Talking to Myself

Just posted a podcast last night that I put together a little while ago. It’s a reading of a short story I wrote a few years back. Lately I’ve been listening to a few professional writer’s podcasts and it began to occur to me that: 1) this was something I could do just as easily, 2) gee, it’s really hard to get others to read things you hand to them. In this age we have upon us of interactive and performing media, very little reading gets done- largely because of time factors. Now, while I am a HUGE activist for reading I can sympathize with this. There is a need to devote partial attention to things in our contemporary age, to multitask when we can. And besides, thanks to my parents I have a lot of really fond memories of being read to as a child. Not that a story title “The Executioner” is for children, but the books on CD market tells me there’s a call for this sort of thing.

For those of you just picking this up, feel free to download the story via some sort of capture software, or by simply right clicking and downloading from the link below each player. Play it on your .mp3 player, burn it to CD you won’t bother me. (more…)

Filed under: Narrative, Narrative Performance, Podcast, Written by Vinegar Tom
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Crafting a Mystery

I love stories if you can’t tell. I like to read them. I like view them. I like to write them. Roleplaying and building the sort of flexible narrative you need for a game has some great moments in it if you’re a builder like me. For some folks it’s a numbers game: what are the stats? How many? How much? Numbers, numbers, numbers… My personal taste runs towards the character potential- the what-if’s of the situations. Making every moment the opportunity for a great character piece. To that end I’ve been building my world through images- of characters and locations.

           

           

           

These few small images wield immense power when utilized within the narrative of the game. In a lot of ways they almost do this by themselves- which is why I’ve included them here. Used at the right moment (more…)

Filed under: Art, Illustration, Journal, Written by Vinegar Tom
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Learning to paint… all over again.

So I’ve started to teach myself digital painting in these last couple of days, and thanks to some walkthroughs in the process I’ve been having an easier time of it than I had on past occasions. And while I can honestly say that digital painting is not a lot like physical painting, I can say that my exposure to the process has been quite similar. In my undergrad days as with my foray into digital painting I have encountered numerous approaches to the methodology. Some of these work quite well and others are more problematic, their learning curve being quite steep and best handled by experts in the medium looking for variation in technique rather than beginners trying to get their work beyond the amateurish phase.

When I first began painting in oils several years back I was taught to begin with area color and then work out from this into greater detail. Later on I was shown a technique which began with blocking in the basic drawing in paint and transitioning away from the values into the actual color range. This new method accomplished two things: a greater color variation in the finished work, less worry about getting it wrong. The problem was that in finding my subjects directly on the canvas rather than planning I ran into a number of compositional issues when I worked on more imaginative subjects, realistic lighting for starters. Getting the lighting right on something can make or break the believability of a subject- particularly when what you paint is drawn from your head.

In digital painting there is a little more time to think about this, since the media can always be what you need it to be. (more…)

Filed under: Art, Illustration by Vinegar Tom
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