Ok
so, long story short, I had this really inspirational,
epic dream one night, maybe one day I'll write something
about it or turn it into a short story, but for now,
I'll just give you the basic gist of it. In this
dream, my mission was to travel to a distant forge,
where the coals were stoked by the focusing of your
hatred for your enemy, and in these flames of hate,
I was to forge a blade to defeat my nemesis. Pretty
standard Hero's Tale kind of stuff. I awoke with
the image of this sword burning in my mind, so I
grabbed the notebook I always keep by my bed for
just such an occasion, and drew a quick sketch. I
didnt get a chance to look at it again for about
2 months (the whole next month I was busy preparing
for The Pacific Fandango, a huge road trip with a
bunch of strangers, and then was actually ON the
trip for another month). When I returned, a little
wiser, and a lot dirtier, I picked up my sketch and
the dream came flooding back to me. I remembered
how it filled me with this sense of Mission. It felt
less like a flight of fantasy, and more like clear
instructions to make this blade.
So I did.
I figure this might at least save me the ackwardness of answering a knock
at the door one day to find my nemesis standing there with some crazy
awesome deathblade, laughing at me before striking me dead because he
had the same dream and actually made his sword then came to find me while
I sat my fat ass on the couch, watched anime, and never got around to
it. Now wouldn't THAT be an embarrassing way to die!
Click
the thumbnails for larger pics...you know the drill.
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I
scanned the drawing and then drew over it in vectors (movable
shape objects) so I could modify the design easily. I drew
all the different components on different layers so I could
hide and unhide different pieces, and also to see the tang
(the piece of blade that runs through the handle) I drew
from the outline of the handle. Once I had it in vectors,
I played with the size and scaling a bit and actually printed
out 6 or 7 different sized templates, then cut them out
and matched them up to my hand. I cross-referenced this
with a big chunk of clay that I would squeeze in my hand,
study the imprint, and make small modifications to the
handle design as I went. |
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