Anyone who has read my mini-rants on Twitter will know that I’m really liking the Inktense pencils from Derwent, the above gallery tracks my work this morning on @DrMagister in wondrous re-enactment mode… (I added a tiny bit of graphitint cloud/cool grey to the background white, can see them in the final photo snap. 
)
-Tompl
Started work on transforming this old sketch (featuring a battle royale of sorts between monsters and heroic figures) into a coloured splash image for the currently in-active Paper Mages site, Paper Mages will be the home for Steamshaft (when it is finished) and is also going to be the web home for Anno Geometrica and a few other British authored roleplay items.
Those of us behind Paper Mages come from a background of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, wargaming (Games Workshop), Advanced Fighting Fantasy and other very Britishy products… No shock then that we enjoy keeping alive the things that made those products so great for us. Fairly early on when I was drafting the steamshaft I realised that I was making an upside down Necromunda in many ways, what a shame that Games Workshop never considered making Mordheim a more direct fantasy imagining of Necromunda… part of me hopes it would be much like the Steamshaft.
Somewhere during the second pint after arriving in Edinburgh (a semi-dreadful journey weakened me!) I realised I was probably going to fail with the taking of pictures and writing/typing of words, even the sketching would take a back seat… In the end I took photographs of the Signspotting Project madness and the Christmas Shop, the latter purely because it would amuse Nicola and her mother. So yes, I failed to capture my antics.
The literary pub tour was probably the highlight, really good night with sore heads all round the morning after and shockingly light wallets too.
On holiday at long last, though I’ve lost a day of travel I’m ready for Edinburgh tomorrow. I’m going to try and update the blog during that time with photographs. I may even find the time to finish off two entries that I’ve been meaning to post for some time now and which don’t slide into my current format of sketchy postings. The biggest thing I’ve been missing are my little audio updates, I’m going to try and sort that side out in the near future to compliment the doodles and broken writing. Speaking of broken…
You might notice that the previous entries link at the bottom doesn’t work, annoying! I think I know why it is broken but I’ve been far too tired to tinker/dig for fixes and I might be changing the theme anyway. For now the archive will serve as a hopping point, please forgive me. All fixed with the new theme now, hopefully…
Currently reading:
A Brief History of the Future: Origins of the Internet
I’m about half-way through this, it was recommended to me by a lecturer and has positive reviews… I started reading it quite some time ago but got distracted and have only recently returned to it.
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Just some quick ‘flash reviews’ of books I’ve read recently:
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Easily one of my favourite books of recent months, I already had an inkling of the quality from my ladies excited discussion when she first read through it. It is one of the most unique takes on the time travel story and proves surprisingly easy to follow.
The Difference Engine
I enjoyed it as the steampunk classic that it is. Anything further would just involve omgoshing over William Gibson to the embarassment of all.
Smoke & Mirrors
Gaiman <3 in this collection of short stories and poetry. A friend summed this up when he said, “It just makes me wish I’d thought of those stories first.”
American Gods
As a confessed and shamed ‘late to Gaiman’ Reader I have been devouring his tasty offerings in quick succession, while I still consider Neverwhere my favourite I rate American Gods highly.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Read many times now and still loved with equal measure.
Jennifer Government
Another reread, I have a soft spot for this book and really want to see it as a film. The Nation States game was an inspired way to bring it to wider attention.
