February 2004 Archives

All these petty errands I have to do now that Tim is done! Today I went for a police background check, I am now officially not a criminal. I had to hide myself from the new overzealous principal in the Saturday Dutch classes, because I worked without check until she arrived. So today I went for my background check. I had a very nice chat with a new immigrant from Nigeria. He was not the one that is sending me all these interesting emails, although he knew about them. He got a clean background too, so I think he was telling the truth. Background is a funny word. I once saw a Keith Haring drawing at an exhibition in Rotterdam. In it Keith misspelled the word background as backround. In Dutch you would never make that mistake; achter-grond. You *hear* the g. But back-round is plausible even for the meaning of the word. Certainly for artists. Makes it a really visual word. Google-hits on backround: 167.000! So much for linguistics from the cold ground.
By the way, the picture above is a postcard I purchased in the police station gift shop. Canada is a kindergarten.

I added a tiny little mother on one of the drawings, and that is really the last Tim thing I'll do. Yesterday I didn't have anything to blog, sorry. I went to the Dutch pub night. Which is very funny, a pub full of Dutch in the middle of Toronto. Last night it took place in a restaurant on the 51st floor. And you know what, ever since we live here, we ask ourselves why Canadians don't wash their windows. Even a restaurant whith a view as its only appeal has dirty windows. Rare jongens, die Canadezen. The pub nights chairman is the cousin of a Dutch TV celebrity, and it's weird how much they are alike. Looks, gestures, voice, humour, weird, weird. But ours is straight, which is even weirder. If you ask me. And very nice, by the way.

Today I didn't work, haha! I shoveled snow and I took my daughter to the doctor. For the first time in Canada, because she is never ill. The doctor didn't really want me to come into the surgery, because my daughter is in title to total confidentiality. But I knew the doctor was going to ask for every disease in the family to at least twelve genarations back, and my daughter wouldn't have any answers. On top of that the doctor was very busy, and I was going to save her time with quick answers about dozens of different obscure varieties of cancer. So I could stay. We discovered that rubella is also called "German measles". Funny.
The picture above is from an enormous little golden books website. Is worth a visit.

A few corrections here and there, but otherwise ready! Ha, almost a week before deadline. Now I can clean my house, go downtown, do anything I want. Oh no, have to get my daughter some vaccinations tomorrow. And my son to the dentist with a broken tooth. Okay, I'll mother.

Although this is obviously the last page in the book, I still have to do two more.

Totally badly overexposedly! Shame on you Peter, but thanks anyway. This one is better.

Does the doggy want to sleep in the bed?

Tims in all shapes and sizes.

Ready before dinner, I like that.

Only six illustrations left to draw. I am getting faster at last. I promised someone in the comments to post artist's blogs. Maybe I'll do that later.

Willem is published as reader's submission in the papers today!

Not bad for a monday.

Just a little teaser for next week's newspaper. I didn't manage getting the colouring done last night, it's noon Sunday. I am too slow.

Four PM. Hope I can finish colouring tonight.

When it rains it poors. Publisher is waiting for book, newspaper wants illustration for next Saturday, and ad agency wants something with cars again. Me bicycle person. I will have no trouble at all posting sketches in the next few days.

I don't know if it's visible this petite, but this one is quite charming.

Remember my December 24 entry about women on rugs? I found another one! Who knows, it might become a collection. First Babette Wagenvoort and now Eline van Dam.

I skipped blogging yesterday, how terrible. Didn't finish a drawing either. IB parent council meeting, you have no idea.
I should ask Marcel van Eeden to draw me a houseplant on this one.

Okay, I did one myself. With or without plant, that is the question.

I figured out a way to keep my right hand warm while drawing. I just put the desklamp close over the tablet! So simple, so effective.

I flipped this one later when I realised Tim has to wave outward. And the picture is going to be on a right hand page.

I tried to picture a desolate feeling here. Hope I'm not going too poetic. I'm glad I decided not to draw the pictures chronologically because I am becoming experienced in these Tim things. Wouldn't want the book to start crappy and end in masterpieces. Exaggerating of course.

Blogwise this is not very exiting, I realise that. But it's extremely interesting to do, I can almost flip through the book mentally.

I CAN do it in one day. I'll add a cat tomorrow.

This one should have been ready the day before yesterday. Oh, well. Maybe, just maybe we can even retrieve the lost drawing from the broken harddisk, who knows.

I noticed I didn't draw a curtain pole, I'll add one later.

I lost two days work. I didn't make backups because even burning CD's resulted in errors. So I put my work on a disk that was supposedly healthy. And that one gave up last night. One finished drawing completely gone, this one I lost the line drawing. I still had the pencil sketch on good old paper. Sigh.

It almost seems like I have a consistent approach. The new harddisk is postponed to tonight, my nerves.

This is going to be a two page spread, Tim dancing with the curtains while a fat man is walking by. I almost finished another illustration today, but somehow I find it easier to show something not nearly finished, than something nearly finished. I am as deranged as any other artist.

Tonight Michiel is going to put in a new harddisk, so if you don't hear from me again, I'm in deep shit.

Sensible at last.