Wednesday 26 November 2008

Mr. Hunter Black In Progress


If Blogger were a person, I'd say he was on drugs! For some reason Blogger was determined to post this picture sideways, but I finally figured it out and here he is. This is my first coloured pencil rendering of a canine. It actually seems like it will take a whole lot less time than pretty much all of my other paintings. Doesn't hurt that it's a whole lot smaller than most as well!

He's being created with various brands of artist quality coloured pencils (I've expanded from working exclusively with Prismacolor and am loving it!) on Stonehenge black paper.

Oh, and yes, he's as devilish as he looks!

Thursday 20 November 2008

All Done


Big Sigh! Onto the next!

Saturday 15 November 2008

Re-Posting of Beat the Bus

I came across this when I went back to the start of my blog to see how long I've been blogging. I'm re-posting it just for old times sake.


New Game Show

I'm not sure if any of you have heard, but my husband is hosting a new game show, called "Beat the Bus." Here's a partial transcript of the first episode:

Gid'day eh! I'd like to welcome my 3 lovely contestants and their hiddeous looking coach, who apparently just dragged herself out of bed after about 4 hours sleep, for this weeks to Beat the Bus. Elsie is a grade 5 student from Very Religious Catholic School. Tara is a grade 3 student from the same school and finally Karen is a grade one student also from VRC school. (applause)

And let's also give a warm welcome to my assistant Tessie (applause) Who peed in her pull up last night! Well done Tessie! Tessie's job is to attempt to foil the groups progress by adding to the work load.

As you know, on beat the bus, the object of the game is to get completely ready for school in 3 minutes before the bus comes after sitting on your behinds and fiddling around in the hour you had previously to get ready but chose not to use wisely.

Are our contestants ready? Letttt's plaaaaay BEAT THE BUS! (applause)

Coach Sandi: CRAP! The bus is here in three minutes. Let's get moving people! We have an extreme kid make over to do, let's move it, move it, move it!

Tara: Mom, did you see my sandwich?

Coach Sandi: I made it, I handed it to you, if you didn't eat it or put it in your lunch bag then retrace your steps and FIND IT NOW!

Coach Sandi: Karen, get dressed. Karen, get dressed. Karen! GET DRESSED!!!!!

Coach: Elsie, hair, teeth and shoes, NOW! And stop talking to your fish! I'm sure he'll get over the trauma of your leaving him to go to school for the day.

Tessie: Naked bum, Naked bum. Look I have a naked bum. I go to the bus too mommy?

Coach: I can't get you dressed now, I'm looking for Tara's sandwich.

OOOOH! Doesn't look good for the MacIntyre team! Only one kid is dressed and they've lost a sandwich. That will put them behind! And Tessie has thrown them a real curve ball. She's on her way out the door naked to go and wait for the bus. What will coach Sandi do? Will she chase the pre-schooler or work on the sandwich problem? OH! Okay, okay. She choose the pre-schooler! She's searching through a basket of clothes for a pair of underwear.....and YES! she's found them. Good work coach. Now she's looking for a dress.....and another quick success....but, wait! Oh no! Tessie just through them another curve ball...she doesn't like that dress! She says it's "too fit." Quick thinking Tessie. She's wiggling, she's wiggling, she's throwing a tantrum! But coach is ready with a comeback.....

Coach Sandi: Put on this dress right now or I'll, I'll....bring you back to the Tessie store and get one that fits this dress! And don't you dare wipe that boog on the wall! Get a Kleenex!

Quick thinking coach! She's putting on the dress! But is refusing to wear the shoes....okay, okay, now coach is reassessing her options. She's staring at the boog, but decides to clean it up later....she's leaving Tessie and moving back to Karen. She's yelling, she's yelling some more....Karen is smiling and has just passed gas in coaches face. Karen is laughing, still laughing Coach doesn't look happy! Oh no! look out Karen! Coach is ready to pull out the big guns I think!

Coach Sandi: No computer this weekend if you aren't dressed in 2 seconds flat! And Tara did you find your sandwich yet? Elsie, you looked like you rubbed the butter all over your head! Did you actually get any on your muffin this morning? And wash your face! You have chocolate all over it.

Coach Sandi: Son of a....labrador! Elsie and Tara, did you study your words for your spelling test again last night? What? NOOO! Who's agenda haven't I signed. All of them!!!!? What do you mean you have a book club order due today Tara?

Coach Sandi looks like she's loosing control! She's off to look for the sandwich....she checks the basement, again, the bathroom, not there, the other kid's rooms, nope. Not there either. She looks at the dog...she smells his breath...no, no balogna smell there. She looks....disgusted. She re-checks Tara's room. BINGO! She finds her sandwich tucked under her pillow! She raises the sandwich in the air in show of victory with a stellar smile! (applause)

Coach Sandi: Ok Karen, teeth shoes and school bag, now! I'm going out to the bus with greasy and her sandwich losing sidekick with the bad bed head. Get ready NOW! You better be out there before the bus, or else!

Elsie: But mom, you're only wearing your jeans and bra!

Keen observation Elsie! Coach is running to the bed room. She's yelling at the kids not to leave the house before she's ready, because they may get abducted or hit by a car if they're out there alone. She throws on a shirt. She grabs a brush and runs out to the bus. Now Karen is done, Coach is brushing Karen's hair. Karen is yelling, louder, louder....a neighbour opens the door to see what's going on. Coach is throwing spelling words at Elsie and Tara while she brushes faster and faster. Another stay at home mom runs by with her crew on herway to the stop for the public school bus.

Other Coach: I see your right on time and organized today too! (hysterical laughing)

Now coach Sandi is snearing, but turns to flash a smile. She's smelling Karen's breath. She's yelling, yelling....Karen runs in to brush her teeth...but, here comes the bus! Will they make it? Yes! Karen's back. Hugs and kisses all round. Coach recovers nicely with a smile and good morning to the driver while straightening her hair.

SCORE: Let's see how our contestants did. They get full points for making it to the bus on time, fully dressed with all of their equipment, and bonus points for studying spelling before boarding the bus.

We have to unfortunately subtract points though because coach has thrown on her low cut in the back shirt, inside out and backwards, thus exposing her bra for all to see. (Not to mention a wee bit too much flesh!) She's also bare footed and has forgotten to put on her make-up. A definate no-no leading to substantial deductions in her score!

Even though they don't win the main prize of appearing organized and a model for the neighbourhood, coach does win the runner up prize of sitting down for 5 minutes to finish her coffee with our lovely assistant, Tessie, using her as a jungle gym before running the errands and preparing for her volunteer work later in the day.

Congratulations coach! On winning a 5 minute break.

Disclaimer: The above mentioned prose is meant to provide a humorous look to at the lives of the MacIntyre family. It is by no means a completely accurate account of their daily routine. The coach is happy to be at home and loves the children very much even though she has written this. The coach realizes she is lucky and does not require a lecture pertaining to the above mentioned story. Any resemblance to persons living or dead are purely intentional. Names have been changed to protect the identities of the participants. Any comments can be sent to biteme@hotmail.com. This e-mail address is not an actual e-mail address, it's only there for your amusement....so don't really e-mail me there....unless you want to, knowing that I won't get it.

Thursday 13 November 2008

click on photo to get a closer look at the little slimy friend (oh ya, and the frog too;-)

It's hard to show the true colour of this picture without a sunny day, since I know squat about photography. I can't use the flash, it shines off of the wax in the pencil and makes a big white blob in the middle of the picture. Guess I know which course I should take next!

Just little details to finish now. The hand and do a little makeover in a few spots. I look forward to the next one and all of the frustration that comes with it!

Sunday 9 November 2008

Light At The End Of The Tunnel


Now the little itty bitty picky little details. Stripes on the remaining part of the shirt, hands, touch ups to the face in parts I'm not quite happy with and finally the frog. I've been putting off working on the frog. I've not worked with green's much since the workshops at Allison Fagan's studio. I'm not familiar with the various shades of greens in any of the coloured pencil companies. Means more time consuming testing before actually being able to properly ascertain which ones I need to apply and in what order.

See that little tool on the left side of the picture? An electric eraser that was a gift. I'm about to give it a run for it's money!

Tuesday 4 November 2008