What Projects is Will Working on?

If you are interested in taking a peek into Will’s life I have been writing short essays for two years now and they are all based on my peculiar life. The newest additions are the picture of the golden ring which is about a dream I had and the golden tree which is about some thoughts I had while jogging through a local cemetary. WillKalif.com

These two pranks are the dismembered finger in the box and the rattlesnake in the envelope. They are easy to make and fun to see how your friends and family react to them. Two fun Pranks

I have completed a nice tutorial on how to make a cemetary diorama. It comes with a video and a lot of tips on making dioramas out of ordinary materials like toothpicks and popsicle. sticks. I give you some good guidelines on how to achieve a bit of a mood when it comes to dioramas. How to make a cemetary diorama

This is my latest project. It shows you how to make medieval shields out of cardboard. In this tutorial I make two different shields (A buckler and a kite shield). I show you a few neat tricks to make them look good and to make them strong enough for some fun use. Practically all you need is some cardboard, posterboard, duct tape and paint. Well, you don’t even need the posterboard. Heres the project: How to make cardboard shields

I have a new tutorial, complete with video that shows you how to make a nice cardboard sword. Three things I focus on are Safety, strength, and good looks of the sword. In the tutorial I make four weapons:

1. A Buster Cloud Sword from Final Fantasy (Looks impressive)
2. A Scythe ala the Grim Reaper
3. A Cutlass or Wushu Sword
4. A Typical Knight’s Sword

This is perfect for halloween if you are looking for some kind of weapon to go along with your Costume.

Here is the Tutorial: How to Make a Cardboard Sword

Over the past few days I have noticed a big bump in sales of Medieval and Renaissance clothing and costumes. People are starting to make plans for halloween.  Thing about costumes for halloween is that if you are ordering online you really do have to get an early start. They sell out fast and you have to factor in time for shipping. Anyhoo, I have spent some time upgrading some of the costume sections on my websites. There are lots of nice outfits and accessories and everything is available through amazon.com. Here is the main page:

Medieval and Knight Costumes and Clothing

This is a new article I have written about how to use a terrarium as a learning tool for kids.  You can use something as simple as a styrofoam cup and a few bean plants and there are some wonderful lessons in it. The article covers three important points:

1. Stewardship of plants and the world we live in

2. The interconnectednes of living things which is easily displayed in a terrarium which is a tiny interconnected environment

3. The Life Cycle of Plants - which is darn fascinating subject

How to use a terrarium as a learning tool for kids

I have an ongoing series of articles about famous classical guitarists of the past and the present. My new articles is about Fernando Sor. He was a remarkable guitarist and composer of the 19th Century. A lot of his work is still played today and he wrote a method for guitar that is still used. SOme of his stuff is very recognizable and his most famous piece is probably his variations on a theme by Mozart for the guitar (The Magic flute). Segovia made a version of this that is just phenomenal. I have information about him, his life, his work and I also have a small easy piece that I recorded and you can listen to. There are youtube videos of some of his work too. If you are a fan of the classical guitar here is the link: The Remarkable Fernando Sor

I have written and posted two new articles to the Telescope Nerd website. They are both about early telescopes. The first article is about the famous newton telescope which was one of the first practical reflector telescopes and the second article is about a lesser know telescope maker and astronomer named Christiaan Huygens. He advanced the field of optics and made some enormous refractor telescopes. The picture at left shows one of his telescopes that is 120 feet long.

The Articles:

Newtons Telescope — Huygens telescopes

I have a couple of new things on the Fantasy Art School website. First, I have written a new article about improving your fantasy art abilities. The article gives practical advice on how to get better as a fantasy artist. Practice is of course on the top of the list but there are a couple of different ways to practice and some insights you should know when it comes to fantasy art - How to Improve as a Fantasy artist.

I have also received some great pencil drawings from a web visitor who is an artist that works in pencil. He also included some great tips on the tools and technniques he uses in his art. And he stresses the importance of creating a library of images that he refers to. He does this by perusing a lot of different sources and his favorite source is magazines. He keeps all of these images in three ring binders and now he has a great library of materials.

Lesson 22: Tips, tools and techniques of a Guest Fantasy Artist