Arkane Antics

When it came to this blog post I wasn’t sure what to write as I didn’t have much time to plan this one. I’ve had a tough week working long days and driving long hours. The first sign that it’s CHRISTMAS!

This year has been all about pushing it and I am pleased to say that I already have my first goal for 2020. I have been asked by the Pentacle Magic Club in Cambridge to lecture for them next February. I decided that the best thing to focus on would be something recent.

My journey in to close up magic and my Magic Castle act.

Alongside the lecture, I was thinking it would be good to write a set of lecture notes. for two reasons.

• So that I actually know what I’m talking about and teaching.
• So that everyone who attends the lecture who wishes to can take a memory from the lecture and perhaps take the effects home with them.

I thought writing a book was hard, think again Arkane. Creating my first lecture notes has been a challenge. A good one. Going through my act discovering the simplest way to explain the effects, learning to use appropriate technical terms for material and the hardest challenge, drawing. I asked a few magic friends some advice on whether I should make the effort and draw images or just include pictures – to my horror everyone came back saying lines drawings are better.

Win, Lose or Draw

I say horror because I haven’t drawn anything since I was 17 apart from slaying at Pictionary the game. So I got out my HB pencils, some calligraphy pens and set to work.

The results after a few hours practicing wasn’t too bad. I ended up using a combination of techniques. Line tracing so that I knew exactly where the parts of the image went and then free hand with the details.

This has been the most rewarding part of piecing together my lecture notes as I’ve found a love for something I used to do and began using it again alongside my magic.

So the journey continues. Once these images are finalised and the proof reading is complete ill move onto the next scary phase. Piecing all these materials into a pamphlet in the software, In Design.