Platypus of Truth

Concept art for a clever t.v. series pitch my students came up with in study hall.

Kossil is the de facto villain for most of The Tombs of Atuan . She is a reminder of the banality of Evil. Grumpy, cross, power-hungry, murderous -Kossil doesn't think of herself as these things. If we met her on the street, might we? She simply acts as the Godking's priestess, and as the Godking's priestess, any slight to her authority, any check on her power, is a slight to the Godking -is treason. What she does, she does for the glory of the Kargad Empire and the honor of its divine ruler. What does it matter if she doesn't actually believe him to be divine? He is the one in power, the Authority, and Authority must be maintained because, in the end, Power is all there is.

A second take on Final Fantasy VI's Terra Branford, this time with Prismacolor brush-tip markers. -still needs work, but I think I'm getting the hang of the thing.

As I'm continuing to play with my Prismacolor brush-tip markers, my next experiment has been with layering. I'm used to working with whiteboard markers, and they do not mix without fouling up one or both markers. The Prismacolors, on the other hand, layer nicely without rubbing off on one another. Placing more or less pressure on the marker also changes the opacity. Goodness, I'm scared of markers! They don't allow for mistakes. After talking with several of my students, however, I've come to realize that I fear my tools and that has to change. I don't fear the paints when I'm working with miniatures (Warhammer, 40K, LotR) and that's why I'm able to achieve some actual competency with them. Now it's time to gain that confidence for the rest of the visual arts. So here's today's picture: the Priestess Thar from Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan . Thar is one of the sympathetic characters in the work. We get the idea that serving...

Here's my second attempt to get a feel for my new Prismacolor brush markers. Following Monday's sketch of Tenar, this is my attempt at Ged. There's no reference material in this case -just my own imagination.

For my first attempt at using watercolor pencils, I decided to draw Terra Branford from Square Enix's Final Fantasy VI. I've always appreciated the concept art of the series, and the work done for VI stands out as some of the best. I'm still plugging away at my free copy of II and will post first thoughts here soon.

Inspired by my students, I picked up a pack of Prismacolor brush tip markers on Saturday. To the left is my first attempt to get a feel for these new tools and what they can do. The image is from Yvonne Gilbert's cover for the 1984 paperback of The Tombs of Atuan  by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's the book my wife and I happen to be reading right now. I didn't discover Ursula Le Guin until I was almost out of college. It's a pity. These are the books I should have been reading back in junior high instead of wasting all that time on "The Re-Reads of Shannara". Oh well. Each thing has its season. What stands out to me about Le Guin's Earthsea, and The Tombs of Atuan  in particular, is her strict minimalism. Not only is her word count and vocabulary perfectly restrained -not a word more than is needed- but her world and its characters are too. That's nothing short of phenomenal in a genre where over-writing is par for the course. Le Guin allows her character...

This post has been a long time in coming, interrupted as it has been by moves and surgeries. By now, I have completed two trips through the Steam port of the DS reboot of Final Fantasy IV (America FFII). This was a touchstone game for me, though perhaps not so much as Final Fantasy I and VI (America FFIII). It certainly cemented my love of RPGs and particularly anything put out by Square in the old days. On the level of nostalgia, then, Final Fantasy IV was a hit. There were so many things that I had forgotten that the game was full of the pleasure of rediscovery both times through. My play style has certainly evolved over the years and I enjoyed being able to make better use of the spells and items available to move my characters through the game without all the endless level grinding that marked my younger days. In particular, I took a page out of Sun Tzu and decided to feed off the enemy by having Rydia repeatedly cast Stop and then getting my MP back through Osmose while the boys f...