For Deb, who told me I came from Mars

Yesterday, my niece Annie turned seven years old. She is very keen on the Lord of the Rings movies, so I created the card above for her in honor of the occasion, with the aid of Photoshop and Google Image Search. It was the first time I messed with Photoshop since my fall on the ice, but my arm seemed to be OK; I've set my Wacom artpad pen to require very little pressure. Annie's reaction definitely made it worth the effort. :-)

I'm still going to hold off resuming cartooning/drawing until my arm recovers a bit more; it's looking as if my ice skating accident has aggravated my tendinitis somewhat. I'm really hoping this doesn't turn into a major setback, so am trying to be extra careful. Starting physiotherapy again next week, just to be safe. I have my follow-up appointment with the fracture clinic on Monday.

When I was at my sister's place last night, she showed me the proofs for her new book, No Monsters Here (Author: Sharon Jennings, illustrator: Ruth Ohi, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, June/2004). Not only does it look fantastic, but she dedicated it to me: "For Deb, who told me I came from Mars --Ruth"

Explanation: When we were children, I told my little sister that she hadn't been born in hospital, that Mom and Dad found her in the backyard in a spaceship.

I almost started bawling when I saw that dedication, I was so touched. I am deeply grateful that Ruth and I are so close despite all the horrible things I did to her when we were younger (hanging her teddy bears, purposely leaving out books with scary covers after she asked me not to, telling her that department store mannequins were actually human beings frozen by aliens with laserguns, etc.). Thankfully, it looks as if Sara is a far better older sister than I ever was.

Speaking of my cool sister, be sure to check out her revamped Web site. I haven't been able to properly maintain it because of my tendinitis, so she came over recently. I sat beside her and explained how to scan and upload pictures, update the HTML, while she did all the typing and manual work. We make a good team. :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone.

--

Answer to yesterday's poll: Alan Thiesen.

February 2004 comments: Read | Post | LJ