Hexagonal Geomorph II

Here is another of the catacomb geomorphs.  I thickened the walls a bit.  I was initially thinking of keeping things as simple as possible and saving ink for those of you printing at home, but I added a gradient to try and give the solid stone some heft.   I don't know how this gradient will screenprint, I do have pretty fine screen.  I'll have to see. 

I don't know, looking at it as I post the pic, the gradient looks awful "computery," too clean and regular.  I wish I could get some kind of spatter going.  Why does it seem like this would be so much easier by hand?

Hexagonal Geomorph

I haven't been making as much progress as I wanted to.  Some bad news: somebody broke into my car and inexplicably stole my little screenprinting screen I made 2 years ago.  I was planning on making 2 bigger new screens anyway, but it would have been nice to have it to do little stuff and test things with.

Some good news: I just got three new ink colors in the mail yesterday.  Now I've got black and all 4 browns the company offers.

I have been trying to re-learn what I knew about Inkscape 2 years ago.  Spent several hours today.  Here is an idea of what I'm shooting for:

The grays will be a light brown, the blacks a dark brown, printed on canvas.  The game boardy spaces are meant to simplify movement for solo play.  I'm thinking 5' per space and per inch.  That would mean a 60' light source would just show you the tile-length as you enter it.

My question for you: do you like the way the walls look?  (I fractalized the lines and then distorted the result with "torn edge") I wonder if I should add some hatching.  I'm not really an artist and working with Inkscape is difficult for me, but I am determined to forge ahead.

Screenprinting

Looking back at a post I made almost two years ago now, I'm depressed at how little progress I've made.  In fact, I lost ground, because I'd made three svg geomorphs since that post that have been lost (the only reason I remembered making them was because I have printed hard copies).

I am determined to press forward. There are a few hurdles for screenprinting.  Getting the supplies is a piece of cake, they weren't all that expensive and they ship them right to you.  But there are other hurdles:

1. Darkroom
You have to have somewhere you can apply the photosensitive goop that makes the whole process work.  And be able to see to apply it, and not worry too much if you make a mess.  Last time I put a special bulb in a bathroom.

2. Water with Pressure
After exposing the goop to the sun you have to wash out the non-exposed goop.  You really need something like a pressure washer for this.  If you look at the picture from that old post you can see where I screwed up trying to brush out the goop (because all I had was a normal faucet and it wasn't cleaning the stuff too well).

3. Images
Yeah, common sense that you have to have some image(s) to screenprint.  But let me lay out a little what I want to do:

• I want hexes printed on both sides.  That means you need to make a rig that makes sure you are printing in the exact same spots on both sides.
• I want to print in two colors.  Another reason to need the rig above.  To do this I will need to make 4 passes at a particular piece of cloth.  It means I need to make sure I use a lot of layers when building my svgs, and once I decide which features will be in which color, it will require two separate transparencies printed out.
• I'm going to try to print 4 tiles at a time to make the process easier.  This means I need to get a bigger screen.  I may need to order another squeegee (I'll see if I can make the one I have work, it's about half the size of the four tile setup).

So, what to do about these hurdles?  I inherited a semi-broken netbook that I loaded Inkscape onto.  I am going to try and deal with #3 in the mountains.  It was 107 yesterday in the valley and I would rather be up where it's cool.  Once I get the images made I think the other hurdles will seem small.

I also made a little progress, in that 1) I decided my prototype set will consist of 8 back-to-back tiles and 2) I chose the designs of all 8 of those tiles.  Next I need to determine the encounter triggers for each tile which will be tricky.

Ok, enough blah blah blah, just wanted to let you know what I've been thinking about and struggling with lately.

Oh, and I am gathering material for a standing desk. I hope to enter the fall never having to slump in front of a computer again.  Stay in the shade!  I think it's going to be a hot one again today.