bananas and cannon balls - 100 drawings in 100 days

almost there!!! 4 more to go...

"carmen bananas", a macaque monkey, and "cannonball sam", the cat.

deer in drag - 100 drawings in 100 days

not too long ago, i was at an antique store and saw a deer head on the wall for sale. it made me think about the history behind the head, and what it's life would have been like, who hunted it, what the house where it was hung was like, and why it was here in an antique store, etc. and then, as it does so often, my mind wandered to having a deer in drag on the wall...

now, i definitely do NOT condone hunting and killing a deer or any animal for it to become a trophy on a wall, nor would i ever WANT one. however, if i were to come across one that was already for sale (such as the one at the antique store) and i could afford it (far too expensive at that store), i would like to get it and dress it up in drag. i think that would be a discussion piece...

so, this one is called "deer in drag".

the jester - 100 drawings in 100 days

when i was living in oklahoma city, i had a mama raccoon that would frequent my back porch each night for food, as the upstairs neighbor would leave a bowl of dog food for her and her babies. now, granted, they do carry rabies and other nasty things, but they are just so cute with their little "bank-robber" masks on!

and what makes them even more interesting, is that they have opposable thumbs, so they can get into things like doors, and drawers, and carry plastic bags of food away from your back door (i know, because it happened to me - fortunately it was just a sack full of bagels, so no big deal).

so i decided to make this raccoon into a jester, and thus, i have called it "the jester".

the bird-watcher and the viking - 100 drawings in 100 days

i cannot believe how many ink pens i am going through!!! and i cannot believe how much the price varies from place to place on the exact same pen! sometimes almost 1 1/2 times the difference... fortunately for them, this pushy american lets them know that the newsagent around the corner charges a lot less than they do for the same pen... i'm sure they really don't care what i have to say...

anyway, here i have started with an ibis, a bird that is quite common here in brisbane. they are actually quite ugly, the black-headed ones we have here, if you look closely (however this particular white ibis is quite pretty). they can be found in the park or in the front yard, or sidewalk, merrily picking up scraps of food people have left behind. i heard someone sarcastically refer to them as "dump chooks" (in other countries, that would be a "trash chicken"). but here, i have him bird watching, so i called this one "the bird-watcher".

then on the bottom, i have a brahma bull posing in a striped cap, with his striped horns, and looking very much like a viking i think. this one is called "circus viking".

see no, hear no, speak no evil - 100 drawings in 100 days

it's been a few days since my last post (sounds like a confession...), but i really wanted to post these three together, as they are a set in a way.

i started this series of drawings back in 2000, but i never finished them. they were all three, 22" x 30" in size, and graphite with charcoal and red pencil. they were slightly different, but i think i like these three women better! 

so from the top we have "speak no evil", "hear no evil" and "see no evil" - a different take on the three monkeys...

scuba bird and the fox - 100 drawings in 100 days

as i am nearing the end of my amazing drawing journey, i am finding it a bit more difficult to cultivate ideas. however, the ones i do get seem to be the most interesting so far!!

i have only 13 drawings left to complete, and the show is in 15 days - but the ideas are still trickling in. it has been my experience that the creative process here has been an ebb and flow, which is unlike any other body of work i have created. usually i have a rush of ideas, frantically sketching or painting them as i think of them, and then it dries up completely. i think the concept of having to really search for 100 ideas has changed the way i approach my inspirations - a lot of it depends on mood, but if you press on, they are still there, and the energy keeps flowing.

i wasn't sure about the crow in the antique scuba apparatus at first, but once i finished it, i loved it. the title of the top drawing is "circus scuba crow". and the lower image of the fox is called, "andy you're a star".

the two falcons - 100 drawings in 100 days

while i was surfing the net the other day, i found a site for birds of prey, namely, falcons. there is such a marvelous history behind falconry, and it spans many countries, but primarily the middle east.

but, from a creative point of view, the hoods that they use on these magnificent birds are just amazing!! so many and varied, and some quite ornate, some not.

these two guys had the most beautiful hoods that i saw, and in a way, they remind me of WWII bomber helmets, sans the top-notch. i have called this drawing, "circus falcons".

the fish and the girl - 100 drawings in 100 days

a friend of mine was just looking at this drawing, and made the comment, "it looks like 'a fish called wanda'!". now, it's been a long time since i saw that movie, but she really doesn't look anything like jamie lee curtis, or the fish. it's a fish-girl.

so, just go with me on this one - you take the face of an attractive woman and begin drawing it. after about 30 minutes of drawing, the idea comes to you that she should have a fishtail for her hair. no, better still, she IS a a fish, and not just any fish, but a koi fish. and the fish has, not a fish head, but a woman's head. right.

and that's exactly how it goes...

this drawing is called "koi girl".

the kangaroo and a bowtie - 100 drawings in 100 days

it's been exactly one year since i arrived in australia on the 5th october, 2007! and what a year!

to celebrate, i thought i'd throw in a drawing of something very australian, but with the de Shan twist - a circus/birthday party kangaroo wearing a gigantic bowtie!

i noticed that this particular kangaroo had one ear forward and one back, and i was trying to make the ears look like horns with stripes - however, he didn't look much like a kangaroo then, so i left the one ear forward as it was in the photograph. i have noticed that kangaroos and llama, and sometimes dogs, all have the same type of face when you cover the ears, or alter the ears. this is why i left one ear looking very kangaroo-like.

so happy anniversary to me, and this guy is called "the kangaroo and the bowtie".

the turtleneck sweater - 100 drawings in 100 days

ok, we all know how uncomfortable an itchy turtleneck sweater is... and this one looks particularly so.

i saw this really alert-looking pup the other day during lunch at a local cafe, and just had to snap him up! i never really know what i'm going to do with the subjects until i see the photo enlarged. only then, and sometimes not until i start drawing, do i know what kind of costume or background will accompany them.

so, here we have a dog in a very long-necked sweater, and i have called it "the long turtleneck".