Scribe's Realm

Happy news! The Castle is now officially open to visitors! I would like to invite all to come visit the website, where I will be putting up stories and photos. I hope to bring more in time, so make sure you keep updated on it all by going there...  Onward, to the Castle !

The Throne Room (or Contact Me) photo manipulation for The Castle is complete ( see it here )! I like seeing how my abilities increase just a little every time I work on something new. I am definitely faster and more at ease to create certain moods and effects. My only issue is that I am not sure about how to create different effects. I got the photos for this photo manipulation here: Background Carpet Knight Statue Ivy 1 Ivy 2 Mural Stars Let me know what you think of this!

This is the image for The Castle's Main Hall | About Me page. It took around one and a half full work shift to finish and it is definitely the biggest photo manipulation I have attempted. Once again, this is not how I envisioned the result, but I am proud of it nonetheless. Why This? Considering that this image is meant to be of the Main Hall of The Castle, it is quite strange that it is an outside view. All the images of the Castle so far has been of the inside (or the map of the Kingdom). In order to give all Castle Dwellers a better idea of their home, there needs to be a better view of everything around them. Therefore, by choosing an outside image, I hope that everyone can better imagine what the Castle is like both inside and outside. Further, I also felt the need to work on a fantasy landscape. For that reason, I chose to create a view from the Main Hall balcony instead. Resources Used Background   Clouds Balcony   Deer   Waterfall   Left Mountain   Right

The Grand Gallery photo manipulation image for The Castle is finally completed! This is literally the biggest photo manipulation task I have taken on. If you would like to try your own hand at something like this, I used these images: Background   Chandelier   Horse Statue   Angel Statues   Curtains   Carpet The two images used as the gallery artwork can be found here and here . I made this using Gimp and my mouse. My next one is an even bigger one and will hopefully be even better! I'm still struggling to get the effect exactly as I want it, but I can't complain about the end result. Let me know your thoughts on this photo manipulation below!

Well, as the name of this post suggests, we are moving... again, and we are not happy about it. This is a complete mess-up with plenty of lies from our agent. But this is not meant to be a rant, so rather look at this: I made this specially for you and I hope you like it. It was fun playing around with different effects on Gimp to see what it will do to the artwork. I had a specific result in mind, but as usual this ended up different than anticipated. If there is one thing I have learnt so far, it is that you will never get it exactly perfect, but it doesn't mean you won't be happy with it. But back to the move. Since I must move and therefore also move my internet, I might be offline at some point. The internet might be moved within the same week I move or it might take weeks (but they told us it will take a week only). Heads up. You are not forgotten and I didn't suddenly become lazy or sick. I hope you have a fantastic day and if you would like, tell me about y

Hmm, is it dreamt or dreamed ? This is once again one of those cases where people can't help but get confused. My spellchecker for one, tells me that dreamt is a spelling mistake. Yet, many of you have heard of both these forms. Both are after all the past tense of dream.  Of Dreams I Dreamt Dreamt  is just as acceptable as dreamed . Merriam Webster has both these forms under dream.  This can be considered as a little strange, as few words have two past tenses. But, even when it is acceptable, dreamt isn't used as much as dreamed . Dreamt  is used about 7 times less in American English than dreamed , whereas dreamt  in British English is used only 2.5 times less than dreamed . See it  here  and  here  on an ngram graph. Still, the point stands that dreamt  drew the short end of the straw. It is clear that it is used more in British English than in American English. Does this make dreamt the British version? I Dreamed a Dream The Collins Dictionary  had th

Hmm, is it awhile  or a while ? I can't remember now. Even the best language heroes get a little confused every once in a while. If you get stuck like that sometimes, this might help you remember which word to use in which situation. Is There Such a Thing as Awhile ? Awhile  is considered as old English. More often than not people write awhile  as a while , as is the more modern practice. Some people, who are comfortable with the correct usage of awhile , will use it as it should be. Using either awhile  or a while  is acceptable in certain situations, but it's not recommended.  Awhile is an adverb and therefore needs to take that role (and that role only) in a sentence. While , however, can take different forms. While on Its Own When while  stands alone, it can have a different meaning than when it stands in a cluster of words. Think about these two sentences: I will stand in the rain for a while . I will stand in the rain while I wait for my friend. The first

This Final Fantasy XV glitch proves that Ignis is a fantastic driver. It also shows that the four friends can keep calm (and unhurt) in almost any situation...

Since last week's post was on believe or belief , I decided to ask whether it's believe in , believe on  or believe that . All of these are correct and do get used. The questions are when, where, why and how. Here it is in what I hope is the simplest way to explain it and the easiest way to remember it. Believe In and Believe That Correlation A certain professor, H. H. Price , came to the conclusion that there is a difference between believe in  and believe that . To him, it came down to this, “Surely belief-in is an attitude to a person, whether human or divine, while belief-that is just an attitude to a proposition?” This makes perfect sense considering the words in and that . Personally, in  sounds a lot more involved and personal, whereas that  seems distant. Get that  away from me. Come on in . That might just be me though. However, this view might make things easier. What if this thinking was indeed the correct manner? To believe in someone is intimate. If you

This beautiful Burnet moth made it as our photo of the week purely because of it's character and colour. It refused to move away and my wife happily placed it out of the dog's reach. We believe this is a Burnet moth. These moths are actually active in the day, unlike most other moths. Luckily, they are common and not endangered.

Should I use believe  or belief ? This question can keep you from writing that last sentence for the day. It can be so irritating when you're tired and almost done with your work, but that one word is making your head spin. From now on, you should never need to wonder whether you should use believe or belief ever again. To Believe I believe that at the end of this post, you will have a better understanding of the word believe . Look at the next sentence: I believe in aliens. If you believe in something, you are doing an action. When a word takes on the role of describing an action, that word is a verb . This means that believe  is a verb. Change believe in  in the above sentence to a different verb, such as chase. I chase aliens. All you need to do is substitute a verb in a sentence with believe  or belief. If the sentence sounds strange to you, you probably used the wrong one. For example: I belief in aliens. That hardly makes any sense, right? Just say the sente

This photo was meant to be a typical flower close-up, but instead a innocent bug got caught in the spotlight. We chose this photo because of the timely chance of getting a little insect in on the fun. The flower's beauty is definitely a bonus too.

Last week's post was the reveal of the Castle , my new website. Today, is the grand reveal of my Queen. Queen Lazaria the 7th, as she is called, is the strength behind everything I do. She is also the only person between the two of us who has a story ready for you (but now she is waiting for me to finish the artwork and cover...). Here she is: If you wondered why I am missing most of the time, it is because this image alone took me around two working shifts (8 hours each) to complete. I am slow and can't really draw. I had to trace to get the proportions right. However, I am working on learning proper proportions! I will reveal more images soon!

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were an orange? It would be pretty much like this photo. It's colourful, bright, beautiful. but short. Underneath this tree was an army of rotten oranges. Plenty of them were decorated with stab wounds from hungry birds. Do you still wonder about life as an orange?

Since I missed last week's "photo of the week" post, I decided to post one today. Our photo of the week is "Tower in the Sky". This beautiful architectural tower is actually a church bell. On our recent trip to Estepona, we spent the day roaming the streets. We came across this church in a courtyard. The pigeons regard it as their home and people regards it as a place of peace.

Hi guys! I do apologise for the lack of Photo of the Week this week. The past two days were a panic as fires ravaged South Africa. My mind was not exactly on my photography. There are a few deaths, two of which were children and one a pregnant woman. This is the photo that appears on The New York Times.  The above photo, which appears on The New York Times , is accompanied with a video, showing the struggle and devastation the fire caused. It is therefore not a surprise at all when Knysna was classed as a disaster area. The Storm-Driven Winds Winds did not help the firefighters in their battle against the fires. These winds are from a result of a massive storm that hit Cape Town only a few days ago (a storm that also claimed lives). It was only once the wind died down they could hope to bring out the helicopters to help. Plenty of calls for prayers and messages explaining the problems flooded Whatsapp. These were terrifying to hear, as they mentioned Knysna inhabitants were

I recently mentioned that I am working on my Castle. The Castle is my new website. I am still building it, but I want to tell you what I am doing with it and what exactly you can expect from it. Get to It! What is The Castle? The Castle is a place where we all can express ourselves artistically. You are able to comment and send your items in for review. If it is accepted, I will put it onto the website for others to view. There is plenty of ideas and plans for the website. All of these ideas are explained on the website itself, which you can view here .  The reason I am telling you about it now, before the website is complete, is because of two reasons: Suggestions This website is for all of us. I don't want to build this Castle and the only person really happy with it is me. We should all enjoy it and feel part of it. This is why I say that the Castle is our place of creativity. I want you to tell me what you would like and don't like.  Remember: Just

Our chosen photo of the week is The Blue Arrow . This flower radiates calm colours, yet its harsh, sharp design contradicts the softness. We chose this photo because of the interesting lines and colours. Nature knows best when it comes to design and contrast. If anyone knows what kind of flower this is, please let us know in the comments below! Check back next week for our next photo of the week. If you want to keep up to date without any of the manual hassles, we have set up a feed for you. Feel free to subscribe to email updates (on top) or our feed (on the side). Or you can follow us here: Pinterest Twitter Google+ Instagram DeviantArt

Today's grammar-focused question is: Should I use further or farther ? As writers, we want people to enjoy our books. Even though readers would not necessarily care whether you use further  or farther , it might affect readability if used incorrectly. This is why I thought it is best to help you decide on which one to use. Does "further" or "farther" tell you about distance? There has been plenty of discussions about these two words. They are often regarded as equals, which can be used interchangeably. Yet there are a few posts I have come across in my research who can easily say how they differ. As always, it is best we know much before we come to a decision. Further and Farther in UK English It's well-known that US and UK English differs. There is no exception with the use of further  and farther . The Oxford Dictionary has this to say: Both words share the same roots. [T]here is no difference in meaning, and both are equally correct. Furth

The Rock of Gibraltar is something to admire, and has made it as our photo of the week pick. This photo shows the beauty of not only the British Territory, but also of Spain. Spain is known for its large, seemingly never-ending beaches. This picture captures that beach, as it winds its way to the Rock. The Rock of Gibraltar made it as our photo of the week. It has a beautiful Spanish beach stretching to reach it.  Other versions of this photo can also be viewed on Instagram ( here , here  and  here ), Pinterest  and DeviantArt ( here , here and here ). Follow us if you don't want to miss a photo of the week! See you again next week for the next photo of the week.

This week I want to bring you something different. I had a week off work and I have plenty of photos I want to put up for you on all my social media. This photography category is called "Life in Strange Places". As the name suggests, I found plants growing in abnormal places and I decided to take some photos of it. You can view them on my Instagram , DeviantArt and Pinterest . Here are four of the six photos: You can use these photos as you see fit as stock photos (you can download them on DeviantArt ).

For our photo of the week, we bring you Purple Lament. On one of our many walks around the neighbourhood, we spotted these flowers on the side of the rocks. We took only three pictures of it, but this picture stood out to us. We thought this flower represents our blog quite well, as it is a royal purple colour. Purple Lament has vivid colours, which won its place as our photo of the week. We hope you enjoy our chosen photograph. If you want to see more of this photo, you can view it on DeviantArt ( here and here ) and Instagram (There is two photo, so make sure to look at both  here ). You can also buy it as a print on DeviantArt. See you next week for another photo of the week!

Should I use pled or pleaded as the past tense of plea? Neither of these two are necessarily wrong, which can make the decision harder to make. Here are a few technical aspects to help you make your decision. Pled, is it a Mistake? Every writing tool I have used since researching and writing this post told me that pled  is nothing but a spelling mistake. Even though this post would have been a lot shorter if I could just say "Don't use 'pled', as it's a spelling mistake", it's not necessarily true. Pled  is mentioned as a colloquial past tense form in the AP Stylebook, and in other modern books, pleaded is considered the better choice. Pled  is also used in some text, such as in the U.S Supreme court (you can read about the study here ). However, the amount it is used is considerably less than pleaded's usage. So, Should I Use Pled or Pleaded? Although certain parts of the world accepts  pled  with open arms, it is used in the minorit

I made a skin colour palette for digital art today, which I thought I will share with you guys. If you ever find yourself trying to make a realistic digital painting, you can use these colours to make the skin of the person. Just keep mixing these colours until you have the correct shades you want to use. I'll be using this for the characters I am busy drawing! You can download this palette on DeviantArt . I look forward to share the first character with you once I am done with her!

The Ant on the Sand shows that we don't always have to look for something grand to shoot. Sometimes something small in a large empty space can make quite an impact. The contrast between the sand and ant made this our choice for the week. We hope you enjoy the photo! If you want to see another photo of this ant, be sure to visit our DeviantArt ( here and here ) and Instagram ( here and here ) pages. Just remember that the photos here are untouched. The other versions are usually enhanced in some way. See you again next week for another photo of the week!

When to use who or whom can be either complicated or simplistic. It is always best to know the rules and thus the complicated version before you go for the easy, cheat version. This way, you will know you are right, every time. When to Use Who or Whom: Know your Grammar The complicated version calls for our memories of English grammar classes; those classes we slept through. To know who and whom , you need to know their place in the English language. Welcome back to your English class. Study hard! Who and Whoever: The Subjective Pronouns "Subjective pronouns" sounds more dramatic than it needs to. In a less wordy manner, who and whoever are subjects in a sentence. When I was in school, I was taught that the subject is the one doing the action. The verb of the sentence is this "action". Here are some examples: Who knows the answer? Who will go to class? The purple is the subject, as it is the one doing the action. The action (verb) is in gold. Sadly

The photo of the week comes with a little story. We bought a peach tree for our garden on a mere whim. It was there, in store, so we bought it. It was the end of autumn. With our severe lack of gardening skills, as this was the first rented garden we were allowed to work in, we managed to get the tree into the soil in the best possible place: spot on in the middle of the tiny garden.  The tree, ignoring our enthusiastic attempts of planting, stayed leafless. We thought we were perhaps watering a dead tree all through winter. Come spring, my wife came to me highly excited, but refused to tell me why.  Instead, she dragged me outside to our first tree together. Our first tree together. Surely, this is also considered a relationship landmark? To my wife's surprise (as I could never doubt my less-than-professional gardening skill) the tree showed than spring was indeed the time of life. The tree showed it's alive and very resilient with a few green leafs and pretty pink fl

As a full-time employee, I hardly have time to handle Scribe's Realm and write my stories. But! My artistic wife has agreed to help me, which means from now on, you should see more posts and some writings (we hope). We are very excited about our plans with Scribe's Realm and we are busy implementing them already. Here is what is coming your way this month. New Logo Design This is Scribe's Realm logo. We believe it brings forth what we want for Scribe's Realm: fantasy with a little touch of olden times. As I mentioned before ( here ), I want a complete new look for Scribe's Realm. We (this term will be used from now on for my wife and I) decided on a colour theme and our new logo is finally done. Photo of the Week Posts Every week, on Thursday (if we can stick to it), we will put up a photo of the week. We love photography and we have been learning new skills to take better photos. We hope that you will enjoy these photos, as much as we

Should I use which or that ? This is the focus of my grammar post (which I might make a series while I edit my work). I am currently focused on retraining my brain on correct grammar usage. This is something any writer should do. I am by no means perfect and I do make many mistakes. But, since I am learning the rules, I can share these with you.  At the moment, I am editing a short story to put on this blog for you to read. Practice makes perfect, or so I hope. If you would like to read more about how I start off editing my books, click here . For the "which-or-that" ponderers, read on. Which or That: Is There a Difference? The which that has many friends is happy. The which , which can easily go away, must be used correctly. These two might not make any sense to you now, but come back to this once you read through all of details.  The use of which and that is important if you want to sent a clear message to your readers. As writers, we must write a bar abo

App games can take over your life. Many of us have been there. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Blazing is no different. My wife and I got this app game the moment it came out, and boy, did we waste time on it. Yet, we never felt it as time wasted, but rather time we enjoyed relaxing. These sentiments have changed of late. These are the three reasons why I almost stopped playing Naruto Blazing. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Blazing has its good parts, but also a few bad parts. The Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Blazing Curse of Overindulgence What made this game great was the fact that you could get pretty decent characters with a few summons. Nowadays, you struggle to get anyone you 1. want or 2. need. The reason for this is that they bring out too many characters, each being better than the next. With the crazy amount of characters out there, the chance of getting someone you really want is getting smaller and smaller. Whether you want it to lessen the cost of one of your characters

Let's face it, as a writer you will get to the point when it's time to edit your book. It's definitely not one of my favourite things in the world to do, but it feels so good when it's done (especially when it is done right). The story reads so much better. That being said, these are the first three things you can check before you completely reread your own book.   No need to fear when it's time to edit your book. It is possible to make the editing phase easier on yourself.  Wait Before You Edit Your Book This was mentioned before on another post. You should wait before you edit your book, as it will allow you to forget about the details. When you go back to your book, it should be as if you're a "almost" new reader. This way, you can spot when there is a loophole. This saved me from my current book in editing. I noticed that I have no idea what was going on in the beginning. After I added a chapter, the story was a lot better to understand.

Learning to draw an eye was rather uneventful, but fun nonetheless. In the drawing studies (in my computer screen) I picked up a few pointers, which I would like to share with you. Learning to draw and eye takes a few tries and many tutorials, but it's completely possible. Learning to Draw for a Reason To have a goal in place, is always a good place to start. If you want to draw people for fun, you have a goal. If you want to draw people for money, you have a goal. If you want to draw people only as a beginning, you have a goal. It doesn't matter what your goal is, just make sure you have one. Once you have a goal in mind, you will be able to focus on the present task. You want to keep that end goal in mind to keep you motivated. Sometimes you will feel like you can't draw to save your life, but keep on trying! I have to tell myself to stop complaining and start drawing more than I would like to admit. Learn to Draw Eyes First   You can even start with the