Tikis

Wesley and I spent a couple of days drawing tikis. This is Koro - The Midnight Dancer. We also like to call him The God of Luaus. I first thought Koro was an actual Hawaiian Legend, but I now believe he was made up by old Walt Disney and his Imagineers some 45 years ago for The Enchanted Tiki Room.


Here's another of my Tikis. This one is Hina Kuluua. She's The Goddess of Rain. I hope she makes a return here for Summer Rains, soon!

As we're researching more, we found some non-Disney Gods, and hopefully we can illustrate some of those soon. I'll have Wesley post his cool creations on his blog soon.

These are done with micron pen and markers in my 8x10 journal.

Where have the first couple of weeks of summer gone?! We've been doing lots of activities, and I see I haven't posted much. We did go on a little adventure for Wesley's birthday. Down a local control road to a creek. It's always fun trying a new spot. It was beautiful and very buggy, and I was pissed at myself for forgetting my camera! Something I rarely do these days.

A real drag is that I think my scanner is broken. These pix were taken with my camera instead of scanning. I guess it will have to do for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get a new scanner soon. I hate how it's not worth getting electronics fixed. They always cost about the same or more than just buying a new one. Technology companies should take more responsibility for contributing to the pollution problems. At least it's becoming more easy to recycle these products.

Inspire Me Thursday / Creative Core

I've got a project that I was able to combine into two different challenges.

First... I joined in on a brand new blog The Creative Core. On this blog you'll find a new assignment posted every Thursday, and you are to be done with the assignment by the following Wednesday. The first assignment was "Polished Blind Contour" using 3 items. This is my second attempt. First I blindly drew Cleo, then the bench, and finally the fir tree. Cleo is little too big, but I guess that's what happens when you can't see what you're drawing!

You can see my original pen drawings vaguely through the watercolor. And I think I do like the line movements of them more than when I was looking at my drawing. I enjoyed this very much. I noticed that it was hard for me to draw one item for too long. I was very fast, and loose, and became afraid that I had lost control of the drawing. So that's why the original drawings are pretty sparse.

The piece was done with a Micron pen, watercolors and watercolor pencils. It's in my 10.5 x 7.5 sketch book, entitled "Cleo Napping."

You still have time to join in on this assignment, if not this week, then maybe next!

Second... Inspire Me Thursday had a theme I felt I could participate in... "Find the Art in the Everyday. As you go through your day, look for the beauty. Find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Take a photo, draw a sketch, journal about it."

Caring for my garden, daily, is one of the beautiful things I see, on a daily basis. And of course my cats! So I thought of Cleo enjoying her nap on a little garden bench in my garden. Since I live in the forest, this picturesque fir tree was also added. It is possible to take the beauty of the mountains for granted when you are living your everyday-hustle-and-bustle-kind-of-life!

Summer's so wonderful when you actually have time to do the things really want to do!

And The Winner Is...

We got up this morning, and were excited for my First Blog Giveaway! Wesley got his disguise on, and I put all the names into a bowl.


And the winner is... cpullum! Congrats to her (well I'm just actually guessing that she's a girl!)... Although I did have at least one guy come and leave a comment. It was great to hear from my eBay ACEO Group and myspace friend, Josh! It was interesting to see that people actually did respond to my bulletin that I posted about the giveaway on Myspace. Although I would've hoped for more myspace people than did come!

So as soon as I return, (and hopefully have received a return email from cpullum) I'll be sending little Miss Mousey off to her new home!

And I had such a very fun time with this, I'm sure I'll be doing more in the future! So please check back when you can!

Blog Giveaway!! Summer's a Comin!!

Summer is such an extraordinary time! So to share my happiness for it, I'm having a little giveaway! This little Miss Mousey is the friendly prize. She would love to find a new home with you!

If you'd like to have her join your family all you need do is leave a little comment of any kind here on this post. You have until the end of this Saturday night,(June 14) which is 12 midnight Pacific time. If you don't have a blog, then you should leave your email address so that I can contact you....or at least be sure to check back soon. Then sometime Sunday morning, I'll draw a name from the list of comments. I won't be able to send out the gift until later in the week though. I've already got a few days of fun planned for our Summer Break and won't be attending to mailings until Thursday or Friday.

Summer always brings memories of such a certain happiness, especially the last day of school. I almost forgot that feeling in my adult life, until my own son started school. Now I'm reliving it, because I'm just as ecstatic for summer as I always was as a kid. I'm just so ready to be in charge of my own schedule.

Are you as happy for Summer as me? Leave a comment for Miss Mousey here!

Roses and Updates

It's been a very ordinary end-of-the-school year for me... that means incredibly busy days, and not much home time... which also makes me a bit cranky! I see it's been over a week since I last posted so I had to at least share some stunning roses!


This is a Zephirine Drouhin rose. I've had this rose bush for 15 years. It moved with me once, and it always blooms on the anniversary date of my step dad's passing. It's an old fashioned rose with a lovely scent. And an interesting trait is that it has no thorns!

My garden is being infested by moles or gophers. I use to have cats that would keep these rodents under control. But I guess the cats I've got now are too lazy or slow for these guys. I worry about this rose. So now I'm going to try planting some gopher purge around it, and hope that works.


Yesterday (June 7) was Drawing Day '08. I did do some drawing today, but I've got to finish it. I hope to post a finished, late drawing for the world wide event.

Oh and look for info on my first blog giveaway soon (monday or tuesday). This will be in honor of the first day of summer vacation, and how happy that makes me!

I've got a lot of promises to live up to, and I will do it!