A Drawing

So, I finally did a drawing for the weekend drawing event. It felt very good. It had been months since I had participated in the festivities. Now I feel like drawing something else, but I think I should go out and do something. It seems like a nice, sunny, warm day. I should take advantage, right? Hope everyone is having a good day and enjoying the warmth. It is actually hot in my apartment. I haven't been able to say that in awhile.

So much for a relaxing Saturday morning...

My neighbor that slams the door EVERY single time she goes in and out of her apartment seems to be moving, which is a good thing. But, it sort of ruins my plans for a relaxing Saturday morning as the door is slamming every 5 to 10 seconds. Oh, my head! I will be back with a picture later on today. That is if I can concentrate on drawing with all this slamming going on...

Just a rhinoceros beetle

Did you know you can buy rhinoceros beetles on e-bay? I found this out quite some time ago and thought it would be neat to have one, but then wondered if I really needed a dead bug. The answer was "no." I didn't really need a dead bug, even if it was displayed in a neat, little, plastic case. It's not a real rhinoceros anyway. Just a beetle, and not even one that can sing or play guitar or drums.

I tried to draw today, but my efforts were dismal. Dismal drawings abound lately. I think I need to change mediums for a spell in order to get out of this slump. Maybe a large, acrylics painting with the paint applied disorderly. I'm sick of doing orderly little pencil drawings.

I have still been playing guitar like crazy. In fact, I have blisters on the tips of three of the fingers on my left hand. You have to go through the blister stage before you get to the callous stage. Once you get the callouses, then you're good to go... Unfortunately I can't find my microphone, or I'd play a song for you guys. Or maybe it's best that I can't find my microphone;)

One more thing before I get up and boogie (yes, I just said that and I'm not really going to boogie, just exercise): I got my diploma in the mail. It says that Anne Marie Peterson has her masters of something or other. I paid a lot of money and put in many of hours of work for that damn piece of paper.

Mas Elefantes

Excuse me blog followers for I have sinned. It has been six days since my last blog post. To use a very cliched cliche, my how the time flies. I have done this one small drawing of two elephant pairs, so there has been a tiny bit of productivity,but not muchc. Now, this is something you would not see in the wild as the elephants on the left are African elephants and the elephants on the right are Asian elephants. Just pretend there is land between them. Or you could also say they have set aside their differences and have crossed continents to become friends. Whatever you want to think is fine.

Last night while I was at my friend's house for movie night, I discovered that she had a new guitar. I told her I used to play, so she said: "I'll play something for you and then you can play something for me." We did that and I discovered I was way more rusty than I thought I would be. So, when I got home, I dusted off my guitar (I'm sure it's been about 6 years since the thing has been out of its case) and I played for an hour and then I woke up this morning and I played again. I'm still feeling quite rusty, but things are starting to loosen up a bit. I almost feel like taking a sick day, so I can play some more, but I'll be a good girl and go to work. Anyway, my friend and I talked about playing together which I'm all excited about as I've never played with anyone before. I've always been a solitary guitar kind of girl, but I think this should be fun. We also discussed Nabokov and how brilliant we think his writing is and how amazing Lolita is,despite its disturbing subject matter and now I want to read some more Nabokov. All in all, it felt like a night in the college dorm, and it was so much fun... I feel excited about life today.

Rhinoceros Gothic or American Rhino

This is Rhinoceros Gothic (or American Rhino) by Rhine Wood, who lived and painted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was mainly concerned with portraying rhinos in rural environments. He also wanted to proclaim to the world that, despite common belief, rhinos are Americans too. Yes, they may have originated in such places as Africa, India and the rain forests of Borneo, but they, like many others before them, made voyages across oceans and are today, like many others, proud to call themselves Americans. This painting is one of the most famous paintings in Rhino American art.

I'm assuming others have been watching the inauguration. I have to admit that this is the first time I have felt compelled to watch the televised inauguration. I feel like it is indeed a historic occasion, and while I did not get misty eyed, as I thought I might, I do today feel proud to be American. I will also admit, against my will (I usually hate pomp and ceremony, especially when it has to do with politics) that I enjoyed watching this event. And I will additionally admit that I didn't have my eyes glued to the television because I was working on this drawing. So, I will have to say that it was good to listen to the whole thing.

Standing Rhino Dancer by Rhinegas (from his notebooks)

This is another of my Rhino's of the Old Master's Series and here is the text to go with it:

Rhinegas (pronounced Rhine-gah) created his work in the 19th century. He is best known for his rhino dancers. He spent hours and hours in dance studios as the little calves pirouetted and plied away. Even though he was a white rhino, he had the crotchety disposition of a black rhino. He didn't much like his little subjects and hated the fact that he was known as the "painter of dancers." Despite all of this, he returned to his subject over and over. One could say he was obsessed with these dancers very much against his will. It is reported that there was one incident in the studio that annoyed him so much that he proceeded to mock charge the little ballerinas. This caused much hysteria and tears and he was ordered to leave the studio at once.

On another note, I'm still cold. How about everyone else? I am looking forward to hitting the zero mark. Will it happen? I guess we'll have to see. The WCCO forecast says that the high today is 8 degrees above zero, but the temp is listed as minus 7 now. Maybe they haven't updated in awhile. Anyway, I was thrilled when my pet-sitting customer called and said she didn't need me to see her dog today. Yay! Right now I'm cozily sitting on the couch covered in blankets watching the Battlestar Galactica marathon (I'm doing this despite the fact that I own all the dvds) that the sci-fi network is airing to get us worked up for the season premier tonight. I can't wait! It's my favorite show. It's so well written and the acting is fantastic and is nothing like the cheesy original that aired in the late 70's. I've been waiting months for this and am very excited!

Bulls that I've posted before...

These are bulls that I've posted before, but I just decided to post them again. I am sitting on a couch with a blanket (not a snuggie) and a laptop computer on my lap and I just can't bear to go to my cold bedroom where the scanner is located to scan a new drawing. Maybe tomorrow. I wish there was a way of scanning virtually. I suppose if I had a webcam, I could do that, in a sense. Alas, there is no web cam on this computer.

I don't really have anything to blog about tonight. I feel sort of like my brain is empty at the moment. Hehe, the rhinovirus commercial is on right now and it reminded me of something to blog about. I was watching this show last night and this mentally ill person on the show was having this delusion of this teeny tiny rhino running across the floor. My friend laughed and said that that would be me in a few years. I just squeed and said "I want one of those! It's so cute!" It was so tiny and it was just charging across the carpet. I hearted it.

heel in those heels, please

Just a drive-by posting before I have to go out again. Why is that whenever a woman lives upstairs (the very quiet non-heeled man that lived there the past couple of years just moved out recently), she has a tendency to wear her heels from the time she gets up until the time she goes to bed? I don't know about anybody else, but my shoes are removed immediately when I walk in the door and I don't put them on again until the last minute when I leave to go somewhere. Anyway, this woman is up there clicking away in them (from the sounds of them, they are the ones pictured above)right now as she was at 5:30 this morning when she woke me up.

My New Graduation Baby

Yes, you heard that right. I got a new baby for graduation and he is plush, has hooves and horns and is oh so very cute. Here is a picture taken by Prissy (I was not in the mood for having my picture taken yesterday and Prissy very kindly refrained from photographing me, so the party photos are limited to this guy;)). He's quite large (bigger than my cats) and very true to life. He is sitting on my drafting table right now making me smile and is sure to be a source of inspiration. I'm very glad that Julia was able to part with him as she and her husband had become quite attached to him. I very much enjoyed my break room graduation party and it was very sweet of my co-workers to do that for me. Since I finished school mid-December, it sort of got lost in the shuffle of the holidays, so it was very nice to celebrate now.

I will probably post a drawing by the end of the day as I'm sitting at home waiting for my pencils to be delivered. And there is no excuse not to draw when one is sitting at home waiting for pencils...

It's cold!

Just popping in to say it's cold.

Rhino with a Pearl Earring

Sometime this summer I started filling up a hard covered sketch book with rhino sketches and writings to go with them. My plan was to fill up the book by the end of the summer. Like a lot of my plans, this one went awry and I ended up with only a handful of sketches (well, about 20 which may be too big to fit in a hand, but definitely could fit in both hands). I call this book my rhino idea book (as I will do a rhino kid's book one day). I really believe its more a question of when rather than if. I'm that determined. My new goal is to finish filling up this book by the end of the year. That's a more reasonable goal and I know how important it is to set goals that are reasonable and therefore, doable.

This above sketch is one of my sketches that is in a section of the book called Rhinos of the Old Masters. Here is the text that I have with it:

Rhinos have many surprising traits. They are not the brutes that people make them out to be. For one thing, they have a great appreciation for art. On the following page you will see (well, in this case, above you will see) a familiar work by Rhineer. He lived and painted in the 17th century, producing works depicting rhinos going about regular day to day activities. His paintings bring out a quiet grace that all rhinos possess. Like all Rhino artists, Rhineer mixed bits of of food with his paint, so he could easily graze while painting. An interesting fact about this painting is that while Rhineer was a white rhino, the subject in the painting is a black rhino. The two species rarely intermingle.

Pencil Problems...(and maybe a bit of hope)

Yes,I have pencil problems. Namely that Pentel changed their Icy mechanical pencil style. I have complained about this before and I will complain about it again. The old Icy mechanical pencil fit in my hand perfectly and there was something about the way the graphite emerged from pencil tip that made the graphite spread on the paper like butter. Here is a photo of the lovely little bugger: pencil porn for those of us that have a tendency to get a bit excited about pencils:



As you can see this pencil is, while somewhat cute, functional and unpretentious. It's just there to do its job and doesn't care about flashiness. It says: "I'm a pencil that is here to serve you. Pleased to meet you--now let's get to work." Unfortunately, all of this has changed with the new Icy pencil. It is all flashy, bubbly and space aged looking and I think very full of itself. It says: "look at me. I'm the new icy. I'm so much prettier and artier than the older model." It all makes me want to vomit. Take a look at it, if you don't believe me:



Yes, maybe it looks more interesting than the old icy, but it's all flash and no substance. It certainly doesn't feel good in my hand and its graphite does not emerge out of the tip like butter. Rather it grates and scratches onto the surface of the paper like an out of tune violin played by a beginner.

Why have I posted this today? Well, because I've decided to take a chance. I was burned once before by taking this chance, but I was feeling rather daring this morning. Anyway, I'm down to only three of the old Icy pencils (Despite my love for them, they're not perfect. They break easily. Wouldn't you if you were made of plastic?) and this makes me feel rather panicked. Last year I found what I thought were the older model on-line, so I ordered a couple dozen. It turned out that the website just hadn't changed the photo, so I ended up with 24 New Icys. Blah, what am I going to do with all of that garbage? And yes, I have given them second and third (and probably even a fourth)chances, but they just don't cut it. What I found on the site today was "Icy pencils" (the old ones were pictured here) and "New Icy Pencils (the new ones were pictured here)." The fact that they differentiated between "icy" and "new icy." gave me some hope, so I ordered 10. Please wish me luck!

Bringing in the New Year with some Rhinos.

Sorry I have been away for so long. First the holidays got in the way (I was up north with my family all last week), then I got home and went to a party on Saturday and it was back to work on Sunday (oh joy!). It has taken until today (my day off) for me to finally start feeling a bit of normalcy. Hope everyone had good holidays. jb, it was funny to see that you took a trip to Austin, MN while I was making my cartoon about piggies that went to Austin. I guess it just goes back to the whole great minds think alike thing. Anyway, before I digress too much, I will explain my blog title. As you all know by now, I heart drawing rhinos, but what you don't know is that I have a family member of a younger generation that also likes to draw rhinos. This was her quote on New Year's Eve: "Auntie Anne, let's draw rhinos until the new year." We didn't, in fact draw rhinos for all the hours up to the new year (as she said this at about 6:00 PM, that would have been 6 hours of rhino drawing which is a but excessive for even the most die hard rhino artist), but we did spend about an hour drawing the great horned beasts. I have included here one of my pieces of rhino art and one drawn by Sarah. Sarah actually is a great young artist and has been voted student of the month 2 times for being the most creative which makes her auntie very very proud.

Hmm, there seems to be an issue with the uploader. As a member of blogger for the past few years without having very many problems with it, I'm a bit scared it's going the way of yahoo 360. I will be back to post my images later.