Film - Art Statement

Artist Statement for NZCC104

Title of Work: Speed Creation of Dungeons and Dragons Journals

Previously from this project I was going to something that was close to me, but didn't realized how close it was to me until the recording started and I started panicking. So I thought creating the journals of the characters, as it was something I wanted to do for another time, also it wasn't something that is too close to heart.

So in the end I created, five different journals, three of them are a three part journal (Sai, Mat and Cas) and two of them are two part journal (Mystic and Lerissa). I tried to incorrupt the essence of the characters through the design of the journals.

• Sai, a Dragonborn Cleric, which worships multiple gods. So I added rainbow gems on the front to represent the multiple gods and add the players symbol on the middle panel, unsure what the symbol is representing but I thought it was a nice touch for it. Also made the whole journal black for contracts of the gems and also he is a black dragon-born. The final result I wasn't too happy as I had limited leather, so the leather work wasn't cleanly seemed and the fictionally of the journal didn't stay open for the player to work with. But the player was happy with the end result, especially the self closing feature.

• Mystic, a Tabaxi (humanoid cat) Cleric, who worships the goddess of Death, also is a professional alcoholic. So I designed the journal around the appearance of an alcohol barrel and added fake pages as the character doesn't really care about journals and probably only use it to hide her alcohol/flask. I was going to make it out of wood but the player said to make it out of cardboard for cost reasons. To be honest I'm quite proud how hers came out. The player really like the journal in the end, doesn't like the little connecting parts to close the journal, it's too fiddly, but she says she would use it for D&D sessions. Last touch to the journal from the player is to add the player sheet over the flask to actually hide it.

• Mat, a Tiefling (part demon, part human) Druid, once brought up from farm, which was burnt down. I ask the player to design they journal as they are quite creative. They originally designed for four panels, but I didn't think it would functionally work so I put it back to three panels. The design was supposed to have an indent print of the symbol the player created for the farm he character were once brought up in. Unfortunately it didn't went that way, so I made a "metal" symbol to stick on the front. I also made the edge of the front panel look like it was burnt in the fire as the journal is made out of plain bull leather, no hard skeleton. Even though the journal didn't have a hard skeleton, like Sai's Journal, it had the self closing feature, which I did want to remake the whole journal, but for time, I didn't have time to remake it. 

• Lerissa, a Tiefling Bard, once lived in a cult, which she run away from on her 18th birthday. Lerissa is my character, so I made it out of wood as her family was a little civilization outside the main towns. I originally made the journal as the journal her "father" made for her, but during creating the journal the DM (dungeon master) and I had a thought that it was made for her mother from her "father", as the journal looked a bit too much made with love. The wood is a dark red, binded with red lizard like leather, nailed together with gold nails. As the creator and the player, I am severely happy with the end result.

• Cas, a Aasimar (Angle like beings hiding as humans) Warlock, only cares and thinks for himself, fighting with someone else in control of the body he shares with. The player didn't have much of an idea what the character would have if he had a journal, only to have a lock on it and it to be enchanted with a spell so if anyone did open it, they would be blinded (that's why the shiny page is there, to blind the viewer if it wasn't the character/player). The rest was just ideas of hard covered journals from Pinterest I saw. As I was adding onto other characters their own symbols, I incorrupt the D&D standard (from Wizards of the Coast) Warlock symbol. In the end, the player said that he likes it but wouldn't use it for D&D sessions as the pages is a bit small and there isn't a lot of room to use it on the table. 

Other than being designed to the character, as I stated above, I also wanted to make the journals usable for the players. To hold player sheets, equipment, spell slots and other notes in the D&D sessions. Some said they wouldn't use the journals for the functionally and that they can only use them for the one character. Which as the creator, I agree with, but for myself, it doesn't seem I would change my anytime characters soon, same with Mystic player, but she says she can use hers for another character.

I used multiple different techniques to create these journals, by the help of Pinterest, from the layout of creating the skeleton of the journals to making the leather like paper to cover some of the books. I experimented with different materials for journals throughout this process as well, from hard cover with cardboard and wood to soft cover journals with paper and fabric.

The recording of my creating them has been made into a speed creation, basically speed up recording with some editing, nothing too fancy as the main focus was the sculpture of the journals. The Speed creation is uploaded to YouTube under private listing, so people with the link can see it, but no one can randomly search it up. I would have liked to improve my video editing and recording before posting to the whole world to see.