25 Random things about me....

So if you're on Facebook, you may have seen this circulating around. It's meant to tell people a little bit about yourself...things that people probably don't know about you. I thought it might be a good idea to put my 25 things here on my blog. You may not be interested, and if not, feel free to skip it. If you are interested, read on:

1. I don't have a lot of patience and get bored easily. On the flip side, give me a tedious activity and I get lost in it. Go figure!

2. I hate my natural hair colour. It's a mousy dark blonde. Thankfully I can get highlights every couple of months.

3. I LOVE animals! I would have a house full of them if I could. As it stands now, I have 3 cats.

4. I really want to quit my job and become a full time artist...but only if I can make lots of money off of each piece, so that I don't have to work that often!

5. I really want to move somewhere warm, but I don't want to be too far away from my family.

6. I love to travel. I have been to 16 countries on 5 continents. I want to see as much of the world as I can in my lifetime.

7. I used to work in a meat packing plant as a quality control technician, and I have never hated a job so much. But two really good things came from my working there: I quit to travel for a year (see #8) and it gave me the incentive to go back to school (see #9).

8. At age 23, I backpacked around Australia and New Zealand for a year...by myself. It was the best thing that I have ever done.

9. I graduated from university in 1997 with a BSc in Biology, then went back to school 4 years later to study Nuclear Medicine, graduating when I was 28. I have been working as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist for 5 years.

10. I used to be a neat freak up until university, but now I just can't seem to tackle the smallest pile of clothes lying on the floor.

11. I used to be extremely shy, but travelling for a year by myself cured me of that.

12. All through grade school I had the same wonderful group of friends, but I felt I relied on them too much because I was so shy. So I decided to go to a university where I knew no one so I could make new friends on my own.

13. I went to the University of Prince Edward Island because of the above reason, and also because I had wanted to be a vet my whole life. But I changed my mind after my first year, probably because of the prospect of going to school for 8 straight years, or maybe because I didn't think I had it in me. To this day, I regret not trying and as it turns out, I ended up going to school for 6 years.

14. I love soccer and play on a women's team in Fredericton.

15. I really want to be able to speak French better, but I am shy about speaking it with French people.

16. I took organ lessons for 7 years and still like to play every once in a while when I visit home. I also played the flute for 3 years in school. I've always wanted to play the violin, but don't want to put the time in to learn.

17. I always have to be doing something with my hands. It is impossible for me to keep them still, try as I might.

18. If a baby and puppy where put in front of me, I'd go to the puppy every time.

19. I sneeze once when I eat Excel Polar Ice gum, fudgy chocolate or strong cough syrup.

20. I am always really keen to try a new hobby, but I very quickly get bored, leaving things half done. Drawing has been the only hobby that has held my interest.

21. I was stung on my ankle by a stinging tree in Australia. [Description: Contact with the leaves causes the hollow silica-tipped hairs to penetrate the skin and deliver a potent toxin. The sting causes a painful stinging sensation which can last for days or even months and the injured area becomes covered with small red spots joining together to form a red, swollen mass. The sting is known to have killed one human, and it can also kill dogs and horses]....I was ok, but the pain and tingling stayed with me for about 6 months.

22. I almost stepped on a (wild) python once.

23. I lived in a house with no outside walls for a week in the rainforest. Every morning I would wake up with bat poo on my book, and a part of me would be swollen. There were ants in the peanut butter, I showered in a tool shed, peed on the ground just outside of my room at night (maybe a bit too much info there!?) and bats would fly over our heads as we ate at the dinner table. It was amazing!

24. I kind of want to own sheep instead of a lawn mower.

25. I've been inside a pyramid, the Cistine Chapel, the Louvre, the Roman Colosseum and up the Eiffel Tower; I walked around Ayers Rock, snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, climbed a glacier and swam with dolphins in New Zealand, rode in a gondola in Venice and walked the Great Wall of China.

So if you're still reading, now you know a little bit more about me!

Shocking Artwork!

I am a member of GreenNexxus, which is an environmental, social networking site. I received one of their newsletters today and one of the articles really shocked me. Below is the write-up from the newsletter. Click on "Read More" to see the artwork.

Oscar the Grouch Art: Not everything is as it Seems
Rarely do we come across pictures that make us go "Wow". Even more rarely do we come across information that prompts us to change the way we live our lives. We came across this PowerPoint presentation a few days ago and the message it brings concerning garbage hits home. Look closely at the images, once you discover the origins of the materials it leaves you with your mouth open silently miming the word "Wow". Read More. (you will be taken to the GreenNexxus site. Click on "Power Point" to see the artwork).

Unbelievable!!

Simon - Stage 4

"Simon"

8 x 10 Coloured Pencil

Work in Progress

Yet another update of Simon's portrait. I'm really enjoying this one. Last night I kind of lost myself in it and the time flew by! Before I knew it, it was bedtime! I'm still liking the new technique too. Stay tuned for more!

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow or subscribe to my blog.

Simon - Stage 3

New website design for 2009

I've launched my newly designed website! It's at the same address, it just has a different look so please check it out! I'm still fixing problems here and there, but hopefully I'll have the kinks ironed out soon. If you see anything that doesn't look right, links that go to the wrong place, or anything else out of the ordinary, please let me know. Thanks for looking!

Happy New Year!

Just a short note to wish you all a very happy New Year! And a big thank you to all of you who follow or subscribe to my blog! This coming year, I hope to have lots of new things to add to my blog, so stay tuned.

Redesigning my website

Well, it's turning out to be a yearly thing now...I'm re-doing my website again! I seem to get bored with the look of it easily. The fact is, once completed, I wasn't really very fond of my last site. I found it didn't show my artwork as well as I would have liked. Granted, it's pretty, but I want the focus to be more on my work and less on the site itself.

So hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll launch my brand new site. I really like the look of it and it's kind of similar to the look of my blog. As it turns out, I really like designing websites and with each one I do, I need less and less help! I can actually claim that I did this new one entirely on my own (with only a few questions here and there!)

So as I get closer to launching my new site, you might notice that there are some weird things going on with my current site. Please excuse the mess! I've had to load a few things early onto the net, and I inadvertently changed a few things on my current site. You might notice the buttons are a little wacky. I'm going to try and change them back, but I may not get a chance to do this until after Christmas. Stay tuned and I'll have the new one up and running soon!

Merry Christmas!!!

Simon - WIP 1 & 2

Here is the beginning of Simon's portrait. I'm really enjoying myself so far because I'm not used to working on coloured paper. And I'm also trying a slightly new technique after having read a tutorial by Christina Langman. Her coloured pencil work is absolutely amazing...especially
this drawing! So far I'm really liking the new technique, although I'm still using some of my own methods as well. I figure I should stick with what I know while I'm working on a commission! Later, I'll do more experimenting on my own time!

Reference Photo

Stage 1

Stage 2

Merry Christmas!

I just thought I'd write a quick note to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I think I'm pretty much ready for Christmas now. This year, I actually got my shopping done fairly early, so I'm quite proud of myself. I still have a lot of wrapping to do, but at least the hard part is over with! We go home to Moncton every year for the holidays and this year I have a week off, so I'm really looking forward to it! And it means that I don't have to clean our house!


Our new kitten, "Loki", is settling in nicely. He and "Seven" are good pals now. We still have to keep an eye on him as he is quite taken with the Christmas tree. At one point, he managed to climb as high as the star on the 7.5 foot tree! He got doused pretty well with the spray bottle for that one. I think he learned his lesson because he hasn't tried it again! Not to say he doesn't get into trouble elsewhere. His name definitely suits him, as "Loki" is the Norse god of mischief!


In the New Year, I will be finishing up the last of my commissions. Although I made the decision to stop taking on new commissions last March, I'm still working on them! The reason I want a break is because I haven't had a chance to do my own work in about 3 years! I have enjoyed doing commission work because I've met a lot of really great people, but the pressure of meeting deadlines has gotten to be too much. So this is the year I get to do my own thing! I've got lots of new toys I'm excited to try out: brand new (as of last year, but I haven't touched them yet!) Sennelier oil pastels, new oil paints, some watercolour paper, etc. I also have 3 oil paintings that I haven't touched since I took a class a year ago! So I'll be busy this coming year...hopefully I'll find time to do everything I want to do! And I'm hoping this new freedom will motivate me to come up with some creative ideas. Anyway, I hope you'll keep stopping by to see what I'm up to!

So again, I'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. And I'd like to thank everyone who follows my blog!

Bandit finished!

Well I've finally finished Bandit's portrait! I've been speaking with the client all along and he seems quite pleased with the outcome. It is going to be a Christmas gift, so I'm excited to hear what the recipient thinks of it.

Bandit's pose in this drawing is different than the typical poses I'm used to, and I think it makes for a more interesting portrait. The client chose this pose because it portrays Bandit's personality, and I think it makes him look like a fun dog, ready to play! I always aim to bring out a pet's personality in their portrait, and hopefully I've done that here.

For my next and final commissioned pet portrait, I will be drawing a Siamese cat named Simon. This one will be a little different as well because I'll be using blue paper instead of white. Simon has beautiful colouring and vibrant blue eyes, so I think the blue background will make the whole thing pop! At least I hope so! I will post the first stages soon.