April 17, 2009
Luthien Tinuviel, originally uploaded by Princess Crazyhair.
For Illustration Friday, Topic: ‘Fleeting’.
An illustration I did for ‘The Song of Beren and Luthien’ by JRR Tolkien.
An older drawing, submitted now because I’m on holidays away from my scanner!
I do like this one, so I’m glad to use it. I had to darken it from the original – it was too light for the scanner to pick up the detail easily.
The poem is below. (more…)
April 12, 2009
I love Elizabeth Gaskell. She is halfway between Dickens and Austen: her stories having some of, but not dominated by, the former’s darkness and melodrama, and the latter’s witty character observation, frivolity and social commentary. The plot and style of Cranford most resembles the realism of Middlemarch, by George Elliot, if you have read it (well worth the effort).
There was a cow in pyjamas and a cat which eats lace. There was also death, unpleasant fates and confronting medical procedures. There were some hilarious — and I mean better-than-Austen hilarious — conversations between the gossiping biddies. Every character was so well-drawn.
There were some amazing women. Almost the whole story, it seems, was about women, and there are a few standout characters I found myself thinking of, “Oh, how modern of Gaskell!” The casting was flawless and the acting unparalleled. Of course people like Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton and Dame Judy Dench could not fail to be perfect, but honestly! You watch Judy Dench and forget that it’s her. She’s mind-boggling! And of course, *everyone* else in it we’ve seen before, in other period pieces. Even the child character was amazingly acted. A couple of the male characters (one of whom was much over sixty if he was a day) made quite charming beaus and admirable characters. I have a special regard for the character played by Philip Glenister, of Life on Mars fame.
Even so, with all this to commend it, and the special historical merit it has (I love Victorian history, especially as regards daily life and women), my personal taste runs more to the sweeping love stories than to observations of whole towns. Therefore, it didn’t quite catch me like North and South did, which balanced one love story with one issue. I found there were so many stories and so many fascinating characters – and that most (90%) of them were women – removed some of the intensity of the individual love stories, comedies and tragedies occurring throughout. Maybe this would be different in the book. Apparently it’s based on THREE books by Gaskell.
Having said that, I can’t think of one character I’d have liked to see less of, or could even justify seeing more of at the expense of another: it was well balanced and I loved so many of them, and all the plot lines, that I wish a story could have been made about them all individually. But that is not possible, and would entirely defeat the purpose of the story, which was to observe the mechanics of an insular society run by the gossip of single women and their ideas of society and morality; and to show that community on the very cusp of change which terrified them.
Also, the two spinster sisters are acted by people who strongly resemble – and who should rightly act – Terry Pratchett’s Discworld characters Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. (Yes, you heard me right. Dame Judy Dench is my prime candidate to play Nanny Ogg. Her character, is wholly different in Cranford. But it struck me that she has the face and the ability to carry it off marvelously.)
PS. I also watched Amazing Grace for the first time the other night. Wonderful!
April 4, 2009
Talisman, originally uploaded by Princess Crazyhair.
For the Illustration Friday Theme ‘Talisman’.
One interest of mine is the issue of religious freedom around the world.
I don’t mean for the necklace to be an actual talisman, but the thing it represents. Such an item is most often a luxury nobody in a restricted nation can afford to be seen with.
March 24, 2009
I’m having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week so far, and it’s only Tuesday. Students, an unannounced painter invasion, continual disruptions, last minute room changes, exams, marking, reporting… grump. I’ve cried about school for the first time this year. Twice in two days. I don’t think I cried about school in 2008. I was very in control and organised. I was wondering why I was struggling this year, until I realised that *this* year I have less time to do more things, like writing Year 12 units and all assessment, etc. And I’m visiting friends, reading more christian books and doing Illustration Friday, in an attempt to have a life outside of school. It’s brilliant, except the part where admin tells me It’s Not Good Enough Not To Meet Deadline And You Were Too Abrupt On The Phone, or I discover my classroom and staffroom is now fenced off and reeking of paint and dust and industrial noise, or I get kicked out of the new classroom they said was free, or every single student in year 8 decides today is the day to experiment with the games of Whinge Artist, I’m A Little Stirrer, Make Me, or Ganging Up On Teacher (which they’re not supposed to know until Year 10!), and I stay back at school for *two hours* writing referrals on them, and I cry at school.
On the up side, I have started listening to an unabridged audiobook of Pride and Prejudice, and the scene where Lizzy and Darcy first go head-to-head, making out each others’ characters, *finally* makes sense. It never did, you see, until I heard the whole discussion about Bingley’s character preceding it. *That’s* why Darcy says her fault is to willfully misunderstand people! Anyway, the bit where Darcy decides he’s far too attracted to her and must now ignore her was very amusing.
March 23, 2009
A princess in charge for a change, subtracting one knight to solve the problem of an expected marriage. 
Drawn for Illustration Friday. I went a bit sideways, but the theme is ’subtract’.
March 19, 2009
My sister told me tonight that she has exceedingly strange dreams whenever she eats curry. She related to me an exchange between her and a classmate:
K: I had a curry dream last night.
Friend: No! Don’t tell me! How can you dream about stuff like that! And about ME! For your information *I* dreamed you were kissing both Edward *and* Jasper!
K: Well… that’s very nice of you…
March 16, 2009
Early sketches for the work-in-progress posted a while ago. This pic turned into a short story I’ve just submitted to the Aurealis magazine. Actually, it turned into two, one of which I submitted but the other I might keep if I ever want to turn this story into a ya novel.
In later versions of this picture, I decided to go with the Blue fairy, but that meant she lost the leg hooked back and rode formally side-saddle instead. Blue would be much too cultured to ride like this…
“The Blue Fairy rode through town every Sunday as if to say the rest of us were no better than we should be. Perfectly poised in the saddle, crop in her hand, she clattered over our humble High Street cobbles on her silver-flanked mare, all the way to her sister’s house in Harbour Street. While her sister Green was red and freckled and rode her chestnut without a saddle, the Blue Fairy was almost paler than the spray of lace at her chin. Under her hat her silver-blonde hair was perfectly placed. She wore a mysterious smile and never spoke. You never saw her eyes. Instead, the ice-blue irises of her nameless white cat watched passers-by with an intensity that could make the noblest of them blush.
…
But even the Green Fairy, beloved of farmers and sailors, was not one of us: her cupcakes smelled of moss and mint, and when the Spring moon was full she rode the hunt through town with her hair unbound; barefoot, bare-legged and laughing in the wind.
- One Hundred Years (Non-submitted draft: Aurora’s Story), by me!
March 14, 2009
I may do a colour version later, but I really love working in HB pencil! This was done for the Illustration Friday theme, ‘legendary’.
March 9, 2009
This week’s Illustration Friday theme is ‘Intricate’. Because it’s such a good topic, I will try to do more than one picture this week…
March 6, 2009
A sketch of a colleague of mine.
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