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.