Stylism&Kausao

Jadepunk:Tales of Kausao City by Ryan M Danks is copyright. In no way do I contest that ownership. I am a fan creating fan art in the medium of 3D digital design. Another way to look at it is that Kausao city is a big influence on my 3D design.

When I first read Jadepunk core book, I lay down and closed my eyes and I visually mediated, astral projected into the alternate dimension which is Kausao. It is a real place, a world accessible through dreaming and death (which are the same thing really). It's a pretty big place and it is nuts there. They have an entirely different technology to what I am used to, and although I can imagine it: assimilating all that data is not enough to prepare for what it is like there. People who grow up there are used to the miracles of jadetech. To me it is bizarre as any exotic culture.

Kausao has only recently become a big city, within a handful of generations. Compared with the Wild West transition to Industrial Revolution Kausao is still in its late 19th to very early 20th century early gangster era of model T Fords and Speakeasy's. The technology of this industrial revolution is predominantly Jade. One generation before the advent of the Jade era most people were medieval farmers, bandits, traveling merchants and wandering warriors.

Now because of the Jade Rush, Kausao is rapidly emerging as a city state in its own right and capitol of a wide and expansive trade empire. Denizens are used to construction of increasingly daring sky-scrapers. The style is oriental. Pagoda's are common, traditional eastern building techniques and resources. As each generation, each year, heralds a new breakthrough in the mystical qualities of Jade and discovering what else it can be used for, so too the architecture changes.

As a powerful stylistic the stone from which the buildings are erected is sepia. There may be sandstone, there may be marble, all of it conforms to the same "vanilla & manila" spectrum. Only the types of jade bring colour to a yellowed visual backdrop.

Is metal silver? I don't know. Kausao has steampunk elements. Metal is bronze, copper, gold. Sandy tones.

Water is blue or dirty brown. Glass is translucent blue. Sky is blue or smoggy brown.

official Jadepunk art

"Kausao has developed its own architectural style." quote from corebook which makes me wonder how ar I can legitimately push it before it breaks far beyond the scope of everyone else enjoying this world to cope with.

The illustrations from the corebook explain it well. The city has been built fast by corporations which means it is a corporate style based on preserving lavish wealth for the lavishly wealthy and erecting bog-standard prefabs for the working caste. The design styles are minimalist with influence of pagoda's for where there is any flair. Simple designs. The street levels are likely more decorative than the towering high-rise. All of it is inspired by the aesthetic of minimalism which seems natural given the Wuxia class of martial artists focused on purity of motion and perfection of form with no excess, no wasteful energy. The traditional oriental techniques and styles are the source influence.

It seems probable that both cut stone and some sort of concrete admixture will exist, especially given how Jade can be ground and blended as dust to all manner of concoctions. White Jade in a concrete makes for incredibly light weight but hardy building material. Pouring this into molds for prefabs makes for rapid construction of facilities.

official Jadepunk art

official Jadepunk art

this unaccredited pic from internetland is not from Jadepunk corebook. It is similar so I included it here.

The following are pictures of civic architecture I uncovered while researching the Stylism&Civic blog. They remind me so much of some of the Oriental influence of Kausao City that I simply had to include them.

At this time due to very recent breakthroughs in 360 degree camera technology to meet the demands of post-Oculus Rift Virtual Reality, manually rotating 3D photographs is trickling into our attention.In theory by the time I am done building some Kausao Streets there will be a way to make a Google Street View Mode for it.

Following are some pictures of the 3D WIPs (work in progress) designs I have been putting together inspired by Kausao.
I have no deadline for this fan project.

"Given the context of the group, this is the coolest thing I've seen this year. " 

- Ryan Danks September 2016

After this it made sense to scrutinize the official concept art. I discovered more about the unique style of Kausao architecture. Many of the larger skyscrapers have diagonal protruding corners. In addition, the sensible solution of diagonal cross-beams as support structure, is identical to the construction of oriental paper and balsa lanterns I have owned and made myself. This permits for extended vertical beams in traditional oriental styles which can support wider elevated floors than the perimeter of the ground level. It also permits for strong mid-level balconies. As a craftsman who has studied architecture at university degree level as part of my Fine Arts with honours qualification, it seems absolutely logical to me that this is the method of construction discussed and visualized by the official description in the Kausao corebook. What's more is this that solution is easy to build - everything (rooms, windows) is square apart from the diagonal cross-beams. I proceed with confidence.

Pictures in this blog are used non-profit for educational purposes within international fair use policy. Pictures of my own cyber art is ©2017 snakeappletree although obviously I accept that it may be used by others under the same clause. Accreditation would be respected due to source being known.

TCS/VanillaManila

 Texture & Colour series

1. "Vanilla and Manilla"

(cream and tan)

Corrugated card and grades of parchment,

printer paper white to watercolour weight for pen and ink,

photocopy powder to sumi-e.

Burlap (Hessian), Hemp, Linen, Cotton, Silk:

increasing refinements of texture,

grades of fabric based on the production expense. 

These are colour schemes, texture themes. 

Originally I associated V&M aesthetic with old whitewashed art studio's I grew up in and canvas textures, along with brown envelopes and parcel packaging used to wrap them and the cultural lifestyle of having a snail-mail system.

As I grew up and discovered sexuality and sexual hygiene, fluffy white kittens and experienced cougars. There is a scene with 'the white fox' in American Graffiti, cult coming of age in 1950s movie which associates V&M with (the non 'vampiric black & red cabaret' half of) burlesque and thus the burlesque side of Steampunk: suede and fur where it blends with purity and light hearted teasing. Innocence meets fond nostalgia of accumulated experience to create flirtatious faux-naivety and the promiscuous hope of more yet to come.

These themes are difficult to ascertain with precision hence the colour and texture doing the talking for itself, abstract expressionism of synaesthetic delight where representational imagery would be too graphic, too obvious for the delicate sensitivities. Snow melts in sunlight. A symbolic worship of fertility, life, longevity in the form of the gift of cum. Respect of and worship of Men by the white tiger society. Skin soft as jade, chemical free, organic and natural, wholesome.

Recently I have been hugely inspired by Tales of Kausao City rpg by Ryan M. Danks which has given me a chance to develop the "Vanilla and Manila" theme, largely through 3D architectural design although it is not the design but the colour scheme which holds it all together.

Protected by sandstone and wood there will be cream and brown leather seats, furs and skins of the same colours for her soft feminine comforts as she sits in a cafe watching men, drinking coffee and cream, perhaps with a small hint of spices and brandy, the honey.

"too good not to steal"

possibly the best chat up line ever

It's that colour scheme - brown, sand and tan. From the "Vanilla and Manila" idiom (where things ain't quite so black and white). I love how Kausao City is sepia, yellow, aged and faded, bleach bone and stale, grime encrusted, yellowed with age like uncared for caffeine dyed teeth and smokers lungs, stained city, polluted and literally jaded with experience. 

And then there is Jade itself, no yellow Jade but blue, green, red, black, white, colourful against the monotony of a smoggy sky and dirty waters, sandstone sky-rise glories of corporate traditional design. The purity here is the aspirations of the living, something the characters bring to the forefront of the story.

Ancestry, ritual, tradition, lived for the first time: every time.