Back to the Basics.
You gotta start somewhere. Inkbeard post #27
Burnt Out
So it turns out that comics aren’t exactly my thing. After months of attempting to finish the rough draft of the short story, I came to the realization that I do not find this enjoyable quite as much as perhaps I should. Maybe even writing in general is not for me. After seeking counsel on what to do, I was advised to finish the rough draft so as to get some closure, because otherwise it would hang over me forever.
Other options are available, of course, since in no wise do I intend to cease telling stories. I have thought about writing some myth-legend-folktale stories and illustrating them, or making a card game, or even using the pictures themselves to tell a story. They say that pictures are worth a thousand words, and those better artists use their pieces to tell a story.
Art
Since I was so tired of doing this short story, and since I have to rush to catch up to my D&D group, I didn’t make time to draw anything new. But what I did do was pull up some old files and blow the dust off of them. These are from my days in high school when I was mostly homeschooled. On of my home classes was art, and for one week the assignment was drawing in the Renaissance style. All the pieces below were copied by eye, and they had me do both parts, the sketch and the finished.
The practice of the Renaissance schools of art, with a scientific step-by-step approach, leads to exceptionally realistic art. This approach never quite appealed to me–I’m too impatient and prefer the looser, more stylized approach. But the idea of starting with the general shapes and funneling down into the finer details stuck with me.
Skulls
I had an idea for a card game a couple months back. Inspired by classic games such as Pokémon and Magic the Gathering, and by the retro style of the 80s, the goal of this game is to collect the largest army of undead soldiers so that you can defeat your enemies in the final round. Each round has two parts:
- 1st: recruiting. Each player takes a turn, starting by drawing some cards and then playing as many of those as possible.
- 2nd: battle. All players then compare point values of cards collected during the round. The player with the highest amount wins, but what they win I am unsure of.
I had the idea of each player having their own deck and discard and adding to it from a larger draw pile, similar to Dominion. Each new turn they would draw from their pile, then maybe they either are able to draw some from the main pile as part of their turn, or a card in their hand allows them to do so.
The battling phase would be a fun concept. Each card has a point value, so that a normal skeleton soldier is worth less than a lich overlord. Depending on what you drew and how well you played your cards, you could collect a greater number of total points and therefore win the round. The final round occurs when the main deck has run dry, and everyone enters into the final battle, where everyone counts points and see who had the most. This would be the hardest part, due to so great an amount of cards in the deck, certain cards worth more depending on other cards, etc.
Farewells
I hope you enjoyed this production of Inkbeard’s Blog, and that you will return with friends for the next week’s edition. In this coming week, I will do some things, and some things won’t get done. But you can read all about it next Monday.
Leave a Reply