Disjointed Ramblings of a Hockey-Playing, Guinness-Drinking History Nerd

DUDES. Go see Avatar. I'm never one for ranting about movies but, my goodness, that was THE. MOST. EPIC. THING. I'VE. EVER. SEEN. I have never watching anything so completely engaging. From the visuals, to the characters, to the amazing music... Wow. My standards of epicness have been blown sky-high.

Totally hit the wall with 40K tonight. Inspiration has totally dropped off and I'm incapable of producing anything that remotely resembles art. So let's take a week off and do something more with Copernicus.

Gah. By the time you get warmed up, it's time to quit. Fie...

Anyways, Saul.

Yeah. Sort of imagined him sitting for a portrait very reluctantly. Not sure if I'm diggin' the paper 'tooth' in the new sketchbook yet - it's a tad rough for my tastes but the back sides are pretty good. Love drawing hands in power armour gauntlets because the fingers are just giant rectangles.

Time for bed. Didn't do anything I should have tonight except for this. And it's storming like a mother here. Gross.

Fwew, just got in from a ride. Sundays always seem to go quicker than Saturdays for some odd and slightly tragic reason.

So, Sanguinius' wings are a go! I looked at wing tutorials last night until my eyes bled and I've now got a fairly solid idea of how they'll go together. The back attachment isn't NEAR as complicated as I imagined - it's simply a small plate about the size of a mouse pad with two PVC pipes bolted to it. The PVC of the wings slot into these pipes so you can take the wings off and on very easily. The plate is belted around your waist and over the shoulders, though the waist will take the brunt of the weight. I was actually worried about this earlier since these wings are going to be BLOODY heavy - they're about six feet tall, upwards of 200 feathers on each, plus PVC frame, cotton batting for 'musculature' and chicken wire - probably about 15 lb a pop, but it'll be worth it! I bought the piping and connectors today and will get the cotton batting, etc sometime this week.

Still can't really believe this is coming together! The sheer immensity of it completely blows my mind but it's impossible to resist that tantalizing image of the completed product in my mind and the opportunity to swank around a con wearing it. It's also one of those situations where you'll catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror or in a picture and see the character momentarily in your eyes or your eyebrows or the shape of your face - when I woke up this morning, I had the PERFECT Sang hair - too bad I couldn't convince it to stay like that until the end of April... All pretty random stuff but it sure adds up to a lot in the Inspiration Department.

Anyways, have a big meeting tomorrow morning with New!Boss and I'm cycling between abject paranoia and pretty intense excitment.

Just working on a 40K meme for dA and thought I would share because nothing else productive will be happening tonight. It's kind of weird drawing yourself - should probably do it more often so it's less weird. But the gist of the meme is to put yourself in the 40K universe and sooo... I would probably end up as a Sister of Battle. Albeit a slightly masculine-looking one... DDD: It's still been hella fun to do - haven't drawn anything in PS in AGES. And that armour is so TOTALLY lying...

Yeah, definitely. Seeing as these late nights are definitely catching up. And I have to be nice and strong for a Kelly Clarkson concert tomorrow night. Horrendous. I usually don't listen to stuff like that but a few of her songs are good and I told a friend I'd go with her so.... ch'yeah...

This was the best thing to come out of tonight's caffeine joint session. Seriously, one day I will write a proper entry and stop spamming everyone with the 40k stuff but it's consuming my existence lately so here's something else.

Saul Tarvitz (left) Captain of the Emperor's Children and Nathaniel Garro (right), Captain of the Death Guard, two disparate legions in the 40K world.



It's very interesting because the personnel of each legion look slightly different - there are 18 legions in total, if I'm not miskaten. You could almost think of them as different nationalities since the legion members hail from various planets. They also tend to look like their primarchs (Sanguinius is primarch of the Blood Angels - they're supposed to be the handsomest - hurhurhur) because the warriors are usually created from the gene-seed of the primarch. Yeah, all sorts of genetic modification going on here. But hopefully these two dudes look distinct enough - I srsly need to get more variety in my faces. Garro came together perfectly but Tarvitz was more of a problem. I've also got a HUGE fail!crush on his character so I definitely over-worked his face, trying to get it JUST right. Gawd... Oh and that's a brass plate he's got on the left side of his forehead. And didn't completely fail at drawing power armour for once. yussssssssssssss *Napoleon voice*

Yeah.

*life required immediately - inquire within*

Apparently Nic has respawned in the form of Governor Tarkin from Star Wars. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN.

Hoooooooooly crap.

K, I realize I've flailed about a lot of different stuff over the past little while but I just watched the Prince of Egypt for the first time in.... oh.... ten years and AAAJHGFDJKAH *DIES FROM TEH ANIMATION COOLNESS*

It's so beautifully told and the character designs sort of make me expire quite a bit. Particularly, yeah big surprise, Rameses' dad, who is pretty near an irresistible combination of Nic and the Emprah of Mankind. I need me some screenshots lyke woah.

Anyways, had Remembrance Day today and did my annual duty with the bagpipes. They sounded halfways decent for a change which is nothing short of a miracle seeing as I haven't touched them since May. Wind-instrument fail. But win today? idk.


It's late. That must be obvious.

Yay, art day tomorrow. There's that lovely three-and-a-half hour window between work and life drawing where I get to sit in a yuppy coffee shop with absolutely nothing to do except do terrible sketches of various tall, thin, angular old guys with black hair. Do I have a problem.... Btw, I need to find one of those and start a relationship of sorts so I can make him cool clothing like Egyptian hoods and golden power armour.

Note to self: Get the hell to bed. For srs.

Gawd.

lul

Oh lordy. I've had an attack of the Muse so bad that I can't concentrate on anything else.

Life, right now, would optimally consist of nothing more than my art class and time to draw.

Definitely expect some Anatolian-era Emperor!art coming up very soon.

Decided to ditch the greaves plan for the Emperor and go with the initial idea of spray painting an old pair of rubber riding boots and adding gold stuff. This is them so far and I'm pretty happy.



Though they look WAY cooler in the photo than they do irl. If you zoom in, you can definitely see the huge gobs of hot glue holding everything together. And it still doesn't stick particularly well. Still going to add some gold to the heels and around the top but there won't be a chance before the big Halloween debut on Saturday since we're leaving on a jet plane tomorrow night and won't be back until 2 pm on Halloween. And the foot 'armouring' is going to be redone so it extends beneath the foot - this will help hold it in place. Hope to god everything stays on them on Saturday night.

Anyways, I'll have to pack when I get home from work tomorrow. Figured I will wear Max's stuff at the convocation. Nic had his turn at my undergrad and Max is just a step up from that, so he's suitable for a Master's, methinks.

It's going to be hella weird to be back in Kingston.

So as of 8 pm tonight, I'm the new owner of one of the tallest geldings in the Canadian Arabian Horse Registry. Dad gave his very reluctant consent last weekend, I called the owner tonight, and Vulcan is being delivered on Saturday.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOMG. Ridiculous!

I'm totally scared but absolutely pumped at the same time.

AAAAKGJLKFJDSLKJALKFDAJLKFASJLKAJF;DLKFJA;SLKAEIUYREUH,MNCX.

Because that says it all, of course.

XD

Just so I can get this all laid out in visible format...

In the works:

Maximilian

-Linen shirt
-Braes
-Hosen
-Waffenfrock
-Tellerbarett
-Leather kneeboots

Planning stages (aka still has the potential to be abandoned):

Sanguinius*

-Need initial sketches
-White undertunic
-Need to learn about moulding plastic

*Nothing is set in stone with him yet. At the moment, this is still only a pleasant mental diversion when commuting back and forth to work. But the more I think on it, the more I'm tempted to give it a shot. More for the... 'differentness' than anything else.

Lastly, I mailed off the two obligatory copies of my thesis to the Queen's History Department this afternoon which means! I am officially finished the Master's! It's pretty near the best feeling in the world.

Just thought I'd do a quick entry while installing the scanner so I can scan in some submarine images for work.

This weekend was pretty solid. Mum and I went out to dinner Friday night and then to see The Ugly Truth. I had already seen it a few weeks back with a friend but Mum's got this thing for Gerard Butler so I saw it again. But without much objection since it was really quite excellent the first time. Mr. Butler is so wonderfully 'natural' - just seems like a guy you'd find in your local pub or at a hockey game. Admittedly, he seems to play himself every time but not in the Nicolas Cage sense.

Weekends seem to go so quickly. Went for a nice long ride yesterday with a friend, napped in the afternoon, and then watched The Rescuers Down Under at night with my brother and his girlfriend. It was good, as always, but Disney movies just seem much more.... epic when you're eight years old. Now it's only an hour and a half of mild diversion but fifteen years ago, it's totally captivating, not to mention perfectly believable. Today was pretty near the same. Woke up relatively early, worked on a painting of Septimus from Stardust I've had in the works for about a year, drew a picture of Sanguinius from Warhammer 40k, went for another ride, read, and napped. Would probably get more done if I cut the naps...

Still waiting on the Reconstructing History patterns and concocting other extravagent costuming plans in the meantime. I've been having a casual flirtation with the world of Warhammer 40k and, more particularly, the Emperor of Mankind and Sanguinius. It's kind of nice to be interested in something that's not historical for a change. The Emperor is on the right (I think he made an appearance last November or so) and Sanguinius is expired on the ground. There's a huge backstory to this scene but suffice it to say, I really dig the storyline and these two boys right here. Driving in to work on Friday, I was day-dreaming a bit and thought "My god, wouldn't it be the most epic thing if someone made Sanguinius' armour? Ha, yeah, right. Like that's EVEN possible..." But the more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. But the armour only freaks me out a bit compared with the wings - unfortunately, he's an angel so he's got these massive bloody wings and while I think I can get the armour looking realistic enough, the wings are a totally different story. Anyways, I guess the next step is to do draw up a few designs and see if I can't put together something remotely 'do-able.' The key is in the details. For one, I really don't like the enormous armour. I know it's canon in Warhammer to have obnoxiously large armour but it looks faintly ridiculous, imo.

... I'm going to attempt Max's hat today. Got the materials yesterday. I've come to the conclusion that it's along the style of those tellerbarett hats worn by the Landsknechts but with a slightly narrower brim. Decided this after looking at a few pictures of a Landsknecht re-enactment group from Northern California. He also keeps it pinned up on one side with a medallion, which gives it the slightly 'Myllan' cap look.

Not too sure how to tackle the crown though because it should be quite shallow. Yet still deep enough to attach the medallion to... idk.

Progress update in a few hours....

Success! I gave in and box-pleated those cursed skirts tonight and sewed them on. While they're definitely not those rounded lovely pleats you see everywhere in early sixteenth century art, I think I'm in love. Liek whoa. I was biting my nails earlier when I was worrying the body had been cut too short but it's absolutely perfect. Wouldn't change a thing. And it fits immaculately over my brown-black 1470s doublet. Only problem is, the doublet is a distinctly Italian cut while the jerkin is obviously German. Hmmmrrrmmm.... we'll say the doublet is a present from cousin Lorenzo down in Florence.... for now.

So now I only have to sew the trim on, sew up the liner where it joins the pleats, and put in the hooks and eyes. Debating about the trim since it's pretty fancy and I'm liking the plain look right now (makes it all look more like a hunting outfit) but I think I'll cave eventually.

Unfortunately no pictures yet. This is one of those things where I want to finish it entirely before I take any pictures. Which means.... I still have to make the boots (probably next) and possibly a new shirt. I'm currently wearing a cotton late 15th century shirt-type thing I made over Christmas but it's unbelievably hot. Gross. So the new one will certainly be of linen. And THEN I'd like to make a quiver since I don't think the poster tube I'm currently using would suffice... oddly enough. >.>

Anyways, enough costume rambling. I finally feel as though I have accomplished something. And it's just damned nice to sew something you're happy with for a change.

So Max's jerkin has come to an absolute, screeching halt. I tried to set the skirting in yesterday, hoping to get the following look:



Needless to say, it completely failed. Tried cartridge pleats first but they were too big to sew to the body properly without turning them into box pleats. Then I tried rolled pleats since they seemed to give the right look but couldn't do the math to make the skirting fit the body evenly. Then I considered organ pleats but only considered since they didn't seem like they would take the top of the skirt in enough to fit the body. So I'm putting out the call to my trusty, immensely talented flist. Opinions? Suggestions? It would help immensely! I'm absolutely up the creek here..... :(

Now that I think on it, I might just do the box pleats and run a couple of strips of bias tape on the inside to hold the pleats in that relatively circular shape.

1. Finish edits for Wolfe essay and get bibliography sorted out. Annotated bibliography to follow if the first bit doesn't take overly long. This still needs to be finished as of 2:26 pm. But that is enough essay for one day.

2. Finish Max's gray jerkin.

Just out of curiosity, do any of the writers out there find that they write better if they talk while writing? Sort of like talking your sentences out? I find it helps the thought-process immensely.

Odd.

1. Get through 3/4 of the final edits on my Wolfe paper. (Completed as of 1:47 PM YESSSSSSSSSS)

2. Finish the grey velvet jerkin, even if it kills me. I'll start again (because the fit, thus far, is bloody awful) and use a different body pattern. This is going to be completed today for sure because I'm sick of never finishing anything. And I REALLY want something to wear over the doublet.

*Progress update.* 7:47 PM Finished cutting everything out (horrendously long) and have put together the upper body complete with sleeves. They took a bit of redoing (no less than four times - win) but it's looking nice so far! Have changed the goal to having it finished by tomorrow since today was a bit unrealistic. I figure now that this will be a 'riding out' jerkin for Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

I also found a REALLY good reference for some early 16th century tall-boats. Thank you, Albrecht Durer. I'm also really diggin' those hosen with the stripe.



On another note, Maximilian's hat is pretty much my new favourite thing ever. He is also very awesome in his own right.



All projects for the not-so-distance future. I really need some DECENT early 16th century kit.

This was one of my biggest goals for the holidays this year - a 1460s Florentine farsetto or doublet - which I've been itching to make since October or so. And I'm trying to do it as properly as possible since I often tend to cheat quite a bit when I sew things i.e. forgoing the interlining, etc. But not this time! Har. I'm also managing to use up quite a few fabric bits and pieces I've had lying around - lining it with linen left over from my Viking kit of a few years back. The outer fabric is a combination of brown and black wool/viscose blendm which was inspired by Tybalt's doublet from the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet (because Tybalt is made of win in every possible way and also has some very sexy clothing - the colour combination is marvellous). You can sort of see it here right before - and during - that brilliant fight with Romeo:
 


Anyways, I had some dark brown left over from my hosen last fall and after some very frugal cutting, managed to pull together enough to have the contrasting black and brown. The picture below showing the canvas lining basted to the body of the doublet - going to line the sleeves with lighter muslin.

The sleeves will be split on the forearms with the usual sleeve puff on the upper arm. I've been using the basic doublet pattern from The Medieval Tailor's Assistant which is quite good. You can see more of the colours below though the brown isn't that light. It's pretty much the same shade as Tybalt's above. The interlining puckers in a few places but whatev.
 


The odd-looking thing at the bottom is the collar because the Italians commonly had a u-shaped dip at the back of the neck which looks incredibly spiff but is a pain in the arse to design and sew (Medieval Tailor only has the v-neck pattern). I decided to do the skirting in contrasting colours as well just because. Ultimately, it's supposed to be a doublet for 'Lorenzo' so I figured I could go a bit crazy with the contrast while keeping relatively subdued colours. I can imagine something like this would have been worn out hunting/falconing/etc.

Anyways, I would do a lot more on it today but Mother has conveniently left for the day and left the back room locked which has the ironing board in it. Will likely ride this afternoon despite the snow and continue on tomorrow.

So how was everyone's Christmases? Except for you, Mrs. Rick! Will email tonight... lordeh... Mine wasn't bad at all. Got copies of Medieval Tailor, the Tudor Tailor, Herbert Norris' Medieval costume, a nice little biography of Copernicus, and a couple of yards of white silk so I can sew up a copy of Lorenzo's joust banner from 1469. Apart from that, there's been the usual horrendous family Christmas parties - I have a rotund, pear-shaped aunt who's working on the family history and consequently figures she's an expert in all areas of history. She was trying to tell me last night that men in Ireland during the 16th-18th centuries kept numerous wives because of the high death-during-giving-birth rate. This is the same aunt who cannot figure out the historical costuming thing:
"So are you going to wear them in plays back in Kingston?"
"No, I just like to make them."
"What kind of plays are you going to do?"
"No, you see, I just make the stuff. Sometimes I wear bits and pieces to class."
*cue confused silence and changed subject*

So that should be it for now! I shall leave you with a pixelly Prince of Verona who, like Tybalt, is awesome in every possible way. That chaperon = so. much. love. 

After doing work for two hours yesterday morning (which actually felt more like ten hours - it always does), I decided I would head to the mall to buy myself a present. Ended up getting Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet since I hadn't seen it since Grade 10 and it tied in nicely with my current "HOMGILOVEITALIANRENAISSANCESTUFF."

People, it is AMAZING.

I remembered really liking it back in high school but, with a little more understanding of the history, the fashions, and a deeper appreciation for really good cinematography, the entire thing had me enthralled last night. From the little I know of Italian fashion (c. 1430s, I suspect), the costuming seemed to be nearly spot on, though I did wonder what Lady Capulet had on her head during the party scenes. But when the Prince made his entrance after the initial street brawl, I nearly flipped. God, did they ever have the look right there, from his massive chaperon, to the quilted tunic over his breastplate, to the trappings on his horse. Seriously, SO much love there. Some of the farbics used throughout have a slightly 'polyester' look to them but, on the whole, it seems as though the costume designer tried to get things right. Which is amazing for 1968.





There's this... charm to the entire movie, which is really pushed through by the voices and facial expressions of the actors. Friar Lawrence is particularly effective in that respect. There is a bit of... I don't know if it's over-acting... at points but that adds to the entire effect. Makes it seem more like a stage play than a film.

So, the next sewing project? A full set of 1460s Italian kit - hosen, quilted doublet, shirt. And it will be done properly by hand, with points, and the whole she-bang. Gahhh! Can't wait! After this, I'll have make some concerted efforts to get myself out to events.

Right. Time to go back to work. I've been finding this is how my schedule goes so far:

9:15 - Wake up, have panic attack, read inspirational book for a few minutes.

9:45 - Get up, check email, eat breakfast, start to work.

12:00 - Lose all focus and spend two hours surfing the internet and writing pointless LJ entries.

2:00 - Have panic attack since I've wasted two hours. Eat unhealthy food to slow the heart-rate down.

3:00 - Hit low from unhealthy food. Spend another hour surfing the internet.

4:00 - Start working again albeit unproductively. Work until starvation forces me to make supper.

8:30 - Make supper. Consume it whilst watching Family Guy.

9:00 - Have another panic attack.

Thing is, I KNOW how to fix this: at 12:00, go to the gym for half an hour since it's been proven that exercise improves concentration, brain function, general feelings of happiness and personal worth, etc. HOWEVER, the gym also has been known to increase stress and frustration during the act of exercising, particularly when faced with the plethora of orange, scantily-clad, ridiculously thin females who sneeringly eye your own whiteness, tattered Wilson shorts, and occassional bulges of adipose with resolve-crushing derision. To me, the lesser of two evils seems to be the stress and lack of concentration.

In other news, I'm getting a whole slew of ideas for 'Lorenzo de' Medici: The Animated Film' (oh lord...). Will try doing some character sheets over the holidays. His tutor, Gentile Becchi, is practically a cartoon character already.