Dicebox Process Journal

Probably not worth the wait, but what the heck.

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:51:02 GMT

Okay, near a month later, here's the follow-up/continuation to the last post in this journal. Which I promised, um, well, a month ago.

All right lead up to the purpose(?) of this drawing was to explain how I always learn something about my characters and story from the fill-ins folks do for me and that what I learned from Patrick's was that I just don't push the metaphor's far enough. And so I was redesigning Molly and Griffen to reflect the elemental nature of each book and as the next book was water, well, then they should have forms appropriate to that element. And so, as the next book was the Book of Water:

Hey, this was to be an April Fool goof off post, not the height of wit. Also a chance to take cheap shots at my characters.

The punchline to all this (such as it is) will be up in the next couple of days,

And

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:43:18 GMT

Over a year later, another for the sketch table. Cause drawing pregnant Griffen was too hard to resist, given my current condition.

2 hours, pencil and watercolor

Music to think by

Thu, 29 May 2008 05:03:29 GMT

Like all good geeks, I have made a mix tape soundtrack for my story. You know, the Dicebox thing I do. I've actually made three so far and will end up with five or so by the time I'm done.

The first mix I made back in 2003 and named it "Under and Overture." It's a quick musical mood overview of the whole of Dicebox; the next four mixes are done for each Book of the story. Here are the cover and playlist I made for the CD I made for friends:

It begins and ends with songs from two albums I listened to exhaustively in college and I can can point to as early influences for Dicebox: Jane Siberry's the Speckless Sky and Tom Waits' Rain Dogs. Actually the entire albums are good mood music for Dicebox, supplemental soundtracks in a way. This is also true for Poe's Haunted and Michelle Shocked's Captain Swing.

The origin of the soundtracks are the collection of songs I've long paced to with headphones on while thinking about the story of Dicebox. They either create the right mood for a passage or spark imagery for me. I gradually made note of those I felt really spoke to the story and arranged them in suitable order.

Now, the reason I'm sharing this with you now is that I've been recently been made aware of the website Muxtape (thanks Dylan!) that allows one to share a selection of songs (their mix tape) with the internet. And that's what I've done with my Under and Overture, broken into two parts* by necessity:

Under and Overture, side A
Under and Overture, side B

I'll leave this mix in place for a couple of months and then switch it out with the soundtrack for Book 1 : Wander. Enjoy.

* and two accounts, mine and Kip's by use agreement.

Frontispiece for Dicebox : Book 1 : Wander

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:40:07 GMT

First off, that is exactly what I based my design for the Dicebox homepage on, the frontispiece of a book. Here are some examples from books from the 1600s:


Ovid's Metamorphosis	The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

(Click images for larger views.)

Note the pillars in each example; this is a reference to an architectural frontispiece which "constitutes the elements that frame and decorate the main, or front, door to a building; especially when the main entrance is the chief face of the building, rather than being kept behind columns or a portico." (definition courtesy of Wikipedia)Also note the pair of framing figures in iconic clothing surrounded by all sorts of symbolism.

Since Dicebox was started as a way for me to process stories throughout my life and since the earliest way I remembered getting stories that meant something to me was through books, this was a natural choice for the story's homepage. I will be creating a new frontispiece for each book which will then take up their traditional place in the printed collections.

Now for the symbolism.

Obviously much of it relates to Molly and Griffen but all of it is influenced by the particular Book of Dicebox it fronts. This is Wander, the book of Earth and Plants, the Black book, South, Summer and so on. Hence the black background, the idyllic summer landscape with a prominent mountain and so on. (I did make an entry in my Process Journal which illustrates and somewhat explains how I've organized the four Books of Dicebox and why.)

Before I list the symbols that are Molly and Griffen specific, let me emphasize that they are not opposites; they are partners. I paired the symbolism on this page evenly between them in categories, sometimes it's classically opposing aspects, sometimes they are items the same category, and sometimes they are two parts of an equation.

The Pillars

The capitals (or crowns) are Green Men which also form the masks of Comedy and Tragedy. Green Men make repeated appearances throughout the entirety of Dicebox; there have already been three in this first book. (As this dissection of the frontispiece will be lengthy as it is, I will explore why this figure fascinates me in some other time and place.) Molly's Green Man is comprised of Hawthorne, Griffen's is Alder implying all the further symbolism tied up in those trees. The aspects of Comedy and Tragedy aren't really that character specific, they mostly are announcing a story. I made the decision who got which on who seemed unhappier throughout this Book (it was close).

Topping the Green Men are the Moon and a Beetle for Molly and the Sun and a Bee for Griffen. The celestial symbols are due to their essential presence more than any implication of gender roles or primacy. Molly's insect is a beetle because they are associated with secrets and cycles of awareness. The bee is associated with Griffen for its link to speech and thought as well as the ritual uses of honey. (The Sacred Bee by Hilda Ransome will give all the particulars)

The base of the capitals is an egg-and-dart pattern with a kanji symbol in the center. Molly's character is rou, a root of flesh, a carcass cut open; Griffen's is gua, a root of bone, representing a skull and vertebrae. I chose the egg-and-dart pattern because of the variety of interpretations I have heard of its meaning: life and death, male and female, symbol of Aphrodite (to go with the symbol of Hermes of the top bar) and so on.

The symbols contained in square plaque that begins the shaft of the pillar are very character specific. The dominating center symbol represents their place of origin: Molly is from Korsevei, which means crossroads in Norwegian and Griffen is from Aaleth, an arctic-like planet which has an artificially created green space around the equator named the Ouroboros for obvious reasons. The squares in Molly's represent Earth and the triangles in Griffen's are for fire. The symbol in the top left corner of Molly's is an electrical notation of "ground" which pairs with the on in Griffen's upper right representing "fuse." The symbol in the lower right of Molly's is for salt and Griffen is blocking hers for for sulfur.

The base of the pillars are decorated with the mystical representation of each character's celestial object, interspersed with the stage in the poppy's cycle the best aligns with each; Molly is the Bloom, Griffen is the Seeds.

The Objects

I'll start with the "female" and "male" tools: Molly has the broom for all it's association with protection and controlling influence, Griffen has a distaff as she is the storyteller of the two. Likewise Griffen has a saw given her tongue and Molly the hammer as she is the stabilizer.

Molly's coins at her feet and Griffen's blade are nods to where I feel they are in the classic Tarot categories, thought you'll want to refer to this journal entry as to how I place Swords.

The cat and the crow are the common animals that best represent their respective personalities; is they had familiars, it would be these animals.

Molly and Griffen

First off, I should mention that the color red is their color. As to why, let me refer to my response to Dylan when she asked me on the Dicebox Forum:

I've acknowledged to myself ages ago that Dicebox is, beyond being about Molly and Griffen, a call and response to all the stories I grew up with and ever encountered. So I spent some time exploring certain recurring and dominant themes of classic tales and myths, researching them and forming my own response to them. The hell with Joseph Campbell. You won't see most of this directly addressed within Dicebox--it will be often be even more than subtext, more like 3rd sub-basement text. It's the flavor and my personal unifying force.

Naturally I was going to delve into color symbolism--and this was still when I thought Dicebox was going to end up being black & white. Each Book has been assigned a color as well as other forces. And red is first and foremost blood to me.

I don't think it's any secret that I am interested in female energy and roles in stories, along with other border walkers such as tricksters and the like. Repeatedly, blood is aligned with women and border places. Death, birth, the river surrounding Faerie, blood on the snow, blood in the shoe. And then there's the whole idea of blood as guilt by association. Can't trust a woman 'cause they bleed 3 days a month and don't die of it. (This leads me back to the Southpaws thread--female energy is often associated with the left side, the sinister and dark.) And of course the whole Dicebox-->Peorth-->Womb connection.

And, yes, so far in Dicebox Molly and Griffen have worn some scrap of red, be it shirt, pants trim, knee patch or coat lining. And the red will vary from a maroon to a pink---from dried blood to a blood partially rinsed from a white rag.

Now, all that said, this is a standard I am setting up so I can break it at the appropriate time.

They have their own colors as well, represented by the clothing they are wearing. Griffen has white and yellow, representing air and fire, whereas Molly has yellow and black, for fire and earth.

They are both dressed in idealized versions of the outfits they appear in at the beginning of Dicebox, Griffen being the Victorian fop and Molly the hardy rustic traveller. (side note: Molly's boots are based on those on a statue of a priest and soldier somewhere in New York City, somewhere near Time Square. I can't remember who and haven't found it again on subsequent visits. These were to be the boots she wore throughout Dicebox, but, obviously, I changed my mind.)

Pieces of the same puzzle: the candle and the egg, the lock and the key. These have much more to do with how each keeps their secrets and how the other might discover them.

And, finally, Griffen's mouth is open, where as Molly's is shut, an aspect of this pair that will be elaborated on in the page notes of the very first page of Dicebox.

Military Rank, Corps and Bureau

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:36:51 GMT

Military Rank: the Corps and Bureau equivalents

In answer to the response to the revelation of Griffen's old rank in this week's page --and for my own easy reference-- I present the military rank of the only military in the Dicebox 'verse, the Corporalty or Corps, and its offshoot/companion of intelligence work, the Bureau.

Corps and Bureau Ranks
Commissioned Officers
Corps	Bureau
General in Command	Head
Lieutenant General	Vice Head
Major General	Marque
Brigadier General	Baron
Colonel-Commandant*	Commander*
Colonel	Boss
Lieutenant Colonel	Chief
Major	Principal
Captain	Captain
Lieutenant	Manager
Second Lieutenant	Supervisor
Field Specialist Officers (Warrant Officers)
Corps	Bureau
Field Captain	Field Captain
Field Lieutenant	Field Lieutenant
Field Deputy	Field Deputy
Prime Specialist	Prime Specialist
Specialist	Specialist
Warrant Officers (Line Officers)
Corps	Bureau
Chief Warrant Officer	Chief Inspector
Operations Warrant Officer	Deputy Inspector
Station Warrant Officer	Inspector
Technical Warrant Officer	—
Warrant Officer	—
Non-Commissioned Officers
Corps	Bureau
Sergeant Major	Superintendent
Master Sergeant	—
Gun Sergeant	—
Staff Sergeant	Chief Constable
Sergeant	Patrol Sergeant
Corporal	—
Enlisted Personnel
Corps	Bureau
Lance Corporal	Constable
Troop	Patrol
Recruit	Recruit

*Similar to the old British Navy rank of Commodore, one whose rank is usually that of Colonel, who is authorized to act as a General in times of action, in some cases self-determined.

In the Corps, it's all one service, but there are special signifiers for pilots, vehicle commanders, and other specialists. For example, a pilot beginning at the rank of Field Deputy would be referred to as as Flying Deputy. As they move up in rank it'd be Flying Captain and then Flight Second Lieutenant and so on.

In the Bureau, one finds one's level fairly quickly within one's particular base or "branch"--which is inclusive of rank up to Commander, a Baron oversees several branches and so on. Also, the higher you go, the more likely you'll be promoted to fill a sudden vacancy, which is never an acting role to be revoked after the need is met due to security clearance, which is strictly aligned to each rank.

In Griffen's case, she began as a Deputy Inspector (more common would have been as Specialist as most Bureau are expected to begin their training in the field), worked her way to Chief Inspector in a couple of years, got a compensative promotion to Manager, made Captain after achieving a second Doctorate, achieved Principal then became Chief due to a combination of merit and a vacancy.

A sign of belonging

Tue, 15 May 2007 04:49:55 GMT

What you see here is the official "badge" of the Sooner family of Rafferty, a kerchief of a unique and particular design and color.

Each Sooner family has there own particular kerchief design--the fact that some of the non-turquoise kerchiefs seen in Chapter 7 : Scene 5 have no design means I'm still working out what they are.

Naturally I had to figure out the design of Mare's family, the Raffertys, up front. I derived the Rafferty design from an old Coat of Arms of Rafferty:

Rank and place are indicated by the color variations. In the example below, the color combination on the left indicate the wearer is a guest of the Raffertys or as-good-as-family. This is the variant that Griffen and Molly are seen wearing; they are under the Rafferty aegis and part of the same contract.

The variation on the right indicates a boss or chief of the family. You seen the current family matriarch, Mare's mother wearing this in the third panel of page 27. Mare, as heir apparent, also wears this variation, as do several other higher ups in the family. The high muckety-muck has no other distinguishing badge, you just know who they are.

Dicebox's Phantom Alphabet

Sat, 12 May 2007 19:22:34 GMT

I know some folks have noticed that the lettering on various background elements tends not to be the Latin alphabet, but a made up alphabet which I call ALS:

As you see, it's an alphabet created in direct correlation to the English/Latin alphabet--a phantom alphabet. The reason I call it ALS is because it is in large part the phantom alphabet created by Amy L. Sacks for a comic she abandoned over a decade ago. Alas. I liked it, the way you could see the essence of the origin letter in the alphabet, and since I needed a phantom alphabet for Dicebox I happily adopted and adapted hers. With permission, of course.

Here's Amy's final version of the alphabet from her sketch book:

I altered some of the letters: the F, J, M, N, W and to a lesser degree the L, R, T, V and Y. The alterations I made were mostly in order to simplify the character in question, though sometimes it was to add consistency or difference. This I did after reading Adrian Frutiger's theory of reduced hand movements as being a main cause of the evolution of the Latin Alphabet, both in how the capitals changed and the creation of a lowercase. And it was either in Frutiger's Sign and Symbols: their design and meaning or Writing Systems of the World by Akira Nakanishi that I read the additional theory that the most successful alphabets, those truly known and used by the common populace have characters that require no more than three or four lifts of the pen. Amy had a gorgeous, almost calligraphic number system that broke that rule big time and was less intuitive to me, so I created my own number system.

Why did I need a phantom alphabet? Well, I didn't want it to be assumed that the dominant language is english in Dicebox, In fact I don't imagine that the common language everyone is speaking is strictly English. I think of it more it as a creole with an English/Spanish base, with healthy additions of Dutch, Japanese and Ukraine among others.

But I suck at language beyond English and so didn't feel comfortable to fool around with other languages or alphabets. Besides, I wanted to do something that could technically be interpreted by the average reader of English. I have included English words in the background and do plan to tap the linguists among from my friends and family for Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc. But the main thrust will still be ALS spelling out English words.

Here's the first clear use of ALS seen in the background of Chapter 1:

It reads "Transient Skin." There are uses before this, but they are obscured or half nonsense.

In order to try to give it a living use feel, I have created different fonts of ALS absed on early 20th century typefaces, like Bastion:

Here's a side by side look at some type I used in a background flyer set in English and then ALS in the Bastion Style:

Here you start to see the another aspect that really appealed to me about Amy's alphabet, the dipthong rule:

Vowels are indicated by two dots, and when combined into a dipthong they share these two dots. Adds variety without extra clutter.

I will Include ALS in the Explication page soon, after I settle on what ALS stands for in the Dicebox universe, as well as articulate how I figure it came into use--basically utilizing the long travel of the main colonization fleet as a time of restructuring and new culture conceptualizing. (Yes, this where "peh" comes from.)

Photo reference part 2: Environments

Thu, 10 May 2007 05:40:51 GMT

Photo reference part 2: environments

I don't really reference actual buildings or interiors in Dicebox. I'm inspired by some in books and real life, but I tend to alter or adapt what I find, though occasionally a conceptual building from a book does make it into the odd back ground.

I do take lots of random reference photos of buildings and cityscapes that appeal to me, but I collect these more to use as reference for a particular sense of environment then for any particular architecture style.

Here is the photo reference I used to create the industrial district that open Chapter 7 : Scene 5:

The photo is of Portland's SE industrial area as seen from the Hawthorne Bridge. This is probably the closest I've cribbed a cityscape photo within Dicebox. Beyond being able to quickly create a believable neighborhood, I was able to get my perspective from the building in the photo and build on it. This how I often use my building reference, for a perspective map, something I learned in David Chelsea's excellent reference book, Perspective! For Comic Book Artists.

For the factory interior, I first hunted around the internet for shots of factory floors that had the feel I was after--old school factory, floor space used efficiently but awkwardly:

Using the reference above, I was able to create the look I wanted for the Tidsanden factory:

Now, I had collected some lovely and innovative factory interiors, but this factory was to be neither. Also, I purposefully do keep certain things in a visually anachronistic vein whenever I feel justified doing so. I want people to respond to the imagery on an empathic level, almost as if I was using icons to convey a recognizable experience more than simply a place. And also to serve as a contrast for those things I intend as strange and unfamiliar.

Yes, I use photo reference

Wed, 09 May 2007 06:03:58 GMT

Hello and welcome to the first installment of Jenn's ~~penance~~ present for missing updating Dicebox this week! I'll be updating this process journal three times on Wednesday, May 9th and then once a day for the next week with sketches, thoughts, and, well, my process notes for how I go about creating Dicebox. I'll also be updating the Dicebox Explication Page a similar amount. And I'm taking requests, either via email or in the comments below, for explication points, story notes or even which concept I should sketch next off of my Sketch Table.

Anyway, like I said, here's my first offering, and as you might have guessed, it's about how I employ photo reference.

Above you see a pretty straightforward use of photo reference featuring my latest lovely model, Dylan Meconis. The main reason I asked her to strike this pose was so I could check that I had the shoulder action correct ( I did, actually.) But I got an extra bonus in how Dylan's left arm ended up underneath her and the lazy elegance her left hand over the edge of the bed. This is a detail I wouldn't have necessarily thought of on my own, and it kind of makes the panel for me.

I can go pages without having a strong desire or need for photo reference; the time I desperately want it is usually is during a conversation heavy scene. I want to make the figure drawing as interesting as possible with all those odd off hand details that occur in real life, those touches that give real life and personality to a pose.

Another big reason reasons I want photo reference is to illustrate for me how a person actually, say, rinses a cup out in the sink.

As you might have noticed, I ended up drawing a totally different view than the one I got of Dylan at the sink. And yet, this photo still gave me all the information I needed to execute the drawing. Which is good, as I often try to plan in advance what I think I'll need for photo reference as to not overly impose on my gracious models' time. Then, as often as not, by the time I layout then draw the page or scene in question, I've rewritten and re-staged the scne or page in question.

Case in point, I actually took reference shots for Chapter 7, Scene 3 more than a year in advance with Dylan and Erika Moen. Yeah, well, beyond actually moving this scene from Chapter 6 to Chapter 7, things got rewritten by the time I actually drew them, as is my wont. Still, these photos were incredibly useful despite not following precise layouts.

As you can see, I shifted who struck what pose and created my own. Still, having two people interacting was invaluable. My biggest complaint about pose books, even my favorites, is the lack of person/person interaction, that's some of the most time-consuming stuff to figurre out.

I've really been fortunate with having such willing, co-operative and talented models. Rebecca Woods is an amazing and dynamic model for the comicker--heck, she was willing to pose on a step ladder so that I could actually get the pose and angle I wanted for a scene.

And last, but not at all least, there's my constant in-a-pinch-model and in-house editor who does the absolute best Griffen hands:

The well dressed comic

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:42:56 GMT

Alas, poor Dicebox Process Journal. How I've neglected you, much to my regret and against my will. And this is just a prelude to a hope to return to it on a more regular basis.

As folks have been loving the t-shirts of the latest scene of Dicebox, I thought I'd show the designs at a larger size and show their inspiration and source.

First, the Holy Artichoke on Mare's shirt:

I'm not sure exactly what inspired this idea, I imagine it's partly due to Artichoke Music which I past every day on my way to work. And it was another store on Hawthorne that inspired the final color palette for the design and shirt, Powell's Books for Home and Garden:

And then there's the art on Molly's shirt

Which I didn't draw but merely colored. The source of the illustration is my new favorite Dover Book, Medieval Life Illustrations. I found this book while browsing Powell's Books on Burnside, killing time with Kip before meeting some folks for dinner. It was actually this illustration—

—that provoked me to buy the book as a source of random t-shirt art to use in Dicebox. And I will use the above illustration somewhere at some point, because how can I resist a portrayal of a medical cure that requires you to put toads on your face.

Snow

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:48:03 GMT

Sketch three for the sketch table.

Done in 90 minutes, pencil sketch, Photoshop colors.

That old saw

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:39:52 GMT

I always took umbrage at that saying "Write what you know" because that seemed so wrong and discounted so much, well, truth.

I much prefer and believe in the variant "Know what you write," which I first heard from me husband, Kip. And he just told me that he formulated it himself--with the caveat that others have probably said as much before.

Still, I think I married well.

Touch

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 15:31:59 GMT

Sketch number two for my 100 sketches challenge. Didn't mean to let it go so long, good thing I didn't make weekly sketches a definite goal of mine.

Like the first, this one broke my two hour rule, but still was under three in actual drawing time. I lost a bit of what I liked about the pencil drawing, but it still came out pretty well considering my learning curve. And I did learn a lot with this one, including how to scrub and lift color after one has accidentally dabbed one's brush in blue instead of brown.

I'll probably continue with watercolors for a while in doing these sketches in order that I might become more comfortable with that medium again.

Push

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 01:36:03 GMT

This drawing is for a drawing challenge I set for myself for the Dicebox Process Journal (more details here.) Well, a sketch challenge really--I want to get used to the idea of sketching and playing again and so have a goal of spending only 2 hours per sketch max, maybe 3 if I do something tricky. This one might've logged in at about 2 and a half, but partly that was me getting used to watercolors again--which is another purpose of this exercise, to play with half abandoned art supplies. Though I also want to try to get comfortable sketching directly on the computer.

Anyway, it's been a while since I did a watercolor, last time was this Mare sketch I did in 2003 and that actually has a good amount of color pencil involved. Getting this art to scan well is a bitch, this is an okay representation on the sketch in question, at actual size (3.5" x 6")

And, as explained in the entry that contains the prompt table and guidelines for this sketch challenge, the subject matter will be of situations before or after the actual time period of Dicebox the story. This is after by several years.

Sketch table

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 16:50:23 GMT

Below is a copy of the prompt table used for fanfic100, a fan fiction challenge that I came across while searching for something else for the day job. It's a table of 100 concepts to be used as inspration for writing fan fiction, one piece of writing per concept (or prompt).

I'm not a fan fic writing type of gal and hence will not be using it as such. Instead, I will be adopting it as a sketch idea generator for this journal. Therefore, said sketches will feature the characters found within Dicebox, but not within the timeframe of the story of Dicebox i.e. the situations will be from before or after the timeline of Dicebox the story. This does mean some younger and older versions of Molly, Griffen, et. al. which should be fun. As for scenes after Dicebox, I really don't see spoilers coming into play, but will warn accordingly.

001.	Beginnings.	002.	Middles.	003.	Ends.	004.	Insides.	005.	Outsides.
006.	Hours.	007.	Days.	008.	Weeks.	009.	Months.	010.	Years.
011.	Red.	012.	Orange.	013.	Yellow.	014.	Green.	015.	Blue.
016.	Purple.	017.	Brown.	018.	Black.	019.	White.	020.	Colourless.
021.	Friends.	022.	Enemies.	023.	Lovers.	024.	Family.	025.	Strangers.
026.	Teammates.	027.	Parents.	028.	Children.	029.	Birth.	030.	Death.
031.	Sunrise.	032.	Sunset.	033.	Too Much.	034.	Not Enough.	035.	Sixth Sense.
036.	Smell.	037.	Sound.	038.	Touch.	039.	Taste.	040.	Sight.
041.	Shapes.	042.	Triangle.	043.	Square.	044.	Circle.	045.	Moon.
046.	Star.	047.	Heart.	048.	Diamond.	049.	Club.	050.	Spade.
051.	Water.	052.	Fire.	053.	Earth.	054.	Air.	055.	Spirit.
056.	Breakfast.	057.	Lunch.	058.	Dinner.	059.	Food.	060.	Drink.
061.	Winter.	062.	Spring.	063.	Summer.	064.	Fall.	065.	Passing.
066.	Rain.	067.	Snow.	068.	Lightening.	069.	Thunder.	070.	Storm.
071.	Broken.	072.	Fixed.	073.	Light.	074.	Dark.	075.	Shade.
076.	Who?	077.	What?	078.	Where?	079.	When?	080.	Why?
081.	How?	082.	If.	083.	And.	084.	He.	085.	She.
086.	Choices.	087.	Life.	088.	School.	089.	Work.	090.	Home.
091.	Birthday.	092.	Solstice.	093.	Harvest.	094.	Independence.	095.	New Year.
096.	Push.	097.	Pull.	098.	Hold.	099.	Drop.	100.	Pick-up.

96 to 100 are Writers Choice, which I quickly entered another grouping of 5. Actually, not all of the pre-exising sets make sense to me, and I did debate changing a few. But decided that defeated the purpose of an outside pre-determination. I did replace Thanksgiving with Harvest and Christmas with Solstice but then left well enough alone.

The idea is to do one a week--not a plan or goal as I don't want any more commitments. And the intent is to truly do sketches, no more than two hours a pop, maybe three if it's a complicated idea. I just want an incentive to do exploratory sketches for Dicebox, to work out certain problems and play with ideas that won't necessaily come out in the story. Actually, the first sketchbook I had in pursuit of Dicebox was about half full of drawings based on random words I'd solicit from friends.

And, because this journal is a tool for me, here is a table of randomly generated numbers to help me pick one when feeling indecisive:

96, 22, 16, 98, 97, 51, 93, 26, 23, 59, 27, 35, 77, 52, 04, 34, 85, 68, 20, 40
19, 39, 70, 53, 14, 31, 61, 03, 74, 49, 66, 60, 11, 28, 63, 30, 57, 75, 25, 100
09, 07, 56, 12, 55, 37, 32, 33, 21, 38, 47, 58, 99, 83, 72, 24, 05, 78, 79, 76
82, 88, 13, 41, 92, 64, 45, 69, 43, 01, 18, 81, 86, 17, 44, 87, 80, 48, 50, 42
84, 90, 54, 29, 08, 65, 91, 06, 02, 67, 15, 94, 89, 95, 73, 62, 71, 10, 36, 46

Naturally I feel free to skip around if some prompt catches my fancy a certain week.

Plotting

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:31:57 GMT

A recent mention of Dicebox on Fleen has given me reason me to re-read some earlier interviews I did including one for Sequential Tart that, like the Fleen entry, concentrates on the story side of Dicebox, as opposed to simply the art. Both say some nice things about the writing and I'm pleased particularily pleased with Kate Ditzler's response to the dialogue. But what provoked this process entry is one comment from Lee Atchison's introduction to the Sequential Tart interview where she praised the story for "its careful, deliberate pacing." I get a warm glow from that remark--but is it true? I mean, can I safely take credit for it?

Yes and no.

It's true that I have my outlines, charts, plot points, symbolic climaxes, etc and so forth written down, planned and mapped for each book and encompassing the entire story that is Dicebox. But I actually run on a lot of gut instinct when I write Dicebox, I have strong emotional impressions of certain passages that I can't quite quantify, let alone articulate--don't get me started on scripting it. I know what needs to be accomplished in each book for the growth of the story as well as the growth of the characters, and have outlined each book pretty thoroughly.

And yet I can totally tear down and rewrite the outline for Book Two (like I did this past winter) and have the same things happen in a broad sense even if the events, sequence and supporting cast almost all change--if in purpose if not presence. And end up with that Book telling the same exact story as before--only more so.

I know what the story needs to be, how it ends and the major moves that'll take to get there, logistically and emotively. I really don't grok the idea of hanging a story on a plot structure formula, not Aristotle's three act, nor Freytag's five act, both of which are defined in this diagram:

But, to my horror, I might be following this charted structure. Kinda. I mean, I do describe Book 4 as a dénouement, and it is the natural end of the story. But I say it ends a bit higher on the tension axis; I'm definitely untying things but not necessarily relieving anxiety. Maybe I've been influenced by a life time of being told stories in following this structure. As Dicebox is a reaction to all the stories I've yet read, watched or listened to, I guess that's okay.

All that does still feel pretty considered and structured, huh? But I'm not mentioning my spur of the moment rewriting of a page because of how an expression came out in the second [panel that was a mistake transformed into inspiration. Which can mean I'm rewriting the following pages if not the next chapter. Or, hey, the fact that I haven't actually fully scripted the second half of this chapter. I know what happens, it's three distinct scenes and all that. And I keep debating if that second half doesn't actually begin Chapter 7. Because the end of scene 6 of this chapter would make a damn nice end to this Chapter and bring it to about 34 pages at that point. If I did that, it would mean that I'd break an earlier promise and give lie to this cover art for Chapters 4 through 6. Never mind I might not be giving my next fill-in artist enough notice.

Hmm. I am really fond of how Chapter 7 begins at the moment, though I don't know if not having the formal break of a Chapter before that current opening scene would change its impact--perhaps just having the break of a scene change is good enough. 'Cause the natture of that break is important and meaningful to me, part of where I'm very deliberate in pacing. But equally as important are the themes of each Chapter, and, man, moving those three scenes to the start of Chapter 7 would actually strengthen the theme of that Chapter. A lot. Damn.

I might have just talked myself in to this.

Why I do the things I do

Thu, 11 May 2006 20:16:08 GMT

I ruminated a while back in an entry on my main journal that if I realize that a panel of a yet to be posted page doesn't do it's storytelling duty, I am feel obliged to hold up production and fix it post haste. If that means delaying updating, so be it.

Well, that just happened to me this past page. Thankfully I was a bit ahead for once and so it didn't postpone the update.

Here are the last two panels, before and after I changed the last panel. I was already having some trouble with the last panel--I had started with a close up shot of Molly and Theus which I wasn't happy with as it made things too dramatic and struck the wrong tone. So I pulled back and focused on Molly, which I thought it was the right way to go, but became less convinced by the time I started coloring. I was about a half an hour away from being totally done with the page Monday evening when I realized it just wasn't working, that my original instinct that Theus needed to be in the last panel as well was correct. And so back to the drawing table I went.

And I'm glad I did. Not only do I feel the storytelling is better, but I like Molly's posture and expression lots better. Not my best drawing ever, not my best page ever, but it does its job now.

I'm always learning and re-learning again to trust my instincts in how to portray a moment. Not necessarily the first image that pops into my head, but the elements and content implied. When I first wrote this scene, I had a very strong image of it ending with both Molly and Theus in various states of concern and befuddlement looking at Griffen departing. But I also had the last two panels combined into one in my head, with Theus sitting forward, Molly sitting on the ground, arms folded on the bench. Then I decided I really wanted to show Griffen departing and that Molly wouldn't respond so quickly to Theus' question. The other thing that muddled this my initial impression of that last panel was my decision of having Griffen hold the baby after acknowledging Molly a couple pages earlier.

Originally that whole stint of Molly laying in Griffen's lap happened with both of them on the ground, Griffen leaning against the bench; I took a couple dozen reference shots of Dylan and Erika enacting that interaction. But then, as I was laying out page 16, I realized that my original plan to have Griffen hand back the baby right after the "heartbreaker " line would have her holding the baby for a scarce moment, possibly giving people the impression she didn't like babies. Which is far from true; newborns to twelve year-olds are Griffen's favorite people. Molly, on the other hand, is kind of freaked by babies, which Griffen knows and respects. And as soon as she moved to return the baby to Geet, it made most sense for her to then sit on the bench next to Molly, putting everyone off their marks for what followed. (The reference photos were still useful even though I needed to extrapolate more than a few things)

And there you have it, a peek into how my mind spins and whirls

State of things: May 2006

Thu, 04 May 2006 21:46:08 GMT

So here is one of the more boring type of posts that I'll leave open to all, my self-evaluation of where I and Dicebox are at the moment. They probably won't occur too often, they are scheduled for beginning of May and beginning of November. I've chosen those two months for a few reasons, but mainly because these are the months I tend to lift my head up, look around and assess what's what. That's true in just about all aspects of my life, not just art--Kip and I are doing our spring clean and purge this weekend, for example. I imagine it's because May straddles spring and summer and November fall and winter, May is before June, my birth month and November before December, the end of things. (Hm. I guess this might be my Celtic roots showing in Beltane and Samhain.* Eh, I can live with that.)

I already did a Private post on May 1st of a laundry list of goals, needs and achievements: such as how many additions I want to make to the cast page by when, where I'm at at filling out the Explication page, reader statistics, etc. This'll actually be more about making actual pages. Also, I'll probably revise and add stuff over the next couple of days.

State of Dicebox as of May 2006

Current page count: 160
(Chap 1: 27; Chap 2: 24; Chap 3: 38; Chap 4: 22; Chap 5: 29; Chap 6: 20...)

I figure I'm about 10 to 20 pages "behind" what with missed and partial updates. I'd like to do a couple of two page updates to ease this, but that won't be able to be even considered until July. I hope to regain at least a one page backlog by then.

Art
I'm pretty happy where this is going in terms of quality and execution of mind's-eye intent.

It's been painful going through a learning growth curve for pretty much all of this chapter. Not too much decrease in quality this time out , which is what usually happens when I'm about to jump a level in skill. But everything has been going sooooo slow, especially in the line art, which has forced me to scale way back on background detail a lot more often than I like.

Layout and panel composition has taken a big jump: a couple favorites are the second panel of page 9 and the first panel of page 14. Good sense of space and things in it.

People have commented on the new use of close-ups. I credit most of this on my new practice of doing my roughs at 7.5" x 10" and then scaling those up 130% to 9.75" x 13.125" for the finals. I have a natural range of size I draw faces at (say, .5" to 2.5") and when I did my roughs 1 to 1 with the finals I never pushed the size enough.

Also apparently of note is the line quality this chapter, which I partly credit the oil pencils Clio turned me on to back in October. They seem made for my method of drawing and building line.

Color has been progressing quite nicely. Not only has the Cintiq been speeding things up, but I've come to know when to keep it simple and when to get fancy. I need to do more extreme color play like page 3.

Production speed

Layout and roughs
These are taking longer than I thought they did previously. It might be the new attention to layout and that growth curve or I simply misremember or am off rhythm. My feeling are that they should only take two hours if alone and concentrating, complete in an evening of socializing.

Pencils
I might be returning to normal speed, but it might be too soon to tell. the last five panels of page 19 took me an evening to do, about 4 hours for eight figures/faces, which seems right.

Colors
Getting real damn fast. Page 18 took me only six hours to scan, clean-up, letter and color. A simple page that I'll touch up someday to be sure, but still, very pleasing. That's mostly the Cintiq making the difference there.

There. I'll see where I'm at in November.

*Additionally, Kip has pointed out that this follows the school year, which doesn't really resonate with me per se, I think more September and June have a different set of emotional responses to those. But I can see it's merit, and as I pick up on a mass emotional wave, it could affect or reinforce my responses to May and November.

Clearly I used to like myself more

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 17:51:11 GMT

So, as I started to go through my earlier process journals in order to re-examine and rethink earlier thoughts, I came across my orginal installment plan for Dicebox: 2 Books, 9 Chapters each and each Chapter 12 pages each. As at page 20 I'm not even half way though this chapter, I laugh. Bitterly.

Wheels within wheels

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 22:11:36 GMT

Here I illustrate the main organizing principals of Dicebox with charts.

These charts sum up the result of my initial work when I returned to working on Dicebox ten years ago this summer. I actually came up with the name Dicebox the day Ella Fitzgerald died on June 15th 1996. Before that, the story of Griffen and Molly existed under a slew of half-hearted names.

The new name spurred me on and I proceeded to begin filling my first source book on what the heck I wanted to do with this story. I began by organizing it around certain events I knew were going to take place and then very quickly came to the idea of four books, already entangled with the four elements, compass points and seasons, though all was very much in flux as to what went where.

That I'd settle on an organizing principal of 4 isn't too surprising as it has the most significant reoccurrence in my life and so is the most compelling to me. Of course one can make just about any number the most significant; one of my favorite parts of Foucault's Pendulum is when Lia calmly explains this to Casaubon.

And though I did a lot of research in finding out the associations of various cultures and belief systems, I was and am most interested in how I, personally, combined these various aspects and why. I even gave in to my lifelong "erroneous" alignment of the tarot suites: aligning wands with air and swords with fire, instead of the vice-versa or "correct" way which just feels wrong to me. I'm okay with this; Rider and Waite are hardly have the first or last word on the tarot and I've seen earlier examples that "support" my way of thinking.*

I'm always pleased when any of my alignments coincide with an existing systems, like the Mayans pairing East with Spring, South with Summer, West with Autumn and North with Winter. Not that any of their other associations sync up with mine.

And what's all this for? Mostly just mental touchstones, something to chew on and launch off of when I need to. I'm not interested in saying "and this is what winter is all about" but seeing what aspects of winter reinforce the mood and flavor of the story of Book 2 (pretty damn well I must say).

The first wheel diagram are the main principals that interest me; I have further associations not listed here: Chlidhood/Adolescence/Adulthood/Maturity, Beggars(Thieves)/Hunters/Soldiers/Pilgrims, Fae/Furies/Gods(Angels)/Ghosts, Dawn/Midday/Twilight/Night and so on. The second is simply the humors, because it amused me, I guess.**

One of the reasons of my earlier post was to find out why I organized the humors around the compass the way I did. Clearly I latched onto the element associations and let all else follow. Which is true for my main wheel as well; I organized the four basic points of sex along with which element I felt it worked best with, not paying attention to wether any particular aspect would be directly aligned with its opposite. But then, I don't really believe in the "opposite sex" so there you go. (And clearly I never bought into the idea on Mother Earth.)

Though I'm mostly interested in the organizing principal of 4, though I always have in mind 5 and 3 as well.

It's easy to get to 5 when one includes self, the center or the inner as well as the four cardinal directions north/south/east/west or front/back/right/left

The 3 planes of existence, hell/earth/heaven, birth/life/death or down/level/up.

This should all explain why the opium poppy is my axis mundi. Or not.

*I'm absolutely not saying that I'm right, they're wrong. Just saying that it doesn't work for me, even after having plenty people explaining to me why it works for them.

**Many posts here will be, "now what the hell did I mean by that?"

Absolutely this'll appear somewhere in Dicebox

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:16:06 GMT

From my new favorite art and book blog, BibliOdyssey.

(Which led me to the NYPL Digital Gallery and all its riches.

I'm going somewhere with this

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:40:11 GMT

The bodily humors and various associations

And charts of the elements from various cultures

This journal does also serve as a link dump for me, though most will be long undefined lists in private entries, I'll only share what I think might be of general interest.

Art inspiration in Pasadena

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 02:02:56 GMT

Seeing The Laundress by Degas at the Norton Simon Museum on Monday caused an instant image of the visual set-up of an scene in Book 2 that has me very excited. It was mostly due to the light and surfaces as well as the light on surfaces.

Many of the paintings I saw that day made an impression with me on their use of light, from smokey monks to butchered pork to ruffs with an atmospheric haze.

What's this, then?

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:58:19 GMT

This is the Dicebox Process Journal that I've been half planning to set-up for a while now; I actually secured the username "dicebox" some months ago. Apparently today was the day to begin.

This will be an all-purpose process dump for Dicebox: sketches, notes, links to inspiration and so on. Many entries will be for my eyes only--and many of those will be lists, reference and reminders--but a fair amount will be accessible to all. Some entries might be spoilers for some people, but not anything that I'd think of as critical.

I might not always connect all the dots or even spell check the odd rambling essay I post here. On the other hand I might go out of my way to write-up a thorough and concise explanation of some off-hand thought in order to articulate it better to myself, kind of like what I did in answer to Dylan's question about the symbolic use of the color red in the Dicebox on the forum.

There will be lots and lots of tags as one of the appeals of taking my process work to LJ is the instant cross-referencing I can do. I'm thrilled by the idea of being able pulling up all entries having to do with, say, Griffen, in an instant, instead of trolling through three sketch books full of notes and writing, not to mention random text files on my computer. Heck, I might transcribe some of those old notes here, come to think of it.

And I guess that's all I really have to say about it. Let the games begin!