Monday, September 1, 2014

Summer 2014 Updates

Here are some updates with regard to my gaming activities.

I have been able to make some small strides in supporting the Old School Renaissance by publishing some art in Basic Fantasy RPG's very own Adventure Anthology 1.  Chris Gonnerman, the author and all around BFRPG head guru and Game Master extraordinaire, selected a handful of pieces I created based on a general request in the BFRPG forums.  I'm pretty active there from time to time posting my drawings so folks can have fun with them.  I'm quite honored to put some work out there in book you can print on demand and get a decent copy.  In fact, here is my Amazon ordered copy:

 One of my pieces created in collaboration with Deviant Art stock photographer and model Dewfooter, was selected to sit right there on the first page.  As you can see, the black and white image came out crystal clear.  All text was readable and indistinguishable from older forms of printing!  Quite the improvement, and sadly better than DriveThruRPG printing at this time (a copy of Skyward Steel I purchased for my father didn't come out that cleanly).
Reading this wonderful supplement, I have many available places to put PC's into if I get around to GM'ing a BFRPG, Microlite D20, OSRIC, or Swords and Wizardry campaign.  Most are smaller locations that can be plugged into a larger campaign, or alternately get someone into a good one shot game.

Next up on my workbench, I'm working on some 1:12th scale figurines for practice.  You can see my wire and epoxy armatures on top of a unique sheet I created using some top notch sculpting reference drawings from Massive Voodoo (Male and Female drawing pages).  We shall see how long these take to turn into suitable miniatures.

YouTube is one of the best resources alongside blogs like Massive Voodoo and good books by Katherine Dewey.  I'm not going to get into the details for these miniatures unless I finish them.  Even then, if I do there are going to be a lot of links to follow.  Not a bad thing however.  I don't know how many tricks I've picked up just because I found some random artists blog that leads me through links to a video that is very helpful.

Finally, I'm working on a WH40K piece.  A Tyranid Hive Tyrant I picked up four or five years ago, back when they were part pewter and part polystyrene.  I like the effects I'm achieving with Liqitex acrylics.  I also like how I can purchase a tube of Liquitex for less than a single can of Citadel paint.  I use the Liquitex Basic series of colors, and thin it down with rubbing alcohol or ammonia based window cleaner spray.  Nothing but brush, and dry brushing here folks.  Just take some time to mix your color pallet! I have to say, my work is maturing very nicely ever since I learned how to manage those acrylics for painting in my 2D Design course!  Well worth knocking out that pesky humanities credit with an art course!

I can't promise too much more over the next few months.  Tomorrow begins another fun filled quarter at my local community college where I am pursuing an Associates Degree in Precision Machine CNC Tool and Die.  Good thing about that is knowing what I'm going to do when I graduate, and having an in demand job.