Monica Valentinelli

Take the Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge and Change Your World

Greetings and Salutations!

This week's news, announcements, and musings include Wednesday's check-in and a motivational post for my Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge. You are welcome to join us at any time. Thanks so much for reading and supporting my art!

In the 02/02/2017 edition:
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[New Release] Conan RPG: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of

By Monica Valentinelli on Feb 01, 2017 12:51 pm

Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of takes you into the world of Conan the Barbarian, where heroes raise blood-spattered swords against dire sorcery, exotic lands beckon to the daring, danger and treasure lurks in forgotten ruins, and where loathsome creatures haunt the spaces beneath the earth… as well as in the throne-rooms of mighty kingdoms!

I worked on the game in its early stages, and contributed to the gazetteer section. Here are some of the game’s highlights:

• Create your own legend in this decadent and violent world.

• Complete 2d20 game system, including combat, skills, talents, sorcery, and equipment suitable for adventuring in the age before history.

• An extensive gazetteer covering the whole of Conan’s world: featuring fair Aquilonia, gloomy Cimmeria, magic-haunted Stygia, all the way to the far-off steaming jungles of Khitai.

• Fearsome foes, ranging from bandits to sorcerers, apes to giant serpents, Children of Set to frost giants, forest devils, and characters of renown such as Conan or his most deadly foe, Thoth-Amon.

Excited to play in the Hyborian Age? You can download the Conan RPG at the FlamesRising.com shop.

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MANW Week 5 Check-In and Get Organized in February

By Monica Valentinelli on Feb 01, 2017 09:48 am

Hello challengers! It’s the start of a brand new month, and that means I’m kicking off a new theme. In January, my year-long MANW initiative started with a month of playing and experimenting with different art forms. Out of that, I had fun playing around with new jewelry design techniques, watercolor, lettering, and a few side projects that had been lingering–plus I’ve also generated some plans for what I refer to as Operation: Muchness.

I hope you enjoyed January’s theme. If you got off the horse, keep in mind that’s pretty natural–especially this time of year. Many people break New Year’s Resolutions for a variety of reasons.

When a goal isn’t met, I find it’s usually because the initial goal was too:

• complicated

• unrealistic

• time-intensive

• frustrating!

Often, goals require preparation. Or, in other words, you have to subtract something in order to add that new behavior in your life. Plus, if your personal life goes wonky, your goal needs to be so simple you can refocus and redirect your attention even in smaller chunks. According to this article, it takes 66 days to form new habits. I’m of the mind that its closer to 100, however, or three months. Why? Well, consider that the best way to achieve a goal is to break it up into smaller, more manageable chunks or milestones. If your new, desired behavior requires more time than expected or winds up not working for you, you’ll know that’s the case within that first month. Then, you’ll need time to make adjustments to ensure your revised goal will work for you.

Regardless of whether or not you embraced January’s PLAY theme, I hope you figured out what was and wasn’t working for you so you could make room in your life for more art.

February’s Theme: ORGANIZE

February’s theme is all about getting your art supplies, files, etc. organized, and I’m going to provide tips throughout the month to help you clean and sort your materials. This tactic will help you assess what you have in order to make room for the new art that you’re making. It’s also a way of assessing your own inventory; this is important to do from time-to-time, if you plan on making money from your art or wish to revive old projects and see them across the finish line.

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As a heads up, I’m planning on embracing some artistic challenges this Fall, like NaNoWriMo.org and Inktober for my monthly themes. Organizing now will help you get used to your new processes, too, before you wrap your time making art if you decide to take another challenge later on.

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Creative Challenge: Why Organize?

To get started, the first step will be to narrow down your personal goals for organizations. Why do you want to get organized in the first place? What do you want to do with your space? What do you want to obtain? Make more use out of? Get rid of?

If you have a lot of supplies and projects, or you feel you’re so scattered you have no idea where to start, this is a great time to free-write and get in touch with what you want.

More questions to consider:

• Can you list/name the art projects you haven’t finished yet?

• What do you need to finish your projects?

• When was the last time you used your art supplies?

• What do you keep buying more of?

• What can’t you never seem to find when you need it?

• Do you have excess lower quality art supplies that don’t quite work for what you need?

• Do you have space available for storage?

• Do you have space to make art?

• Of the spaces that you do have, how are you using them now?

Thinking more deeply about storage spaces and inventory is one way of setting goals. For example, I have beads I’ve purchased over the years that were for patterns I liked. I also received some beads as a gift, and others because I thought they were cool. Now, my beads are partially sorted into CraftMates Lockables containers for easy access; others are in see-through vinyl bags in larger containers. Right now, I have no way of knowing or remembering everything I wanted to make; I found an extra bin of beads last night, where I separated out the beads by type for the pattern.

In other words, I have three storage systems going on and inventory I haven’t quite figured out yet. For patterns, I have two systems; hard copy and digital. But, I can’t look at my beads and go, “Oh yes, I have enough to make this.” That leads to buying more beads, guessing the colors I need, and a lot of potential waste.

I have a few reasons why I want to organize my jewelry components. They are because I want to:

• reduce buying supplies I don’t use

• make better use out of the supplies I do have

• use lower quality supplies for learning new techniques

• reduce the time it takes me to set up and clean up

• make better use out of my storage space

From these answers, you can start to see the roots of an organizational wish list I’ll customize according to the space and materials I have. Before I start re-arranging or setting up yet another process, I now understand what I want to accomplish. That “why” is pretty important, because without it I’m just cleaning and sorting to make more space. Instead, I need to focus on usable space and systems that will help me make more art.

That’s it for today’s post. I hope you’re continuing to make art! If you want to check in, you can comment below and tell me how you’re doing. What’d you think of January’s theme?

• Mood: I am a focused grasshopper.
  Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Funny story… I drank loads of green tea thinking it was herbal. So, a lot. Whoops!
  Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Hour of yoga
  In My Ears: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 – Allegro (Part L1)
  Game Last Played: Dragon Age: Inquisition
  Book Last Read: Research materials for work.
  Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  Latest Artistic Project: Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge and Rules
  Latest Releases: In Volo’s Wake for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Read my end-of-the-year list of releases for an overview of what I’ve put out for 2016.
  Current State of Projects: Read my latest project update. New project update coming this month!

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[New Release] In Volo’s Wake Now Available

By Monica Valentinelli on Jan 31, 2017 10:07 am

Back in November 2016, I announced that I worked on In Volo’s Wake to celebrate the release of Volo’s Guide to Monsters. The adventure was first released at GameHoleCon for D&D’s Adventurer’s League, and was then available to play as as a store exclusive.

I’m happy to report that In Volo’s Wake is now available for all fans of D&D! This set of adventures was designed for beginner players; there are tons of notes for DMs to draw from to modify encounters and have a little (hopefully a lot!) of fun.

The town of Phandalin, nestled in the foothills to the east of the Sword Mountains, continues to grow since being rebuilt after the devastation wrought by rampaging orc hordes. It recently survived violent gang activity, drow machinations, and even the attention of a green dragon.

But can it withstand a new threat, bizarre but no less perilous: the fame brought by a visit from none other than loremaster Volothamp Geddarm?

If you’re interested, you can hop on over to DMsGuild.com to purchase a digital copy of the adventure or through the Flamesrising.com Shop. I’m sure your fellow adventurers would love to hear your thoughts on this adventure, too, if you get the chance to play it. Enjoy!

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Mark Your Calendar for GameHoleCon 2017

By Monica Valentinelli on Jan 30, 2017 03:04 pm

I am pleased to announce that I will be a guest for this year’s Gamehole Con, which takes place November 2nd through November 5th at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Gamehole Con is the largest tabletop gaming convention in the upper Midwest. Tabletop gamers from around the country gather each November in Madison, WI for this carnival of gaming. The convention features role-playing games, board games, fantasy and historical miniature gaming, and collectible card games. If you are a tabletop gaming fan, do not miss Gamehole Con!”

I’ll have more announcements about the show in the coming months. I hope you consider joining us at the show!

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Guest Posts and Class Date Changes for Writing the Other

By Monica Valentinelli on Jan 30, 2017 10:06 am

After talking to Tempest, we realized that we needed to shift the class dates to accommodate our schedules and give me an opportunity to write some guest posts. The class, which is now scheduled for April, also offers a payment plan as well.

I did manage to write one guest post so far, I’m happy to announce that you can read more about my design philosophy over at the illustrious Jim Hines’ blog today.

“Why does representation in RPGs matter? The answer is simple: players play games so they can be the hero in their own stories.” –SOURCE: On Representation in RPGs

If you’re interested in registering for the class, hop on over to www.writingtheother.com where you’ll find the Writing Inclusive Games: Creating RPGs Sans Fail class description and more information. Mark your calendar!

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From Watercolor to Illustrated Poem [Photos]

By Monica Valentinelli on Jan 29, 2017 05:02 pm

Last week I posted that I had painted a watercolor and planned to use it as the background for a poem I wrote about hope. Today, I’ve got more pictures to share with you and some tips on how I took this across the finished line. If you click on the photos, you’ll get the full-sized image this time around. Huzzah!

Okay, so now that I have my background it was time to plot the lettering. I really like the chalkboard-style fonts, and opted to use a similar technique. First thing I did was plot the grid, then use freehand to draw each line separately. I had Pinterest open on my phone, and used some fonts for reference.

You can see that I made some minor adjustments after the fact–I’ll get to that in a little bit. I illustrated these at the coffee shop. Here’s the rest of the originals, which I illustrated at home.

And lastly, the banner here:

Next, I scanned in each line separately, erased the backgrounds, and did some minor clean-up before turning them into *.pngs. After that, I placed them in layers on my watercolor background. The lines were scanned larger than the canvas, which allowed me to have more flexibility with placement.

Annnnnnnd… Viola! Here is the finished version of my illustrated poem. Sadly, I usually don’t title my poems, but I named the picture “One Starry Night.” So, um… One starry night it is!

• Mood: Wondering what I’ll make next!
  Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: A mega-butt ton of coffee.
  Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Walking, walking, walking
  In My Ears: A crackling fire
  Game Last Played: Dragon Age: Inquisition
  Book Last Read: Research materials for work.
  Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Lucifer
  Latest Artistic Project: Make Art Not War 2017 Challenge and Rules
  Latest Releases: Read my end-of-the-year list of releases for an overview of what I’ve put out for 2016. Check out Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling and, if you like it, consider leaving a review.
  Current State of Projects: Read my latest project update.

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Recent Articles:

Oh My Watercolor! Photos and a NASA-inspired Creative Prompt
MANW Check-In Week 4: Celebrating One Month, January’s Accountability, and Turning No into Yes
What I Mean When I Say 3-D Character Design
Creative Prompt: A Time Capsule You’ll Open In Four Years