Today I completed a food-related goal from The List:
075. Make something delicious using something I usually hate the taste of
I opted for making beetroot chocolate cake, as I'd planned all along.
Now let me tell you, ordinarily, I can't stand beetroot.
I hate the smell of it, cannot bear the taste of it, and honestly the only thing it's got going for it is the colour. But you can't eat colour.
You can, however, eat cake.
I used this chocolate beetroot cake recipe from Allrecipes.co.uk, though I didn't bother with the vanilla essence, and swapped out the plain flour/bicarbonate of soda for self raising flour...and completely forgot about the salt. Oh well.
My cookery skills are pretty chaotic and messy, and I didn't have a tin the right size so I ended up making a big cake and six cupcakes. The big cake took forever to cook through--about 25 mins longer than the recipe said! I think I put too much mix in the tin...
After letting the cakes cool, I covered them in chocolate ganache. I didn't realise how simple it was to make! The most complicated parts are chopping up the chocolate and making sure the cream doesn't boil.
Covered the cupcakes in little decorations just to use them up. I had way too much ganache left so ended up making two little desserts in ramekin dishes, with the leftover ganache on top of broken up digestive biscuits, which Dad and I ate for pudding, with the leftover double cream!
As for the beetroot cake itself, I've only eaten one of the cupcakes so far, but enjoyed it! The cake tasted extremely chocolatey, and I couldn't taste any beetroot at all :)
So mission accomplished, but it was so chocolately I don't think I'll need chocolate for another month!
It's the end of the month, and with it I bring my final seven sonnets for a goal on The List:
027. Write 1 sonnet per day for 1 month
Honestly it's a relief to finish these. Sonnet-writing is not as fun as I seem to remember. Nor as easy.
Originally I'd planned to do something fun for this last week and write sonnets about anime, but the first and last ones here...aren't. But they're still kind of light-hearted and silly...
Daylight Savings
Messes Up My Body Clock (And My Brain)
Alas, I planned to write of anime,
Of characters fictional and adored,
Yet as I sat down to my great dismay,
My brain did refuse and my thoughts all snored.
Tis folly to write with a mind like this,
With a head so clouded by cotton wool,
All quick-witted phrases have gone amiss--
My mind is no longer a sharpened tool.
Yet this foolish errand I shall not yield,
For on the morrow I will try again,
In hope that my thoughts do fly far afield,
To write wittily with digital pen.
Today there is something to place the blame:
Daylight Savings is its infernal name.
(This happens every damn year, and it always takes a good week for me to get used to everything being an hour different...)
An Egg By Any Other
Name Could Not Be Beat
Do you see the great unbeatable Egg?
Wrapped up in his spandex suit of yellow,
Red gloves and boots on each strong fist and leg,
With his white cape he's a superb fellow!
See at his side the serious Toaster,
Young, that cyborg disciple of metal,
Admired is he: a boy of the poster,
His verbosity does the Egg nettle.
Yet together this duo save the earth,
(Albeit the Toaster often gets wreck'd)
Such heroes as these are of immense worth,
As monsters defeated, the sales are check'd.
For the best bargains are found before lunch,
So the Egg beats the monster with one punch.
(A sonnet about One Punch Man, because it's ridiculous and I love it)
At long last, I have finished my hand-drawing goal:
01. Fill a sketchbook with artwork/studies of only one subject
I chose 'hands' as my subject because I have always struggled to draw them, and after struggling some more back in 2015 when I started on this goal, I gave up, only dipping into it every so often to scribble down a hand sketched from a reference on google images.
Then at some point towards the end of last year/beginning of this year, I began making more of an effort again. For a while I drew a lot from the timed exercises on Line of Action (which you can see in previous posts) which really kickstarted my drawing again!
But I soon began drawing from my own references, too (as in this post) and filled my camera roll up with hand photos I'd snapped on my phone!
I attempted drawing without a reference, but that turned into drawing with a reference (of my own hand) because it started going badly very quickly!
In fact, some days my attempts still go pretty badly!
As for whether I've improved, here are the first and last sketches from the book:
First Hand
Last Hand
I have definitely improved!
After starting this goal so long ago, it's a relief to finally get it finished! In the process of drawing, I've found that pastel pencils make really light work of shading (but are a pain in the butt when they break). I've also found that my favourite pencil to draw with is a 6B watersoluble graphite pencil, like these ones by Derwent (and no, they aren't paying me to say that). It's easy to achieve a variation of shades, and being able to shade larger areas with the side of the pencil gives me more control than if I was using a traditional pencil. So I'm kind of glad I've got two of them!
Over the course of this goal, I have drawn over 150 hands! I haven't posted all of them online. Some are just little doodles from trying to draw cartoonish hands, where I didn't really put any effort into drawing, so I didn't post them. But everything else is are here on this blog.
You can see all the sketches I posted by going to my Goal 01 Tag.
After beavering away with my sketchbook, I've finally completed the last four pieces for my outfit/costume design goal!
053. Design 50 outfits/costumes
Having four left to design, I chose the seasons as my theme...
Spring Flower (47/50)
+ Dress: Spring green pencil dress with clear vinyl 3/4 circle overskirt embellished with fabric daisies. + Jacket: Cropped short sleeve clear vinyl with fabric daisy embellishments.
+ Belt: Broad white elastic with daisy buckle.
+ Shoes: White canvas wedges with daisy embellished rubber mesh in side-panel and daisy design embossed on wedge.
Summer Days (48/50)
+ Top: Cropped red flouncy top with butterfly sleeves and embroidered trim (yellow suns and red edging on gold leather).
+ Skort: Flouncy red shorts/culottes with gold leather overskirt and waistband (embroidered as on top). Side zip.
+ Sandals: Knee-high flat 'gladiator' style in gold leather with yellow embroidered sun at knee.
Autumn Leaves (49/50)
+ Hat: Green slouchy knit with spikes (like on conker shell)
+ Shirt: Green fine knit with high neck and frill sleeves
+ Cuffs: Green moulded leather, like conker shells
+ Dress: High-low hem, sleeveless, made of red/orange/yellow fabric leaves on orange tulle
+ Trousers: Green moulded leather, as on cuffs.
+ Coat: Red/orange/yellow tartan wool with blanket fringe, longer at back. Green leather shoulder/elbow patches/buckles (as on trousers).
+ Boots: Green leather (as before) platform wedges with leaf cutout in wedge.
Winter Nights (50/50)
+ Hat: White faux fur embellished with blue tulle yoyo, silver sequin star and clear plastic 'icicles'.
+ Coat: Floor length white velvet with high collar and 'icicle' spile detail on shoulder, silver star buttons.
+ Dress: Ankle-length ice blue tulle with silver sequin star embellishments. Rolled collar and front button fastening.
+ Corset: Silver leather with silver sequin stars.
+ Shorts: Silver leather, zip at back.
+ Shoes: White velvet courts with clear 'ice' platform and 'icicle' heel; faux fur trim around foot and sequin star motifs on toe/heel/side.
So that's the last of my fifty designs!
I think the spring one is probably the most 'fashion' of them all, though all four of these have more of a fashion feel than the majority of my designs--probably because the majority were costume designs rather than fashion.
I'm not sure if I would make any of these designs completely, though there are aspects of a lot of them that I'd like to create! Starting right at the beginning with my 'Garden Punk' design, I seem to have come full circle back to a nature theme with my more recent succulent inspired designs, and the nature themes in these seasons designs. I don't know if that says I'm repetitive, or that nature is everywhere, and a great source of inspiration!
Either way, my designing is Done.
Now I can cross the goal off the list. Hurrah!
You can see all my designs for this goal on my Goal 53 Tag. Which would you choose to make?
Another goal that I have nearly finished now is goal 53: design 50 outfits/costumes. I posted some plant-inspired designs the other day, and here are three more.
This time I took inspiration from religious reliquaries. These jewel-bedecked reliquaries and remains are utterly fascinating, and the colours and decoration make them a great source of inspiration, if a little morbid! (Check out my Morbid Curiosities board on Pinterest to see what I mean!)
Relinquished Reliquary (44/50)
+ Dress: Long-sleeved, high-necked fishtail dress of deep red velvet and gold lace. Strapless red velvet bodice/top of skirt, shoulders/high neck/sleeves and bottom 2/3 of skirt from gold lace. 1" woven gold trim on velvet.
+ Necklace: Large cut glass gems (blue, purple and red) on gold filigree
+ Belt: Moulded gold leather with glass gems as before.
+ Boots: Open toe slingbacks of moulded gold leather with gems as before.
Hallowed Heart (45/50)
+ Dress: Blue velvet bodice and skirt with powdery blue-grey silk puff sleeves and underskirt. Gold trim on waistband and around red and purple glass gem & filigree-encrusted heart on front. Skirt decorated with red and purple gems on gold diamond-shaped filigree.
+ Necklace: Chunky filigree and red/purple glass gems
+ Sleeves: Filigree and glass, covering back of hand
+Boots: Blue velvet thigh-high open toe boots with heart detail on foot and heel, red/purple gems on gold filigree on leg.
Cherished Chalice (46/50)
+ Dress: Deep purple velvet mermaid dress with lavender-grey long hem and high-necked 'undershirt'. Gold woven trim and straps encrusted with emerald green and ruby red glass gems.
+ Bangles: Gold metal with green and red gems.
+ Necklace: Choker of green and red gems on filigree.
+ Shoes: Open toe purple velvet sho with gold trim/heel/sole and red and green gems.
Despite what a pain in the butt it was to colour all the detail on these, I'm really pleased with how these ones turned out. Had I the money (or the skill, or the motivation) I would make these and probably actually wear them (even if it was only to the shops...!)
I am still (yes, still) working on the very first goal of The List: to fill a sketchbook with studies/artwork of one subject.
This ended up being a study of hands, and I am just fifteen pages away from filling the sketchbook!
In the meantime, I'm still drawing from references...
Most of these have been photo references, and I have had a few 'bad' days of drawing, where it all went to hell pretty quickly (eraser? What's that?)
To challenge myself, I also tried drawing 'from life'--using my own hand to draw from (except I was holding a stubby pencil rather than a cigarette! That picture was drawn after failing at drawing a character with a cigarette, and wanting to practice).
It's starting to get a little easier to draw hands, though given a blank sheet of paper and no reference it would probably still look a mess! But I'm definitely getting better!
After designing costumes for characters from Folk Tales of the Sea People as part of goal 53 (Design 50 outfits/costumes), I set my sights on designing outfits based on other subjects.
As I looked around my room for ideas, my gaze alighted on the sunniest corner, inhabited by a small family of succulents, and over the following days, these designs happened.
As usual, you can click to view them larger :)
Aloe Girl (37/50) Inspiration: Aloe
+ Dress: Green halterneck with velvet bodice and skirt/collar formed of lightly padded matte vinyl 'leaves'.
+ Sandals: Light brown flat sandals lacing up to the knee.
Spiky Soft (38/50) Inspiration: Cactus of unknown type
+ Dress: Green bardot/halterneck hybrid. Jersey bodice with long spikes on straps. Balloon-like skirt of moulded fleece (like bumps on cactus) to just above knee.
+ Boots: Green rubber thigh high heels.
It's been a long slog that began at the end of 2014, but I've finally completed a longer goal from The List!
062. Watch 100 TED/TEDx Talks
I started off picking them at random, moved into watching selections on similar themes, and these final ten are once again a mixed bag!
Johanna Blakley: Social media and the end of gender
Media researcher Johanna Blakley discusses how traditional demographics are still being used by media companies to understand their audiences, when online, with the ever-growing use of social media, women are outnumbering men--and these means changes are afoot.
Didn't know what to expect from this talk (because I never read the info section) but this was really enlightening!
Courtney Martin: Reinventing feminism
In this talk, blogger Courtney Martin talks about her upbringing by radical parents, and discusses how loaded the word 'feminism' is, presenting three paradoxes in attempting to define it.
I found this talk really interesting, as feminism is a word so muddied by negativity (on both sides).
At the end of February, I decided that March would be the month I attempted one of my writing goals from The List:
027. Write 1 sonnet per day for 1 month
This is the most challenging of my writing goals - more challenging than haiku, or flash fiction, or short stories of 1000+ words!
Sonnets have so many rules with regards their form, and whilst pretty much every sonnet I studied in school was a love poem, I decided to throw that out of the window this month and write sonnets on all kinds of subjects (though I guess I ought to try writing something affectionate at some point!)
Today I'm sharing my first 8 sonnets of the month. Some are serious, some are ridiculous, and the last one is pushing it a little.
Just a little update on the first goal on The List:
001. Fill a sketchbook with artwork/studies of one subject.
That subject being hands, and me actually applying myself to sitting down and working on this goal, I have been drawing so many hands that I'm starting to get sick of the sight of them!
Despite that, it can be soothing to sit and draw from a reference, and as I'm listening to the History of the World in 100 Objects podcast whilst I work, I'm learning things as well!
Some of my sketches definitely come out better than others, and some poses are easier to draw than others, but the level of effort I put in certainly effects how well the pictures turn out.
It might seem as though I've drawn a million hands already (it feels that way to me!) but my sketchbook still isn't filled.
I have 28 pages left...
Guess I'd better go hunting for some more references!
As I wrote at the beginning of February, I've been working on my goal to learn all the countries in Africa.
It seems that repetition is definitely the key to success when it comes to memorising this stuff, because after countless rounds of label-that-country via the app I wrote about before, and several instances of scrawling-down-a-list-of-countries, I remember them all.
I can (and do) now watch the TV quiz show Pointless and rattle off a whole list of African countries when a related geography question pops up. And yes, some of those are 'pointless answers'.
After watching a bunch of inspiring, creative TED talks, which I wrote about recently, I decided that with twenty more talks to go, I should grab the bull by the horns and watch talks about something a lot more serious. Something more personal, something closer to home and therefore, potentially a little uncomfortable, a little harder to watch: talks about mental health.
I ended up watching a variety of talks, some about intervention and serious mental health issues, some about dealing with stress (and we all know that stress can lead to more serious health issues, so it's better to nip it in the bud at the start, right?)
So here goes. Ten TED talks about mental health.
Andres Lozano: Parkinson's depression, and the switch that might turn them off.
A talk about deep brain stimulation, a technique in which electrodes implanted in specific areas of the brain can be used to suppress or enhance that area's activity, leading to incredible physical and mental results.
I had no idea that deep brain stimulation even existed - it sounds like something out of science fiction - but the video clips and examples in this talk really showcase what the procedure can do.
What's so funny about mental illness? | Ruby Wax
A short and entertaining talk in which comedian Ruby Wax reveals her experiences with depression, and calls for an end to the stigma surrounding mental illness.
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.
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...
