Beach and swimming

I went down to the beach with my kids today. It was pretty crowded, though not as busy as it will get in August. Thankfully my kids are happy with going late in the day - partly for avoiding the strongest sun rays and partly since its much nicer when there aren't a million people spread over the sand like ants.

I wasn't sure about swimming due to my shoulder but i ended up swimming out to call back my son and his friend who were out further than i was happy with.

I don't think they realised how far out they were since the sea bed drops and rises again -so they felt they were within their depth. Anyway, i felt happier with them somewhat closer to shore. My shoulder wasn't too happy though.

This plant is rock samphire- it used to be eaten as a vegetable centruries ago but went out of fashion for some reason. It grows all over the place near the sea here, but in Britain it tends to be found only on cliffs. In fact when it was a popular delicacy people in Britain used to climb down cliffs to pick the shoots - a pretty risky business.
Shakespeare even talks about samphire pickers in King Lear

"Half-way down Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!" Shakespeare, King Lear.
I had to look this quote up - i'm not someone with a vast knowledge od Shakespeare.

This is a mediterranean pine tree- I was taking photos of the bark for use as paper textures and when i looked up it reminded me of one of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings the Lawrence tree.The resin smell was really strong since it has been so hot- very incense-ish and wonderful. I really like pine resin.
Near the pine , there are some flower beds and i was quite captivated by the intense colours. I thought the pictures would be good to look at in winter since these flowers really seem to say summer and heat, to me at least.




I have a notion that the large yellow flowers might be called black eyed susans. They were stunning anyway - almost glowing in the shade under the trees.

I took the picture below later in the day - its a half ruined sandcastle with the Old Town of Antibes and the castle [Chateau Grimaldi] in the background. I carefully avoided getting people on the beach in the frame and missed the swimmer.






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Fruit trees and other stuff

Another day and more photos - i think i am becoming obsessed with fruit though, since i have to follow this medical diet that currently doesn't allow fruit. Anyway, I discvovered another fruit tree in some waste ground - this time its a fig tree. You can just see some small immature figs and i will probbaly take some more photos as the summer progresses to monitor the ripening.





















Of course the fruit ban isn't helped by living next to a garden full of vines. All summer the vines reach out and tangle round our stairs and fence and washing line and so there are always grapes close at hand. You can see some of the grapes beside this decorative urn - it brought to mind images of cornucopias. The grapes will turn dark red in a few weeks and then the garden will be filled with birds gorging themselves for winter and the sticky wine scent of fermenting grapes as they lie in heaps on the path.















On the way home from Juan Les Pins I saw this edible snail [escargot de bourgogne] on a metal fence. They have really beautiful shells and apparently have a lifespan of up to 6 years - provided they havent been cooked in garlic butter, that is.
Its a pity the snail was hiding from the sun since this type if snail has a realy lovely pattern to its skin.

































I'm not sure what the insect above is - i saw it on our wall this morning and thought it looked strange. I went through some reference books and tried a google search but had no luck in identifying it.

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some old photos

I remembered some photos today of a butterfly sitting on a Goddess statue , taken a few years ago at Beaulieu sur mer. [we were visiting Villa Kerylos at the time]










































It was one of those amazing photo opportunities that usually happen when the camera isn't charged or has been left at home.
The butterfly is a red admiral

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Illustration Friday - Tranquility

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Tranquility -which was synchronous since i had been thinking along those lines today, when I was at the physio and doing exercises in water.

My initial thought for tranquility was 'the sea of tranquility' on the Moon. I thought about drawing swimming astronauts or aliens but went off that idea quickly.

I then thought back to today's physio session and my ponderings about being weightless and amniotic fluid and calm. I had been doing shoulder excercises but while i was relaxing later Kate Bush's song Breathing kept coming into my head.
Anyway my final thought was to do a baby swimming in the sea of tranquility ie the womb , and making it a kind of celestial baby - like the man in the Moon's child.

I used my memories of my children's ultrasound [sonogram] tests to draw the foetus and used quite a few of the textures i have been photgraphing recently to get the uterine veiny look and the softness of the baby.




















Swimming in the Sea of Tranquility

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Undersea Activity Page

Here is an activity page with some interesting facts about sea creatures.
Click on the images and either print directly from the browser or save the image and print from a photo manipulation or similar program.



Kids activity page
Can be printed and used in a family setting - no alterations, publication, commercial distribution and other uses without permission

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Photographic treasure hunt

I went out with my camera today in the hopes of getting some beetles and lizard reference photos- however i was out of luck. I only saw one lizard and it wasn't really close enough to get a good photo.
I did find a strange pile of snail shells - see below


I'm not sure why there was such a large pile - the road isn't a place where children play . I wondered if a bird had maybe piled them up , strange anyway.


Its amazing what you can see when you go out looking for photo opportunities. I've walked past this small tree hundreds of times without realising it was a mirabelle plum tree. Mirabelles plums are tiny little sweet things with a reddish blush when they are ripe. They are popular in the Alsace region - I expect this tree was once part of someones garden but now it is growing in a tiny scrap of waste ground beside a car wash.


I expect they will all go to waste or maybe the birds will eat them. I find it really strange that so many people here have cherry, lemon, pomegranate and orange trees in their gardens but they mostly don't pick the fruit. And yet, all sorts of fruits of different varieties are on sale in the markets and shops; so its not that people don't eat much fruit.

The last picture is just some purple flowers i saw. I had to hold the camera up to get the photo so its amazing that it turned out ok. I have no idea what kind of flower it is, but i liked it.

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Physio and other stuff

The physiotherapy seems to be helping, though each session makes my shoulder and neck feel much worse for a day or so afterwards.
I had some light neck and shoulder traction today which felt ok at the time, just mild pressure/dull aches but its now quite acute and i feel completely exhausted.
Very weird.
Next visit is on friday and we will be doing work in the pool so that should be interesting

One thing about the long physio sessions is that there is usually a period of about half an hour where i am hooked up to various machines, so my mind wanders over a variety of topics.

Today i was wondering how weird it would be if my 41 year old self met my 21 year old self.

At 21 i had only done a little bit of travelling and was decidedly cautious about foreign food; olive oil was a suspicious and slimy substance; foreign cheeses were weird and too soft and not strong enough in taste among other things.

I remember getting salad in Italy and wiping the oil off the leaves on a napkin as it seemed such an alien thing to me. Now of course i frequently ask for more olive oil- i have become an olive oil addict and we seem to go through masses of the stuff.

Once when back in Glasgow i shocked the waiter by asking for more olive oil and the chef came out of the kitchen tomhave a word with me. He was a real olive oil afficionado and spent some time discussing different types of oil before finally approving of my choice. He seemed really pleased to be asked for more oil- i suspect its an unusual request in Scotland.

In greece, i remember finding feta cheese strange and almost gritty in texture - though i did learn to like it by the time the holiday had ended. But now, although i still really like a good strong vintage cheddar cheese, i love all sorts of goat and sheep cheeses and still like feta crumbled over salad with a dressing of oil and balsamic vinegar.

Another weird thing for me at 21 was the strange cooked meats and sausages found on the continent - i found them overpowering and strangely textured and dry and a bit salty - now i prefer the continental sausage and cooked meats, and find the charcuterie strange when i'm back in the UK.
I think my younger self would find the current me alien , in many ways, and partiularly in terms of food lol

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Madagascar

We went to the cinema in Nice yesterday to see Madagascar - there was a wee bit of pockling of the vote since it seemed that everyone wanted to see War of the Worlds - but somehow Taran had the casting vote and he went for Madagascar.
Actually the film was pretty good- much better than expected and it was even educational. I hadn't realised that lemurs were found in such huge numbers there and that they had a predator called a foosa.

I had wondered whether the foosa was a made up animal but it turns out to be true. Its a bizarre cat-dog-hyena like animal but is a member of the mongoose family. It even eats wild pigs and snakes along with the lemurs so quite and interesting creature. I don't see any pictures of the foosa on google but from the description it sounds like the animators had found something to draw from.
Just discovered that foosa is more frequently spelled fossa - so there are a lot more articles on the animal with this spelling

One detail that apparently wasn't right, is that in lemur society the females are the troop leaders- however the king lemeur was pretty funny in the movie.
The psychotic penguins were teriific and i imagine they might well star in a spin-off movie
It sounds as if the animators are definitly considering another movie.

We wandered around after the film since it was such a lovely night and decided to have dinner at a restaurant in Nice.
It was a lovely meal - even with my restricted diet -so i didn't even mind when everyone had home made and delicious desserts

Illustration Friday - Karma

Karma is the topic for this week's Illustration Friday.
I was tempted to use Karma in the sense of 'just desserts' or reward for living righteously and do something based on the feather of Maat.

Maat was the Egyptian Goddess of Balance [in the sense of Equilibrium - of the Universe and of individual people]. The newly dead souls were brought to Maat's Hall and their hearts [consience] were weighed in the Balance against Maat's feather of Truth. If the heart weighed the same as the feather then the deceased soul could pass to the afterlife but if the heart was heavier, it was devoured by Ammut.
Ammut was a 'demoness' with the head of a crocodile and the body of a lion and the rear quarters of a hippo.

In the end i decided to paint the Lord of Karma , the elephant headed Hindu God, Ganesha [or Ganesh].
Ganesha is the God of Wisdom and Success and the Destroyer of Pride.

In Hindu mythology, Ganesha is depicted with a fairly human body and an elephant head with one broken tusk. A rat or mouse always accompanies him, sometimes Ganesha is depicted riding on the back of the mouse.
The mouse symbolises the quickness of the mind, the ability reason [and like the mouse, work our way to the bottom of things] but also represents fickleness and that human thoughts are easily swayed by good or ill.

Ganesha is always shown with more than 2 arms - multiple arms is a symbol of Divinity. Each hand holds one of Ganesha's symbols [apparently there are over 50 symbols commonly associated with Ganesha]
In this image i have shown him with an axe to cut down the obstacles in life's path ; a rope , to carry devotees to Truth; the abaya pose [open hand meaning 'without fear'] which is a protective or blessing sign and prayer beads.

Ganesha is also associated with the Om/Aum symbol - turned upside down this symbol makes a shape similar to Ganesha's head and Ganesha is also called 'Ohmkara' due the association with the Om symbol. In this case, i have put the symbol on his head, which i've seen in other paintings of Ganesha.

The large belly symbolises plenty and the lelephant ears symbolise an ever listening God.
He wears a snake as a belt, and this symbolises the kundalini energy -the creative or life force energy .


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Fête Nationale - Bastille Day

We went out to the fireworks for Fête Nationale last night in Juan Les Pins. We had missed the Antibes fireworks because the local information site wasn't very accurate. Well, we hadn't missed them exactly as we heard the cannon booms of the finale but it was a bit late then.

The fireworks are always impressive and there was a good turnout to see them. They are set up on pontoons moored out at sea so this obviously makes things safer and the reflections in the sea for is amazing; at least for the people are watching from the beach or promenade.




Although we arrived fairly early , all the good spots were taken right by the sea and we weren't in the mood to walk further in the hopes of getting a sea view. We still had a good view from where we were anyway.

I this photo you can see the people sitting on the wall overlooking the sea.
I took a lot of photos -thankfully digital cameras are ideal for taking loads of photos and discarding the rotten ones.
I had some really amazing jelly fish effects caused by camera shake, i suppose -but they look interesting

The firework displays in Antibes and Juan les Pins always feature palm trees [palmiers in french] and uusally a cry goes up from the crowd when they appear - they look very impressive - unfortunately i didn't manage to capture one at its highest or most impressive

fireworks

More Paper Dolls

My daughter persuaded me to add a paper doll princess/ballerina teddy and a knight. She said that she had always loved the paper dolls i made her when she was little and that the teddy needed a long dress for kids to add a pattern to, as well as colour.


Click on the images and either print directly from the browser or save the image and print from a photo maniplulation or similar program.



Princess teddy


Teddy Knight
Can be printed and used in a family setting - no alterations, publication, commercial distribution and other uses without permission

paper dolls

Green eggs and ham

Real free range eggs are normally brilliant but there is always the risk of one thats a bit older than the rest.
Unfortunately i got that one - yuk - green slimy and sulphurous. I would have noticed right away if i had been frying or scrambling it, but at the moment i'm having to follow a really strict diet on Drs orders and i am supposed to be boiling the breakfast eggs - so it was a really unpleasant surprise.
It was strange though since i'd always believed that bad eggs floated but this one was just the same as a normal egg apart from the disgusting contents.

Paper dolls to print out

I used to love paper dolls when i was a child, and i remember drawing some for my little sisters.
Here are a couple of paper teddies suitable for younger kids that can be printed out and coloured - and hopefully will fill up some time when the kids are floating around not sure what to do with themselves becuase it is too hot, or the rain has started.
I will probably work on some other activities since its much more fun than doing what i should be doing.
Click on the images and either print directly from the browser or save the image and print from a photo maniplulation or similar program.


summer teddy




Pirate teddy
Can be printed and used in a family setting - no alterations, publication, commercial distribution and other uses without permission

paper dolls

Swimming pigs

Its very hot here and my shoulder is still very painful, so i guess that why i've been thinking about swimming by proxy.
I was in the mood to do some more B&W for my portfolio so i've been drawing pigs in different situations.


Swimming pigs

My kids are now on holiday from school and i would have expected them to be heading off to the beach but i think they are recovering from school fatigue.
The last few weeks of term are exhausting for the pupils and i bet the teachers aren't exactly bouncing in to work then either.

Illustration Friday - metropolitan

Another weird Illustration Friday topic - this time metropolitan.

Merriam-Webster online Dictionary gives the definition as:
1 : the primate of an ecclesiastical province
2 : one who lives in a metropolis or displays metropolitan manners or customs.

Not really something that sparks the imagination IMo. Anyway my thoughts on this topic went something like - cities - ant or termite cities - ants in the city. Not very excititing really.
Ants are pretty amazing and as well as living in vasy city colonies the also manage to infest high rise buildings so they are metropolitan in more ways than one.



City ants

Alternate friday

worm eating monster
I was supposed to be illustrating insatiability and had planned to do womething about the terror war machine but yesterday's events in London made me change my mind. Everything i tried to do seemed too trite.
So i've ended up doing a monster with an insatiable appetite for worms - not something pithy or topical.

London Atrocity

Its hard to comprehend the horror of yesterday's events in London. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families caught up in this carnage, my sincere condolences for the people who have died and I hope that the injured heal well and quickly.
The emergency sevices, police, paramedics, fire brigade , ambulance, hospital staff and all the others involved in the rescues and aid must have had an unbelievable job yesterday and yet they coped magnificently. I hope they get help afterwards to cope with the sights they have seen.

I was supposed to be going over to London this week but i had cancelled a while ago due to other commitments.

On Wednesday, there had been good natured ribbing from French people about London winning in the Olympic hosting race over Paris. Yesterday and today therehas been shock, concern and solidarity with the UK.

Its hard to imagine the mentality of bombers who deliberately target civilians going about their daily lives.

Dolphin Family

dolphin family - inspired by Minoan Frescoes

After the bull leaping image i did for Illustration Friday the other day, I was in the mood to do something else in that line. So here it is - a dolphin family inspired by the Minoan dolphin frescoes. Its not a slavish reproduction by any means - more of a flavour of the style with my own bits added.

The dolphins depicted in the frescoes are probably short beaked common dolphins which have the right sort of colouration. I've seen them a few times, through binoculars, as they are found in the Mediterranean Sea -they sometimes follow shoals of fish or fishing boats.

Fete de St Jean

Last night we went to the local Fete de St Jean which is normally around the summer solstice; but this year was a bit late for some reason.

Its a traditional festival involving bonfire leaping, spiral and circle dancing and traditional music - with traditional instruments - cornemuse [bagpipes], three holed provencal flutes and hurdy gurdies. They sound like this





band


I took part in a spiral dance - which was good since it has been a long time since i have been able to take part due to ill health.



My husband took the photos - Taran and i are the two on the right hand side



I am to the left of the small person in bright red in the above picture


I am just about to leave the picture on the left.


I had some worries beforehand about my current shoulder getting worse but i got my son Taran to hold my hand on that side so it wasn't too bad.
I was sweating and exhuasted afterwards from being so close to the bonfire and the unaccustomed exercise but i really felt i needed to do it, as a turning point in my life somehow.

Taran jumped the bonfire for the first time on his ow- previously he has jumped between Chris and I.
However, I didn't jump the bonfire this year - that would have been a bit too much!

Maybe next year ...

Illustration Friday - Sport

Sport is not my 'thing' at all.
I don't follow sports on tv, or root for teams and i initially thought about using the word sport in another sense - as in proudly wearing something but nothing came to mind apart from a double use thing of a boxer sporting a black eye.

Anyway, i gave up on that idea and decided i'd maybe do the discobolos the famous discus thrower statue since i remembered having to draw this a long time ago at school, in Latin class.

However, in the end i went off on a tangent to Minoan Crete and decided to paint something based on the bull leaper frescoes.
I decided on a more graphic look to try and evoke the frescoes better and i'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
The bull leaping on Crete that is shown in the frescoes is suggested by modern day Portugese bull fighting; where the bulls are not killed and the 'fighters' attempt to jump on the bulls head, remove ribbons and subdue it by covering its eyes.
I've heard that some portugese bull fighting has started in the US, and of course, aspects of rodeo seem to be similar. At least, requiring similar skills, if not intended as religious as well as sporting activities.




leaping the bull after a Minoan frescoe.

note added - tuesday 9th july I've done another Minoan inspired piece today - under the post heading Dolphin Family

Ow Ow Ow or aïe aïe aïe

I had my first physio appointment this morning and although the physio was really nice and gentle, he still had to put my shoulder through a lot of painful motions to get a real idea of what has gone wrong.
It seems that as well as ligaments and tendon damage, that i also have trapped nerves in my neck and my shoulder muscles have 'frozen' due to the ortator cuff injury.

Its all really painful .
The physio was surprised that i do so much with my left hand as usually ambidextrous folk only use their non dominant hand a bit -however i am pretty lost without my left as i do almost everything equally; using the nearest hand to do the task. I mostly write and paint with my right hand but i take notes and colour etc with my left, so its hard going.

Anyway after the horrible examination i had some electrotherapy and ultrasound therapy - it feels really tight and sore but i hope this is just the hard part at the beginning.

My next appointment is on Monday afternoon.

In the meantime i have to follow a restricted diet , take more pain and inflammation meds and ponder on why french peoiple say aïe and english speakers say ow when they are in pain!

Flowery day

On the way home from the Drs yesterday, I spotted some Passion flowers - i find them both fascinating and repellant - they look alien or triffid-like to me. Obviously bees like them since while i was standing there and starting up the camera, the single honey bee was joined by two others.
I always expect these flowers to shut on their prey like venus flytraps but they don't - unless they are sneaky and only trap things when humans aren't around to watch.




passion flower 2 bees


Passion flower 3 bees


To add to yesterday's floral theme, I won a bouquet of flowers at the weekend - or rather i won a gift voucher for one so i picked it up yesterday - quite a pretty arrangement but no scent at all.
I know people have problems with scented flowers due to allergies but i have to say that personally i prefer flowers to smell since i rarely buy cut flowers to its a visiual and preferably olofactory treat for me when to do have them.
They cheer up the table anyway and it makes a change to win something nice.

shoulder again

The update on my shoulder is that the ligaments aren't as bad as originally thought and that its actually mainly a rotator cuff injury. So i had some injections of cortisone into the painful areas and i have to go back for some more injections tomorrow.

It does seem to have helped a bit and once the acute pain has finally gone, i have physiotherapy to look forward to.

The Dr said, "you're Scottish so you won't be able to play golf for a while" - i didn't mention that i agree with Mark Twain, "Golf is a good walk spoiled. "

Heroes

The new Illustration Friday topic is Heroes - which is another difficult topic, I think.
Hero is an awfully overused word these days, so many modern 'heroes' are just very good at self publicity and even better at hiding their feet of clay.
Recent 'heroes' aka celebrities seem to be getting top billing on the news- regardless of anything else thats going on in the world - wars, famine, important stuff.

As a child i had some heroes from ancient myths and legends - and i originally thought about some of the heroic tales - including the story of Hero and Leander, which isn't so heroic but is about Hero.

Then i thought about the historical stories that had inspired me: Black Agnes, Lady Agnes Randolph [A.D. 1300?-1369?] from the Scottish Borders who used her intelligence and wit to hold her castle against the besieging forces of England's earl of Salisbury for over five months. Her husband was away and she was seen as easy prey but she managed to hold out and finally win through; despite poor odds.

I also considered Horatius Cocles who held off the Etruscans at the Sublician bridge, initially fighting with two companions and then singlehanded after demanding that the woooden bridge was destroyed to prevent the Etruscans from advancing. He swam the Tiber in full armour - some say he was drowned and others that he lived and was rewarded with the land he could plough around in one day.

I prefer to think he was saved by the Tiber Himself and lived to farm his own land.
There is a really interesting webpage based on the Horatius story which was originally printed in the British Army Journal in 1953.
Quite revealing regarding modern army practises.

I also considered Marcus Curtius who flung himself, horse and all, into a chasm that appeared in the Roman Forum, after an Oracle said that it could only be closed by the most precious thing Rome possessed. I liked his self confidence apart from anything else.


Finally after deciding these were all inappropriate for some reason or another, I thought about
Medecins Sans Frontieres and how they go in to areas after disasters, wars and epidemics.

I can only think of these doctors and nurses and ancillary staff as heroes when i consider the fact that they go in to support and care for people in Ebola and Marburg virus outbreaks - the thought of people being heroic enough to tend to the sick whilst everyone is dying of mysterious diseases and bizarre and horrifying symptoms made me think of the Plague doctors with their bird-like masks.
The masks were actually useful since they prevented droplet infection and the herbs and essential oils they contained may have helped disinfect the air the doctors [apothecaries] breathed.
The robes and hoods were waxed and prevented fleas from attaching -and so may have prevented the doctors themselves from being infected.



Plague Doctor with Mask - in honour of the Medecins sans Frontiers

I painted this image in Painter 7 - the mask details are based roughly on the engraving "Doktor Schnabel von Rom" ("Doctor Beak from Rome") , Rome 1656
The skeleton and hourglass appearing from the gloom are meant to prepresent the Danse Macabre murals from the middle ages, that represent ever present Death and also the Memento mori - reminders of death that appeared on gravestones [usually skulls, bones and hourglasses to depict the transience of life].
When i was a child, i was told that these were pirate graves but i soon realised that there were a tremendous number of pirates buried inland in Scotland and did a bit of research at the local library.

ouch part 2

The swelling has reduced a lot but it seems to make it easier for the bones to move in ways they shouldn't which is both painful and creepy.
Its very awkward trying to do things with one arm in a sling, especially since i usually use the closest arm to any task rather than always using my right.

I had to write a letter to my daughter's school last night and after laborously typing it with one finger, my daughter disapproved of the wording -she said it was too formal and long.
So she typed out another version for me to sign - however as a joke she made the ending
'merci pour ta comprehension mon petit chouchou d'amour' which translates roughly as
'Thanks for being understanding my little love pet'. Somehow i think the headmaster might have seen that as a wee bit odd - thankfully i read the letter before signing.

OUCH!

Last night i heard a snapping sound and had a severe pain and swelling in my collar bone area and a lot of pain when i moved my arm -so i was off to the Drs today and was prodded and x-rayed.
The good news is that my collar bone hasn't snapped , I don't have a tumour in the bone and i don't have TB.
However i have torn ligaments and its really painful - worse than labour pains.
It wasn't helped by the consultant radiologist prodding the sore part really hard and saying 'oh i know' when i collapsed screaming.
Then he invited colleagues in to see this interesting case that presented like a fracture and could be reduced to tears and screaming in an instant. ' wow, thats impressive" they said as my knees buckled under me with pain.
So now i have a sling and very serious anti-inflammatories and pain killers and have to go back and see the Dr next monday.
If i wasn't ambidextrous things would be easier since i use the nearest hand for tasks and probably favour my left over the right.
I suppose i did discover that i have particularly strong and healthy bones -which is good news

Black and white armadillos

Armadillo Armadillo
I have been having fun with the general idea of the zebra square so i've been doing some other animals. Here is the armadillo version- i think they are cute.

Blog buttons

I'd been looking for ways of making blog buttons for a wee while and the original sites i found didn't seem very intuitive or helpful [or maybe i just needed a bit more help than most folk]
Anyway i found this Brilliant Button Maker.
You can upload images which will automatically resize and the buttons look really great IMO
I've added 3 on the sidebar for my website, my children's illustrators portfolio and for the free e-cards
Its donate ware via paypal

Illustration Friday Black and White

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Black and white.
I was in a pattern mood and although i'm sure zebras will be popular this week i still couldn't resist it =) I couldn't really decided which of these two to submit so i've put them both on the same page.

I painted the zebra head in Painter 7 with a white pen on black canvas then took it into Photoshop 5.5, made a new canvas and duplicated and flipped the original zebra.
I decided to add the zebra text and increased the canvas size to give a white border and added the text as 4 layers with the font Stencil. I adjusted the point size slightly to make the square look right.


I also played around with some stylised magpies as i've always liked them and the various bits of traditional rhyme that go with them.

My gran always used to say " Hello Mr Magpie, How's your lady wife today?" when she saw a magpie and i used to know some old folk who would tip their hat when they saw a magpie for luck.
It seems that magpies are connected with rhymes and superstitions all over the world

Back-ups 2

I discovered 3 CDs with problems - and this is despite regularly checking that the back-ups are ok.
Luckily everything is backed up more than once - though i wonder if these discs were less reliable since they had a paper cover and not a jewel case. The oldest discs [from 1998] are all fine

Backups

I've been goping through all the cd roms and dvds that i've crerated over the years with all my saved artwork. Its a long process but worthwhile as it can be interesting to see old work that forgotten and alos its vital to make sure the discs still read correctly.

CDs and dvd don't seem to be as problematical as zip discs but even so its worthwhile checking that the discs can still be read ok

i've added another couple of images to the e-cards as well- Grannie moon and the wood wizard

Alison's E-cards

I've added the code to allow free E-cards of some of my artwork to the sidebar. Only a few images at the moment but i'll be adding more over the next few days.

Star wars -finally

We saw Revenge of the Sith last night. We went into Nice with the additional motive of exploring a bit and getting a feel for the place, as it looks like we will be moving there later in the year.

It has a lot of advantages and access to cinemas with films in VO at a time is one of these. I like watching french films but i prefer to watch films in the original language - i find the dubbed voices weird if i know the actors speaking voice and it really detracts from the film.

Anyway, Revenge of the Sith was pretty good- it tied up a lot of loose ends though there were still a few things introduced in the film that were puzzling. Its definitely worth going to see.

*possible spoiler* Don't read on if you are intending to watch the film

One of the glaring problems IMO was the change in Padmé s character - instead of a self assured person capable of picking her own handcuffs and escaping before two Jedi had even considered their options- she became a wimp who hung around waiting for Anakin to give her a hug and make everything better.

Padmé and Anakin are supposed to be keeping their relationship secret but they live together in a palatial appartment and no one bats an eyelid.

Her pregnant 'bump' is the smallest ever seen despite it being home for two enormous babies.
Also her 'operation' seems to have been done by folk with no knowledge of surgical birth going by the bizarre hoops. Also why did the midwife droids speak a different language that only Obi Wan could understand? Why does she inexplicably lose the will to live - did she not really want the kids in the first place - feeble, feeble, feeble

In Padmé s funeral cortege , the camera lingers for ages on a little girl for no reason at all - unless its a young Han Solo in disguise. very odd

Anakin never thinks that he might be being fed the bad dreams by someone else but gives up everything he is supposed to believe in and is happy to kill a bunch of kids in order to learn how to have power over death.

Obi-wan is inept most of the time which is pretty weird for a Jedi master - and yet when on his own he excells himself

Yoda at one point flys away in a portapotti cum space ship and for no apparent reason hooks up with Chewbacca.
Yoda can feel the deaths of other jedi but seems to have real problems working out whats going on with people 2 feet away from him.

Why does Leia become a princess when she's adopted by a Senator?
why did Qui-Gon get mentioned as being available for training Obi-Wan- would Obi Wan have become the person in the later films if he had spent years in further Jedi training? It just seemed like a random weird reference to me

Thankfully Jar-Jar does not speak -so that was a major plus for this film.
All in all its a good film. I want to watch episodes 4-6 again now

Illustration Friday - Summer

Strawberry jam

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Summer.
Growing up in Scotland's Clyde valley meant summer fruit and jam - summer started with strawberries.
Other fruits were black and red currants, gooseberries, rhubarb, raspberries and brambles [blackberries].
Many of these fruits grew wild near our house and we would spend hours collecting boxes of them to eat with cream, make pies and give to our gran to make jam.
The smell of simmering fruit and sugar is the very essence of summer to me and goes with the white nights and playing outdoors till 10 or 11pm [Scotland never gets very dark in summer]
Of course those were the days when kids were expected to be outside from morning till night, only returning for meals etc. Snacks were jeelly pieces [jam sandwiches] or pokes of sugar and raw rhubarb straight from the garden. Delicious!

Davy lamps and lies our teachers told us

Mining safety lamp
After writing about Davy lamps yesterday, i decided to have a go at drawing one from memory.
It turned out that the lamp in my memory was not actually a Davy lamp, but one that was further modified by somone called Stephenson - apparently the original Davy lamps were not very safe! So much for the Davy lamp saving the lives of thousands of miners- it seems that mine accidents increased since the metal mesh was not resistant enough. Oh well - another historical myth shattered.
The glass sheath around the mesh, added by Stephenson, increased the safety dramatically.

addendum - I've checked and it seems that the Stephenson referred to is the one famous for designing Stephenson's Rocket- a steam powered locomotive.

Saint Vallier de Thiey

My son is off to Saint Vallier de Thiey with his school to stay at a residential centre there. They will be learning about computers [though i suspect he won't learn much as he is already very computer literate and can use Photoshop and Painter etc]. However it seems that a lot of kids in the class don't get very much access to computers so it will be great for the others.
Apart from computing , the kids will be doing a project on the landscape and environment of the surrounding area and that should be wonderful. My son is a very keen on nature and geology etc so he will be in his element.

There will be also a visit to some show caves which should be interesting I like visiting caves myself - the atmosphere of being underground and seeing the stalactites, stalagmites and rock formations is always fascinating.
I found the pre-trip meeting very odd though since some of the parents had obviously never visited caves before and they were very concerend about their kids' safety. Presumably they were envisioning their bouts de choux being sent down a hole on a rope with a canary and Davy lamp.
bouts de choux -is a term of endearment for children similar to poppet or kiddiwinkie though it actually means something along the lines of 'bit of cabbage'

Kid lit articles and links

A Conversation with Maurice Sendak -
article , and interview to listen to - really worthwhile if you have the time

Star-studded opening for Roald Dahl centre

Roald Dahl museum and story centre
Looks like it will be a wonderful place to visit

official Roald Dahl website

Too many phone books

Bashful girl

The other day the door bell rang and my daughter went to answer it. It was a delivery of white and yellow phone books - three of each! We have 3 phone lines into the house so of course the telephone company sent us 6 phone directories. Anyway when Annis brought the books upstrairs it looked somewhat like a fancy dress costume and gave me the idea for this odd little bashful girl. Not sure if i will do anything else with her but there is something about her that appeals to me. I remember being dressed as a candle for halloween so being dressed as a pile of phone books is maybe not so weird.

Battle of the Flowers / Bataille des Fleurs

Today was Antibes' Battle of the Flowers [Bataille des Fleurs]
So there were lots of floats decorated in flowers [mainly carnations], marching bands, majorettes, different kinds of dancers and lots of drumming groups marching through the streets of the old town.
here are a few photos from today's event.


peace dove float
An olive branch was in the dove's mouth - a bit wilted but there none the less.


samba dancers
The samba dancers must have been exhausted wearing really heavy costumes . big platform sandals and huge wigs under a very hot sun [plus dancing round the streets]. You can't see in this photo but the costumes were cut away in the rear and there were a couple of wardrope malfuntions of the thong type, that required the assistance of a dresser to put right.



little drummer boy
This little boy was really drumming with the rest of the group - he wasn't just a token or mascot.


Flags and Drums

throwing flags
This group were dressed in a medieaval costume waving the flags and throwing them into the air - it was really flawlessly performed in time to their own drumming group but i expect it was really hard work

baby float
A strange float with a lot of adults dressed as babies [complete with baby bottles and dummies] who played ring games every 50 yards or so.

portugese dancers
These portugese folk dancers are a mixture of ages, from kids about 6 years old to pensioners.


Tin Tin float
This float was based on Tin Tin [On a marché sur la lune]. Destination Moon

Dupont and Dupond [Thomson and Thompson] are hidden by the gladioli and Professor Tournesol [Professor Calculus] is also in there somewhere.
I am a big fan of Hergé. When we moved to France it was an ideal opportunity to buy all the TinTin books in french and english - it really helped my french reading the books side by side and i've always admired Hergé's illustration style and the background research and art details that really add to the stories.

Cancelled- revenge of the sith

We had intended to go to Cannes today on the train to see Revenge of the Sith in VO. However, after we bought our train tickets and were waiting for the train, Martina [the Austrian exchange student] became violently sick - too much sun! So we came back home again - i tried getting the train tickets transferred to another day but since i'd thought to ask for a super-duper cheap train ticket they were non-refundable. =(

Martina and Annis had gone out this morning and although Annis is well used to the sun, it was too much for Martina. Also she had been somewhat slap-dash at putting on suncreme and was burned in patches on her arms- rotten.

Hoverver, she perked up after some painkillers for her headache, plenty of water and a lie down.
Hopefully Revenge of the Sith VO will be held over a week so we can get to see it later.
*VO is version originale- ie in english with french subtitles

Illustration Friday - Digital

The new Illustration Friday topic is Digital. Another hard one since all my art is now digital - digital media just seem to suit me better than everything else -and the fact that there is an infinite supply of 'paint' and no mess [though my family would no doubt dispute this since they can see my extremely cluttered desk lol]

I originally played around with ideas about hands and thought about doing some finger painting using some brushes i created in painter 7 from fingerprints but then decided i would do something on the ones and zeros binary theme. Its supposed to be vaguely similar to the ladybird icon on the blog site and i've added some other more realistic ladybirds that i painted in Painter 7 [and so are also digital]

Exchange student 2

So far so good, we've survived the first meeting and meal anyway. =)
She seems like a very nice polite girl and is obviously overwhelmed at being in a strange place.
She ate a microscopic piece of meat and salad at dinner and i will have to try and remember to buy more veggies to help fill her up.

My two are now watching Dvds with her - initially trying to watch Belphegor LE FANTÔME DU LOUVRE
in french but its seems that the dvd player is on its last legs and it keeps giving disc errors for zone2 dvds. They are now watching Dr Who I'm not sure what the Austrian girl will make of it.

She is supposed to be here to learn french, however she will be brushing up on her english chez nous since she finds that easier, though she has been somewhat phased by our Scottish accents.
She will have plenty of french during the day at school, I suppose.

Exchange student

We have an exchange student from Austria arriving tomorrow. My daughter visited Austria in January and had a lot of fun going to school in deep snow. The Austrian girl will have sun and sea in the South of France to look forward to, and apparently many of the Austrian exchange kids have never seen the sea.

Tonight whilst floating around the supermarket looking for last minute odds and ends for the visit, I asked my daughter what she thought the girl would like to eat.
'Anything but meat' was the reply. I was really shocked that this little fact had gone unmentioned till the night before, as we eat a lot of meat and sea food.

However, it turned out that the girl does eat some meat but prefers to eat pasta and pizza - not something we have very often in this house since I don't eat any grains at all due to severe allergies.