Pen and Pencil

Hello!  I write to you today with a short but shameless little plug.

Official logo currently in progress

As most of you know, one of the many things that Julie and I have in common is our inclination toward the visual arts.  My degree is in animation, and there was a time Julie studied illustration.  We both keep regular sketchbooks and love to draw.  And, while we both have art websites and/or online portfolios, we were thinking it would be fun to have some kind of joint online project where we could post some of our more current work (and sometimes maybe not so current), even if just for a few interested parties to see, and of course for our own pure joy of creating and sharing art, not to mention motivation to try new things and keep creating, even when we're busy or artistically frustrated.  We decided the easiest way to do this would be to create a blog on which we could both post and contribute.  So, we are very proud to announce the launch of Pen and Pencil*, our brand new space on the interwebs devoted to our art!  It's very much a work-in-progress at the moment, and there will new posts and overall design updates as time goes by, but for now, there's a welcome note, and there's a first joint post.  We will be posting artwork there occasionally, some by me, some by her, and some by us, since we have taken to joining artistic forces lately (a lot of times, I'll do the rough sketch and Julie will take it onto Photoshop and work her magic there, or some variation of that formula).  We're not sure how often we'll post, but we'll have regular updates, so visit often and take a few moments to experience some visual and artistic stimulation.

If it's your kind of thing, we would be ever so glad if you would follow us, or link to us (we're happy to exchange links with other art blogs or websites we like), and/or add us to your blog Reader/bloglines.  So, visit!  Enjoy!  Comment!  Subscribe and follow!  Tell your friends!  Add us to your Reader!  Return often for updates and original arts by me, her, or us!

Much thanks. 

... Tell your friends.

http://penandpencilarts.blogspot.com

* Blog name derived from the fact that I generally use a pen when it comes to sketching, while Julie usually prefers pencil.

Ye Olde Englande, Week 2: A Lot of Moving

It's Sunday afternoon, which means it's time for another blog report.  As last week, The Wife has posted a more thorough report, which photos, on her blog at Hinkypunk Station.  She's been going to great lengths to make sure our trip is documented regularly with photos and information for all the inquiring minds at home, and it's good to know people are reading and enjoying it (and more photos are posted on facebook as well).

This first part of this week involved a lot of moving, which led to the slightest bit of stress and lugging our impedimenta all about London, but we are now settled nicely in a semi-permanent type of temporary residence situation, house-sitting for a family we met at church last week while they are in American for three weeks (I am telling you, this is a worldwide Church...  Find your local leaders wherever you are, and the Lord will provide).  We are glad to have a stable situation with an excellent internet connection for work, and a great location for the girls' commute.  We even have had a couple quietish evenings at home and caught up on our reading or watched tragic films (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas... oh my).

The event I will highlight on this blog will be this:

I fed the birds.

If you look you can see me recognizing the splendour of St. Paul's in the lower left of this photo.

(See below for a better view of my reaction.)

The Little Old Bird Woman wasn't even there, and I had my tuppence and everything!

 But we fed the birds anyway:

We just fed them our own crumbs from our Salt & Vinegar Twists instead.  I don't know why this particular landmark seemed to have so much more of an effect on me than some others, but I really enjoyed seeing it and listening to the clock tower and having a little dinner on the steps.  We didn't get to go in yet, but we'll be back again soon, I'm sure.  It was also exciting to cross the nearby Millennium Bridge, as featured on the latest Harry Potter film.  For more, visit The Wife's blog.

Ye Olde Englande, Week 1: A Lot of Towers

Our first weekend in England has already come and gone!  We've been seeing ever so many famous things!

The queen was in, but we decided not to bother her.  Maybe we'll drop in for teatime on our next visit.

 In case you missed it in the shot, I'm pointing out Big Ben for you.

Saying goodbye to the interesting, dramatic and very old Tower of London.

I have really enjoyed running through Hyde Park in the mornings and the lovely, cool weather.  I'm a little surprised that there aren't more, you know, English people here, but maybe once we get outside of the central London tourist-type area we'll see more of them.  We're getting used to the tube system and making good use of our road map.  At the moment we're playing a sort of Musical Lodgings game, but we ought to be in a pretty good situation in just a couple of days, at least for a week (details to come).  I have decided rather than spending the time to unnecessarily blog and post pictures, I'm just going to link everyone to The Wife's blog, where she is planning to post at least every weekend to keep people up-to-date with what's going on here.  (Also, I think her blog deserves a little more traffic anyway.)  I guess if something comes up that I want to write about specially (like something that happened to me while Julie was at work), I'll do that too, but I'll at least post every week to direct you to Julie's newest post and put up a couple of pictures.  She also has been posting a lot of photos on facebook, so you can find them there.


So here it is:  Hinkypunk Station.  Enjoy!


Cheers!