Archive for June, 2008

24
Jun

Kings and Queens Archery 06.21.08

   Posted by: Rick   in SCA

So the day was beautiful, a bright cloudless sky and lots of gentles milling about through the shaded glades. Some 80+ of the Kingdom’s finest archers had assembled to pit themselves against each other for the glory of being the ‘chosen’.

archers.jpg

The shooting was great fun and a fairly rigorous amount of targets to skewer were provided all based on a piratical theme with liberal doses of ideas and artistry from the silly film Yellowbeard.

evilpriests.jpg

All told, the two prequalifying rounds took around 4 hours. The first round had eight stations through the woods with targets ranging from1 1/2 wide slats on jail cell windows, to marauding pirates to flying parrots. The second round was held in lightly wooded meadows and consisted of some timed shoots, moving targets behind castle walls and a slot shoot. At that time, those with the sixteen highest scores were chosen to move on to the field to face the final challenges.

finalsixteen.jpg

The king and queen were set up at the treeline along with the rest of the spectators lining the edge of the sun drenched meadow. The archers were facing into the sun as an added hurdle.

Single elimination trimmed the numbers to eight then to 4 and in the end, Owen, a young archer from Smoking Rocks took the prize. It was a long day but a good one filled with surprises, good food and friendly faces.

I will allow Mistress Avelina Keyes to report on my doings by pasting her report to the Bridge chat:

Greetings!

I bring you all tidings from Kings and Queens Archery Championships
this past Saturday.

Rafael de Sardinia called the Grey shot amazing!! It was his
first K&Q Archery Champs and he made it to the finals. He went in to
the top 16 in three way tie for second with Urho of the Pines and one
other gentle. Rafael was knocked out in head to head competition in
the round of 8.

After the tournament, Rafael was recognized in Court by the King and
the Queen for his achievement of the rank of Grand Master Bowman.

Vivat!!

In service,
Mistress Avelina Keyes, OP
Baroness Lockwood
Lieutenant General at Large
Captain of Archers of Bridge

 

 

So I fared fairly well and was quite happy to play with the big boys. Later at  court, I was recognized by the king for achieving the rank of grandmaster bowman and also for doing so within less than a years time.  I received my gold badge and was presented with an absolutely beautiful scroll by Lady Khioniya Nikolaevna Ryseva. That’s a whole lot of glory for one day!

Beautiful Scroll Artistry

 Top portion of scroll showing detail work.

 

 

 

Here’s looking forward to next year!

 

 

 

 

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15
Jun

06.15.08 Stan: Thanks for the Sweats

   Posted by: Rick   in Life Around the Brock Sett

     Sad day as visual effects legend, Stan Winston moves on. He was only 62 and was amongst Hollywood’s leading makeup, visual-effects, and animatronic artists. He worked in Hollywood for more than three decades and there is not a person who watches movies who was not been subject to his magic whether they knew of him or not. Best known for working on such well known films as Terminator, Jurassic park, Predator, The Entity, The Thing, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, Titanic, Monster Squad, Batman Returns, Congo and many many more.     

For me, this was the man that took puppetry to new heights. Puppets that were so ‘real’ that when you saw them on film that you did not question their reality but rather watched in awe and sometimes horror as they moved about. The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, especially the brachiosaur sneezing and the fallen triceratops were fabulous living creatures to stare at in wonder. The alien queen in Aliens bespoke of an artistry that suspended disbelief with ease. A fourteen foot remote controlled monstrosity that took over a dozen techs to operate. Now that’s a puppet!!!     

A sign of mastery is when it looks easy.     

I remember the first time I saw The Thing. It gave me nightmares for a week. The smallest noise and I would wake up sweating. Thanks Stan!!!

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6
Jun

06.05.08 Daily Studies Abate and Morph

   Posted by: Rick   in Daily Studies

Well, I worked the studies for a couple of months and am pretty happy about the fact that my suspicions of floundering skills was just more unmoderated chatterbox chatter. I laid off for a couple of weeks as demands of life and commercial work (hallelujah) and house repair become more overwhelming with the arrival of the fair weather. I used the hour to push other projects along and get a few others wrapped up. Two weeks became a month and that became two months. I have been thinking about the dailies again but realized that I would be better served if I used that time to explore and improve my skills along the lines of watercolor, gouache and illumination work. So, I am in the process of setting that up and rounding up the necessary materials. Dailies will become Studies and these I will endeavor to do most days.  I am working on getting the two months of small oils up for your viewing pleasure. Cheers!!

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