Heather Dixon Wallwork's Blog, page 10

Mary Christmas Season! {+Giveaway!}

Happy Thanksgiving!  It snowed here and so we had a white Thanksgiving.  I love the snow.

I also love digital painting.  When I was a kid taking art, digital wasn’t a thing.  All the art supplies were sooo expensive and messy, and if you messed up, you had to start all over again.  Now you can try and do billion different styles and colors…I sure am grateful for that.

Anyway, here’s a piece that I’ve been meaning to do all year ^_^

I drew it for my sweet Instagram buddy, Nerdpoppins.  She loves Mary Poppins as much as I do!  You should check out her etsy shop–so many amazing MP things!

She was also the host of this year’s “Mary Poppins in the Park”–a Mary Poppins day at Disneyland.  I went and it was so much fun.  Every dressed Mary Poppins-y and THE Mary and Bert came (!!!) Everyone had a great time.

Nerdpoppins is on the right…my sis is in the middle, and I’m on Bert’s arm, dying.  (Isn’t the skirt beautiful?  It was sewn & hand-painted by Nerdpoppins.  I’m in awe.)

Speaking of that event, I gave out a limited edition print to the attendees!  And I have some left over!

Would you like this sweet little 5×7 print?  I’m gonna mail it out to the first 50 commenters!  Here’s how to play:

1 – Leave a numbered comment of something you’re grateful for.  (So, if the comment before you says it’s #12, you would write #13.)  (If you are reading this from tumblr, you’ll want to comment here, on the actual blog.)

2 – If your comment is below 50, send your mailing address to storyboarder{at}gmail.com  (That’s me!)  And I’ll send you the print right away!

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was the best ^_^

Speedpaints (and other assorted updates)

Speedpainting is a great way to warm up.  Here are some I’ve done in the last couple of months.

Most of them were 30 minutes…except for the bottom one, which I spent way too much time on.

Sometimes I record myself doing these, then speed it up, which makes me feel like Bob Ross!

Behold a 15-seconder:

http://story-monster.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Speedpaint4-17-15.mp4

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Here’s some other stuff that’s been going on!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is being sold.  THE Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!  The one from the actual movie!!

It’s going for a cool 3.5 million.  Totally worth it.

I figure if each of my blog readers gives me a million dollars, I’ll be able to afford it…plus money for a new engine so it doesn’t make that funny noise.

********

Some people have asked me what I think the upcoming Mary Poppins sequel.  (You’ve heard that news, right?)

This is how I feel.

How dare they.  How dare they.

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A lot of people have asked about my sister!  She is doing great!

Here’s a quick phone picture I took with her and my niece, Mary.

Her hair is growing back!  Doesn’t she look beautiful?

She’s been stable for 6 months–meaning no new growth (unheard of with her cancer!) and so the doctors think she has a good case for the insurance to help with the bone marrow transplant.  They’re undergoing approvals right now.  Thank you so much for all your kind thoughts and prayers!  I know they’ve been helping.

Urban Legends

The last blog post was inspired by an urban legend.  You’ve probably heard it:

About 50 years ago, a lady decided to try one of those fancy beehive hairdoos.

The hairdresser was like, “Okay, it’s set.  But if you want to keep it nice, never  wash it–wrap it up in toilet paper every night and carefully sleep on it instead, and you won’t have to fix it in the morning!  It’ll stay nice for a good long time.”

And the lady was like, “Swell!”

And that’s just what she did.

But after a while, her beehive hairdoo got real itchy.

Real itchy.

Yeah, you guessed it.  One night, in the middle of the night, she woke up like this:

This is a morality story:  WASH YOUR HAIR.

Did you ever hear the urban legend about the bride?  She decided to have her wedding at an old farm, with an old farmhouse and an old barn.

They decided to play hide and go seek.

(Those lovebirds.)

Anyway, the bride went up to the attic and hid in a trunk–

…Which immediately slammed shut

And locked.  Of course.

Everyone in the wedding party looked, and looked, and looked.

But they had to go home.

The groom searched but I guess gave up.

It’s weird how in these stories, they never contact the police.

Anyway.

The trunk remained untouched in the attic for years…

…Until…

(You guessed it)

They found her!

This story is a cautionary tale as well: Never play hide and go seek on your wedding day.  And I promise you: I never will.

Did you hear the urban legend about Martha Washington?

They dug up her coffin (why?) and found scratch marks on the inside of the lid.

(!!!!!!!!!)

This was a legit fear way back when…they didn’t put preservatives in bodies or anything, they just dressed the corpse in a Sunday suit and stuck it in the coffin and buried it.

Some people invested in a bell that was connected to a string tied to their finger, so if they woke up buried alive, they could ring it and someone would hurry and dig them up.

Now that we are civilized, of course, we make sure that you’re good and dead first by draining your blood and pumping toxic chemicals into you.  Isn’t that a relief?

I bet you had a haunted auditorium when you were a kid.

(Everyone’s auditorium was haunted)

My elementary school was haunted.

Or so they said.

They said it had been built on an ancient Indian burial ground, and now 44 Indian braves haunt the school.

…Which I never witnessed (DARNIT!!!!), but a few months ago they were doing construction nearby, and what do you think they dug up?

Not a skeleton (I wish).  But they did find Indian artifacts!  So maybe it was true after all….

I won’t say what elementary school it was, because some of the kids who read this blog go to that school.  I don’t want them scared to go to school, like I was.  (Though for entirely different reasons.)

Have you seen This Man?

If you have, you are not alone.  Everyone dreams about him…or so they SAY.

Learn more here at www.thisman.org…and don’t punch me in the face when visiting this site gives you nightmares O_____O

One last story.  You know how every school has a haunted auditorium?  I think every family has an urban legend.

Wanna know mine?

My grandpa ran into Bigfoot!

Really!

Here’s the story.

When my grandpa was a young’un, he had the smartest donkey you ever met.  Her name was Ginny.

Ginny and Grandpa would often go to Democratic conventions (you know, because a donkey is their mascot) and they would do a fun little show for all the folks there.  My grandpa would say:

And Ginny would shake her head furiously.

And then my grandpa would say:

And she’d be like:

And everyone thought that was pretty great, until of course the Republican nominee actually did win (because this is Utah.)

All this to say, Ginny really was a smart little thing!

Anyway, one day, Grandpa and Ginny would backpacking up in the mountains.

On their way to the middle of nowhere–there wasn’t a person around for miles–there was suddenly a giant rustling in the foliage up ahead.

Along with the rustling came a terrible, terrible smell.  It was just awful.

Ginny went crazy.  She bucked and pulled and sat down and refused to go any further at all.

Grandpa was forced to turn around.  Ginny hightailed it down that mountain!

Was it Bigfoot?  My grandpa thought so.

 And maybe it was!  Who knows?  It definitely makes for a good Halloween story!

Does your family have an urban legend?  Ghost sightings?  Mind-reading?  Leave your story in the comments section!

My Itchy Periwig

Ribbons?  Candy?  Itching powder???!?  What is it, woman???!!?  WHAT???!?!?

Camping Virgin

If there’s one thing I like, it’s money.

In fact, I like a lot of monies.

In fact that love, so near and dear to my heart, gave me an idea that’s going to make me RICH RICH RICH!!!

PICTURE THIS:

THE FUN TENT!!

First, the person who’s paid for their ticket ($482 for children ages 0-5, $679 for kids 6-12, $5,119 for teenagers, $23,917 for grown ups…Babies under 2&1/2 weeks are free, of course…I’m not a miser!) Anyway, the paying participant stands in front of a giant pit of mud.

And is shoved into it.

Next, the participant stands under a bucket full of spiders, snakes and mosquitoes.

(I call this the “Lice Bucket Challenge.”)

(Hahaha!!  Get it??  Because “Lice” sounds like “Ice” as in “Ice Bucket Challenge”! Get it??  Get it??  Oh, you are a dead audience)

Anyway.  After that, the participant…

 

…is locked in a freezer.

That’s it!  Isn’t it a kick??  Aren’t I going to be rollin’ in the dough??

I AM.  I am gonna be rollin in the dough and do you know why??

BECAUSE PEOPLE DO THIS ALL THE TIME!  THEY PAY TO DO IT AND THEY CALL IT CAMPING!!!

Yeah you are!

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who appreciate the dignity indoor plumbing can provide, and those who like to pretend they’re homeless.

I belong to the first group.

In fact, before this past summer, I hadn’t gone camping since I was a kid!  Which was years, and years, and years, and years, and years ago.

I don’t remember much.  I remember it rained and was so cold the spiders snuggled up to me for warmth.  It was

the worst.

The rest of the experience my brain very wisely blocked from my memory, but maybe one day I’ll remember how I lost all the toes on my left foot.

Anyway, I bring this all up because last year, I was called to be in the stake YW, which is a church youth leader position.  I really like it!

Except for this part…

WHUT

Ever since I was a kid I’ve managed to dodge anything that requires me to leave my house.  I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

PROSPECTIVE DATE:  Are you doing anything this Friday?  You wanna go on a date or something?

ME:  You bet I do!  I’m totally free!

PROSPECTIVE DATE:  I was thinking maybe going on a hike–

ME:  Hahaha just kidding!  Go away!

It’s bizarre how many guys don’t appreciate a girl who likes to stay inside all day staring at the wall!!

(They’re so shallow.)

Anyway, because this was a church calling, I decided to pony up.  My friend Joe, who’s a wilderness survival expert and actually likes camping, helped me draw up a list of supplies:

Thankfully, I didn’t have to spend *too* much to get the supplies I needed.  Definitely less than five grand.  But by george, those are the nicest socks I’ve ever had!

And we began the hike in good spirits!

About twenty minutes in, I realized I had made a grave, grave mistake.

For one thing, there was that big yellow glowy thing in the sky.  I forgot the name of it, but it was totally annoying.

For another thing….NO BATHROOMS????

This turned out to be the worst part of all, because as I breached the last hill to the campsite, this is what I found:

Apparently we weren’t the only people who thought that would be a great weekend hike.

This was not what I was promised.

Our camp leader had scoped this place out several weeks before.

But what could I do?  My eyeballs were swimming.

The moment camp was set up, I set out to find a tree.

This turned out to be a problem.  Every tree I found ended up having a friendly resident.

Things weren’t looking so good.

About four or so miles away from the campsite, I found something that might work.  No one was around.

This frame is totally inappropriate.  I apologize.

If it helps, you’re the only ones who are seeing it.

OR SO I THOUGHT

WHUT

WHUT

WHUT???!?!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Aaaaaaaand…the rest of the camp was blocked from my memory.

…Except for the part where I drank ZERO WATER for the rest of the trip…including the hike back.

 

 

Remember the Fun Tent?

This hike inspired me.

I’ve decided to add a giant glass cage to it.  It’ll have a hornets’ nest, a bucket, and aaaaaaaaaalll the water you can drink!

Interested?

 

I’m gonna be so rich.

Cinderella and the Prince

“Cinderella” came out last week.

It

made

me

BAWL.

It was so good.  So I drew a picture :) :)

Usually the fluffier the dress, the more I like the movie it’s in.

That means I loved Cinderella!

The Great Carrot Lie

One day, my grandma came to visit.

 {Yay!}

When I was a kid, my grandma would always make fresh carrot juice.

So I decided to make some carrot juice for her!  I’d just gotten a fancy new juicer and was excited to show it off.

That juicer, like so many of my kitchen gadgets, now sits in my cupboard, unused.

 Go figure.

Anyway, grandma said she’d love some!

Because I had a captive audience, I decided to roll my brains all over the counter.

And the rolling began.

During WWII, The British were just developing airborne radar technology.  To keep their island safe from the Luftwaffe {the Nazi air force}, they built a chain of radar towers along the southern coast.

Due to this radar technology, the British air force was able to detect the fighters at night, and suddenly their night attacks became deadly accurate.

One of these night fighters was John Cunningham.  He was the first night fighter ace.

He was good–very good!–and the British people went crazy after him.  Afraid that their airborne radar secret might get out, the Air Ministry attributed John’s success to one thing:

Carrots.

John ate a lot of carrots, they said, and that’s what made him see so well at night!  The propaganda was rolled out with gusto.

Even Walt Disney got into the mix, sending three lovable carrot characters to get the word out.  Carroty George, Pop Carrot, Clara Carrot.

Carrots would help you see in the blackout.

It turns out that this is only kind of true in that if you don’t have vitamin A {found in carrots}, you’ll go blind.  But they don’t give you cat-at-night vision.

John Cunningham was given the nickname “Cat Eyes.”  Which he hated, because it wasn’t true, but he gritted his teeth and played along.  The British people ate it up…literally!  And luckily enough…carrots weren’t rationed during WW2.

Carrots on a stick…mmmmm!

So that’s the story.  I wonder how many children ended up with orange skin.

During all this, Grandma hadn’t said a thing.

 

Lost memories of my childhood suddenly returned.

It was then I realized I was probably the worst granddaughter ever.

{She’s still friends with me on Facebook, though!}

{Grandma’s never on Facebook.}

{I’m a terrible granddaughter.}

Disney Infinity 3.0 Giveaway!

 

Disney Infinity 3.0 came out this week!!

It was mostly Star Wars-themed.  I love Star Wars…so working on this was a kick!

I boarded a lot of the cinematics between the gameplay.

These boards did not make the cut…for obvious reasons.

I also wrote lines for some of the characters!  One of these characters was Olaf.

Isn’t he adorbs??

I think so :) :)

Do you want this sweet little figure?  I’m doing a giveaway in celebration of the game release!  Enter your name and email below {the email won’t show up} and comment with the word “WANT!”, and you’ll be entered in the drawing!  {If you’re reading this from tumblr, you’ll want to toddle on over to the blog, here at story-monster.com!}

The drawing closes on midnight, September 8th!

Narnia Nightmare

Last week my parents took a trip to Park City, and stayed in a really old, fancy hotel.

(It’s fancier in real life.)

They noticed there was an alcove behind the wardrobe in their room.

It’s a little hard to see.

See?

My mom was really curious about this alcove.  What was that wardrobe hiding??

My parents–those wild, wild things–spent most of the evening trying to see what exactly that wardrobe was hiding!

Maybe a secret passageway??

My mom tried feeling around for stuff

They tried moving the wardrobe

(It was too heavy)

But then my mom got the idea to slip her phone behind it and take a picture.

Do you want to know what was behind that wardrobe?

 

Do you?

 

Do you?

 

Do you???

 

It was

 

 

THIS

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!

My mom’s heart about exploded.

(They didn’t get much sleep that night.)

What kind of hotel hides creepy mannequins in their rooms????

 

(Mom says it was a Groupon.)

Wind’s in the East

My blog has a new home!

It’s here at story-monster.com.  I liked my blogspot–a lot–and had it for nearly 9 years!  But blogger is getting a little old, so I dusted up and moved here.  Fancy, eh?  If you go to the original site, it will forward you here quick fast like a bunny.

These blog posts will also crosspost to tumblr!  So if you’re reading this from tumblr–glad to have you on board!

Even better news is that I’ll be posting more often!  So stay tuned!