Last Post of the Year

I am terribly sorry that I've not been able to post. Just getting ready for this baby has kept me busy the last few months. I was officially due yesterday, but the baby decided he has to stay in there for a little longer.

I have decided not to continue this blog in the new year. I do plan to start a new blog in a couple of months (after all the initial baby care). I decided that this blog wont be so much of a sketch blog as it will be about art and my life as an artist. I will be sure to post a link once I'm sure I have the time to blog.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas, and will have a wonderful New Year!

Sonogram Pictures

For those of you who are interested here are my most recent sonograms:

Day Unknown: In Remembrance of a Dear Friend

It's been something like years since I've posted anything. I was hoping to have awesome drawings and wonderful stories to tell. If I wait for that to happen I'll never post again. Instead of waiting I'll ramble about what's been going on with me lately.

With my old computer I'd been working on Photoshop 5.5 (Yes I know, ancient stuff!). I was happy to receive Photoshop 7 from a friend. Unfortunately I didn't remember how evil Photoshop 7 was (colour blending is a pain) so I've reverted back to 5.5. Since I can't get my Photoshop to install on this computer I got out the duct tape and hammers and eventually rigged up something to work. Most people would have given up and bought a new version of Photoshop by now, but I'm too smart to spend so much money on one program (that and I'm too poor).

I'm now at 24 weeks and have gained 5 pounds. I haven't found out the gender of the baby yet. At 19 weeks we went in to check it out but the baby was being modest (the one time you don't want you kid to be modest!). The appointment was scheduled, then re-scheduled because the technician was sick. Friday I went in and the technician said she knew for sure what gender the baby was, but couldn't tell because of policy. Bah them. So I'll know at the end of the week.

I'm moving (again). I think this place will be a more permanent move. It's a nice big basement suite in Surrey. Really close to where Peter works. He'll be living the male dream of living 5 minutes from work. There is a Washer/Dryer room in suite, 2 bedrooms, and a nice big living area (one thing the other places didn't have). We have almost everything we have here, well except for one. I was so devastated about this I wrote a poem:

In Remembrance of a Dishwasher

Oh how I shall miss the way
you did the dishes every day.

I know, the level of my poetic skills is just amazing. I'm available for well-paid live readings, parties and Bar Mitzvahs. 

Day 189: Colouring a Baby

It's been forever since I last posted, and I'm sure a few of you thought I was never going to post again. Even I was wondering if I was going to post again. Though I'm not doing any daily sketches I would still like to share the more detailed drawings I'm working on for my portfolio.

I'm sure many of you remember this one. I did the inks for it already, but I never got around to colouring it. Recently I re-did the inking on this because the resolution was smaller than what I like to use for finished illustrations (I like to keep them at a minimum of 600 dpi for print). This is what the drawing looked like before:

Here it is flat coloured:

Not finished but with more detail:

 I'm still a ways from finishing this as you can see, but I'm hoping to finish it over the next few days. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with the background right now. It's maybe a bit too bright, but more than that it's too flat. The only thing that I can think of right now is clouds, but I don't really like that idea. I'll keep working on it and see what I can come up with. If you come up with any ideas I'd be happy to hear them.

Day 179: The End of the Daily Sketch

Sadly, I will no longer be doing a daily sketch. I knew this was something that could happen just because of the pregnancy. Now I have a lot of personal, financial and medical things that I'm dealing with and no longer have the time or energy to work on my portfolio and do daily sketches. My choices basically are to continue doing mediocre daily sketches, or buckle down and work on getting my portfolio finished. As nice as it would be to have 365 images I'd rather have my portfolio done. This is not an ending to my blog, but the post will be further apart from now on. My plan is to post at least twice a week with updates and the like. I apologize that I couldn't finish in the way I wanted, but I do hope there are good things yet to come.

Day 173: Under the Sea

Right now I'm working on figuring out what exactly I'm going to do for my illustration portfolio. I have many old images, some the start of illustrations, others simply nice drawings or ideas of what I want to draw. I still have quite a ways to go to finish setting things up. I must have a thousand sketches to go through. It's not the looking that's the problem, it's the determining if they have potential. After that I have to figure out where they will fit in my illustrations (if at all). 

My other main goal, at this point, is to do as much research as I possibly can for my upcoming illustrations. I have to go through my old illustrations to see if there is anything I need, plus I will be going through hundreds of photos determining if I can use the information of said photos in my work. I know for a fact that I don't have everything I need which will require me to take more photos, and do research on the internet and in books to get photos I can work from. As many of you know it's illegal to copy copyrighted material exactly as seen. Instead I use several references to create one part of an illustration (which can be very tedious). I'm hoping I can take most of the photos, but for underwater scenes I'll be mostly using references and memory. 

I feel like I might be coming across as someone who's complaining, or someone who is overstating what's there. For me it's easier to plot out what I'm going to do in words, and then make it reality. For those of you who are bored by little rant: Look at the pretty fishy!

Day 172: For Marking Cellophane

China markers are fun. I found a green one on my desk and wanted to play with it. It is marked: FOR MARKING CELLOPHANE, but what fun is that? Plus, I don't have any cellophane, so I used the almighty paper instead.

Day 170: Patty and Willie

These two characters are staring in one of the books I'm writing. The one on the left is currently named Patty and the one on the right is named Willie. When I first started writing the book they were Patty Puppy and Will E. Wolf. This made the story seem a little too cutesy and a bit trite. Their surnames have been removed, and it's possible their names could be changed at this point. I've decided against them wearing shoes, but this too could change.  I think the final Willie will have a slightly smaller head, but still be fairly tall. I'm also thinking that I should add a little more weight to Patty.

I'm sorry about the quality of these scans. Normally for character creation of this nature I would use a light box and plain paper. My light box is in a box in storage and may not be opened until the end of time. As a substitute I used tracing paper.

I'm not so sure how long I'm going to be out of the house tomorrow. My husband and I are going out with a friend and her son to the park. We might be out the whole day or, because I'm pregnant and tire easily, we might only be out a few hours.

Day 168: Character Sketches

Sorry I haven't posted in the last few days. I'm even more sorry that I don't have a lot to post. I did have some drawings that I wanted to show here, but they have up and wondered off (or were imagined in my head). In any case I'll be doing some more drawings of these characters in the near future.

Day 165: A Sister Person

Since I did my parents the next obvious step was to draw my siblings. I'm starting with my sister. These drawings aren't really detailed right now, but I might try some new ones later that are more detailed.

Day 164: My Parents

I had a few photos of my parents and I thought they'd be good subjects for my drawings for today and yesterday. If you can't tell who is who then I will really rethink my whole life up until this point heh heh. The drawing of my father is from my wedding a few years ago. The one of my mother is from May of 1979, when I wasn't even a year old yet. I couldn't find a good photo of my mother from this decade. The way it was the photo I was working from was pretty fuzzy. 

Day 162: A Strawberry Without a Field

I had a little more time today then I usually do for drawing so I decided to put it to good use and make a pretty strawberry. One of my illustrations in the near future will have a strawberry bush, so I need all the practice I can get. Looking at this one makes me hungry. Note to self: stop drawing food late at night.

Day 161: A Girl

I spent most of my day cleaning. Laundry is done now, and I have a start on this week long cleaning project. It's always a chore to pack up your life and move it somewhere else. I didn't get as far on this drawing as I would have liked. I was going to do a full-body drawing, but I only got so far on it before I was too tired to draw anymore. Hopefully tomorrow's drawing will be more finished.

Day 160: I Think I Lost Count

I finally broke down and bought a scanner today. I spent way too much on it, and I'm not happy about that, but it's better then having a scanner that doesn't work with my computer. I could have always hooked the scanner to the other computer, scanned the images, emailed or burn the images onto a disk and then retrieve the data on this computer.  I think I'd rather not deal with a scanner at all in that case.

Yesterday I had completely forgotten to post. I guess it's better that I waited for the scanner. It was hot, icky, and I was very tired.

I don't know why I thought up this little guy. I often see babies wearing ducky outfits. I thought it would be cute if a ducky wore a baby outfit (though it's not as cute as the former).

Day 158: A Rose

Today I did a stylistic drawing of a rose. I was going to go pick up my scanner today, but it was too hot and I took a nap instead. Someday I shall have a scanner!

Day 157: Oh, So Very Tired

I spent a little too much time goofing off, and not enough time drawing today. Went to the mall, saw "The Last Air Bender". I liked it, but I can see how people wouldn't like it. It was nice and cool at the mall. (Summer has finally come to Vancouver and it's not a pretty thing.) I got the fan put together and now it's time for me to sleep with a little help from the Sandman. 

Day 156: My Bunny and Me

Today I went with my Mother-in-Law to buy some Maternity clothing. I didn't get much, just a few tops, a pair of jeans (they had no shorts that fit) and a band to make my old clothes fit. It was really nice, but seeing the prices for some of those baby things is scary. I'm going to be doing cloth diapers after the first month, and those are over $23.00 (can.) a pop (and that's not including the outer waterproof part which in some cases is sold separately. The down or bamboo baby wrap they recommend are well over $135 a pop (of course they recommend at least 2). I'm not too worried though. My Mother-in-Law is a fantastic quilter, and it just so happens she can make a lot of those things for a fraction of the price. My Mother in Ohio is also a fantastic sewer and will be making me all kinds of cute baby clothing. Yay for Moms! At least now I'll be able to spend my money on other baby things.

I was pretty out of it all day yesterday (or the 6th if you will) so I made sure to do two drawings for the price of one! The first is a toy that I had when I was a baby (or at least the picture tells me it was mine). and the second is me as a baby. Both are a little off from my original sketches. The grain of the paper makes it harder to get a smooth drawing. I'm hoping tomorrow is the big day for a new scanner. Cross your fingers for me!

Day 155: An Owl

Today was a terrible breathing day for me. My chest seemed to ache all day. I spent most of the day sleeping. So much for getting much of anything done. Darn you lungs, you always destroy all my plans!
My drawing for today is an owl in a tree. I wonder if owls ever have trouble breathing.

Day 154: The Mouse Gets the Cheese

I went out today to look for a new scanner. I decided that I'm going to wait until payday to buy my scanner. Until then I'll do the best I can with just my tablet.

I can't remember how or why I thought of this little scene, but I had to draw it. The title is: The Mouse Gets the Cheese. I was going to give the big cheese a tongue, but it just made it look silly-- er, sillier anyway. 

Day 153: Three Bugs

I found out yesterday that I can't use my scanner on my new computer. This is the only thing that I've had any trouble with. I think this scanner is about 5 years old. There is also some flaws/scratches on the glass, so it's probably time to find a new one anyway. I'm hoping I can score a cheap one in the next few days (I don't need top of the line for what I'll be using it for). Right now I'm having to hand-draw things on my sketch pad, and it's taking me longer than it would with pencil. I did a few studies on some bugs. I'm working on a couple of garden/bug illustrations, so best to start learning a bit about the anatomy now. I was going to do some spiders, but they were creeping me out so I denied them access to my art for today.

Day 152: News and Some Canada Day Fun

The past few months have not been great for me art wise. I had a friend ask me about the quality of my drawings. I told him that I haven't had much time to devote to drawing, so I haven't put the detail and effort into my drawings like I would like to. Time, actually, has only been a small part of the problem. 

This past April I found out that I was pregnant. I didn't announce it because I had lost my last pregnancy at about 10 weeks this past December. I still in the first trimester. I am now happily in the 14th week of my pregnancy and have a due date of December 25. 

While being pregnant is a good thing for me, I wasn't prepared for what came with it. Almost right away I was extremely tired all the time. It didn't help that I was having trouble sleeping at nightAnd starting in the second month I had terrible nausea (which I didn't have last time). I was out of breath just walking up a flight of stairs, and I was having trouble breathing. Things were going really terribly (hence the month absence), until my husband scheduled a doctors appointment for me last Thursday.  

At this appointment I found out that I have Asthma. I've never failed the Asthma blow test before (my doctor said I should have studied first). He prescribed an inhaler for me. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference it makes. I will say I can do laundry without gasping for air.

I'm feeling a lot better now. I am having some trouble sleeping at night, because my nose is a bit stuffy. My doctor says it's likely I have allergies too (I have a cat so that might be it). I can't have any test done on me because I'm pregnant, and I also can't do much for it for the same reason. No antihistamines for me. :( I'm hoping I'm only having these problems because I'm pregnant. Only time will tell. 

I'm not going to give up on my goals because of any of this. I will have to live with being slightly slower right now, and accept that I can't do everything I want to do. I am having a bit of a focus problem right now, but I'm hoping that will pass with time.

My Canada Day Kitten:

I know I said I'd post yesterday, but I was just exhausted after I got home (which is really sad because my husband and I got back by 6:00pm). We celebrated Canada Day on Granville Island. For those of you who don't know: Granville Island is an absolutely beautiful and fun (and don't forget expensive) tourist trap.

We didn't get out of the house until after noon, so it was pretty late when we got to our destination. There was a really nice Jazz band playing when we arrived. Their music was excellent, but I insisted that we find something to eat before we did anything else. The food stands were expensive, and most didn't have meal worthy food (the samosas were good, though). After a bit of walking we stopped at GL Gelatto and Coffee house to eat. The paninis were good, but the tomato and roasted pepper soup was to die for. They also made their own ginger ale, which was really good.

The street performers were good. Nothing better than hockey players on stilts playing street hockey with little kids. I had wanted to blow a glass flower for $35, but I didn't want to go back the next day or have it shipped to me. We're kind of in the process of moving (again) and it was likely to break in any case.

I hadn't bought film before we went (big mistake). Wouldn't you know there wasn't a single shop that sold film. We would have had to go some 5-6 blocks outside of the island just to find film. I know almost everything is digital now, but seriously... that's just annoying. The toy stores were a lot of fun to visit. My husband wanted to buy a magic set (for himself) which I made him put back. I would have liked to buy some of the clothing they had, but most was out of my price range (starting at $200-$300 and going up beyond $1300 for the fancier things).

I think one of my favorite places to visit was the kitty table. Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue had their own table set up with lots of kittens that needed good homes. I wish I could have adopted one, but my cat would have probably eaten it (or died out of fear). I was going to get a Canada Day tattoo, but my OCD kicked in when I saw that everyone was using the same water to put them on (seriously eww).

We never did go back out to watch the fireworks (other than the few we caught on tv, and from behind the trees). I really wanted to see them, but I was also really sore from the time we spent out. I guess I'll have to wait until next year to see the fireworks. Oh well.

Tomorrow, Hopefully

So it will probably be late tomorrow when I post. It's Canada Day here, and I don't quite have everything ready for my new post. I am (almost) back and will make my first post ASAP. Here's hoping for the best!

An Update

I'm once again informing you that I wont be around for a little while longer. I have a lot of little things to attend to here, so I wont be back in action until July 1st. Don't worry, though. I will be back in action at this time even if I don't have everything sorted. I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope you'll all come visit me when I'm back in July!

Still Vacationing Without the Vacation

Guess who? It's me! I'm still alive, though I'm not blogging every day. I am going to be getting my scanner hooked up (really need a new one, maybe Santa will be early this year) so I can scan in some drawings. I really like working on the computer, but there is something to be said about putting pen to paper that I just don't get on the computer. Even if a drawing is finished on the computer, my drawings still look best if I scan a draft in first. I think it will be faster for me. I can draw some things faster on the computer, but I'll sometimes just stare at the computer screen because I spend most of my day staring at a computer screen. I need to get away! I might have not even needed to take this little break if I had been doing more away from the computer. Now it's in the past, so it doesn't matter. Que Sera Sera and all that jazz.

I recently bought a new printer. It's sad, really. I lost the cord for my old one (or it's forever hidden in storage). It's a good five years old and it was out of ink. It was $10 cheaper to buy a printer with the colour and B&W ink cartridges packaged with it, than the two inks in a combined package. It's an energy saver apparently. Not so great for the environment if I were to buy a new printer every time I needed ink. I don't think the old printer will go to waste. My Mother-In-Law could probably use a printer for her computer, or I can always give it to Salvation Army. 

I'm still looking for a job that will keep me out of the house at least half the day. Being a Graphic Designer is great, but it's not really for me. Maybe it's the fact that I do way more layout and fixing of other people's files than I do actual design. Maybe it's the long hours in front of a computer. I do know that I'm not happy where I am right now. I'd rather be at a diner serving burgers right now than doing design work. Fries anyone?

I'd love to get some commission work eventually (or even now, anyone looking?). Commission work and a part-time job. That would be nice. Here's to dreaming!

A Little Break

Hello Everyone,

I hate to make this post, but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take a break from this project for a few weeks. I'm just overwhelmed by a few personal things that are going on in my life. I'm hoping it will take no more than two weeks to get back on track. I promise that even though I wont be posting drawings every day that I will be giving you an update a couple times a week so you know where I am. I will work on some drawings so I have things to show when I come back. I will, of course, be finishing up this project in January instead of December because of this delay. A special thank you to all of you who comment and read. You have all helped me to get this far and there is so much farther to go! I hope to see you all soon!

Sincerely,

Dani Duck

Day 151: Colouring.. or a Lack Thereof

I've put a lot of thought into where to go with my sketchbook from here. Between the nice line work I've seen from fellow artists, and Elizabeth's Colouring pages I've decided to do some black and white work myself. Some of these I may decide to colour at a much later date, but for the purpose of this blog I'm leaving them black and white. This may just be for the month, or if I really like it then it will continue indefinitely. 


This first guy gave me a bit of trouble. I didn't think that drawing a believable cartoon frog leg would be difficult. It was a bit, but I think I came up with a decent back leg for him.

Mr. Rumple Bottoms III hated his name. 

In fact : there wasn't much that Mr. Rumple Bottoms did like.

Day 150: The Last Monster

This is the last day for monsters. It's a bit sad to see it come to an end, but at the same time I'm dying to start something new. This last guy's name is Bobo.

As promised here are all my monster drawings: 

See you all in June!

Day 149: Tri Guy

I'm not sure what having a triangle guy means. (Insert pun about this guy having a point). He's my second to last monster. Tomorrow is the very last monster (it's very sad!). Good things to come next.

Day 148: Spacey the Space... Umm... Monster

I've felt a bit spacey lately. I haven't been able to focus on my artwork and this blog as much as I would have liked. So what better way to celebrate my spaciness then to draw an alien monster named Spacey? Probably lots of ways, but you guys get the alien.

Day 147: The Strangers

Here are a couple of monsters that may not be that much stranger than my other monsters, but they are strangers to something.. yeah that sounds good. One is a triangular monster with no torso. His name is Eak. The second has many legs so his name is Tentacles of course. 

Day 145: Dora (of the Non-Explorer Type)

Hi, it's just me posting again. I know it's late, but I've been out most of the day. I'm winding down with the monsters. I think it would be nice do some really scary monsters someday. I have a soft spot in my heart for the cute monsters. This monster's name is Dora (as the title of this post may have already informed you). She'd be the quiet sort of monster even if she could talk. A bit unsure of herself but very sweet. I think Dora would be the kind of monster I'd like to hug.

Day 144: Lola

This little monster's name is Lola. Maybe it's because she seems like a mix between the two Lola's from a couple of classic songs. She's also looks almost like a female from Spy vs. Spy. All I have left to say is: Lola... la la la la... Lola

Day 143: The Eyes Have It!

Today I'd like to introduce you to my eye guys: Tria and Eyez. They are very silly monsters. Speaking of monsters: I've decided to finish off this month with monsters. I'll be posting all the little monsters at the end of the month for my sketches. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow. Multiple nose monster's maybe?

Day 141: Quackers

I'm not quite sure where this guy came from. I started with one thing, and before I knew it I had made a duck. He's a kind of evil duck, but not so evil that you'd be scared to be in the same room with him. His name is Quackers, and he's watching you.

Day 140: Googly

I'm still not quite sure where I'm going to plug in this scanner. Seriously... the area under this computer desk scares me. I'm sure it's all safe because he's a genus and all, but it still looks scary to me. For now Googly will entertain you all with his staring. Try to look away!

Day 139: Blit and Blot

Today I have a couple more monsters for you. Their names are Blit and Blot. Though their names are similar they are quite different. I will probably be moving on from monsters pretty soon here. I just need to find something to take it's place. I have some ideas, however they all involve a scanner. It might take me some time to get that set up (especially since I have to find an outlet to plug it into).

Day 137: Not Enough Sleep?

Yes, I know this monster looks like a pillow. I'm not sure if my problem is that I'm not getting enough sleep or that I'm getting way too much sleep (being sick is a terrible thing sometimes). This is Rem, of course, what other name could he have?

Day 136: A Gumdrop Monster

Gumdrop monsters are pretty scary. They'll eat you if you aren't careful. This scary guy's name is Gummy. He's purple...one of the worst tasting gumdrops evah. Beware his icky taste!

Day 135: Flit

I hope you all aren't tired of monsters just yet. I'm going to do a few more before I'm done. This monster's name is Flit. I'm not sure what I'm going to draw tomorrow, but you can bet it's going to be a monster.

Day 134: Three Little Monsters

I am very sorry that I haven't been around to post the last few days. I've been sick. It's not really a new sickness it's basically the sickness from before - it just doesn't go away.  I've done three little monsters for you.
Their names are Lips, Grunt and Bob. I hope you like them.

Day 131: Emma

Here's the monster in the tree. Her name is Emma. She's taking a little nap.

Day 130: Dooly and an Outside Drawing

Yesterday I was feeling really sick so I wasn't able to post. To make up for it I drew a Dooly.

Today's drawing is of Vora and someone in a tree. I haven't decided who is in the tree yet. I'll figure it out tomorrow.

Day 128: The Mommy Monster

Today's monster is a mommy monster. Her name is June. Baby Micky came out from under the bed to give his mom a Mothers Day hug. The monster outside the window will be revealed with my next post.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!