When Max Was A Zombie... or The Zombie Halloween Make-Up Recipe

!!!!!   Here's to a  Halloween you won't forget  !!!!!

!!!!!

Zombie Halloween Make-Up Recipe

Below are the secret ingredients found in everybody's home, to turn your normally pleasant looking child into a Zombie... 

Are you ready for it...  are you sure.  Are you willing to take the chance to let a  nasty looking half-human thing stagger off down the street and scare the neighbours... will IT come back... We all have to take chances sometimes.

!!!

OK then, if you are brave...  here's the goo recipe.

* common white glue and torn toilet paper... layered and left to dry on their face ... be inventive with it... it takes a while to dry... it can be easily manipulated to form gaps to make scars and deformities... also rice crispies and cornflakes can be inserted and covered with bits of the toilet paper/glue for more facial imperfections... 

* when it's dry, blend and dab some liquid makeup on the glue/tissue covered face to bring it to skin color...

And the Blood

*the Blood is homemade too... it is a combination of icing sugar, corn syrup, red food coloring & a small amount of cocoa powder... play around with the proportions till you get the consistency you like...  you might want to practice a few days before Halloween to get it right...  makes great blood... tastes good too... it dries and stays on all night...  and drips like thick blood...  ouie gooie.. 

Have Fun!

Compliments of Gwen Buchanan and my son Maximillian Ackerson (back when he was 14)

Desideratum Art Studio, St. Martins, New Brunswick, Canada

Expressive Drawing

Untitled...  by my son, Max Ackerson

Expressive drawing is the form of art that I am drawn to the most.

I want to feel what the artist feels and what the subject portrays.

I want to have a reaction.... to ponder.

I want it to capture me... to make me spend time with it. 

I want it to draw me in... to make me examine it deeper.

 I want to search out the lines... 'till my senses absorb the message.

I feel Max achieved a beautiful sense of Expressiveness in this drawing...
It is so very sensitively done.

...maybe I am a bit prejudiced, being his mother but I believe he did a magnificent job.

Actual drawing size: 6 1/2" x 10" plus mat, charcoal, conte on colored Canson paper. 

Max turned 20 years old on Christmas Day, 2013.  He has drawn "constantly" all his life and is presently attending the College of Craft and Design in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in his first year and enjoying every minute.

 

Nuthatch by Max

...click to enlarge...

The Red-Breasted Nuthatch has returned... to the feeder and to my wall...  I love these little guys... and I love this drawing.


Pencil drawing by Max Ackerson, my son......   showing the characteristic large head, short tail, sturdy beak, strong claws and the solid eye stripe of the  sitta canadensis...   total frame size 14" x 17"...


...link to a past post on the White Breasted Nuthatch...

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Cross-Hatching Practicing

Cross Hatch of my son Max's face

When you have a New pen ... 

...don't you want to see what it can do... 

don't you want to start playing, to see where the lines take you...  

I do.

 Cross Hatch of my son Max's Ear

...don't you want to see what it has to say...

....anything  and everything... to be true.

...don't you want to see who or what is hiding inside... 

or what is on its mind?

I do.

.... drawn from a photograph of my son...when he was younger and had hair...   for now he has shaved it all off...  

...funny how one gets used to seeing hair on a head and how strange a shaved head looks initially when you are not expecting it... shocking really, when you love hair as much as I do..  it has been a while now and I'm trying to get used to it... 

...OptiFlow Needles pen ... Ear approx. 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" .... Portrait approx. 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" 

... I found the ink not to be waterproof.. although it flowed beautifully when using it... so as long as your image is protected afterward, I guess it would be ok..   

...and I was disappointed that I made a wrinkle in my paper...  (just above his upper lip)  ...darn...

Good Work, Max!

My youngest son, Max .... 15 ... Grade 10...




Practicing guitar... he especially likes the beginning of a particular ACDC song...



Beachcombing at Quaco Beach... not another soul in sight.....as often is the case




Spending time with the dogs, after bringing Gabi, the blonde one, to live with us... this was introduction day..



Tearing off across seaweed covered sandstone chasing the dogs near Anvil Rock at low tide... just a bike ride down the road...



Why do kids always make faces when we want to take their pictures....



Beginning the cedar shingling on the front of his camp... it originally was a tumbledown chicken house on the property when we bought it... but we didn't have the heart to tear it down.. we moved it up to the far side of the garden and it's transformation began taking place there...



Making progress... eventually this job was finished and Max and his friends camped out there and generally did things boys like to do when they have a getaway...



Seventeen minutes past a spider...



Making jewelry in the studio... for a couple summers when Max was 11 and 12 he tended his own booth and sold his own jewelry at the St. Martins harbor.... any that he sold of ours he could keep a percentage...




...we wanted him to learn responsibility, the effort required to earn a living and how to deal with the public... to learn entrepreneurship...



The hockey gear robot man... I don't know how anyone can skate with all that stuff on..



Playing hockey at the rink ... one of his most favourite things... he's #11




His latest surprise ... made me so pleased...

Max was presented with this Award of Excellence by the Principal of his school... Not bad for his first year back in the school system after being unschooled for 4-5 years (well actually, he mainly taught himself, we just encouraged him)... ... I was thrilled for him...

You did it, Max!!! .... Keep it up!

...to Max's Blog...

Almost Monochrome

From the back room

out to the back field

where the partridges sat 2 days ago...

No need to go to the woodshed... the wood-rack is full...

No sunrise today

a snowstorm is blowing through...

From the trees, to the steeple, to the shore, to the sea...

...Max and Gabi

make their way...

nothing to do in the garden yet...

Good day to stay in

unless you're a boy or a dog....

...if you look really close you can see a seagull sitting on the top of the steeple, it is one of there favorite perches...

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Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid

                                                                                           

Keep safe All...
Guard your Souls...
Look oft behind You...
Lock all your doors...


They're on the Loose...
Tie up your Dogs...
If you venture in Shadows...
You may not come home...

October 31, All Hallows Eve.......................





My son Max the Zombie.
Desideratum Art Studio, St. Martins, NB

Gratefulness

"As you wander through life,
whatever be your goal,
Keep your eye upon the donut,
And not upon the hole!"

I do not know who wrote this little rhyme but I like it... it makes me smile...

These are old pictures from a poster, my son, Max made when he was much younger.... it was a little project of things that meant something special to him...

When Max was 4, we saw a butterfly sitting on a flower in the garden in late September... it just stayed there on that flower for several days... when we examined closer to see why it never left, we discovered it had a problem with its wings and could not fly...

As it was getting cold and rainy we felt sorry for the little thing, just sitting there, so we brought the butterfly and a bouquet of flowers into the house to our kitchen table... we fed him sugar syrup and watched his little tongue unfurl to sip it... it was very long! we let him live there and brought him fresh flowers everyday... sipping syrup for a month and a bit... till his life was over...

We were all sad when the little butterfly died... but we will always be grateful for the closeness, we had the opportunity to share.




Little dog Ziggy, who Max slept with every night since he was 2..... Ziggy was one year older than Max, and his favourite little play friend... Max had spelled out a birthday wish to him, in dog years, with dog kibble on the kitchen floor, that Ziggy promptly ate as soon as I took the picture...




Max also had this newspaper clipping on his poster.... from the Telegraph Journal, Saint John, NB. ... taken December 25, 1993... he was the Christmas baby that year...

He thought it was cool to be a Christmas present........... So did we!

...We even put him under the tree!
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Max

A quick sketch of my son, Max, after a day of biking 'round the village.

Most often... not without his red hoody...

....always... tousled hair astray...

...his set of wheels...

and a hot, hazy, breezy July afternoon.......

approx. 8½" x 12" ..... uni-ball vision waterproof pen in ringed sketchbook

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Best Chili We Ever Made

Our Chili recipe... it is soooo good... Our favourite!... We love it!... here goes:

2 lg. cans kidney beans (rinsed well)
1 lb. ground beef
2 - 4 med. onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
many cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper,chopped
2 lg. cans of plum tomatoes
4-5 Tbsp. of chili powder
2 tsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp. ground cumin (the secret ingredient!)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. chili pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

After browning the beef, add the next 4 ingredients and cook for 10-15 minutes... stir in the tomatoes... break up with a fork... add all the spices... cook for about 5 minutes... add the kidney beans... simmer for about an hour...

It smells so good..

My assistant and son, Max... took every opportunity to goof off in the spattered mirror... he doesn't know I got a shot of him acting silly... he thought he made his silly faces faster than I could catch him.... ha ha ... gotcha! .... it was too fun to leave out of the recipe...


Most of the time, he just added ingredients and stirred... all sensible like...



Oh... can't forget the homemade oatmeal raisin brown bread.... something to soak up those hot spices and sink our teeth into... perfect compliment...



Add lots of grated cheese... we usually use 3 different kinds... probably... 'cause we just can't make up our minds... and by this time we are all really hungry... our appetites stimulated by the that wonderful aroma...



....Add a glass of wine and we are all set...


......... Salute!!!!

The Year of the Rat

My son Max and his 3 attendants ...

Hazel, Almond & Missy salute...

"The Year of the Rat"