October 2005 Archives

Colouring is only half way, they will be much less flat, promise. Voltaire itself hasn't even been looked at. Patience alors. Halloween was fun, we handed out a truckload of candy, and Otger tricked and treated a truckload back. But that wasn't even the most fun thing. The most fun thing was Ghostbusters. Every Halloween in a street near us a group of neighbours performs on a front yard converted into a stage. With professional lighting hung in the trees and a mega sound system. And an audience of hundreds. Cars that want to drive by can just forget it. They did Ghostbusters and a medley of scenes from horror films. Redrum! Here's Johnny! Picture with camera phone, sorry.

See, much better already. I also made him right-handed, though I have no idea whether Voltaire was left-handed or right-handed. But I'll draw the right hand again, it bugs me, it doesn't look good. Now for the landscape. But not too fast, it's Saturday. And there's a pumpkin on the porch, waiting to be carved. And Michiel ripped the bathroom window out of the basement. Look what he found!

I am going to change a lot of things, the hat needs more direction for example. His head a bit bent back and his hat forwards, something like that. Will look funnier. I'll see more tomorrow, with fresh eyes. Not that I am not fresh now, we just got back from meeting Piffin's friend at Union Station. She is here from Coburg, but her train was delayed an hour. An hour! Piffin and I watched the dressed up Halloween crowds passing through the station. Which was fun. We weren't always sure whether people were dressed up.

Stop, cruel, stop, secular troop; O violeurs, fear God, fear Jeanne (?)

The research is as interesting as doing the illustration. Getting sidetracked constantly. I found a website with a Voltaire poem in 21 engravings from -it says, but don't ask me for details- the Jean-Michel Moreau school 1819.

It was not easy to find an explanation in a few sentences of what the poem is about, but here is one:

Voltaire takes the appellation 'the Maid' literally, and turns the historical contest between the French and the English into a battle for Joan of Arc's virginity, upon which the fate of the war depends. In a work which focuses on the sexual exploits and desires of the characters (ascribed without regard to historical fact) the Maid is the subject of a series of attempted rapes and seductions, and in fact becomes the lover of the Count Dunois.

My first two little drawings illustrating a column on the upbringing of children. I restrain myself to half a day per drawing max, which is still too long really. Now on to Voltaire! And somebody already did the sketching for me

Never mind the perspective. I'll have to change some minor details tomorrow, but for now, I'm sick of it. The computer is slow as molasses, it's asking for some defragging. I hope it's that, cause there are three drawings in the pipeline. Check back for elephants, profanities and Voltaire. An illustrator's horizon is so wide, you can't possibly imagine.

Too boring to always only post my own things. I am researching a quicker, more sketchy way of working, I have been asked to do a weekly newspaper cartoon on raising kids. I thought I'd just approach it the Steinberg way :-) The little masterpieces will make me rich and famous, so the poor newspaper pay is no problem at all. --> And I *am* doing the next merry-go-round pages!

I might be illustrating a children's book, but I am a serious children's literature skeptic. My kids never used to read, didn't like it, weren't good at it. School teachers have always wanted to label them dyslectic. For lots of reasons, I never believed them. One of those reasons being that kid's books are just plain boring. Talking bears, that sort of stuff. As they get older, their reading (and writing) problems gradually vanish. Piffin is a now great Nabokov and Dostojevski fan, so I don't think she's very dyslectic. Otger is at a turning point. The Hobbit and Harry Potter. Then what? But now The Great Discovery. Maybe everybody but us has known about this for ever, but we haven't. Pendragon has got him reading! And how! Day and night, night and day. And even the website of the book cover illustrator!! Otger has been designing his things in Maya all afternoon, totally inspired. Ha!!!

Haven't forgotten about the Little Golden Book, on the contrary, it's becoming a stone on my conscience. But I do have a really funny link for you, especially funny for Canadians. My father-in-law found an ad in his local newspaper. For a Canadian restaurant. In Lochem. Of all places. Expensive! Make an effort and read some Dutch.

The alliteration is lost in English. Finally finally I'm done, phew. Now all I have to do is upload it, make a back-up, and write the invoice. Thanks to Martijn even the signs on the platforms are up to date. It's what I love about Canada, designs of things rarely ever change. Time doesn't really exist here.

I know it seems like I am spending days on end on this drawing. I wish. I spent almost the entire afternoon in traffic jams to and from the airport. Especially on the way home I felt terrible, alone in this gigantic car. I looked exactly like the sort of people who cause these traffic jams, alone in gigantic cars. I wanted a sign stating I don't own a car, it's a rental! It's a rental! I'll be so happy to be a bike/TTC person again, although the car was fun for a while. Deadline for my boardgame is tomorrow night, I'll make that easy. I just need to add a title and a slightly more modern train in the middle.

A lot of shading and fine tuning to do, but the boring work of filling all the forms is done. And since Willem is flying back to Holland tomorrow, I showed him some last sights. We cruised up and down the Lakeshore Boulevard, from the Grenadier cafe in High Park to the closed (dammit) brewery in the Distillery District. And the Eaton Centre, even showed him the Eaton Centre. And then he bought us yet another Mimi dinner...

Just went for a night walk with the father-in-law in the wheelchair. When I tried to put on my right shoe I noticed that the swollen knee that had gravitated to my ankle, now settled on the foot itself, so I had to go find a pair with laces. Other than that I am healed, bruising gone and pain away. I can ride my bike again!

Starting to take shape. These colours will probably change dramatically in the process, but the start is there. I am working on the game in all the lost and found moments between walks on Ward's Island, restaurants here and restaurants there. The father-in-law is making a very Asian journey through Toronto; India, Vietnam, China, Japan. But yesterday we did boerenkool met rookworst for some friends. Which meant a long drive to the Dutch store for some genuine rookworst. A lot more exotic than Asian food, rookworst!

The father-in-law couldn't resist the gorgeous looking (and tasting) New York sirloin steaks in the St Lawrence market. I did some pounds to KG conversion and had to conclude I'm still not homesick. Five steaks weighed 2.16 kilograms (!). We paid 34.70 CAN $ which comes to 24.56 €. So per kilo this top quality steak is 16.06 CAN $ or 11.37 €. Which is cheaper than any of these.

All the small images are done. Now all I have to do is draw a middle image and a background. And colour the lot. But first some opa entertainment, we're going to drive around town randomly, my favourite pass time! -- Update: We went for a drink at the Drake Hotel. Now off to Mimi's for dinner. Oh, and we went to a thrift store on Bloor where last week in driving by I had spotted the perfect frame for my Ray Ceasar. Turns out it's an enormous group of seven collection, prints no doubt, but nontheless lovely frames. They'll be auctioned next week. I checked my favourite frame, it's a Harris, minimum $135. I'll be there. Ray won't mind replacing Harris.

This is one of the images on my boardgame. I never knew I had it in me, drawing machines, for crying out loud. It's some sort of lathe, with which they round the wheels of trains. Wheels that have become square because of all the wet autumn leaves. Whatever. We saw beautiful autumn leaves this past thanksgiving weekend, we rented a cottage on Manitoulin island. (Maybe I'll postblog some photo's) I'm afraid it'll turn out to have been the last weekend to sit and eat outside, the weather was wonderful. Today I turned on the heating :-(

The long road home. Two full hours of traffic jam to the Moon River bridge...

The Dutch word for speedboat is speedboot, now isn't that funny. Spiedboot I would understand, but speedboot seems like too much of both languages. Opa is reading Joe Speedboot, and enjoying it.

Cathy & Archie's family cottages, only Archie is now Ronnie.

The father-in-law is starting to feel at home in the city.

Cooling the leg in the lake.

Driving the father-in-law around the city.

See, I'm getting better. I already managed some more today. I put my lazy chair in front of the computer, keyboard on my lap, tablet on arm lean. I went for my ultra sound, my arteries are healthy, tomorrow the veins. And right now we're waiting for Michiel and his dad, they're taking for ever to get here from the airport...

A lot less than I planned for, but hey. My dear neighbour Paul drove me to the doctor. She was impressed with my bruising. I do have to get my veins ultra sounded though. Tomorrow. Clot concern. But she thought I am going to be all right. If my foot turns a weird colour I should take action. The purple thing I showed yesterday is harmless, just gravity. Gravity shifted my blood from front to back in the plane. Going to lie down now.

This is turning into a very depressing blog, I guess I like the sympathy comments. I tripped over my own feet while waving a cab to get me to Pearson. It didn't even feel very painful at the time. The knee started swelling while waiting to board the plane, but I kept moving about and did not worry about it much. The plane wasn't full, and a nice stwardess gave me three chairs, so I could stretch my legs. And they gave me bags of ice all the time. My knee kept on swelling however and reached football size (almost). The pressure in the plane made it worse the stewardess said, so I remained optimistic. There was no way I could do anything at all having reached Schiphol, so I was raced through the airport on a golf cart. And I could pass the enormous line at customs, the blessings of being handicapped. Then I had to catch the first train to Deventer, and I made a very nice and extremely drunk young man carry my luggage. In Deventer thank god Michiel and his dad were waiting for me. And with loads of ice I got through the next days, passed out on the couch. I managed the funeral, even wore high heels. I guess the sad circomstances made me feel good in comparison. I got better gradually during the rest of the week, but had to cancel a trip to my best friend and the editorial desk in Amsterdam. The flight back was not so luxurious, a full plane. So I came home swollen once again. The nice looking dark bruise is new, flying is a bad idea for injuries. The front of the knee is not as purple as it was, but my ankle is more purple every day. The doctor told me that would happen, so I'm not to worried. I borrowed my father-in-law's cane. And I promised my neighbours I'll go see my family doctor.