Baby Box: Out of ink

I fell asleep reading about monopolistic competition and now I'm really out of sorts. I thought a snack would help but all I could come up with was a bowl of crushed, unsalted saltines, salted and drizzled in olive oil. There had to be some logic in that, but I can't see it for the life of me.

Yesterday I had a much more productive day when I woke up. I drew a bunch. I even ran out of ink, so I couldn't finish this Baby Box:


Otherwise I might have started the one below. As it is I just reviewed the tabs to describe each panel.



They have quotation marks on them – get it?

Holy Grail, Batman

I made this wheel to accompany the game after I wrote last week's post, and proceeded to cannonball through to actually writing the rulebook. It's more of a manual – seventeen pages. I finished the second draft last night, and now that I've scanned this wheel (the Wheel of Fortune; a decidedly unfortunate coincidence), I can slip it into the .pdf for that sort-of polished look. Man, the stand-in wheel image...

... is actually kind of awesome, come to think of it. Check out this sketch page:


Man, then there's this tanuki over there, and my super out-of-practice hiragana – which is from last year, I've been reviewing a lot recently. Oh guh, look at my silly math, too. I wish I still knew how to do synthetic division.

Below is the actual wheel. Someone asked me if it's supposed to spin, but the game uses dice. You keep this alongside the game to refer to for when you roll little foot-jabbing tetrahedrons. Then you meet a... Mushroom, or whatever.


I'm really excited to have written up these rules. I had a bunch of other things I meant to post, and an exam to study for, but I spent the better part of last week working on the game. This morning I had a bout of insomnia, so I painted the playing pieces. The yellows may be dry enough to finish, I should go do them and fall asleep.

Now that I look at the rules again, I kind of do want to call it Mission to Mount Place. Not for now though – that'd require redrawing the playing tiles, and I'm not signing those papers til I see some testing.

Stamps

I've been working on imprint stamps lately. I made one for myself to use on my work. In fact, I think everyone should, so I've been soliciting them. No... wait... wrong word... I'm looking for the opposite of solicit. ... Doesn't matter. I made up a word this morning (the honorific suffix schli), I'm not about to push my luck and go for two.

Index Press

hard at work, minor changes here and there

I'm much better at cutting drafts for prints than I ever was at doing the same for papers in college (although I suppose you don't cut papers)

if you order anything from me it'll have that on it somewhere

Cards for You!

I've spent long hours poring over this indecipherable bestiary manuscript, and now I'm cutting the pages out and folding them in half to sell to you, if you're so inclined. What better way to celebrate antiquarian reliquary?

So if you've ever wanted to send a hydra to your favorite boss as a thank you, or squeeze your one true love with the affection of the kraken, get in touch! Cards are five dollars apiece, but less if you get more. Hand-pressed on hand-brushed card stock – it's pretty quality.

I'm working on select prints and colors to start, but if you have requests send me an email.

Now when I look at my workspace it's blurry.

Sandwiches

There's a better/best one drying this very minute to my right, but I don't have a large enough scanning bed to accommodate it. And it's not dry.

I'm either part seal, or I'm wearing a snuggy.

Damn, dog, you even talk to yourself while you draw.

Signed & Sealed

Working on inscriptions to keep the genies in for good. I misplaced a sheaf of seals, but fortunately that led to some good developments in my thinking.

Animal / Vegetable

These are for a companion project to the Bestiary; I posted the front-plate for this section a while ago. These are just proofs to get an idea of how the plates are lining up. (not always reliably, as you can tell from the third test; but we'll figure it out).

Crayon Proof

I've been carving a lot lately, but saving the plates for later. Still, crayon rubbings help me keep track of how it's going – and when you snap them in Photo Booth they suffer a very convenient horizontal flip to let you see how they'll print.

Front Plate for the Botanical Section – may become two-color as originally planned, but I kind of like it like this.

Yesterday's beast print – one more to go to meet the quota.

Planning

Some sketches for the next beast plate. Actually I just carved something completely different today, from much older plans; but this one's on the heater.