Thankful

A random assortment of things that I am thankful for...

Chocolate

 

 The Beach, especially in winter when there is nobody there. My BFF Julie was in town for Thanksgiving and we spent a great day wandering about.

 

Creativity = The Boy made a bowl in woodshop for Nana. So proud.

 

 

Cats are awesome. 

 

How about you? What are you thankful for on this fine day?

Marilyn.

--


“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Thanksgiving from the Toymaker!

May you be warm, happy and well,

Best thoughts,

Marilyn and the Small Dog.

Pencil Geeks

I am such a pencil geek. Some of my artist friends are mad for ink pens. My friend, Janet Takahashi, has an amazing collection of inkwells. Me, I am always searching for the perfect pencil.

Keep your diamonds, my idea of heaven is pencils.com. They recently did a re-release of the Blackwing pencil, used by all the animators in the fifties and sixties. The original 602, had a buttery smooth dark line that was the stuff of legends. Last year the Palomino Pencil Co. put out a Blackwing version that was very lovely but the lead was too soft for daily use, at least for me.

Now they've come out with a new version with a black erasure and the original inscription, "Half the pressure, twice the speed" which has a better lead, in my opinion. Still dark and smooth but not so soft that it can't keep a point or smudge too easily.

My current super favorite for everyday drawing is the California Republic Golden Bear, beautiful line, great eraser and not expensive. Love, love, love.

Here are a  couple pictures of animators Bob Singer and Kim Dwinell testing pencils at the last Studio Five meeting.

 Bob talked about bunny character design and sampling the Golden Bear 2B.

Kim showed us how Disney animators would always have a scratch pad handy to keep the point sharp.

http://www.pencils.com/

What are you mad for? What do you collect?

Marilyn

Gignormous Cat Returns from Vet

Back from taking Mister Pretty to the vet. He has a cold.

Note to self, taking a twenty pound  pissed off cat to the doctor in a flimsy cardboard cat carrier is not a good idea. Next time acquire a dog kennel or something used to transport raptors from Jurassic Park.

Mission Accomplished... barely.

Marilyn.

--

If we treated everyone we meet with the same affection we bestow upon our favorite cat, they, too, would purr. ~ Martin Buxbaum

Quilts

There is something about Fall that makes me think of quilts. Maybe it's the rain,"soup, apple pie, hot peppermint tea" weather. We don't have proper seasons here in Southern California, more like smog, fires, mudslides and sunshine. The Young Man, (formerly known as the Boy) described it as "bipolar". It can be in the fifties one day and the eighties the next, depending on which way the wind is blowing.

When I was in high school, I obsessed about quiltmaking quite a bit. I loved the names, "Flying Geese, Ohio Star, Wedding Ring, Drunkard's Path, Bear's Paw". I don't have the patience or room to actually make one now. I can draw them though. I read once that if you're good and you get to heaven that you will be met by all the quilts that you intended to make. In that case, I'm set.

When the bold branches
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves -
Welcome wool sweaters. ~ B. Cybrill

It's a book!

Usually the mailman brings things likes junk mail and bills, but today was different! An advanced reader's addition of Haunted Histories, Creepy Castles, Dark Dungeons and Powerful Palaces by J.H. Everett and Marilyn Scott-Waters arrived.

It came out great! The book designer did a lovely job of it. It's been a long, long time from doing the proposal until this day, hundreds of drawings and many, many hours of work. I am filled to the brim with delight.

I can't wait until July 17th when it comes out in stores.

This is me right now.

Making fiction for children, making books for children, isn't something you do for money. It's something you do because what children read and learn and see and take in changes them and forms them, and they make the future. They make the world we're going to wind up in, the world that will be here when we're gone. ~ Neil Gaiman