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.
I know, I’m a nerd. It’s not a bad way to live.
Watercolor practice. I always feel a little better when I come across one of these.
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?”
From the video game Skyrim, in an imagined scenario where my character invites Mjoll the Lioness to have a drink, and finds that Aerin is included.
I’m a little bit embarrassed about how much I’m into this game.
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:
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.
…you turn the book into a dice box. Sorry, Nora Roberts.
I guess it’s been my year of the jackalope. This one is made in polymer oven-bake clay and painted with acrylic paint.
Someone very thoughtfully gave me the new D&D starter set for my birthday, and despite never having actually played D&D (barring one short and not-terribly-enjoyable stint with Pathfinder), it seems as though I’m in the process of turning into a DM. In theory, the starter set contains enough information that even brand-new players can open the box and start to play, but listening to Critical Role for something like the past ten months will be hugely helpful. For one, I can draw slightly on Matt Mercer’s abundant wealth of NPCs when I have no idea what a character’s voice should sound like.
The plan is to run the game for one player, so I’ve been mulling over the adventure book, considering how to scale the encounters and whether to add more than one sidekick in addition to the character I’ll be playing. I’ve also been redesigning some of the locations, drawing maps, making notes on additional background lore (who can resist building a backstory for dragons?), and trying not to wade too deeply into the bog of “Oh gosh, I need to know what’s in every drawer in every cabinet, and the title and author of every book in the library, and what wood was used to make the bookshelves because it might be significant.” Even Matt Mercer had to start somewhere (presumably).
It helps that neither I nor my player have actually played before, and we’re learning together how to create characters, how to fall into backstories, how to play and world-build and explore together. It helps that we’re both epic nerds who have been accumulating knowledge of lore and fantasy for years. It helps knowing that this is the first time, so it’s alright if it’s clunky and exploratory and awkward. What matters most, as it says in the adventure book, is that everyone has fun.
