KILL CLAUDIO! Much Ado About Nothing Continues.

Below is the continuation of Much Ado About Nothing reading all of Act 4.

We see the near marriage of Claudio and Hero, Beatrice and Benedick finally talking and The Watch catching the villains.

The main observation I have is how everybody seems to think the best solution is to simply have people die: Claudio and Hero being the key nominees.

Some Further Character Observations:

Benedick: Respects the words of the women in the play – believes in Beatrice and Hero’s account when most others do not. Switches his allegiance to Beatrice (from the Prince) – tells Beatrice “Come, bid me do anything for thee” and then follows through with it. He also promises to to keep their secret from Don Pedro and Claudio.

Beatrice: Insecure and proud: unwilling to be clear about her feelings even after Benedick has made his position clear. Ruins the romance of the moment with the massively overdramatic and ridiculous “kill Claudio” which might have been the point followed by the useless men rant to redirect the intensity of the moment.

I like the Globe’s adaptation for explaining Beatrice’s outburst here as it puts it in the context of a relatable, desperate rant rather than her meaning every word.

Leonato: Overconfident and domineering – he interrupts and speaks in place of Claudio. Prideful and callous – when Hero has been accused of sleeping around Leonato hopes she’s dead, and if not promises to kill her himself and wishes she wasn’t his biological child so that he would not be associated with her shame.

Margaret: Is she at the wedding, does she witness this as is often the case in plays – if so why doesn’t she speak up as she would know what the Prince and Claudio are referring to. This is more evidence that Margaret is not as innocent as is claimed.

Friar: Intelligent – He realises the truth quickly, devises a plan that fools everybody as intended. which is contrary to how these types of characters are often portrayed.

Rediscovering Portrait Sketching and Adding Lots of Colour

In my previous post I wrote about urban sketching and how it had come my main art focus (urban sketching post) but without knowing it, this came at the expense of portrait sketching. However as my urban sketching group moved mostly online a splinter group formed focusing on portraits, sometimes live portrait models would sit on a zoom call with us and sometimes from photos, sometimes for 5 minutes a portrait sometimes up to 20minutes. In my own time I tend to use Pintrest for reference photos (portrait references on Pintrest) and love throwing vibrant colours down sometimes more successfully than others.

The group sketching reminded me how as a teen portrait sketching was my main go-to. It was easy to see if you’d “got it right” by whether the portrait was recognisable as the individual (often celebrity). Back then I tended to draw in pencil or charcoal almost never with a coloured medium. The style and technique were never important to me, only ever the likeness.

Here are a few of my favourite portraits from pre 2010

Looking back I’m surprised to find how much my portraits have changed, and in my opinion improved. Although the shapes and colours are vastly different in portraits and urban sketches, the skills used are very similar. The need for observation, perspective and contrast are equally important in both subjects consequently practicing these for any sketch will improve them for all. I think the most notable change is how much quicker and looser my sketches are. Being far more relaxed and confident in my sketching the final products often end up looking fresher and less over worked.

Here are a few more recent sketches using similar supplies.

I’ve also gained the confidence required to incorporate colour. My first memorable attempt was using a handful of cheap alcohol markers (chisel tip no brush tip) and I still enjoy using them.

More recently I’ve experimented with every type of coloured supply I could find:

Gouache

Watercolour

Children’s posterpaint

Felt tip pens

Digital

Markers with felt tip pens (My current favourite)

Other line drawings and 3 tone sketches

I’m glad I’ve rediscovered portrait sketching and with resources such as Pintrest to provide references the possibilities are endless. Here’s a link to a collection of portrait references I use on Pintrest.

Much Ado About Nothing Continues – Is Margaret Innocent?

I have continued reading through Much Ado About Nothing which you can watch below. Here we are at act 3 scene 2 to act 3 scene 5. This is where Don John and Borachio put there plan into action and we are first introduced to the Prince’s Watch.

Having read through this and talked about my ideas as I went there are a few other thoughts I’ve had since:

Don John and Benedick

Did Don John intentionally wait for Benedick to leave before slandering Hero to Don Pedro and Claudio? We see later in the Play that Benedick really distrusts Don John and is happy to place all the blame on him without any actual evidence, so perhaps Don John avoided him on purpose. Don John is seemingly unaware of the trick Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato have played on Benedick so would have no reason to think Benedick would be sympathetic to Hero and yet he doesn’t include Benedick in the plan. Alternatively maybe Don John thinks better of Benedick’s sense or fairness than many others seem to. Whatever his reasons Don John had provided further separation between Benedick and Don Pedro and Claudio.

The Power of the Watch

We are introduced to the watch in such a way that we see their ideas, beliefs and approach to their duties so that we can be left in no doubt about their general idiocy. Their leader Dogberry has no intention of them actually catching any criminals but enjoys knowing that they have the power to do so. I think the utter ridiculousness of these men having power highlights how little the women have and how arrogant and elitist the leaders are. They are able to capture villains of the play and unravel their plots without having a clue what is going on. We see later that the women, despite their testimonies and evidence are unable to fight their corner.

We also see that the watch had the power to completely collapse Don John’s scheme when they visited Leonato. As the plan they had overheard involved Hero it would have been the most obvious thing in the world to simply alert Leonato to it without it going public, however it is Dogberry and Verges that visit that visit Leonato, not the watchmen who captured Borachio. This is another case of the male leaders’ arrogance and dismissiveness of those below them resulting in lesser results.

Is Margaret Innocent?

The more I read Much Ado About Nothing, the more interesting I find Margaret as a character. For a waiting lady her presence in a scene is often more notable than Hero’s. She is considered quick witted and beautiful by Beatrice and Benedick respectively and her observations and comments are often very confident and shrewd, In many ways she is presented be very similar to Beatrice but without her position in society. She is part of the plan to trick Beatrice into loving Benedick, and also (supposedly unwittingly) part of the plan to fool Don Pedro and Claudio into shaming Hero. She is seemingly all knowing and always nearby whenevr anything interesting happens.

With all this in mind, this is something that has bugged for a long time. Borachio’s plan involved Margaret, in the middle of the night, leaning out of Hero’s window, wearing Hero’s clothes, hearing herself be called Hero and behaving inappropriately towards Borachio (including talking loudly enough that Don Pedro and Claudio hidden in the orchard could hear them) all while Hero was away. Somehow we are meant to believe that Margaret would do all this naturally as a personal choice without knowing there is some sort of plan afoot. To me it sounds unlikely. The following day we see Margaret acting perfectly naturally around Hero as if nothing has happened. Admittedly the serving classes were held to a different standard of behaviour than the higher classes, but still it doesn’t sit well. It’s possible that the relationship between Borachio and Margaret was such that Margaret would go along with a suggestion of his without requiring and explanation, but to me it’s more plausible that Margaret had some knowledge of the scheme, if not all of it. We know she is a good judge of character and situations so I just can’t make myself beleive that she wouldn’t notice something was up here.

I think there’s further evidence to support this argument in later scenes but I’ll mention that in a future post.

Speed Sketching and Urban Sketching From Home

I’ve written about urban sketching previously (urban sketching post). It’s been one of the most successful New Year’s Resolutions I’ve ever made. Even in the present climate it provides a way to relate to your surroundings and and other people without requiring any compromise in personal safety. Traditionally urban sketching involves drawing the whole scene in front of you to capture the moment: people, structures, vehicles, weather etc, but in my own sketches I find I tend to focus on one thing or another. When out and about sketching I usually categorise my sketching into two groups: people sketches and architectural sketches, both require completely different approaches, skills consequently they are suited to completely different situations.

Speed People Sketching

These are sketches I often refer to as coffee shop sketches as that’s my main venue. With these my aim is always to capture a persons posture, movement or attitude as quickly as possible. Sometimes furtively so they don’t notice me staring at them and sometimes in seconds as they are walking past the window. The practice leaves no time for hesitation or perfectionism and the results are fun little moments. I always keep a small sketchbook with me with a couple of pens; pencil is no good as its tempting to try and “correct” things resulting in missing the moment or removing the essence of the sketch.

Stationary people are simpler to sketch, people on phones, reading or eating, whereas passers by provide the challenge of movement and a maximum of 20 seconds before they’re out of sight. Admittedly some of the results are unidentifiable as people but it can be endlessly entertaining. You never really know how much you can do in those short seconds until you try, and as with everything you improve the more you practice.

Architectural Urban Sketching

Architectural sketches in many ways are the easier of the two. Firstly buildings don’t move giving you all the time you need, secondly they usually involve a lot of straight lines and follow very clear rules about perspective giving you some leeway in observation and thirdly you don’t tend to offend anyone if its not a great likeness or unflattering. For a good few years this type of sketch has been my preference enjoying the lack of time constraint and clearly identifiable results sometimes with sketching groups and sometimes alone. I also enjoy the way it forms a travel journal of the places I’ve been and seen.

With the current restrictions a lot of our normal meet-ups and live urban sketching has gone online and we have utilised google street view all over the world seeing places and buildings we have never seen before and still maintaining that human connection through zoom and group pages. In additions my urban sketching group have began a weekly perspective challenge based on personal photos with the intention of developing or skill with understanding and representing perspective in the image we see.

It’s not the same as real life urban sketching, it suffers from the same problem as drawing from pictures. The screen image has already been converted to a 2D representation, bypassing the need for you brain to do the job of understanding the 3 dimensions and sense of depth and space, but it still provides useful and enjoyable practice.

Further Ado About the Characters

Continuing My reading of Much Ado About Nothing. We’re at the part where the guys are tricking Benedick into thinking Beatrice loves him and the women are doing the same to Beatrice about Benedick.

So far my opinions on the characters are as follows:

Beatrice & Benedick: proud and stubbornly stuck in the strong independent roles they’ve set themselves, neither willing to lose face.

Don Pedro: arrogant; believes in his own superiority and that others should follow his lead.

Claudio: fickle; easily lead.

Don John: inept villain; has no plans of his own just wants to cause trouble in any way he can.

Hero: dutiful daughter, potentially resentful of Beatrice’s quick wit.

A Bit More Ado

I have continued my reading of Much Ado About Nothing which you can watch here.

And below are links to my 2 favourite recorded versions of the Play.

The first staring David Tennant and Catherine Tate,

and the second staring Eve Best and Charles Edwards at The Globe theatre 2011

Much Ado About Nothing

I don’t think I ever appreciated at school how enjoyable it was to discuss a book, a play, a song or any other piece of creativity with others. I find that particular experience much more difficult to come by as an adult. I suppose it’s partly because we have a lot more freedom to pick and choose our entertainment now, consequently it becomes less likely the people in our lives will all wish to discuss the same piece of fiction, especially if its not a current craze. I image that’s where book clubs and fan clubs come in however they aren’t always a practical option.

Anyway, all of this is a long introduction to the fact I am recording myself reading Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with my thoughts and ideas along the way as I have no other outlet for my love of the play.

The best waffle and pancake recipes

As Jack Johnson sang, “There ain’t no need to go outside…”, “I’ll make you banana pancakes. Pretend like it’s the weekend now. And we could pretend it all the time”

Well, it is the weekend, and you’re probably spending more time than usual at home and around your family, so why not make breakfast a treat.

I’m not going to be one of those recipe blogs where you have to scroll for miles to find the recipe so below is the waffle recipe I consider to be the best (for my machine) creating the fluffiest waffles you could ever want.

Waffles:

I love waffles and as a “made it through January” present to myself (little did I know) I bought my self a multi-purpose toasty machine with waffle inserts.  Naturally I have experimented with recipes to find the perfect waffles, all in the name of science of course.

ingredients: (makes 8 waffles)

• 2 eggs
• 400ml milk
• a few drops of vanilla extract (optional)
• 250g self-raising flour (if you’ve only got plain, add more baking powder)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 50g caster sugar
• 100g melted butter

Method:

1. Whisk the egg yolks with the milk and vanilla extract
2. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk thoroughly
3. Stir in the caster sugar
4. Pour in the melted butter and stir until just combined
5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gently fold into the mixture with a metal spoon (be gentle – you don’t want to lose all the air you have just added to the egg whites)
6. Make sure your waffle iron is hot, grease if needed then pour in your mixture. They’re done when they are a light golden brown colour which usually takes a few minutes.

In my experience the mixture should be used all at once. Cooked waffles keep far better than the waffle mixture, even if it’s only a couple of hours.

Pancakes:

As I know not everyone will have a waffle machine, I have added my preferred American style pancake recipe as well, you’re welcome 🙂

Ingredients: (makes 8 large pancakes)

• 200g self raising flour (if you’ve only got plain, add more baking powder)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 300ml milk
• 1 egg
• 40g melted butter
• 2 mashed bananas (optional)

Method:

1. Mix the self-raising flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl
2. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the milk, eggs and melted butter. Stir until slightly combined, then whisk thoroughly until the mixture is well combined and smooth.
3. If you want to make banana pancakes, add the mashed bananas now, and stir to ensure they are evenly spread throughout the mixture
4. Heat your pancake pan and add a little oil. Once it is hot, it is usually best to lower the temperature of your hob, though it depends on your pan – you may need to experiment.
5. Pour some batter into your pan and spread it around until it is between roughly 0.5 and 1 cm thick
6. Once bubbles start appearing on the surface it is ready to turn over. This is usually easiest done with a spatula, but if you fancy flipping it – go for it.
7. The second side should only take a minute or two and then you’re done.

As everybody knows, the first pancake is almost always a practice pancake while you master the temperature of your pan, so I suggest factoring this in and making the first quite a small one. Also, unlike the waffle mixture, the pancake batter is OK to leave for a few hours in the fridge, simply re-whisk it before cooking and it should be as good as new.

The Value of Comfort Reading

The reasons for reading are many and varied. For some it’s academic; a need to understand a new idea, for work, school or even just out of curiosity. For others it’s for entertainment, they want to laugh at humorous events, or feel the rush of adrenaline during tense moments. For a lot of people the reason they state is escapism. They get to leave their current life behind and enter another. One which they get to choose, maybe with quests, wizards and dragons. Maybe they visit a new land and culture, or experience a different career and colleagues. Perhaps they participate in a high speed chase, or a battle or an intergalactic war. Whatever floats your boat, there is a book that can take you there.

I am part of a few Facebook book groups, in general they are open and friendly and as a group non-judgmental. That being said individuals will state their opinions that you may or may not agree with. One I’ve seen a lot of is that there are so many books in the world, why would you ever re-read a book. Another almost unconscious bias, is that some books are more worthy than others, children’s books or young adult books (YA) seem to have a stigma attached to them, almost like you need to apologise for reading or enjoying them. People are allowed their opinions and they are perfectly valid. I however disagree with these two ideas.

Sometimes though, what you need is a comfort reads; when you aren’t looking for a grand epiphany, or a rollercoaster of emotions, instead a sense of soothing familiarity and innocent positivity. There are books that naturally fall into this category for example “cozy mysteries” where everything turns out well for the characters you are invested in such as Miss Marple by Agatha Christie, or Agatha Raisin by M.C. Beaton (review here). Or easy reading chick-lit such as Wild Designs by Katie Fforde (review here) or Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Café by Millie Johnson. If you enjoy farcical capers there’s P.G Wodehouse (review here) or The fugitive Pigeon by Donald E Westlake (review here).

But these aren’t the type of books I want to focus on. Instead, when I’m stressed or down, homesick or lonely, what I crave is a re-read of a favourite, or books aimed at younger people

Recently on a road trip in my campervan, we started experiencing mechanical difficulties, we needed to carry on, and so we listened to Claudine at St Clare’s by Enid Blyton. One of my childhood favourites I have read many times, even as an adult. Did I learn anything? No. Did I feel any strong emotions? No. But that was the point. I could escape into this world I knew inside out and allow myself to relax into the gentle humour of the book without worrying about twists or turns. I am also very excited about the new Malory towers TV series that’s just starting. From what I’ve seen on social media, it’s the parents who are really interested in this, probably for a similar nostalgic reason.

Another week, I was a having a difficult and stressful week at work. I felt the week slipping out of my control. So I downloaded Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. I’d never listened to or read it before, so I didn’t know the exact storyline, but the idealistic nature, charming naivety and cheerful positivity allowed me to relax and filled me with a sense of serenity. I even painted a little watercolour of my favourite scene.

This week I was due to go on holiday to see my family. I live and work abroad in Kazakhstan where I don’t speak their language and in general they don’t speak mine, consequently it can be quite isolating so I was excited to go home for a bit. Obviously things being as they are at the moment it didn’t happen and so I needed to provide myself with a sense of home and comfort another way. The books that give me greatest sense of home, are The Belgariad by David Eddings.

This is a light and easy going traditional fantasy series written in the early 1980s. It’s not written in a YA or children’s style, though its innocence and child friendly subject matter make it perfectly suitable for that age group. Unlike the popular heavy and brutal grim dark style that dominates the fantasy genre today, these books promote all the positive attributes of the genre. They books take me back to my childhood, my Dad loves them, and introduced me to them when I was about 12 (in between Harry Potter books). Since then I have read them many times, the characters feel like friends, the cities and towns like holiday destinations, the world itself as familiar to me as any home would be, in fact more consistently so as I’ve moved so often in my adult life.

What I’m trying to say is, reading isn’t a competition; there are no prizes for completing a reading challenge, or reading the Booker Prize nominees, or ploughing through the classics. By all means set goals, and work on self improvement or study if you want. But allow yourself some comfort reading along the way

For more information of where to get hold of audiobooks have a look at my previous post here

The Village: An Imagining.

One of the quirks of the Russian language is the lack of articles; as a results many Russian speakers misuse articles when speaking English. This has led to possibly my favourite phrase ever. They all love to talk about “The Village”

What are you doing at the weekend: I’m going to The Village.

Are you busy this evening: Yes I’m going to The Village.

Would you like to come to The Village.

It doesn’t matter who you talk to they all phrase it the same way, not a village, or my parents’ village. They never name The Village or in any way acknowledge that there may be another village in existence. To me it has a fantastical ring to it, to the point that this is what I imagine based on their descriptions.

To The Village!

Kazakhstan has only one village, it is known as The Village (capital T, capital V). It is somewhere in the centre of the country so that everyone can access it easily.

It seems there is some sort of direct, as the crow flies, means of transport to The Village. I’d like to think they teleport or similar, but they usually talk of taxis and trains so instead there must be a dedicated group of people whose sole responsibility in the nation is to transport people to and from The Village. I like to imagine them in a uniform, wearing national colours as they work for their country, or maybe there are different clans or rival factions, perhaps the train and taxi people are rivals. Maybe there are rogue transporters running people back and forth without official papers smuggling people or object in and out of the village without the authorities knowing; or maybe they do know, but turn a blind eye, taking a slice of course.

The village itself must be huge, during the weekend the population of the village must quadruple. It needs to house almost the whole population of Kazakhstan during the weekend and holidays. Maybe it’s on a parallel plane of existence.

During week days the population is old people and a few young children. The old people would be a bit like fantasy elves, they are long lived, stoic and formal. They’ve seen and know too much, they continue to practice the old ways despite the modern advancements their children try to bring back from the cities. I imagine the grandparents indulge their grandchildren in the secrecy of the week, imparting knowledge to them and even occasionally smiling, while the children’s parents work in the many cities.

Their houses are immaculately clean as all of the women’s’ time is spent on housework and preparing food for the weekend’s festivities. I picture the men spending their time looking serious and sitting in their chair. They may take a walk around The Village, maybe they will read a book.

Logically however, there must be some sort of spacial rift in The Village as despite my colleagues all going to The Village, they have never mentioned seeing each other there. Or perhaps there is a wrong side of the tracks mentality. Maybe long held family rivalries prevent different groups socialising in The Village, it would not be tolerated. The adults who leave The Village during the week do as they please in the city and this causes friction between them and the previous generations. The grandparents consider going to a city frivolous and unnecessary, they suspect their children are dishonouring their legacy.

As soon as they get back to The Village each woman is expected to join in cleaning the house, and preparing the weakly feasts, all their time is to be spent with their own family sharing in the running of the household. I imagine all the females gathered around a stew pot as they prepare a special meal, stirring occasionally as aromatic vapour flows through the house, maybe they make bread and gossip about their neighbours. This is where they gain the knowledge of the old ways. Occasionally special events occur, new year, a birthday, a new birth in which socialising is encouraged, but of course only with friends and allies; the appropriate gifts should be given and feasts prepared. There is a balance between keeping their children doing the right things and keeping them happy.

Maybe they are trained to never reveal the true nature of The Village, to never name speak its name as everyone knows names have power. The Kazakhs I know are incredibly difficult to get straight answers from and will reveal little to nothing about themselves. Perhaps they are all hiding a big secret about The Village. Maybe it was their safe place against the Russians.

Or maybe its just a quirk of the language.