People say that money can't buy you happiness, but it can get you a custom Hologram Farkas badge, and that's basically the same thing.

This started out as a spontaneous doodle for a bit of fun, back around the start of July, and suffice to say it all got a bit out of hand. This watercolour version ended up sprawling over about 3 days, then I spent another night on a different version that was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off take about half an hour or so and now it exists in badge form as well (and more design ideas are waiting in the wings.) I might've gotten a bit carried away there but anyway, here's the doodle that started this little endeavour.

The cutaway background is a bit chaotic because it was just not turning out right, so I swept over it with the eraser tool until it ended up looking like... something. I also went back and redrew the baton to correct the wonky angle and it still turned out a bit iffy - alas. Now onto the badge version...

My main concern about getting the design on a badge is that the watercolour effects and ragged, textured lines wouldn't print well on a small scale, so to be on the safe side, I reworked the image with flat colours and lines in Paint.net, and reduced down some of the fussy details (and just plain forgot the orange patterns - it was late, I was tired.) The array of fancy things there are to experiment with in Rebelle is lovely 'n' all, but sometimes it's nice to go back to a piece of software with more limited capabilities, where having a more basic set of tools to work with encourages you to get creative in different ways.

And here we are! Badge ahoy! It turned out so nice! It's a substantial, sturdy little thing, really lovely quality, the print is nice and crisp to the eye (it looks speckly here because it's right up close but when you inspect it in person, it's much better) - even the lighter bit on Farkas's snout shows up! Superb! Details-wise, the UJSeal text got a bit lost but that's on me; I always struggle to work out how to reduce down details to get them to show up well on small images. Also, two badges arrived, which was unexpected, but a nice surprise all the same; one of them is up on a display in my room for safekeeping, and the other is on my bag, ready for adventure.


To top it all off, on the back, we have some dazzling embossed stars and lovely grips. Might've gotten a bit carried away with these little extras, but A- sometimes you've just got to be a bit self-indulgent and B - they seemed like the way forward, given the space theme and the heart on the handle of the mighty baton - that wasn't going to be there originally, but the idea came into my head and it made me laugh. Also, the baton is love. The baton is life. The sledgehammer is alright but the novelty wears off quickly; it's a bit slow and clunky for my taste. Give me the finesse and sophistication of an elegant little monster-clonker any day of the week. (This is an important matter.)

It's also worth noting that in-game, if you've got the Snakeskin suit on, then some of the weapons, as well as adopting a delicious green and blue metallic livery, will have cute little snakes on them. Not at liberty to state the sheer degree to which I lost my fucking shit when I noticed that. Snakes! Precious adorable snakey snakes!!! 

(It is another strike against the sledgehammer that it only turns up in a yellow livery and there are no snakes on it.)

...

And what does Hologram Farkas, the celebrity seal, breakout star of 2026, make of his likeness?

He looks completely unmoved (or stoned out of his mind - his expression is open to interpretation) on the outside, but I'm sure he's jazzed on the inside.

That'll do, seal. That'll do.

Tags!

Further rambling

Twa Thousand Corbies

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Going to start this post with an illustration, because of this blog layout, posts lacking images tend to look a bit pants. The art here is by G. Howell-Baker. A while back, I was joking about gathering together as many versions of Twa Corbies as possible, and finally, here we are. This is going to be a continually evolving list, so if you know of a version that needs to be included, or if you've recorded one of your own, then by all means, let me know. You can put a comment here or e-mail me at looksinnocuousnenoughchaps [at] gmail [dot] com. Part two, with versions 50-100 can be found here . Let's begin! 1.  Folly Bridge - My personal favourite, performed completely a capella with some beautiful, eerie harmonies. 2.  Hamish Imlach - A live version, and a very close second favourite. Hamish's distinctive voice works wonders here and we're treated to some elegant sitar as well. 3.  Ayreheart - This one features the lute and a passionate vocal performance, it's qui...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Some doodles from last night

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I went on a bit of a spree last night, trying out some different brushes in Rebelle 7, trying to work out what approach I might want to take for reviving Facts About the World, and here are some of the resulting doodles. First, a swoonicorn investigating Blarglflorp, the tiniest comet in the cosmos. Ara, done entirely using ink brushes with varying degrees of water. It's been a bit of running joke that their markings are different every time I draw them, and this time is no exception. (They were initially based on a striped dolphin but at this point, it's anyone's guess. Cynosure was a futuristic thing with cyborgs anyway, so what kind of dolphin Ara resembled wasn't exactly a pressing logical concern.) And one from the end of the night, which didn't end up being coloured because I'd been up since 3am again and needed to go to bed.
'Ave a gander 'ere

Fridayposting

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It is Friday, continuing the theme of the spooky video games, I'm currently revisiting Still Wakes the Deep and trying to finish up the blog post about that (it's a good job this isn't an audio effort because noone needs to hear yours truly going "Fuckin' 'ell, McLeary!!!" in an incredibly questionable Glaswegian accent whenever the mood so takes me.) Sod's law, I completely forgot to actually get the pictures off of Mariner... it was late at night. For now, it's time to return to the comfy slippers of The Callisto Protocol, not in chronological order and not really with a theme in mind either, just a bit of fun for today. Starting with these artfully arranged Crunchy Creatures, with a bit of an HR Giger kind of vibe. I also appreciate the elegantly flowing mist around here. Hmmm . (This one's off the PS4 version, I redid it on the PS5 but a big cloud of mist was obscuring one of the monsters and we can't have that.) This hexagonal effort...
'Ave a gander 'ere