Slap Costume

Artist: Duffy

It’s not easy to tell, but this pastel was part of a game. Well Duffy invented the game, and actually he was the only one that ever played the game, but it was an excellent pastel drawing game, and I simply have to share it with you.

The game is actually pretty simple. You take a dictionary and flip to a random page. On that page you’re allowed to pick any word you want (aside from the words in the definitions), but you must stick with the page you flipped to. You repeat this for a second page, which leaves you with two words. Your job now is to draw your interpretation of those two words. In Duffy’s case, he got the words slap and costume, which left him with a boy trick-or-treating in a giant hand costume. People being shocked at the ridiculous costume gave the kid little candy, and thus the text at the top of the drawing.

This isn’t the first mention of a pastel drawing game on House of Pastels. I also talked about another game in the post You Suddenly Realize that you Need to see a Psychiatrist. Duffy actually invented a second game during the same pastel drawing session, but we never had a chance to play it. The game involves one person drawing on one half of a piece of paper, and then covering that half, except for a small band which will connect to the other half. Next a second person continues drawing on the second half making sure to connect to the small band that the first person left visible. Once the second person is finished, the entire drawing is revealed to both artist.

Hockey Game

Artist: Hunter

During my most recent visit to Waterloo, I had the chance to meet Chantal’s boyfriend Hunter. After about a few hours, Hunter was giving me piggy pack rides while encouraging me to cause trouble. It was obvious that Hunter and I were soul mates, but as Chantal is a good friend of mine, I figure I’ll just have to get over my feelings.

If Chantal’s on your Facebook, you might immediately recognize what event Hunter is paying tribute to with his drawing. As I understand it, Chantal and Hunter went to a hockey game together...well I’m sure there’s more to the story than that, but I’ll just ruin it if I try to explain it. So just talk to Chantal about it, or read her blog, or at the very least, check out her Facebook pictures.

Curious Robot

Artist: Gaven

This is actually a remake of a previous drawing of mine. I first drew this picture about a year ago, but it was nearly impossible to tell what the picture was about. I liked what the picture was about so I held onto it, but I was disappointed that my message hadn’t had a proper chance to be communicated. So when I sat down one afternoon to draw with my sister Faria, I decided to take the opportunity to redo the picture. In the end, I decided my second picture, though far from perfect, beat-out the old one which will most likely find its way to a recycling bin.

In this picture, the “curious robot” is investigating what’s behind a pair of shutters. Though he doesn’t realize it, it will result in its death as the light will melt through the block of ice and the robot will fall to its death.

The theme: some things hurt to find out.

When I drew the first version, I had learned something which I realized would have been better left undiscovered. Sometimes I look back at pictures which I drew when I was upset and deem them as “whiny”, but this one serves as a reminder that not all information is wanted information, and thus, the reasons for why I first drew the original drawing has merely become a historical footnote for the drawing.

“Do You Think” ... “He Knows?”

Artist: Matthew

Matthew is the eldest of my two brothers. When I went to live with him for my final practicum, I decided to bring with me as little as possible. I left my computer at home, along with most of the odds and ends that usually follow me around. I only brought clothing, some science fiction stories, and of course, my pastels. When I brought out my pastel drawings to show Matthew and his wife Faria (I usually leave “law” out of “sister in law” when I refer to Faria, as “sister in law” sounds far too technical), Matthew immediately wanted to draw his own pastel drawing.

Now you probably don’t know Matthew, so I should first say a few things about him. He’s definitely smarter and more creative than me. That sounds sad [for me], but it really isn’t as he’s on my side (that is, if there’s ever an intergalactic war of the families, I’ll be on a pretty good team). He currently is a writer, which means it probably causes him considerable pain to read the many errors that I make in writing my blogs (I’m not going to pretend my blogs aren’t full of errors as many people have already given me lessons on the usage of English after reading some of my posts).

Anyway, I’m pretty sure that when Matthew put pastel to paper, he hadn’t an idea what would come of it. The impressive thing is that something did come of it.

The picture is of two headless men assembling a Mr. Potato Head. During the constructive of the potato’s face, the two figures wonder whether the potato knows that he is constructed by them.

If you think a little deeper, this picture says a lot more, but I will leave it to you to make your own interpretation of the picture.

Hearts and Brains

Artist: Gaven

If you’ve been a long-time reader of my Cute Qubit, the meaning of this picture might clearly jump out at you. Actually, if you’ve listened to me while I’ve vented about my body not being on my side, then you certainly should know what this picture is about.

Since I’ve talked about the conflict between my mind and heart far too many times, I’m not all that keen in getting into it again here. The basic idea is that I mark a clear division between my thoughts and my feelings, and the two groups don’t always agree (I’m sure this isn’t a unique action). Luckily I’m pretty good at figuring out who’s saying what, though this hasn’t prevented the heart from having its way when the brain had strongly opposed an action. Usually the heart waits for the brain to make a logical error that it can exploit. The mistake might only last a few seconds, but that’s plenty of time for all sorts of trouble to follow.

I began drawing this picture one night when Stella and I had particularly poor days. She suggested the marvellous idea of “having a beer and drawing with pastels at midnight,” an activity which I can see having no flaws.

The heart and brain were drawn by first drawing a solid heart and a solid brain each in a light colour. Then the two were coloured over with a darker colour, and the details of the two characters were created by scratching out lines using a pen lid.

The picture itself is of a heart who wants to pull a reluctant brain along its own path.