Weird Text

Today is something different, some weird variations on my name, they gradually get vaguer as they go down the page so try and bear with it.

 

This first one is my name in the form of an ambigram. An ambigram is a word which reads the same when read right way up or upside down. I actually did this while watching a documentary on ambigrams from the Angles and Demons DVD, where they said ambigrams were very hard to do, this I came up with in under 10 mins, it probably helped that I do have very easy corresponding letters in my name.

This next one I first wrote in Denmark in a Viking museum from a Viking alphabet on display there. I have always liked Runic (from Runes) script and Viking culture in general. Note: there are only five letters in the surname as the 'th' is one letter.

And finally this is written from the twengar script which was created by a certain JRR Tolkien and as you may guess is elvish. This is very weird to write as the consonants form the main letter and the vowels are the accents above and below the consonants, their position depending on whether the vowel comes before or after the consonant. But anyway enough technicalities, it looks nice at least to me and that's all that really matters. So; bye!

Knife Forging Part 2

So this is the second part of the creation of my knife from Denmark. If you remember the previous post the knife was very rough and dull see here. Since then I have spent a lot of time with a file and sandpaper and have now got the knife blade to a point where I am happy with both the knife's look and sharpness.

The next stage will be the most technically difficult as it is putting the handle on the metal, a process I have no idea how even to begin, so research will have to be done. But more on that later, for now bye!

Lake Watercolour (Unfinished)

Click on image for High Resolution

This is a watercolour I did of the lake at the campsite. I consider this an unfinished piece, as when I did it the lake was full of people on kayaks and canoes, which I have yet to add and intend to do so. A couple of photos of the lake in use are below.

Knife Forging

One of the other things I got to do in Denmark was something I have wanted to do for quite a while, which is forge something out of metal. Unfortunately I was late to the forging session (I slept in) so I only had time to make a rough knife (not too bad then). I first heated up the metal in the forge till it was red hot and then a hammered an edge onto one side. As I did this repeatedly the sharpened edge began to curve away from the knife so I had to hammer it back to curve in the other direction. Once that was done I used a chisel to cut off the top edge of the curve to leave a (roughly) flat top edge and then cooled it off in water. Below are some photos of the forged knife.

 These below are pictures of me making the knife.

 Now that I am home I will use a sand paper and wire wool to clean the sides of the knife to a reflective (hopefully) finish and a file to add a decent edge to it. I will also add a handle but that will all come later(much later at the rate things are going at the moment).

Yacht Design

Click on image for High Res.

This is an imaginative (without reference) design of a luxury yacht. It was done on the ferry on the way back from Denmark and as such owes parts of it's design, e.g. the hull, to that, but it was also inspired by the massive yachts we saw in Copenhagen (photos below).The name "Propero" comes from some Latin Quotes I had on my iPod at the time and translates as to hasten, speed, accelerate, move rapidly, speed up, come quickly. The design was first sketched out in pencil, then inked in with a fine liner, before marker pens were used for the shading.

Neil the Tent

This is a sketch of the tent that I shared with three others in Denmark. The six man tent (plenty of space then) was called Neil because of a spare guy rope which hung from the top of the tent reminded two of my friends of the ponytail of an old leader of theirs called Neil. And so the name stuck. Over the course of the camp Neil changed greatly, most intended: the naming of the pods as the 'bitchin', the 'Hospital Wing' and 'Storage', the central 'Foyer', a 'Garden' complete with table and chair set, rockery, shrubbery and seesaw and a set of sharpened sticks (that continuously got stolen). Unintended were the three hole Dan put in the tent with a sharp stick. But anyway it was a good tent and below are two photos of Neil from the camp.

Campsite Watercolour

Continuing the 'From Denmark' theme, here is a watercolour painting I did while the group was just sitting around waiting for the next activity. I must say I'm really pleased with this one as it turned out really well and I'm not as confident with watercolours as I am with other media. Anyway that's all for now but there'll be more tomorrow.

Back Home

Well I'm back now from my camp in Denmark and I had a really great time. While I won't bore with the details now what I will do is over the next few days I will gradually upload the photos I took and the other materials I have from the trip on a subject basis. This prevents any single post from being too big and also keeps each post tidy and the whole blog ordered (it also saves a bit on work for me).

Today is the first post and as such it is appropriate that I post the first sketch that I made, it is also convenient as it is a sketch of the campsite I was staying at, and the campsite is as good a place to start as any.

This is a sketch of the main centre of the camp, seen from next to the toilets. It was done in pencil while I waited for some of my friends to have a shower. 

This is a higher contrast version if you have difficulty viewing the pencil above.

The campsite is called the Naesbycentret, after the nearby village of Naesby and is near to the town of Glumso and Soro, of anyone knows Denmark.

Anyway so this will serve as a good enough introduction into the next few posts concerning my camp in Denmark. So here I am back to business with more posts to come.



Going away camping in Denmark

Sorry for the lack of work today, but I'm going away to Denmark tomorrow and I've been packing/getting ready for that all day. I'm going camping with the scouts and I'll be visiting the 22nd World Scout Jamboree while I'm there, and my brother, James, who is attending that, should be really great, despite the fact I will be restricted in what I can do due to the surgery I had a couple of weeks ago, but oh well. So no new posts for about ten days, depends on how I feel when I come back. I will try and do some sketching or something while away and I'll be taking photos so there'll always be them to show. Bye then.