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How to Draw: Atmospheric Perspective

Hey if you don’t want to read the text – watch the video!

From wikipedia: Aerial perspective, or atmospheric perspective, is the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift toward the background colour, which is usually bluish, but may be some other colour under certain conditions (for instance, reddish around sunrise or sunset).

So, how do you do this with your drawing/painting? Here’s my techniques:

METHOD ONE – This applies particularly with black and white line art.

Imagine your composition has 3 layers (it might have more, but let’s pretend) – the foreground, the middle ground and the background.

– Give the foreground layer the MOST DETAIL and THICKER STROKES
– Make background layer with MINIMAL DETAIL and THINNEST STROKES
– The middle layer (or layers) can have degrees in between.

EXAMPLES: Henry Justice Ford

METHOD TWO – particularly for greyscale art with tones

Let’s say you’re drawing with different pencils, or different colored markers, paints…whatever. Digital also applies of course.

– The foreground layer is the DARKEST ink/tone (or colors)
– The background layer is the LIGHTEST ink/tone (or colors)
– The middle laer (or layers) again has varying degrees between the lightest and darkest brush strokes.

Examples:

W. Heath Robinson:

Howard Pyle – the man in the foreground with the hat has some of the darkest lines and tones in the image:

Henry Justice Ford – notice how the soldiers in the midground have much less detail and the colors are washed out. The castle in the very back has very thin linework and almost no color:

Rando Internet samples:

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The 28th Episode of the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon

What if there was a 28th episode of the 1983-85 cartoon series Dungeons and Dragons? As a fun exercise, let’s find out together!

Phase 1: We will start with a pitch, beat sheet, outline, script

Phase 2: Create designs, model sheets, backgrounds as needed

Phace 3: Record voice acting and create storyboards and animatic

THE PITCH

TITLE: SECRET OF THE SHADOW DEMON

In yet another failed attempt to acquire the Weapons of Power, Venger blames the failure on Shadow Demon. Venger proclaims that SD will be punished/imprisoned, and replaced, so SD flees. 

His replacement is a total badass, much more powerful and much more of a threat to the kids. Let’s call him Zarak (an actual toy in the 80s toy line for the show, who was never used in the show). Zarak’s first job for Venger: track down & capture Shadow Demon. 

Shadow Demon approaches the kids to help, it will be in both their interests to defeat Zarak and have SD reinstated as Venger’s spy. An unlikely alliance is formed, as the kids and SD trick both Zarak and Venger in some clever way. At the end SD is back in Venger’s good graces and the kids move on. 

In this episode we learn a bit of Shadow Demon’s backstory. Maybe we even visit the Shadow Realm.

Behind the scenes: coming up with some plot ideas:

THE BEAT SHEET (In progress)

in progress

DESIGNS

MODEL SHEET: SKYLLA, EVIL MAGIC-USER

Behind the scenes:

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A Day in Hiroshima and Miyajima

PART ONE: Getting There… (January 2025)

There’s restaurants in Hiroshima Station!

Momiji manjū is a type of wagashi that is baked. The confection is a buckwheat and rice cake shaped like a Japanese maple leaf, and is a local specialty on the island of Itsukushima (Miyajima) in Hiroshima. It is typically filled with red bean paste

We enjoyed our lunch at Kanawa ASSE かなわ, Unfortunately it appears to be permanently closed now 🙁

PART TWO: The Atomic Bomb Dome, Children’s Monument and Peace Memorial Park

A somber monument.

Life goes on!

Ota River and the Motomasu Bridge

Children’s Peace Monument

Peace memorial Park

PART 3: Miyajima Island!

The boat we took from Hiroshima to Miyajima.

At the front is a video that showcases the city as you move through. It tells you how each bridge fared the atomic blast, and other geography. I remember there was an island where people lived, and then the bomb dropped, and then a hurricane came, and then landslides. People don’t live there anymore.

It’s no Nara Deer Park – but they sure are friendly!

Miyajima Syukudou Bekken restaurant serves oysters and delicious treats!
https://maps.app.goo.gl/iHmCMaVK1XcqS9NAA

Did I mention the area is famous for oysters?

Miyajima Omotesando Shopping Street

Did I mention this place is famous for oysters?

Momiji manjū is a type of wagashi that is baked. The confection is a buckwheat and rice cake shaped like a Japanese maple leaf, and is a local specialty on the island of Itsukushima (Miyajima) in Hiroshima. It is typically filled with red bean paste. Try it!

I sense a food stacking trend!

Naturally there is a Ghibli boutique!

Itsukushima Shrine / Torii Gate

(厳島神社, Itsukushima-jinja) is a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima (popularly known as Miyajima), best known for its “floating” torii.

Return to Hiroshima and Okonomiyaki

We took the train back to downtown Hiroshima

Okonomimura is a multi-storey building in Shintenchi that houses multiple teppan restaurants serving okonomiyaki – sort of like a street food stall but indoors.

Don’t worry there’s English menu too

Did I mention this place is famous for oysters?

You don’t get hashi (chopsticks) or a fork to eat your okonomiyaki – you get a personal spatula!

They even have gachapon with little okonomiyaki keychains – yes I got one!

Next Blog entry will be: Kobe!

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Why Would You Want to Hire Me as a Dungeon Master?

Hello! My name is Toren and I live in East Vancouver! I’ve been running and playing D&D since 1985! I’ve played every edition. My preferred edition is “old school” which comes in many forms, from Basic to Old School Essentials to Shadowdark (kind of sort of). I’ve also run 5th edition with dozens of groups.

MY BONA FIDES:

I’ve designed an award winning TTRPG called Spaceship Zero
I’ve worked for Wizards of the Coast as an illustrator
I’m a professional actor and voice actor
I’ve run games and tournaments at conventions, including GenCon, and at two animation studios in town.

HOW IT WORKS

I prefer in person around a physical table – but you provide the venue
I have some miniatures, terrain and battle maps if that is the kind of game you like (I do) – I even make my own terrain!
I have a car so I can drive and potentially give other players rides if need be
I welcome and can provide consent checklists to avoid any uncomfortable awkwardness
I write adventure summaries and track noteworthy items after each session
I charge $85 (CAD) for a 4 hour session with up to 4 players. Over four players is another $15 per additional player up to 6*.

An encounter with horizontal AND vertical dimensions! From my post-apocalyptic campaign

MY DM STYLE

I’ve been Dungeon Mastering since the 80s, but I play it fairly loose with the rules.
I like to start with mini-adventures that can be completed in a single session, but if the group vibes well, longer multi-session quests are a natural next step.
You can expect memorable non-player characters with distinct quirks and vocal stylings.
I welcome any help/advice/correction with regards to rules and rulings. 
Typically, I don’t worry about alignment, but advise that reputation is important with regards to interacting with civilized society (which is the source of most quests in the realm). Criminals are treated harshly in the medieval-type world! 

The Great Gingerbread Dungeon of 2015

CAVEAT
My schedule can be a challenge. I have a full time job, a wife, a dog, a rock band that’s working on a new album, freelance illustration gigs, and another ongoing professional DM gig. So I won’t be able to meet weekly, but once or twice per month is feasable.

Interested? Reach out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F_JzutLhl0

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Overdue Who Review: Shada – the Recently Completed Episode!

Season 17 (1979) – Fourth Doctor (TV movie)

The Doctor, Romana and K-9 are summoned to the lair of a dottering old Time Lord friend Professor Chronotis (get it? Chrono means time!) at a contemporary (1979) British university. He’s lost an important book that is the key to accessing the titular Gallifreyan prison asteroid. The evil Skagra, with inimitable fashion sense, is trying to access Shada to complete his ultimate plan of putting the entire universe into one mind – his – with the help of a cryogenically frozen inmate named Salyavin.

Skagra’s path towards this goal involves stealing the minds of important people with the aid of a floating grey sphere. His muscle is the monstrous, lumbering, silicon-based Krarg. Along for the ride with The Doctor is a student of physics who accidentally borrowed the Gallifreyan tome.

Shada was intended as the final serial of the season but filming never completed, owing to a strike. The completed version of Shada was finally released in 2017, with missing dialogue newly recorded by the original cast, using the same audio equipment employed in the initial shoot, and animated by the team that undertook the reconstruction of the 1966 serial The Power of the Daleks. 

Although this 2h18m movie could have been cut down by at least 18 minutes (just with the animated characters looking left and right alone), this is a well-written story, as Doctor Who stories go, by our good friend Douglas Adams. There are lots of his trademark witticisms delivered perfectly by Tom Baker. The Doctor manipulates the bad guy’s spaceship AI with “logic” a la Captain Kirk. There’s a chase scene where he’s riding a bicycle without a helmet. He has his memories stolen by the floating sphere when it touches his head (could this have been prevented with a bike helmet?) He has a mind control battle with the bad guy.

Sadly, Romana does precious little except to remind The Doctor of various plot points. I also had a problem with the mysterious Salyavin revealing himself for absolutely no reason at the end, to the benefit of no one but the bad guy. Animated jelly babies appear. The TARDIS goes exactly where everyone wants it to go for a change.

Oh, and the music is quite good for a change!

As a student of animation this reconstruction interests me. The animation of the human characters is stilted with fairly flat light and color, but the 2D stills of ships and backgrounds exceeds the live action sets and models. K-9 has never moved so fluidly in his CG form and even the alien Krarg are rendered in 3D to excellent effect. There’s a blog

There’s an online Doctor Who magazine called Nothing At The End of the Lane that takes a hefty, serious, thorough look at this reconstruction. I find this extremely interesting and if you watch Shada (which I recommend) you might look into it https://www.endofthelane.co.uk/Shada-Blog-1.html

Next: The Leisure Hive

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Kurashiki “Town of Storehouses” – Bikan Historical District

Kurashiki (倉敷) is located in Okayama Prefecture, not far from the prefectural capital of Okayama City. Kurashiki has a preserved canal area that dates back to the Edo Period (1603-1867), when the city served as an important rice distribution center. In fact, the name “Kurashiki” can be roughly translated as “town of storehouses” in reference to the rice storehouses.

Many of Kurashiki’s former storehouses have been converted into museums, boutiques and cafes. The Ohara Museum is the most impressive of Kurashiki’s museums, exhibiting a large collection of works by famous Western artists. The canal area is a ten minute walk from Kurashiki Station.

HERE IT IS ON GOOGLE MAPS ->[CLICK IF YOU CARE]

Shopping Arcade

Several blocks of open air covered walkway with all kinds of shops and restaurants

BETTER LIFE – a housewares shop where I bought an ogre towel

Chez Kobeya for katsu (they had lassi!)

Fun Gachapon (toy machine) shop – I bought three (none of them pictured)

Imagine if you will a shop in Japan dedicated to American kitsch. That shop is: Golden Nugget Buddies, named after the MacDonaldland characters

Strange purple yam ice cream to delight and offend the senses

Toy/Candy store run by a nice little old lady included tons of Ultraman figures I haven’t seen in the new stores – bought one! This place is called おくだ商店

Achi Jinja Shrine

It is located on the top of Mt. Tsurugata, a perfect viewing spot overlooking the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter, and has a Noh stage and an ancient garden based on Horai philosophy within its grounds. The natural monument “Achi no Wisteria”, which is estimated to be 300 to 500 years old, is also worth seeing.

Unfortunately we didn’t explore this much, due to bad knees.

reverse angle courtesy Fred Bremmer

Saw koi and swans in the canal

OHOARA MUSEUM OF ART

Where you can find Rodin, Picasso, Gaugin, Monet, Signac, Lutrec, cezanne, Klee, Kandinksy, Pollock. No photos allowed inside unfortunately.

DENIM STREET

Where you can find blue cream soda flavor soft serve and blue bao.

LIVING MOMOKA peach croquette and Ghibli merch

Miffy Bakery

Momotarō (桃太郎, Japanese pronunciation: [mo.moꜜ.ta.ɾoː],[1][2] lit. ’Peach Boy’) is a popular hero of Japanese folklore. His name is often translated as Peach Boy, but is directly translated as Peach + Tarō, a common Japanese given name. Momotarō is also the title of various books, films and other works that portray the tale of this hero.

There is a popular notion that Momotarō is a local hero of Okayama Prefecture, but this claim was invented in the modern era. This notion is not accepted as consensus in scholarly circles.

Kurashiki Ivy Square

Formerly a spinning factory, now a hotel (with another koi pond)

ASOBOUYA Variety Store – lots of kaiju toys, M.U.S.C.L.E. men (Kinnikuman), Owner smelled of cigarettes. Cluttered and awesome.

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Overdue Who Review: The Horns of Nimon

Season 17 1979-1980 (4 parts)

The declining Skonnan Empire is under control of the evil ‘god-like’ NIMON, which dwells in the power complex that is for some reason also a labyrinth. It communicates with the fabulously garbed Skonnan leader SOLDEED and promises armaments in exchange for a tribute of crystals and Anethian youngsters.

The Doctor and Romana come across a spaceship on its way to Skonnan, bringing the tribute. The ship has broken down and is stranded near a black hole, but the Time Lords fix it and make their way to Skonnan. 

When the Nimon summons more of its kind, we learn the Nimon travel via artificial black holes between planets, draining resources before moving on to conquer new worlds. Such will be the fate of Skonnos if the Nimons are not thwarted!

A notorious episode and for good reason. Bad script, dreadful pacing and the minotaurs, er, I mean – NIMONS do the usual Doctor Who laughably slow, pantomime lumbering that you see in most dudes in monster costumes. But HEY – they can shoot lasers from their horns!

Graham Crowden as Soldeed is reminiscent of Jonathan Pryce as the Master in the Doctor Who parody The Curse of Fatal Death, however…

Crowden does his best to take the award for Best Worst Death Captured on Video since that 1973 Turkish movie Karate Girl

Overall, a real stinker

Next: Shada!

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Overdue Who Review: Nightmare of Eden

Season 17, 1979, 4 parts, Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)

Due to poor navigation, two different space ships (a cruise ship and a trade ship) are interlocked, and The Doctor offers to help. However a zoologist on the cruise ship, recently back from the planet Eden, has a device that stores portions of planets on crystals and displays them as projections. A euphoric drug is making the rounds on the ship and monsters loosed from the Eden projection – which is less of a projection and more of a gateway – are the unwilling couriers of the drug running scheme between two baddies.

This one’s a bit of a slog. As is often the case, there’s a fair amount of technobabble workarounds to shore up the plot. The zoologist Tryst is played by an Australian actor who I think is trying to do a German accent? It’s all very weird and he reminds me of a high school teacher for some reason – at least that garnered my interest.

Next: The Horns of Nimon

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20 Minute Monster Series: Monster Manual II

This is the third in a series of annual timed drawing exercises. They were livestreamed on Sunday mornings on my youtube channel. First I went through the AD&D Monster Manual, choosing one monster from each letter of the alphabet. Then I did the same with the Fiend Folio and finally, here, the Monster Manual II (1983).

ABOLETH

Blue Behir upon a bisected boulder bravely defending her brood of babies, breathing blasts of lightning

Choke Creeper as seen in the D&D cartoon episode “The Garden of Zinn”

Drunk drider drawing a drowsy drow druid

Elderly elf with ELECTRIC EEL escapes with an enlarged EAGLE egg

Friendly fulvous FROGHEMOTH foisting frogurt on four frightened flumphs

Genuine ginger GIBBERING MOUTHER gently gesturing in a gibbet

Hoary host of heavenly HOLLYPHANTS hoisting a hungover halforc hierophant

Jade jumping JANNI with a jambiya

Kraken

Lithesome lady LYCANTRHOPE luring a lascivious low-level lyrist in a lavender labyrith (Foxwoman)

Millions of mechanically marching MODRON minions magnificently mismanaged by a monstrous malfunctioning master

Nereid on a Nautilus

Ork on an olive Oliphant (featuring Venger)

Phoenix

Quickling queen questions a quagga about the quartz quail on the quarterdeck

Robust red rancorous RAVENS regard rappelling ranger ransacking the rookery (featuring Hank the ranger from the D&D cartoon)

Speedy speckled SPECTATOR supports a spunky spellcaster spraying sparkles (featuring Zandora the sorceress from the D&D cartoon)

Titanic tangerine TARRASQUE tasting a templar at the temple of Tefnut.

Uncanny urban URCHINS upending upset unicorns (featuring Uni from the D&D cartoon)

Black velvet VEGEPYGMY veteran with a voulge

Weaponless warduke gets a wet willy from a watchet WOLF-IN-SHEEPS-CLOTHING while a wapiti watches in the woods

Xenagogue x-rayed on a xenolith by XAG-YA AND XEG-YI

Yellow YUAN-TI yogis at a yajna with a yummy yaffingale amongst the yucca

A zomp zendik saps a zaftig ZYGOM ZORBO zombie on a zuche

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Naoshima, Little Island with Lots of Art!

As wikipedia says – Naoshima is an island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, part of Kagawa Prefecture. The island is best known for its many contemporary art installations and museums.

Don’t visit on a Monday! The galleries are closed! We learned this the hard way.

There it is!!

Getting there

The closest city with a JR station is Okayama, a cool place with lots of its own destinations (like a castle) which I will blog about another time.

If you happen to be doing a day trip from Okayama, you’ll want to leave as early as you can because it will take at least 1.5 hours transit time to get there, and the ferry schedule is limited. And be sure you plan your trip back as well to ensure you have enough time and aren’t rushing.

Uno Station

There are two ferry docks, one that takes cars and one for foot passengers only. The food passenger one is smaller, obviously, and I think it’s faster, and is actually less comfortable.

Getting Around

If you arrive in Miyanoura Port, make sure you check out Marine Station, they had a special pumpkin cream puff/macaron type thing. You’ll have to buy the ticket at the vending machine and hand the ticket to the clerk to get your sweet treat. We’ll check back later to see how that went for me 😀

Macaron, not macaroon!

Right at the ferry port, you can see artist Yayoi Kusama’s red pumpkin. You can go inside it!

Another piece of art!
Different perspective of the red pumpkin

I expect you could rent a car or something but we went with bicycles. During the off season (December/January) the only Bike Rental place that’s open is Ougiya. Make sure you check the tires, brakes, etc – mine required a bit of tweaking before we rolled out.

map is provided by the Ougiya bike rental place.
I thought this was an villains lair but turns out it is a high school
Found the heron from that Miyazaki film!
Glam trucks are a thing in Japan

On the opposite side of the island, at Honmura Port, you can find some giant bubbles in which to park your bike, if you are so inclined. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nihsizawa. Fun stuff!

Naoshima Noodles

Right next to a supermarket (Mitsubishi Materials Naoshima Co-op) there’s a little ramen place called Naoshima Noodles [google link]. We arrived just before lunch and the place was completely empty. We struggled a bit trying to decipher the ticket machine that you use to place your order, but there is an English menu available to help you translate – just ask for it! Just a few minutes after we got our ramen, hordes of salarymen came in to crowd the place.

From here we rode our bikes up a winding steep hill to get to the “Amazing View Spot” on the map above. It was a bit rough, even with electric-assist bikes! But we made it! There’s an orange pumpkin down there somewhere….

Down the hill (scary slope and curves – ride slow) we found Tsutsuji-So Seaside Park. There’s a bus stop here and a beach! Must be nice when it’s not JANUARY!

Yes you can get beer from the vending machine! I guess you don’t need ID?
Do you see the giant pumpkin?

Time to try my pumpkin macaron – pretty good! Very rich and sweet, a bit of a trial to finish the whole thing by myself.

Artsy

Plants!