In my castle blue print I drew my castle several times over again and again because I didn’t feel that
it was the best work that I had to offer. In the end it was one of the best projects that I’ve ever done
because as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Each time it began to look better and better until my world history teacher who was teaching us about how heavily fortified castles were, thought they were good enough to color.
My world history teacher was teaching about the medieval time period. After we watched a video of what the pieces of a castle were called, we got a list of them and were told to draw a castle with at least 15 of them in the drawing. We had to think of the attacks that could be made on the castle and how the castle should defend against them. For example, mine was made on a peninsula and only a half moat had to be dug when building the castle. If soldiers come from the land, the castle only has to defend against one side. The moat has spikes in it so the attackers can't swim across. The wall facing the land would be stronger than the rest of the outer wall because that will be the most attacked wall. There will be 3 times as many arrow-loops on that wall so the castle can easily pick off the land attackers. If the attackers do make it across the moat and through the thick drawbridge, there is still the portcullis to give the castle a second chance. A portcullis is like a vertical, heavy, iron grill that blocks entrances so people can’t get through, with spikes on the bottom so that they could fit into the holes in the earth beneath it so that attackers couldn’t just pull it up. If they manage to pull up or break through the portcullis, the long tunnel they would have to go through is filled with arrow-loops. If they make it to the end of the tunnel, they REALLY have to watch out for the murder holes! A murder hole is a pot of boiling HOT water or REALLY hot tar. The castle solders dump it on the heads of the attackers. After that, it is a long way to the inner wall and the keep. Before the attackers get to the keep, they will be killed by the soldiers and serfs.
The things I had to have in my project were...
portcullis, food source, key, moat, keep, compass,
drawbridge, bailey, murder holes, escape route, inner wall,
arrow-loops, barracks, outer wall, and wells.
Ms. Miller was looking to see 15 castle parts, the inner and outer walls, the keep, and creativity.
I learned that I can draw just about anything from memory and make it look cool. I'm glad that I learned this because now I know I have a talent. If I try hard enough now, I might become an artist for story books and make children happy by drawing pictures from the words in the story.
My biggest struggle with this project was that I couldn't put any imaginary creatures in my castle
blueprint. The pencil in my hand wanted to jump and do its own drawing. But that wouldn’t be accurate because it's history not mythology.
First I chose which objects I would draw. Then I drew a crude icon of a castle. It looked square and most castles were rounded. It didn't have all of the protection that a real castle would have had. It also looked sloppy and slanted.
That was my first draft. Next I drew the same castle but it had all of the features a real castle would
have. I don’t think it was one of my better works of art it still gave me something to work with and it
was my second draft. In my third draft I smoothed all the edges and added a few of the castle parts
that I had forgotten to add originally. My fourth draft looked better than all my drafts put together. I
labeled it and colored it. Overall it was nearly perfect.
I used creativity in this project because I used my imagination and made it visually appealing to myself and others. In my project, Creativity was creating something appealing to the eye that yourself and others can appreciate.
I used persistence in this project because I kept trying and trying over and over again. I didn't stop until I was satisfied. I didn't give up. Persistence is to never give up no matter how long it takes. Keep trying no matter how hard the task. Keep going even after you have tried multiple times.
