Redback Memories

When I was very young, up untill I was about maybe 3 or 4 years old, we lived in a beautiful old house on the central coast of New South Wales, Australia. It was a lovely place to live (as you can see below) with beautiful bushland behind and only a short walk through that bushland to a very private and secluded beach on the shores of the waters of Lakes Entrance. The house is still there (as I have just discovered via google maps) and still looks the same as it did 30 or so years ago.

I was an adventurous child, and one day I climbed up on the railing of the front verandah so that I could sit on it, swing my legs over the edge and watch the world go by. Unfortunately, my balance was not as great as my sense of adventure and it was only a few moments before I fell to the ground below with a thud.

With the wind knocked out of me, I lay there for a moment, before putting my hands down beside me to raise myself up from the ground. It was then that I felt the bite. I pulled my hand up quickly and looked down to see a Redback spider slowly crawling away from the scene of the crime.

Now even though I was very young, I lived in the Australian bush and therefore our parents had taught us from a very early age about what creatures around us might hurt us and what we should do if they did. With that in mind, I squished the spider quickly with my thumb, picked it up and, still hurting a bit from the fall, walked into the house to my mother who was standing in the kitchen and told her what happened.

When she saw the dead spider in my hand she sprung into action, whisking me off to a neighbours house in order to get a lift to the local hospital.

I don't really remember much more of the story, although I have been told that on the way to the hospital I became quite ill and the area around the bite started to swell a lot. 

After all this, anyone would think that I would have a major hatred of Redback spiders and their ilk, but no. Instead, since then, I have felt somewhat of an affinity with them. I found myself being more greatful that at one of the only times time in my life when such a bite could have been potentially fatal, the little creature did nothing more than make me feel a bit poorly and leave me with a bit of a yarn to tell.

Business and busyness

So my online store 'Lee Lee and the Bee' is well underway now. I've been able to make a few sales to family, friends, friends of friends and even some complete strangers, but of course I'd love to be turning over more. I'm working now almost everyday with some aspect of the store; either designing and drawing, tweaking existing products, or trying my best to advertise across the infinite channels and tubes of the intertrons. The promotion work definately pays off on the number of total visitors I see. Some days though, I randomly see a massive spike in visitors without really doing much advertising. A bonus of course, but very curious.

(Oh and BTW, a note to my dear Australian friends: Google analytics tells me that the Americans are well in front of you on the visit-meter. Whats that about people? Are you gonna let the yanks beat you? :P )

Before I started this, I was a little worried that I would run out of ideas, or that I would become lax and slow down on my production, but so far I've been able to churn out some stuff that I am actually truly proud of, and I still have plenty of ideas floating about in my noggin. My most recent design, 'Steampunk Xmas' was not only fun to make and challenging, but also taught me about at least five new functions in photoshop.

Steampunk Xmas, greeting card by kasei_lee

Everyday has become a creative day now, which is lovely and every now and then a bit of money trickles in for all the hard work. My friend, Boogybunny, and I have set ourselves a challenge: 1000 products by yule. A tall order, but I feel I'm well on the way with 687 as of writing this. That figure might go down a little over the next few days as I try to refine the range a little more and tweak some existing products so that they look a little more professional.

Throughout all this designing, I'm still trying my best to learn Danish and go to school and get all my homework done (which admittedly, sometimes gets done quickly in the 10mins I have in the morning just before the teacher walks into the room :P). I have my second-to-last test in 2 days, and I should probably do a bit of revision for that, but right now I have a design in my head that really needs to come out.....

My online store! Yay.

All of this drawing of late and learning how to photoshop has lead me to open my own Zazzle.com store. The designs are mine, the products theirs, so I get a royalty when one of my designs sells.

Heres hoping it goes somewhere:


buy unique gifts at Zazzle

2 new pieces

The first, a new monster:


And the second, my first attempt at an idea generated from the rules laid out in the previous post:

Rise, print by kasei_lee

Generating ideas.

To anyone who actually reads this blog, it would be glaringly obvious that I am finding the monster drawing game to be a fantastic way to boost my creativity when it comes to generating ideas for drawings. It's a bit sad really that I would need something like that, and that I couldn't use my own imagination to think up a theme or character, but it is a good springboard tool into learning to think outside the box when it comes to my art.

I'm finding myself wanting to deviate from the 'rules' of the game now. Especially when I have sketched the basic outline of the character, or created a scene in the background. Sometimes the background will change my whole perception of the character, and make me want to change physical aspects of it to suit this perception. Or the shape of the character will force me to place it in a certain type of scene so that the image as a whole makes more sense to me.

I feel that, at the core, idea generators like this are really just basic guides. I'm trying to stop myself from the negative self talk of "this wasn't your idea" when I have finished creating one of these pieces, because in the end, given exactly the same criteria to stick to, every artist would produce something different.

As I was thinking about all of this, I started to wonder what other uses an artist could set some dice to, and came up with some rules for generating an entire scene, not just a singular character. I haven't yet actually used these rules (am still working on another piece) and I might end up changing them a bit here and there based on input from others, but I will post them here anyway.

Of course, I am completely open to feedback about these rules and would love to see the results should anyone put them into practice.

Artists Scene Generator.

Use a 100 sided dice (d100) or the d100 option on an online dice roller like this one.

Sky
1- 9 Sunrise
10-19 Strange cloud formations
20-29 Smoky from a fire or a battle
30-39 Contains something floating or flying.
40-49 Night-time
50-59 Sunset
60-69 Normal daylight/midday
70-79 A space type scene, with visible planets, stars etc
80-89 Stormy and/or filled with lightning.
90-100 An odd colour, based on your roll:
90 Green
91 Yellow
92 Orange
93 Purple
94 Pink
95 Red
96 Brown
97 Black
98 Aqua
99 Slate Grey
100 Salmon

Background
1-9 Plains.
10-19 Mountains.
20-29 An Ocean.
30-39 A forest.
40-49 Ruins.
50-59 A City.
60-69 Obscured by fog, rain etc.
70-79 A desert.
80-89 A small village.
90-100 Scene is set indoors. Only sky can be seen through windows.

Foreground
1-9 A road, path or corridor of some sort.
10-19 A forest or plants of some kind.
20-29 A marketplace or shop. A place where one buys items.
30-39 Indoors scene. Sky and background can be seen through windows.
40-49 Ruins.
50-59 Rocks of all shapes and sizes.
60-69 A city scene.
70-79 Water. A stream, pond, lake, ocean etc.
80-89 A graveyard.
90-100 A village scene.

Flora
1-9 Weeds.
10-19 Bonsai.
20-29 One or more sentient plants.
30-39 Flowers.
40-49 No plants at all (This roll negates any forest rolls in background and foreground. Roll these again to generate other rules.)
50-59 One or more carnivorous plants.
60-69 Something overgrown, or growing completely wild.
70-79 One or more gnarled, old trees.
80-89 One or more giant plants of some sort.
90-100 One or more very alien looking plants.

Fauna
1-9 One or more cute creatures, like bunnies or kittens etc.
10-19 A ghostly creature, or one made of smoke or shadow.
20-29 One or more mythical beasts.
30-39 One or more vicious animals. Maybe attacking or about to attack.
40-49 Insects.
50-59 Birds.
60-69 A beast of burden.
70-79 A giant creature of some sort.
80-89 No animals visible.
90-100 One or more completely normal animals.

Characters/Activities
1-9 Someone or thing not completely natural.
10-19 A visible magical occurrence.
20-29 Single lone figure.
30-39 One or many figures in an unnatural pose.
40-49 A god or goddess.
50-59 A fight or battle.
60-69 An everyday activity, something mundane.
70-79 Someone or thing out of place
80-89 A historical occurrence.
90-100 A portal.

Other (optional)
1-9 Depict love, friendship or some level of deep care.
10-19 Draw the scene as if the viewer is very, very tiny.
20-29 Make the scene look like it would be noisy.
30-39 Make the image look very, very old. As if in an old book, painted on a wall or old canvas.
40-49 Make the scene look evil.
50-59 Draw the scene as if the viewer is looking down on it.
60-69 Depict joy.
70-79 Bring grief or sadness to the image somehow.
80-89 Make it look like there would be a terrible smell.
90-100 Make the scene look religious or righteous.

Tarwntrauld

Yeppers, here is my latest monster:

A Tarwntrauld of the A'kinald realm of Morin.

These creatures are known as the 'scavengers of the past' to the A'kinald race. They live in ruined buildings and places deserted by the 'civilised' A'kinald, and make use of discarded items and food to survive.

There are stories amongst the A'kinald that Tarwntraulds are actually corrupted and twisted A'kinald. People who did not conform to the Ministriet's will, and therefore were exiled from society - a punishment slightly below death in the minds of the A'kinald. These exiles, driven mad due to their separation from civilization, haunt the old places, desperatly clinging to the hope that one day, people will return and restore them to their rightful standing in the world. According to these stories, this madness often leads a Tarwntrauld to attack and kill unwitting travellers who may stop to spend a night in old buildings. It is said, that after the killing, a Tarwntrauld will skin it's victim, and wear the skin like a suit, in the hope of covering up it's deformities enough so that they may once again walk unhindered amongst the A'kinald.

Although these myths have never been substantiated, the stories bought back to villages and cities by travellers often tell of fearful nights spent in forlorn, uninhabited ruins. Where strange noises and fleeting glimses of shapes in the shadows send chills down even the most hardened warriors spine.

More Monster Madness

Yep, I'm still loving this monster drawing game. Although I have been sick with the flu for the past week and I haven't done as many drawings as I would have liked, I was still able to finish up this one.

Hotarbo

Dice rolls:

Body - 100 - Fish; long body, complete with scales, fins and tail.
Head - 69 - Bird-like.
Nose - 66 - Animal snout, like that of a boar, hog or fox.
Eyes - 44 - Small eyes that are an unnatural red, yellow, or black.
Mouth - 34 - Human mouth but twice as large as normal with large, pointed, crooked teeth.
Arms/hands - 66 - Three-fingered claws (and a thumb) with muscular arms. Monkey- like in shape and length.
Legs/feet - 86 - Animal-like; hoves or like bear.
Other Features - 98 - Covered in fur.
Skin - 15 - Redish brown.

A member of the A'kinald race and her hotarbo, a beast of burden.

Hotarbos are used for land and sea travel and also hold their own in battle. Hotarbos are difficult to train and to do so, one must acquire them moments after they hatch from their pupa. The Hotarbo bonds instantly to it's owner and can never be ridden or comanded by anyone else because of this bond.

They are omnivores, but their favourite food is the blue fruit of the Nodocus Tree

....and, I am currently working on a new one. You know, just for kicks :P

Dice and Monsters.

I've been at the graphics tab again.

My friend The Bunny posted a game on our forum which utilises dice and a set of rules to generate some guidelines for drawing random monsters. Apparently she found it over on the Something Awful forums and helped it migrate it's way around the internet.

I, of course, have been completely taking in by this idea. Generally, I struggle for good ideas for character drawing, so I am finding this an absolute blessing. I've discovered that these sets of rules not only help with the basic shape and features of the characters themselves but, once they begin to take form, I start to get an image in my head of the world in which they live they and general feel for their personal story. This makes placing them in a setting so much easier, so it is helping me with landscape and scene drawing as well.

My skills with the graphics tab are still fairly limited - or perhaps, I should say that my skills with Photoshop and/or Corel Painter X are still limited - but doing stuff like this makes me think more about light and shape, which in turn forces me to discover how to use those functions in whatever program I am using.

Another awesome thing about this little game, is that it not only asks you to be visually creative, but literarily creative as well. Part of bringing a character to life, is to write a little introduction for them - where they are from, what their lifestyle is like, etc - and for me that has been great fun as well. So far, all my characters have been connected through the fact that they live in the same 'fantasy realm', and I'm thinking that whatever characters I roll from here on in will also live in the same place. Maybe then I will have the start of a fairly odd storybook or something.

So following are the 3 characters I have created so far, and their stories. I'll also pop the character rules at the end of this post, just so that any readers can give it a go if they so feel the need.

Zuldech

Rolls:

66 - Body -Looks like a buddha (fat and bald)
36 - Head -Skeletal human with sunken features
51 - Nose - Bird nose; can be shaped like a hawk or sparrow.
25 - Eyes - Large round eyes that are white, pink, pale blue, green or clear like a crystal ball.
23 - Mouth - Human mouth with fangs and sharp teeth.
53 - Arms/hands - Thin and gnarled arms, muscular but misshapen. The hands are skeletal with long clawed fingers.
100 - Legs/feet - No feet or legs, snail-like trunk; slithers.
87 - Other Features - Hunchback.
62 - Skin Colour - Light Blue

Story:

Zuldech and he is a holy man of the Iaingath race.

Once a year, Zuldech journeys to the swamp outside his village to make an offering to the goddess Chadastsya. This offering is made to ensure health, harmony and abundance for his people. Whilst in a trance he speaks with the goddess and is granted a gift - usually a glowing crystal of power - to take back to the village to bear witness to the fact that Chadastsya's favour is with them.

Chadastsya

Rolls:

95 -Body- Humanoid but giant.
46 -Head- Large and round like a melon
62 -Nose- Animal snout, like that of a boar, hog or fox.
49 -Eyes- Small eyes that are an unnatural red, yellow, or black.
36 -Mouth- Human mouth but twice as large as normal.
85 -Arms/hands- Five arms of equal size and proportion.
61 -Legs/feet- Bird-like, spindly, stick legs and clawed bird feet.
45 -Other features -Lumpy pink or white flesh.
68 -Colour- Light Blue


Story:

This is the goddess Chadastsya.

Revered by Osang, Iaingath (of which the holy man Zuldech is a member) and A'kinald alike, she moves largely in the shadows of swamps, forests and caves. She is one of the seven imortals who's task it is to watch over the triple layered realm of Morin and guide it's inhabitants.

Chadastsya is considered to be the giver of life and the keeper of the harvests. It is through her grace and guidance that the crops of Morin are able to thrive and therefore feed the 3 races that live there

Gyolanyx

Rolls:

85 - Body -Bird; barrel chested, broad upper body, narrow lower abdomen, short thick neck.
72 - Head - Human but like a rotting skeleton
45 - Nose - Large flat like that of an ape, two times larger than that of a normal
97 - Eyes - One large round eye that is pale blue or violet
81 - Mouth - Large flabby mouth, quivering lips, no teeth
42 - Arms/hands - Muscular human arms that have clawed hands with 2 fingers and a thumb.
14 - Legs - Perfectly human, no claws
62 - Other Features - No hair on body, pale skin
4 - Skin Colour - Brown or Tan


Story:

His name is Gyolanyx and he is a villager in the Osang dimension of Morin. Osang are a fairly peaceful race. They prefer a simple hunter/gatherer over the more city-state, civilization hungry lifestyle of the A'kinald or the spiritually mystical Iaingath people. Most Osang are actually quite disbeliving of the fact that there are other dimensions of Morin, with other races and other places occupying the same space/time as them. They prefer to think of the interactions that happen between the races and dimensions as dreams. Or perhaps fairy stories told to frighten or subdue. Osang that actually experience a crossing of dimensions in Morin are usually looked on as slightly mad, and are pitied by their community.

The Osang are a peculiar race. Once a year, they shed all of their skin and muscle, starting at their heads, untill all that is left of them is their thick, heavy bones held together by sinews at the joints. The fact that all of their internal organs are actually held within the bone makes them look like a walking skeleton. They live this way for 3 weeks and during this period (called the Ossein Time) an Osang is celebrated by their family and peers. Each Osang looks forward to their Ossein Time and at the first signs of it they will proudly display their rotting flesh and clean the white bone beneath.

Gyolanyx has just returned from picking Uopehei Berries, so that his wife Kelynxy can start preparing his Ossein Cake

The Rules.

As I said, this is taken from a post on the Something Awful forums, the author of which in turn transcribed it from a role-playing book "Rifts World Book 8: Japan".

You will need a 100 sided dice (or 2 x 10 sided - one for the first digit and one for the second) or you can use this online set of roleplaying dice and clicking "roll" next to the purple d100 dice.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm

General Body Shape
01-20 Perfectly human
21-50 Broad, muscular human.
51-60 Skeletal human.
61-65 Lumpy blob like a snail.
66-70 Looks like a buddha (fat and bald)
71-80 Toad; large, round, fat and flabby with no neck.
81-90 Bird; barrel chested, broad upper body, narrow lower abdomen, short thick neck.
91-95 Humanoid but giant, 8 feet (2.4 m).
96-00 Fish; long body, complete with scales, fins and tail.

Head Shape
01-05 Wild Boar
06-15 Lion/cat
16-30 Human
31-40 Skeletal human with sunken features
41-45 Monkey
46-55 Large and round like a melon
56-60 Fish-like
61-65 Snake-like
66-70 Bird-like
71-80 Human but looks like a rotting skeleton
81-90 Neanderthal-like with a basic but larger, thicker human skull,
thick eyebrow ridges and square chin
91-95 Fox/canine-like
96-00 Rat-like

Nose
01-10 Normal human nose.
11-20 Bulbous nose three times larger than a normal human.
21-30 Pointed nose three times larger than a normal human.
31-50 Large, wide, flat nose like that of an ape, two times larger than a normal human.
51-60 Bird nose; can be shaped like a hawk or sparrow.
61-70 Animal snout, like that of a boar, hog or fox.
71-80 Tiny nose; can be any of the above types (choose or roll) but two times smaller than normal.
81-85 Snake nose; two small holes or slits above the mouth.
86-90 Rat nose.
91-00 No nose; not even an opening for one.

Eyes
01-10 Large human eyes with a wild or crazed look to them.
11-20 Huge almond-shaped eyes that glow red like a fire or sparkling gold, yellow, amber, or orange.
21-40 Large round eyes that are white, pink, pale blue, green or clear like a crystal ball.
41-50 Small eyes that are an unnatural red, yellow, or black.
51-60 Snake eyes that sparkle gold or silver.
61-70 Bird eyes the look like jade.
71-80 Normal human eyes.
81-90 Roll again for eye shape (or pick one), but has four of them.
91-00 One large round eye that is a pale blue or violet.

Mouth
01-10 Large toad-like mouth filled with large, flat teeth in a perfect
row; flabby lips.
11-20 Human mouth and crooked teeth.
21-30 Human mouth with fangs and sharp teeth.
31-40 Human mouth but twice as large as normal with large, pointed, crooked teeth.
41-50 Large monkey-like mouth filled with sharp teeth and large fangs.
51-60 Large toad mouth, no lips, just a long slit for a mouth filled with tiny, sharp teeth.
61-70 Canine-like mouth and short muzzle filled with canine teeth and fangs.
71-80 Large mouth with flabby, quivering lips, filled with large, flat,
crooked teeth.
81-90 Large mouth with flabby, quivering lips, with NO teeth.
91-00 Tiny slit for a mouth, half the size of a normal human; no lips,
tiny teeth and a thin snake's tongue.

Arms & Hands
01-20 Perfectly human. No claws.
21-30 A pair of large, oversized, muscular arms and a third,
smaller arm with two clawed fingers and a thumb.
31-45 Muscular human arms with clawed hands that have two fingers and a thumb.
46-56 Thin and gnarled arms, muscular but misshapen. The hands are skeletal with long clawed fingers.
57-67 Three-fingered claws (and a thumb) with muscular arms. Monkey- like in shape and length.
68-75 Squirrel or rat-like in shape and length, short and spindly with
small articulated hands and fingers.
76-85 Five arms of equal size and proportion.
86-95 Bird-like clawed hands and powerful arms.
96-00 Octopus-like tentacles instead of arms; twice as long as human arms.

Legs & Feet
01-15 Perfectly human. No claws.
16-25 Monkey-like in shape and length: short, stubby legs; walks in a waddling manner and lopes on all fours when running. Prehensile feet.
26-50 Classic oni: upper legs are powerfully built, lower legs a bit thin. Feet have two large, clawed toes.
51-60 Skeletal shaped legs with the classic two-toed, clawed feet.
61-70 Bird-like, spindly, stick legs and clawed bird feet.
71-80 Human feet with clawed toes.
81-90 Animal-like; hover or like bear.
91-00 No feet or legs, snail-like trunk; slithers.

Other Features
01-07 Tail of a rat.
08-14 Skin is covered with tiny scales.
15-21 Pair of small horns.
22-28 Pair of large horns.
29-35 Large mane of hair, black, red, gold or green in color.
36-42 Bushy eyebrows and a scraggly beard.
43-49 Lumpy pink or white flesh.
50-56 Hairy body with tan or red skin.
57-64 No hair on the body; pale skin.
65-72 Boils or scabs cover the body.
73-80 Pot belly, but otherwise muscular.
81-87 Hunchback.
88-94 Tail of a lizard.
95-00 Covered in fur.

Skin Color
01-10 Brown or Tan
11-20 Reddish Brown
21-30 Light or Dark Red
31-40 Fiery Red
41-50 Light Green
51-60 Jade Green
61-70 Light Blue
71-80 Pale Grey
81-90 Stark White or Ivory
91-00 Mustard/Yellow Brown

I'm off now to roll more dice.

Giraffes!! Reloaded!

Here is my latest giraffe for The One Million Giraffes Project.

My 'Giraffe Flower Fairy' on One Million Giraffes:
http://www.onemilliongiraffes.com/?id=6762

My previous giraffes can be seen in this post.

Fire.

I had almost forgotten that when the husband and I went down to watch the bonfire for Sankt Hans Aften at the Århus Boat Harbour, I had taken a few little videos of the fire with my very dodgy old digital camera.

Unfortunately, this dodgy old camera refuses to record sound and the picture quality is really trashy, but for now it suffices. The fact that it does not record sound though means that I get to be a little creative and add my own.

Thanks to some great open source sound mixing software called Audacity, and to a fantastic website called Freesound.org, (a huge collection of Creative Commons licensed sound and music samples), I was able to come up with something slightly realistic and ethereal to add to my little silent movie.




To learn more about Sankt Hans Aften, I found this little explanation to be quite insightful:
http://www.epinions.com/content_1470341252