Procreate Emi Le’s artwork, “Invisible to Human,” is one of those deceptively simple pieces of art that reveals more, and poses more questions, the longer you look at it. There are so many intriguing things about it. Its title makes me stop and think as I focus on the strange, many-limbed creature on the right. Maybe the human astronaut can’t see it, even with their flashlight apparently focused on it, but I get the feeling it can see the human–the subtitle could be “Visible to Alien”! I find my eye constantly drawn into that big, single eye with its blue center, one of the only colorful things amid the different shades of gray. Looking at the whole image, I love the way Emi has used diagonal planes of light and dark to illustrate what is visible to each of the figures, and what is not. The alien’s tentacle vanishes into the blackness of the human’s experience, while the human steps forward into what they perceive as lonely darkness, somehow behind and unable to see the presence of the creature the viewers are so aware of in the foreground. The different degrees of dark keep the mood somber and somehow secretive. One of the things that gives the image power is the strong sense of a story behind it. How did either of the creatures get here? Will the astronaut walk behind the alien, or right into it? Will the alien turn around and move those tentacles around the astronaut, or will they just glide past one another, the alien remaining forever “invisible to human”? It’s mysterious, and just a bit sinister. The Activity Click on the link to see a higher resolution version of “Invisible to Human”. Spend at least 5 minutes studying the image, observing the details discussed in the paragraph above and noting your own thoughts about the use of color, perspective, dark and light, the outlines, the shapes. How does the image make you feel? What story is it telling you? What is it about the way the image is made that makes you feel those feelings or understand that story? Think, too, about the impact of the medium on the art. Emi used a program called Procreate, which is a piece of digital drawing software for iPads. There are many other digital art programs, some of which are free of charge. If you have access to one of those devices or programs, use this project as a chance to experiment with what you can do. If not, use your favourite pencils or pastels to make your work. Imagine your own scenario in which a human and an alien encounter one another. What happens? Think about who can see what (the human, the alien, the viewer of the art), and try to show the different perspectives. Tell your story and create your mood with your use of line, color, perspective, and light.
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Weekly Writing Workshop #20: Character Sketches Part II
An update from our twentienth Weekly Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop held on Friday August 14, plus some of the output published below This week, the last in our first series of Writing Workshops, our founder William Rubel returned to an earlier theme: character sketches. Last time we worked on character (Workshop #14), we focused on giving a sense of character through description of their appearance. In this week’s workshop we were less concerned about what they look like physically than who the character really is—who are his or her friends—what is his or her inner self? We also wanted to provide links from the character into the the larger story they are part of. Before embarking on our own writing, William and the group analysed the description of the character Captain Cuttle, from Charles Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son, given in an eccentric nineteenth-century encyclopaedia of Character Sketches from works of fiction. In just one paragraph, the writer revealed details of Captain Cuttle’s personality, behaviour, mannerisms, accent, clothes and demeanour as perceived by others, and in doing so also revealed parts of the story he was involved in. The Writing Challenge: Write a character description that tells us more about the character than what they look like. The Participants: Nami, Georgia, Simran, Ella, Kanav, Maddie, Madeline, Peri, Samantha, Sasha, Shel, Tilly, Vishnu, Aditi, Suman, Shreya, Lena and more… See below for some of the great writing that came out of this week’s workshop! Peri Gordon, 10Sherman Oaks, CA Lonely Peri Gordon, 10 Lila Sale had only a few friends and never made any new ones. Her trademark was a sigh, a sad, downcast sigh. She was the youngest in her family, with three cruel siblings who couldn’t care less about her. They called her “Lonely,” plus other mean names. “Get over here, Lonely!” “You’re a clumsy idiot, Lonely!” Lila would come to school dragging her feet, trudging slowly through the halls, finding those rare friends of hers, who, like her, really only moped. A lot of the other children, the most popular especially, were similar to Lila’s siblings in character, and she was truly afraid of those ones. The worst was when she ran into her actual siblings (who were popular themselves) and paid the price a million times over, embarrassed and melancholy and even lonelier, for her friends would have fled the scene already. “What’cha doin’, Lonely?” “Where’d your little friends go, Lonely?” Whenever Lila saw anyone who was happy, she would always murmur, “I wish I was like that.” Kanav Kachoria, 12Potomac, MD Coach Adams Kanav Kachoria, 12 There once was a football coach for the Eastern Shore Eagles named Coach Adams. Everyone at the high school loved him. It was practically impossible for someone in Eastern Shore to not know him, unless they lived under a rock. Coach Adams was a very fun but strict coach. The high school players always used to tease and call him bittersweet depending on his personality. One day he was the jolliest man in the world with his pearly white teeth smile, and then another day out of the blue he was as fierce as a lion. It didn’t make any sense. Coach had some wrinkles on his peach-colored face, but not a lot. He always wore a Nike green cap with the yellow logo of Eastern Shore on top of his head, covering his white hair. Also, he wore a blue and green jacket with the high school’s logo on it every single day. At the Eastern Shore High football games, he chewed his minty Polar Ice gum like crazy on the sidelines, saying that it was the best gum out there. Coach Adams’s main quotes were to “never give up” and to “have confidence in yourself” since that is what you need in football and anything in life. With all the unbelievable actions Coach Adams did, he will go down as one of the greatest football coaches in history and will be remembered as the Eastern Shore Eagles football coach greatly. Madeline Kline, 12Potomac, MD Bad Boy Madeline Kline, 12 My brother is extremely popular, being friends with almost everyone. At school, I always notice a huge crowd of people either next to him or behind him, trying to get a chance to talk to him. Obviously I’m his best friend, but he treats everyone at school like a best friend. He’s very handsome, with dark hair (usually ruffled) and bright eyes. His favorite jacket is worn so often that you can’t even tell what the words on it say, with all the stains. Still, he refuses to let Mom wash it. He’s a huge procrastinator, and whenever he’s asked to do something, responds with “Just give me a minute,” or “Just let me finish this.” He never manages to do what he was asked to do, to begin with. He also treats me like I’m his equal, even though I’m three years younger. Often he joins me in playing video games and loses repeatedly. It doesn’t matter to him, though. Whenever he asks to play, and I point out how easily I win, he says “I like a challenge.” And that he does. He’ll do anything he’s challenged to do, no matter how outrageous or how much trouble it will get him in. Therefore, he gives off a “Bad boy” image that makes all the girls his age cling to him like he actually gives them a second thought. Zack isn’t into girls, though. I don’t know how I figured out, or when. I don’t even know if Mom and Dad know. I think they must, but they don’t give any indication that they know. Someday, though it’ll come out. Secrets never stay secret for long when you’re the most popular boy in the school. Shreya Sharath, 11Cohoes, NY Penelope Fiddlesticks Shreya Sharath, 11 Many people have this fear about being the new student in the class, but this girl walked with her head held up high. Her name
Weekly Writing Workshop #18, Friday July 31: Writing About Food
An update from our eighteenth Weekly Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop, plus some of the output published below The Stone Soup Weekly Writing Workshop is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers. Every Friday, we meet for an hour-and-a-half via Zoom to respond to a new writing challenge, write together in our virtual room, and then share what we have written with one another. Our conversation on July 31 was joined by writers from across the US, and in Canada, as well. Our topic was “writing about food,” and using food to display character traits in our writing. We started our session with an excerpt from Winnie the Pooh, and an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland. In both of those, we discussed how the food mentioned in the excerpt gave us a better sense of what the character in the scene was like. Next, we moved on to an excerpt from Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the fifth book in the Narnia series), where magical elements were combined with the presence of a dinner in order to give us, the readers, a better sense of the setting and the uncanny mix of strange (the place and the creatures) and ordinary (the food and the mealtime). Our fourth excerpt was from Heidi, which is about a girl who lives in the Alps with her grandparents, and is taken away to the city to live with a wealthy family where she is very unhappy. In Heidi, we examined the chapter in which Heidi is sent back to the mountains to be reunited with her grandparents, and the way that food is woven through it to contrast rich and poor, city and country–Heidis brings her grandmother soft white rolls in contrast to her usual hard dark bread–and the joy of tasting and smelling home (for Heidi, goat milk). Finally, we looked at an excerpt from the diary of Samuel Pepys, in which Pepys describes the Great Fire of London, and how he and his friend decided to save some cheeses and wine; and also at an excerpt from writing by Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, where she uses food to tell a family story, and reflect on her childhood. After this, we set to writing our own piece using food as a core component of the narrative. Read on to experience some of the powerful writing we were given a glimpse of in our workshop! The Writing Challenge: Write a story where food plays a key role. The Participants: Shreya, Simran, Janani, Ever, Liam, Heather, Peri, Madeline, Vishnu, Suman, Aditi, James, Charlotte, Maddie, Shel, Ma’ayan, Sasha, Lena, Kanav, Hera, and more… Peri Gordon, 10Sherman Oaks, CA The Unfair Meal Peri Gordon, 10 When Chester reported to dinner, he found Ana already eating with their host, Mrs. Ray, and not thinking twice about it. When Mrs. Ray spotted him, she seemed to give him a slight scowl. She served him noticeably smaller portions than Ana was getting, and his soup was cold. Chester knew that his sister was always the favored guest over him, being more charismatic than he was and creating no sort of trouble for the host, but Mrs. Ray was taking this too far. He couldn’t wait to get back to his parents, who loved both their children and gave them equal and equally good portions of food. Liam Hancock, 12Danville, CA The Highlander and the Hunt Liam Hancock, 12 “I’m sorry.” His whisper comes from immediately behind me yet from a thousand miles away. As far as I’m concerned, all there is in the world are these caves, these spirits, and my leather boots that hike up to my knees. Worn, leather boots. The kind that I’ve casually slipped into since I could first walk and lift them from the ground and into the air and shoot an arrow and bring home a fattened ox so that we could finally have dinner after a long dust bowl in the summer. I feel his hand on my shoulder. I’ve never before noticed how strong, how heavy his hands are when they’re holding something other than a spear or a hide. Because when they’re holding my two shoulders, it’s easy to forget where he came from. It’s much too easy. To forget he’s a Highlander, and that Highlanders hurt and they slaughter and they throw rocks into our sticks until they feel satisfied with the kill count for the day. Hesitantly, I look up to him. He’s turned away from the cliffside, from the caves. Behind his own build, there’s the Seamstress, gilded with ancient chiseled boulders and carved by time. Never mind what I’ve thought before. Now, the world is back with me. I can’t hold it in my fingers or watch it slip away with the cruel whisper of mountain air. I’m alive. He’s alive. We’re both alive. It’s all I’ve ever needed. The two of us, best friends forever, up on the cliffside hunting for the oxen and hawk that our starving families need. “It’s okay,” I whisper back, afraid that a raised voice will shatter this valley after all it’s years of work. “Let’s move on.” I press on forward, keeping my eyes drawn to the loose trail we’ve treaded since the fall brought us hunger. Gripping hunger. Even as a midlander, I was left grasping for something, anything that could fit into my throat. And even as a highlander, he knew that the cities couldn’t provide for him anymore. For us. “The oxen will probably be up on the Splat,” he warns, pointing in the general direction of the cliff’s edge. “I’ve heard the grass is growing rather fruitfully up there this season.” I nod silently and slice cleanly through a thicket of oasis brush. I’ve never much liked the Splat, especially for hunting, but it’s a necessary evil if we have a hankering for oxen. They can’t get enough of the place. As we wade through Forgery Pond, a frigid little pocket of
