Work update

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First draft of my card backs. I haven’t finalized the design yet, so I might still make some changes. I’m looking towards removing the mountains behind the two hands and adding geometric elements instead (seems more suitable given the card back references I’ve been looking at on Pinterest. I don’t want the card back to be completely geometric but I think having some geometry works.

Got to start on the mural this month and start assembling the book as well as the process journal. Finally getting into the swing of things proper and there should be tons of output soon!

Update

I haven’t been blogging much on OSS because I’ve been using the time to do production. My work has gotten to a point where I no longer really feel the need to discuss process and I’m in a stage where I’d rather just work instead. But here’s a short update:

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I’m going to release the fortune-telling cards along with a small book of meanings/interpretations since I’m using them as part of the storytelling element in one of the narratives. So the main book and the cards and the interpretation book will come together as a set along with the mural. I haven’t done the mural yet but I’m test-printing the cards today. Hopefully I’ll finish the entire deck of 20 cards by the end of the month, which I think is a good achievable goal. I didn’t intend to make the cards part of the final work originally but since I put so much effort into visualizing all these other myths that tie into the Castor/Pollux myth somewhat it makes sense to incorporate them. Besides, my understanding of the postmodern is that a postmodern narrative is rife with layers, and this helps to add complexity and interaction to the narrative.

I’m in the process of typesetting and cleaning up the narrative now, and later in March I’ll be working on how to put the book together (especially the transparencies + drawings) and finishing up more illustrations. The mural will be one of the last things to be done as it’s intended to be a collage of a lot of the other drawings I’ve done over the two semesters. So that’s on the backburner for now while I settle the card deck and the book.

The gold foil machine motivated me to do the cards again and I’ll be looking into how much to use it. I wanted to gild the entire book but almost everyone told me that it’s just too much 🙁 And I have no conceptual justification for that apart from my frankly worrying obsession with gold foil.

Drawing archive

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Over the past week I’ve been working on my layered illustrations for my book since I’ve already settled the type styles and the technical aspects of putting it together. By focusing on the illustrations now, I’ll have enough raw material to start putting drafts for the mural together and I’ll be able to consider my gallery setup with more concrete details. I’ll probably pick up on more typesetting this week and start laying out more of the content to determine if I need to generate more.

One additional concept I’ve added on is the introduction of the tarot/fortune cards to the story – I’ll be redesigning the card frames and writing in meanings for the spreads that are interspersed with the story to help create additional layers of storytelling and meaning:

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A lot of this is getting very introspective (I’ve been playing Sunless Sea, a very deep storytelling game that has probably influenced the amount of content I’m building around my narratives) but I hope to be able to map it out soon in a more critical way that deconstructs the narrative process (just to please people who couldn’t understand my research… *cough* and I do like mapping now).

Family trees image dump

So I sort of finished my Hades map (see below) and I’m working on the Castor and Pollux family tree. This is lite production at the moment and I’m still working on page design (book size is sort of settled?).

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Here are the family tree maps that I really like, to serve as references for how I’m going to draw. I might make some changes to the Hades map (i.e. add more background elements?) but basically this is the kind of look I want to achieve for the Pollux segment of the book.

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I’m going to use this to work on the family tree but I may wait until after tomorrow’s class so that I can get some insight and opinions from everyone. In the meantime, I’ll be doing more page layouts and I’ll start on my anatomical illustrations.

Hades map image dump

I’m going to start on my map of the five rivers of Hades when I can find a pencil (I forgot to bring one) but I’m collating image references in the meantime so I have something to refer to with reference to the look and feel I’m going for. I probably will restrict the maps to being parts of the book instead of parts of the gallery space. This is because my intention for the gallery space involves more illustration than ephemera.

This is just a post where I can dump all the map references I like.

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Antique Maps of the World World Globe Joanne Hevel c 1696
Antique Maps of the World
World Globe
Joanne Hevel
c 1696
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This is by Chris Riddell for the Edge Chronicles! A more dimensional way to map.

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First FYP session of the semester. So, here are the things I’ll be looking at to kick off production:

  • Geographic maps, illustrated maps: I could map out the narrative of the book in a pictorial form (I don’t know what this could look like at the moment), I could map the family tree of the twins and a map of the five rivers of Hades. The map of the constellation of Gemini may also be relevant.
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This is the map of the twins’ family tree from Astrid’s giant book of Greek mythological family trees.
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The constellation of Gemini the Twins. I honestly don’t know how this is supposed to look like twins. I’ve never seen a constellation that actually looks like what it says it’s supposed to be.
Kind of a disgusting-looking map, but it might help me visualise my map better.
Kind of a disgusting-looking map, but it might help me visualise my map better.
  • As for visuals, I could look at Victorian broadsheets (Paul), 1930s film noir/detective agency typewriter looks (The Mystery Guild), and the Wiener Werkstätte.

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Note to self: House Of Leaves-style typography
Note to self: House Of Leaves-style typography

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Process update

tmg logo samples

I would have uploaded this much earlier, but OSS wasn’t letting me upload images. Here’s my logo development for The Mystery Guild, which I’m going to use to inspire the rest of my book’s look and feel. Right now I’m working on:

  • writing the two narratives of Paul and Pollux
  • experimenting with different page setups and gallery setups (the latter being mostly in my head)
  • first draft of FYP report done

Most of my illustration will be done later once all the text and layouts are finished. I draw a lot faster than I design/write so I feel this is the most prudent way to go. Also, drawing later will let me build on all the personal illustrative experiments I’ve been doing (single-colour in addition to dotwork).

These aren’t related to FYP but all my illustrative experiments are transferable, so I’ve decided to post them here too.

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Multiway books

I was brainstorming with B yesterday about how to present my information in a single volume and this might be a really cool way to play with form. I’m thinking of adding three sections to my book:

  • Mystery Guild intro (the meta part of the reading experience)
  • Paul’s journal
  • Pollux’s story

So what I’m looking at here is a way of playing with the experience of reading by framing the two stories within a larger context (i.e. an unsolvable/intriguing case file). I think in essence, everything is still about tension and duality. I do need some feedback on my grids/type/design and I’m still figuring out how to bring the images and illustrations together.