom job involving droids and humanoids, which means that each one is unique. Also, it requires a humanoid droid or live pilot which means that Green-5, defender of the planet, does not have direct control of them once in service. Not enough droids are available to fly them, they type of droid required is not anything the Trade Federation has, so he needs Tankerenian pilots. 

So far, Green-5 has convinced the Lord and Lady to make 30 conversions. Half of them are still being assembled. He knows he needs 100 times that number to defend the planet against the Empire. 

Over the next couple of posts, I will stat up these ships. I hope you enjoy them. 

Antelope Variants - Casual Deckplans

 Before coming up with the Zephyr variant for Star Smuggler, I tried a couple designs. These rules are somewhat related to Traveller, Snapshot or Striker as they darn near follow the design principals. Where as these games have tons of fuel to jump, Star Smuggler has a magic McGuffin called a Hypercharge. Ships are limited in range by the six charges they carry. 

This version is shorter than the Zephyr type and has half as much crew space. The bays are arranged differently, giving 4 40 CU bays. I would think it would make a nice causal carrier or carrier escort ship. That block of cargo space could also be a barracks or brig. 

Since I was already going small, this one is even smaller, eliminating the medical area, the weapons vault and both guns. It seems to be a pure hauler. It's bays are also divided into 3 40 CU sections. 

This version is a single gunned hauler. It's huge, those areas near the rear could be more storage space. 

I am not sure where I was going with this design. The center cargo bay has been given over to some sort of controls. Perhaps it is a lab, an advanced scanner station or controls to direct other ships. It has a single turret and a medical bay. The back of the ship has some odd equipment fittings for unknown purposes. 

This is the largest Zephyr type ship, with 4 bays, the massive crew space, vaults and medical. 

And of course for comparison is the actual Antelope II named the Zephyr. I probably should have made the rectangular cargo hold 60 CU as it is slightly bigger than the boat bay but smaller than the main cargo hold. 

Fractal Logic

This image was rendered for a class on Writing. The red text reads: 

Language holds the logic of 

Why a raven is like a writing desk

Like a piano with 81 keys

Recursion saves the signal

From the lapse of memories

To read the smaller text, I suggest looking at the Google Drawing.

Within each box, is the same text with errors injected. Sometimes on purpose, other times by accident. The first error was that the whole thing was broken down by syllables. However, this is not an accurate rendition of the syllables as the software used was designed for singing, which is wildly different than the more technical definition of a syllable.

Lan-guage holds the log-ic of
Why a ra-ven is like a writ-ing desk
Like a pi-a-no with 81 keys
Re-cur-sion saves the sig-nal
From the lapse of mem-o-ries

I also put in typos and misspellings by going as fast as I could when typing. It was painful not to go back and correct it. I did allow myself to go back and delete incorrect letters, but not actually change them. I mean for this to look frustrating. 

The grid-like fractal pattern was generated on graph paper by the following method: 

Draw a line along one edge of a box on the graph paper.

Toss a coin, heads turn left, tails turn right. 

Repeat.
A lot.

To speed this process, I alternated between cupping a dime in my drawing hand and allowing it move as I drew lines and grabbing a bunch of pennies out of a cup and lining them up dozens at at time. When I reached the boundary of the paper, I would move over into the next blank space with little care as to how it was positioned. 

It was a slow process. Additionally, when I took the pattern to digital, I made more errors. That was something the graph paper was mean to prevent. Oops. 

Thunder

I love thunderstorms at night. It's the only time you can smell dust and water, flowers and lightning at the same time against a noble van Gogh blue and white sky.

Doodles again

A few years ago, I was asked to come up with a new design for a logo. Here is a page from the brainstorming process.

The Waterhorse

Another image from my sketchpad, a waterhorse.

I am going to frame this one for my wife. 

Well, that didn't work out. She took it out the frame and got a tattoo. 

Reposting Peninsula of Plenty (PoP) Maps

These two maps are my first attempt at marker colored maps, in recent memory anyway.

Thanks to the guys and gals over on G+ I received a lot of advice on markering technique.

I hope to do version two in either marker or colored pencil.

#TBT Iron Man and Markers

Iron Man is an old favorite. 

on drawing paper

on plain copy paper

I am using different papers to get the hang of new markers. Markers are not something I am very good with, especially color. All Black Iron Man went wrong with the hands and feet. Color Iron Man went wrong with the colors. I meant to match the colors to the classic Iron Man from issue #69. It didn’t work.

I am going cut down some marker paper and scan All Black Iron Man so I can practice colors. Over, and over, and over again.

I also obtained an old book from The ROM featuring medieval armor, so I can practice those armored hands and feet.