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.

( silly drawing ahoy )

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.

( More beneath the cut )

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:



( continued beneath the cut )

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.

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.

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.

( I'm about to think aloud to myself, with pictures: )