Anne's Drawings

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T09:18:00.002-05:00

I don't have anything scary to post today, but I do have these punkins (yes, that is how I meant to spell it) that I painted a week or two ago. I figured I should make a Halloween post as I completely forgot about Columbus Day. I shouldn't neglect all of the October holidays. I don't have much to say today other than "Happy Halloween." I did not decorate for Halloween this year, but I do have two black cats, so that should suffice.

Drawing

2011-10-22T22:09:00.003-05:00

I tried to paint tonight. It was disastrous, so I won't be posting it. Instead I will post two sketches that I've done in my sketch book in the past week. They are both "copies" of Durer's work. It seems that everything that I tried to do today didn't work out. I have been making soup pretty much every weekend, trying new recipes... Most of them have been successful. Today's lentil soup just ended up a muddy, ploppy pile. I don't even think I will be eating it. Tonight I ate spaghetti instead. Anyway, I enjoyed working on these sketches. I like sketches. I like creating them and I like looking at them. It's too bad that a group of teenagers had to rowdily arrive in the room where I was looking at sketches while at the Institute of Art earlier this week. Teenagers should not travel in packs in art museums.

Self Portrait with Fish

2011-09-19T11:39:00.004-05:00

Just a very quick sketch that I did this morning. It seems, judging by photos from my early childhood, all I ever did was hold strings of fish. This is a sketch from a photo from those times. I might add, if you can't tell from the sketch, which is again, very quick and rough, I am also eating a Popsicle. I can't do anything more than quick sketches right now as my right index finger is all swollen and seems to be infected. That's all for now...

Edited to add the actual photo because it's funny.

A quick little painting and a quick little post...

2011-09-07T21:28:00.002-05:00

Hey gentle blog readers. It's me again. I'm afraid that my evening labor did not allow me to produce a good piece of fruit. It strayed far from my original idea which is fine, but it is not a pretty piece of fruit. It is a bit bruised and battered I have to say. I like to stray, but sometimes straying makes for a not so good picture. Should I try coming up with an idea and sticking to it until the end or is it better to stray? But really, this not so good painting doesn't warrant deep thought about straying or not straying, it just is what it is. The one thing I never go for with painting is realism. Maybe I should try that sometime and see what I come up with. At least the original painting looks better than the scan.

Do I have anything else to talk about tonight? Hmmm.... I don't think so. Right now I'm just typing for the sake of typing. I do like the feel of the keys under my fingers even if I'm not saying anything interesting. I like to type.

Hiatus over?

2011-09-06T08:55:00.004-05:00

Well, hopefully... It really has been a long time and unlike the t.v. shows, I didn't even feature re-runs. But then again, are t.v. shows even run again anymore? Don't they just fill the summer hours with inane reality t.v.? I was looking at my blog and saw that I took a much briefer break last summer, but returned right around this time as well. I haven't been drawing much at all, but did this sketch last night. It was a quickie from the weekend drawing event photos selection. I don't have much to say, actually. I have to get back into the groove gradually, I think...

Rhino belly dancer...

2011-06-12T10:14:00.002-05:00

Yes, I know--long long time, no post. Bad bad Anne. It's rare that I go this long without blogging. I am on the third day of a 12 day pet-sitting job. Since I have several days to go, I may post more often. I feel like I'm having a mini vacation. Yes, I still have to work, but I am staying in a nice house with a sun room and a yard and I don't have to contend with my noisy neighbors. Everyone needs a break from my neighbors now and then. Other than that, I don't have much to say. I was just playing around with Corel Painter this morning and this digital belly dancing rhino was born. This particular version isn't the original. I used an oil paint filter on this and quite like the effect. That's the thing with digital art. You can play around with it, run it through filters, change the background, to your heart's content. I like to do that type of piddling. One of these days I need to get some batteries for my stylus pen. It is much easier to work with that than the laptop mouse. I do have to say a laptop mouse is one of the more difficult things to draw with.

Almost a month?

2011-05-04T11:45:00.004-05:00

Yes, it has been almost a month since my last post, but not quite... As you can see my last post's date was April 5th and today is May 4th, so almost...

Why haven't I posted? I suppose part of the reason is that it is such a pain to scan these days. My desktop computer died and my laptop does not have a battery. My printer/scanner is set up in my bedroom, but I prefer to use my laptop in my living room. So, in order to scan, I have to unplug the computer and plug it in in the bedroom. And then I have to unplug it and move it back to the living room and plug it in again. Oh, the joys of not having enough money to fix my technology issues. Obviously, if I had a battery for my laptop, it would not be as much of a pain. And obviously, if I had a working desktop computer, it would really be easy to scan, just as it used to be. Also, with the death of my desktop computer, I no longer have Photoshop and I really really miss it. OK, enough of my technology woes. Every once in awhile, I do plug my computer into the printer in the bedroom and scan a couple of items as I did this weekend (see above).

I was very happy to look outside my window today and see dandelions on hill in front of my apartment. I know people don't like dandelions, but I heart them. It also means that maybe spring is actually here.

In other news, I rescued a mouse this morning. I already watched one of my cats kill a mouse on Sunday and the whole, morbid drama was not at all pleasant. Yes, my cat does play with his food and I do not approve of that behavior. I did not feel like viewing that much nature inside my home again, so I put a fork down next to the poor little creature and he climbed right on and I took him for a ride on the fork and set him out on the steps. I checked a short time ago and he was no longer on the steps. I hope he's out enjoying the dandelions and does not decide to come back inside because that would just be incredibly stupid.

I know I've done many different versions of this rhino, but this one is my favorite so far.

Van Rhino? Oh, where oh where is your ear?

2011-04-05T09:15:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since my last post. I just haven't felt like posting. And since this is something that is within my control and I can decide if I want to post or not, if I don't want to post, I don't post. So there...;)

Today, on this fine spring day, I will post Van Rhino. He was actually drawn last week, but I didn't post him last week as I didn't feel like posting, so he will be posted today, a week past the day he was drawn. Since Van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist, how fitting is that?

Edited to add, I really need to update my books at Goodreads. I was done with most of those ages ago. "Being done" with them doesn't necessarily mean that I've finished them, but I've moved on.

Happy St. Paddy's Day

2011-03-17T08:38:00.005-05:00

No, I don't have a St. Paddy's day picture. Well, I guess it could be if you want to imagine that the rhino's bow tie is green. I drew him in honor of the honorable judge who presided over the case I participated in (as a member of the jury, I might add, not the defendant). I loved the judge. He had a sense of humor and was a cute little guy who wore a bow tie every day. Before we entered the court room the jurors would place bets on what color bow tie he would be wearing that day. Unfortunately, he never got to polka dots, only solid colors and stripes. I do wonder if he will be wearing a green bow tie today. Possibly a green polka dotted bow tie? On the last day of my civic duty, after the verdict was read and everyone was cleared out of the court room, the judge called us back in to thank us. At this point he invited us to ask questions. Since we had been wondering about how many bow ties he owns, one of the jurors asked that question. I could tell he loved that and that he enjoys talking about his bow tie collection. It turns out he owns about 50 bow ties and he started the tradition about 10 years ago, when another judge convinced him that it would be a good idea. He is retiring next year and is hoping that another judge will carry on the tradition. I hope so too.

I've got my eye on ewe

2011-03-13T20:59:00.004-05:00

I know--corny title. Sometimes I just can't help it, especially since this ewe does have quite the stare. You may note that this ewe is of indeterminate hues. In real life, it is very violet, but here it looks brownish and blackish with only a tiny bit of violet. That's what happens when you take a photo of a painting with your phone at night.

I know I haven't been blogging for quite some time. Why? Lack of inspiration, reading rather than writing and drawing, jury duty, etc... All kinds of excuses... I can't guarantee that I will be back with a blog post anytime soon. Let me finish jury duty first and then I can try to get back into the swing of things. Am not thrilled with daylight saving's time. it's 9:06 and it feels like 8:06. I want it to be 8:06. Let's go back! I don't care that it's lighter later. What am I going to do during that extra hour of light? Go play in the snow?

Penguins and Snow

2011-02-20T13:54:00.003-06:00

Since it is snowing again, I thought it would post this photo of a picture I drew on the white board at work last year. Anyone who has seen March of the Penguins will understand the "humor" in it. Penguins have to work so hard for everything. Poor penguins. I kind of like snow days when I don't have to go out. Fortunately, I don't have any overdue library books at the moment.

Post Valentine's rhino ballerina

2011-02-15T10:41:00.003-06:00

Hi everybody. I didn't post a Valentine's rant this year. Some of you may know how I feel about the portrayal of women on t.v. shows and commercials during the Valentine's season. I won't rant about it this year, but I will just say that I don't like it. Most women I know aren't silly about Valentine's Day. Maybe I just know a bunch of smart women. Well, in fact, I know that I do...

Today we have a little sketch of a rhino ballerina. I did this yesterday before work, and again, the photo was taken with my phone, so it does leave something to be desired. I know pachyderm ballerinas are nothing new. Disney did it oh, so well with the hippos, but I haven't seen a lot of rhino ballerinas. I think rhinos are just begging to be portrayed as ballerinas, especially ballerina princesses.

Update

2011-02-12T22:07:00.005-06:00

Since my mom sent me an e-mail insisting that I update my blog, in fear of her wrath, I am obliging. She said she was sick of the milk maid. If I could scan, I would post my finished milk maid, but my desktop computer is sick, so I cannot scan at the moment. So instead, I have this poorly photographed (from my phone) rhino in a sweater. Why a rhino in a sweater you may ask? I will answer that "sweater" was the challenge for Illustration Friday. I thought of adding beads of sweat on the rhino's face, but I just stuck to one meaning of "sweater," even though, for some reason, it looks more like a hockey jersey. It started off as a turtle neck, but evolved into a V-neck. You can still imagine that the rhino is sweating anyway. It is an Indian rhino, so I would imagine that rhinos wearing sweaters in India would be quite hot. But then again, I don't think that rhinos actually sweat, but we can pretend.

I see my last post was on Feb. 1st, so it was more recent than I was thinking, but still a long long time ago. I haven't drawn all that much in the past two weeks, but I do have a couple of things that can be posted if I get them scanned. For now, we will have to be satisfied with the poorly photographed rhino sketch. I should mention that if this was actually scanned, you may be able to see that the bird is wearing a sweater as well.

Vermeer

2011-02-01T22:04:00.005-06:00

I know I've said this before, but I love Vermeer's paintings. And I've also said before that his painting "The Milkmaid" is one of my favorites. I love the lighting and the colors and the mood he has captured and I love the expression of quiet contemplation on the woman's face. I would love to have this painting hanging above my couch, but alas, I will have to settle for the 8 1/2 X 11 printed version that I have hanging from the side of my book shelf. Maybe that's better anyway as I can see it from my couch and I don't have to worry about art thieves stealing it. I did a bit of research on Vermeer when I had to lead a class discussion on the book "Girl with a Pearl Earring" when I was in library school. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that unlike my last featured artist, he was not all that prolific, leaving behind only 37 paintings. I also remember that he fathered a ridiculous amount of children, like 14 or something like that. That is probably why he didn't have time to produce more paintings. Not like he was taking care of the children or anything.

I have a book that features all of his paintings. I like the pages that I have scanned here (see bottom of post) that features crops of many of his female subjects. I have used these pages many times while sketching. I have sketched The Milkmaid a few times and this latest version is for the art card trade. This one is postcard sized, but I have a 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 version that I did a couple of years ago with colored pencil that I will be sending out as well. Maybe I'll scan it later (as in tomorrow) and add it to this post.

One of the things I learned about Vermeer's times is that women basically had 3 options for their lives. They could be a wife and mother, they could be a maid or they could be a prostitute. I have a feeling that all three of these options are featured in these two pages of paintings.

I think I'm done with this one...

2011-01-28T09:24:00.002-06:00

I say "I think" because I'll probably mess with it before I stick it in an envelope. But I'm thinking that I should spray this and mail it today, so I can stop feeling like I'm getting behind. But hey, I have 6 months, so I'm not behind at all. I have a good start on a bunch of others and I only need to create 20, so I'll be fine. But I do need to let this one go. I used Bristol Vellum by mistake, so it gets smeary very easily. You know how I prefer Bristol smooth, unless I'm drawing something with rough, wrinkly hide.

In other news, it's funny how last night I was feeling envious of New York's winter storm. I know, I know--I always complain about snow, but if I lived in New York, I wouldn't drive, so winter storms would be fine. And I did have fun being snowed in this year. It's really only fun for a day or two though, because then you're itching to get out. You can only make so many loaves of bread and so many brownies before you feel like you want to get up and move and burn the brownies and bread off. That's all for today. I know I haven't been around much lately. I hope to be back regularly soon. I have still been drawing. I just haven't been posting.

A bit of summer...

2011-01-22T07:04:00.002-06:00

I thought I would post this sunflower painting that I painted several months ago, but never posted. This one I gave away to Jane. This time of the year, I am so sick of white and gray and brown that a bit of color in the surroundings would be good. The other day someone was going on about how she thought that cold sunny days were the prettiest. I do not. Even though I was just going on about how we could use a bit of color, I just don't think the sun goes well with snow. In addition to hurting my eyes, it clashes and the light is too harsh and brassy, sort of like badly dyed blonde hair. White usually looks fine with most colors, but not with yellow light. I think cloudy winter days are the prettiest. I like the contrast between the snow and the sky and the peaceful feeling that brings. In fact, the best is when it is dark and it is snowing and you can see the snow sparkling under the street lights or in the moonlight. Cloudiness and night time go better with the snow. I know we need the sun in the winter and it does feel good, but don't try to tell me that it is so pretty. It's really not very attractive at all. You would never see me wearing yellow with white and I don't even like to look at yellow and white together. So there...

Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn

2011-01-19T15:48:00.005-06:00

Again with the literal names. I decided to try a post card size Master's copy today. We can do either 2.5x 3.5 inch or postcard size (4x6). I think postcard size lends itself better to this particular project. I've done masters copies in the tiny size before and they have turned out well, but I think I'm going to do more postcard sized this time. I got my first card in the mail yesterday and it is the larger size. I guess that's what inspired me to give it a shot. The painting this was based on is attributed to Raphael(although there is some doubt that he actually painted it). If it has a bit of a Mona Lisa quality to it, I guess that may be because he was a contemporary of Leonardo DaVinci. I did a tiny bit of research on him and discovered that he died when he was only 37. Considering that, it's rather impressive how large of a body of work he left behind. This painting is thought to be of a girl from a wealthy family who had recently been betrothed as the unicorn represents purity.

I may work on it more, adding some darks here or there or I may just leave it light and sketchy. I just want to keep it soft and I'm afraid of overworking it. As you can see, it is not an exact likeness or anything. The idea is just to base your drawings or paintings on the originals, not to do an exact replica. I know I said yesterday that I was going to do pictures of people reading, but then i checked out a bunch of art books last night and changed my mind.

Anyway, not much else to say. I'm just hanging out at home with the cats today.

I'm not bored...

2011-01-18T11:08:00.004-06:00

I did a quick sketch this morning of Corot's "Woman Reading a Book." That is a very fitting title, I might add. A lot of paintings have literal names like that: Woman Walking a Dog, Boy Eating Cereal, Baby Spitting Up, etc. Those aren't real names by the way, but they could be. I have decided that I am going to have a theme for the ATC trade and that will be paintings of people reading. I have done a few that don't fit in that category, but the rest that I do will. I got a desk lamp for Christmas, so now it will be easier to do colored pencil drawings at night, so I think I will do mostly colored pencil work for the project. The lighting in my place has never been good for night time colored pencil work, but now it is.

Anyway, to explain my title, I will start by saying that I'm not bored. Sometimes when I'm stuck inside in the winter, I wish I could be doing something else, but I'm still not bored. I have a college aged co-worker who is on winter break at the moment and she keeps going on and on about how bored she is. That doesn't happen to me anymore. In fact, I wish we had 48 hour days. There is too much to do. There are way too many books to read (and people just keep writing more!), pictures to draw, things to learn, to do, to see, etc etc. I am not bored... Am I lucky that I feel this way?

letter to the ants

2011-01-15T21:37:00.004-06:00

Dear Ants,

Mi casa no es su casa. What do you think my place is? Your winter vacation home? If you're going to visit my apartment without an invitation, would you please stick to eating crumbs on the floor. Do not, under any circumstances, march up my table cloth onto my table and help yourself to the fruit in the fruit bowl. I'm not at all wealthy and apples are not cheap. I do not appreciate it when I pick one up, ready to bite into it's juicy goodness, only to discover that it is full of holes filled with your kind, having a snack. At least the box elder bugs have the decency to not burrow into the fruit. Yuck is all I can say. It's not only disgusting, but horrifying and sure to give me nightmares. Moreover, it is theft. If a person breaks into my apartment ands starts eating my apples, I will call the police. Who do I call when ants break in and take what is mine? Maybe it's time to take the law into my own hands and invest in some Taro. Yes, death may seem like a severe punishment for apple theft, but I have had enough of your lack of respect and it's time to take action.

Sincerely,
Anti-ant Anne

Just playing around with Zazzle

2011-01-13T20:41:00.005-06:00

I know making ones own stamps is nothing new, but I found out you can do it at zazzle.com, so I just decided to play around with it. Considering that I only mail one envelope per month (my rent), I don't use very many stamps, but it would be fun to use designs of my own. If I have some printed, it would be hard to decide what image I want on them, but these are just a few examples of what I might use.

Edited to add that I have decided to have a sheet of these printed for my ATC trade since I need stamps anyway. I'm trying to decide which one of these to use. I may play around with more images, but for now, these are my options.

Edited again to add that people on Facebook have unanimously voted for red mittened guy, but I'm wondering if his colors make him look Christmasy? I only want wintery. Christmas is over.

Rosie Rhino again

2011-01-12T21:25:00.006-06:00

So, I know I've drawn this particular pose countless times, but I wanted to try it on a different surface, that being Bristol vellum. I usually use Bristol smooth and I love Bristol smooth, but I just wanted to give this a try. The fact of the matter is, I have always had a bit of a prejudiced attitude toward Bristol vellum. Some experienced artists were talking about it online one day and were saying that it's worthless. I sort of agreed with them at the time, not having used it much, but then I drew a portrait on Bristol vellum. And despite the fact that it was very smeary, I really liked the portrait. In fact, I have to say it is one of my favorite portraits that I have done. So, I had to rethink Bristol vellum. Or I should say that I should have rethought Bristol vellum as I didn't really rethink it. I just continued to ignore it. But today I thought I'd like to try it again and I have to say that it really is suitable for pachyderms. It has more surface or more tooth than Bristol vellum, so it is easier to render rough wrinkly hide. I am really thinking that this may be the surface that I should use for my rhino illustrations.

So, along with my rough illustration, I am also going to post some rough writing. And i mean rough as it is a first draft that was written quickly, but I will post it because I keep losing the good stuff. I was inspired one day at work and I wrote some rhyme on a long, skinny piece of paper. This writing was really good and I told myself not to lose it. I kept it on my c.d. shelf in my bedroom for the longest time. It kept falling on the floor and I kept picking it up telling myself "you have to get this in the computer because one of these days it is going to disappear for good." Did I run to type it out just then? No, I did not and, in the end, I did lose it for good. And it was good. The one thing I do remember clearly about it is that I rhymed "elocution" and "revolution." I will make sure that I do that again.

Anyway, I will post the rough writing here. I will either try to improve it or scrap it entirely, but at least it is here, in cyberspace, so I will not lose it. Here it is:

When Rosie lost her fourth galosh,
After she had a good cry,
She decided that she would constantly pose
With her forth leg hidden from the eye.

How long did this charade continue?
How long did she live with this lie?
Well, she gave up the practice within minutes,
When Hornelius spied her bare hoof with his bad eye.

From there she fumed and she kicked and she growled.
She tossed her nubbed horn in the air.
With a temper more befitting a black rhino
Than a sweet white rhino with one hoof bare.

Obviously my illustration is her when she is posing with her one leg hidden from the eye, not when she as fuming and kicking and growling.

Paintings gone Awry

2011-01-09T18:59:00.015-06:00

More often than not, when I try to paint with watercolors it all goes awry and I end up overdoing things and the painting becomes muddy. The top painting here is no exception. I didn't really work with the watercolors. I think I tried too hard to control them. I think with watercolors (which I really don't know much about), you can't fight with the medium. You have to go with the flow. This watercolor landscape was attempted from a step by step demonstration in a book. Sometimes I feel like I need to try step by step demonstrations, but it rarely works for me. I'm then too conscious of following the steps and I don't really "see." Drawing and painting is all about seeing and step by step sort of takes away from the big picture, I think. Anyway, this painting is not good, but that's o.k.. I tried. Practice always makes better. Maybe I'll try another watercolor landscape without the hindrance of step by step instructions. In my defense, I do have to say that the sky is o.k.. That's the one part that didn't become muddy.

And as for the abominable snow monster (acrylics), even though he's not abominable, he's not the best either. And I'm not saying this in a kick myself sort of way. I'm just being honest and pragmatic. He was actually painted on the day of our big snowstorm about a month ago (yes, I got inspired by the arctic whiteness outside my window. As annoying as the snowstorm was, it was also magical, as snow can be), but I never scanned him or thought about posting him until tonight. But since I decided to make this post about paintings gone awry, I thought I would include him. Even though I felt inspired at the time, he just didn't turn out in the way I envisioned. That happens sometimes. My abominable snow monster figure that I used for the painting is still standing on my dresser. I love him so much more than this painting. I think my main problem with the painting is my failure to render the fur well. I just haven't worked out a good way of doing fur in acrylics yet. It seems that I'm always painting pachyderms, so I haven't had a lot of fur practice. I do, however, like the way his arms and hands turned out. And I did capture the abominable snow monster attitude, I suppose;) I guess I can always find something slightly positive, even in the paintings that I'm not overly fond of.

I spent most of the day as a bit of a slug. I started things off in a productive way as I made bread and rearranged my book shelf in the morning, but I didn't do much after that. I've been head achy and stomach achy most of the day, but I'm not really sick--just experiencing a bit of malaise. It happens to us hearty types once in awhile.

In other news, I should mention that I like my new scanner. I don't seem to have to do as much color or brightness contrast adjustment as I did before. And that's all I have for you tonight. My general malaise and I are going to sign off and be slugs for the rest of the night. Blogging was too taxing for us.

It's cold

2011-01-04T10:17:00.003-06:00

It's cold outside and my hair is still wet. I am hoping that it will be mostly dry before I go outside. I don't like to go outside with wet hair. My rhinosnowman has no hair, so he doesn't have to worry about having wet hair outside. He is made of snow anyway, so he cold is to his benefit.

I almost forgot that I had signed up for an ATC trade that started on January 1st. Until this morning, I hadn't done an ATC in ages. For anyone who doesn't remember me talking about ATCs before, they are artist's trading cards and they measure just 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. Yes, they are teeny tiny. This ATC trade is an Old Master trade, meaning that we have to make ATCs that are copies of or inspired by Old Master's paintings. This morning, I started a copy of a close-up of the face of Venus from Boticelli's Birth of Venus. Unfortunately, all of my .5 mechanical pencils appear to be not working and I'm pretty sure I left my last good one up north. Mechanical pencils go awry quite easily. I can't advance the graphite in any of my .5s and I have a bunch of .7s that are having the same problem. I think they must get clogged up somehow, but I haven't figured out how to unclog them. I think they're meant to just be disposable.

Phoebe's new favorite spot...

2011-01-03T11:58:00.002-06:00

What would cats do without the warmth of technology?

Right Handed Faces

2011-01-03T09:51:00.004-06:00

Hello. It's me again. I have just done a quick page of right handed sketches. These are a little better than the left handed sketches, but they were done quickly, so we still don't have perfect little faces here. It is much easier to draw with my dominant hand. I'm certainly not ambidextrous.

If you look closely, you might be able to see that I repeated a couple of the faces from the left handed exercise.

Left handed faces

2011-01-02T21:33:00.003-06:00

So, as I promised, I am going to try to draw almost every day. Tonight's drawings are kind of crazy kooky looking as I drew them with my non dominant hand. It's amazing how difficult it is to draw with my left hand, yet I do like the faces' sort of deranged, expressive quality. I find that if I write letters with my left hand, they have to be upper case, otherwise it is way too confusing. I think it's because lower case letters have a lot more curves and it's more difficult, for some reason, to draw curves in the right direction with the non dominant hand than it is straight lines. I wonder why that is? I should mention that these were scanned with my new scanner! My carpet was dry in my computer desk area, so the desk is back in its place and everything is reconnected, including new scanner/printer (well, in its case, connected).

Goodbye 2010

2011-01-01T18:44:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year, everyone. I will start the year with one of my rhinosnowmen.

I wasn't overly fond of 2010 and even though I don't think a new year magically transforms the world at large or our place in it, I'm not sorry to see it go. So, goodbye 2010. So long. I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. Not that I think I'm perfect or anything, but I've always been a bit of contrarian, so if I'm going to resolve to do something it won't be on a day when people are just spouting out empty promises that they rarely stick to. And I think if a person actually wants to do something and they work hard it they will achieve some level of success (I don't mean success in the form of money, but success in achieving some level of what they set out to do that will give them some satisfaction). People are full of excuses, aren't they? I don't always do what I set out to do, but I know, for the most part, I don't have anybody to blame but myself if I don't stick to something. So, if I don't do something, I take responsibility. As much as I don't like resolutions, I think I've said it before, small goals, achievable goals, are something that I will partake in at times. I'm just not going to list them on January 1st as they may seem like a New Year's resolutions. Am I grouchy right now?;) No, not really. I just get annoyed with New Year's resolutions, that's all. Sue me. But if you do sue me, you will not get much money.

One of the goals that I've set recently (o.k., I will mention one that wasn't made on January 1st) is to get back into drawing several times per week. I used to draw just about every day and now whole weeks go by when I don't even pick up a pencil (true as in why would I use a pencil if I wasn't drawing--a pen maybe, but not a pencil). And I could make excuses like "oh I haven't been drawing because I haven't had a scanner, etc," but that wouldn't be true. I can still enjoy the process of drawing even if I'm not posting it on a blog, can't I? The truth is I haven't been drawing because I've been a bit lazy lately. And there's nothing wrong with being lazy once in awhile (I'm not of the mind that a person has to run run run), but when you have an activity that you love, you shouldn't let laziness interfere too much. And you might say, "but you've done paintings lately." Yes, I have, so I haven't been totally lazy even, but I just want to do some drawing now. As for the drawing I did today, I will not post it as I haven't hooked up my new scanner yet, due to flooding in the bedroom, but hopefully I will be posting all kinds of drawing in the days to come.

I made some delicious bread today. It is English muffin bread with corn meal. What I really wanted was corn bread, but I only have olive oil in my cupboard. While olive oil can be substituted for vegetable oil in some recipes, I'm thinking the flavor may be a bit too strong for corn bread. Anyway, I found a way to make a sort of cornbread in the bread machine. I added more corn meal and less flour to the recipe to make it more corn flavored and it turned out great.

Edited to add, I just noticed that I really need to update my Goodreads bookshelf. I finished "Outliers" and "Mockingjay" ages ago, although I suspect I will be working on "A Suitable Boy" for quite some time. The problem is when I'm reading a book that long, I need to take breaks from the long book and read books that I can actually finish quickly, so then it takes longer to finish the long book.

Nobody chose my favorite rhinosnowman

2010-12-30T09:38:00.004-06:00

Hi, hola, bonjour, etc etc. Obviously it has been awhile since my last blog post. In addition to not having a scanner, I was working on some paintings for gifts, so I couldn't post them here. I painted rhinocerpears and rhinosnowmen. Even though the rhinocerpears were much more difficult and time consuming, people seemed to like the rhinosnowmen the best. That's o.k.. While some people may think the rhinocerpears are just plain weird, I think they have a certain whimsy and quirkiness that I like. There was one rhinocerpear painting that I grew attached to and decided that it would be mine and I will post it here. I am also going to post my favorite rhinosnowman that nobody picked. I was almost relieved when nobody did as I wanted him for myself as well. I like the simplicity and the feel of the painting. It was maybe not as colorful as some of the others, but I think it captured a mood that I like. I specifically did not add anything that would be construed as a Christmas theme to these paintings as I didn't want to limit them to that two week or one month time frame. I almost painted a candy cane in one of their hands, but stopped myself.

Hope everyone is recovering from the Holidays. My vacation was cut a day or two short due to possible bad weather, so I am home today. It would normally be a work day. I actually have two more rhinosnowmen sketched out that I am going to paint as soon as I finish this blog post and then, since the precipitation seems to be just rain at this point, I am going out.

Elephants

2010-12-13T23:43:00.003-06:00

I have two elephants works that I did this morning before work. I like the quick sketch better than the painting. Sometimes it works that way. You can spend 5 minutes on something and you like it better than something you spent an hour or more on.

More pears...

2010-12-09T21:38:00.002-06:00

I decided to try another oil painting tonight. I want to play around more with the oils as I think they are more fun than acrylics. I like their creaminess. I don't think I can handle the regular oil paints because they are too messy and smelly, but the water soluble ones are good. I feel like I have blog rustiness. I usually just go "type type type" and I'm done. Tonight the typing isn't easy. I guess the only typing I'm used to these days is typing dialog for animated bears. As for the pears, it's a night time photograph with a flash and the colors are way off. In person they'r'e not so blue.

2010-12-09T18:08:00.001-06:00

One of these days I'll post more drawings, but for now, here is another movie.

Another movie

2010-12-01T10:26:00.000-06:00

Two sketches and some movies

2010-11-29T22:33:00.006-06:00

Just as the title says, tonight I will provide you with two sketches and some movies. The first movie is my movie and the second is Joan's reply to my movie. One can go crazy with this these little movies. Every little mundane thing that happens now can be transferred into the bears lives and they make it seem not quite so mundane because talking bears with computer voices and English accents are just automatically funny. Thanks Joan for getting me into these bears.

Obviously I haven't been around much lately. Part of that is because I don't have a scanner at home and part is that my left click on my laptop mouse has been acting up and it has made computer stuff not as fun as it should be. This morning I fixed the problem by switching the "left click" to the right, so now I right click on the left and left click on the right. It's not even all that difficult with the laptop mouse. I think it might be more confusing with a regular mouse.

Edited to add thanks for giving me the rights to your movie, Joan.

A post without bears

2010-11-22T23:11:00.003-06:00

I won't be using a British bear to deliver my blog entry tonight. I will just type it myself. I had done two cute little sketches this morning that I was going to scan while I was at work, but I forgot to scan them, so we will have to settle for this not so cute drawing that I did a week or so ago. This was a "copy" of a painting that was in one of my many books. I don't remember who the artist was but do know that he/she has been dead long enough that I won't get in trouble for not giving him/her credit. I do, however, remember the name of the painting as I found it quite amusing. You can also maybe see it, if you squint real hard, at the top of the scan. It is called "Woman with the Gambling Mania." Can't you just see that gambling mania in her eyes? I am going to be doing quite a few master copies in the months ahead as I signed up for an ATC (some of you may remember that ATCs are little 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" drawings or paintings) trade that will be focusing on copies of or works inspired by the old masters. I'm very much looking forward to this. I like creating ATCs and it's very fun to receive them in the mail from others as well.

Other than all of that, I don't have much to say, so I will stop before I just start typing for typing's sake.

2010-11-21T11:31:00.001-06:00

In lieu of text, I will let bear me speak, so bear with me.

Edited to add some text because I didn't add it to the movie.
Socrates is a man. Socrates is bare. All men are bare.
Anne is a bear. Anne is clothed. All bears are clothed.

How horrible it would be to be a puppet's puppet or balloons that make everyone sad or angry...

2010-11-15T23:03:00.004-06:00

I managed to scan a few drawings at work tonight, so at least I have something to post. One is just a little sketch of my monsters and the other was something I did for the weekend drawing event. Except it's not even the weekend anymore, so I don't even know if I will post it on the site.

I haven't been drawing all that much and I haven't done any painting at all lately. I have been trying to catch up on my nanowrimo writing. I have 18,000 words now, so I feel much better than I did a few days ago when I only had 9000, but I should be at about 25,000 at this point. I think I can still do it, but I have a bit of writing ahead of me.

The monsters are here...

2010-11-10T11:30:00.009-06:00

I got my finger puppet monsters last night and today I did a little sketch of some of them. The real monsters moved a bit when I set them on the floor to photograph them, so they are no longer at the same angle as their sketched counterparts. I like to think these monsters wouldn't stay stationary for very long anyway. As I've mentioned, I do want to do some paintings, but I'll have to wait until tonight or tomorrow to get started. I rounded up some old batteries and I was able to find a combo that worked long enough for me to snap a few photos. I really do hate not having a scanner. It takes away all of my blogging inspiration and spontaneity. I like to draw something, scan it immediately and then do my blog post. If I draw something and then wait a few days to scan it at work, it's just not the same. When you get used to having a certain technology, it's hard to live without it. I would imagine that most people find it perfectly fine to not have a scanner, but they aren't into working with images on the Internet. To me, a scanner is almost a necessity. On the other hand, I've lived several months without t.v. and I'm perfectly fine with that, but a lot of people would find that unfathomable. And in their defense, I do have to say that I've still been watching t.v., but I've been watching on my computer.

As for the monsters, I know their speech isn't readable. The one is saying "George, I hears youse got scabies" and the other replies "yo mama got scabies." The nice monster, who is not so smart, is just saying "lalala."

I also snapped a photo of my pears. It was taken with a flash which is never good for paintings, but the light isn't good enough in here for me to do photography sans flash. I do want to paint a line of my monsters, just like these pears. I'll get to that one of these days.

Two versions of digital Blurgle Monster

2010-11-05T15:38:00.005-05:00

OK, since I still don't have a working scanner and who knows when I will ever again, I decided to do something digital this afternoon. This is, as the title says two versions of the Blurgle Monster. I am rather attached to this guy and have plans to do an actual painting of him along with some other finger puppet monsters. I can't wait to get started. I don't have much to say today, so I will just leave you with the Blurgle Monsters and let them speak for themselves. They don't say anything other than "blurgle," but it can mean so many different things. You just have to listen to the tone.

Monsters!

2010-11-02T09:44:00.006-05:00

I sketched this guy a couple of days ago. I call him the Blurgle Monster as I think that's what he looks like. A few years ago I bought a set of fingerpuppet monsters from Archie McPhee and I gave most of them away. Now I wish I had a few more as I would like to paint them (a line of them, like the line of pears in my last post). I think I have two left, although I can only find the one above. But, the one below should be around somewhere as well as I drew him last year and don't think I've given any away since then.

In other news, I have decided that I'm going to participate in this year's NaNoWriMo. I have 2719 words, so far. Only 47,000 and some to go!

Edited to add, why does everyone have the need to tell everyone that they voted? Even though I'm going to go vote, I will not wear the "I voted" sticker and I will not click the "I voted" button on Facebook. What? Why do people need a pat on the back for doing something we all should do? Where are the "I brushed my teeth" stickers or the "I ate fruits and vegetables" stickers? Are they coming next? Sorry if you like the "I voted" stickers (I don't mean to attack you). I'm just a cynic about stuff like this.

Line of Pears

2010-10-31T14:47:00.004-05:00

This morning I painted a line of pears. As I've mentioned in my last two posts, I don't have a working scanner. In addition to that, I don't have batteries for my digital camera, so my only manner of presenting my painting is by snapping a photo with my phone. And I don't have an iPhone or one of those fancy phones that have great cameras, so the photo is what it is. The colors are quite a bit off. The painting itself is way overworked, but it is practice. Any new painting that I do produce is practice as I really don't know much about painting, so it's all a trial and error learning process. I did love painting on the 6x12 paper. I think it's a fun size and I look forward to doing more paintings this size.

Long time no post...

2010-10-31T00:06:00.002-05:00

Yes, it has been awhile since my last post. I think my posts are going to be fewer and farther between now that I don't have a working scanner. I will scan things now and again at work, but not having a scanner at home will put a damper on postings. Who knows--maybe I'll be able to fix the scanner if I sit down and concentrate on it. I've played with it a bit, but haven't really put 100% (or even 60%)into it yet. I can also photograph my drawings, but I need batteries for my camera and batteries are expensive. Despite my scanner woes, I still have been working on a drawing or two and I bought some art supplies yesterday, so the inspiration is still there.

That being said, I had planned on painting tonight but then I was too tired and too uninspired to drag out my paints. And because I was so tired earlier, I went to bed, but then realized that I didn't want to be in bed, so I got back up. So, here I am now, bogging past midnight. Actually, any of you who know me, know that blogging after midnight is fairly common for me. I just had to write the words because I liked the just like the sound of them. Think of them to the tune of Patsy Cline's Walking after Midnight. I go out blogging after midnight blah blah blah blah blah (I don't feel like coming up with my own lyrics at the moment). Anyway, here are some elephants I have been working on that I scanned at work today. Nothing extraordinary, but just evidence that I am still drawing, even though I haven't been blogging.

As promised, here is a pumpkin painting...

2010-10-24T18:25:00.005-05:00

Yes, I know I promised a pumpkin painting several days ago, but I didn't get to it until yesterday. I was too busy making pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread, so I procrastinated on the pumpkin painting. And then my printer (including the scanner part) stopped working, so I had to scan my pumpkin painting at work today. I used my new bargain priced paints to paint my pumpkin and I have to say that I'm not impressed. I'm not a big fan of these paints. I'll still use them, but I don't think I'll buy them again. Too bad--they were nice and cheap.

And speaking of pumpkins, I am not eating anything that contains pumpkin tonight. I reached pumpkin overload today at work. How does that happen, you may wonder? I will explain. First I ate a half of piece of my pumpkin bread along with apples with pumpkin dip on morning break, then I had the rest of my pumpkin soup for lunch and finally I topped all of that off with a pumpkin dessert on my afternoon break. I love pumpkin and I'm sure I'll be happy to eat more bread tomorrow, but for tonight, I'm staying away from all things pumpkin. In fact, if I indulge in one more bite of pumpkin tonight, I may puke.

Edited to add that in keeping with all the alliteration of the day, I am having petite pineapple pizzas tonight.

Sketches and pumpkin soup

2010-10-20T16:09:00.004-05:00

As many of you know, Wednesdays are my day off. I love having Wed. off. Usually I will go over to my friend's house during the day and catch up on t.v. shows that she has recorded to her DVR. For instance, today we were supposed to watch the season finale of Mad Men. Unfortunately, she isn't feeling well, so I will have to wait a day or two for the finale. I just have to be careful not to venture onto a corner of the Internet where someone is discussing the episode. I could watch it on my computer, but I will be good and wait until my friend and I can watch it together. Oh, how tough it is to wait... In the meantime, I went out and bought a few colors of paints. I used my Michaels 40% off coupon for one tube and bought two of a cheap brand (a poor person's brand called Artist's Loft that comes in a much larger tube--double the size-than my usual Windsor and Newtons)that were on sale for $2.99 per tube. We will see if they're any good. If so, their regular price is $3.99 for 4.06 ounces, so that's a good deal.

As you can see, I have posted some sketches. These are from a week or so ago, but I haven't produced anything today, so they'll have to do for now. I do plan on painting this evening--possibly a pumpkin. And speaking of pumpkins (perfect segue there, Anne), I made this pumpkin soup today. And you'll be happy to know that I didn't burn it. I really like this soup, especially with the homemade croutons (yes, just call me Martha Stewart). It was a good way to use the French bread that I made on Sunday that was starting to get too tough to eat. I did add a couple of extra spices, including cayenne pepper and curry. My only issue with it (and if you look at the comments below the recipe you will see other's had this issue as well) was that it was a bit too salty. As I read the comments before making the soup, I decided to cut the salt in half, but I think if I make it again, I won't use any salt. The two cans of chicken broth provide enough salt.

Edited to add, I should also mention that it is fine without heavy cream. I used a mixture of half and half and skim milk and it was still very creamy.

Autumn Rhino Number 2

2010-10-18T10:39:00.006-05:00

I painted another autumn rhino. I kind of gravitate towards painting with oranges and reds anyway, so I guess he doesn't have to really even be an autumn rhino, just an Anne rhino. Reds and oranges can intermingle with the green foliage any time of the year (well, not in winter, I suppose). I'm enjoying doing one of these little paintings every day, but I'm starting to run out of certain colors. I've been out of orange for awhile. Obviously, I can make my own orange, but it is good to have a tube of a color that I use a lot. But now my yellows are running low and I can't make orange without yellow. I'm also running out of Paynes grey (dark grey) and I don't have a good tube of black (mine is all thick and goopy) and my blues are running low. I wish the paint fairy would drop some paint at my window just like the fan fairy left me a fan. It's much cheaper to draw with graphite. But thank goodness for Michaels coupons.

Hope everyone has a good day. So, it looks like today is Jane's actual birthday, so I will say "happy birthday" here on my blog. Happy Birthday, Jane! Hope there is another celebration in the mix. I unfortunately don't have a new rhino, but here is your birthday rhino from last year. I'm sure you won't mind if I dust him off and post him again. Just like the groundhog on February 2nd, he is eager to make his Oct. 17th appearance. He's a rhino, so he obviously saw his shadow. I would be worried if he didn't.

Anne

It appears that I've painted some pears

2010-10-17T17:58:00.005-05:00

I don't draw or paint fruit very often, but I had so much fun painting these pears last night, that I already painted another trio of pears (unfortunately, I haven't painted any pairs of pears, but even groups of things don't work as well compositionally as odd groups) this morning. The second pear painting was done with oils, so I probably won't be able to scan it for a week or two. I'm thinking that I may paint a pumpkin next.

I'm siting here waiting for my bread to bake. Come on bread--hurry up and bake! I bought ingredients for chili two weeks ago, but it's been so warm and sunny that I haven't been in the mood for it until today. When I noticed it was cloudy today, I immediately thought "chili." Unfortunately, I must have had the heat on too high when it was simmering as it ended up burning. I've never made burned chili before. How did I manage such a thing? I don't know why this pot was so temperamental. Of course I wish it wouldn't have burned, but it is still fairly good, just not great. I had a small bowl earlier, but I am waiting for my bread to finish baking, so I can have a bit more with the bread. And speaking of chili, I have my window open and I'm feeling a bit chilly. It really does feel more like fall today than it has this month. That's good as I would like a bit of fall before winter comes along.

Autumn Rhino

2010-10-12T19:26:00.003-05:00

Can you tell I have autumn on my mind? Tonight we have an autumn rhino. I'm hoping to fill up my 6x6 pad of acrylic paper up with paintings in the next couple of weeks. They're just so squarely cute when they're done.

Autumn Elephant

2010-10-11T19:04:00.002-05:00

This is a painting that actually looks quite a bit better in person. It is not so white and bright and I was unable to make adjustments to make it look better. I hate that. I tried to keep this loose, just sort of globbed on the paint. I thought I needed an autumn elephant. He looks good amongst the golds and reds and yellows. They suit him. He, like me, wishes that it was autumn all the time (or at least for 6 months out of the year).

I would like autumn back

2010-10-08T18:26:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, I suppose I shouldn't complain. Soon we'll be blanketed in a foot of snow, but we had so much hot weather this summer that I did not want to see temps. higher than the 70s for quite some time. I like cool, wet (but not too wet) days in October with gray skies and clouds that make the leaves even brighter. I'm sure everyone is going on about "what a nice day it is today." I'm glad I wasn't at work today to hear it. As if it's been ages since we've had "nice" days. It's not like it's April when warmer temps. are a novelty. It's been warm all summer.

Anyway, on another note, I'm going out this evening, but I'm hoping to to do some painting when I get home. If not, I'll get to that tomorrow. For now, here's a painting that I did last week on a page of my new little tablet of paper for acrylics. I should have made the rhino a bit smaller or cropped some of her rear half, so her head wouldn't be so close to the edge of the paper. Not the best composition in the world, but I like the painting itself.

And weather fairies, I would like temps. in the 60s and 70s again. Thank you.

jiggle jiggle

2010-10-07T18:45:00.002-05:00

I sketched this little rhino this morning and then wanted to stay home from work to draw or paint her in color, but alas, I could not. Now the inspiration is gone. It can be difficult to anthropomorphize rhinos, especially when they are belly dancers and they're supposed to be wearing sexy clothes. I made mine a bit more modest than the woman in the photo that I used as a reference. Her bra top was skimpier. It's just not right to put rhinos in skimpy bra tops with cleavage.

In other news, I am sitting here wondering what I'm going to have for dinner. It all seems like too much work. I think I might just have some cereal. Capn' Crunch, to be specific. I don't usually buy cereal, but this small $1.00 box of cereal was calling to me when I was at Walgreens the other evening.

Elephant Booty

2010-10-04T08:04:00.003-05:00

It turns out that the $5.00 booty that I got at Penco the other day was a great asset. It enabled me to draw this elephant booty just like that *snaps fingers*. "What?" you may be asking. Why did whatever you purchased contribute to the quickness of the sketch? Well, it was 2B refills for my 0.7 mechanical pencils! I have never been able to find 2B refills for these pencils and have always had to stick with Bs. I have found 2Bs for my 0.5 pencils, but they're so fine (as in barely there) that I don't use them very often. So, now I can use a mechanical pencil with B graphite to get started and continue with the 2Bs and I can get darks much quicker. I know I could do all of this with drawing pencils. I actually have 8B (the higher the number, the softer the graphite) drawing pencils, but I'm attached to my mechanical pencils. The tip always stays sharp and you never have to use a sharpener. If you couldn't tell, I'm very excited about this find! And no, I'm not going to say that I'm such a mechanical pencil nerd as I'm sick of people feeling special because they are nerds. Nerd cool is so over, in my book. I just happen to love my mechanical pencils and that's all.

Yes, I'm up early. Sometimes I just get an itch to get up early so I have ample time to do things (in this case, draw) before going to work. Now I'm going to continue watching "The Wire." In case you don't know, The Wire was an HBO cop show. I had tried watching season one before and just wasn't in the mood. I'm not a huge fan of cop shows, but this one is often touted as the best show of the previous decade, so I decided to give it another chance. I'm liking it better this time (I'm on episode 5 of season one), but I'm still not blown away. We'll see if I make it through the whole first season and move onto season 2... Yay for free t.v. box sets from the library, even if you have to wait months to get them.

In other news, I bought this lovely red pepper at the farmer's market last week, so I decided to make stuffed peppers yesterday. This is the recipe I used and I was fairly impressed with how they turned out. As Rachel Ray would say yummo (I can't remember how her "yummo" is spelled and I'm certainly not going to look it up.

ugly brown shadow

2010-10-02T22:58:00.007-05:00

Hi all. I wasn't going to post this digital drawing that I did this morning before work, but I suppose I will, just so I can document my progress as I learn how to draw with this darn laptop mouse. In my partial defense, I did distort the shape of her face on purpose, so I don't mind that part, but I do mind the ugly brown shadow. Ugly brown shadows are just not good. They invade drawings in an ugly, brown, unruly, uninvited way and then just stick around and stick out their tongues and say "na na na na na na, we ruined your drawing." Not nice at all. Had I worked in layers (as I can with Corel Painter), I could have just stuck my own tongue out, thrown the shadow in the trash and hurried along my way, but I didn't have the foresight to do so. I think I'll try the layers next time.

I'm just realizing now that banned books week is over and I never did my banned books week post nor did I even read a frequently challenged book, but I did download this nifty little poster that I will post to let everyone know that I was thinking of banned books and intellectual freedom this week.

some digital elephants

2010-10-01T21:25:00.002-05:00

I was just sitting here tonight thinking "why don't I install my Corel Painter on my laptop?" So, I did. I don't know why I didn't do it much sooner. Yes, I'm stuck using the laptop mouse, but I could, if I do find my software for it, hook up my tablet to this computer. Maybe I will do that eventually. For now, here is something I did with the laptop mouse. Again, my wrist doesn't feel great, so I'll have to stop, for now. Only one digital drawing per day...

My friend dragged me along to Penco (the best art supply store in the city--sorry Dick Blick) today and I thought it was rather cruel as I don't have any money. I did buy a little 5x5 tablet for acrylics and some mechanical pencil refills and managed to only spend $5.00. I was proud of myself for finding something for almost nothing.

I don't have much to say tonight, so I'll keep this short. Tomorrow is a work day although I'm sure I won't be in bed anytime soon. Maybe I should go to bed. It would be nice to go to work on a full night's sleep, wouldn't it?

my wrist hurts

2010-09-28T17:42:00.005-05:00

Here is another digital drawing, but now my wrist hurts, so I will not be doing anymore today. I wasn't feeling well, so I've been home today, being lazy, doing digital drawings. I will post the gorillas, first in their natural state, then with the "clothify" filter, which I seem to like. I still have a difficult time drawing lines with the laptop mouse, especially when my wrist hurts from trying to draw lines.

Digital Rhino

2010-09-28T12:39:00.002-05:00

Here is my GIMP effort for the day. I just can't draw a straight line with the laptop mouse. It's like I've been drinking coffee all day. Since I don't have my scanner or my PC connected at the moment, I'm just going to concentrate on digital drawings for now.

a digital image created with GIMP and a rant about political correctness...

2010-09-27T08:59:00.004-05:00

So, as all of my furniture (excluding my bed)has been moved out of my bedroom so my carpet can dry, I don't have access to my PC (so no photoshop)and my scanner. Therefore, I thought I would try to create a digital image with GIMP. GIMP is a freeware program that is a lot like Photoshop and recently it has been added to the computers at the library where I work. Even though I've known about GIMP for quite some time, I never felt compelled to download it since I do have Photoshop. But when they added it to the public computers, I wanted to try it as I like to know a thing or two about the software that is available at work. I had a photo editing software on my laptop already (PhotoImpact), but I've never liked it all that much, so it is nice to have GIMP (as mentioned, it is a lot like Photoshop)on my laptop.

Anyway, on to my rant about political correctness. I think most political correctness is about peoples' fear of looking bad, not about actually caring about the matter or people at hand. For instance, when GIMP was added to the work computers, there were all these posts on the public blog about how we should change the name because the word GIMP has negative implications. Blah. How silly is that? This is a software that has existed for years and it is an acronym name (I'm too lazy to look up what it actually stands for). You can't just go and change it. But these people are just oh so caring and they want to put themselves out there as empathetic, elevated human beings who are so worried that someone might be offended. The fact that they had to write about it on the public blog just showed me that they wanted everyone to know that they thought about this first and they needed to educate everyone else on the matter. It all boils down to ego. Blah again. Blah blah blah... I just tend to get myself worked up about these things because I can spot pretentiousness and insincerity from miles away. And oh, the burden of that;)

Anyway, enough of my ranting. I will now just talk about my elephant. As I've stated before, I don't think a laptop mouse is an ideal drawing tool, but it's fun to play with and I kind of like my little elephant.

A pachyderm paintings picture...

2010-09-19T18:23:00.005-05:00

I just arranged my recent pachyderm paintings on the floor and took a picture. I thought they looked cute all together there, on the floor. As you can probably see, it is mostly elephants. I haven't given up on rhinos--I just wanted to give elephants their turn. Today I used a liquid medium with my acrylic paints. It makes them dry slower, so you can blend a bit more (the red elephant in the middle was the result). I look forward to experimenting with this in my future paintings. I also used a varnish on the painting after it was done and I didn't like the result. I have only used varnish once before on some teeny tiny paintings to be made into magnets that I gave to Julia. The effect was fine on the teeny tiny paintings, but I don't like it on this elephant. It's not all that visible on this teeny tiny photo. I just hit publish post for some reason, so this is posted right now, incomplete. Why did I do that? I am going to finish it now and repost it. For anyone that subscribes to my posts via e-mail, you never see the final post in the e-mail. I almost always edit after first posting.

It's kind of a nice day to be sitting inside, but I've accomplished quite a bit. I cleaned my kitchen, (and that includes scrubbing the floor--I rarely do that), did laundry (including the sheets), picked up a bit, vacuumed and made bread. I also painted the red elephant and started reading a 1474 page book by an Indian author, Vikram Seth called A Suitable boy (yes, I have started this book before, but this time I plan on finishing it). I only got to page 25 the last time I started it, but I was busy at the time. I love books that are set in India, and this one has glowing reviews, so I'm sure I'll like it once I get into it. I'm only on page 22 now, so I have a long way to go. This is one of those books that would be easier to read with a Kindle. It's kind of awkward to hold. But then there are other books that I would never want only in digital form. For instance, I was looking for a version of Alice In Wonderland with Arthur Rackham's illustrations, and Amazon had all of these Kindle versions. If I'm getting a book for the illustrations, as I would be in this case, I want a print copy. I don't have a Kindle, or any reader for that matter, anyway.

Midnight elephant

2010-09-18T20:15:00.003-05:00

I painted again tonight. I was thinking about painting while I was at work and when I got home, I was still thinking about painting a bit, so I thought "why not?" This elephant is nothing to write home about and if I did write home I would only be writing to myself or one (or both( of my cats, so what's the difference anyway? It is one of those paintings that does look better in person, I just thought I would let you know. It's strange that some pictures look better scanned and some are better in person. I feel like I haven't had an interesting blog post in awhile, but then again, I did just get back into blogging regularly recently, so I'm rusty. As for being rusty, my writing, in general is rusty. I'm thinking seriously about doing NaNoWriMo again in November and I'm trying to come up with an idea before I start this time. Last year, I just started at the last minute and I winged it. It's still September, right? So, I still have a month and a half to think about what I'm going to write about. I won't do all those annoying word counts again this year, I promise. I can hear my neighbors sitting outside my window. I can't wait until it's too cold for them to do that. Am I bit antisocial? I certainly am when it comes to And by the way, this elephant will have to do as face #11. How many days has it been now? Will I make it to 5o in 50?

Piggies on a fence

2010-09-17T21:03:00.003-05:00

Like ants on a log? I would hope that people wouldn't call a food item piggies on a fence. What would it be? Sausage on a waffle? Anyway, as I'm getting a bit sick of doing pen sketches of human faces (yes, the face project may be petering out), I did say I could include animals, so I will. I suppose the rhinos could count as well, but I won't cheat in that way. These piggies are 9 & 10, I guess. I did re-do my #7, but it is in my sketchbook and I will post it later.

Tomorrow is a work day, so I'm in for the night. My neighbors seem quiet tonight. Let's hope it stays that way. No partying tonight, please. I forgot to buy coffee today. I hope the tiny bit I have left in the can mixed with the grounds from today will be enough to get me started tomorrow. Getting a good night's sleep would help.

The Three Amigos manipulated

2010-09-16T22:34:00.005-05:00

I decided to revisit the three amigos tonight. Unfortunately, they weren't very cooperative and didn't let me paint them very well, so I manipulated them a bit with one of my many photo editing programs. If you're familiar with the three amigos, you will see that I did something different with them. It wasn't planned, but when I was drawing them on the canvas, I did not have enough room for the amigo on the right. So, what I did was flip him. In other words, he is facing the opposite direction. I think the next time I revisit the three amigos, it should be with a different medium.

The scanned version of the oily elephant

2010-09-15T22:24:00.004-05:00

Here is the scanned version of the oily elephant. I was really surprised that it was already dry in just these few days. The 2 or 3 times that I used the water soluble oil paints, it took them a couple of weeks to dry. You would think that a paint that contains water would dry quicker than one that doesn't. Hmmm... I really wish that oil paints weren't so messy and smelly. I think they're more fun and more user friendly than acrylics. Aside from that, I don't have much to say tonight other than to mention the fact that we've been having rain and sporadic thunderstorms today and this evening and I have loved every minute of it. I heart fall!

I'll skip #7, for now...

2010-09-15T08:54:00.002-05:00

I scanned face #7 along with #8, and as suspected, it was too crappy to post, even as a sketch. She had kind of an alien head. Doing quick sketches with no erasing sometimes means major failure. I will do a new number 7 next. For now, here is number 8. It is a sketch based on one of Hans Holbein's paintings. I did it with Inktense and water. He looks a bit less harsh in this one than he does in the original. He has kind of a scary face actually and is wearing quite a bit of bling. I had assumed from his attire, that he had quite a bit of power and I just looked it up and discovered that it is a portrait of Thomas More, so yes, he did.

Right now, I'm thinking of going back to bed for awhile. Loud crashes of thunder woke me up and then I felt like getting up and drawing, so that's what I did. Now that I've done the drawing, I think I need more sleep. In fact, I'm feeling too sleepy to type more text, so this is all, for now...

Face #6 and an uncomfortable attempt at oils

2010-09-10T20:58:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone. I'm back with face #6 and an elephant that I painted with oils. I decided to try real oils (I've had a set for ages) and not the water based oils that I've used a few times before. All I did was make a huge, oily mess (and not a very successful painting that I photographed with my phone in not the greatest light, so it looks even worse)and I managed to make myself feel ill. I don't think my place is ventilated well enough for turpentine fumes. Blah, my tummy is in a bit of turmoil. I am someone that tends to like a bit of chemical fumes, but I was breathing them in for too long. I hope my cats are feeling o.k.. I think I'll have to stick with acrylics and the water based oils that I use on occasion. You should have seen my hands when I was washing up. They were coated with slimy brown oil. Yuck. And who knows if the brushes that I used will ever be the same. I do have to say, they're fun to play with, but more trouble than they're worth.

In other news, I went to my friend's house today and we watched 6 hours of television. I haven't been to her house in the past 2 or three weeks and our tivoed (I don't know how you spell the plural of "tivo") shows were building up. To me, that's too much time to sit and watch t.v. when you're not doing anything else along with the watching. I felt a bit antsy by the time we were done and we're still behind. We will have to do another marathon watching to catch up.

I think I'm starting to feel a bit better now. I didn't use any cadmium yellow, so I probably won't go crazy like Van Gogh, but I may have killed a few brain cells.

Cow and Face #5

2010-09-09T21:15:00.009-05:00

Just as the title says, I have a face and a cow. I know the cow should technically count as a face, but she was painted before I started my faces project, so she is just a cow. Could a cow by any other name be a face? Yes. But, what else would we call a cow? Mooey? Machinski? I think I prefer "cow." I don't want to change the name. And I still will not count this cow face as one of my faces.

The man is bearded. I'm not a big fan of beards(or curly haired men, for that matter--waves are nice though), but I tend to like to draw beards. This guy was fun to draw and I'm thinking I may actually like to do a proper drawing of him, not just a sketch. Maybe sometime. For now, he'll have to just settle for being a sketch. I should mention that all of my sketches have come from photos from the wetcanvas reference image library. I love the reference image library. I even have a few of my photos there.

In other news, what would I do without a library card? Really? It's such a great thing for a person with not much money to have. Tonight I started watching a cable t.v. series on dvd called "Damages" that I got from the library and I'm really enjoying it and there are always books and c.d.s and they all make me very happy. I feel so bad for library patrons that come in with fines of $80.00 that they accrued years ago (maybe even back when their parents should have been ensuring that their items were returned on time)and, therefore, can't use their cards. I can tell that many of them are poor and that they'll probably never be able to pay off the fines, thus, they will never be able to enjoy the many wonderful resources the library can provide. Life is just not fair. If it were up to me, especially with kids, I would love to establish a read down your fines program. I developed one of these programs for a library school project. Too bad that library school projects seem to be too idealistic for a certain library system. There are library systems that do use these programs, but alas, not ours.

A not so great little elephant with characteristically scrawny legs...

2010-09-08T21:25:00.005-05:00

So, I did squeeze out a small painting tonight. Unfortunately, I'm not overly thrilled with it, but I will post it anyway. The one thing that stands out for me, after painting or drawing several elephants, is that they have incredibly scrawny legs. I wonder how they hold up all of that weight on such scrawny legs? They don't seem wobbly or weakly, so the legs must work fine. But, I would think that they would benefit from legs with a bit more heft.

boy and girl faces

2010-09-08T13:05:00.003-05:00

Here are two more face sketches. I did the two of them together in about 20 minutes. I'm trying to not spend much time on them. The boy I developed a bit more with shading, but I wanted to keep the lines on the girl sketch to a minimum (that's actually more difficult). It's so hard when you can't erase. You just have to work with the mistakes and keep on going. I think at the rate that I'm going, I dare to say, unless my enthusiasm peters out, the project should be 50 faces in 50 days. That's what I'll shoot for. I may be back later with a painting, but then again, maybe not. I've already taken my car for an oil change, done the dishes and vacuumed. I think I deserve a bit more play time.

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather. I went into work yesterday and said to the people in the break room that it was such a nice day. It was about 58 and cloudy. Most agreed that it was nice, but we there should be a bit of sun too. Yesterday I got my clouds (it has been sunny so much this summer--let a cloud lover have a day or two of shade) and today they got their sun. I do have to say I do even like this sun. Balance is always good.

Faces #1 and 2

2010-09-07T10:27:00.005-05:00

As I said, fall appears to be here. Even though I know summer could come back any moment, with its sunny disposition and easy to please, uncomplicated nature, I am going to take full advantage of fall this week, and start a new project. Yes, fall is the time for projects, isn't it? Anyway, I would call this a Face Per Day, but I don't think I can stick to something like that even though I can be fairly disciplined when I want to be. Maybe a few faces per week would be a more workable goal. I just want to do this because I have felt very rusty when I have attempted portraits lately, so I want to sketch and try to lose the rust. Anyway, these are going to be quick sketches, mostly with a pen, just to loosen myself up and get a feel for faces. It won't just be human faces, even though I'm going to focus on them, so animals will be part of it. As these are quick sketches, I will still be posting whatever else I am working on. There is this painter who has a painting per day blog and has lately been posting faces that she has been painting of mugshots. They are really interesting and I suppose the photos are public domain, but I will not be using mugshots. Anyway, this is face # 1 and it was about a 5 minute sketch. Not very lovely, but it was quick and loose and I enjoyed it.

Edited to add, now that I think about it, what I am going to do is work towards a specific number of faces. How about 50 Faces? 50 Faces in two months?

Edited to add another face. I guess this guy thinks he is Jack Sparrow.

Blue rhinos on a cloudy afternoon

2010-09-06T13:37:00.006-05:00

I have been fairly prolific this month so far, especially compared to last month. I even have a couple of things I have done that aren't scanned yet. It's the taste of fall in the air. Fall is a time when the creative urges really come a callin'. As everyone here knows, I heart fall.

These guys are fairly small and as you can see, are monochromatic. They're not bad, but they could be better. I just feel stuck as far as painting goes. I think I need to look through some books and study techniques. I tend to not like to do that, but I think it would help. I like to just dive in willy nilly. Who wants to read the instructions?

I'm now feeling the urge to bake some brownies, but I would have to go out and get a mix for that. I have flour, cocoa, sugar, etc, but not baking powder or soda and I'm sure one or the other is needed to bake them from scratch. I never have those two items in the house. In fact, I've probably never ever bought baking powder. I guess I can live without them. It's not like if I did bake them that I would eat them all. I'd bring them to work tomorrow, but I'd probably stuff at least a couple of them in my mouth today, I am very much enjoying not laboring on this Labor Day. Although I'm sure we'll pay for it tomorrow, with the library being a madhouse and all. People can't handle it when the library is closed for a day and we always end up suffering for it the next day.

Edited to add, wow, I actually found a recipe for brownies that doesn't call for baking powder, so I guess I'll be making brownies after all!

Edited again to add that the brownies turned out great.

One more edit, just so I can link this fun little thing to play with.

Two portraits, one leonine...

2010-09-01T21:45:00.005-05:00

I'll let you guess which one...

I started drawing the lion yesterday, but then today felt like drawing a person, so I went through the wetcanvas photo archives looking for a photo with character and found a photo of this man. It says in the description that he's a railroad worker. How about those ears? As I've said before, it's always a little strange just picking a photo of a stranger to draw. I'm sure he has no idea that someone has been studying his face tonight. But then again, hopefully the photographer let him know that his image was going to be added to the wetcanvas photo archive. In that case, maybe he does sometimes think "oh, maybe someone is drawing me right now."

In other news, right now I'm starving. All I've had today is a couple of small pieces of bread and a tomato. I've been busy all day long (not just drawing) and just kind of kept forgetting to eat. I am going to have to scrounge for something now. No more bread though. I ate it warm from the oven (yes, I said oven. I just used the bread machine for the dough this time and baked it myself) and ended up with a bread tummy ache. That might be the more logical reason why I haven't eaten much today.

The rhino mania merchandise is now available...

2010-08-31T09:54:00.002-05:00

I've been waiting for this, but too bad everything is so expensive. Also they have to come all the way from the UK.

From whimsical electronic drawings to very serious gorillas in graphite

2010-08-30T11:10:00.003-05:00

You may recognize these guys as gorillas I have drawn before, but this one is from a slightly different shot. I was very interested in the way the gorilla on the left is studying his/her hands(even though the right hand gorilla's face is more of the focal point). I've been working on these guys for a couple of days and they're 11x14, so I couldn't scan the entire drawing. I had to cut off much of the gorilla on the right, but I kind of like the crop anyway.

I slept for 10 hours last night. It seems that since I've been home from vacation, I've been out doing things constantly and then I had to work yesterday, so I was zonked last night. I actually fell asleep at about 10:00. And yes, even night owls have to swallow our pride and do this once in awhile. So, I shouldn't be able to say that I'm sleepy, but I kind of am. I think it's the mixture of the weather and the idea that I have to go to work. But I will probably wake up a bit when I actually do get up off the couch. Have been reading and computing (with a tiny exercise break) all morning.

Digital gorilla

2010-08-27T10:40:00.006-05:00

I'm not good at painting with my laptop mouse, but this very cool program is a lot of fun anyway. I think all of the interesting textures mask the lack of skill. Anyway, this will be a quick post as I have to get ready in a minute or so. I will be staying with my friend's dogs all day while she and her husband are at the fair. I will be bringing my laptop, art supplies and books, so I will have stuff to do. So long for now...

Edited to add some digital elephants that I did with the Mr. Harmony program. It's so much fun. I only hate that you can't seem to erase, but only clear the whole drawing at once. So, if you draw a funny baby elephant trunk, you're stuck with it.

Edited again for a horsie.

Attempted self-portrait using the Harmony drawing tool again. I look a bit Rastafarian.

A badly photographed elephant and cats at windows

2010-08-21T22:00:00.011-05:00

Here I am, blogging from up north. I have been working on an elephant in colored pencil today, but I had to photograph it with my phone and the photos are pretty crappy as you can see, above and below.

Other than that, I've been reading and eating and my mother beat me (very badly) at a game of Scrabble last night. And I seem to be taking a lot of pictures of cats at windows.

Itty Bitty Elephant

2010-08-18T20:13:00.003-05:00

Yes, this elephant could only be described as itty bitty as he is painted on a 4x6 canvas. Well, I guess he could be described in other ways as well. For instance, he is monochromatic and he is an Asian (or Indian) elephant. Otherwise, he isn't overly exciting to look at. I had just told jb that I was going to do a painting today as I finally got some gray paint, so I decided I had better get to work this evening, after dinner. Since he is so tiny, he was pretty quick. Now I have paint all over my hands, but not in my hair which is a good thing as I just washed it.

Other than that I really don't have much to say other than I don't have much to say, which in and of itself, is always "something" to say. I was thinking about updating my Rumpelstiltskin blog as I have an idea for a post, but I just have to take tiny steps back into this blogging business and am not ready for two posts in one day, so you will have to settle for one.

Renoir Rhinos

2010-08-16T11:43:00.004-05:00

Thanks for the comments and the encouragement during my time of slump. You guys are the best. I thought I would try to draw one of my old master rhinos this morning and that maybe that would pull me out of the slump. I had so much fun drawing it, that maybe it has. I think the cooler weather has something to do with it as well. I feel half human again (I'll let you know when I figure out what the other half is). I thought these rhinos would be difficult to draw as I thought that anthropomorphizing them while dancing would be challenging. It turned out to be quite easy, actually. I think the clothes helped a bit.

As for the weather, I'm loving it! I feels good to not be sweating. And farmer's market vegetables taste better in this weather. I had the most delicious corn last night and have been dreaming of eating the other ear.

Why can't Anne draw?

2010-08-14T21:52:00.003-05:00

That's just a question I've been asking myself lately. Every time I try, it turns out blahish (made up word). I just spent time looking at my old blog (about three year's worth of stuff with over 800 posts) and I was all enthusiastic about drawing. I think I'm just going through a bit of a dry spell. It will come back. It always does. I found the above drawing while I was going through my posts. We had a lot of fun on that yahoo 360 blog. I had forgotten, jb, that you once paged someone named Boogie for me at the library because I couldn't do it without laughing. How you managed that, I do not know. I, of course, remember Lord Bunyan, but I had completely forgotten about Boogie.

It's raining again and from what I've been hearing this rain is going to wash that heat and humidity right out of the air. I'm very happy about that.

What did I do today, you may be wondering? I'm sure you are. I started it off at the Farmer's Market where I procured much delicious loot, including three large, juicy, red tomatoes and I'm ending it with a bit of blogging. What I did in between is all a bit of blur. I read, I drew (nothing that I was satisfied with) and I made a loaf of french bread. Not a very eventful day, I should say...

2010-08-11T16:04:00.003-05:00

Yes, long time no blog. This is just an old rhino drawing to illustrate the fact that I've been doing lots of reading lately and not much drawing. I still have the heat of summer blahs and just have not been feeling like doing things that take much of an effort. As much as I love drawing, it does take an effort to get into it. Today I am staying at my friend's house with her dogs and it is nice and cool in here. I once again feel like myself. I have an air-conditioner and it does a good job at taking the humidity out of the air, but with the type of heat we've been having, my apartment's mercury hovers at about 80 degrees. 80 degrees is not ideal for making an effort of any sort. And as for exercise which tends to give me energy to make an effort, I did yoga the other night and I was sweating like a pig (yeah, I know pigs really don't sweat that much) when I was done. And this yoga workout doesn't even usually make me sweat, but only mist a bit. I haven't even bothered to attempt aerobics in the past two weeks.

Using my friend's internet connection really brings home the fact that there is something wrong with my high speed connection. When I download an hour long show, it takes 5 hours. It took 15 minutes to download it here.

One of the dogs keeps wanting to go outside to play fetch. It's too hot for fetch, I think.

Summertime blogging blahs...

2010-08-04T16:13:00.003-05:00

I have not been blogging the past couple weeks for no other reason than the summertime blogging blahs. Some people get the blahs in the winter. I seem to get the blahs in the summer. I'm not a big fan of late July and August. I just tend to not feel like doing anything during that period of time, especially creative stuff. The heart of summer just tends to zap my creativity away to who knows where. Buzz buzz. I think a big part of the issue has been that this summer my car AC is no longer working. I'm not particularly hot when I'm at home and I don't have that big of a problem with heat, in general, but having to drive around in it without AC has been particularly brutal, especially this past week when it's been extremely hot and humid and I've been doing a lot of pet-sitting. I think the sun and the heat while I'm in the car fries my brain and steals any of my remaining energy. I have not been enjoying it. Fortunately, I'm at home now and I won't be having to drive all over the city because of stupid detour in order to get where I have to get. I'm done pet-sitting for the week.

Anyway, I have a painting to post today. And I have done a few other drawings during the time I haven't been blogging, so I do have other items to post, if I feel like it. My friend's daughter asked me to paint her a hippo. This will not be the one I give to her as it was an experiment with a different painting surface. It did not pass the test, so I will be re-painting the hippo on a more traditional canvas. I used illustration board for this, which is more of a drawing surface, and the paints didn't really soak in or flow like they are supposed to.

Breakfast

2010-07-19T11:07:00.002-05:00

I've found that the Internet not only has a wealth of information for artists, but also provides quite a lot of inspiration. For instance, the weekend drawing event has provided me with great reference photos to draw or paint. That is usually the only one that I participate in these days. But there are several others that I could choose from if I felt like incorporating them into my drawing routine. For instance, Illustration Friday publishes a topic every Friday. I subscribe to their newsletter, but I haven't participated before. This past Friday, their topic was "breakfast," so this morning (Monday), after breakfast, I was looking for something to spark my imagination and I thought of "breakfast" and drew this little guy. I had oatmeal this morning and so did he. The problem with this latest sketch pad of mine, even though I like its surface for drawing very much, it scans crappily (yes, I know that's not really a word). It's very annoying that scans come out so much lighter than the drawing and even when I mess around with the image on photoshop, I can't recover any of the mid tones, so the drawings lose all their detail. I'm fairly detail oriented in my drawings, so this is always a source of frustration for me as all of my scans from any surface, leave out a lot of the shading detail. But this surface is particularly bad. I'm sure there are much better scanners out there, but for now, I'm stuck with this one. Anyway, this guy's scan was so light that I darkened him drastically and he is darker than he is in real life. He also looks like he has no mid-tones, but this will have to just do as I have to get my butt up from the couch and exercise and, therefore, have no more time to mess with him.

In other quick news, I gave Phoebe a new box last night and she has been living in it ever since then. I can just pick her up and carry her around in the box and set her down on cupboards, shelves, dressers, etc. and she just stays.

Pachyderm Cafe

2010-07-12T10:35:00.003-05:00

I didn't draw all weekend, so I thought I should, at least, produce a sketch this morning. These guys were inspired by the children's book that I was talking about in an earlier post, but I drew them mostly from my head. I do love how elephants make rhinos look petite.

Now I am trying to get myself up and motivated. I have found that if I do my work-out before work, I have more energy for the day, so that's what I am trying to motivate myself to do. Obviously I don't work out before work when I have to be to work at 8:30, but it is doable when I don't have to be there until 12:45.

In other mundane news, I made pina colada bread last night and it turned out great. No burning, no collapsing, no failure to mix properly. I resisted the urge to keep opening to cover to check on it. That may have been the trick. I'm going to take it to work to share it today. And this is all I have, for now...

white board monsters

2010-07-08T18:37:00.003-05:00

I drew these monsters on our white board at work. I asked my co-worker and friend to take a photo of them today, so I could keep them in my file. That's the thing about white board art. If you don't photograph it, it's just gone for good. I was pretty happy with these guys, so I did want to save them and share them. Yes, there are horrors at the library, especially in the summer. I crossed out the name of the library, just because...

Otherwise, I don't have much to say tonight. I was up until 4 AM on Tuesday night and slept late yesterday, therefore, I was not tired when I went to bed last night. I think it was coming up on 3:00 before I finally dozed off. Tonight I should sleep well.

New post, no picture...and yay, my blog is still here...

2010-07-07T22:23:00.007-05:00

Hi everyone. I had a close call of the "I lost my blog" variety today, but it appears that I have found it. Yes, I accidentally deleted my blog. I meant to delete a different blog, but deleted this one instead. All it takes a click of a button and then "are you sure you want to delete this blog" and there goes two (is it two now?) years of your life. I wasn't too upset actually. I had the entire contents in my google reader and was prepared to start over, but it is still a relief to have it back.

And no picture today. I did draw, but I did a sketch of a book illustration and because it is a "copy" of someone else's work, I'm not going to post it here. It is the most charming rhino and elephant having tea together. If you would like to see it, I can e-mail it to you. Just let me know...

As for no picture, if I had a drawing of bread in my archives, I would post it, but I have never felt compelled to draw bread. I am attempting my second loaf of chocolate bread tonight. The first one (last wed.'s loaf) burned on the white bread setting, so this time I tried the sweet bread setting. Keep your fingers crossed. I already had one loaf of bread fail today. I don't think I can handle another one. My earlier failure was a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. I followed the directions to a T and the results were disastrous. I put the add-ins (raisins) in when the machine beeped after 20 minutes and they were supposed to be mixed in with the bread. Instead they stayed on top and only the bottom part of the bread baked. Very strange. What does that say about following directions? Do you suppose my bread machine is a rebel and doesn't like that type of exactitude?

Rumpelstiltskin's blog

2010-07-06T11:21:00.000-05:00

Here it is.

Just a quick word of what's to come...

2010-07-05T11:20:00.002-05:00

I have decided that I'm going to do a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin and did write three quick pages last night. But what I'm going to do tonight, and I wish I could stay home and do it today (grr, for the library staying open today, despite the petition that union gave us to sign that would have meant closing today),is create a blog for the wee man. It will be a fun way to come up with ideas and such. I'm just posting it here, so you can get on my case if I don't produce the blog. That's really my point in telling people about my planned projects. Otherwise I may be a bit more secretive about them.

I want my old blog style back...

2010-07-04T09:34:00.004-05:00

I was thinking that my new blog look was just too much. I think simple styles are better for displaying drawings. I'm going to have to play around with it more, but on the surface, it seems that blogger no longer carries the old styles. I only looked around for about 2 minutes, so I very likely could be wrong. I'll have try again when I feel like it. For now, I just have a simple black background that will just be a placeholder until I create a look that is more to my liking.

I am still pet-siting (I may not have mentioned that I was away from home before), but will be back home later today. I miss my cats. I went to see them yesterday and they were all sassy with me. They don't like to be left alone for too long. People think that cats can be left alone for long periods of time, but I don't think that's true. They like their people around, even if sometimes they pretend to be indifferent. I not only want to return home to see my cats, but to make more bread, as well.

The above drawing was my second effort for the weekend drawing event. It was done in my Cachet sketchbook. This sketchbook has the smoothest and most pleasant surface to draw on. Unfortunately, Michaels doesn't seem to carry them. I only have 8 pages left (out of 110), so I may have to dig in my piggy bank and take a trip to Blick.

a quick little sketch with a little rhyme...

2010-07-01T23:37:00.006-05:00

I did this quick sketch for the weekend drawing event. The host challenged us to add a poem to the mix. I don't know if I'd call this a poem, but I'll call it a little rhyme. It goes like this:

Birdy birdy in the sky
I'll be your friend if you stop on by.
I don't understand why you fly away from me.
I'm just a pussycat, not your enemy.

Maybe I was inspired by the predators in my midst. This cat looks perfectly innocent as do my own cats, but given the chance, they wouldn't hesitate to tear out a little birdy's throat. And we know this pussy cat is not being sincere. And my inspiration came from a Wild Kingdom type situation that occurred in front of my windows yesterday. Well, it wasn't quite Wild Kingdom as my cats were in captivity, but if they could have made their way to the other side of the window, the little ducklings that were waddling by, inches from the screen, would not have stood a chance and feathers (or more like down) would have flown.

Hope everyone is having a good Thursday evening (or late night, at this point). I keep thinking it's Friday. Why am I so confused? Nobody cares about a good Thursday evening, but Friday is another story...

Edited to add, apparently the wetcanvas website does not allow the word "pussycat." It wasn't letting me upload the image by the same name and then it posted my little poem as *****cat. Internet censorship is annoying and kind of funny at the same time. I had to change it to kitty cat, which doesn't work quite as well as you don't say when someone is a softy that they are a kitty cat, you say pussycat. Some of my fellow weekly drawing event people thought it was quite funny too.

part of a gorilla

2010-06-27T20:25:00.004-05:00

I had to crop my gorilla as he is, like the previous rhino, too large for my scanner. I didn't feel like photographing him as the light is really bad at this time of the evening. He ended up being very colorful, didn't he? He looks much better with the top of his head, I do have to say. I've cropped the tops of other gorillas' heads off before, but this one really needs the top of his head. Poor poor gorilla....

So, I just finally had my dinner at about 7:30. I made lentil soup and some fresh bread. I was really impatient for my first loaf of bread as the soup had been ready since about 2:30. My bread was "done" at 4:00. The problem was that it actually turned out to not be bread, but some sort of compacted, sandy mess. I had added some other ingredients (not in the instructions_) to the mix before I got started and it seems that, in the process, I forgot the water. So, rather than crying over messed up bread, I just made a new loaf. Yes, I had to wait until 7:30 to eat, but it was well worth the wait.

That's all for the tonight. I'm off to movie night at my friend's house.

rhino painting in my pajamas...

2010-06-25T11:29:00.004-05:00

This morning I painted a rhino while still in my pajamas. Pajamas are actually good painting clothes as you don't worry so much about getting paint on them, especially the ones that I am wearing now as the pants are my least favorite pajama pants. So, paint may actually improve them. Unfortunately, it seems that I painted clean, so they are still my least favorite pajama pants. This rhino is fairly large (about 12x16), so I couldn't scan him or her. I wanted to work larger than usual and just sort of messily apply the paint, so that's what I did. He actually looks better in person as I had to photograph him with a flash in not the best light. I prefer scanning, even though you can never get a perfect scan either. I decided to leave the graphite elephants in the background, rather than crop them out. So, it's a double (or triple) pachyderm photo. I also used my easel for this painting rather than painting on my lap, so that's a departure.

Other than that, I don't have much to say. It's time for me to get out of my pajamas and get going. Happy Friday everyone.

long time no post...

2010-06-22T11:48:00.002-05:00

It's been a few days, hasn't it? I've been slacking. I had a good week, with some socializing, after having been pretty much a prisoner in my apartment while I was waiting for my car to be fixed. So, I wasn't at home all that much, and then when I was at home, I was doing a lot of reading and not a lot of drawing. But I do have this one sketch I did before going to work on Sunday morning. I was sitting on my couch, computing, as I tend to do before going to work, and I suddenly had a flash of a rhino playing a ukulele, so then I had to stop computing, pick up a pencil and sketch it. Unfortunately, my vision of a rhino playing a ukulele was much more interesting than the actually sketch. Then I was inspired to look at a video of an actual person playing a ukulele and found this. He has a whole series of lessons, if you ever want to pick up the ukulele and play along with him. That's all I have for today. I have to get ready for work. I will have to check out others' blogs when I get home tonight as I've piddled away my time and now have to rush. And I see that I spelled ukulele wrong on the sketch. Disregard that...

Just a quick rant...

2010-06-18T12:46:00.000-05:00

Doorbell ringing saga continues... More ding dongs today. Asked neighbor why he never has a key. He looks at me sheepishly: "You know how it is. I have to look for it." No, I don't know how it is. I tend to not leave home without my building key. It's kind of essential for opening the door. Oh no--wait, not if the neighbor is home drinking coffee, in her pajamas. Why would one need to look for one's key then?

Upside down, right side up...

2010-06-16T22:59:00.008-05:00

I've been having issues with drawing lately. Sometimes it comes easy to me, other times, it is more difficult. It has been the latter, more often than not, lately. So, I decided to take out my favorite and the most famous drawing book that I own, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards, and do one of the exercises from its pages. I have always had plans to make my way through the book in its entirety and do all the exercises, but have never had the discipline. It's always like "oh, I'll do this one--it's more fun. That one seems boring, etc..." I guess if I had had formal training, I would have had to do many exercises that I didn't like, so maybe I should force myself to go through the whole damn book. Or maybe not... Anyway, I chose the upside drawing exercise, which is one of the fun exercises, I think. What it forces you to do is look at the lines and shapes and to copy the drawing without having your brain be so concerned with the subject matter. Yes, it's a person (even though this particular drawing that you're copying is a Picasso, so it is a bit exaggerated or distorted person), but you're looking at it upside down, so it doesn't look as much like a person as it does a collection of lines and shapes. You want your brain to shift from that left mode way of looking at it as person, into the right mode way of looking at it as lines and shapes that connect with each other and fit together, etc... You're supposed to give yourself about 30 to 40 minutes to complete the drawing. Of course, being one that can never fully follow directions, I did it in about 10 minutes, so I don't think I gave myself time to fully make the shift. And there is such a temptation to turn it right side up, just to see if the drawing is looking correct. I resisted, but it drove me a bit crazy. I do think that my upside drawings always end up looking more expressive than my right side up drawings. I guess it's the whole letting go thing at work. Anyway, this is all I have for tonight. Not quite as cute as a rhino in pajamas...

Rhinoceros in Pajamas

2010-06-15T11:36:00.006-05:00

Since I heart rhinos and I heart pajamas, of course it was only a matter of time until I combined these two loves. This sketch is actually from about a month ago and I don't know why I haven't posted it yet. If you look closely, you will see the rhino is having a sleepover, but his friend is not wearing pajamas. I don't think birds would like to wear pajamas. They may be too constricting if they need to get up and fly in the middle of the night. Right now it is 11:38 and I am still wearing my pajamas. Unfortunately, it's just about time for me to get out of them and get ready for work. Do I have time for oatmeal this morning? I don't think so as I want to piddle around on the computer, in my pajamas for a bit longer. I guess I'll just have to go to work hungry. The sacrifices one makes to hang out in one's pajamas for just a little bit longer...

Oh, and jb, I didn't change my settings. I don't know why it is doing that...

Giraffe sketch and E.T.

2010-06-14T10:49:00.011-05:00

So, I often think that I don't actually see something until I try to draw it. I found that to be the case with giraffes. I have only drawn one other giraffe and that was in profile. Observing one straight on and trying to duplicate him/her (I can't tell) I was struck by a certain resemblance to E.T. of cinematic fame. See below.

Note the long neck and the gigantic eyes. Yes, I know that aliens traditionally have gigantic eyes, but there is just something similar between these two. I have always noticed giraffes' huge eyes with long, mascaraed eyelashes, but it wasn't until I had the shape of the head sketched in with the eyes, that I noticed the resemblance to E.T.. I do think that when people are creating creatures that they must be inspired by nature. Obviously we have these images floating around in our heads and when we are creating something, we are going to draw from that inner library, but I do feel that it's often conscious. I don't create creatures for a living nor have I ever really listened to people talk about creating creatures, but I just have a feeling that maybe the person or people creating E.T. could have possibly had a giraffe photo tagged up on their bulletin board. And I could be totally wrong...

On a related note, I do think that the person/people creating Shrek were partially inspired by rhinos. I mean, just look at these ears and compare.

Pelican in watercolor

2010-06-13T13:12:00.005-05:00

Well, I tried. I didn't like the paper. It didn't absorb the color very well. All watercolor paper is not created equal. Anyway, I was digging in my art supply drawers last night and found some inks that I had bought ages ago and have never used. They look like this and I'm not even sure if they make them anymore. Each box and the ink bottle inside have a little painting on them and they're like little works of art themselves. Like I said, I've had them for years, and fortunately, they still seem to be good, so I'm going to try them. You're supposed to use them with distilled water, so I went and bought a bottle this morning. It's great to have my car back! I actually painted my pelican on my drafting table. I haven't used my table in ages as it usually has a cat bed and a cat on it. I just thought this morning, as the cats were in hiding anyway (yes, I vacuumed), that I would take back my table for the time being. One of the cats came out of hiding while I was working and just sort of looked at me and then plopped down on my spot on the couch. It was like "you took my spot, so I'm going to take your spot."

Edited to add that I'm baking more bread. This one is honey wheat with Craisins. I wish it would hurry up and get baked!

Edited again to ask what you think of my new blog template? I was getting tired of the old one. I do see that I should make a new banner that will fit the template, but for now I'm going to keep the old one. And I would like to change the name of my blog, as well. I was just being silly when I created this one. I'm just trying to come up with a good name.

Pelican sketch

2010-06-12T22:18:00.003-05:00

Tonight I sketched a pelican because I wanted to look at a pelican and see it as it's supposed to look. I keep seeing these oil coated pelicans on the news and it makes me too sad. I may have to do an actual drawing or painting of one, just because I would like to interpret their rather funny looking beauty in something more developed than this sketchbook sketch. This is a brown pelican which is actually Louisiana's state bird, so it is what we have been seeing on the news. I've gotten to the point that when these images show up on my t.v., I have to turn the channel or better yet, turn it off.

Sarge sketch

2010-06-11T13:08:00.002-05:00

I am going to be drawing this dog as a gift for a friend. I haven't decided what medium I'm going to use, but I did a quick charcoal sketch today. I think charcoal is a good choice for a black lab, but I don't have a good grasp on charcoal. I'm leaning towards colored pencil or graphite. I didn't quite have his proportions right here in this charcoal sketch, but it's actually a good likeness, considering the fact that I just spent a short time on it. And no, not all black labs look alike. Their faces are all different.

I don't have much to say today, no Van Gogh quotes or odes to olives or anything else that could make this post more interesting. And what is interesting anyway? All of that is subjective, right? Although I think it's easy to see what is not interesting and probably this post would fit into this category. But that's o.k.--we can't all be interesting all the time. I think if all of a persons' blog posts were interesting I would be suspicious or think that that person was trying too hard. I don't want to try too hard. There's nothing worse than forced writing, I think. So, blah blah blah. Here ends my uninteresting post...

I love olives

2010-06-10T20:35:00.002-05:00

I did this sketch this morning before work. Don't ask me why olives and Ella Fitzgerald singing a song about them inspired by Cole Porter's "I Love Paris" were on my mind at 7:30 AM, but they were. I just started with the olives, but everything else just sort of asked to be included. I had no say in the matter. And after work, I was still thinking about olives, so I ordered an olive pizza and was, unfortunately, very disappointed. I love olive pizza, but this was all soggy and they just threw a huge pile of olives on the surface and it was just not pleasant pizza. You have to be a bit more subtle with the olives on pizza. In fact, I made my own perfect olive pizza last week with just a frozen cheese pizza with some strategically placed olives and it was 10,000 times better than this one.

A little crooked corner of the Louvre sketch, inspired by Vincent...

2010-06-09T11:34:00.005-05:00

Well, sort of... I think Vincent (as in VanGogh) was more into organic shapes like I am. We don't see very many buildings in Vincent's collection. But, I know he liked to try different things. One of the great things about working in a library, is that you just come across things in the course of your daily work--as in tidbits of information, pictures, charming little children's books, etc... Sometimes you just open the page of a book to stick a slip inside, and something catches your eye. In my case, it was a quote by Vincent (yes, we are on a first name basis). The quote reads: "I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it." Very simple and to the point, yet very inspiring. I sort of get annoyed by a lot of quotes that are supposed to be inspiring, the kind that people have hanging on their walls, as they're sort of rah rah cheerleaderish or too sentimental for my taste, but this one is subtle and yet it says so much. So, thanks Vincent, you inspired me to do a sketch of a building. Now, it's not a very good sketch and I just eyeballed the perspective, but it got me to do something that I don't know how to do. Anne the "I can't draw buildings" artist, sketched a building. I do have to laugh at my lamp post as it is especially crooked. I think it looks a bit like a twig rather than a lamp post, but I was just sketching. I think most people that draw a lot of buildings and straight lined shapes will actually use a ruler or straight edge of some sort.

Edited to add, I just wanted to take the time out as I don't usually reply to replies unless someone asks a question, to thank people for the nice comments about my drawings. So, thank you blog buddies!

Bassett in the rain

2010-06-08T11:27:00.003-05:00

No, the basset hound is not sitting in the rain--he was just painted in the rain (inside, of course) with watercolors. So, he was created in a context of wetness. He is dry now, obviously, or he wouldn't be scanned yet, but it is still very wet outside. I don't really have time for a proper post as I have to start getting ready for work. My morning flew by quickly, with watercolors, rain, washing clothes and coffee. I scarcely even remember getting up.

Edited to add, that I realize that I spelled "Basset" wrong in my last post. I wonder why spell checker didn't correct me. I thought I had checked on the spelling. So, it is spelled wrong on the actual sketch, as well.

Do your ears hang low?

2010-06-07T22:59:00.002-05:00

How strange it would be to have ears so long that they sweep across your knee... Fortunately mine don't and unless you are a Bassett Hound reading my blog, I doubt yours do either. And really, I highly doubt a Bassett Hound would be reading my blog. I don't think they usually get much computer time and they have a spot on that same list in which the bulldogs were featured (you know the one--10 least smart dogs), so I doubt they even know how to read. And do they really have knees, anyway? So, my question was, in fact, a fruitless question as I know that none of my readers' ears hang low and brush across their knees. Now before I go on for 5000 words about low hanging ears, I will change the subject. The drawing was another quick sketch to get me loosened up. No erasing. I kind of like how this guy (or girl) turned out, low hanging ears and all.

It is Monday and it was a very Mondayish Monday, so I'm glad that it's almost over. I'm hoping that Tuesday will be a bit less frantic. My feet hurt. Hopefully, Tuesday will be the day that is gentle on my feet. That means that I should be sitting down a lot and shouldn't be wearing shoes. We'll see how that works out. Anyway, I don't have much more to say, other than the fact that I made bread last night (well, my bread machine did most of the work) and I'm pleased with the way that it turned out. I'm already thinking about my next batch and the fact that I would like to add dried cranberries to the mix. As much as I want to put that together right now (well, not really as it takes over 4 hours and I'm much too tired to wait), I will have to wait until this loaf has been consumed.

Loosening up with Bulldog Bob

2010-06-06T07:04:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was drawing day. You know that day that comes around every year when artists are supposed to clog up the Internet with a million drawings... In the past, I've probably done 4 of 5 drawings on drawing day. Yesterday I only did one. Well, two if you count the gorilla which I decided to post as a drawing day drawing, even though I drew it a day earlier. Anyway, part of my problem was, I just couldn't draw. All my attempts were too uptight and I got frustrated and put my pencils away early in the day. So, this morning, here comes Bulldog Bob to the rescue. Bulldog Bog is very loose. He doesn't think too much (in fact, the photo I used came from a website listing the 10 least intelligent dog breeds--poor Bulldog Bob;))and he knows how to go with the flow. Sketching is a good way to just let go and stop worrying about the lines being perfectly placed. Sometimes not having the erase option is a good thing.

I do, however, wish I had the erase option for work today. It would be good to just go up to the building and erase it for the day, so I could stay home on Sunday like the rest of the population.