Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 31

Week 31: Realism.

"Portrait of Ian and Jack" (from a personal photo) in HB graphite and yellow, red and blue pencils on a black Sharpie easel. I hope this fits with the theme. I was inspired by some art examples in online articles on realism. My original intention was to draw an artist and two sitters, perhaps as less-than-real cartoons, with only the "painted" canvas featuring the realism. But I came to prefer the white space.

Update:

Week 31: Realism II.

"Elephants at Perth Zoo." Freehand watercolour on textured paper, based on my own photograph.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 29

Week 29: Collage.

Freehand torn paper collage of a Jack Russell terrier, with acrylic paint, felt and finepoint Sharpie details, mounted onto corrugated art board. Based on a personal photo (flipped) and inspired by the same image when adjusted in the Prisma iPhone app.

Update:

Week 29: Collage II.

Cartridge paper in rainbow colours, black card, torn brown paper bag, organza fabric pieces and Kindy Glitz glitter glue collaged onto blue card.

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 27

Week 27: Canberra.

Finepoint black Sharpie on white cartridge paper, with highlights in watercolour pencils and opaque white Signo ink. Inspired by the current Australian $5 note and a holiday photo of my dog, Jack, on the banks of Lake Burley Griffin.

Update:

Year 3 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 24

Week 24: Birthday.

"Jack at 14." White Signo pigment ink sketch on red Quill Metallique card, with black finepoint shading and coloured oil pastel highlights. Based upon two photos from my collection.

Update:

Week 24: Birthday II.

"Happy birthday, Bert!" Oil pastels and gold glitter on black card, based on a photograph found in Google Images.

Return of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 35

Week 35: Botany

Watercolour of Botany Bay, New South Wales, featuring the Cook's Landing obelisk, and Australian wattle and banksia plants in the foreground. Details in black finepoint Sharpie, watercolour pencils, Puffy paint and yellow cellophane.

Update:

Week 35: Botany II

"Hedges trained by Bark's Backyard". Out the back of Mr Minotaur's famous labyrinth, of course, was his lesser-known, but just as complicated, hedge maze. Collage of watercolour on textured cards, with details in black finepoint Sharpie, a little oil pastel, and some yellow Puffy paint.

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 35

The beautiful art nouveau Métro entrance to Abbesses Station in the Montmartre district, Paris, France. In winter. Green and black Sharpies, opaque white Signo and watercolours on Mont Marte watercolour paper.

Week 35: Paris

Update:

In the style of Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen's iconic poster for Rodolphe Salis' Le Chat Noir, here is my interpretation of le Chien Blanc, created in collage, black Sharpie, opaque white Signo and watercolours. Model: Jack Russell McLean.

Week 35: Paris II

My muse struck at about 10pm and I finally posted the pic after finishing at 2.30am and was too pumped to sleep. I hate it when my brain wants to keep being creative! In 1974, when studying French at high school, I used to wear a T-shirt with "le Chat Noir" printed on it, having originally bought it because it had French language on it, and having no idea how famous it was, nor its relevance to Montmartre! Last year, visiting Paris for the first time, the image was everywhere: in every Parisian gift store and souvenir shop and almost every cafe. Plus little white dogs (and dog poo) just as ubiquitous! Made me miss my Jack Russell so much seeing copies of him everywhere!

Is the tennis ball supposed to remind us of the "The French Open", aka in Paris as "Roland Garros"? Mais oui, but it is also there to hide a blemish in the background paper that was exaggerated by the scan. I came back from Paris last year all fired up with ideas for a story about a little white dog in Paris but, a few weeks later, my writer friend, Natalie Jane Prior, bought out her new picture book: of a little white dog in Paris (Pom Pom, where are you?).

L'escargot et la grenouille. Collage of painted watercolour paper, black Sharpie, coloured card and a downloadable, online, 3D menu:

Week 35: Paris III

I was trying to get the frog to look more shocked. But frogs are already so wide-eyed! The tiny print on the crumpled hors d'oeuvres menu actually lists both snails and frogs' legs. I found a free customizable menu template on the web! The sample already had a snails dish listed and I quickly altered the title of a different dish to include la cuisses de grenouille. (Just in case it's not "Paris" enough, it has an address card for the site of my cousin-in-law's first taste of snails. Much happier with it now. The shadows from the menu were all wrong last night, and I realised that the snail was seemingly falling off the table in the first version, but I'd stuck him down too firmly.)

Play date for Jack!

Jack on a play date at Zena's

Billy

Lexx II

Nicky

Jack at Zena's

Jack in Nowra

Speed limit = walking pace only, Shared roadway, Don't forget your hat. ;)

Treat time

DAY 24

Saturday morning Kong treat makes Jack a contented boy.

Being Jack

DAY 18

Jack, trying to be on his best behaviour, at my Mum's place. He still has the evidence of his shaved tummy (ultrasound) and back (lumbar puncture) from late last year. The hair just doesn't want to grow back. Cortisone does that to dogs. Sigh.

ALF gains a chair, meets a dog

This silvery spaceship chair is a repaint of a dolls' wooden high chair I found on the kerb a few days ago. Note the new green and red buttons on the throttles and gears. A perfect chair for...



... my Mum's ALF doll, which used to sit an a rather substandard stool in her spare room.


ALF (Alien Life Form) meets Jack.

Time for a recharge

Now I know what's been wrong with Jack. Battery change needed!



Seriously, it's been a long eight weeks, and there are probably another eight weeks of treatment to go, but Jack has been recovering from "non-infectious, mild meningitis". If that's what "mild" meningitis is like, I don't want to see anything worse. He seems to be making a great recovery now, but the task of "keep him calm" was the most difficult aspect of his prescription for a return to normality. Keep a Jack Russell terrier calm? They don't do calm. The hair won't start growing back until the run of cortisone tablets is finally over. So, yes, his back still looks like his "battery cover" has been removed (tapping of spinal fluid), and his tummy is still bare from an ultrasound many weeks ago now.

It also seems that the time I usually update this blog has been subsumed by medicating the dog morning and night. Every day, a different plan of drug administration must be coordinated, lest the wily Jack Russell suspect that something is afoot.

A tale at 3.20 - a.m. that is.

"Don't blame me, it was Tiger. (Who only looks like a platypus. Made of sheepskin.)"

Okay, a new spooky story for you:

My Jack Russell terrier is on medication for meningitis at the moment, and needs to visit the backyard more often than normal. In the past he's had quite an affinity with a ghost in the house (who was here before he was, and has done numerous freaky things both before and after the dog arrived). This morning, I started dreaming about dog poo and awoke to realise the smell was still there. I fumbled around for my glasses and the bed lamp to get the dog outside. I noticed that the desk clock was flashing - there had been a power outage during the night. The clock was flashing 3.18am.

I found the dog poo way down the end of the hall, neatly stepping over it to put the dog out to complete his task, then returned to check the time on my watch and clean up the mess. It was now exactly 3.20am.

So.... did my dog doing Number Twos at 3.18 cause the power outage, or did the power outage cause him to need to poo?

Or was it the ghost - but she smells like fish, not dog poo, but the dog often barks at the exact spot in the family room where we used to encounter her fishy smell, months before the dog arrived as a pup?

Caged!

Here's something hilarious! Jack, who hates being locked up in his "recovery cage", has taken to entering his cage voluntarily! He's sitting in there now, with his blankey piled high!

The vet (and hundreds of dollars in tests) says that Jack's chronic neck pain is unlikely to be a slipped disc, bladder infection or arthritis, but possibly mild, non-infectious meningitis - or perhaps a rare brain lesion. Hope this new medication works. We're treating for meningitis and hoping for the best. The hardest part is keeping a Jack Russell terrier calm. Jack Russells don't do calm. Hence the cage.

Sick doggy

I'm missing the Jack Russell, who spent the night at the vet. X-rays seem to indicate a lesion in his neck muscle from a bony spur. This situation is giving him arthritic pain every time he turns his head to the left. They think.

Even in his pain, he has thoroughly entertained the vets. They were in hysterics on the phone yesterday. Jack really deserves an Academy Award for playing the part of "sick doggy, sick doggy" (rather like the pic above, ears pinned back, sad eyes), but... only when someone looks at him.

Dozey dog

One day to go...

Jack & Rosemary on ANZAC Day

Photo of the day!

See Jack run

Jack runs and runs and runs.

"I'm ready for my closeup, Mr DeMille!"

Jack, for once not being camera shy! Just before bedtime, he was tossing his sheepskin platypus around, and I tried for a motion pic of that - but he suddenly put the toy down and posed beautifully.

No longer attached

I watched Jack, my Jack Russell terrier, bury the handle of his lead in the dirt today, while he was attached to the pet hitching post at Mash Cafe, Glenbrook. The doggy theory, I guess, was that if he couldn't *see* the handle, then he was free!

When that failed to work, he simply bit through the lead and trotted over to join me at my table. Mmmmmm.


Today's pic.