Gosh almushy, is that the time already? Why, it would appear that it's that time of the fortnight to once again share my forays into the world of creative productivity and illustrative graft! I hope you've been fasting your eyes to prepare them for this forthcoming feast of focal delights! Get ready...
Any second now...
Here it comes...
...
Okay, so this week I've been mostly programming.
Two major reasons prop up this decision: The long-maligned Chaos Chess has been the subject of so many a joke as to its never-getting-made-edness that I thought I'd push through and try to finish the bulk of it before I rev up RandOCtober next month. The second reason is, of course, that it's been absolutely bloody boiling hot here for the last few weeks and drawing whilst my graphics tablet is overheating and glitching out is almost as annoying as drawing whilst I'm overheating and glitching out.
Regardless there remain only two non-sound-related tasks on my Chaos Chess to-do list, and as ascertained during last night's friendly doodle stream one of those might not need doing-to after all.* Thus once some simple, chill background music is composed (think Wilmot's Warehouse but with marimbas) and sound effects added (pretty much entirely just me clacking parts of my chessboard together in front of a microphone) then it'll be ready to be unceremoniously dumped onto Itch.io and never mentioned again. Joy!
*Editor's note: Whilst capturing the above screenshot I found another bug to fix. Games, huh? 🙄
However never let it be said that I haven't done any drawing work in the past tetrakaidecaday, as work for the July comic is well under-way, as you can see:
Okay, maybe not so much well under-way as could-be-worse under-way, and we have *checks imaginary wristwatch* three days left of the month, but I'm sure it'll get done in time. If not Big Calendar are going to hunt me down and kneecap me. It'll be fine though. 🥴
Outside of all of these things, a non-trivial amount of writing for various projects has been occurring. These include the long-mentioned and unlikely-to-get-made October Noire which is nevertheless beginning to transform into a cohesive story. You know, with a coherent plot, and character motivations, and expository dialogue, and satisfying mysteries, and Emm falling over. Classic.
Atop this mountain of procrastinations I've also been preparing all the behind-the-scenes gubbins for RandOCtober 2024, whose prompts I shall be generating this Thursday. To get myself into the mood of style experimentation (i.e. I got distracted watching documentaries about 19th/20th century illustrators) I've been pratting about with an old ink dip-pen which was bequeathed to me by a distant relation emptying out one of their junk drawers. It's a bit scratchy, but it's more satisfying to work with than I'd have expected.
Streaming continues in such a consistent manner as to ensure I struggle to write this paragraph with any semblance of originality. So I won't.
The coveted Tuesday / Wednesday evening slots are firmly fitted with the entendres of Lies of P, a cracking experience it is and that's the truth. Saturdays see us blundering through the expansive world and excessive UI of the Lord of the Rings Online with our little gaggle of fellowship friends. Sundays are, as ever, chill friendly doodle times, as opposed to the morning streams which are chill unfriendly doodle times.
And that's all she (I) wrote! Except this bit. This time next update I'll be happily showing off the full July comic, excitedly but secretively teasing the prompts for RandOCtober and perhaps, just perhaps, throwing some virtual chess pieces at you and running away for no discernable reason.
Thank you as ever for you wonderful support and for entertaining my whimsical ramblings. I'd like to make my Monday mornings a little bloggier in future, updating my site with some more regular chit-chat about things I've done and discovered. But let's face it, I've already got enough on my many plates right now. And so I shall bit you adieu! Or ta-ra, more reasonably.
Look after yourselves,
Crispy 💜