Christmas Tree 2018

Greetings

As usual, I am in charge of all the festive decorations.

Here is the Christmas tree in its new position , due to re-arrangement of furniture ( Teddy even had to move some dolls... ).

 Here is the tree with its lights on.

As usual I shall be celebrating the full twelve days and will take the tree and decoration down after my Twelfth Night meal.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Until next time

Adieu

Season's Greetings 2018

Greetings

Every year I weave a new wreath onto  an old wreath frame, using evergreens from my garden.

This year, Teddy brought me a gift of some mistletoe, so I included it , alongside the usual holly, bay and yew.

Here is this year's wreath:

  Until next time

Adieu

Woodlore, Woodland Elf

Greetings

This is a drawing I made  for another woodland elf character.

Here's how he came out photoshopped at the first attempt:

I then decided to have another go and make a similar use of layers to the work I had done to the picture of Raven.

The second version looks like this:

Without his jerkin, he looks like this:

As with the image of Raven, I will, at some point,add the remaining more risque versions of this image to the Garden of Dubious Delights pages of my website.

Until next time

Adieu

Renaissance Youth

Greetings

Here is an ink drawing of  a Renaissance youth from my sketch book.

 Until next time

Adieu

Raven, Woodland Elf

Greetings

I have been doing some more experimentation with Photoshop.

Here is a drawing I made of my hero, Raven, eating dreamberries:

Now here is how he came out in photoshop.

I have been playing about with layers, so here he is without his jerkin and sword:

I have created other variations of this image , but they are more appropriate to appear on the Garden of Dubious Delights pages of my website.

I will add them to the Elves page at some point...

Until next time

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 14

 Greetings

Here is the last one of my new sprites.

This is a Buff Gladiator ( Thispritses Iyamsparticus ) collected in Rome in 1851

I have just been to the Re-enactor's market ( Known as TORM). We usually go, but, after over twenty five years of re-enactment, there is usually quite little on my list.

This time, however, I had quite a substantial list. 

Teddy and I are involved with a costume set for the 2019 World Science Fiction Convention that will be held in Dublin and we need two different thicknesses of leather( in matching brown) for his costume and a set of  black seventeenth century boot butterflies and some long black feathers to go in a hat for mine.

I also wanted some black leather for remaking a large belt pouch and ready-cut half-inch strapping for armour repairs, as well as some sharp glover leather needles and a new hole-punch.

Then I needed to get some more mead for the cellar, an interesting bottle of alcohol as a present for my brother, a new medieval straw hat, an axe handle, some more herbal toothpaste from the Roving Apothecary and two metal banner-holders.

I have never before been so successful in getting stuff from the market. 

The toothpaste had been discontinued ( Bah!) and we couldn't find an axe handle, but we found everything else and ,in addition I bought an interesting Marmalade Whiskey Liqueur ( that just had my name on it !) , found some good black linen to line the doublet of my costume with , got some good linen thread for leatherworking and found a nice small set of bellows to replace the cheap ones I've been using for years.

I also got enough leather strapping to last through several years of broken armour straps and bought a solar topi that is need for another member of the costume set.

Until next time

Adieu

Glider Elflord

Greetings

Here is another character from my Elfsex comic.

This is Lord Saal, who featured in Elfsex 3.

Until next time

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 13

Greetings

Here is another sprite

This is a White Kitsune ( Yaoiboi Kinkikatsutedas ) collected in Nagasaki in 1888.

Until next time

Adieu

Woodland Elf

Greetings

Here is another character I created for my Elfsex comic.

He has yet to appear, but I find it's always useful to have characters waiting in the wings...

This is Tailchaser:

Until next time

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 12

Greetings

Here is one of my new sprites.

This is a Green Boy ( Jungpage Egataplesus ) collected in Milan in 1894.

Until next time

Adieu

Glider Elf

Greetings

I have long been a fan of Wendy and Richard Pini's  Elfquest and have even written and drawn my own irreverent fanfic comic Elfsex  ( which can be viewed [ by those who like that sort of thing ] on the Garden of Dubious Delights [Parent Advisory] pages of my website ).

Elfsex  1 counts as slash, as it features existing characters ( Cutter, Skywise and Scouter), but I created my own characters for the next two issues.

This is Tyriel , a Glider, from Elfsex 3.

I was experimenting with Photoshop with this image.

Here is the hand-drawn pencil.

And here it is after colouring in Photoshop:

I am still reasonably pleased with the result, but may produce another version at some point.

Until next time

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 11

Greetings

Here is one of my new sprites.

This is a Redhead ( Quinqueboots Purplenicus ) collected in San Francisco in 1874.

Until next time

Adieu

further work to painting detail

Greetings

I am still working on the detail of my current oil painting.

last time it looked like this:

After further tightening of the detail in Burnt Umber, Pthalo Blue, Emerald Green and Lemon Yellow, it now looks like this:

Until next time

Small Game Hunter 10

Greetings

Here is another in the new collection of sprites.

This is a Scarlet Leatherboy ( Faerilad Mustobeius ) collected in Soho in 1899

Until next time

Adieu

Working on painting detail

Greetings

I have done some more work to the detail of my current oil painting.

Last time I posted  the painting had been worked over in white  and looked like this:

I have now done some more detail work in dark colours and have added more detail to the clothing and the moon figures.

It now looks like this:

I will continue to work on the detail.

Until next time

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 9

Greetings

Here is another in my new collection of Sprites

This is an Enchanted Prince ( Wakinim Wilbifunferus ) collected in Ulm in 1881

Until next time

Adieu

More work to painting

Greetings

I have been doing some further work to my current oil painting.

I have added further green  and white glazes  and have been working on the detail in white.

As usual I am using a glazing medium mixed with turpentine.

The painting looked like this last time.

It now looks like this:

Once this dries, I will work over the detail again in dark colours. I will carry on this process, alternating white work with dark, until I am happy with the detail.

Until next time 

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 8

Greetings

Here is another in my new set of sprites.

This is the Golden Lad ( Losaeleaf Anistarcus ) Collected in Crete in 1888.

Until next time

Adieu

Ripped Jeans

Greetings

Here is a drawing of a fine young man with ripped abs - wearing jeans.

Until next time

Adieu

Small Game Hunter 7

Greetings

Some time ago I posted about some Lilliputians that I had sculpted from Fimo.

I have now made some Sprites of the order Fairae.

This is a Questing Prince (  Forgold Wilselisas  ), collected in Prague in 1870.

Until next time.

Adieu

Summer Storm

Greetings

Here is  a large watercolour I painted some years ago.

It was originally titled Midsummer Tempest, but, as I subsequently gave that title to another work, I am now calling it Summer Storm.

This falls within the Landscape of Dreams, as this is a constructed landscape.

You will also note the Celtic strapwork borders.

 I sometimes use strapwork in my illuminated manuscripts and spent some time learning the secrets of its construction. The thicker base border is particularly complex and is known as the Eight Strand Cruxiform break.

Every other centre junction forms a cross of negative space.

These crosses should be as even as possible.

Until next time

Adieu

Leather Lad

Greetings

Here is a drawing of a young man in leather.

This might be another candidate for use on a book bag at at some point.

Until next time

Adieu

Oxford

Greetings

As promised, I shall now tell you about the visit to Oxford.

We had arranged to go to see the Tolkien exhibition at New Weston Library with the friends we play D & D with on the Tuesday after a weekend of campaigning.

We decided to go up on the Monday, spend the afternoon and the next morning going round Oxford before the ticket entry time of 1 PM.

The journey up was not pleasant. Oxford station is closed due to upgrading the line to electric, so we had to get a Weston-super-Mare train to Didcot and change to a bus. The train was packed-all the seats were reserved from Padington and we had to stand in the small vestibule at the end of the caridge - by the loo.

Still, at least we were given free water by the train company when we got to Didcot and the bus was air-conditioned.

Here are some of the pictures I took around Oxford

I take some pictures to record the trip, but most I take because I may use them in my art. Some may become watercolours, others may by used in my oil paintings.

The exhibition was quite small, but was very good, with many details of Tolkien's life, influences and the background , as well as many examples of his art and interesting facts about his writing.

I was particularly interested that the he initially proposed to use the name Gandalf as the leader of the dwarves in the Hobbit and later changed it to Thorin Oakenshield.

I didn't buy any mementos from the shop, as everything was hideously overpriced and I already have a rather nice volume of Tolkien's artworks.

After a tip from a helpful street guide, we managed to get into Exeter College and spend a pleasant half hour wandering round.

The journey back was much nicer- though Trainline had mucked up our tickets and we found we'd been given Day Returns instead of Period Returns. Luckily the nice lady at the station upgraded them for us, so we only had to pay about £3.00 extra each- rather than a full single fair of £23.00( or thereabouts).

Despite the difficulties and the scorching weather, it was a nice trip.

Until next time

Adieu

Melee

Greetings

I was hoping to go to do a re-enactment of the battle of Tewkesbury last weekend ( which I used to do quite regularly up until 2007), but, unfortunately, the forecast said that it would be between 26 and 27 degrees.

Previous experience has told me that this is too hot for me to fight in full plate and it is not wise to fight at Tewkesbury in anything less than full plate. There are usually about 2,000 to 3,000 men on the field . They come from multiple re-enactment societies and quite a lot of them are from other European countries. Hence their level of skill and training is variable and not all of them speak English.

Consequently, I decided to stay home- which was just as well. Some of the other Paladins went and they told me that the temperature went up to 30 degrees and there were lots of men passing out from the heat.

I had also had a nasty bash to the first joint of my right forefinger whilst training one of our newer fighters and, whist it was getting better and I had been making sure it stayed flexible, it was still at a stage when fighting battle for an hour might not have been the best policy.

I missed training last week, due to  getting back late from a trip to Oxford ( which I will blog about later), but went to training last night.

I made sure I wore steel gauntlets and , whilst I am still getting the odd ache and  twinge, barely notice my bad finger whist fighting.

Here is a picture I found of me advancing with the Duke of Somerset to take part in a melee. I think this might have been at Rochester Castle.

Until next time

Adieu

Beautiful Blond

Greetings

Here is a drawing of a beautiful blond boy from one of  my sketch books

Until next time

Adieu

St Albans 2018

Greetings

Last weekend I was at St Albans Country Show with seven other Paladins.

For the first time for absolutely ages we had a FLAT campsite. Here are some pictures of the encampment

As you can see, we formed a little crescent-shaped island of the Fourteenth century in a sea of plastic gazebos.

There was also a small group of Viking reenactors there, who camped just behind us and put on a reasonable fight display of swords, shields and dane-axes.

It was very hot with not a cloud in the sky , though, luckily, there was a bit of wind. We didn't get many people stopping to ask questions, try on armour etc, which meant we could stay in the shade a lot until we had to do our tourney.

The main area was in a corner of the field near trees, so got no wind. It was probably the hottest part of the site.

On Saturday I light armoured in jack, mail, legs and spaulders. We only had four fighters, but we still each managed two fights and a short melee in the main arena lasting( in total) about 15 minutes, before the heat got  to us

There was a sparse audience, but those that watched us seemed to appreciate the show..

The Sunday was verging on 30 degrees.  I had been for a walk round the stall set about the main area at about 2 Pm and , even in cassock and rochet( with a large straw hat) it was like being hammered by the sun.

Luckily, we had been moved to the small arena near to our camp, so there was some wind, but the Marshal went on in just a jack and I went on in just jack and mail to try to make the fights last as long as possible.

Less luckily, the grass in the small arena had been trampled flat and and was the colour and texture of straw, which meant that the footing was very slippery under medieval boots. I was even noticing it and I've got hobnailed boots.

Despite this, we still managed to do a reasonable fight for about fifteen minutes total.

This time we had a grand total of about eight people watching- including the children.

Still, the client was happy...

Until next time

Adieu