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).