Looks like something from a 70's TV show... :-)
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Drunk orthodox mammoth
This guy was so interesting I just had to sketch him from memory, even though it took me 3 days to get to it. He was a huge guy, eyes buried deep under a massive elephant-like forehead and bushy black eyebrows. Swaying heavily, he kept complaining about a strong smell of cognac. I think his idea was that if he complained loudly enough about the smell, people wouldn't suspect it was actually coming from him.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Silly face
Another silly face, just messin' with colors and stuff, and really over-doing it...But hey, I had fun :)
Monday, July 02, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
castle study
I think I kinda found myself a hobby for the near future: studying castles. This one is the famous Neuschwanstein(Germany).
Friday, June 15, 2012
Hey everyone! You're invited to visit my new blog called 'The Mechanics of Inspiration'. Here's a little illustrated video I made, explaining what the blog is all about:
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Smiling Widow - part 2: Age (cont.)
“Well?!”
Horrifed, Maria
realized she had been dozing off. “Yes, yes ma’am – right away, ma’am”, she stammered.
What was she asked to do? She had no idea. She stood there for a moment,
considering her next move.
“Are you stupid,
girl?” rasped the old lady incredulously. “Why are still standing there? I told
you to hurry up!” She snatched the jug of water that stood beside the bed, and thrusted
it toward Maria. “I’m thirsty!”
Hiding her relief
as best she could, Maria took the jug and practically flew downstairs. She filled
the jug with fresh water. As she did so, she realized her hands were trembling.
Then she realized her whole body was trembling. Then she realized that her very
soul was trembling, too. Whether it was rage, fear or just exhaustion, she was
unable to say; all she knew was that she was starting to fall apart. But she couldn’t
fall apart. Not now; she had to keep herself together, if not for her own sake
then for Betty’s sake. They had no one but each other, and it was now up to
Maria to hold on and help Betty as best she could.
She heard the
bell again as she climbed up the stairs. She entered the room, placed the jug
in its original place next to the bed, and turned to leave. The widow suddenly
clutched her arm and pulled her towards the bed.
“What’s in the
jug?” She croaked. Her eyes were narrow and she was sneering slightly.
There was a
pause. “Water, ma’am”, said Maria. The smell of staleness and decay coming from
the old lady was suddenly so overwhelming, that it was all she could do to keep
herself from covering her nose.
“So you say”, said
the widow. “Nothing else?”
“No ma’am”, said
Maria, utterly perplexed. “Did you want anything else?”
“Don’t play games
with me, you imp!” the widow suddenly roared. “You think I don’t know what’s
going on? You think I don’t know what you’re up to?”
The widow had
clearly interpreted the shock on Maria’s face as a clear sign of guilt, because
her expression grew almost jubilant.
“Drink the
water!” she ordered. “Then we’ll see. Drink!”
Maria said
nothing. She poured some water from the jug into the goblet beside it, and
drank. She was suddenly seized with an almost unbearable thirst; she drank
greedily. When she put the cup down, the old lady was looking at her with a
strange mixture of disappointment and doubt. There was a long silence. The
widow’s lip gave an involuntary twitch.
“Right,” she
said. “Now leave.”
Maria turned to
go.
“You are not
allowed to have dinner tonight. Is that understood?”
“Yes ma’am”.
It never even occurred to Maria to ask why.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Smiling Widow - part 1: Age
And now for something completely different...
I'm writing a short story, and have decided to upload it in chunks. Later on I plan to post some creative process notes on my other blog - The Mechanics of Inspiration. If you don't know it, you're missing out on some great stuff...go have a look!
I'd love to hear your thoughts about the story. Also, if you find any grammar or spelling mistakes, please point them out.
So, without further ado...
SMILING WIDOW
AGE
It was one of
these boisterous April storms, with howling wind and furiously rustling branches.
The old house was croaking and moaning, and the din from the roof, pounded
heavily with the steady rain, was deafening. It therefore took Maria quite a
while to hear the angry ringing of the widow’s bell; when she did finally catch
it, she sprang to her feet in alarm. She hastily hid the box she had just
pulled out of the chest in the drawing room; a pointless act, driven more by
her sense of guilt than by the necessity to protect her secret. After all, Maria
and the old lady were now the only people living in the large house.
She hurriedly washed
her hands clean. The bell rang again, and she thought she heard the old lady
shout something, too. She hurried up the steep stairs, careful not to miss a
step in the darkness. At the door she took a deep, steadying breath. Just as
she opened the door, the widow rang again.
She was posed in her
usual half-sitting position, a book opened at her lap. She stopped ringing and
slammed the bell onto the chest of drawers. It gave a loud THUD and a last wimpy
jingle.
“What’s the
meaning of this?!” bellowed the widow. Her voice was even hoarser than usual,
and her shriveled face was red with fury.
“You called, ma’am?”
said Maria, lowering her eyes.
“Damn right I
called! I’ve been calling for hours, you impudent girl! I could have died here,
I could have been caught in a fire, I could have drowned in this blasted rain,
I could have…” a coughing fit stopped the stream of possible fatalities. The
whole thing was a wild exaggeration, of course: Maria had replaced her reading candle
less than an hour ago. The candle was still almost 10 inches tall.
Maria knew better
than to point out this fact. Proving the widow wrong was one of the many sure
ways of getting punished. There was also no point explaining why she couldn’t
hear the bell. Whatever the situation, Maria had learned that the best tactic
was always to keep her head down - and endure.
“I’m sorry ma’am”, she said.
“I’m sorry
ma’am”, repeated the widow, quite grotesquely. “You will be sorry indeed before
I’m done with you! Fell asleep, didn’t you? Didn’t you?!”
“No ma’am”.
“A likely story!”
roared the widow. “I should have kicked YOU out instead of that other
thief of a girl. You think being lazy is better than stealing? You think I’m
paying you to be asleep, you ungrateful brat?”
The “thief of a
girl” was Maria’s younger sister, Betty. Her crime was that instead of throwing
away a half-empty bottle of the widow’s wine, she gave it to a delivery boy she
had a silly crush on. How the widow found out about the whole thing was a
mystery, but the grim outcome was that poor Betty was promptly sacked. The two
weeks that had passed since then had been a nightmare for both sisters: Betty
had so far been unable to find work and was coming to the brink of starvation,
while Maria had to keep the large house - more than a handful even for the two
of them - all by herself. She had been doing her best, working more than 15
hours a day; but she knew it wasn’t sustainable. She was so tired these days, she
actually DID sometimes fall asleep while working.
“Well?!”
Horrifed, Maria
realized she had been dozing off. “Yes, yes ma’am – right away, ma’am”, she stammered.
What was she asked to do? She had no idea. She stood there for a moment,
considering her next move.
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