I filmed a Shakespearian soliloquy, this time from Twelfth Night, another one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I've been working on it for a while, and I finally got around to recording it.
I hope you enjoy it:
Since I have been exploring this soliloquy for a while, I really thought about Viola's character and what she must be thinking in this situation. Such as, whether the words she is saying are communicated exactly as they are written, or whether Viola has a different perspective on the matter than she is letting on.
Hailey Marshall Writes and I, decided to do a collaboration, that features our characters D.I. Time and Shadow, interviewing each other. You can check out Hailey's part here where Detective Inspector Time interrogates interviews Shadow. Here is my part, where Shadow interviews D.I. Time:
In doing this I learned a lot about my character, D.I. Time, that I hadn't known before, and it was really fun. Thank you, Hailey, for collaborating with me. One thing I noticed, is that D.I. Time does not like being the one who is being questioned (in this case interviewed), which I realize is why he felt so awkward in answering questions. When he was interviewing Shadow he behaved like he usually does.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Did you relate to any of D.I. Time's answers? Have you ever been interviewed?
I'm back with another installment of using polls to create art!
To summarize what this series is about, I post a poll asking what I should draw. People vote, and whichever choice ends up winning, I draw. Unless otherwise stated, every drawing was a majority vote. Also I should add, some of the drawings this time around are redraws of Pixton comics I made when I was a child (I was about twelve or thirteen I think?) I had voters vote on which of them I should redraw. While the others are the usual drawings you'd see in this series.
Here's the drawing that came out of the poll in the previous post in the series.
Felix Moore from Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass ended up winning. So I drew him as a merman.
I had a lot of fun drawing details in the drawing like the suit and tail.
I also made a video showing my process of drawing it.
I did a poll where I redrew a painting in my style. The painting that the drawing was based on was this one. I thought it made sense for Ophelia to be using the crystal ball, given that she likes that type of magic.
I had the voters decide on which of my characters I made in Pixton I should redraw in my style.
Lieutenant Williams ended up winning. She is a half Klingon half human.
Here is what she looked like in the Pixton style:
I wrote the comic she was from years and years ago, and there were a ton of spelling errors in it.
But, I find it nice to revisit old stories and characters-- especially because they can show how different
my stories are today than they were back then.
Speaking of old stories and characters, I had the voters decide between having me redraw this Pixton comic and another one. The second one won, which is Edward's and Willow's wedding. I decided in the redraw not to draw them in the same pose but instead draw them in different poses. In the comic as a whole I would use real photos as the background while the characters would be Pixton characters.
Looking back at it now, the backstory of how they fell in love is really not romantic. The comic itself retold the story of The Little Mermaid (leaning towards the Disney version, not so much the Hans Christian Anderson one) but with dryads and wood cutters. And in this version Willow literately caused the shipwreck and then when she saw how handsome (and in pain) Edward was, she changed her mind. She didn't do this for the several wood cutters before 🤔-- 1,712,302 of them to be exact, I'm not joking: that was the number I wrote in the comic, minus 1. 😆
I don't know what child-me was thinking! 😂 Especially since Willow never once tells him that she was the dryad that did that at all.
This is a drawing of Elm. I had the voters vote on what I should draw her wearing out of several options for outfits. This outfit ended up winning. I really like how the outfit looks. However, I feel her arms are a little too short proportion wise. But other than that I like the drawing.
This is a character from the same fanfic that I wrote years ago. I had another poll, about which character I should draw in my style, and she won. She is called the EEH (Emergency Engineering Hologram). I was inspired by the Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager when creating her. I wondered why there were no holograms for emergencies involving engineering. (That we can see in the show).
In the (Pixton) comic she is an enemy of the doctor on her ship. They don't have a particularly good relationship. And she was activated when most of the crew on the ship was kidnapped by aliens. So, she plays a similar role that The Doctor in Voyager plays.
This actually turned out to be a drawing that came out of a poll, and I somehow forgot that I had drawn it for that reason. This drawing was actually included in this post, though I combined it with a drawing that didn't come out of a poll.
Anyway, I had the pollers vote on which character I should draw, and what they should be doing. And Oak doing archery won.
I finally have a name for the character that used to be called "Annabelle."
Since it is such a major change to the character, I decided the best way to introduce the change would be through a video, so people both on my blog and YouTube channel would know about the change.
Here's the video:
Also, I have finally updated the character profile page which you can read here. Her new name is Arisias it is pronounced like Er-is-ius or Air-Sy-Ris. Arisias prefers the first pronunciation. It took me a while to come up with the name. I smashed together two names create Arisias which were the names of two figures from Greek mythology: Tiresias and Ariadne.
This is a continuation of this post where I talked about and showed my textile art pieces. However, since the videos that were posted in that post didn't show how I made it, I thought it would be time to show you my embroidery process and how I made this art piece:
The backstory for this art piece is that the figure at the top (Rosalind by Arthur Hughes) is coming through a magical portal into the Sorceress's Hideaway. And the figure at the bottom is the Sorceress (Boreas by John William Waterhouse) performing a spell in her cauldron.
Anyway, here is my process of making it. It took two days to finish making it.
And this was also the first time I've recorded myself doing embroidery, so I will be doing more in the future. 😉
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Have you done embroidery? If you met a sorceress how would you react?
Greetings fellow actors and Shakespeare enthusiasts!
I performed a version of "To Be or Not To Be" from Hamletin 2019. It's been three years since then and I have learned a lot more about Shakespeare (and video editing) since I first performed it. So, I recently revisited it and reworked it. This is the end result. I hope you enjoy it:
I've found that the way in which I approached the soliloquy was much different now than it was in 2019. In 2019 I focused more on the theme of death (I actually had a prop sword with me when performing it). But this time around I tried to be more philosophical. For example I asked myself, "what if I were to die, what then?" and "what happens after death?" There is of course, no right way to approach the soliloquy, but I find it interesting how the way in which I approached it has changed.
On a similar note, I actually made a video which you can watch here comparing the performances by placing them next to each other.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is your favorite Shakespeare play? And do you have a favorite character or part from Hamlet?
I wrote "Lead Me Astray" for a songwriting class. The prompt was to listen to a song, and base an original song on it after analyzing the lyrics. The song I ended up choosing was "You're Haunting Me" by BlackBriar, which then inspired a song about something being in the darkness, and the fear of the unknown.
I made a music video for it, and I tried to capture the feeling of "found footage" (footage that was filmed on a camera/phone that captures something paranormal).
But if you want to listen to the music without the video, you can do so by listening to this.
🎶 Lyrics🎶
Skeletal branches tap against my window frame,
Reaching out like they have have something to gain,
I don't feel the same,
The sounds of the night,
The pale lights,
Want to...lead me, lead me astray
But, I don't feel that way
Something in the darkness is there,
Wanting to lead me into its lair,
Voices in the darkness keep calling,
But I don't feel like following,
They tell me riches await,
If only I trust in fate.
Often stories were told,
Of creatures of old,
Wanting to lead travelers away in the night,
Those stories would give me a fright,
But, now I am down to my last light,
I feel my desire growing,
Because of my not knowing...
What is there,
I feel I have been caught in its snare,
As it leads me astray...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you saw a light in the darkness, would you follow it? Has music inspired your own songs and/or stories?
This took me a long time to make, because Premiere decided to have an error, then I finally fixed it and then another error popped up and I spent time fixing it. But, now I have finally finished it. So, I hope you enjoy it:
For those who don't know, Phoenix is one of the many main characters in an ensemble story. Unlike Annabelle who is the main character, Phoenix is one of many characters who each share the spotlight at different points throughout the novels. I haven't really introduced the other characters yet. But, you did get a sneak peek as to who one of the main characters is (i.e. Veraly) in this video.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you could dye your hair any color, what color would you dye it? And what is your favorite place in nature?
I decided to do another response to Ginny Di's POV (Point of View) RP (Roleplay) videos. There are now more videos to choose from: such as bard, a prison guard, and a mage. This time I decided to respond to the prison guard . In my last responses, I had my characters talking to a villain.
For Gletta, this happens in the prequel before Eyes in the Night takes place. Note, that I could not find a wig that matched her hair in canon, but, this doesn't mean her hair suddenly became shorter...It just means I do not have a wig that looks like her hair.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What would your characters (or you) do if they got arrested? Have you ever dressed up as one of your characters?
-Quinley
P.S. My YouTube Channel just reached 3,000 views!!
Right now, I can't wear costumes which is really frustrating to me. That is because the three different video projects I was working on before I had my surgery have costumes which are layered, which really wouldn't feel good with my incisions.
While recovering, I got the idea to do a dramatic reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." I decided to record my voice only, and have my voice do the acting instead of my body language and face.
I thought it would be fun to try and capture what I thought the unnamed narrator's room might look like (the area where the fireplace is, and not the chamber door). I also ended up adding in sound effects. I hope you enjoy it (I had a lot of fun making it):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What's your favorite poem of Edgar Allan Poe's? What would you do if you met the raven from the poem?
Yesterday (March 9th) was my blog's anniversary, and while I will be doing more posts like this (videos of me drawing digitally) in the future, I thought I'd introduce this new style of post through my blog's anniversary.
In the last post I shared a drawing of Phoenix that I was thinking of turning into a water color. I ended up not doing that, because I was worried I'd mess up the drawing.
While I didn't include this drawing in the last post, I thought I would recolor the drawing of Annabelle (above) that I thankfully had taken a picture of because the drawing got messed up.
I didn't make a post for the holiday season last year (2020), but that was because I had this post planned which took a little longer than I intended for it to take. Instead of one video I planned to post two. And with filming and video editing, uploading and everything, it took a lot longer than oringally I assumed it would.
Ginny Di has done three POV videos for Dungeons and Dragons character development: one that is a healer, one that is a matchmaker and one that is a villain. The videos are fun to watch, because they make you be in character and answer the questions in character, rather than answering the questions for your character. While these were originally intended for Dungeons and Dragons characters, I thought they would also work for the characters from my novels. Even though the villain video does mention a few Dungeons and Dragons terms it can still work really well in a Fantasy setting. So, I decided to use my two characters, Phoenix (from All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again) and Annabelle (The Lady Annabelle mystery series), and make them react separately to being interviewed by a villain.
In Phoenix's interview, this is long before he is working for Reyvon, so he has no job and is desperate at this point.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Who should get the job? (Annabelle or Phoenix) and why? And of the two of them, which do you think would be a better villain?
The Survey is still open, so you are still able to take the survey and help create a character if you didn't know about this or missed the post from earlier. I just wanted to use the answers I had already received to create a character and draw it. This doesn't mean this is the last character creation video I am going to make because I have others I am excited to do...
This was incredibly fun to make and Gaia is a type of character I've never created before. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is your favorite mystical creature? If you could control one element (Air, Earth, Water, Fire) which would you choose?
-Quinley
P.S. For people who are very busy and sitting down and watching a whole monologue would take up too much of your time, I've started posting excerpts along with full length monologues. My most recent one is excerpts from my monologues from Romeo and Juliet.
Hi everyone,
This is a contemporary monologue I worked on for a little bit. I have two other monologues that are from TV shows that I like that I'm working on but am not quite ready to film yet, I have them memorized but I have not gotten them to the point where they would be filmable.
Mind Trick is from a one act play, but I liked the monologue from it, and decided to use it.
The character in the monologue is nameless which means you can make up things about them because the writer gives you little to no information about the character other than the fact that they have weird thoughts. Also I found the monologue here. And the thing I decided to mostly explore with this character was how to portray the emotion I was feeling through my eyes and also be physical with my body in certain ways. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you relate to this monologue? Have you ever had weird thoughts?
-Quinley
P.S. I have a drawing video special coming up and I need your input for it because it relies on your (the reader's) answers, since I am creating a character using audience answers, if you want to take the survey you may take it here.
Hello fellow actors! I hope everyone is doing well, I know that COVID-19 can be scary.
But to lighten the mood, I thought I would do the acting related post I mentioned here.
This particular monologue I first memorized for a Shakespeare summer camp, where someone else and I each did half and half of it (and both played the different sides of Romeo). I played the negative side of Romeo while the person I was acting it with did the positive side. After the summer camp, I decided that I wanted to memorize the full monologue and work more on it. But I should say unlike To Be Or Not To Be which I have used for many auditions for Shakespeare shows, I have not used this one for an audition yet.
As for the filming of this, it took me many takes before I actually got an end result that I liked,
partly because I forgot the line "who is already sick and pale with grief" and without that, it completely changes the meaning of what Romeo is saying.
As for the role of Romeo, I very much enjoyed playing him, and I think it would be neat to play him in a full production of Romeo and Juliet and not just a single monologue or scene. Romeo is a neat character, a very love-sick one, but a neat character even so. And I find Romeo to be a more fun character to play than Juliet.
Also, in the future for more acting posts, I have a contemporary monologue memorized. I plan to film it as soon as I find the costume props I need for it. So, there will be a mix of Shakespearian and contemporary monologues and scenes on this blog.
The interview that I am currently filming and writing with two characters, who are my own, is currently a work in progress (I have only filmed a few scenes, and I have not finished writing the script for it). As for right now, I thought I'd post another monologue. This one I only used for one audition, and the character, Juliet, I was playing I did not like as much as I liked Hamlet or Mercutio or Romeo or Malvolio or Viola for that matter. However Juliet was an interesting character to get into the mind of, even if she isn't my favorite character.
Other things I plan to do in the future besides filming the character interview (and posting another version of To Be or Not To Be along with a few other monologues), will be to post some scenes from contemporary plays, movies, and TV shows. So, be sure to keep your eyes open for that! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who is your favorite character from Romeo and Juliet? Do you think Romeo and Juliet is a romance or a tragedy, or a mix of both?
-Quinley
Greetings Shakespeare enthusiasts and fellow actors, as well as writers, since it is November!
I've never recorded myself doing acting before or even acted in front of a green screen until recently, but it was very fun to do and I am going to do more videos like this in the future. (Hint: the next one will involve two of my own characters.)
As for the soliloquy, I've used it for one live performance and two auditions before I actually went ahead and recorded it. The interesting thing about this soliloquy is how many ways one can perform it. It can be done in an angry way, a sad way, a questioning way or an insane way. I've found that when I have done it, it changes and is improvised, but still the things I put into place are there: whether or not I actually think Hamlet is insane, what the inner meaning of "To be or not to be" is in my mind, and my character development of him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's your favorite Shakespeare or non-Shakespeare play? And what characters would you like to play? (Whether they be male or female)
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