Umbralite

Group Topic: Dracula

Oracle of the Closet — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:37:23 +0000

Group Topic: Arcturian Aliens

Oracle of the Closet — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:06:03 +0000

While recent archaeological breakthroughs have definitively proven that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids without any extraterrestrial aid, they have also uncovered shocking evidence that will shake the very foundations of everything we have ever believed about the origins of the bowler hat.

Patagonian Conure

Oracle of the Closet — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:24:43 +0000

My piece of Mom’s Christmas present this year; I’m rather proud of it.

Josiah’s Guild

Oracle of the Closet — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:56:49 +0000

Josiah’s youth people are trying to start a Amtgardesque combat group and they are attempting to decided what to call themselves. They want a name that is crisp and easy to remember, that will strike trepidation into the hearts of their opponents, that invokes a nice sigil, and that makes an obscure biblical reference. P. G. Wodehouse and I came up with this one.

Clarinda Hemp

Oracle of the Closet — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:50:27 +0000

Generally considered a sort of mild, public menace by the various underworlds of London, the so called Lady of the Lamps made it her mission in life to study the secret lives of those people, who for one reason or another, preferred to keep their lives secret.

Emsworth Analog

Oracle of the Closet — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:15:38 +0000

The next printmaking project, then. Photo process is awfully fun if you do everything in Illustrator anyway.

Really Bad Omen

Oracle of the Closet — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:45:42 +0000

My first printmaking project that looked any good, based on an image I have not been able to get out of my head since reading Homer.

Product of a Deranged Mind version 1

Oracle of the Closet — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:26:09 +0000

This is the first time I have ever free-handed anything in Illustrator.

Festive, Firey Pigeons

Oracle of the Closet — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:36:54 +0000

John Howe’s three swans, Valruin’s three crows, and now three pigeons; I’m not entirely sure why birds seem to naturally stack this way. Unless all of aviandum is conspiring to stop me from being squashed by the Bozeman of course.

Group Topic: Dickens Coat of Arms

Oracle of the Closet — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:23:46 +0000

This is a classic example of calligramancer heraldry. Though as such, there is not a great deal one can learn from it just at present, but I shall attempt. The calligramancers devised their own form of heraldry centuries ago, and while there are perhaps more written records pertaining to this particular sect’s history than any other, all these records were taken down by members thereof. So it is hardly surprising that perusal of said histories is one of the more dangerous home occupations.

According to Clarinda Hemp’s notes on the subject, the central figure often denotes something “roughly equivalent to a personal familiar, though not exactly, actually not very like at all.” The figure positioned directly above it seems to act as a modifier of some sort to the central figure; I believe it serves as a technical notation regarding the thing’s exact nature to other calligramancers, but I am uncertain to the symbol’s exact meaning.

The outer symbols are less mysterious, if they are indeed examples of Baldwin’s Stars, the “nasty, pointy ink blots of death” Clarinda wrote about. These exist as a sort of numerical code; a trio in a coat of arms signifies that the bearer used his arts to rendered military service to crown.

-Ophelia Himmle, The Search for Guppy