News Flash! - It's Roly again

Roly is this weeks Weekly Monster on Tilda in the Burbs! Tilda (another Boxer) is a little more clever than Roly. She has her own blog, even her own Twitter account. She also has a weekly series where she shows off other dogs. (I think it was her owner's idea to call them 'monsters.') Tilda's post also features one of Janey's drawings of Roly. Check out the other drawing here. Roly really appreciates all this attention - thank you Tilda and Janey!

Jan and Roly

Yep, we're a team, me and my boxer dog Roly. Roly's getting on now. In fact I am surprised he is still with me after the doom and gloom the vet told me about 2 years ago. Roly is nearing 13 now which is quite an age for a boxer especially one with kidney failure, blindness, deafness and allergies to just about everything. I think it is the good diet he has had to have due to his allergies that mean he is still in such good condition. It's only been about the last 12 months people have stopped mistaking him for a puppy!

He doesn't like to face the camera.

Maybe it's because of his single tiny centre tooth.

It means we have lots of mug shots of him.

A couple of years ago I made a video of him one morning when he refused to get up. It happens a lot more frequently these days. He loves his sleep. Some mornings it must be hard for him to motivate himself to get up. After all who doesn't love a lie in all wrapped up in a comfy bed especially if it's in the sunshine!

Of course it's no good if it gets too bright. But he gets by.

Roly, Randomness and a Sword-Swallower

For those of you who are new around here, Roly is my boxer dog. He is getting on in years now, is arthritic and grey but it doesn't stop him from bounding around just like he did when he was a puppy. This undying love of all people, places and things has meant there are a lot of people around who have a very soft spot for Roly. My friend Monika is one of them. Yesterday was my birthday and look what she made me! This photo was taken hurriedly after we had eaten half of them and suddenly thought to record the moment. You think eating a Roly cupcake is a bit strange? It is nothing next to seeing what two people do when they decide to share one!
Here is the mugshot view. The middle one is Monika's tribute to the face Roly accidentally pulls when his lips get caught behind teeth. Isn't she clever!
In other news, I've just updated my shop with two new rebound sketchbooks/journals. These handbound rebound journals (my Perfect Journals) have been quite popular and sell out fairly quickly so if you are interested in Random All Round or Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower check them out over at Etsy.
The cover of 'Random All Round' is still in excellent condition inspite of being a first edition from 1960. The dust jacket wasn't in such good condition, but still good enough to be reborn as endpapers inside the front and back covers.
I added a ribbon page marker, headbands and when I rebound it I reinserted 36 original pages along with mixed watercolour and drawing papers to make a total of 132 pages.
Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower is the story of the author Dan Mannix and its cover shows its age - it is also a first edition but this time from 1951. Again I added a ribbon page marker and headbands.
In this book I also added a vintage library due-date slip and envelope inside the back cover. The endpapers are retro striped paper.
In rebinding this book I again added a mixture of high quality watercolour and drawing paper pages along with 46 of the books original pages, including two photos, one of Mannix swallowing his sword and the other of him fire-eating.

Both books would make really fun sketchbooks or journals to record your own adventures in. What a lot of fun I had making these! I'll be a little sorry to see them go.

5 Favourites

Jenn (ninox) tagged me! I haven't done a tag for a long time, but it is always a lot of fun, and when I saw it was to list 5 favourite things, well... of course!

Also it is a coincidence because last night I finished my entry into Clare's Moleskine as part of Moly_x_25, and she has set the Moly's theme as "a few of my favourite things!" In my drawing I just drew 4 favourites - my dog Roly, my coffee, my books and pattern.

For Jenn I think I might have to add another. I guess it would have to be...
this is hard...
Ok, I have it...
One of my favourite things is saying "I don't believe in favourites!"

I usually say this just before I say what my favourite for that split second is. I change my mind a lot.

Do I have to tag someone else? I don't think it's a law, so I'm going to let it slide.

Roly movie on YouTube!

Want to see more of my gorgeous Roly? (It's short for Roland, which sounds like a movie stars name to me!)
You might remember a couple of months back I got my first laptop and my first Mac all in one sexy piece - MacBook Pro. I've had a dabble with iMovie and what other subject could I choose? Here is Roly's first stab at international stardom.
If it hasn't already loaded, just wait a moment and it will appear in the space below. It's worth the wait. No, really, it is!

Barking at Shadows

Really that is just an attempt at a 'catchy' title. There is no actual barking or shadows in this post. Instead I've gone back into my own archives to get some dog portraits I did a couple of years ago. Of course there is the stunningly handsome "Roly" up first. He is my number one dog!

I really like this next one. Of course his name is "Buster". What else could it be?
At the time I was experimenting with using a standard size square canvas and using multiples of that for the various size paintings.

Up next is "Brandy". At the time I painted this, Brandy was a pup who had transformed his owners lives. He really does have that little Hitler mustache, but I purposefully included the devil horns in the shadow of his head. A little artistic license.

And here is "Freddy". I've never met a more gentle and affectionate dog. He lived across the road until recently when he passed on. He was a Briard. And very gorgeous with it.

And this handsome man is "Sandy". I had painted his master and when I was looking for subjects I had a stab at Sandy. He just doesn't sit still for a second. He is also a really interesting colour. Yes he is sandy, but the tips of each hair/fur is charcoal.
I really do hope I'll have something new to add here soon, but I just don't know if I will. I took a break, yes. But I had no idea it would extend itself. I am now starting to realise I was pretty burnt out. I do feel myself improving and I am enjoying myself, but not in a drawing or painting way. Would you like to see some photos of the fabulous food I'm cooking, the shirt I'm sewing or maybe a board game shot? Because that does seem to be all I'm doing at the moment.

Roly

Thinking about my spare time...

Blogging has been one of the best things I've done with my spare time. It is not 'the best', but up there. It came initially as a response to Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters website, then books, then Yahoo group. All these things got me moving again. Moving led me on to blogging. Blogging led me to view the Internet in a whole new light.

Now I have filled my spare time to the brim! I'm the busiest and happiest I've been in a long time! I'm working 'full time' (my definition of full-time tends to differ from others - but it is full-time to me!) and studying full-time. I'm about to get a bit more real about that and cut back to 4 days a week work because my study has become so important to me.

So my spare time is practically non-existant. This is a reality I have always dreaded. I'm a 'spare time' freak. I must have it. I must be able to do, create, make, dabble in my spare time. I go nuts if I don't have it.

But I'm not nuts. I love it. My non-spare time is filled with things I love doing. I don't want to slow down. I want to speed up! I want more. I'm getting more. I'm doing more. I love more! I've always been a fervent upholder of what I've called 'the extraordinary found in the ordinary everyday'. Danny Gregory was right when he said every day matters.

Note:
For the purpose of acknowledging chronology, these blind contour drawings of Roly have been inserted in the order they were drawn, not the order they appear in my Moleskine.

EDM Challenges 2, 4, 13, 40 and 52 - all on one page!

Home sick today. Decided to go a grid of quick sketches. Actually did all of the above challenges on one page and while sitting in bed! Not a serious attempt. Just filling in the day.

4 Pens Tested

These are very quick sketches I just did to try out 4 of the (seems like) hundreds of pens I now have. (See previous post.) The sketches are not great but I did quickly find each pen 'expressed' itself (or is it myself?) differently. I was amazed at the thick smooth expressive lines that came out of the bottom righthand pen. It has a circle on the end of the nib. Lines that are smooth - but not too smooth, if you know what I mean. I love character over perfection everytime. Even the tiny nib that I could barely get to work scratched out it's own characteristic lines that have their own charm.

Now all I have to do is practise my drawing... and test more pens.