Drawingdans Nativity Scene

The drawingdan studio got into the spirit of Christmas and formed a little nativity Scene :) Tan as Mary, Dan as Joseph, and Esk, the son of doG. 

This drawing came to me at a carol service, and my youth minister husband giggled for ages, so I think that means it is not in any way heretical :)

Happy Christmas eve mortal humans. 

The Fat Burning Zone!

Due to a long and wet winter (in the Southern Hemisphere), I have not managed to get my lazy self out jogging, and have turned into a pasty white hippotato. It's pretty hard to get back into a resonable shape for Summer, being so lazy, but you just have to get out there and do it! And this weekend I did it! I got myself out there and into the Fat Burning Zone! 1,2,3 - Stretch it out!

Meet the Loves

Meet the Loves: From the left: Leasha, Sam, babba James, and Bart :) For those of you you haven't met the Love's, Leasha is my quite short, older sister, Bart is her incredibly tall husband, and they have two little boys - Sam and James. I suspect Sam will have the height of his father judging by the shape of his legs, but noone knows whos Hair he has :)

Gift Bags!

We are pretty busy with work here at Drawingdan (yay!)- which means as much laughter as any other day, but less time to draw it :) So here is some work I recently did for a pretty great company in Thailand that grows and produces organic rice - This will be printed on gift bags, and will come with the rice, for gifts at New Year. I'm sort of assuming it's over the Thai New Year, not ours...

Here is the first trial print. Corrections are being made, but isn't it cute!?

Jennifer Eaves Trio!

A quick little poster I did for for the wonderful Jennifer Eaves Trio. Jennifer Eaves sings beautifully, accompanied by Dan on the base and Jessy on the violin. Speaking as a musically challenged person, acoustic guitar, base and violin never would have occurred to me to go together, but oh my goodness, these three are just AMAZING. Come along to The Cottage Club to hear them! Booking essential! 

They are also playing at a couple other places in the next couple weeks, so if you miss this one, you can catch them at another gig. 

I also heard from someone I know on the inside that there are THREE new songs!

Friday Blessing from Esk

'May your water bowl be always full....in fact, yea, may it be overflowing, and may you have chicken drop from the sky into that other bowl, and may the humans never forget about The Walk.'

Bespoke 30th Invites!

Isn't bespoke a funny word!? I think it's hilarious. It's my  new favourite word. Much better than 'customised'. Customised is so droll! This is bespoke!

Drawingdan has been doing lovely 30th invites lately.  They are really fun, with three drawings of Birthday human in three different stages of their life, complete with a timeline with significant and not so significant, but fun incidents. Get hold of me if you would like one too! 

Of course, I have changed all the party details so random uninvited people don't gate crash this amazing party! Happy Birthday Ricci!

IF: Trees

Christmas is coming

Christmas is just around the corner. So we're starting to write our Christmas lists here at Drawingdan, some more than others. I think Dan's list probably says something like 'hmmmm, possibly a book, oooooh!oooooh! ooooh! TWO books!' :) 

Esk is most excited about her list. 

Introducing the Drawingdan Team!

Here at Drawingdan we have a small but highly skilled and committed team that gets up every morning and brings you Drawingdan as you know it, so for a while I have been meaning to formally introduce you to the whole team (please  - did you really think it was just me and my computer on the couch...? Come - on, theres a whole team of us). We are a lean, mean, (sometimes downright nasty) committed little team.

Firstly we have me: I'm me: Tan. I work incredibly 'hard' and am always thinking of new ways to procrastinate. I'm up at dawn (well, in winter anyway) and I'm known to say: 'Why work late when you can go to bed early?'

Supervising and Assisting goes to the highly skilled Eskarina Smith, Also known as Eska, Eskapoodle Eskaban, Eskapade, Pesk, Peskapoodle, Pooska, Peska, Pooh, Eskapoo, Woo, Smooch, Prime Leather Cut, Monkey Face, Bump, and of course, Esk. You may have met her previously here or here. She has a very important role, as she looks after the teams mental health, by always asking 'how about a teabreak' or, 'why not take a teabreak and play ball' or 'alright it's time to take a teabreak and go for a walk', or even, 'why not draw a bone, hmm, a bigger bone, hmm, you're not very good are you, I can't even smell it...'

Then we have the permanent Resident (although not in South Africa) Model Dan Adams, also known as, well, Dan. Yes! It's the very same Dan from Drawingdan. The very same one! He is here for comic relief, and is always on hand to be drawn, as well as criticise, did I say criticise? I meant Critique. He is always saying things like, 'hmmm, what if you changed that and that and that - what would it look like...?' (i.e he doesn't like it) and quite often 'hmm, do you like that color ' (i.e he doesn't like it), and my all time favourite criticism, critique 'hmm, I think you should be more creative' (i.e he really doesn't like it). And I even get 'why do you draw my head so round' and so on. This 'healthy criticism' is all very important, apparently.

Primarily he is a model, they are an uppity sort I am given to understand, but he is amazing at making coffee, breakfast, tea, and doing the dishes, and he brings some pretty great ideas to the couch, albiet a bit late in the game sometimes, but all the same, he is irreplaceable.

The Drawingdan Team at work

There's always a laugh to be had (at someones expense) and a cup of coffee in the Drawingdan Studio, so if you would like one, come on over and hang out in our studio with us! We love all types of new people! As long as you're nice, moderate, fun, not male, not a cat, have a sense of humour, like foreigners, can take criticism but not give it, are tolerant of others, you like Terry Pratchett, or at the very least are willing to acknowledge his greatness and you like coffee, as long as you're all that come along - we love all new people! :)

If you're a cat don't even think about it.  Dogs welcome.

halloween at drawingdan

Halloween is here. This means sweets. also sweets. and sweets. also ghosts, and scary things, but mainly sweets. or so I'v heard, not having done anything like trick or treating in little old Zim, but all the same, seeing as one half of me is from the USA (the Dan part), I think sweets should be in order. So does Esk, at least the savoury bone kind. Give her all the bones in the graveyard! :)

NOTE: I stand corrected:  I am told I was wrong about the sweets. Halloween doesn't mean sweets apparently, but 'Candy.' no wonder I never got any. I must learn American :)

Customised Invitation

I have been doing quite a bit of work lately, so havent updated my blog as much as I should have! - but here is a really cute invite I did for a lovely person in Australia. For privacy I have blurred/changed names, and addresses and numbers...I am very happy with it! 

Owl love you!

feeling sick

This weekend I was ill, I hate being ill. I'm miserable, I feel miserable, I look miserable, and I act miserable. 

And I lie in various places in the house (depending on where Dan is :) ) and moan about how ill I am feeling. (Once I spent a whole weekend moaning in my sisters bathtub (soothing hot water) about how ill I was, and no one took any notice of me. I ended up at the emergency room - HA!).

Admittedly this weekend wasn't that bad.  

I made a brief outline on how I am treated when ill: 

Day 1: I get little, or no sympathy on account of being 'dramatic' :) 

Day 2: I finally get sympathy once Dan realises I may be ill and then I am looked after....

Day 3: I am discarded, and ignored once Dan realises I'm not on my way out. 

Day 3 arrived early this time:

TRUE STORY!

Click on the image to see clearer.

Weeping Willows

' When she missed her long hair Beth would go and stand below a weeping willow tree and imagine it was her own hair floating around her'

 or

  'Feeling self conscious on her first day of school, Beth stood amongst the leaves of the weeping willow tree and didn't feel so alone' 

or

'Beth put this down as the nicest thing to do on a Saturday whilst standing still'

read

I love to relax and fall into the story. 

And books draw you in like nothing else can...

IF: Crooked

'Steal five dollars and you're a common thief. Steal thousands and you're either the Government, or a hero.'

Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

darkness

'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds that darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.'

Terry Pratchett 

the book that isn't

Look everyone! I didn't write a book! It doesn't even exist! :)

I have lately been experimenting with illustration...So I drew this forest and thought it would look great as a book cover. So I made a book cover for a book that isn't and hasn't and won't ever be written. 

After all, there are millions of books just waiting to be written, but will never get written. This one at least got as far as the cover...

story

I love Terry Pratchetts books, his style, his wit, his stylish witty characters, and his commentary and reflections on people, life and human nature. I especially love what he has to say on story and imagination. 

In Wintersmith he writes - 

'Find the story, Granny Weatherwax always said. She believed that the world was full of story shapes. If you let them, they controlled you. But if you studied them, if you found out about them... you could use them, you could change them.' 

Anyway, I'm no literature person, and I could go on for as long as a thesis is, but I won't.  The world is about stories, we tell eachother, we tell ourselves, and how we see the world is one big story with us at the centre...

And....the picture done today has nothing to do with Terry Pratchett....It's just imagination at work...and its called: 

'When I Was Lost In The Woods, I Met A Friendly Tree Who Offered Me An Assortment Of Food, an Unusually Shy Squirrel Who Gave Me An Accorn, and An Immortal Fox Who Was Drinking Tea, And I Also Saw A Bear Who Wasn't There!'

.true story.

imagine...today

The day starts out with coffee: a perfect moment - and then one thinks to oneself  'So much potential today does hold'. At least this one thinks that, but by the end of the day one usually ends with - 'Well....That Didn't Pan Out'. I'm much more efficient in my imagination. 

my human

Esk and I

Some people look identical to their dogs. I mean, not me, but other people :) 

Tall

 A Tall Illustration

The mysterious girl at the window

'The Mysterious Girl At The Window, With The Billowing Curtains, Who I find Rather Odd, and Who Makes Me Feel Uncomfortable' :)

treehouse

Fun with color on a Friday afternoon. Happy weekend! 

morning coffee

I got bored of our mugs and have seen this idea on Pinterest for a while now, and tried it out this week (see updated NOTE below!). So easy, all you do is draw on a mug with Sharpies and bake for 35 minutes at 190 Degrees C. Now Dan and I have cute mugs for our coffee :) 

NOTE: This doesn't actually work! It depends on the type of glazing on mug, or something or other, but the sharpie is slowly coming off, and not-so-slowly coming off on another mug I did. Rather go to a craft store and buy a ceramic appropriate pen!

still not listening

dreams

Oh those nightmares where you dream you wake up early in the morning to get ready for school and head out to the bus stop only to realise too late that you have no clothes on!

And that other nightmare when you dream you are flying! And then you realise that you - oh no! You have no clothes on, and nothing but an unusually small handbag to cover you. I hate that one. 

winter bodies

A cold front has hit Cape Town today, and this is why there seems to be these two strange posts...Winter go away (secretly I love you - STAY!) - Well I do, but at the end of Winter I love Summer! And I feel like this:  This is how one feels like in Winter...

hippotato

Hippotato: 

When I lived briefly in England I once planted a potato garden as Spring was springing. Being England  Spring didn't spring quite so fast, and it was still cold and I felt big from winter comfort foods, and too many hot chocolates, and cups of tea. So as I was planting the potatoes I came up with the word 'hippotato' which was what I felt like. As big as a hippo, as round and ugly as a potato...a Hippotato...

I probably didn't look quite so endearing as this hippotato. I probably looked more like this: 

...But not quite so naked it being England in the unsprung Spring.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Happy 30th Birthday Dan! 

walk the line

good morning world

Good morning world! Today you will shine!

nude studies at the beach

...if I had been to the beach...click on the image and it shows bigger - much better viewing of my naked humans!

Dan bear flying

Family Portraits part 2

Dan Bear

Tan Bunny

Family Portraits part 1

Have you seen the book 'Awkward Family Photos'? It’s pretty …well, strange…but very funny. Nothing like these pictures actually, but these were my version of Awkward family photo's. After I had done the drafts for these drwings, I was told to edit them by someone who thought he looked too strange…:) So now they may seem a bit more cute than awkward.  But I still love them.

 Dan and I as Dr Seuss characters

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You

Dr Seuss

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you‘ll go

Dr Seuss

Introducing Esk

This is a love post :) Esk is a pooch that we adore. We got her as a puppy in April from a rescue organisation, and she is half Yorkie definitely, half Schnauser possibly maybe. 'Esk' comes from Terry Pratchetts book Equal Rites, which is about a little girl called Eskarina who becomes a Wizard and a Witch, challenging gender roles and so on. Basically a girl with attitude. Like Esk. 

Dan practices the bass guitar daily

Dan loves music. He's also a great bass player, and I often ask him to show me some melodies on my feet. It's great practice for his fingers. Anytime he wants to talk music, I'm like - great - play it. 

Victory dance # 2!

The Origional Victory Dance, (Victory Dance  # 1) was over a tan Coach leather bag that I won at auction in a Goodwill store in Austin. Unfortunately on our way back from the States, in Barcelona, I was robbed and this beautiful, wonderful, talented, cheap, shiny second hand bag was pilfered off me. I was distraught. To put it lightly.

So on my return to Cape Town, I was determined and obsessed to correct the wrong that was done me, and replace all that was lost to that lowlife thief - just as it was. This meant endless hours on ebay and etsy trying to find the exact bag that I had lost. Finally I found a merely adequate replacement, which was ordered and brought out by a friend. This caused a moment of slight distress that it wasn't exactly the same, but then a liuttle victory dance ensued and all was almost right in the world: This is that dance, and the new little bag...