Thursday, September 26, 2013

Blood Always Tells

Heyloeth guys,

'Tis Thursday so a writing piece is due. :)

This week for American Lit. I had to read a short story titled "The Telling-Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. It's an unnerving tale told with an insistent voice.

The basics of the plot are that a young man murders an older man. What I wrote is told from the perspective of the old man after he's murdered. However the route I decided to go is different, because there's no human conscience present, it's just his body and his blood and how they "react."

It's very... disconnected, because there's no one being to control and direct the thoughts.

While it would mean more to you if you read "The Telling-Heart," hopefully this will be an interesting way to spend a few minutes of your time.

To find out why the younger man murders the older man, click here: The Telling Heart

(the last part in italics is from "The Telling-Heart," I own none of Poe's characters or his words, no copyright infringement is intended and I make no profit from this)

Blood Always Tells

At first silence is the only sound.

Red rivers flood and collide with twisting rushes of dark water. Red rivers roll and submerge themselves in the essence of simply being. They no longer belong to anything or anyone, they are themselves.

Now they are thinning and running apart until they vanish in the wisps of rusted drains and porcelain bodies.

The blood of the murdered has already been lost. Nobody remembers it anymore.
_____

The bones and flesh lie in condemned shadows.

Abandoned… but are they forgotten? Whispers of life still wets their thrumming shapes.

The murdered is gone. And yet they quiver in remembrance, of what it was to move and feel stone and glass.

Now all they feel is each other.

And hate.

Frantically the bones sing out and snatch at the life misting away into the clotted air. Flesh cries out.

The final traces from the vanished rivers of red stir in agony.

All together they give a final push.
_____

A ringing beat.

One. Two. Three…

The heart is alive.

It is a slow and ponderous beat… It quickens.

It dips, it pounds, it marches as if to rise out of the earth where stained hands laid it.
_____

It grew louder --louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! --no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!

-THE END-

marker and pencil - quote from Evanescence's song "My Immortal"
edited in Pixlr-o-matic

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sketch- Thorin

Today is Tuesday!

Each Tuesday I will try to post a sketch of some kind, old or new. :)

Tonight I sat down and attempted to draw Thorin freehand, with a pen.

In an odd way, it went better than expected, and worse than I would've liked. :P Now someday I'm going to have to sit down for a whole week and come out with a super detailed portrait of Thorin to make myself feel better, but for now this'll do for Tuesday's post.

I added some special effects, which isn't the idea of posting a "simple" sketch, but it does look cooler. ^_^ His facial shape is not correct, and his mouth doesn't carry the right emotion...

No no no... this is a sketch. This was an experiment in the first place, I had no planning beforehand, I had a pen and went with it. I was trying to play with the crosshatching method. For something I don't do often, it went alright.

What do you guys think?

Music I listened to: The Voice was on... *shrugs* :)

For non-Tolkien fans - Thorin Oakenshield is a character created by JRR Tolkien and is a major character in The Hobbit. What you see here was done from a reference photo of Thorin as portrayed by Richard Armitage in Peter Jackson's film (soon to be) trilogy, The Hobbit.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Hobbit Day



HAPPY HOBBIT DAY EVERYONE!!! :)

I'm watching The Hobbit tonight and I came out with this fun sketch.

I used bronze, gold, and silver sharpie with black pen, unfortunately the different colors don't come across in the picture. The font is in Bilbo's style of handwriting.

The sword represents the symbol in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit that connects Bilbo and Frodo. The hobbit door is encircled with a gold ring. ;)

The illustrations reflect the beginning, climax, and end of both of their journeys (The Shire with Gandalf, Sauron/Smaug with a mountain of some kind, the Grey Havens).

It might not be legible in the picture, but I write "Home is behind... The world ahead."



And now a picture of Thorin. :) despite the fact it isn't his birthday, I have to say something about him. <3


Friday, September 20, 2013

Life Drenched Stars- a poem

Pondering Rain

Every Friday or Thursday, depending on my the happenings in my fascinating world, I will try to share a piece of my writing with an illustration. Anything from a poem, short short story, or just ramblings.
 
Life Drenched Stars 
Let us bide our time
in empty windows
in shafts of time 
Let us watch for love
in all its glory
before it fades away 
Let us gaze upon ice
and falling stars
In hollowly stained skies 
Let us dream of them
with moonlight in their skin
and Life drenched upon their faces
This was inspired by a talk with a friend and influenced a bit by The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. A beautiful book. The illustration was created from a drawing of mine from over a year ago.


Méav Ní MhaolchathaFormer singer from the Irish group Celtic Woman

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Pixlr- Online Photo Editor

I've discovered a delightful photo editing program. For free, online. They offer apps for your phone also but I have yet to try those. If they're as fun as the online programs then I'd love to have them.

The photo editor, Pixlr, has 3 different editors: Advanced, Efficient, and Playful. I chose to go with Playful tonight.

Advanced offers you the chance to start from a blank canvas, choose your dimensions, etc. while Efficient has the option of creating a collage with the ability to change all of the sizes of the pictures to your exact specifications.

Playful allows you to add effects and borders from a vast variety of choices. Vintage, classic, city, snazzy, girly, faded, etc. You can spend hours just clicking through all of them and mixing styles because all of them look good. :)

Link- http://pixlr.com/

Two Steps From Hell was my inspirational music. Heavy and dramatic.

First Experiment- a drawing of mine. This is drawn from the cover of "The Children of Hurin" by JRR Tolkien, illustrated by Alan Lee. I do not own this character, or the illustration. I drew this for my pleasure and out of my admiration for all things Tolkien.

Before


                                         after1
after2

I love the mix of textures and color in "After1" though the spiderweb in the corner almost spoils the "cool/fantasy" effect.

In "After2" I get the feeling he's looking into a fire, or is about to enter something fierce and terrifying like a war. Considering this particular characters story, that might be the most accurate message.

Second Experiment- Next I took a piece from my photography stash, the flower was already blue and the background was solid black from previous edits. I decided to take it a step further. I really really like this one.

This was all for fun, because I love to mess around with creations even after I've scratched and shaded and erased them to almost perfection.

Wishing you all the best,

~Bright
"smoky blue"



Wednesday, September 11, 2013

9/11 Statistics



copic markers, gel pen
9/11 Statistics
The piece I bring today is in memory of 9/11.

It’s a compilation of a few of the vast statistics and a diagram of sorts for the 4 flights.

I put the information I used into a semblance of order below, these are very limited, but I hope they convey something of the tragedy of “the worst day.”

I connected each flight to its destination. The red words on the curving lines are words I saw repeatedly when I read a transcript from “Voices Inside the Tower.” I had the last letters falling off to allude to those who jumped.

All statistics are garnered from here (check it out for a far more wholesome list):
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/18/usa.terrorism

Facts:
Year the World Trade Center was built: 1970
Daily visitors on an average day before 9/11: 140,000
Number of companies housed: 430

Distance from which burning towers were visible: 20 miles

Flights:
American Airlines Flight 11: 92 dead (Crashed into the North Tower)
United Airlines Flight 175: 65 dead (Crashed into the South Tower)
American Airlines Flight 77: 64 dead (Crashed into the Pentagon)
United Airlines Flight 93: 45 dead (Crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania)

9/11:
Number killed in attack and aircraft that crashed into them: 2,823
Number killed in the Pentagon: 123

Aftershock:
Number of children left orphans after 9/11: 1,300
Number of bodies found intact: 291
Number of days workers searched for body parts: 230
Number of victims identified: 1,102
Number of people still classified as missing: 105

Underground fires that still burned after 9/11: 69

Survivors of Ground Zero: 0

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Thinking

Today my mind is consumed with these things...

Believe me I'm just as curious as you.