Old Character Journals [Unfinished]

[Karmatose]

Hi there! These are a few old character journal I made a while back and will likely never finish seeing as the saves are long gone, but figured I'd post it here for posterity. ^^

Spoiler: show

This first one is significantly older than the next and made in a travel diary making application. It's longer than the other but I like the drawings in the second one better.

EDIT: I totally neglected to mention that the drawings here are not mine. The drawings in the second one are, though. Oopsy daisy. I'll write a post about that, too.
EDIT 2: JP_Finn found the credits for the images used in this journal, here they are:

“Northwoods Moose” (alces alces) by Joe Hautman.
“Our friend the Badger” (meles meles) is by David Stribbling.

Spoiler: show

This one is comparatively newer, but I decided to try the BAC mod and I'm fairly certain that a mod of that size would corrupt old saves, so I likely won't be continuing it. I may start another one in this style, though, but I'd put it in a separate thread. This is made in a windows app store program called Inkodo. I use a non-display Wacom art tablet to draw the art digitally, it's not my best work but it's meant to be sketches. I was originally going to use the tablet to write, too, but I found that my handwriting digitally is not very neat compared to my real handwriting, so I used a handwritten font instead.

[Brygun]

Lovely illustrations

I appreciate the extra effort

[Dungeon Smash]

Very nice!  This is good stuff.  I don't think I've seen anybody post a diary in quite this format before. 

[JP_Finn]

Always nice to read journals and “what’s going on” reports/shorts too.

By the way, you might know it already, but reading the first entry: sacrificing fish appeases/pleases/goes to Waterman. Whereas killing an elk is from The Old Man of the forests domain.
E.g. daily sacrifices of elk; won’t help with catching fish. (There’s plenty of elk usually to sacrifice in the coming days after butchering.

Another point with spoiled meat and fish: they’re usable as bait in traps, also some dogs refuse cooked spoiled meat&fish, but will eat spoiled raw meat&fish with gusto.
Handy use of large kill in early game in summer is to take the raw meat to nearby village. They’ll roast/smoke it. While you can barter something for it right now; later you can barter crafts et cetera to get some of the meat back. (Villagers have a secret insta-freezers and preserve foods in their buildings)
Same kill in early spring can be set to dry on outside of shelter, remember to prepare enough withes before setting out for a hunt.

[Karmatose]

Lovely illustrations

I appreciate the extra effort

Very nice!  This is good stuff.  I don't think I've seen anybody post a diary in quite this format before. 

Yes! I've loved making the diaries as "immersive" as I can whilst still doing it in a digital format (for sharing purposes, mostly, and because I don't have a leather-bound journal. ^^;). Adding illustrations and such I think makes them a lot more fun, but next time I do it I'll probably space the entries out a little more as far as in-game time goes. Or not draw for every entry or something, and make the entries short. I'm not sure yet, but the drawing takes quite a bit of time and I often feel like I'm spending more time drawing than gaming.

Always nice to read journals and “why’s going on” reports/shorts too.

By the way, you might know it already, but reading the first entry: sacrificing fish appeases/pleases/goes to Waterman. Whereas killing an elk is from The Old Man of the forests domain.
E.g. daily sacrifices of elk; won’t help with catching fish. (There’s plenty of elk usually to sacrifice in the coming days after butchering.

Another point with spoiled meat and fish: they’re usable as bait in traps, also some dogs refuse cooked spoiled meat&fish, but will eat spoiled raw meat&fish with gusto.
Handy use of large kill in early game in summer is to take the raw meat to nearby village. They’ll roast/smoke it. While you can barter something for it right now; later you can barter crafts et cetera to get some of the meat back. (Villagers have a secret insta-freezers and preserve foods in their buildings)
Same kill in early spring can be set to dry on outside of shelter, remember to prepare enough withes before setting out for a hunt.

Ahhh, I didn't know that about the sacrifices. I haven't dived much into the rituals yet tbh. Thanks for letting me know! However I do know now that spoiled meat/fish can be used in traps, and that you can sell excess meat to villagers. Thanks for the hints anyway, though. ^^

[Karmatose]

Just edited the main post under the first spoiler as I made a major oversight: I thought I mentioned that the art in the first journal (the badger and the moose) are not mine, but I guess I managed to forget. ^^; I'm not quite sure who made them, it was a long time ago and I hadn't initially planned on sharing, so I lost track of it. However, the drawings in the second journal are mine. In any case, all the writing is also mine. Sorry for any confusion.

[JP_Finn]

“Northwoods Moose” (alces alces) by Joe Hautman.

“Our friend the Badger” (meles meles) is by David Stribbling.

Edit: had to do some picture searches on partially clear signatures. I don’t recognize most artists...

[Karmatose]

“Northwoods Moose” (alces alces) by Joe Hautman.

“Our friend the Badger” (meles meles) is by David Stribbling.

Edit: had to do some picture searches on partially clear signatures. I don’t recognize most artists...

Thank you so much! I'll add this to the main post. ^^

[Skervaldr]

I really loved the way you present the story, the images fit really well and the font is relaxing. Nice work!

[paulkorotoon]

@Karmatose your journals look really great. What software do you use to draw, btw?

[Karmatose]

@Karmatose your journals look really great. What software do you use to draw, btw?

Typically I draw in Krita, but in the case of those journals I did the art and writing in a program called Inkodo. It's available on the window's app store. It's not really an art program, or at least not in the sense that you're probably expecting, but I used it in this case because I wanted a simple program that allowed me to make very simple sketches and didn't distract me with extra tools and what not.

I will say that erasing is a pain in Inkodo as you cannot erase a partial line. If you want to erase something, you must erase the entire stroke at once. I have no idea why it is like this, though.

If you're looking for an art program, Krita is free and provides a huge amount of functionality for the (non-existent) price tag. I also have a Wacom Intuos non-display tablet that I used for the art in those journals, IIRC it cost me something like $20 and has helped massively with my attempts at photomanipulation and digital art. I've seen people do amazing things with just a mouse and keyboard, but that sort of dedication (and damage to your hands) is not for me. ^^;

Good luck.