From Beginning to End and Back Again

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to guest on a creative Twitch stream with the wonderful Stacy J. Garrett. How did this happen? What started out as a joke while she was live streaming one day, she had commented to her audience that if a certain donation goal was met, that she would get me as a guest for a future stream. Off camera, she sends me a private message if I was alright with even guesting. Of course, I said yes then through out the question of if she would like me in some sort of Steampunk costume for the hell of it. Like a great many times where I randomly say something and people take and run with it, this was no different. It was in several short moments that we agreed to a Steampunk themed art stream. 

Rough concepts for painting

Alas, what to create? I put it out to her community to choose one of three possibilities so I had some kind of direction of what they would like me to do. Of the selection (Steampunk environment, Cthulhu/Dark Steampunk, Other [suggest] ), a Cthulhu or dark Steampunk themed piece ended up with the most votes. Now that I had my direction, it was time to get sketching on rough drafts. I ended up coming up with 2 possibilities and both concepts made me think that they should be covers for a book or showing scenes from an appropriately themed mystery novel. Once again, I left it up to Stacy's community to place a vote on which one they would like to see me work on during the stream. Though many let me know that they loved both concepts, they knew that they needed to pick just one. The winning concept? Option 1 - A young man carefully wading through trash in what possibly could be sewer or filthy waterway. 

Painting at end of stream

On stream, I was able to get started on many of the base colors and block in the heavy use of shadow this piece was going to have. Of course, by the end of the stream, I had let everyone know that I would be finishing the piece in the following days then share the end results. What I didn't tell them was that I was going to take progress shots as I went along so that I could share the images with them so that they could follow along. Another little something I had never mentioned to them was that I have never done a piece with this kind of lighting/dark shadows before in my life. In all honesty, most of it I was winging. Compared to so many of my earlier pieces, where the lighting was gentle and had a good balance of shadows. Even with the classic vehicles I've done, there seems to be a balance. This piece is the first where the shadows were giving the sense of anxiety or impending danger. Considering the setting of the piece, It was perfect. 

As I started getting closer to completion of the piece, an interesting suggestion came up in conversation. Since the setting was inspiring several in the community, why not set up a writing prompt? What Stacy and I had explained to her community is that I'm not much of a story teller in the traditional beginning-to-end sense. I am much more the type who can create an entire world, environments and give glimpses of the happenings via character journals. Of course this made folks even more encouraging over the whole situation. What kind of journal entry would this young man have? What was his world like? Where would they take the answers to those questions with their own stories? I found myself pondering the possibilities and found myself entertained.  So I made the decision to actually do a 'journal entry' to be with this piece. Of course this also came with me doing a rather quick set of notes to myself of what the calendar system of this possible world would be like and a rough idea of the world layout. So, quickly grabbing the nearest piece of paper, I scribbled down notes and figured out a few things:

Winter - King of Sleep (64 days)
Spring - Queen of Awakening (120 days)
Summer - Lord of Insight (90 days) 
Fall - Lady of Preparation (93 days)

A. The Kingdom of Onyxia 
(mountains, temperate rain forests) 
B. Undivided States of Melckorr
(temperate rain forests, valleys, river ways) 
C. Isles of Fonseca
(woodlands, shrublands) 
D. Raliuga
(woodlands, shrublands, mountains) 
E. Dolosais Empire
(forests, mountains, tundra)

So I present to you the finished painting and its companion journal entry! 

-------



56 of our Lady of Preparation

I have followed the trail to the older section of the Onyxian capital proper. What few rumors I've been able to keep my ears open to has lead me to take a look at the catacombs on this part of the city. Why steal an ancient relic from the university then

dump it in a place like this? The logic completely eludes me. The catacombs is nothing more then the remains of the old city which was converted to be part of the waterways once the expansion of the capital occurred. Now it is nothing more then then flooded hallways that some of the citizens here had been using as a dump. Attempting to find anything in this place will be next to impossible. 

Even as I stand at the entry way into this place, I can smell the sickening sweet smell of decay and rot. I know that the putrid rancid aroma will only get thicker the further I go in. My only hope is if the relic was tossed in here, that I am able to locate it quickly. If not, I fear that I may suffocate in this stench or loose my way. I have been warned by some of the older inhabitants of this area that there are rather sizable vermin and water serpents that I need to be cautious of if I was fool enough to enter this place. May the gods grant me guidance. I am certainly going to need any assistance I can get at this point. 

`Changes for the better (I hope)

I've realized that it has been quite a while since I had last posted updates of the happenings on my end. Well there's a very good reason for that! The last several months have been a whirlwind of madness, with the last month or so just a blinding kaleidoscope of movement, colors, and conversation. So let me break it down for you all so these cliff notes can catch you up on what all is happening. 

'Enter the Dungeon' design by Dawn Star Wood

Experimenting with something new

I had already had the mind set that this year would be the year I would try new things and perhaps practice in genres or mediums that that aren't exactly my strong point Among these is doing a cohesive series of images. One that is currently in progress is what I was calling The Queens of the 4 clans - My interpretation of the queens of the 4 suits in a deck of playing cards. With everything that has been going on, my work on the series has been rather erratic but I have been enjoying seeing the slow outcome of the images. A few friends have suggested that I write a short story of the images, which I am very tempted to do but we shall see. 

'Cockatrice Roasted Coffee' design by
Dawn Star Wood

Well it finally happened. After years of debating it with myself, I have started a little online shop via Redbubble. Making sure that I have pieces that translate properly into a digital format then get transferred onto an item has been a bit of an adventure and surprisingly challenging. So at the moment, I only have two designs available and both being Dungeons & Dragons related. The fist design was appropriately titled Enter the Dungeon, which shows a few common enemies that some players of D&D would face in a campaign. The second it titled Cockatrice Roasted Coffee. This design stemmed from from a conversation I had with friends over coffee about D&D creatures. Both designs were hand done in ink on Bristol paper. I do have plans on making more illustrations (and paintings if things will allow) available on items. So feel free to check those out and stay tuned to new stuff in the near future. 


Another new adventure is that on Monday, May 6th at 3:30pm PST I will be guesting on my dear friend Stacy J Garrett's Twitch Channel. We will be doing a Steampunk themed art stream. What started out as a joke suggestion of her reaching a particular donation goal on her stream, she would have me on stream painting something for her viewers, has snowballed into awesomeness. Her goal was surprisingly met and I have been hard at work preparing for this. Want to come and be part of the shenanigans while supporting another fellow maker? Then I invite you to tune into the stream!
Twitch.tv/stacyjgarrett




Ducktape fixes most everything

On the personal life part of things, it's been a bit of a roller coaster. Most things for the positive, thankfully. It's just everything that has been happening has not allowed for a full on acceptance of some things so it's been a lot of 'Yeah, everything's fine' kind of mantra happening. Of course, as I typed this, I was finding myself welling up with tears even though I was smiling. This was an indication to me that though I know logically that everything is fine or at least everything will be okay, the heavy impacts of this whirlwind I'm in is still not fully absorbed. So yes, there is a little version of myself inside of me screaming and scared but I'm pushing through the storm going 'I've got this'. With this said, I feel the need to apologize if the following batches of rambling makes no sense or feels unorganized.

Be it my friends or my family, I want the people around me to be happy or at least know that they aren't having to face the negativity being tossed at them alone. In the case of my friends, there's several that I know battle various forms of depression or anxiety which is just amplified with the things they're going through. I may not be able to put an end to what they're dealing with but I do try to give them an ear and a shoulder. Sometimes this comes in the form of helping figure out where miscommunication might be involved. There's always tension there but sometimes things work themselves out and hearing them laugh always makes my day. I wish there is more I can do to help but I have to remind myself that I also have myself to think about.

I also have a dear friend who has happily found the love of her life and they've been making plans for their future together, which makes me absolutely thrilled for her. Of course, with how everything's been moving, there has been that little version of me who's been scared. It's not a feeling of 'I've been replaced' but more of a feeling of 'I'm going to be forgotten'. Of course I know for a fact that this isn't true and that my friend will remain my friend, but this is one of those incidents I was mentioning where I have to repeatedly tell myself that everything is going to be alright. 

Recently, about a month ago, I received a call from one of my uncles that my cousin's mother had passed away. Taken by surprise, in the same call I learned that we had almost lost another one of my (from a completely different situation). Being the person that I've grown to be, I forced my feelings over the situation aside and made sure that everyone else was alright. Knowing that my cousin needed time to mourn, I held back commentary (knowing from personal experience when my mother passed that getting condolence messages compounded the emotions I was feeling). It wasn't until just recently, my cousin contacted me to let me know the news and apologized. I told her that she had nothing to apologize for since she literally didn't. I explained to her that our uncle had let me know and that I kept my silence because I knew that she needed to mourn and spend some much needed time with her husband and children. I let her know that she had the love and support of her friends and family so even with all of our schedules being absolute disasters, if she needed to talk that we would be there for her. 

On the At-Home front, the past month has been hectic. It started off with us getting a notice in the mail from our city that we were being warned of a violation - for parking one of our vehicles on our front lawn. We already had plans of expanding our driveway so that we could park both of our trucks there but the notice kind of kicked things into overdrive. So began the start of clearing out a section of the lawn, moving the soil into the backyard so that I can use it for my planter boxes, and trying to figure out how much materials we'll need to make the expansion. While we have this going on, we also decided to get started on other improvements our home has desperately needed. This has come in the form of new duct work, insulation (since, surprise, our attic barely had any), and getting measured for new windows. With the previous two finished last week, we are scheduled for the instillation of the windows here in another week or so. Of course this does not include having to schedule final inspection, not from the company we're working with, but our city itself since it would seem their requirements are just slightly different enough from the company's inspection where we have to have them come through to do a double check.

I think what what I might be getting at is more of a conformation to myself that even with all of the insanity that's happening on so many fronts of my life, that things will indeed be alright. May not feel that way sometimes and helplessly wanting to reassure my friends and family that it'll be alright for them as well, but I'm sure things will be. I also need to remind myself that I need to take time for myself and not take on everything alone. That aside, I will keep everyone updated on future events and shenanigans that I have going on in the background so stay tuned!

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