#darkmoondancer

I know a lot of us are feeling stuck and lonely amongst the unfolding chaos that is 2020. And I know that parties and large gatherings aren't something we can currently reasonably plan, let alone being able to see friends and family as much as we'd like. Some of us are having a really hard time right now, and my heart goes out to you all. <3 But we will get through this, and we will do it together. <3 In the meantime, I wanted to share a video I watched today because it reminded me of something very important: I’ve been forgetting, (or perhaps more accurately, I’ve been actively/subconsciously disallowing myself), to dance.

I know, that sounds so #firstworldproblem, but it’s not. It’s a foundational need that humans have, somewhere after food + water + shelter, and somewhere before convenience technology (like cars for leisure transportation, for example). Dance is human expression through movement, and we know that bottling everything up can lead to destructive actions. When dancing is something anyone can do to feel better, why aren’t we taking advantage of this urge to dance? Because someone might see you? That’s silly.

What would they see? - A human delighting in a physical action that helps express an internal emotion. - Maybe they see a human who looks content to relax and enjoy their immediate situation. - Or maybe they witness human concentration and power of will displayed through physical prowess or sheer dedication.

That all sounds great to me! So why are we listening to the handful of outliers who tell us we look silly, or scoff at us for being ‘unprofessional’? You feel like dancing? Then dance. Don't stifle your urge to get up and pump your arms and kick your legs and do a little spin on your catwalk. You don't need to dance in any particular way, because dance is an opportunity for us to express ourselves, for ourselves. These ‘silly’ movements of mine, aren't for you. They're for me. I dance to feel better, so when I decide it’s appropriate for me to dance, I dance. And I think a lot of other people might not realize just how much relief you can feel during or after dancing. Humans have been using dance to express themselves, to tell stories, to release tension, and to bond with one another for millennia. Sure, there’s a time and place for everything, but don’t let others decide when that is for you.

So my long-winded self is trying to say:

Dance like no one is watching, until you don't care who is.

What do you mean Klecksography? This is a Rorschach! Well… that’s not true. But that is exactly what I thought to begin with, and is the reason why I dove into a bit of a history lesson before writing this. Let me roughly summarize for you.

What I found in my research was that Hermann Rorschach was only one of many many many people studying human psychology during the 1900s. And he definitely wasn’t the only one doing it with the help of visual aides like the symmetrical inkblots that are now often associated with his name. He wasn’t even close to the first person to make visuals in this manner. Some sources attribute the inspiration to be Justinus Kerner, who, notably had a book published named ‘Klecksographien‘ in 1890 featuring just such imagery, (though his originals may have dated back to at least 1857). But this art form goes back much further than that. I can’t find an exact source, but I currently have the following leads to follow :

- In New York in 1896 there was a book published, explaining this art-making in the form of a game, named Gobolinks. Which clearly came after Justinus Kerner’s publications, so is likely inspired by them and thus can be dismissed as the original source.

- Many sources seem to agree that there was some sort of game around making symmetrical inkblots in Switzerland, possibly more of Europe too. This seems to be heavily implied to be where Kerner got his inspiration from originally. Some of his writings explain that he re-discovered it while writing as an adult and accidentally dripping ink on his pages, but that it had reminded him of his childhood, hence my conclusion. This would land us somewhere in the late 1700s (based on Kerner’s DoB + childhood).

So the next step is to identify this game and it’s origins or inspiration.

There is some guesswork implying that somewhere along the road the inspiration came from Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Treatise on Painting’ compilation, because there is an excerpt where he urges creatives to look to stains and smudges in mundane things like walls for inspiration to kickstart a creative work. I have yet to find any sample of ink blots on folded paper, but this possibility would take us back to the late 1400s. I am not confident that this is the origin, or even a source along the way, but I am keeping it in mind while I look for more information. If this is the origin, then I am still missing a step between Leonardo Da Vinci in the late 1400s and the game in the late 1700s Europe.

Either way, Klecksography is the most accurate name I can find for this delightful practice of symmetrical ink blots for the purpose of creating artwork to ponder and admire. So for the time being, this is the term I intend to use when describing this series of artwork that I am working on.

Now, what am I going to do with my first batch of klecksographs? I’m going to experiment with them, try out a few different ideas and see what I like! There’s already a few I know I want to refine + add details to, and others that I know I want to add more ink to. I started by trying out all my inks to see what I have to work with. Definitely need to thin out the bronze ink, or maybe just save it for accents.

When you see a fennec fox X Pikachu hybrid in your mind’s eye in a bowl of nondescript chips… well ya just gotta draw it! So, here you go! I am crazy proud of how this turned out. Not only do I feel like I can call this a painting, it’s a piece that I completed for myself, but also I think I made a leap forward. I think I kept expression and motion and left in some abnormal shapes for character, and believe me, for me, that was really really hard to do. Yay me!

I have been wrestling my little Leshy for some time now, trying to get any of the art I make of her to look decent, and I think I’ve finally at least gotten over that ridiculous pre-conception xD

My little Leshy has survived (just barely) to level 2! So we made sure that all of her concepts and bits and pieces were in order this week, and after a bit of conference with our GM, she did get a few small changes made that fit her story better. She is officially a Vine Leshy (not a Leaf one), because I had literally styled her after a Vine before we knew exactly what all the subtypes of Leshies were going to be. Vine gives her a few boosts to climbing, as makes sense, but more importantly I had already decided that under all the bark she was mostly a mass of vines, as she was already holding her clothing together with one, so this was just a logical fix. Secondly, we also updated her Background to Pathfinder Hopeful, replacing her previous Dragon Scholar. While this one seems a little strange to begin with, it was due to player error that I didn’t realize that Pathfinder Hopeful fulfilled her concept 100% where Dragon Scholar fit with it’s name… but it had given her bonuses to Intimidation which… really just didn’t make sense for my small-sized adorable character to have. Swapping this our for Pathfinder Hopeful when I realized that it granted me not only the in-character motivation to be doing thorough research and reports on everything she sees and comes across… but it also gave her the Additional Lore skill feat which she chose to be Dragon Lore to keep the story consistent. This skill feat also means that she is actually going to continue to get better at Dragon Lore as the game progresses, so the end result is that she is more of a little dragon scholar when built in this manner, than she was when we first created the concept with the previous background. (Which is functionally why the GM allowed it, since it made things make more sense and didn’t really move anything around other than remove a skill that made no sense for her to have training in - intimidation). SO, without further ado, let me tell you a little bit about Sahga’s cantrips!

Cantrips are the lowest level of spells, which follow some special rules, mainly their allowance for you to cast them as many times a day as you like while most spells need a rest period after you cast X amount. In her current spell repertoire (basically the list of spells that she is allowed to cast), she has the following cantrips : Read Aura, Detect Magic, Shield, Telekinetic Projectile and Acid Splash. Shield : When she casts Shield on herself (which she does most rounds of combat), it grants her 1 AC + the Shield Block reaction, as well as a bonus +1 AC because this is one of her Sorceror Bloodline spells. So when she casts this, she concentrates her bright green magic and forms it into a pair of semi-transparent wings that bob and weave around her, swatting away attacks as best they can!

Telekinetic Projectile : This cantrip allows Sahga to pick up small loose or unattended objects and fling them across the room with just the power of her mind (+ magic of course). However, Sahga manifests this spell by way of imbuing this magic into one of her free vines (which compose 90% of her body, she merely wears bark over top of the mass of thorny vines as a sort of pseudo clothing to maintain a humanoid shape since she thinks it’s more pleasing to other humanoids ;) ). She then uses said imbued vine to pick up small objects and flings them at her attackers with a satisfying snap! Sahga isn’t one to be unprepared, so she makes sure to always carry a collection of items that are easy to throw should her surroundings not provide her with suitable projectiles.

Acid Splash : This is probably Sahga’s go-to cantrip whenever she can manage to find the opportunity to use it, and it’s a fun one to have been able to flavour into her magic usage. Acid Splash, just as it sounds, produces a globule of magic that does a bit of damage to it’s target as well as splashes everyone around it for a bit of acid damage. So when Sahga casts this cantrip, she puffs up her little chest and with surprising force spits out a tightly formed ball or bulb of leaves that bursts upon contact to reveal the liquid within as some form of acidic plant sap that the Leshy isn’t one to discuss the details of. Wouldn’t want to get doused with one of these leafy ”waterballoons”!