The British Isles & Moon last night

The Moon and the British Isles

My sister and brother in law are in Europe at the moment (whose adventures can be found here), and while it is (almost) the furthest you can travel on this Earth from New Zealand (Spain is our antipode), I keep remembering that it is in not as far as many other places. Our Moon is about 5 times bigger than the British Isles, but the British Isles are 30 times closer to New Zealand. So, the picture above is what the British Isles would look like if they were instead in orbit around the Earth at a distance above New Zealand equal to the distance it is below it...

I had originally become excited that they would appear the same size in the sky through some (very strange) cosmic coincidence, but neglected to remember at the time that area is actually proportional to distance squared (The area of the British Isles is 30 times smaller than the visible two dimensional area of the Moon)

Two Moons, and Fourty Pence

The possible beginnings of a sci-fi adventure? (click for a bigger picture) Alternative history fascinates me, and thinking about how the world and its culture would have diverged if it had grown up with two moons is really interesting. There is a book out there which I haven't found yet that discuses these and other curious questions.

I also must share a beautiful video imagining perspectives from an Earth that has a ring system like that of Saturn.

The making of... The Legend of Korra

Because I had such fun making it, I took photos of the process too!


A collage of the various drawings before I was ready to colour - from the first sketch (far left) to the final ink (far right). But if you look closely, you can see where I modified the ink while I coloured (giving Korra a face for example)


The inking - I made blue prints to ink onto


The inspiration


The process


And the all important desk - which was my sisters and is very lovely.

(You can find the finished piece here!)

101010

Yesterday was the 10th of the 10th 2010, and to celebrate there was a magnificent sunset



(Was it a coincidence fellow space travellers that this day in binary was 42? I ask you)

Today is hailing hail, but luckily I am warm inside. I hope the blackbirds digging around in our garden are not too cold (and those students in poorly insulated flats too)

Avatar: The Legend of Korra

So, this year I was introduced to Avatar: The Last Airbender And then I learned that the next Avatar series was coming and I was a little bit excited to make a short story based around what I imagined might happen in it. It is to be set in a metropolis that is similar to 1920's/ 30's Hong Kong or Shanghai. I hope you like it! I enjoyed making it.