geraldofallon

[geraldofallon]

a kiss with a fist knife is better than none

[geraldofallon]

That specific sickly, weird, mottled green color that appears when two mirrors are reflecting each other into infinity is so fucking beautiful… I love you weird nasty green of the aether….

[geraldofallon]

Sam recently voted for the railway to pay a dividend to shareholders (we just became worker-owned!) and this No vote from the Tentacled Entrepreneur just really did me in. I love him...

[No spoilers or coy hinting or info about railway options in tags or replies, please! I'm playing railway very slowly and enjoy stumbling upon things myself!]

[geraldofallon]

“A very unusual and stunning Victorian crown, set with fiery opal cabochons and old mine-cut diamonds, from the 1880s.”

[geraldofallon]

Fashions of the Neath, OC edition!

All items of clothing in Captain Plowden’s wardrobe have a distinct nautical flavour.

[geraldofallon]

hello my neathy friend, a random query, because i have been suspiciously eyeing the idea of doing moodboards for a thing: what's your process like? do you go hunting for specific images? or just scroll around and see what fits the vibe? or --? (am i using this ask to hack myself into actually Doing The Thing. maybe. maybe i am.)

Yay for more Neathy moodboards! Long post incoming.

TLDR this was basically just a very long way of saying that I search pinterest for specific images but then save based on vibes.

So some of my process differs depending on the moodboard series (for example, sourcing pictures for Fashions just involves browing the Met’s collection of fashion plates while Species involves hunting down book titles more than aesthetic pictures), but the overall general process for the Travel Guide, Romance of the Neath, Alphabet, and True Identities is the same, and those are the ones I’ve made the most for, so that’s what I’ll go off of here.

Before I go sourcing any pictures, I have a flip through the wikis to collect quotes I like - this is in part because I use them in the actual post, but also because I’ll make a list of specific things I can look for photos of in the moodboard. For example, in my notes rn this is what I have for Benthic College (a moodboard that is still way down the list of the ones I’m currently working on):

I don’t have a colour scheme planned ahead of time though, with the exception of Romance, because for that one I started by coming up with faceclaims and finding good pictures of those, which then informed the general colour scheme I needed to stick with for the other pics. I generally recommend not trying to find pics within a colour scheme, but rather once you have a selection of pictures to choose from, picking ones then that have colours that work together.

I will say though that it’s helpful to have a plan for the post and moodboard layout - do you want six pictures, cropped horizontally, in two columns VS eight pictures, cropped vertically, in two rows VS nine pictures, cropped to squares, in a square shaped moodboard VS pictures of varying sizes, overlapping in an abstract collage style VS so on and so forth. Knowing how many pictures you need and how you’ll crop them will be helpful for knowing how many to roughly save and for narrowing down which ones you want to use

Now this really is just a starting off point for the searches, I really do go off vibes mostly when it comes to which pictures I save and use. I usually use pinterest unless there’s something really specific I want to use, in which case I do a deep dive on google. I nearly always search with the format “victorian [blank] aesthetic” because the use of the word victorian tends to filter out any pictures with modern items (don’t expect historical accuracy from pinterest) and the aesthetic is because otherwise you’ll get a lot of links to like things previously up for auctions but not a lot of usable pictures (alas does not filter out ads though).

I’ll save everything that looks good, even if it doesn’t fit the moodboard vibe, and I’ll also have a look at the more like this sections under photos I really like. It’s easier to pick phots that look good together if you have more options, plus for future moodboards you’ll have pictures already saved that have a Fallen London vibe. Some of my moodboards have been made entirely from pics I had saved previously, with no need to go searching at all.

Even though I’m searching specific stuff, it really does come down to vibes though. By now, most moodbards I have enough pictures by the time I’ve done one or two searches because I’m just saving everything with a vibe. I’m actually thinking of redoing my earlier Romance boards because when I first started out I really limited myself to sticking with the specific items on my lists and I feel like it was to their detriment. I also found that by sticking to the stuff on the list I’d end up overediting because there’d be one or two pictures that didn’t quite fit the rest.

Oh and always clear your pinterest searches and cache after each moodboard otherwise the algorithm will just start giving you the same pictures over and over again no matter what you search.

All of the moodboards get edited once put together, the pictures don’t get edited individually unless one sticks out in some way (for example, if five pics are super cool-tone and just one is super warm-tone). Not really gonna give advice here cause like I have no idea what your level of skill is in photo editing lol. I will say that I even will do a subtle edit of moodboards that seem like they don’t need it, because the point of the editing is to give the moodboard a cohesive look. If you have all of zero photo editing ability I would recommend getting a phone app that lets you collage pics and then using built in phone filters - the iphone dramatic/dramatic cool/dramatic warm filters give a good cohesive vibe.

[geraldofallon]

i think its so awesome that ocs exist. u can just make up some girl and put so many problems in her head

[geraldofallon]

‘Mr Cards,’ of course, is you.

[geraldofallon]

Czachórski, A Lady in a Lilac Dress with Flowers (for him) detail, ca. 1880-90

[geraldofallon]

Attributes, Qualities, Quirks

Noise

[geraldofallon]

L'Art et la mode, no. 3, vol. 30, 16 janvier 1909, Paris. Papillon. Robe de tulle brodé et pailleté. Grandes ailes de tulle de deux tons. Le devant et le dos de la robe forment le corps du papillon, en gaze d’or brodée et pailletée. Imp. d'art L. Lafontaine, Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France

[geraldofallon]

Fallen London Species: Tigers

[geraldofallon]

Amethyst necklace, 1890.

[geraldofallon]

Fallen London Travel Guide:

Dolorous Pavilion

Sweet balmy breezes blow across your Pavilion. The scent of honey and wine mingles with the fragrant odours of the marshes, golden in the cosmogone light.

[geraldofallon]

sometimes I think about how that one line implies September is potentially landed gentry and I just sit there like. huh.

[geraldofallon]

Fallen London Travel Guide:

Axile

Mauve thunderheads pile on the horizon, anvils upon which to hammer out the lament of a lightless sky.

[geraldofallon]

La Mode illustrée, no. 20, 16 mai 1897, Paris. Robe en grenadine-dentelle pour dame d'un certain âge. Modèle de chez Mmes Coussinet-Piret, rue Richer, 43. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney