by Matthew | Mar 14, 2014 | Friday Mashup |
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to the Friday Mashup! Who is ready to mash?
On Saturday, we asked you “If you could build a castle, where would you put it, and who would you be trying to keep out? Or who would you be trying to keep safe inside?” Here’s what you had to say:
Abigail says she would put her castle right next to her house where her teachers can stay so she can have a sleepover party with ms. Diana and ms. Becky. Her castle would be made of sparkles and painted blue and called ala. Only friends from school can get on and the password to get in is “open”. Clever.
Abigail, you are good to include your teachers in your castle plans. Usually teachers only get to hang out in the teacher’s lounge, and I’m sure Ms. Diana and Ms. Becky will be extremely grateful. And maybe they’ll bring some apples. One tip, though, if you want to keep undesirables out of your castle, you probably shouldn’t publish the secret password on blogs.
Phoebe wants to build her castle right here and it is going to look like Elsa’s ice castle. Elsa can come in the castle but Sleeping Beauty may not.
Phoebe! I am familiar with the castle of which you speak, being the father of small children and being forced, I mean lucky enough, to see Frozen five times in the theater plus six more times on the iPad. Also: I totally respect you drawing a line between hip and contemporary princesses and old school (and not quite as awesome) princesses. I mean, all Sleeping Beauty did was sleep. What’s up with that? Elsa can freeze anything. Even her sister’s heart! Can anyone give me an A-W-E-S-O-M-E?
Harry says: If I could build a castle, I would keep my family and my dinosaurs safe inside. I would be Knight Harry riding on a horse. My Research Dinosaur would be the dragon that protects the castle. We will keep out Slagal, the car stealer from the Hardy Boys. My “dragon” will cast a spill and make the castle invisible and sound-proof whenever Slagal comes around so my dinosaurs can stump as loud as they want. And the gong farmer will take care of all the dinosaur poo-poo.
Harry! Your approach is so well thought out. I’m jealous of the resources at your disposal. I lack, for example, a Research Dinosaur, and therefore all I have to protect my castle/barn is a neurotic Weimaraner and a blind, incontinent cat. But what I really want is a gong farmer, because (dog, cat, toddler) boy oh boy is there a lot of poo around here. Not dinosaur poo, mind you, but when it comes down to it, poo is poo and I’d love to outsource its removal.
And here, my friends, is Harry’s castle and Research Dinosaur. The identity of other figures is less clear to me. Which, for example, is Slagal and which is the gong farmer? Some mysteries are better left preserved.
On Tuesday, we asked for pictures of castles. Here’s what you sent us!
Huck built a castle from legos!
Huck! A treacherous moat! A terrifying black tower! A working drawbridge! A cleverly hidden treasure chest! A dude in a baseball cap sneaking in when no one is looking (except for those two people right behind him, I mean)! This castle is amazing! It’s as if you have imagination, vision, intelligence, and mechanical aptitude all rolled up in one. You must have exceptional parents. What’s that you say? Your dad ALSO builds incredible things out of Legos?
Let’s have a look.
Steve (dad of Huck)! It’s almost unfair that so much Lego-building prowess be devoted to one family. Are you guys Master Builders? Do you know Wildstyle? Is Emmet really as boring-yet-AWESOME as he seems? Steve, I love your flying castle with tubes, flags, and cannons. And I love that you guys spent time building castles together this week.
Here is a castle from Phoebe:
Phoebe, I love your drawing. The dark black lines, the rich and saturated colors. The birds (or are they bats?) flying in the sky above the towers, a kind of warning to those who might attempt invasion. This is really lovely work. Thank you for sending it to us.
Here is a castle from Harry with dragons added:
Harry, thanks so much for adding these dragons. When Robbi finished her drawing, I knew it needed dragons, and I wanted to tell her, but I also didn’t want to hurt her feelings because she was so (mistakenly) convinced that the drawing was complete without dragons. But you have so thoroughly made my point for me that I don’t have to tell her now (though I secretly hope she sees your drawing and is like, “Dangola, I secretly knew there was something missing and that something was dragons, and gosh, I should probably hire Harry to sit next to my desk all day long and point out all the stuff it doesn’t occur to me to put in my drawings”).
Which leads me to this important question, Harry: What’s your hourly rate?
Here’s what Thalia had to say about her picture:
“I made a castle and everyone wants to play near it because it’s so fun. There’s a little girl with glasses, balloons, a Ferris wheel and a dragon castle, which means that there is a dragon head on top of a castle body. There’s also a chick and the sun is shining. The little girl wants to go on the Ferris wheel and she is almost there even though she can’t see too well. I didn’t want her to have glasses but then I realized her eyes were too big and one was out of the head, so I decided they could be glasses instead. Now I need to go make a tower out of magnets.”
Thalia: Excellent work! And not just your drawing, which I love, but also your writing, which combines several of my favorite literary conventions: free association, meta-awareness and non sequitur. Also: I really hope that little girl gets that eye back in her head. If only so she can admire your magnet tower, which is, I am sure, quite something.
Here’s a story and drawing from Harvey:
A long long time ago there were 2 castles. Their names are Rotter Defeater and Helper Bomb. One castle lives on top of the mountain. The other castle lives on the ocean. Helper Bomb is golden color. And the people who lived in it are helpful. Rotter Defeater has black color. The people who live there act rotten.
Inside Helper Bomb, there are people. Their names are King Harmon, Queen Harmony, Prince Henry, and Princess Holly. There is a golden dragon and robot. The dragon helps by putting fire on logs so the people could roast marshmallows and put fire in the air so people could see in the dark. The robot invents things for the citizens.
Inside Rotter Defeater there are people too. Their names are King Rabadash, Queen Raven, Prince Rafaya, and Princess Roan. There is a dragon and a giant. The dragon destroys by spitting ice to freeze people and squeeze people and throw them to a giant. The giant kills by throwing them out of the castle.
King Rabadash and Queen Raven started the fight. First they sent a big land storm to crush the garden tools. Then they sent a big dragon that spits ice to freeze the plants. And they sent big clouds to block the sun so the plants could not grow. King Harmon did not want to fight; he wanted peace. But he had no choice.
To be continued….
And here are the illustrations that go with Harvey’s story.
Harvey, your story and drawings are really amazing. I hope you realize that what you’re doing is making a book. I hope that you do continue this story and I hope that when you’re done, you’ll send this to us, because the story is interesting, and the illustrations are really excellent.
Here are a few specific things I’d like to say about your work:
The names of your castles delight me.
You’ve set up quite a compelling conflict. Which makes me want to read more and find out what happens next.
This sentence is one of my very favorite “Then they sent a big land storm to crush the garden tools.” I could not imagine a sentence so wonderful on my own. That sentence had to come from your head. I’m so glad I got a chance to read it.
Here are Harvey, Harry, Melody, Valerie and Paxon coloring in Robbi’s castles:
To which I say, EXCELLENT! Seeing these photos of all you guys coloring her drawings makes Robbi smile. What she probably does not realize is that each and every one of you is adding all the things she forgot to add when she drew that lonely castle all by itself. Whether it’s dragons, or unicorns, or three-legged dinosaurs, or great big piles of chewing gum, or a gong farmer doing his important job. Adults are good for getting things started. But it’s kids and their incredible, boundless, unspoiled minds that make the world extraordinary.
So thanks to all of you.
And now, it is my pleasure to announce this week’s winner of the Bobbledy Theme Week Trophy for castles…
This was SO HARD because SO MANY OF YOU did SUCH AMAZING WORK.
But we are suckers for collaboration (which means to work together with someone else to make something that neither of you could have made by yourself; it’s what Robbi and I do about 99 percent of the time, because without each other, Robbi and I are basically no more capable than a gong farmer), and so, congratulations Huck and Huck’s dad Steve! We can’t wait to see how you collaborate on coloring in this trophy.
Thanks to everyone for sending us your stuff. We remain ever humbled by the chance to put your pictures and stories on our site.
Check back tomorrow for the new theme, which rhymes with “bling.”
by Robbi | Mar 11, 2014 | Drawing Prompts |
Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday, the day to be DRAWING.
So, last night I was trying to think of something to draw for this drawing prompt. Obviously, it should be some sort of castle. And I really wanted to have a bunch of beach balls in the picture, because I loved how in Matthew’s story from yesterday the castle just gets locked up with all the beach balls inside. But I didn’t want to draw them inside the castle, because then you couldn’t see them. So, I decided to put them in the moat (where beach balls feel most at home).
Then it was time for the castle. Whenever I have ever drawn castles, they haven’t felt nearly as majestic as they should. They felt kind of more like wobbly forts that were hastily thrown together because an enemy was coming and there happened to be lots of big blocks of granite lying around – big blocks of granite that weren’t quite square and didn’t really fit together very well. Anyway, I started by looking at some castle pictures online.
I noticed that a lot of the castles I really like aren’t symmetrical. So, I drew some turrets on one side, behind a kind of outside wall. And a big building with lots of windows for meetings and dinners and whatnot.
It seemed a little empty. But I didn’t just want to draw a bunch more turrets in. I thought of some of my favorite turrets in the world, the ones on St. Basil’s Cathedral in Russia.
Aren’t they the coolest?! I would make my whole house out of cool turrets if I could. So I added a couple of those onion turrets:
And since I was now getting ideas from everywhere, why not a japanese castle?
(If you like japanese castles, you need to check out THIS LINK)
Alright, so now it was pretty much a free-for-all. What else could I add? Well, a modern day castle of sorts, my favorite, the Chrysler Building in New York City. And, a kind of Arc de Triomph in front of it. There’s also something in there that looks like the Reunion Tower in Dallas, or maybe it’s the Kuala Lumpur Tower in Malaysia, or maybe it’s the smaller of the Kuwait Towers, but without the spire? I’m not sure which it is, because I drew it out of my head without looking at a picture, but I was pretty sure I had seen something like it at some point.
And, alright, why not throw in a pyramid and another turret while I’m at it? And a gigantic banner, blowing in the breeze?
And, as a final touch to top it all off, the Eiffel Tower:
By now it was around 10 at night and I hadn’t really even started painting yet. Oy! But I couldn’t stop now. All of the drawing so far had been done on my computer, so I printed it out so I could trace the lines in ink. My new desk is a giant light table, which means it has a glass top and light shines through from below so I can see through my paper and trace it. This is an old illustrator’s trick – don’t feel bad about tracing! Everyone does it!
An hour and a half later (I know! That took a long time!) I was done tracing. And then it was time to paint. You wouldn’t believe what a bunch of tiny little spaces I had to paint for this one! I got out my tiniest brush and went at it. And I didn’t finish until three in the morning. I do not recommend this approach for your drawings!
But here it is, all done:
WHEW! Even though it took a long time, I had a lot of fun doing it.
If you’re interested in coloring in your own version, CLICK HERE for a coloring page you can download. Just be warned, there are LOTS of tiny little details to color in! It takes some patience (but tiny detailed coloring pages were always my favorite as a kid).
So, alright. That was my night last night, which makes me all the more excited to see what YOU guys come up with.
Please share your drawings in the comments below or using #bobbledycastle on instagram. And if you can, tell me where you got your ideas from – a story, a real castle somewhere, a photo you saw or something you remember. The great thing about drawing is that you can mash everything together and come up with something that nobody else could have come up with. Go to it!
Oh, and also, if you’re interested in bidding for the original of this drawing, you can do it HERE on eBay – the auction ends on Sunday the 16th at 12:30PM EST.
by Matthew | Mar 10, 2014 | Writing Prompt |
Happy Monday, everyone. Today I have written a story about castles. Because, as I’m sure you already know, the theme of the week is castles.
Perhaps you are already working on your stories about castles. Stories about people who build castles, or dragons who try to steal the gold from castles, or miserable princesses trapped in the highest towers of castles. Or perhaps something entirely different that could only come out of your head. I can’t wait.
In the mean time, here’s my story.
The Kid in the Castle
By Matthew Swanson
A kid had a castle. The castle was full of beach balls that he didn’t want to share with anyone else. The kid kept the castle gates shut and filled the moat with sea monsters.
A bunch of other kids heard about the beach balls and wanted to play with them. So they rounded up their dogs and cats and hamsters and decided to attack the castle.
The first challenge was the moat. The sea monsters were terrifying. They had multiple heads and so many sharp teeth.
“Eek!” said one girl, who was so scared that she fell in the moat. “Oh no!” said the other kids. But one of the sea monsters scooped her up and put her gently back on dry land.
“I guess these are friendly sea monsters,” said the kids as they swam across the moat.
“Drat,” said the kid in the castle.
The kids had brought a hammer to break down the door. But the door was really strong.
The kids brought a ladder to climb the castle walls. But the walls were really high.
The kid in the castle looked down and laughed.
The kids outside the castle were out of ideas.
“How about you just let us in?” they said.
“No way,” said the kid in the castle.
“Then, I guess we’re not going to get those beach balls after all,” they said. They were all pretty disappointed.
But one of them, a lanky girl named Elaine, had an idea. “We don’t actually have to mope,” she said. “Let’s have lots of fun instead. Like the most fun we’ve ever had in our lives.”
The kids agreed that having lots of fun was better than feeling sorry for themselves. So they had fun. They danced recklessly, they played games like hamster shuffle and duck duck goose and throw the hammer, and they put on plays about the surprising things that happened in outer space.
The kid in the castle looked down and felt lonely.
Eventually, he climbed down the castle stairs and opened the castle gate. “You guys can come inside,” he said. “There’s plenty of beach balls for everyone.”
But no one really heard him. Everyone was having too much fun to notice. They had forgotten about the kid in the castle. They had forgotten about the beach balls entirely.
The kid with the castle didn’t know what to do, so he decided to go back inside. But the door had locked behind him.
He tried to break down the door, but the door was too strong.
He tried to climb the walls, but the walls were too high.
And so he decided to just have fun. And instead of saying “No way,” the other kids let him. Because they had learned what he had learned, that moats and doors and walls are not nearly as fun as a game of hamster shuffle.
And after that, no one tried to get into that castle. And it was eventually converted into a dentist’s office.
And that’s my story. What about yours? Just post it to the comments below so that we can all read what you come up with. Happy writing!
by Robbi | Mar 8, 2014 | Theme of the Week |
Here’s what I know about castles: they’re old, they’re made out of stone, they have towers and dungeons, and they’re completely awesome.
I got my first castle when I was 7. It was probably the greatest present I ever got (thanks, Dad!). It had three towers, a drawbridge (that actually worked) and a bunch of knights and horses. And the best part…?
I got to build it myself.
But when I sat down to write this post about castles, I realized that I didn’t know a lot about how real castles actually worked. And so I did some research. Which involved reading a bunch of stuff on the internet. Actually, Robbi did all of the research for me while I took a nap. And now I get to do the fun stuff, which is sharing it with you. HINT: When you are in high school and have to write research papers, see if Robbi will do the research for you while you take a nap.
But what are castles FOR? In addition to looking awesome, their primary role is to keep the people inside safe and to keep the people who want to get inside the castle OUT.
Apparently, the best place to build your castle is on top of a hill.
That way, the people who are trying to get into your castle will already be tired by the time they get there (especially if they are wearing a bunch of heavy armor) (which castle-storming folks are typically inclined to do). This is Hohenzollern Castle in Germany.
Another great idea when building a castle is to give it a moat—which is a bunch of water that surrounds the castle—making it difficult to push ladders or battering rams or excitable horses right up against the walls. Some moats are like little rivers all around the base of the castle.
And some castles take the moat idea to the extreme, basically getting an entire ocean involved:
Yes, Mont St. Michel castle in France has the best moat ever. Nowadays there’s a road that you can drive on to get there, but back in the old days, the only way to get there was by walking across at low tide. At high tide, it was totally surrounded by water.
As for the castle door, it’s often protected by a portcullis, which is an awesome-looking gate which could be raised and lowered with a huge crank.
This is not to be mistaken for Robbi, who is another kind of “huge crank” if I wake her up too early in the morning. I’m talking about a big wheel that’s attached to a chain that’s attached to the portcullis and makes it go up and down.
It’s true that most castles are made out of stone.
For obvious reasons. Castles made out of marshmallows wouldn’t cause enemies much difficulty (though it could give them a stomach ache potentially, should they decide to EAT their way in).
Because they are made of stone, castles are cold and drafty in winter and hot and stuffy in summer. Because they were originally built for protection, they weren’t very comfortable (it was only later when they weren’t as necessary for protection that they became fancy with grand ballrooms and chandeliers and whatnot).
Because people sometimes had to stay in the castle for a long time (while other people tried their hardest to get in), there had to be stocks of food, animals, and most importantly water, which might be stored underground and lifted up to sinks and bathtubs with an awesome-looking machine (with a slightly smaller, but still very important crank) (also not Robbi).
Protecting the water supply was the most important. Many castles were defeated because the enemies somehow got access to and poisoned the water supply, which is not very nice, for the record. But people are not always nice. Something to keep in mind when deciding where to put your water supply.
Sometimes there are multiples walls to get through. Here is Beaumaris Castle in Wales, for example.
I bet it was very discouraging to get through that FIRST wall only to discover a SECOND wall. If I were an invader, I would probably just give up at that point, even if the inner wall were made out of marshmallows.
As you can see in the picture above, castles have lots of towers so that you can look out for enemies coming from any direction.
Originally, towers were square, but eventually, castle builders started making them round because when there were square, the enemies found out that if you dig out from under one corner, it would eventually tip over. Round towers are much more stable.
Here’s something interesting: In all those round towers, the stairwells run clockwise, and this is quite deliberate. (Here’s a spiral staircase from Blarney Castle in Ireland).
Since most post people are right-handed, when the invaders were going up the stairs, this arrangement made it difficult to swing their swords (which were in their right hands) and very easy to tip over because there was nothing to hold onto to keep them from tumbling down the stairs. BUT, the defenders of the castle who were coming DOWN the stairs could lean back against the wall while swinging their swords ahead of them with confidence. Basically, this was a huge advantage to the people who were defending the castle. Kind of like home-court advantage in a basketball game.
Also, castles have lots of hallways and tunnels and secret passages to give you different ways to escape.
Because if someone does manage to climb up your hill and get over your moat and through your portcullis and through your inner marshmallow walls, it’s unlikely that they are just coming to share chocolate chip cookies.
Another thing about castles: in spite of what you might think from watching Disney movies, the old ones did not have luxurious accommodations. They were basically just a place to hang out until whoever was trying to get in got tired and went away. As such, the bathrooms were kind of…rustic. As in, no toilet seat. And no flushing. Just a hole that you sat on.
But at least there was a nice window.
I’m guessing that most of you are familiar with THIS castle, built for a princess named Cinderella a long, long time ago.
Ok, this castle was actually built by the Disney Corporation, but still, it’s quite something. It gets a prize for taking the whole tower idea to all new levels. I’m guessing that there’s not a lot of fighting in the stairwells.
Here’s the actual castle that inspired Cinderella’s: Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (those Germans sure built nice castles).
Technically, Cinderella’s Castle and Neuschwanstein Castle are both palaces and not castles. Castles were built for defense and daily life (vs. forts, which are just for defense), and palaces are more for living and entertainment, not defense. Which is why castles were crowded and stuffy and uncomfortable and palaces are fancy and such.
We don’t have castles in America, because our country is too new. For the most part, castles are from a time in history before America was formed, when people had to protect their stuff from the next marauding horde. Now we have a three-part government structure of checks and balances to settle our our internal difficulties. That, however, is a theme for another week.
But we do have one notable castle (which is actually a forgettable string of MANY castles).
If you’ve never been to White Castle, you’re probably better for it. But this uniquely American establishment is known for serving little tiny (and awful-tasting) cheeseburgers.
There are no towers, there is no moat, and as far as I know, no portcullis.
And I’m not sure why anyone would want to invade the White Castle. Perhaps to use the restroom? I’m guessing that the toilets there do have seats. Though I can’t swear to it.
Thanks so much for stopping by to learn about castles with us.
We’ll leave you with this parting question:
If you could build a castle, where would you put it, and who would you be trying to keep out? Or who would you be trying to keep safe inside?
Post your answers in the comments below! And stop by later this week to read my story and see Robbi’s drawing and take the KidQuiz!
