Whimsy is something we could all use a little more of, so I thought that I’d share a few of the digital pieces I’ve been working on recently.
Sea Singer (2016)
Initiates (2016)
Wishing Well (2016)
Digitizing the Fantastic
Tag: fantasy
Brewing Mead – The Beginning
After my minor success at making mulsum, I was left with more honey than knew what to do with, and a taste for honeyed wine. Well, the next logical step was to use that honey to brew myself some proper, honest-to-goodness mead. I found another of Will’s tutorials on stormthecastle.com for making mead cheaply, without specialized equipment. Instead of a glass carboy and a bubbler, it uses a milk jug and a balloon. I had just enough honey left to make the recipe work so a went for it. I made sure to carefully sanitize everything before mixing my ingredients together. The balloon over the mouth of the jug has a small pin hole in the top. This allows the gasses created by fermentation to escape without allowing air back in. The next morning, the balloon was inflated and small bubbles were making their way up the sides of the jug. This was a very simple process, the hardest part will, I suspect, be waiting patiently for my mead to mature.
Because I used oranges for flavour, this mead will technically be a melomel. Melomel is just the name for a mead which contains fruit. Hopefully, the orange flavour will stand out in the final product, only time will tell.
| 4L of Spring Water | 2 cups of Natural Alfalfa & Clover Honey |
| Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast | 25 Raisins |
| 2 Mandarin Oranges | 2 Cloves |
Welcome In Our Circle Stay – Wiccan Quarter Call
Northern Earth I call upon,
Stoney shore and mountain.
Eastern Winds I summon thee,
Raging storms and whispers.
Southern Flame I welcome you,
A warming fire before us.
Western Waters flowing forth,
Ocean tides and rivers.
Welcome in our circle stay,
As long as you are needed.
Foam Board Dragonbone Dagger
Recently I came across Will from stormthecastle.com‘s youtube channel epicfantasy. He has many, many video tutorials on making props, usually swords and other weapons, with foam board. I was fascinated by the level of quality he was able to achieve with such a cheap material. I wanted to try using foam board as a material for myself and I knew that I wanted make another Skyrim prop to go along with my Windhelm guard’s shield. Because I had never worked with foam board before, I chose a small project, the dragonbone dagger. I didn’t take the same number of progress photos as I usually do for my props because Will’s tutorial is excellent and shows in detail all the various steps.
Smoothed and sealed foam board.
I knew going in that foam board is a flimsy material which cuts easily, but cannot be refined (smoothed out or sanded) to any great degree. One thing which I disliked about Will’s prop was that the seams between the layers of foam were raw. In order to blend the layers of foam board and to fill in the gaps, I used extra hot glue which I smoothed out with my finger, ouchie ouchie! This didn’t quite give me the effect which I wanted so I used silicon to get a more accurate effect. Silicon isn’t really a good choice, but it was what I had available. I would have preferred to use some sort of putty or clay for this. To stop the silicon from peeling and to even out the seams even more, I coated the entire dagger in 5 coats of modge podge. I followed Will’s tutorial for the paint job, then sealed the project with 2 more layers of modge podge.
DIY Skyrim Windhelm Shield: Finished
Day Three: I started painting the rim to look like aged metal by mixing black and silver acrylic and painting two base coats on top of the Plasti-Dip coated craft foam. I then dry-brushed on a thin layer of silver, highlighting the raised parts of the rim. After the paint was entirely dry, I mixed orange, brown, and a small amount of red paint to create a rust colour. I watered down the paint and with a wet brush, I created pools of paint wherever I wanted there to be rust. I tuck to the burnt in depressions in the foam, and places where the Plast-Dip had bubbled. After a minute of soaking, I used a paper towel to remove most of the paint.Once this had dried I noticed a few spots which needed a touch up, so I used the appropriate colour paint to apply small fixes. Then, I sealed the rim with two thin layers of modge podge. By this point, I had decided that I wanted to finish the back side of the shield as well, so I removed the bag and tape from the back side of the shield and stained the exposed wood.
Dry brushing metal
Rusting the metal
Day Four: I started by removing the bag and masking tape from the front of the shield. I noticed that the blue paint needed another coat so I added one before moving on. With the chisel tip on my wood burner, I added the planked look to the back of the shield. I made the decision not to use the single, dead centre handle that is seen in game. Instead, I created a double strap hand out of double layered foam. This turned out to be a horrible idea since the first time I used it, the foam broke. Instead, I lay two pieces of foam down where I wanted the handles to be to serve as padding against the hard wood, then I cut two pieces from an old belt to fit on top. I secured the belts in place with screws and washers which passed through the belt and foam into the wood of the shield.
Adjustable belt strapping
Foam straps area a bad idea
As usual, I learned I great deal on how not to do things. Doing, this project again (cough* Solitude) I would stain the project last, since I found that paint which overlapped with the stain required several extra coats. I wouldn’t carve out the rim in wood, since the foam rim looks much better than that would have. That was a good chunk of time which ended up being wasted. I’d also burn planks into both sides to begin with and go straight for propper strapping.
The shield was finally complete! I’m really happy with the way the shield turned out. It’s a sturdy build, and the bright logo (while note game accurate) really stands out against the battle worn look of the shield. You gotta to keep up that Stormcloak pride, am I right?
Finished shield face
DIY Skyrim Windhelm Shield: Day 1&2
So I’ve started working on yet another new project. I wanted to create a shield to hang on my wall, and after some consideration, decided on the Windhelm Guards’ shield from Skyrim. Yes I know, I might be a wee bit obsessed with Skyrim at the moment. From looking at the in game graphics and some quick online research, I was able to come up with a design.
Day One: I started with a sheet of plywood which I had been using to stop arrows which missed my target during archery practice. It was full of arrow holes which I thought appropriate. I cut out a 24″ wide circle and proceeded to sand it until my hand hurt to much to keep going. I carved a rim around the edge and using a wood burner, created the illusion of 5 planks of wood. I then stained the perimeter of the shield a dark wood colour.
Deciding that I didn’t like the look of the carved rim, I cut out 2.5″ wide strips of black craft foam and used a heat gun to mould them over the edge of the shield. To give the new rim, a hammered, battered look, I again used the heat gun and the handle of a dinner knife. I accentuated this with the wood burner and a round tip.
Day Two: I printed out an image of the Windhelm bear emblem on several sheets of paper so that they could be taped together to form a stencil. I transferred the bear onto the shield in light pencil marks. Very carefully, I traced the image in blue acrylic paint and fleshed out the full circle. I went back in afterwards and painted the bear outline in cream paint. I used the stencil itself to add the blue eye afterwards. When the paint was dry, I went back over, adding finishing touches. Then, I used blue masking tape to carefully seal the edges of the shield next to the foam rim. I taped one half of a plastic bag over the face of the shield. I did this on both sides. Then, I applied several layers of black Plasti-Dip to the foam and waited overnight.
Tracing the outline.
Fully Painted Emblem.
Coating the foam edging.
An Unexpected Portal
The sands of elemental time,
Flowing into fate.
Starburst of light.
Morning dew glistens on lake-smooth-pebbles.
Mists crawl across shimmering pavement.
An ethereal portal; gateway to Heaven.
Uncertain, but propelled, she slips in.
Timeless light sweeps by.
No stopping now.
The Other calls.
A ringing chant of welcome.
The smell of perfume on morning dew.
Worlds meet at dawn.
The Mole Hills
Hollow hills,
Beneath my feet.
Moles tunnel unevenly.
They weave a labyrinth,
From earth and stone.
Painting it with dust,
And dwarf diamonds.
Elementals
Swallows fly in skies of blue.
A trail of sun-dust, an evening hue.
Swooping fast, they circle me.
Chasing each other, they dive for the sea.
The mermaid’s tones transform all three,
As they fall ‘neath the waves at skeleton quay.
Azure dolphins fly with grace,
Through the towers of this watery place.
The volcanic fires scorch the trees,
The salamander grins; more fire please.
They blink their eyes and turn to dust,
As they sink beneath the earthen crust.
The Night Elf
One of my favourite childhood books is “Peter William Butterblow and Other Little Folk” by C. J. Moore. I have written many poems reminiscent of its verses. This is one that I found while sorting through old notebooks which I feel speaks to that same sense of wonder which this work of C. J. Moore, Marianne Gariff, Alfred Baur, and Hedwig Diestel still instils in me today.
Sylvan Secrets 