Scent of Spring News

This and That

Pavane in Pearl and Emerald
Word Count: 85426

The title picture for Flag in Flames progresses. I managed to paint flames on the flag that look somewhat like flames, but I didn't get that “yeah, that's it!” feeling. Boyd thinks that the flames themselves are okay, but they're distributed wrong. For the lack of any ideas of my own, I will probably try his suggestions and see if I think it's an improvement. I also appear to have done something funky with the texture on her hand blaster. In the test renders the blaster was small enough that the funkiness of the texture didn't show up, and at this point I'd far rather postwork it than re-render anything. Other than that, I think I just need to do something with the title text, and then I'm on to modeling Tortuga Station so I can use it on page 2.

I haven't been getting any work done on Chaos Circle, which is theoretically my current alternate graphics project. It seems that I don't mind switching from modeling something to working on a different picture, but I can't convince myself to switch back and forth between two different pictures. Interesting.

I have also started a new project. (What's that I hear? Cries of “good grief, not another one”? But I have a good excuse, honest!)

Ever since I finished the Flag in Flames sketches I've missed having something to work on when I'm not on the computer — like when I'm rendering something and its going to take at least six hours, and anything I do on the computer at the same time will slow it down. So I decided that that other idea I had that wanted to be a graphic novel but that I had been ignoring (mostly) because Black Flag had priority, would get its turn far sooner than anticipated. It's just this little romance I dreamed up (literally), that I'm currently calling “Scent of Spring”. I'm going to draw it. That is, draw it for real, and not just sketches.

The drawings will probably be disastrous — especially if my five year old keeps coming in and jogging my elbow — but it'll be a fun learning experience anyway, right?

I've been reading “how to” books and some talk about setting up a studio, and I'm thinking yeah, right! I'm going to be working in bed –or if my kids are in my bed because they wanted to use my laptop to play Sims2 or multi-player something and didn't bother moving it elsewhere, I might be working while reclining on the couch. I need something that is portable, and non-spillable. Which means, no nib pens and india ink, nor a lot of other stuff they recommend either. Current plan –> colored pencils.

So far this week I've done twenty five pages of handwritten script. (Only it's really more like twenty three because of all the scribbled out bits in the most recent part.) I'm about half way. 🙂

Author's Note on Verdaia

I kept dreaming up these stories that seemed like fantasy or historical romances. But if they were fantasies, where was the magic? And if they were historicals, why couldn't I recognize any of the settings? I finally decided that all these story ideas were set on the same non-magical world, and named it Verdaia.

Verdaia has different geography than earth, and a different history, but is otherwise very much like earth. For me the fun of this world is in building cultures remincient of earth cultures, and yet not exactly the same.

Keywords: Fantasy without magic, Imaginary History, secondary world, Verdaia,


 
Quote from Scent of Spring
 
'A widow with money is always more beautiful than a wife with the same face.'
 
-- Prince Harchung
 
 
Copyright © Michelle Bottorff

Email mbottorff at lshelby period com