The players in the D&D game I’m running encountered a fire snake yesterday, so here’s one of those. I’m imagining illustrating a series of fantasy creatures as part of my Postal Art summer project. I’m not sure who will get this one yet.
Prep work for running the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. These guys are Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures, and less than an inch and a half tall. I’ve only briefly played Pathfinder, never “true” D&D, but I feel like one of the biggest draws to D&D is the collectible accessories – and, for DMs, narrative craft time. My house is currently littered with bits of wood, bark, lichen, gridded carboard, glue, and paint.
Skyrim again. Taking Lydia on a cross-country side quest camping trip. I get the feeling she’s wondering, “How did I get stuck with the biggest screw-off in the Empire?”
I’ve just started playing Skyrim for the first time. So far I’m playing without mods, and although I started in Survival mode, it’s sort of obnoxious to need to eat everything that’s not nailed down, so I’m probably going to turn that off… Anyway, this is a quick portrait of my character, still wearing that good ol’ Imperial light armor. She’s a Breton by race, though her facial tattoos mark her home clan. When Hadvar asked who she was at the executioner’s block, she told him, “Tasha.”
Tasha wasn’t really her name. Tasha was the name of a renowned witch queen, and as the Breton assumed she was about to die, she liked to think she might give her executioners pause. But of course, she didn’t die, and so she shrugged and took the name with her. She’s leaning towards sneakery and light theft, with a taste for wine.
I feel like playing Skyrim is one of those Nerd Rites of Passage, like listening to Critical Role and watching Star Wars, although I’m twelve years late to the party.
I think the trick to being a successful adventurer is more or less the same as it is for being a successful anything – knowing when to walk away. Obviously, it’s a very D&D-inspired piece (I still haven’t actually played proper D&D…), colored with a bit of personal self-doubt: careful not to reach too far, or your lofty aim might be the end of you.
In the few weeks (almost three) since leaving my job at the bookstore, I’ve been working on a few art-related things:
Learning how to do digital art (and develop a style? or not)
Learning all about sales tax, income tax, self-employed tax, small business tax, hobby vs. business, &c
Photographing and editing art pieces to digitize
Setting up my shop page for integration with a print-on-demand platform
Other non-art adult things like adjusting health insurance and filing taxes
I haven’t come across very many artists or professional hobbyists who talk much about the pain in the butt which is learning how to not only make art, but also sell it, and also remain tax compliant. I don’t quite understand why – it’s hugely time-consuming and often confusing. There’s a lot of work that goes into earning income from art (or any kind of self-employed-ish skill), and a lot of passwords that are all jumbled in my head.
Sometimes I think I’m on the wrong track. I don’t want to own a business, or be famous, or (over)think about being spread all over the internet. I just want to stay at home and make recycled paper.