Thread: X's avitars

OK, I noticed that I'm on my 600th post, so I thought I'd make it about something REALLY important.

X, your avitars are really cool. Do you make them yourself?

However, I'm having a hard time keeping up with the twice-daily changes. It's like I don't know you any more...

I tend to resist change, and I find the whole shifting avitar business a little confusing. It's like Faceoff, or something...

Josh

Congrats Josh.

Yeah, I've also noticed X's avatars. I've got a theory that there's a metamorphosis going on there.... A gradual revealing of the true man, so to speak. Mark my words, "soomethin's afoot in Canada, and 'tis nay good!".

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Congrats Josh.

Yeah, I've also noticed X's avatars. I've got a theory that there's a metamorphosis going on there.... A gradual revealing of the true man, so to speak. Mark my words, "soomethin's afoot in Canada, and 'tis nay good!".

James.

Crivens!

I've also noticed the quick changing avatars and custom member titles...It does seems to be getting closer to unveiling his secret identity lol

When I first joined, I was looking for an avatar which would suit me. I found lots of "X" images, but none of them suited my fancy. I ended up using a picture of Wilfred PJ (Pierre Jackson) Macdonald for many months. He's a 6" tall stuffed beanbag chimp I picked up for The Validator (my wife) in Ottawa a few years back. In the picture below he's sitting on the Canadian Senate Speaker's chair on Parliament Hill. Also shown are Wilfred at the Prime Minister's chair and looking out from the rear of the peace tower on to the spire of the library and across the river to Hull, Quebec.

drsch (why can I never remember your name? Mark? Michael?) said a few months back that change was almost as good as a vacation so I changed to a Captain Canuck avatar and included the caption from the page which the image was taken from in a few pieces over the course of a few weeks.

That was fun so I when a friend (not a super hero) took a candid photo of me a few months ago I developed a gamer style avatar and had a little fun altering it week by week to include some 'gadgets'.

I'm also a Shakespeare aficionado so I had a weekly run of Shakespeare images too. There wasn't room quotes in the label so I couldn't go that far. For edification:

The first image is the Chandos portrait which is a common image used to represent Will Shakepeare but it is NOT actually of the man. It was painted over 100 years after his death and it is not even known if it was supposed to represent him or somebody else.

The second is The Droeshout engraving, done by the son of a man who knew Shakespeare well from Stratford-Upon-Avon. It was carved about a decade after his death from memory (and as some reports have it with the use of an unidentified portrait) for use in the First Folio, the first collected works of Shakespeare's plays which was organised by two of the leading players in the King's Men, Shakespeare's company of players. It was considered to be a good likeness is a little poorly crafted.

The third image is the head of the bust of the Stratford Monument in the Church of the Holy Trinity where he is buried. It's a waist up bust and ever year on his birthday, he gets a new quill pen placed in his hand (even though there is some conjecture that he was from the clerks tradition and may have actually used a stylus in life).

The fourth image, called the Sanders portrait after the owners, is a painting which has been gaining some attention in recent years. It was brought out of obscurity by a man in Ontario Canada. It had been in his mother's family for many generations and the story was always that it was of William Shakespeare. Many thousands of dollars worth of tests later, it has been determined that the image is not a fake, was painted in or around 1604 as it states and could very well be of William Shakespeare. All it lacks is absolute provenance. It bears a striking resemblance to the Droeshout image. the shape of the face is clearly different, but that could represent the added weight of his later years. The bust is a bit portly too. The similarity in the eyes, nose mouth and ear are unavoidable and the collar even bears the same pattern. This could easily be the painting which has been reported as a template for the Droeshout engraving.

The final image is my favourite. It shows William Shakespeare winning a game of chess against Ben Johnson, a friendly rival playwright of Will's. It was definitely painted in or around 1604 as well, almost certainly for King James' ascension to the throne of England. it was painted in the style of the Van Mander school and may even have been painted by the master himself. It is unknown whether they actually sat for this painting, but it can be of noone else. It is one panel of what was likely a series. The last time the painting was moved, some thieves tried to steel it, but only got away with the frame. It has remained hidden since.

Go ahead, ask me something else about Shakespeare.

I finally stumbled upon this guy and altered him using a Mac image shop program called Graphic Converter to represent me, but wasn't happy with the placement of the 'X' so I moved it and had to do something with the head.

Stay tuned. There's more to come.

Told you ... gradual (well OK, all at once) revealing of the inner man!

Pray continue, good X...

James.