Kasper-V

Shakespeare was never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story! Of course in his time she'd have been in 16th century costume. I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company's wonderful 1994 production at Stratford, later made into a movie. The costumes were a curious mixture of classical, modern(ish) and a few in-betweens, and one of the Rude Mechanicals arrived on a bicycle! But I'm quite happy to put a Tudor fairy queen into a classical setting: if it was good enough for Will, it's good enough for me! (And at least I didn't try to give her wings 😊 )

@v_kyr, I took you at your word: yet another weather house! (Probably the last one for now.) I found some 19th century illustrations of Greek characters online and copied/adapted them for Titania and Bottom. I don't know why the original chap had his hand under his cloak, but I've just realised it makes Bottom loook as though it's not just the ass's head he's got. And the Technicolor decoration is in keeping with Classical Greek practice, as I was reminded when I looked up temple colours; i wanted something a bit more eye-catching than the sandy-grey we see today. I wasn't disappointed! I was going to add the names in Greek caps, but it turns out that Titania & Bottom is . . . TITANIA and BOTTOM! (In modern Greek it would be MBOTTOM, before anyone points it out 😊 )

Thank you! My draughtsmanship is not good, but I can usually make a passable copy; after that I start motoring. Mind you, Only the good results get posted here!

Blimey, it's a long time since I saw that! 1969 or 70, when I was at Tech -- we had a Liberal Studies trip there. Yeah, happy memories; I'd already read the book, so I knew I'd enjoy it.

'Left OFF'! After my next one I shall have to look up some typing tutorials!

The columns on the BP facade are only 19th century (and I left of the capitals!). But a Classical theme is something I might well have a go at -- thanks for the suggestion.

You're obviously a person of taste and discernment -- going by your choice of reading matter! Now to be fair, the characters were inspired by the original illustrator; I just coloured between the lines 😊

Here's another one. For those who don't know, the English Civil War (the famous one; there were lots of others) began in 1642. Charles I was a Cavalier King and therefore had a small pointed beard, long flowing curls, a large, flat, flowing hat, and gay attire. The Roundheads, on the other hand, were clean-shaven and wore tall, conical hats, white ties, and sombre garments. Under these circumstances a Civil War was inevitable. Quotes from 1066 And All That, W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, figures based on original illustrations by John Reynolds.

I don't know where these ideas come from, nor why they pick on me. But there we are; more unsolicited nonsense made flesh (digitally speaking). Mostly vectors with a few Effects here and there. First off: a mock-Tudor house, a style popular between the Wars, and the Lombardy poplars that were also all over the place. City gent in his working clothes and housewife in her posh frock. Next, the balcony of Buck House (that's Buckingham Palace to you) with a warm sunny queen and a damp soggy king. I have an idea or two more, which I'll post when I get round to them.

From Arkshuk, [John] Rae also learned about Inuit beliefs: It is said that many years ago, not long after the creation of the world, there was a mighty conjuror (Esquimaux of course) who gained so much power that at last he raised himself up into the heavens, taking with him his sister (a beautiful girl) and a fire. To the latter he added great quantities of fuel, which thus formed the sun. For some time he and his sister lived in great harmony, but at last they disagreed, and he, in addition to maltreating the lady In many ways, at last scorched one side of her face. She had suffered patiently all sorts of indignities, but the spoiling of her beauty was not to be borne; she therefore ran away from him and formed the moon, and continues so until this day. Her brother is still in chase of her, but although he sometimes gets near, he will never overtakes her. When it is new moon, the burnt side of the face is towards us; when full moon, the reverse is the case. (Quoted in Fatal Passage, Ken McGoogan) John Rae ,FRS FRGS, (13 – 1893) was a Scottish surgeon who explored parts of northern Canada. (Wikipedia)

I like ICM images, but mine rarely work! Much respect to them whose ICM do work.

Nice. I'm old enough to remember when this would have been bang up-to-date!

Very nice, @olmi57! I think you spent a few more hours than I did. 😊

No, just the first one; I was trying it out on different photos. It handles even very poor quality ones well. If you mouse over the photo while it's uploading and processing it shows a list of things it's identified in the image; one of the things in the Niagara pic was 'algae', hence the green water, I presume.

It's impressive, isn't it! It even gave good results for some of my great-grandfather's Canada photos from 120 years ago (though the Niagara River came out green 😵).

Ah . . . it's not quite what I thought it was! It's called Winmorph, and creates animated morphs and warps on pixel images, using vector shapes and node manipulation, which can be exported in video format(s). It's now ten or eleven years old, 32-bit, but seems to work well enough. You can find details and download links at https://www.debugmode.com/. A proper video editor is probably more use. I still use Serif's MoviePlus, but I don't know if it's still available.

I had an effective but small-image freeware app that did vector animation and tweening, way back in the late 90s; but it was on my first laptop that died. I don;t know if it's still around in the internet ether somewhere, but I'll try and remember what it was called and see if I can find it. If i do I'll let you have the details.

I'm inclined to agree: I think they should. And I've made one or two myself. Yours is wonderful, @Michu, more subtle than it looks at first sight: we have to look and look again . . . but then, that's the point of a mandala, isn't it? ,

North Staffordshire Rly 0-4-4T No. 11, built 1907 at Stoke. Inspired by learning that 0-6-2T No.2 has been acquired by Foxfield Railway, just up the road; looking up details, I found this photo of a different loco and decided to have a go. (This engine no longer exists.) For anyone not au fait with UK steam railway classification, 0-4-4 refers to the wheel configuration: no leading wheels, four driving wheel, four trailing wheels; T stands for tank, the rectangular shape alongside the boiler holding water.

What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare? Or make silly composite pictures from pure whimsy? I realise in the last couple of weeks I've been doing just that, and so why not share 'em with you folks! I read that Roald Dahl's children's books are being made more 'suitable' for today's children; mention of reading Rudyard Kipling has been changed to Jane Austen. Cue old joke made new: A long time ago on BBC TV, the late Michael Bentine had a sketch with a mad scientist who'd invented the next step up from painting by numbers: spray-on classic paintings. To demonstrate, Hals' Laughing Cavalier and da Vinci's Mona Lisa . . . -- or you can spray them both at the same time to get The Laughing Lisa! Serendipity! In the course of looking for something completely different (pace Mothy Python) I learned that Geiger is German for violinist; Stehgeiger is German for cafe violinist ('standing fiddler); and Geigerteller is German for Geiger counter. So there must e a German word for . . . And finally Esther (British in-joke):

Oh yes, @Solly -- there's plenty more where that came from! I'm just looing at some vintage motorcycle photos at the moment, as well as some more traction engine wheels. Let's see what pops up.

Great Western Railway (GWR) locomotive City of Truro. I had the pleasure of riding a train drawn by her in the 80s, and when I came across my photos again I thought she'd make a good subject. For the front view I looked up some original drawings on a GWR archive website, which avoided the problem of perspective; for the wheel, I had to make adjustments by guesswork. The colours are authentic GWR colours I found online on a model-makers' web page. The signal gantry is inspired by a magazine photo of a scene on the Severn valley Railway at Bewdley, England. And after I'd made the small lamps, I decided to do a big one. (Lamps or discs were fixed on the front of a loco to indicate what it was pulling, if anything. I used to have a book that explained the code, but I've forgotten what they were.) First draft, without shading. Driving wheel and maker's plate The small 'calling-on' signal, the lowest one, is upside-down! I have no idea why it was set up that way, nor why it's facing the wrong way (the track and turnout are to the left). And if you notice there are one or two small details missing . . . yes, they are! The 'distant' signals (yellow) are actually fixed at 'caution' (horizontal) and don't move. I thought I'd make them more interesting. 😊

I've been photographing wheels on traction engines, vintage trucks, and railway engines for more years than I can remember. I find it's very useful practice, not to mention good fun, to recreate them in Affinity Designer. I'm sure I posted City of Truro recently, but I can't find it here (I know I posted it on some of the Affinity FaceBook pages). Anyway, this is mainly made in vectors with a limited palette of flat colours and limited use of gradients.. The rivets are symbols, which is a handy way of making lots of identical things that might require later editing, and the lettering is text-on-a-path, with a lot of fiddling with tracking and baselines, and pure luck in finding close matches for fonts. These two wheels are from a showman's engine -- a steam traction engine highly decorated and adapted to provide electric power for a fairground ride. I think this particular one is The Iron Maiden, but I can't lay my hands on the original photos to be sure. (She was originally named Kitchener, but was renamed when she starred in the movie of the same name.) In the first one, the right-hand front wheel, I used gradients for shading and highlights, but in the second, the right-hand driving wheel, I used flat black or white shapes at 50% opacity clipped to the relevant areas. The egg-shaped structure behind the wheel is the cover for the drive train and differential gears. I used multiple outlines for the coloured lining. The rivets -- symbols again (although they needn't have been in this instance) -- are flat colour, and the highlights are separate symbols. each set of four is a Group, with the centre moved to the wheel's centre; this allowed me to use Power Duplicate to space them around the rim at precise intervals. (I did the same with the spokes.)

I've just spotted something I'd missed before. When I alter Azimuth (or Elevation) manually it does not change the effect on the object, and when I click Close then re-open the FX the value has reset itself. And yes, Sean P, it resets when I tab off but not when I click in a different field. And today it seems to happen when I adjust the slider, but not when I type in manually, which is the other way about from the other day. Unless I'm dreaming . . . 😟

Sorry, I forgot to say Windows 10. Yes, the current 1714.