Illustration Friday: HERO

The week's theme for Illustration Friday is "Hero". And this little diddy
was influenced by my Grandma Amy...who was and always will be a hero to me. Though she looked NOTHING like the generic styled "Super Gram" illustrated here. NO buns or glasses for my Granny and she hardly ever had any gray hair. She didn't wear her apron like a cape either...but, she WAS beloved by ALL her 6 grandkids and she served up a delicious "Sunshine Frosting" cake.

I'm not blown away by this little painting, in fact, I'm a little embarrassed about it. Still, I'm glad I did it. I haven't painted in a long, long time and it just felt kinda good to give it whirl. I should have "designed" this more...you know, paying more attention to composition and character, but, ach, I didn't. Just decided to doodle a light sketch on to a scrap of Stonehedge paper ( such yummy paper!!) and start painting. I did find myself missing my computer while working on this...I missed not being able to change colors on the fly, tweak things, etc. I had hoped doing a little painting would "loosen" me up but the opposite was more true. Argh. Maybe next time!

Post interrupted!

Off to Northern California for a family reunion. I'm so looking forward to seeing my parents, sister, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandpa and great uncle too. We're going to eat good food, tell stories, drink some beer (Pooler's love beer) and pose with "bunny ears" in pictures. It's what we do. And I like that.

Hoo wee, just had an earthquake here! Exciting. Scary. Not too sure how major it was somewhere but it shook pretty good here. Oh, news says it was 5.3...so it wasn't too-too major. But still, things were swinging here and I even felt dizzy as I stood patiently in the doorway waiting for it to complete. Earthquakes are always soo crazy. They freak me out but afterwards, it's weirdly euphoric. In the good old days...I used to always yell out "EARTHQUAKE" when they occurred. One time, I was taking a nap with the dogs and cat, alone at home....yet, I still felt the urge to yell aloud, "Earthquake!!!". Which is ridiculous, really...as if Punkin, Pepsi and Phoebe really needed this vital information...all they knew was that their naps had been disturbed.

After the big Northridge quake, I was yelling "Earthquake!" quite a bit. The next day, may parents and sister came up for a visit. We had a nice jolt moments after they arrived. Immediately, I yelled out "AFTERSHOCK!" and my sister was quick to berate me. "Gee Paige, you're getting to be quite an expert in discerning the difference between the two" . tee hee. I swear, I really don't know that I'm saying anything at all...I guess it's just my natural instinct. As silly as that is. This time, I didn't yell or scream anything...but, I'm sure the words "Shit, earthquake" did exit my mouth. I did just run outside to see if there were any neighbors around. But no. Dangit. Anyhoo, this was not what I was going to post about today BUT was interrupted by it. Hoooo weeeee. Maybe it's a REALLY good thing I'm heading north! My legs are still a little shaky.

Ok, I'm a little distracted from what I was going to write about. So, maybe later...I'll talk more about my fabulous family. And they are fabulous.

Edit: I'm back. Quake wasn't too big or bad. It's been downgraded to a 4.9 (News reports say) in the desert. Nothing broke...no reports of injury. Phew. Now, I'm really ready for my drive up North.

Illustration Friday-SUMMER

Woo Hooo! It's SUMMER! How convenient that this week's "Illustration Friday" theme coincides with a drawing I began a few weeks back. Due to tight and endless deadlines the drawing sat unattended far too long and the front page of my website remained spring-themed past Memorial Day!! The horror!! Thank you, Illustration Friday Peeps-- for inspiring me to finish this, update my webpage and to welcome in the Summer too!

Actually, this illustration is three-fold. I love to swim and the neighborhood pool doesn't open for lap swim until June 18. I've been calling Burbank Parks and Recreation for months begging them to open the pools early. But NO! They would have nothing to do with it. So, while I wait for the pool to open, I continue to eat cheese and all-things-bad but imagine that I will quickly get back in shape the moment they open the gates again. ;0) So, ok...the drawing serves as a reminder to get my butt to the pool...JUNE 18th! No excuses.

The third reason for this illustration...or, really the background on it: I was a swimmer for the better part of my childhood and teens. Not exceptional in any way...a steady second placer. I lived across the street from a public, olympic sized pool and I had HUGE crushes on a couple of the local lifeguards. OH, they were so HOT... beautiful surfer types with lean, tan bodies (tan was "in" during the 80's) and I could not resist oogling over them every chance I could. Ahhhh, those teen years.

Does it look like she's in love with a foot or do you "get" that it's a lifeguard??!

Illustration Friday-DIGITAL

Here's another oldie for this week's Illustration Friday. I think it was drawn last summer, maybe last fall. It was for a small press magazine and the article was about "Kids-N-Computers" . It's a little hard to see the details at this size...but, o'well.

I had a break from the deluge of work over this past weekend! It was nice to be free... got to see a movie ("crash"), went to a flea market (Pasadena City College), ate good food (Thai) and consumed a couple cocktails (mohitos). Ahhhhh, I really needed that.