Three Amigos of a different pachyderm variety...

Surprise! Here are more elephants. They are three amigos, but not my usual three amigos. I have decided that I'm going to make another website for kids--this time about elephants. I have been wanting to make another website for quite some time and this will enable me to brush up on my skills all while learning about something and steeping myself in something that I love. I so wish that I had some software for the process, but I cannot afford Dreamweaver right now (actually probably not ever as I'm so deep in debt that I'm probably never going to have money for anything again!), so I will have to do this in code. The unfortunate thing about code is that I feel so limited in what I can do design wise. Anyway, I still feel very excited about it all. I really want to stay home from work today and jump into it, but alas, I have to go make money, so I can pay my bills.


Oh, and just a little info about these elephants. The little ones find it quite a challenge to use their trunks, at first. The one on the right is trying to drink water like his older cousins and is having a very difficult time with his clumsy, little trunk.

Escribir

"Escribir" means to write in Spanish. The word just kept popping into my head while working on this drawing. I kept thinking I should brush up on my Spanish. Finally there was a weekend drawing event photo that I really had to draw as I love doing drawings of people writing, reading or drawing. You know how I love Vermeer's paintings of women engaged in quiet contemplative activities. I guess I saw a bit of that quality in this photo. Anyway, she was fun to draw. And on a related note, "dibujar" means to draw. That is my Spanish lesson for the day;)

I am waiting to hear from a friend about lunch plans. I am taking her to Curry Up for Indian food for her birthday. Will she Facebook? Will she e-mail? Or will she call me? I have to keep all of those things open, because I don't know...

Hope everyone is having a great day. I am still in my pajamas. I heart being in my pajamas until noon.

Earth Day Rhino

I got an Earth Day card from my favorite rhino organization today and it featured a photo of this rhino. The photo was one of the winners of a recent rhino photo contest. Yes, I know I shouldn't be drawing from this photo and posting it on my blog, but the guy was so dang cute I had to draw him. I love his tubby belly.

I hope everyone enjoyed the lovely day today. I actually spent some time sitting outside and reading. Haven't done that in awhile. Now I'm sitting here, wide awake, thinking I should go to bed, so I'm not so miserably tired at work tomorrow. Thursdays always are kind of hellish for me as they're the only week day that I have to get up early. I should really get to bed, shouldn't I?

Surprise! More elephants...

Yes, as the title of this post says, here are more elephants. I painted them on a 12x16 canvas board, so obviously I had to cut off part of the painting. I will have to photograph it sometime when I have some natural light. I'm afraid there is no natural light at this time. Speaking of natural light, it was only cloudy part of the day and it seems we didn't get all that much rain. I was so looking forward to a cloudy, soggy day. It looks like there is only a 20% chance of rain tomorrow. Boo hoo!

On another note, I think I need to start doing yoga in order to deal with the effects of my uncomfortable sleeping arrangement. I have two choices: a bed that's as hard as a board or a slightly softer couch that is barely long enough for me. Anyway, I have been waking up every morning with a stiff neck. I'm sure dangling my head over drawings doesn't help either.

Oh, and jb, to answer you question about the black grapes, I did get some last Monday. I also just went out at 10:30 tonight and bought some more. I had to go out because I needed a replacement water filter. I can't drink my water as is, and I knew I would need to drink water before tomorrow, so I had to drag myself out to the grocery store. Anyway, now I'm in for the night. I don't even think I would go out again if someone told me there was a rhino wandering around in the neighboring suburb, and that's saying something...

Hope everyone had a great day. I enjoyed mine!

Some non colorful elephants...

Well, I did one thing with color and then went back to no color. The thing is, as much as I like color, it's much more relaxing for me to just kick back with a pencil than it is to drag out multiple pencils or paint. So, sometimes my lack of color has more to do with laziness than anything else.

Today I go back to work after three wonderful days off. "Oh, woe is me," Anne cried! It looks like another beautiful day. I hope we do get some rain out of the deal. In fact, a thunderstorm would be absolutely fabulous.

I thought about going to Cub foods after midnight last night for some black grapes, but I didn't. I decided I could wait. I also wasn't quite sure when they would re-open and I couldn't find holiday hours on the Internet, which annoyed me to no end. I hate it when businesses don't have sufficient information on-line. It makes me feel like they are inept and living in the dark ages. I don't think it's too much to ask for a "we will re-open at midnight" posted on their webpage. It's really not that difficult. I guess they didn't want any post Easter night business.

Some color, but just a touch...

Yes, I decided to add some color to my life. I know I have been promising color for quite some time, but I have not been feeling all that colorful lately. These colors aren't all that bright, but it's a start, isn't it? All in all I had a very good day. I got up, read, played my guitar, went out for awhile, came back home played guitar again, exercised, watched a dvd, painted, messed around on the computer and just finished playing more guitar. Obviously now I'm playing around on the computer again. Yes, it was a lazy day, but a fairly fruitful day as well. Speaking of fruit, I should eat some. I wish I had some grapes--some black grapes to be exact. But I don't. If I eat fruit, I will have to be content with an orange or apple. Not anywhere near as exciting as a black grape, but they will have to do. If someone, somewhere in the world, is now eating black grapes, I hope they are appreciating them and not taking them for granted because there are some of us that do not have black grapes right now and will not even be able to get a hold of some tomorrow. Woe is me...

Sketchy...

I just did this quick sketch "copy" of Jean Francois Millet's Young Shepherdess. It felt really good. I kept it loose and it was easy and spontaneous. Everything I've done lately has felt kind of forced--like I'm trying too hard. I have this great book that I bought from the library's for sale reference collection for $12.50. It is the New York Graphic Society fine art reproductions. I think it's kind of like a catalog, but it's great to have as a reference. The pictures are small, but I kind of like that. That means there are many many pictures. This is what I took the above drawing from. I've had the book for about a year and haven't used it much. I think it weighs about 50 pounds! It's one of those books that could kill a person if it fell on his or her head. I keep my copy low to the ground.

I think this whole not having to go and walk Cody every day is going to be a good thing for me. Even though it was only about an hour and a half of my time, it got in the way of a lot of things for me. For instance, I would get up and think: "I really shouldn't start that now because I have to go see Cody soon." Three wasted hours later, I still hadn't gone to see Cody. Now I don't have that excuse and can just get up and start a project right away. Anyway, I'm feeling positive about this change to my daily routine, despite feeling sad about Cody.

I think I'm going to do a painting this afternoon and I'm going to try to get started on some cleaning. i wish the cleaning fairy would just descend and get to work. Where are those damn fairies when you need them?

I'm back...

Sorry I've been missing for so long. I am still alive;) I have been relaxing this morning by drawing this rhino. I have an extra hour or hour and a half now in the mornings before going to work because of a not so happy situation. Yesterday when I went to see Cody (the dog I have been walking every day for years and years), there was a note from his owner explaining that he would be taking his last trip to the vet today. This was very sad, but expected and very much the right decision. Cody is 15 years old which is pretty ancient for a large dog and hasn't been doing well for a long time. I gave him a big hug yesterday before I left and the tears were just flowing down my cheeks. It was kind of difficult to go to work after that. I'm going to miss my big, sloppy, silly, sweetheart.

Drawing the big, baby rhino above made me very happy. One thing that I find so charming about baby rhinos is that they haven't yet grown into their very silly, big ears.

Shirley and Jenny again...

Yes, as you can see I'm not posting anything new, but just an update of a drawing. Shirley and Jenny--I heart them. I hope they're doing well now. The book was published in 2006 (not that long ago), so I hope they're still hanging out together, having fun and doing elephant things. Again, this should teach me to stick to the 8 1/2 x 11 paper, so it will all fit on the scanner. No more of this 11x14 crap unless I want my elephants to have stubbly legs.

I had a mishap tonight that pissed me off. I was just getting ready to sit down and have dinner when a jar of olives slid from the fridge and shattered on the floor. Not only was I upset about the glass, but I wanted some of those damn olives. Now I am in an oliveless household and I don't like it a bit. I also discovered that my vacuum cleaner doesn't seem to have much suction, even after I changed the bag. How annoying to have to deal with broken glass when one is hungry and anticipating one's dinner, with a vacuum cleaner that has no suction.

Other than the two tidbits above, I don't have much to say on this fine evening. I believe I have been rendered speechless for the moment. It's good that my fingers can still type when I am speechless. I am not speechless for any reason other than the fact that it seemed like a good thing to type and my fingers followed my brain's path. Faithful fingers...