Transitions

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My first post at Skook went up on January 5th, 2003. That means I’ve been posting here for almost nine years. I’ve posted almost 1900 times. At the beginning of this year I’d been thinking I’d shut things down at an even 2000 posts. But this year has been more eventful that I’d planned. (Most years are.) So I’ve decided to shut this blog down at the end of this year. It’s not as if I’ll stop posting my art and ramblings. I’ll just be doing it at a different address.

I’ve owned DavidLeeIngersoll.com (and DavidIngersoll.com) since 2007. Until this month that address (both addresses actually) has been pointing to dliportfolio.blogspot.com. When I started the process of designing a website for Oz Squad I also started thinking about I should do with my own domain. I’d intended to get up full Squad site first and then move on to my own site. As I’ve been reacquainting myself with WordPress and playing around with design ideas it’s become apparent that both sites are going to be built simultaneously. Oz Squad will still be getting most of the attention but my own domain will be where I’ll be trying some of the messier experiments.

There’s currently a small amount of content up at Skookworks.com. And DavidLeeIngersoll.com. And DavidIngersoll.com. Those addresses all point to the same site. Ain’t technology grand?

The various logos on the page today are my first stabs at designing the logo for the site. None of them work. It’s been so long since I hand designed a logo that I’d forgotten one of the fundamental rules of design.

Work big. Work really big. Then when the art is reduced to print size your mistakes will go unnoticed.

The logo designs shown in today’s post are about the same size as the original artwork. They’re useful as tests but not as refined as I want for actual logos. The original art for the logo that appears on the site today is about 4 times the size it appears online.

When I first started posting here I had an AOL account and a Yahoo.com email address. Since then I’ve acquired both a gmail and a hotmail address. I’ve got an epilogue.net gallery and a deviantart account. I’ve got a MySpace page. A Facebook account. A couple of Twitter accounts. I’ve got a Wikipedia entry. I’ve posted comments on a variety of blogs and sites all over the net. I’ve got art in places I barely remember. Basically I’m a pretty typical netizen. Given that I’m only now getting around to using my own domain I’m a netizen who has a lot of catching up to do.

With school starting up again I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to devote to posting. I hope I’ll be able to keep up a regular routine until the end of the year. This blog will stay online for as long as blogger keeps it up. I’ll be reposting some of the content at the new site but I don’t plan to remove anything here.

Stay tuned! 

The Undeveloped Elias Photos

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Finally we have sketches for another couple of Jackson Elias photos. I realized that, with the previous five illustrations, I had enough images to fill the available space on Elias’s desktop. Any further photos who just end up crowding the existing ones. It might have made for an interesting composition but it also would have meant that I’d have done a lot of detail work that would just be covered up. I love doing fiddly detail work and don’t mind if most of it goes unnoticed but having it be completely unseen would have been even sillier than normal.

The Jackson Elias Photos #3

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Here is the third of the background photos that are part of one of my illustrations for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion monograph to benefit Yog-Sothoth.com. Masks is set during the Jazz Age – the period of history when HP Lovecraft was alive and writing. Part of the fun of doing illustrations for Call of Cthulhu was that a lot of the adventures were set in the 1920s and 1930s and I’m rather fond of the fashions of that time period. The idea that men wore suits and ties everywhere is kind of appealing. (As an idea anyway. Given that I don’t own even one suit myself I don’t know how I’d deal with the reality.)

Story Seed #24

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Kong survives the fall because he really is the GOD of Skull Island.

Here’s the story of King Kong – A bunch of White Men and a Blonde find an island where dinosaurs still survive. The natives give the Blonde to their God, a giant ape. The White Men try to rescue the Blonde, mostly get killed by dinosaurs but eventually succeed and capture the giant ape at the same time. The White Men exhibit the giant ape in the City. The giant ape escapes and, carrying the Blonde, climbs the tallest building around. Airplanes come, shoot him full of bullets and falls and DIES. End of story.

I’ve spent a stupid amount of time trying to come up with a sequel to King Kong that doesn’t either require a second ape (who is therefore not Kong) or change the ending of the original movie. I don’t usually waste time thinking about how to continue a story when the original author is still around or the story is held by a corporation. It’s unsatisfying to come up with an idea I’d never be able to use. King Kong is a weird example of a story that’s partly in public domain. I’d need to do more research to see how far I could go with an idea but it’s not outside the realm of possibility to do a sequel. Universal would probably sue over a big budget movie but might ignore a novel or a comic book. If one were careful.

Anyway.

Recently I watched the original movie and She within a week of each other and an idea occurred to me. When Denham introduces Kong to the audience in New York he says that Kong had been a king, a GOD, in his world. Denham, being a White Man, was speaking metaphorically. Only White Men had a real god.

But what if Kong were a God – the immortal protector of Skull Island? The sort of Lost World that Skull Island is, is pretty much impossible. An ape the size of Kong is pretty much impossible. So there must be Other Forces at work.

Won’t New York be surprised when the ape gets up again? The Blonde will really scream then.

Story Seed #23

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Kidnappers hole up with victims at cabin by remote Canadian lake. All must band together when stalked by remnant prehistoric giant killer otters.

Yeah, otters are cute. Unless you’re something they want to eat. Then they’re just like any other toothy instrument of death and disembowelment.

Are there giant prehistoric otters lurking in remote Canadian lakes? Probably not. If you’ve got a problem with that you could always make them kushtaka or a Canadian version of Jenny Greenteeth.

The Jackson Elias Photos #1

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Yog-Sothoth.com is a fansite for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. A while back, before I got frustrated with Chaosium’s abysmal payment policy, I was asked to contribute a couple of illustrations to their Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion monograph. I did two full page illustrations. Hopefully the monograph will be completed soon and I’ll be able to direct your attention to it.

In the meantime I’m posting some aspects of one of the illustrations. These may appear individually in different parts of the monograph but they created to be part of one of the full page illustrations. The illustration in question is the desktop of Jackson Elias, an important Non-Player Character in the game. A number of photos of Mr. Elias are part of the clutter on the desktop. Above is one of those “photos”.