Once Upon a Time in the 'Quest...

Categories: artwork, events

Tags: DrawQuest

Date: 17 July 2013 07:42:34

As occasionally mentioned I'm a huge fan of tablet art and all it delivers to many more people than had ever drawn before. One of the apps that does the balancing act of bring a balanced set of tools to as many people as possible - unthreateningly and delightfully - is DrawQuest. There are some fabulous artists spring up through the community it has created and, if I may put my top hat and monocle on for a second, it's a jolly good wheeze.

One of the more fun aspects - sadly one I've not been able to take part in as much as I'd like as work has been so hectic at the moment* - are the subquests. Posted through twitter or in the unofficial DQ forum the theme of the day is added to and further convoluted for those who've used the app and fancy even more of a challenge.

Which brings me to this. It started innocently enough, if artistic dismemberment can be seen in any form of gentle beginnings. Iolanthe suggested that she wanted the finger of another artist as her new stylus. I suggested that I would steal Mr Chris' nose. Others got in on the act too...

Which leads to this, primarily drawn (but not always) in DrawQuest by Mr Chris and Mr Kercal. I think this nose joke may run and run... :)










... and one of the most wonderful things about all of this? All done yesterday. Started on the bus going into town and then doodled off and on through the night. Tablet artwork really is a liberating and speedy method of creating art.


The stylus I went into battle with? Well, I've blogged about styli before (and will do so again soon I think) but the one I chose is my very much loved Nomad Compose Cobalt short hair. Love it (although, on a quick flick through the Nomad page on t'web it seems that they've gone more Flex centric which I'll have to play with more I think :) )


To, I suspect, be, I really hope, continued... Watch this space, but don't expect this many pics every day :)


And now, sorry; a brief bit of politics:


*UKGov is so fixated on league charts and constantly upping stats and figures with a more difficult target every year to hit that three of my colleagues this year in further ed have had heart attacks. Of course the rapidly rising stress levels and constantly changing benchmarks, not to mention the vilification of teachers who don't teach in a cookie cutter - methodical manner - is in no way related, I'm sure, surely? The Government would consider teachers, their emotional wellbeing and their workload when they change the entire framework of the varying syllabi every single year. And of course the Government is held accountable to the same stringent standards as teachers - where 96% success is seen as being good and not outstanding and so on and so forth?


That said - for the benefit of my health, I'm beginning to look outside of teaching (or at least full time teaching) for my next adventure. Gove, Clegg, Cameron et al? You're successfully destroying education in the UK like no one before you. Every witty league table you come up with steals time away from teaching. Every penny pinching pound saved diminishes the outcome and effectiveness in the classroom. Everything you do? Well, you do it for you. And not for education. And certainly not for the students. If that was your intention - Well Done. You've succeeded at something.


The teaching news of the day was that every 11 year old will now be ranked in order of how good they are. How can that be good in any way, shape or form whatsoever? Every teacher in the world knows which students need the most help, the problem is that we're all so busy checking this hundred page document and dividing it by that seventy page national standards document to give ourselves a percentage score of effectiveness against the ALP MEG VA scores against benchmark average to be put into the 30 page excel document that will be used as evidence against us. Teaching, according to those in charge, comes quite far down the list.


That said? Despite the crap I still had 85% A and B grades for my A level guys... but then again I'm also frequently told I'm not doing enough. Hey ho. (Of the lower grades 2 had developed serious drug dependencies, one had a serious, possibly terminal illness and had to return home, one was autistic and one had a baby mid way through the last term. All still passed, but OMG the stats? Think of the STATS!!!)