Etch-a-sketch

Who remembers these? I loved mine and by twirling both buttons together I found I could draw curves! I used to draw mazes. I remember turning it over and the shake of the silver dust as it covered the trace of your sketch. Also the twanging of what might have been elastic bands moving a stylus? Against the screen. It was just a tiny dot. A bit like a computer cursor! I’d love to get one again!

Spirograph

Does anyone remember this. It came with pins to hold the circles down that you drew around. You had to use thick card board to pin into otherwise as you used the small circles the paper would slip. Over the years I did hundreds of these patterns, I could almost draw them without the plastic circles and getting pens to fit in the little holes. I liked some patterns more than others. Maybe it explains my obsession with them now?

Animated?

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was animate. I tried to work out how a horse runs and if I could try and draw overlapping images of them. I know there are books you can get that show you how to do animations but I just did this quickly without any reference. I’ve always enjoyed trying to draw horses, I have a basic idea of how they look. X

Auroral display

I’ve always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis and last night and tonight might have been the chance. But two things are against it. I live too far south and its cloudy. The reason why it might have been visible is because there is a large area of sunspots that had come into view around the edge of the Sun. It has strong magnetic North and South currents which increases the chance and strength of Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar flares. These could be directed Earth-wards and spark Aurora in both the North (Aurora Borealis) and South (Aurora Australis).

I’d like to see the nothern lights one day. It’s on my bucket list. More information can be found at Spaceweather.com.