Crafty Update

Hello my dearest readers,

 

Tonight I have just a quick update, but lots of pictures.  I’ve been doing some character sketches in my moleskine for an idea I had for a story/comic/something.  It’s about a crew of wayward airship pirates and their quests to glory.  Well, it’s more than that.  But it’s going to be steampunk-ish, without being too over-the-top.

 

The tree above is something I did with watercolors, and I was surprised at how much fun I had doing it.  Normally I prefer acrylics over watercolors, but whatever I did this time seemed to work, and I’m really happy with how this came out.

I’m also planning to try doing some cartography work on leather, using acrylic paints to do some maps, perhaps of Westeros or other familiar fantasy places.  I recently saw a map on Tumblr done that way, and loved how it came out.

In the Etsy shop, I have a new dice bag available – the Freestanding Dice Bag in Suede.  I made one version in brown suede, and was ecstatic when it sold just a few hours after I listed it.  It’s been re-listed, and I plan to make a second version in the smoky gray suede to list as well.  Those pictures are shown below.

 

 

Per-suede Me.

I recently picked up some suede, and have been making it into dice bags. Let me just say that this fabric is incredible, and I love working with it. I have two colors, a smoky gray and a rich sienna. I think the pictures have come out really well – I took them both on the map I’ve been working on, with dice scattered around.

The smoky gray suede bag is perfect for moodier gaming days. The color is reminiscent of a stormy day, the sky flashing thunder and lightning as the dice roll.

The rich sienna suede dice bag is more of a traditional fantasy bag. It’s easy to imagine this bag hanging from the belt of a warrior or a wizard, holding spell components or a handful of coins for that night’s ale at the tavern.

I’ve also been continuing with my 365 Sketch Project. So far I’ve been getting at least one sketch a day done, which you can see at my Tumblr. It’s a mix of Mouse Guard fan art, pin up girls, and random other sketches. I’m really enjoying it so far, and I can’t wait to have 365 full days of sketching done.

12/365

I’m a little behind on posting these here, I think.  I’m on 12/365 in my daily 365 Sketch Project.  No failures so far.

 

You can follow my Tumblr for daily updates – it’s a little easier for me to post the sketches there instead of here.  thekiltedgerman.tumblr.com is the address.  Thanks for reading!

 

5/365 Fancy Nancy

Day 5 of 365. This is fancy Nancy in his suit and coat. Done in my Moleskine. Lots of cross hatching on this one.
I think I prefer sketching mice with swords. Eventually I feel my drawings will get better. Part of my doing this project is to improve my illustration skills. I want to practice doing different body types as well, and that may be part of tomorrow’s sketch.

4/365 Guardsmouse Mikel

 

Guardsmouse Mikel, performing a Zornhau.  I have a huge interest in German medieval swordsmanship.  Johannes Liechtenauer was a swordmaster in the 1500′s who pretty much started the tradition, or at least wrote most of it down in code.

The Zornhau is the “strike of wrath”.  If you are holding your sword in the “Vom Tag” position, basically at your shoulder, the Zornhau is performed by taking a step forward with your leading foot as you swing the sword in a downward arc at your opponent.  You’d block this blow with the “Ochs” position, and bind your opponent’s blade.

 

…I also learned that mice are hard to draw like this, because their knees are ambiguously placed somewhere in fur.  No worries.  David Petersen’s Mouse Guard is still awesome.

 

This is illustration 4 of 365 in my 365 Drawing Project.  Thanks for reading.

3/365

I need to do these earlier in the day.

 

Nordic-themed mice with swords continue.  I’m having fun with the weapons and the runes.  I had a name for this guy, and then I was so in the moment with the sketching that I forgot it.

 

2/365

Mouse Guard illustration.  Day 2 of 365.  December 31st, 2011.  This is Guardmouse Olaf.  My obsession continues. Done on the inside cover of my new Moleskines, which arrived yesterday thanks to a wonderful Christmas gift of an Amazon gift card.

The paper on the new Moleskine sketchbooks is thinner than the one I purchased about two years ago, which makes me sad.  I’m hoping it will still hold up to what I have planned.  I want to try some urban sketching with light ink washes.  I was counting on the thicker paper to hold up better to the watercolors/inks.

 

1/365

I’m going to be trying(keyword) to do a sketch/illustration/doodle every day.  It’s a 365 project.  I’ll try my best to post them here, and will also have them on my Tumblr – thekiltedgerman.tumblr.com

I don’t own a scanner, so they will consist of iPhone pictures for the time being.  This is number 1.  It’s a Mouse Guard piece that I did for fun.  I’ve been obsessed with Mouse Guard lately, and my wife got me the RPG box set for Christmas.  I might be drawing a lot of mice with medieval weaponry for the next few weeks.

I’m also thinking about restarting my Zibbet shop, and focusing on cartography.  Illustrated maps of fantasy locations, basically.  I’m working on a Mouse Guard map right now that I’ll try to post pictures of in the next few days.  I’m pretty happy with it.

 

A Gallimaufry of Words

A gallimaufry is defined as: a hodgepodge, jumble, or confused medley.

Today’s post will be somewhat like that, because I have no idea what I’ll be talking about.  It’s dark, and late, and my wife is working for another few hours.  I find that on days where she works the closing shift I always get somewhat morose and depressed after dark.  It doesn’t help that it gets dark at 5:30.

I’ve been working on more dice bags for my store.  This is a new design, made so that it stands up on the gaming table.  The bottom is a square or circle, which lets the bag stand on its own and means that it’s easy to reach in and grab the dice that you want, instead of having to fumble or spread your dice across the table. I really like this design, and the way the bags are made also makes them reversible, which means I can use two really cool but different fabrics to make them, and the buyer can simply turn whichever fabric he or she likes to the outside.  I’ll put up some pictures at the bottom of the post.

Speaking of store, Christmas is coming up and that means that Greyed Out is having a holiday sale.  Using the code HOLIDAYS15 will get you 15% off on your order.  I’m not sure what the shipping deadlines for Christmas are, but I’m happy to work with buyers to do a faster shipping method than my usual USPS Priority mail .

I haven’t been drawing much lately, and I regret that – I really should be drawing daily to improve.  I’ve heard that James Gurney, who writes and illustrates the Dinotopia books, sketches everywhere and almost any subject.  Which, to be honest, is a wonderful way to improve and keep up your skills.  He uses a large Moleskine Watercolour notebook, which is a great size for on-the-go sketching.  I’ve never used the Watercolour notebooks; I prefer the large Moleskine Sketchbook, but at some point I’d love to try out the Watercolour.

Unfortunately, I’ve come to the end of my current Moleskine – it has a single page left, at the very back next to the pocket.  I can’t afford to get a new one right now, but I think it will be on my Christmas list. They’re only $13 from the Book Depository website with free shipping, which is a great value.  I really like the large sketchbook Moleskine for doodling in, because it holds ink really well, and I also use it for journaling.  The 100 pages are enough to last almost a year, and the one I’ve just finished will be my third one done.

Kathryn and I picked up a small Christmas tree at Hobby Lobby the other day – it’s pretty cute, and stands only about three and a half feet tall.  It’s sitting next to the television.  Her mom is coming down to visit for Christmas, which is exciting – we don’t get to see her very much anymore due to her new job in San Francisco.

Gallimaufry!  I’m willing to try my hand at portraits and illustrations for a bit of extra Christmas cash.  I can do pets, people, Dungeons and Dragons character, whatever.  I can either create the art and then have it scanned, and email the finished jpeg, or I can ship out the original.  I don’t mind doing either.  Each illustration can be done in watercolor, acrylic paints, colored pencil, or black and white with regular pencils.  The largest I can do is 11″x14″.  They would be $40 each, $45 if you’d like the original shipped to you.  Contact me at greylikestorms(at)gmail(dot)com to discuss your preferences.

On to the pictures.  These are available in my Etsy store, http://www.greyedout.etsy.com

Road to Recovery

Hi Guys!Welcome to the blog!

 

Welcome to the blog!

A big welcome to any readers that may have arrived here via the Handmade blog!  I did a few sketches to say hi…

I’m feeling better than I was at the beginning of the week, though my nose is still stuffed up.  Thankfully the runny, watery eyes have stopped; that’s always the worst part of my being sick.  I ended up taking a day where I basically slept all day, and that probably helped quite a bit.

Etsy-wise, I’m trying to gear up for the holidays, but it’s difficult to come up with great holiday items when you’re on a shoestring budget of almost $0.  I’m going to be sewing some gift bags out of a great green fabric that I have, and probably will also try for some Christmas themed illustrations.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic the past week or so, thinking back on the days when I used to collect Knights of the Dinner Table magazine.  For those who have never heard of it, it’s a comic strip that was created by Jolly Blackburn way back in about 1990 or so, as filler for his small magazine Shadis.  The strip is about a group of role-players called the Knights of the Dinner Table; B.A, their gamemaster, along with Bob and Dave, Sarah, and Brian.  If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons, then this comic is for you.  The group gets into all sorts of trouble, and usually drives B.A. crazy with their in-party bickering, rules lawyering, and min-maxing of rules.  I think they are currently on issue #180.  I have most of the comic’s run from roughly #27-#107.  I stopped collecting several years ago because I couldn’t find a reliable comic shop to get it at, and because at the time I was moving too much to get a subscription(back and forth between south Texas and Canyon, and so on).

That means I’m only about 70 issues behind… no big deal, right?  Thankfully, the company that makes the magazine, Kenzerco, has a Special Collection offer where you can get issues 101-124 for $40, including shipping.  Incredible deal, and as poor as I am, it will definitely go on my Christmas wish list.  If any kind soul out there wants to be an angel, the link to the collection is here, and you can email me or comment for my address:  http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_23_55&products_id=704     (It never hurts to ask nicely, right?)

To get a taste of the Knights, you can also check out the webstrips here:  http://www.kenzerco.com/Operiodicals/kodt/kodt%20webstrips/phpslideshow.php?directory=.&currentPic=4    ….That’s an awfully long link.  If it doesn’t work, http://www.kenzerco.com is the main website, and the webstrips are findable through it as well.

Thinking back fondly on Knights of the Dinner Table has me thinking about drawing some roleplayer-related comics.  I’ve been gaming since high school, so I have plenty of inspiration to draw from, and I think it might be fun to experiment a bit and see what comes out of my head.

Kenzerco as a company also does a lot of RPG’s, including a western-themed on called Aces and Eights.  I own the main rulebook, and lately I’ve been wanting to read through it again and explore the wild west in an alternate history setting.  In A&E(ights), the United States is broken into several different countries, with a large part of the Northwest still being US Territories.  The RPG, while it does have a section on combat, also goes into incredible detail on day-to-day activities like cattle ranching, surveying and prospecting for gold, and things like cattle drives.  It’s one of the things I like best about the game – it doesn’t force you to stick to standard adventures, and actually encourages you to do things like buy land, start a business, and so on.  It’s really pretty brilliant.

Tonight is scheduled to be cold, so our windows will stay closed tonight and our blankets piled high.  The low last night was 30*, which I very much consider to be winter weather.  Thankfully during the day it still gets reasonable, and we don’t yet have daytime temps in the 30′s or 40′s.  Soon we’ll need to turn the heating on, which I’m hoping to avoid as long as possible to keep the electric bill down.  We’ve been lucky this fall, in that for the past few months we’ve had both heating and air conditioning off completely.

Speaking of winter nights, it’s almost bed time for me, so I’ll wrap this up here.  Again, welcome to all the new readers!  Hopefully you’ll find something you like.  Please do feel free to leave a comment and say hello.