The cat turned to stare at me. She had seen me in the corner of her eye. She had been staring at the wizard as he cast a spell. As his words ended she started to grow. Paws and legs, tail, body, head, ten times bigger? Twenty times. More. She was sitting on the stairs landing, but now her head and shoulders were about five feet above where they were minutes before.
This is a gentle cat, but her claws were now three inches long, she looked at me longingly. Ready to knead me with her paws, but they could now be deadly. Quietly I closed the bedroom door. Quietly I rang the local zoo. The wizard roared with laughter at the transformation. Claws started to scratch at the door….
As part of my illustration course I have to learn about narrative and storytelling. This weeks subject is about building tension in a story and we had to chose a book to look at:
I don’t have any graphic novels to look at, so I chose ‘Guards! Guards!’, by Terry Pratchett.
It tells the story of how Carrot, a human who was brought up as the step son of dwarves, and who may or may not be the heir to the throne, comes to join the City Guard of Ankh-Morpork and ends up fighting dragons to save the city.
The book cover is illustrated by Josh Kidby who helps raise the tension of one of the crucial scenes whilst including many of the cast of characters in the book. The illustration is full of drama but also emphasises the emotions of the guards.
Pratchett’s writing style is humorous and descriptive, he also uses the device of writing a continuous narrative, with no chapters, but swapping between different scenes which create a series of cliffhangers. His narrative carries you through the book with the images he creates almost visible to the mind’s eye:
The dragon accelerated. The drunken rooftops of Ankh-Morpork blurred as it passed over, wings sneering at the air. The neck stretched out straight ahead, the pilot flames of its nostrils streaming behind it, the sound of its flight panned across the sky.
Just reading that makes me want to read on. I can see the flames and smoke billowing around the dragon. Will Carrot and the guards overcome this monster? Does Carrot die in a blaze of heat and fire? Will a million to one chance with an arrow save them?
You can see how much I have enjoyed this fantasy story by the state of the well thumbed cover. I often look through the characters on the cover and try and match them up with those in the book. There is sometimes a mismatch between the words and the image but I think Kidby handles it well.
I don’t have permission to use an image from Guards! Guards! So I did a quick doodle.
I found a black and white feather, possibly from a magpie and decided to make a pattern with it. I turned it slightly in the ‘straighten’ tool I have, then mirrored it and duplicated it. It tickles my brain playing with feathers! I’d turn the feather into a quill pen if I could.
This was weird, a friend on WhatsApp is trying to come up with a logo for his name that starts with a B and he had drawn letter B’s holding a pencil, so I suggested a Bee carrying a pencil and writing the letter B…. And it fits with today’s #bandofsketchers prompt which is ‘carried’. I might just leave this or I might work on it?
Sky seen a few weeks ago up at the Croft at Thistley Hough. I can’t really say more than it was a beautiful sunset.
The sky looked like it was on fire, and the red reflecting off the purple ad blue clouds just added to the drama. The silhouettes of the trees and the fence and ground added to it.
This is from Martha Kennedy’s blog. I’ve been regularly reading her blogs about art and this particular one about the use of dirt as pigment is fascinating.
Having written recently about painting with dirt — and not feeling completely understood there — and wanting to be understood, here’s more. The old masters (anyone before the middle of the 19th century) painted with dirt, clay and rocks along with various other pigments made from plants, bugs, bones. I just happen to think this […]
So while I forgot to enter the open art exhibition I did at least work on this portrait of a dog. I’ve decided to paint it sitting on a lawn. The original photo had it sitting on a bright blue blanket which in turn sat on a block paving path. I hope it’s owner will like it when I’ve done it.l
Lots of details to add. I need to get the fur shading and colours right, and the thickness of the fur right. The same with the blades of grass. A few more hours work needed.
I was going to enter a couple of paintings to the three counties open this year. I thought the closing date was 30th June, but it turns out I had misread the email. The closing date has gone, it was the 20th. The work will be on display from the 30th of July 2021. I am a little annoyed with myself. I knew it was soon but I’ve been busy. I’m very disappointed. I could try next year. But that’s a year away! Grrrr!
Oh dear! After a couple of gin and tonics some chocolate icecream became too tempting. We’d only had a small evening meal and hubby was talking about cooking our breakfast tomorrow as supper tonight. So I had the bright idea of pulling a tub of chocolate icecream out of the freezer. Not healthy or good. But it tasted lovely.
The only way I can lose weight is not to buy nice things. I have to really restrain myself. A first world problem. People in most of the world wouldn’t even know what icecream is. Its an example of greed I guess. We can grow huge because we are sold empty calories. Sugar and fat in a delightful combination. And people starve. It’s a stark reality that there are too many have nots compared with those that have….. Yes I do feel guilty. Yes I should not be greedy. No I don’t have any real excuse. I was lucky to be born in a rich first world country. That should not stop me trying to help others and change my attitudes for the better.
Mallaband-Brown 