I've been working my butt off to design more costumes for characters from my Folk Tales of the Sea People series, as part of goal 53. Design 50 outfits/costumes.
Then I skipped a few, because I didn't feel inspired by them.
Long story short, here are the last four costumes for those characters, bringing my total up to 36!
+ Full overhead mask: Blue sequins with black lips and 'goggles'. Shimmery yellow boned 'fins' around neck, spreading onto shoulders/chest, and down centre of head like a long trailing mohawk. + Tunic: Blue and black circular pailettes (black stripes on blue) with loose pailettes on sleeves and hem.
+ Shoes: High-top flat courts, blue and black sequins with black lacing at ankle and shimmery yellow boned 'fins' across arch (same fabric as mask).
+ Jacket: Red sequins with low hook and eye fastening. Dark blue crinkled 'fin' like high collar, cuffs and peplum hem.
+ Trousers: Same fabrics as jacket, 'fins' on lower half.
+ Shoes: Flat shoes, same fabrics as before, 'fins' covering toes and red sequins at heel.
+ Circlet: Silver feather 'hearts'.
+ Neck Corset: Black leather, laces up front.
+ Top: White stretch velvet with broad white feather sleeves
+ Corset: White leather with whote feather 'skirt'--like wings at front, curving around hips.
+ Skirt: White velvet asymmetric circle skirt, longer at back.
+ Boots: Thigh high black leather with high heel and lacing at back.
+ Jacket: Blue neoprene with lighter blue crinkled cap sleeves, collar and deep hem. Hook and eye fastening.
+ Trousers: Same fabrics as jacket. Lighter blue from mid-thigh.
+ Shoes: Dark blue leather, curled toes and stitch detail at the sides.
Now I've done these, I likely won't be designing costumes for all of the characters in Folk Tales of the Sea People. It was fun at first, but became a bit of a chore, and I guess some of my designs have become kind of 'samey'.
I did purposefully design two similar outfits in this set, that of Moana and Nereus. With Shui and Melanchor, I wanted to design something a bit more 'out there' though both ended up a little tame! For those who haven't read the stories, Shui is the titular "fish" who grew legs, whilst Melanchor is one of the 'Swan People': an anthropomorphised black-necked swan. I wanted to incorporate this somewhat into their costumes!
As for what costumes/outfits I'll design next, I'm undecided whether to design more for characters from other stories, or whether to design more 'everyday' outfits for the last 14 of the goal!
You can see all my designs so far on my Goal 53 tag.
I feel I've been on a roll when it comes to watching TED talks, and can't believe it's taken me so long to get on with my goal of watching 100.
Well...I'm definitely going to reach that goal. I still have 100-odd talks on my 'watch later' list on YouTube!
After all the talks on learning, I ended up watching a bunch of talks on creativity. This includes art, design, and ideas!
How to build your creative confidence | David Kelley
In a talk pretty much summed up by its title, David Kelley explains how anyone can be creative, and how people can come to think themselves creative through a few tiny steps, giving some anecdotes and examples along the way.
Several months have passed since I updated about my photography project, State of Mind. This is part of goal 12 (Complete 3 photography projects) and is still ongoing, but here are some recent additions, plus one from last year (above) which I previously only posted as part of a 365 Project update.
Since it's been a while, here's the arty-farty description of this project:
State of Mind explores different emotions and mental states
through a series of 'faceless' self-portraits, each one being a
personification of those mental states or emotions: the residents of
'The State of Mind'.
Exhaustion (Extreme tiredness, caffeine dependent, running on empty)
These most recent images haven't all turned out exactly as intended; I'd wanted to use a full-sized pillow for Exhaustion but...it was too big. Fortunately this little rectangular cushion pad was the right size!
Anxiety (Catastrophe. Chained. Can't Escape.)
I'm finding that some 'states of mind' are harder to personify as a faceless portrait than I expected. It can be tricky to define emotions as objects, especially the more complex ones that are made up of lots of different smaller feelings, and are experienced in different ways by different people.
Gloom (All is dull, no light to be seen.)
Though there is a similarity between some of these pictures (and there will probably be more), I hope the differences stand out. For example, Brainfog and Gloom are similar with pale, fuzzy heads, but whilst Brainfog emits a feeling of fluffy-headedness, Gloom is a lot darker, a lot heavier.
That's it for this project so far; other photos may end up being composite images, editing together a 'head' shot and a 'body' shot, due to issues with size/weight of the 'head'.
Fingers crossed it won't take me another ten months to post another update on this!
If there's one thing I'm always up for, it's learning about things that interest me. Sometimes, that includes discovering the existence of things that interest me, finding out more about them, how to learn better.
Or trying to understand the how and the why of things that are completely beyond me, like computer programming--which I studied at uni, and passed by sheer fluke.
Anyway, it turns out that there are a ton of TED talks on learning, both in general and in respect to different subjects.
So with my 'Watch 100 TED/TEDx Talks' goal in mind, I watched a few...
How learning German taught me the link between maths and poetry | Harry Baker | TEDxVienna
Poet, Mathematician and World Slam Poetry champion Harry Baker discusses how he discovered a link between maths, in which there are right and wrong answers, and poetry, which has no wrong ones, and demonstrates his skill through an entertaining bilingual poem.
Falafellöffel is my favourite new word.
Quantum Physics for 7 Year Olds | Dominic Walliman | TEDxEastVan
Through this easy to digest talk, quantum physicist Dominic Walliman discusses simple ways to improve communication in science, revealing that quantum physics isn't difficult to understand, it just needs to be explained better.
I still think quantum physics is one of those things you work with when you're a super brainy person, but I did have a few "Oh!!!" moments whilst watching, in which everything was suddenly clear!
How I taught myself to code | Litha Soyizwapi | TEDxSoweto
In this talk, graphic designer and app developer Litha Soyizwapi tells the story of how he learned to draw after initially failing his course, and then how through curiosity, determination, and process, he taught himself how to program apps, eventually creating one of the most popular app in South Africa.
This is a really inspiring talk, and shows how with the right tools and information, and of course dedication, self-learning really is possible, with incredible results.
The first 20 hours-- how to learn anything | Josh Kaufman | TEDxCSU
Author and teacher Josh Kaufman uses this talk to explain that it takes just 20 hours to learn absolutely anything. He proves it by playing the ukelele. It's a bit more in-depth than 'it takes 20 hours to learn something' but is an interesting talk!
I want a ukelele now.
5 techniques to speak any language | Sid Efromovich | TEDxUpperEastSide
In this talk, hyperpolyglot Sid Efromovich talks language learning, presenting five different techniques that can be used to learn a language. Within this talk is an explanation of how we have a 'language database' which we tend to refer to when trying to learn foreign languages, the importance of making mistakes, of practise, of scrapping the foreign alphabet and more.
As someone with an interest in languages, I found this talk really interesting, and definitely gained a couple of good tips!
How you can be good at math, and other surprising facts about learning | Jo Boaler | TEDxStanford
Mathematics education professor Jo Boaler shares research into teaching methods, which reveal how all of us - even those of us who consider ourselves 'not a maths person' - can be good at maths. Her talk questions the efficacy of how maths is currently taught, and confirms that even the most mathematically challenged can learn if taught in the right way.
I'm one of those 'not a maths person' types, but this talk made me think maybe that's not so true.
Learning how to learn | Barbara Oakley | TEDxOaklandUniversity
Barbara Oakley is a professor of Engineering who flunked maths and science all the way through high school. In this talk, she tells of how she enlisted in the army, and how through this, came into contact with algebra and engineering, which led to her returning to school and using specific methods to finally beat the subjects that she had struggled with in the past.
An inspiring talk, proving - like some of the others - that given the right methods and mindset, it's possible to learn even the subjects we struggled with in the past.
Learning styles & the importance of critical self-reflection | Tesia Marshik | TEDxUWLaCrosse
In this talk, Dr Tesia Marshik uses reseearch-based evidence to debunk the myth that we have 'learning styles'--and explores both why this belief is a problem, and why we still believe it despite there being so much evidence to the contrary.
When I started watching this talk, I was a little cynical, because I am (was) one of the people who thought there were definitely different kinds of learning styles. I stand corrected.
You Should Learn to Program: Christian Genco at TEDxSMU
With a mission to inspire the whole world to learn how to program, Christian Genco uses uses this talk to deliver such incredible facts as the number of Apollo 11 missions a modern smartphone has the processing power for and the future of computer processing power. He draws parallels between learning to today and learning to read in the 15th Century, and overall really states his case: you should learn to program.
If my comments at the start of this post didn't make it obvious already, I'm no programmer (and actively hated programming) but this talk almost convinced me to give it another try.
Can you learn the hardest language in the world? | Irina Pravet | TEDxOtaniemiED
Language coach Irina Pravet talks about learning Finnish as a foreign language, and gives examples of effective ways to learn what is considered to be 'the hardest language in the world'.
Before watching this talk, I didn't realise Finnish was meant to be the hardest in the world, but having seen Finnish, I can understand why it's perceived that way! And for the record, I think I probably could learn it. It would take at least 20 hours ;)
The poetry of programming | Linda Liukas | TEDxCERN
In this talk, programmer, storyteller and illustrator Linda Liukas discusses encouraging more people to engage in programming, especially the next generation, and how she wants to create a more diverse world of progamming and technology.
Having watched this, I'm still not going to run off and learn Java, but seeing some of her examples, it's good to see that programming is being made far more accessible and fun to kids than when I was at school!
That's it for this group of talks! I ended up watching the programming ones because YouTube suggested them and - as someone who struggled with it - I was curious about how to learn it. (Sitting in lectures and making 'Hello World' applications at university definitely wasn't the answer that worked for me). I watched the language ones because I'm interested in languages, and the ones generally about learning becaues I like learning!
This is probably one of the most academically useful batch of talks I've watched so far, and I may end up going back to some of them to watch them again!
You can see the other TED talks I've watched on my TED talks tag. This group of talks brings my total watched talks up to 70!
+ Dress: Floor length, pale blue sparkly glitter fabric with semi-transparent blue-silver crinkly collar, hem and insert to skirt.
+ Sleeves: Same fabrics as dress, crinkle fabric like 'fins' along seams.
+ Necklace: Grey-silver star on brown cord (primitively formed, unlike smartness of the dress).
Damla (version 2) (27/50)
+ Tunic: Baggy, plain grey-blue cotton and 3/4 sleeves. Collar and cuffs are darker blue, slightly padded and stitched with pale blue. Tunic has a slit to the hip on one side.
+ Belt: Simple pale blue cord.
+ Skirt: Floor length fishtail in navy cotton.
+ Necklace: As before.
Murchadh ("old") (28/50)
+ Cap: Peaked, brown and slouchy, with a band decorated like frogspawn.
+ Shirt: Discoloured grey-white with lacing and diamond and triangle-shaped slate grey buttons (the buttons are just for decoration)
+ Jacket: Faded brown rough fabric, with a roll collar, tattered cuffs, and pockets at chest and hips. Hip pockets have embroidered decoration--a cane on the left, and frogspawn trim on the right.
+ Trousers: Cropped with tattered hems, same fabric as jacket and generally unremarkable.
+ Slippers: Brown leather + low fitting at sides. Brown and cream patent leather upper, reminiscent of the layers of a shell.
Murchadh ("young") (29/50)
+ Tunic: Green with darker green shoulder patches. Collar/armholes also darker green, padded and embroidered in gold. Breast pockets with gold embroidery--left decorated with 'frogspawn' trim and two embroidered interlocked gold rings, right embroidered with coral. Two slits to hips in front, two in the back, triangular slate grey button at top of each slit.
+ Belt: Gold and soft, winds around multiple times.
+ Trousers: Dark green and half-length, cuffs fasten with glass buttons reminiscent of frogspawn egg.
+ Slippers: Same style as old Murchadh, but in black.
Morgan (30/50)
+ Tunic: Dark purple/red/brown with button fastening to the side. Dark gold buttons on front, and two on each sleeve. Broad padded collar and padded feature at armholes (like young Murchadh, but with sleeves)--dark blue and decorated with criss-crossed dark gold trim.
+ Belt: Dark gold wrap around 'obi' style.
+ Skirt: Floor length fishtail style, same main colour as tunic, with central insert of dark blue with dark gold criss-cross trim (same as collar). Dark gold silk inserts either side of central piece, up to mid-thigh. Dark gold button at top of each.
Meredith (31/50)
+ Shirt: Dark green and longsleeved with broad cuffs and gold buttons. Lighter green seaweed-inspired collar and inserts on shoulder seams, with dark green metallic sequin trim.
+ Necklace: Same as Damla's, but on longer cord.
+ Belt: Wide, gold leather with broad trim/tie of dark green sequins.
+ Skirt: Floor length fishtail style with train at back. Main part is dark green metallic sequinned fabric. Front centre section and insert at back from same fabric and trims as the collar. Has pockets, concealed at seam of front skirt section.
Muir (32/50)
+ Tunic: Dark blue, sleeveless. Padded collar and armholes--brown with dark blue embroidery.
+ Belt: Brown cord.
+ Gauntlets/Cuffs: Brown leather.
+ Necklace: Same as Damla/Meredith.
+ Skirt: Floor length fishtail style, plain brown fabric.
Well that's it for costume designs for characters from this story. I tried to make allusions to life cycles in the symbols of Murchadh's costumes (a cane for old age, frogspawn for birth/childhood, rings for adulthood, coral for death). Wanted to have some kind of similarity between Morgan and Meredith's costumes, hence the inserts on the skirts and shoulders, and the long sleeves. Also wanted to have a link between the styles of Damla (version 2) and Muir, so essentially designed very similar costumes with only a few differences.
With 32 costumes designed, I'm quite comfortably heading towards my goal of 50! Over the past few days, I've been trying to draw one costume per day, in the hope I might actually finish this goal this year!
You can see all the costumes I've designed for this goal on my goal 53 tag.
This month, I've made a couple of posts about the TED talks I've been watching for a goal on The List:
062. Watch 100 TED/TEDx Talks
After only watching 30 between November 2014 and November 2017, I watched another 29 across two months!
Thanks to YouTube's suggested videos, it's very easy to fall into a TED talk-watching hole. Last time I logged on, I intended to watch 'just one or two' to pass some time.
Eleven videos later, I have this post for you: talks (mostly) on the psychology smiles and gratitude.
Why you should talk to strangers | Aliya Dossa | TEDxTerryTalks
Economics major Aliya Dossa discusses her project, '101 Days, 101 Strangers, 101 Stories', in which she aimed to talk to 101 strangers in as many days, and discover their stories. In this talk, she retells some of her experiences with this project, and the things she learnt throughout, and what it reveals about our society.
After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd | TEDxVancouver
A fascinating talk about neuroplasticity, in which Dr Lara Boyd explains how research has shown we can shape our brains how we want, and what it means for the future of neuroscience, medicine and learning.
I've been drawing yet more hands, with a focus on drawing hands interacting with different objects.
Things like teacups, little bottles, binoculars, lighters--basically whatever comes to hand (pun intended).
Drawing hands interacting with different objects keeps things a lot more interesting!
My ability to draw from these references definitely waxes and wanes. It's as if having a day or two break from drawing makes my brain and my hands completely forget how to draw!
I am at least around 2/3 of the way through the sketchbook now! Which feels very close to complete, until I consider that means about 50 more pages to go...
Last week, I wrote about some TED talks relating to identity, consciousness and perception. As I mentioned in that post, I've been watching quite a lot of these talks, so today I'd like to share eight more.
I watched these talks Just For Fun, but still gained something from them, whether it was insight, inspiration, or information.
A garden in my apartment | Britta Riley
In this talk, Britta Riley talks about how she and a friend created a system for growing plants in tiny spaces - namely an apartment window - using old plastic bottles. This DIY project grew to become a worldwide research and development project, with people from across the globe using social media to share their own tweaks and improvements on the original plans.
Jae Rhim Lee: My mushroom burial suit
Artist Jae Rhim Lee reveals that our bodies create pollution even after death, and explains how the humble mushroom can be used to eradicate that pollution--all through a simple burial suit.
One of my goals on The List is to learn all the countries in Africa. (It's goal #33, in case you're wondering.)
My reason for this - asides from my geography education only going as far as Western Europe - is because whenever a geography question comes up on the BBC quiz show, Pointless, it's nearly always Africa-centric, or African countries at least form a large number of the best answers. There were a huge number that I didn't even know existed!
Since I'm almost at the point of saying 'Yes, I've learnt these', I figure it's a good time to blog about what I've been doing to try and learn all the countries and their position within the African continent.
There are 54 countries in total--55 if you include Western Sahara, which is a disputed territory.
The first thing I did was try to memorise a list of the countries. First going around the African coastline, then east to west in rows across the continent.
Forgot a few each time. Hm.
Next was to get a blank map and fill it in using Photoshop (like above!)
Remembered slightly better, but it was cumbersome.
Newest attempt was downloading this app:
And no, this isn't a sponsored post.
World Countries Map Quiz is completely free, no sneaky in-app purchases (unlike the first geography learning app I downloaded, which was swiftly deleted!)
It breaks the continent into five areas, and works with a simple drag-and-drop style, giving you a list of countries and spaces on the map to drag them into.
When you're done, you can check your answers, and it will tick or cross them depending on how you did. The really helpful thing is that if you get something wrong, it shows you the right answer, so you aren't stuck randomly guessing if you got more than a couple wrong!
If you answer everything correctly in a game...
Perfect!
Confetti!
Now you feel smart!
So it's a good app for checking memory of geographical location, especially since the countries on the list are in a different order each time.
I'm not considering this goal completed yet, as when it comes to listing the countries I still manage to forget one or two. Usually Botswana or Tanzania. Which is ridiculous, because they are right there.
But forgetting one or two is better than when I started this goal, and I was forgetting some 15-20 of them.
Just like learning anything else, I'll test myself again in a few weeks, and see how much I've remembered!
After going to the British Museum on Monday, we stopped for lunch at Tas, an Anatolian Turkish restaurant that sits just along the street from the museum!
I was eager to try some of the food available, as it would count towards another goal on The List (also, I was hungry!)
043. Try foods of 5 different countries
Upon being seated, we were given bread with some kind of oil/youghurt/dill dip (tasty!) and olives (not so tasty).
Since we were short on time, we opted for some plates of meze to share:
Left to right (if I get this right having looked at their menu online): Mücver (courgette and goat's cheese fritters), Börek (filo pastry with feta and spinach), Icli Köfte (lamb and walnut kofte) and Zetinyagli bakla (broad beans).
Though it wasn't cheap, it was tasty and filling, and a nice treat for a day out!
I know that Turkey has a really diverse range of traditional food beyond meze, and Tas certainly had a lot of choices on their menu, but this was a nice way to sample what the cuisine has to offer!
A few months have passed since I last blogged about the TED and TEDx talks that I've been watching for a goal (062. Watch 100 TED/TEDx talks).
Nevertheless, I've still been watching them! In fact, since November, I've doubled the number of talks I'd watched in the past three years!
This post covers a number of mind-blowing talks, on the subject of identity, consciousness, and perception
Electrical experiments with plants that count and communicate | Greg Gage
A talk by neuroscientist Greg Gage, who uses scientific equipment to hook up a venus fly trap and a mimosa plant, to demonstrate how - through electrical signals - these plants count and transmit information. Interesting, but also fun!
Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality | Anil Seth
Another talk by another neuroscientist! Anil Seth explains how we are all 'hallucinating' our conscious experience, and that when we all agree on the hallucination, it's called 'reality'. Sounds bizarre and is a little mind-boggling, but in a way makes a crazy amount of sense.
Yesterday I trawled up to London to go to the British Museum with Ann, my awesome manager (and history buff). I'd been thinking of going to the museum but wasn't keen on going there alone, so was grateful when Ann jumped in and offered to come along--thank you!
We looked mostly at Ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts, though briefly breezed through Assyria too!
Of course, it's impossible to go to the British Museum without seeing the Rosetta Stone (if you can see past the crowds around it). This was brought to the museum in 1802 and became key to deciphering hieroglyphs!
Another piece that is impossible to miss is this fragment of a statue of Ramesses II, which came from his Ramesseum (mortuary temple). It really dominates the room--you can't not see it if you're walking through.
I took around 270 photos altogether, so whittling it down to a few for this blog post was difficult. Even then, this has ended up a bit image-heavy, so here's a handy dandy read more...
