Albert Whitman asked me to write a little about my experience for their blog – here’s the link if you want to check it out: Albert Whitman
I painted this banjo playing pig awhile ago as it was all the rave. Mine is a simple little illustration that took about two hours. I drew the little pig with pencil, water colored and scribbled all over it with black ink once it was dry. it This is the one that I did and below I have added one that Will Terry did and another the world famous truck driver, James Freeman.
My good friend Guy Francis is one of the most talented artists in the world. And he is a lot of fun. He and our friend Stacy Curtis, another talented artist in the world, started a little duel. They started illustrating the Dueling Banjo Pigs. It didn’t take long before a lot of the other talented artists in the world wanted to join in. And that is what happened, they joined in and now there is an an going blog that is dedicated to the Duel with over 700 illustrations of pigs and banjos. And since it is on going, I am inviting you, yeah you, to join in on all the fun. So get your pig, and your banjo,posted on the famous Dueling Banjo Pigs blog.
Join in With your illustration of a banjo pig
It started out with a duel between friends. Guy Francis challenged fellow illustrator, Stacy Curtis, to a duel of banjo playing pigs. Now, other illustrators have joined the fun with banjo pigs of their own! We have more than 700 banjo pigs from countries all over the world!
Feel free to join in the fun, just illustrate your pig, don’t forget the banjo, and E-mail it to Stacy or Guy and they;ll post it on the blog, along with a link to your site or blog.
See what others have done at the Dueling Banjo Pigs blog.
Ok, I was a reluctant hold out to participate in Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis’s banjo pig deal. I mean cmon, what a rediculous idea right? Everyone knows pigs are better at playing guitar than banjo. If you haven’t already checked out their banjo pigs and all of the participating illustrators I say – why start now? ~Will Terry
When I was in third grade my best friend’s name was Craig Day. We were in Mrs. Nichols class and I had a crush on her and Craig and I were the teacher’s pets.
One day, Craig came over to my house and my dad and uncles were in the back yard butchering the deer they had killed during “the deer hunt”. (it used to be a pretty big to do in Utah, back in the day) They cut the feet off about a foot up the leg and they also cut off the heads of these beautiful but dead creatures. My uncle Val had bagged a doe, which was legal that year, and when he discarded the head, my friend Craig asked him if he could have it. My uncle said “sure” so Craig took it home. Craig’s mother had died, and he was the youngest of a lot of kids so I don’t think his dad even knew he brought the severed head home.
The following day in school, we had show and tell and Craig went up to the front of the class with a shoe box. When it got to his turn for show and tell, he opened the box and tilted it up so we could all see, and sure enough, there in the box, was a severed deer head. The eyes were all dark brown and starting to wrinkle for they were drying out and there was dried blood in the box and on a lot of the fur. Mrs. Nichols handled it so nonchalant and nobody even seemed freaked out by it. It wasn’t until years later that I even realized that it was a crazy thing to do.
About 3 years ago, Will Terry was doing a cute book project and the theme was Show and Tell at School, so he came up with this illustration. I love how he chose to use something so uncommon like a monster, or a deer head. I brought a snake once. I was in fourth grade and we were having show and tell and I happened to have a snake in my pocket that day. I was actually not going to tell anyone but show and tell happened to be that day and I couldn’t resist showing off my long little friend. Mrs. Covey, my teacher, was a lot more freaked out by that than Mrs. Nichols was with the deer head. Makes you want to illustrate children’s books doesn’t it.