assorted drawings for a kids book series that nobody reads anymore

Max and David’s configured room from the Tapestry Series (by Henry Neff)

I’ve been kind of obsessed with this room since I read about it ~15 years ago. Here’s my take (modeled + rendered in Blender).

Additional Jargony Blender Notes Below

Bookshelves are a geonodes setup based around an accumulate field

Balcony and staircase are also geonodes instanced along a curve. I originally made them for other projects

Beds and curtains are a (kind of lazy) cloth sim.

For the curtains I used a grid with an armature pulling it shut

Pillows and comforters are blocks with pressure in the sim

The fade in effect is a transparent bsdf mixed proportional to view distance (w/ some other constants)

The chairs were sculpted in Zbrush a while back for a different project

In the gif, the constellations are curves with a staggered build modifier and follow path constraint. They’re in a 10 second loop that I rendered alone and composited into the room. Tumblr only shows the first part of the loop.

1st image has plants and some texture stuff painted in at the end for aesthetic

Sooo…

I just remembered the „The Tapestry“ series by Henry H Neff

The first two books are similar to Harry Potter, with some really cool and fun ideas, whereas the last three books are epic fantasy with a bunch of Irish mythology

Really fun books and, I don’t know how to describe it, but some of the ideas and, like, visuals created in your head are just so cool, probably a big influence and inspiration for me in certain fields.

And, like, why isn’t there a bigger community surrounding these books?

From my own experience and from what I‘ve read it seems like the books never managed to create this ongoing momentum, which is kinda sad, because they certainly have potential.

Idk, just sone rambling

Hello miss

To understand why I’m so in love with The Red Winter’s hardcover release, you’ve got to understand:

I was an elementary-schooler when the first book came out and chose it on my birthday as the book that would enter our school’s library in my name

I forgot about it. My sister discovered it, and the second book was out. I started reading again.

The third book came out. Huge cliffhanger ending. We thought the series had to end in the next book. So many people had died. One of the main characters was clearly not going to survive the end of the series.

The fourth book came out. Nope, it definitely did not end the series. My sister and I were obsessed. No one else was. Nobody else had heard of it.

And then we waited. It was supposed to come out October 2013. Nothing. In November, we hear an announcement—new release date, September 23, 2014. We wait. September passes. Nothing. October passes. Nothing.

Finally, November 2014: the final book will be published as an e-book only.

That was a let-down, it’s true. But mostly, we were stoked to finally read the book and it ripped our hearts out. Hands down, one of the best endings to a series that I’ve read.

That was over seven years ago. He published another book, but it didn’t seem to take off and when no sequels were published, I got the impression that maybe the publishers had dropped him (I rescind that assumption: Neff is pretty good about posting the state of things on his blog, so I’m assuming if that was formal, we’d get an announcement). Suffice to say, I never thought we’d see a printed version. (I may have made vague plans to illegally print it and bind it myself sometime in the future).

Then my sister texts me out of the blue and says there’s hardcover copies on Amazon. I race to see, and there are so very few copies available, and almost no second-hand copies. Come to find out, the reason there are so few is because the book is print-on-demand. The publisher reverted print rights to the author, allowing him to finally print the last book of the series.

but there was more. See, the e-books have distinct covers. The print versions are very detailed, far more detailed than is common on book covers, so the e-books simplify the design and make it more favorable to a small-screen icon. I didn’t know that at the time, though. All I knew was that after four book covers I ADORED, we were getting this:

One of these things is not like the others.

So when I heard the news about a print version of the last book, I was super excited to have a physical copy, but not so optimistic about the last cover.

BUT.

THIS IS THE COVER THEY RELEASED.

for the love of all that is good. how did we deserve this masterpiece? 

It’s just—the previous cover focused on the plot baddie, and it was technically accurate and matched the ongoing theme of the title-relevant figure and all that. But it was also just...wrong for the book? Astaroth had to be taken down to end the book, fine, but so much of the last book feels like an elegy, and it’s about Max. It’s in the title. The tapestry of his life that we saw in book one. This cover feels so much more right, and I never thought we’d get it. I never thought we’d get the printed version, and I certainly never anticipated just how right this cover could feel.

anyways, I'm off to re-read this flawed, amazing series again and get my heart ripped out.

The Tapestry (Series) by Henry H. Neff

8/10 goth academia YA fantasy. 

You like folklore? Mythology? Something people brand as “a coming of age” story? Existential dread? Well look no further! 

Honestly one of my favorite series, the worldbuilding is spectacular. The first book is not the best in the series, but after reading it, it sets up everything else so well it is worth the initial jump start needed to really delve into the world, and from there everything is smooth sailing. 

There are actual stakes, and the author commits to actions that occur. If I say anymore it would be spoilers and that would be a shame to ruin.

I initially read it back in elementary school, and actually never finished the last book. A couple years ago I picked it back up again and re-read the whole series, including the last book, and it was better than I had remembered it. The series does get darker than typical book series in this genre (YA Fantasy), but I think it allows for more depth and interest, and in the end I really appreciate how serious it gets. Just get past the first book. Trust me. 

The selling point for me isn’t the characters themselves, but the worldbuilding and how they interact with it. Especially later in the series, the whole setting just feels vast and also really hits you with that fantasy folklore existentialism. Which is always a plus. 

POV you want to revive a dead fandom with fanart but you also can’t draw

i hope the life series continues for a long time. the fact that inter-series relationships are really starting to affect the gameplay in a meaningful way, that people are starting to get reputations. martyn is king backstabber cleo says even before he kills scott and impulse in the final in the ultimate betrayal. scott and skizz and cleo and plenty more have never betrayed people, or don't seem keen to betray especially close allies, and especially in recent series. grian and scar and jimmy are all people of wavering loyalties. whatever it is that bdubz and etho have that everyone is just so aware of and is 100% just incorporated into all roleplay now it seems. that joel and pearl are insane but are also insanely loyal to their close allies. scott's conflicting reputation as the most lethal and skilled player but who is also just very nice and trusting. just... whatever it is that scar has. not to mention the wide the variety of relationships that previous pairs and allies have that now makes things so interesting and complex. the inter-relationships between teams was so good in limited life, especially when, like in this series, those teams can be so loyal to each other but have conflicting loyalties outside of themselves.

i don't think this history is something you can get away from in player's minds as we get further into the series and i hope we get to see it play out even more

The Sopranos Tapestry Hoodie

The thing that I think the wheel of time really does best and why the worldbuilding works so well is the way the narrative tracks the spread of people and ideas and stories over time. Vaguely hinting at spoilers here but the long term storytelling payoff about the origins of the aiel is SO good it does make me a little crazy to think about.

spoilers & speculation for the mermaid's tongue demo below the cut!

okay, i need to talk about this bc it's making me go batty. i was looking through the demo again, ( mostly to grab screencaps bc i might update the wikia if someone doesn't before me, ) and i already found something i missed in my first playthrough.

i'm really gonna have to remember to thoroughly look over the clues in this game bc i didn't check the back of the her painting at first. and well...

hey, that symbol looks familiar.

yeah, i think the stonetops are going to be important to this game's plot. we're getting more freya family lore, baby!!

And they were roomates.

space static

50x50 stitches, 11"×15"

my boy is all grown up and saving rowan

Rip to all those book series im never going to finish cause i got attached to the czech translation but only the first few books got actually translated

While I'm on the topic of magic...

I would love to see more needlecraft-related magic

Crocheting, knitting, sewing, thread- and yarn-making, weaving, embroidery, tatting... The whole nine yards