Back on the couch with Truffles.

Hello Swooners!

I have returned to the couch to share stories of my adventures and to catch up with your meanderings through the finer aspects of life.

Mars and I have a little patch of heaven near Castlemaine.  We are researching the possibility of growing Truffles on the property, but to do that we need to grow oak trees first. This will take years.  We are in no hurry, so we are content to develop our knowledge on all things Truffle.

How delightful to discover Madame Truffles a seasonal shop in Melbourne ready to open for the winter season.  Be seduced by their lovely website www.madametruffles.com.au  and catch up with their blog on the site too.

I must confess I am tempted by chocolate truffles too.  So whether it is refined chocolate or refined fungus, truffle is my thing.

What is your decadence of choice?

Let me know so that I can add it to my list of delicious investigations.

Happy swooning,
RV

Illustration with a social conscience

I like to swoon in the afternoon and attend my toilette.   Mars is busy down the shed.  There are some fellows Mars knows who are doing it tough.  Some don't have a Venus to call their own, others have a bad time of not getting some time with the kids.

I like to be a bit tongue in cheek on this blog but there are times when I do take the outside world seriously and the Mars' guys out there are having a bad time of it.  I am very concerned that male suicide is so high in the "Lucky Country"- Australia.

This is my take on the excersise:  Illustration with a social conscience.

All the best Mars.  Keep going and don't give up.  You are never alone...


The Rokeby Venus.

Airport Pictograms

Travelling with children is quite an experience.  As a mum I can understand that your kids can get cranky, hungry, tired and bored.  Not to mention travel sick and frustrated especially if they're very young and like to run around.  Try doing the 25hr long haul to London!

Being a passenger near a crying baby is no fun either.  Somethings I can understand, but I have real difficulty when some parents don't plan for the trip and prepare the basics for even a short trip.

Here are some pictogram ideas to help some folks get the message about the basics for their children.  Perhaps the air stewards may need to stock up on dummies for the adult whingers too!

Happy travels.
The RV

The Little Match Girl with apologies to HA Andersen

I am posting a selection of drawings of the Little Match Girl that I have completed so far as a TV show concept.

I took photos of my windows at night and dressed them up a little.  I then imported some pen sketches of my LM Girl character with photoshop to blend the two and set the character into a real world.

This was great fun to do but it is such a sentimental story.  Andersen tells how she would be beaten by her father and even though I drew a sketch I found it difficult to include here.  I have to work on that one.

All the best,
The RV
Ps, Mars went to London last week and spent some time in the National Gallery checking me out.  Hmm, always like to be appreciated...

a line is a dot that went for a walk

A great quote from Paul Klee.  I imagine that a snail wandered around my table leaving a trail, a little dot of creation on its walk through life.

Keep wandering,

The RV

Music to Swoon by: Self Medicating with the Rokeby Venus

Sometimes despite your best Venus efforts, Mars just has to go to war.  When he's gone any number of emotions may arise so what better way to fill the alone time than with some music to match the mood.

So I put together a virtual CD of  favourite tracks.  Some music to match the liquor to match the evening.  All this was completed in photoshop with a compilation of hand drawn copies of the Velasquez works and a few images scrounged from the 'net all tweeked till they were just right.

The look is still opulent and melodramatic, I'm sure you all have your own favourite music that could contribute to another edition.

I hope you like it.

Rokeby Venus

Slumming it with the Venus

The Rokeby Venus is acting all tough and crass with chewing gum.  She's left some graffiti behind tagging where she's been hangin'.

Sounds pathetic really, her kids would cringe!  If she had to tag with chewy she'd be caught bare naked; oh the embarrassment! (the kids would really cringe)

Actually she's been on a photoshop quest to try a new font with a 'rubbish' theme.  She took photos of actual chewy personally chewed...eeww... and shaped it into various letters. They were stuck onto a very dark background to make it easier to use the quick selection tool in quick mask mode. She then took some photos of checker-plate on a train carriage with more chewy donations from helpful passengers. This was the background to the pink lettering. She stretched the letters even further by using thetransform functions and at a later stage may even cut them out against their checker-plate background to paste again onto something even grungier.  May try a few filters here she thinks hmmm.

All the best'

The Rokeby Venus