I contacted my scout hunter and he said it was a Dayak Blow Dart Quiver. He also said there were darts in the quiver, but all I saw was tissue paper. I got my trusty forceps and pulled out the paper and sure enough, there they were! A nice supply of blow darts - I wasn't sure if these were used or not and if they were poisonous blow darts, I will have to ask my scout hunter more about this. For now, it is boxed up and put up safely away from the cats.
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The books will provide some fantastic reading, research and I noticed quite a few great photos, but for now I am slammed against the wall with freelance work.
I finished up nearly half of the pencil drawings - all of which need to be completed by Tuesday and sent via email for approval. Once they get approved, then it is another huge deadline which involved inking. For me, inking is like the cherry on the cake, I love inking and it tends to go much faster than trying to think up ideas and then penciling them out.
Also, I found two things from my past that thrilled me to no end, the vintage style rapidograph (I am always looking for the pump kind) and white out with a brush. I have always used white out (liquid paper) when drawing with pen and ink and then a few years ago, bottles of white out did away with the brush and came out with that stupid foam brush. Well, that was the end for me.
R. Crumb has used white out for years on his pen-and-ink drawings, and it used to be a staple among illustrators for years. Then it all changed, and for years I have been trying to find a suitable replacement. I have tried Dr. Ph. Martin's, white gouache, Pro White, the list is endless trying to find something that worked as good as liquid paper/white out.
On Drawn.ca, there is a great discussion from different illustrators discussing different pros and cons of white ink, so I know I am not alone in this quest for the "perfect white out."
The thing about all the others, they either are too thick, too thin, they don't dry fast enough or they leave groove marks in the white where the rapidograph draws on top of it, which invariably clogs the pen and it gets really frustrating. With my trusty bottle of white out, all I had to do was open it up, dab the brush to get the right amount, brush, blow on it and it was done. My pens would just glide over it and I could keep going in my drawing groove without having to stop everything in order to make up a batch of white out from gouache (which would dry out) and as mentioned in the Drawn thread, Pro White needed a wrench to get the lid off.
On a whim, I did a search hoping against all hope that maybe, just maybe the powers that be that make Liquid Paper would bring back the brush. Well. I nearly fell off my chair when I found that Liquid Paper actually did indeed bring back the Classic Brush!!!
I immediately bought five bottles and I tested it, and I thought I had died and gone to illustrator heaven. Then because I am paranoid about it being a fluke and that they might take it off the market again, I bought 15 more for my stash. Bet you never thought white out could be so important, did you?
Where was I? Oh right, the freelance job. So, because I start a massive amount of inking next week, I am thrilled to have my old friend Liquid Paper back again with my illustrating tools, which will make this job so much easier.
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Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to say just who this freelance job is for until my client announces it first on their website, and when they do, then I will announce it here along with their web/blog link. It will be sometime around the end of July when it will all be announced.
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And I can only say that I am having the time of my life, I love this type of illustrating jobs but this will be the last freelance job until next year. I really have to get on those framed curios and posters, I am seriously, seriously behind on my own personal schedule.So here is an updated schedule of stuff I will be doing in the coming months:
June - Freelance job
July - Finish up Freelance job/begin working on framed curios
August - The entire month of August has been set aside for framed curios -
I have gathered so much stuff, probably 9 human skulls, two human skeleton hands (left and right) a bunch of long bones, a human heart, a human brain slice, 5 (model) fetal skeletons, 7 (model) fetal skulls (three of which are for dolls), a very large leech, tapeworms, that baby snake, two taxidermied bats and a whole slew of other items I have tucked away in cabinets.
September - 4 posters to draw and have printed and then begin working on dolls. I haven't decided if I am doing any more Plague Doctor dolls this year or not, depending on my schedule. I will be doing more Fetal Skull dolls, and I already have 17 to 20 dolls already DONE, all I need to do is make clothes for them. I will probably make more Plague Doctors early next year.
October - Finish up the Dolls and maybe (big maybe here) begin some more tombstone paintings.
October and November, we do a huge web update with all the stuff I accumulate over the summer (like all that weird medical stuff I bought a few months ago).
December - I try to take a breather and just try to work on my book, all while having tried to squeeze book time in on the week-ends over the summer and autumn months.
January - hit the ground running with new projects to make, probably most likely Plague Doctor dolls, tombstone paintings and posters.
So anyone wanting freelance work will have to wait until NEXT year, I am book solid.
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I just received in the mail the other day a most exquisite Laudanum bottle, which I will be posting on the website in October. Also coming in the mail is probably one of the very best Paregoric bottles (with full label) I have seen in quite some time. That one will also be posted on the website in October.
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When I am not making stuff or illustrating or doing freelance, one of my most favorite things to do is researching odd things for certain companies. Last week (which I forgot to mention in my last blog post), I was sent photos of a very early Victorian Mokomokai and I was asked to research in order to find out if it was obtained before or after Captain Cook. It was probably one of the most impressive and beautiful Mokomokai I had ever seen and very well preserved.From Wikipedia:
When someone (from the Māori culture) with moko died, often the head would be preserved. The brain and eyes were removed, with all orifices sealed with flax fibre and gum. The head was then boiled or steamed in an oven before being smoked over an open fire and dried in the sun for several days. It was then treated with shark oil. Such preserved heads, mokomokai, would be kept by their families in ornately-carved boxes and brought out only for sacred ceremonies.
OK, I need to get back on the drawing table. I am actually ahead of schedule, but I don't like to push my luck with big deadlines and like to give myself plenty of time to roam around my imagination in order create without any pressures. So far so good!
