New paintings and regular art updates.
I read the book this quote was in, I think it’s got the character Granny Weatherwax in it, (who often holds a sign when she’s possessing another animal and leaves an apparently lifeless body, “I ain’t dead yet”) but I can’t for the life of me which Terry Pratchett book it is in, (he wrote so many). I recommend him as a funny fantasy writer.
He died a few years ago of a form of alzheimers disease. I miss his cheerful and intelligent books so much I just wanted to share his words.
Discworld
This is what I wrote :
The world I would like to visit is the Discworld of Terry Pratchett. I would really like to meet Granny Weatherwax and her fellow witches.
I think the idea of an unpolluted, magical world, with tiny dragons that singe you slightly when they sneeze is great.
When there is a real figure of Death with a horse called Binky. The stories weave around using ideas from Earth but putting a spin on them.
Flat Earthers would possibly love the idea that the Discworld is flat and rests on the back of four gargantuan Elephants who in turn stand on the back of the giant world turtle, A’tuin, who’s paddle like legs steer him through interstellar space.
Wood can be sentient, there are pines that count their age so when you chop them down the number of years they have been standing appears in their heart wood. A magically infused trunk will chase you on hundreds of little legs and swallow evil people up.
Rincewind the Wizard is at the centre of many stories and his friend Twoflower follows along and adds to the chaos. Yes I would love to be there!
For some reason I’ve joined a Facebook page where people debate whether the Earth is flat or a sphere. In the last couple of weeks I’ve read some very odd speculations about how the Sun must be close to the earth and the ocean is held on the earth by an ice wall that is attached to it’s circumference.
I was interested because the author Terry Pratchett set his comic fantasy Discworld series on a similar structure. It sits atop four elephants which ride on the shell of the world turtle, the great a’tuin. To be honest his ideas are more sensible than the flat earthers!
It’s a funny and confusing page, although people do get into arguments. The scientific facts about the globe are repeated over and over again, but they are disputed and often completely contradicted by videos that are nonsensical, with descriptions that are very odd indeed.
Why do I read it? Because it makes more sense than what’s happening in the USA at the moment!
Dragon doodle, then flood filled with yellow. ‘dragon burning in the night, why do you burn so bright?’
A question. Why are dragons supposed to breath fire. Why does JRR Tolkeins dragon Smaug live in a mountain full of gold that could almost be a volcano, but when fire comes it is from the dragon itself flying over Laketown in the story of the Hobbit.
They breathe fire in other stories too. And authors come up with elaborate ideas of how they make it. For instance the book ‘Guards, Guards’ by Terry Pratchett.
All art of their mystery.
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.
Mallaband-Brown