voynich

tiny women in tubes

After a prolonged break from it, getting back into the mode of working on my Voynich has been difficult at best - partly because of other distraction that are creeping into my brain - but mostly because I’m getting beyond the plant section and into the astrology section, which is so very full of so very many tiny clothed and unclothed people.

If I’ve counted them correctly, there are 536 of them, and I’ve drawn only 79 to date; and drawn them smaller as the original figures essentially had no necks, and giving them necks makes every other part proportionally smaller to fit into the same space.

Tiny neckless nude ladies in tubes.

And a few gentleman as well.

I have overall been impressed by the expressions on all of the original faces though. Some look bored, some look shocked, others joyful, pensive, or confused.

What I have remaining: 2 text pages, 19 plant pages, 19 nymph pages, 21 astrological pages, and the 16 “pharma” pages. 77 pages left out of the 228 page text. I have two weeks off of work around the end of the year and I’m tempted to take one of them and just dive in and see how much of this I can knock out - although I know the pharma pages are going to be the hardest of all of them, right after all of these tiny people - one of my weak points in art - because of my desire to actually match the plants in that section to the plants in the rest of the book. But first I have to get through all of these tiny women in tubes and barrels and splashing in pools or green liquid.

We go on living

We go on living, because we have survived.

Two weeks ago I received texts from two friends, separately, that a mutual friend of ours had passed away suddenly the previous day. And to not contact his girlfriend about it because she was overwhelmed, having been the one to find him as well as the obvious. And to not post about it publicly, because the family hadn’t been contacted yet.

Sometimes, things happen and they break you a little bit. And I was broken by this, have been broken, will continue to be broken. And I’m pissed that he’s gone without so much as a warning. We hadn’t talked since June - and at the time it was about me designing some tattoos for his LARP character for Drachenfest, and that we needed to get together inJuly when he was back from that to catch up, and making tenuous plans for me to join him there the following year.

We never got together in July, and I’m pissed about that as well. My second friend to die this year, and on the day before the funeral my mom had to put my cat down.

Grief is exhausting.

 
 

I will not be finishing my Voynich Manuscript in October.

my Voynich Manuscript

Now 50% complete!

I find it hard to write about my projects - what do you even say? Am I supposed to write about my processes? My trial and errors? What’s hard or what’s easy?

Mostly what I’ve done up to this point is draw a LOT of plants. 80 pages of plants, plus another 25 pages of pure text. I’ve spent hours looking at plant images and matching them as best I’m able to the original drawings. I’ve made a few amateurish attempts to analyze the text. I’m practiced drawing medieval people and animals. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to tackle the remaining sections - particularly the Pharmacological section, and the Nymphs. I have 22 more plants to make decisions on, and uncounted Pharmacological matches to make.

Currently I’m projecting finishing by the end of the year - including binding the whole thing.

 

And that’s it. That’s the post. I’m making progress.

 

Project Updates

Dollhouse - On hold, temporarily. I need a stand for the house, so that I can build a yard, primarily a side yard, and a greenhouse. This all falls under *“long term projects”, of which I can really only focus on one at a time.

Sea Holly Impasto Painting - the textures are built up, so progress.

Furbinator - Untouched*, see above note about “long term projects”

the writing project - Untouched*

the shrimp - Untouched*

the window book - Untouched*

Temperature Quilt - Untouched*, sort of. I’m tracking the temperatures still, and now that Annatar is complete I have emotional space for this other sewing project.

my Voynich Manuscript - 15% complete. I’ve also created a digital layout with the intention of creating a print version of my manuscript once it’s completed - with 7 foldout tipins it will probably require a Kickstarter to fund, which works out anyway because what else will I do with all of those copies?

With Annatar finished and PCCKC over, I have a lot more time to work on things, and clean up after myself, and go to the gym. Speaking of which…

With the “Witch-Queen” of Angmar, aka the Witch Kings wife

…and the Witch King, who needs to go find his wife.

I had a great time giving out rings, seeing my friends, and going to panels. Of course now I want to grab my favorite local photographer, Russ Matthews, and get some foresty glamour shots of all of that hard work.