March was a month of misfortunes, hardships and incredible experiences. The main thing that occupied my mind and time was planning for and going to see Zheani with Hex in Brooklyn, in a sort of pilgrimage. In the last couple years, all of our travels have been strongly motivated by the desire to go to meaningful places and meet and connect with people who are important for us, and engaging in culture.
The trip to Brooklyn was tiring but also inspiring and powerful, really cementing our intention me and Hex of being artists first and investing a lot of time and energy into our art. Zheani’s show was insane, I’ve never felt such a strong presence and energy from a live performance and the whole thing felt very much like a small collective ritual. I highly recommend going to see her if you can, she’s starting a world tour soon ;)
Zheani sigil
In preparation for going to see Zheani, I discussed with Hex what they’d like to have signed by her and we came to the conclusion that a charm carved in wood with her sigil would be a pretty unique choice. It had been a long time since I had done any wood carving but it was a very welcome change of craft. Zheani’s sigil was very fit to be carved with it’ sharp angles it ended up looking really goof with some areas deeper than other. I finished the whole piece except the sigil with black paint and painted a quote around the edge. At the show we got the pleasure to meet Zheani for a little bit and have her signing it, it is really charged now.
Pious Rot Trailer
As the first module of Pious Rot is getting closer to completion I thought it would be fun to put together a little trailer for the Northern part of the world and introduce some of the aspects that makes Pious Rot unique as far as TTRPG settings go. I used photos I took in Iceland along with some that our friend Des took while living on an island in New Brunswick. The pictures somehow really captured how we were seeing the land that we had created with it’s rough but beautiful nature, ample species of moss and seaweed and the large expanse of cold sea. You can watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-aOX7SJKOE&t=29s
Voidxwitch PS1 style character
Inspired by the original Silent Hill game and seeing people online making a low-poly version of themselves in the style of the PS1 I had the idea to attempt to make a 3D avatar of Hex for Voidxwitch in order to use for short videos and images to promote the project and build the world around it. Knowing that I would have around 20 hours to kill on the train to and back from Brooklyn I took some reference pictures and downloaded a tutorial in advance and then got to work while passing through small derelict American towns on the train. I ended up learning a whole lot about the limitations of the PS1 and the way models were textured back in the day. I ended up really enjoying the process and the minimalism of the modelling really allowed me to keep thing manageable for my 3D skill level. This model is now rigged and can be animated and the result is really fun (and uncanny). You can see a first animated video here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JJyNqwTmCZk
Reading:
- Ecstasy is Necessary by Barbara Carrellas
Listening to:
- Silent Hill 1 soundtrack by Akira Yokohama
- Liebe in Zeiten der Kola by Brutalismus 3000
- Satan was a baby boomer by Brutalismus 3000
- Assorted Mushrooms of New England vol.2 by Mycologia
- The horgenaith by Sarahsson
Playing:
- Silent Hill 1