Pony Contest!

I did this little Shetland pony pic as a sample illustration. It's done in watercolour and coloured pencil.The trouble with doing 'hard art' (that's on actual paper as opposed to digital art) is that it takes up space in your drawer.  You are unable to bin it (because you like it) and it's (hopefully) an awfully long time until you die and your children profit from selling your artwork on Trademe. That's assuming you got famous enough in your lifetime like Maurice Sendak (who had no children) for your art to be worth something.  This little picture has no intrinsic value to me except to show a client that I can a) draw a pony and b) am keen for some work.

It has some worth thought to someone who likes horses and /or wants something to frame and give to a friend or put up in a kids room. Or maybe they would just like a piece of my artwork because who knows when I'll hit the big time? Like Bill Nighy.

So in the spirit of someone who just likes her artwork out there in the world, I'm offering this little illustration to the person who most entertains me with their horse story. When you were 12 did you ride one called Bubbles and were devoted to it like Nat in my junior fiction novel Glory? Did you have an incident involving a forward catapult over the neck of a stubborn mount? Go to my facebook page and comment on the post with this picture on it. Or comment on this blog. I'll send it anywhere in the world for free and seal it with a loving kiss (I'll wipe my lipstick off first!) You'll need email me with your address (mine is on the sidebar). Robots, spammers and Nigerian scammers need not apply- what use would you have for a pony picture anyway?

Happy horsing around!

AND THE WINNER IS!
Stan Yee for his fab tale of horse-manly pride coming before and embarrassing fall! Thanks Stan, the pony is on it's way to you :)

Stan Yee Well, there was a time more than 30 years ago, when I was with the church group and we took turns to ride at Kiwi Ranch. The guy asked who was experienced enough to handle a 12 year old ex-pacer - me of course. They were all watching as I galloped away about half a km and turned and headed back. I was showing off, naturally. I dug my heels in, hung onto its mane and reins with both hands and put my head down. I think it had one of those old well worn leather saddles. It was so cool, galloping so fast that I could hardly feel the hoofs touching the ground. I saw the crowd in the distance and I just keep going ... until I ran out of room that is, and suddenly pulled the reins down, somersaulted over the horse and landed flat on my back, still with the reins in one hand. Very red faced I tell you ...

Sweding...

I have been remiss at blogging! All I can say in my defence is that 'I was busy Your Honour'. What with you ask? (or not, if you have given up following me)...

Wearable Art for one; the deadline is the end of this week and I have been very busy hand sewing things and creating an unholy mess in the lounge, dining area, kitchen and my tiny studio. The family will forgive me soon...

The other has been the ANZAC book by David Hill that I am illustrating for Scholastic. I had a wonderful week at New Pacific Studio in Mt Bruce over ANZAC and the following week to get to grips with the final pencil drawings before I put brush to paper and stylus to wacom tablet. Working day and night with only breaks for coffee and the odd poached egg on toast...bliss. Now how many other people can say that about their work?

I also went to the Spinning Tales, the Children's Book Writer's and Illustrator's Hui in Auckland, which was fabulous and reaffirmed to me just how lucky I have been to be traditionally published in this increasingly tough world. Times are a changing; exciting and challenging and I say 'bring it on!' even though it may be uncomfortable at first. At the Hui I sang for my supper at the Literary Feast with a rendition of 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak. It was a sweded version and for those of you unfamiliar with the sweding concept, go here to find out more about 'Be Kind Rewind', the movie by Jack Black and the art of making something from whatever you can lay your hands on.

Such was the response to it and requests to see it again by those who didn't attend the Hui, that I reprised it at The Library Bar in Wellington one night for our WCBA Club night. Mike Bodnar filmed it for us under less than perfect lighting conditions and managed to edit out the waitress walking in with a latte for someone (and asking who had ordered it). All the props were made from egg cartons, paper plates and scrumpy bottles, and the claws were fashioned by the audience over a glass of wine prior to filming. Thankyou to the enthusiastic audience for roaring and clawing so marvellously! Instructions on making the claws are below.