Hey! It looks like you're new here. You might want to check out the introduction.
Show rules for this event
Elder Wisdom Looms
Fics
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for this vaguely supernatural shit.
Nothing is happening in the image, but you get the impression that something is very wrong with this... statue? The use of black-and-white adds to the eeriness, which, granted, one could argue using B&W to add a little spookiness is cheap, but I usually like it unless the image itself is too creepypasta-y.
Some spooky shit, like it.
Nothing is happening in the image, but you get the impression that something is very wrong with this... statue? The use of black-and-white adds to the eeriness, which, granted, one could argue using B&W to add a little spookiness is cheap, but I usually like it unless the image itself is too creepypasta-y.
Some spooky shit, like it.
A nice, creepy, moody photo. Works even without the runes. Nails the prompt. Well done.
Thanks everyone for commenting! This is the first time I've contributed to an art round, and also the first time I did photo editing for artistic purposes (only been doing insurance fraud until now... just kidding).
Found this tree while taking a walk through my local nature reserve. It stood out like a sore thumb, the only dead thing in sight and towering like a single pillar in a sea for weeds and reed. I took a photo with my smartphone, cropped it in irfanview, isolated tree, background vegetation, and sky in photoshop and fiddled around with saturation, contrast, and brightness until I was satisfied.
Then I thought: Hmm... this is a bit low effort. Also, another layer of meaning would be nice so people with an eye for detail get rewarded. Normal letters didn't sit right with me, because round shapes would disturb the grain of the tree and stick out too much... so Elder Futhark it was. Of course, it'd need to be in the appropriate language, so it'd have to be in Old High German.
Then it struck me: I'd already decided on a very cryptic way to put some message in this black and white picture, and I had no idea what it was gonna be. I remembered Bad Horse saying in a blogpost that one major problem in modern literary writing was people trying to be cryptic without good reason, muddying the trivial instead of tackling issues that demand a more subtle approach. Wasn't I doing something similar?
At first, I felt like a prick. Then, I chuckled, and slapped the word "tree", the most obvious thing I could think of, in Elder Futhark and Old High German on this thing and called it wisdom in the title to make fun of it. A sort of meta joke, I guess?
Nobody picked up on it, and that's probably for the better. It might have killed the mood of the piece, and that certainly seemed to have an effect on people. I'm not sorry I used the runes, though, because they play a role in 3 of the associated stories, and at least for No Sun Sought, No Saex Stone Scarred, I think they were a vital part of the inspiration.
I must say, this has been a very enjoyable experience. I'm glad I could contribute something that inspired people to write, and seeing elements of it emerge in stories is even a bit of a thrill. I can't draw to save my life to be honest, but if I can take a photo of something that fits a prompt and do artsy stuff with it in the future, I'll be sure to take part again. I'll be looking forward to future art rounds.
Found this tree while taking a walk through my local nature reserve. It stood out like a sore thumb, the only dead thing in sight and towering like a single pillar in a sea for weeds and reed. I took a photo with my smartphone, cropped it in irfanview, isolated tree, background vegetation, and sky in photoshop and fiddled around with saturation, contrast, and brightness until I was satisfied.
Then I thought: Hmm... this is a bit low effort. Also, another layer of meaning would be nice so people with an eye for detail get rewarded. Normal letters didn't sit right with me, because round shapes would disturb the grain of the tree and stick out too much... so Elder Futhark it was. Of course, it'd need to be in the appropriate language, so it'd have to be in Old High German.
Then it struck me: I'd already decided on a very cryptic way to put some message in this black and white picture, and I had no idea what it was gonna be. I remembered Bad Horse saying in a blogpost that one major problem in modern literary writing was people trying to be cryptic without good reason, muddying the trivial instead of tackling issues that demand a more subtle approach. Wasn't I doing something similar?
At first, I felt like a prick. Then, I chuckled, and slapped the word "tree", the most obvious thing I could think of, in Elder Futhark and Old High German on this thing and called it wisdom in the title to make fun of it. A sort of meta joke, I guess?
Nobody picked up on it, and that's probably for the better. It might have killed the mood of the piece, and that certainly seemed to have an effect on people. I'm not sorry I used the runes, though, because they play a role in 3 of the associated stories, and at least for No Sun Sought, No Saex Stone Scarred, I think they were a vital part of the inspiration.
I must say, this has been a very enjoyable experience. I'm glad I could contribute something that inspired people to write, and seeing elements of it emerge in stories is even a bit of a thrill. I can't draw to save my life to be honest, but if I can take a photo of something that fits a prompt and do artsy stuff with it in the future, I'll be sure to take part again. I'll be looking forward to future art rounds.