Man and Violin

Yes, today I drew a man and a violin. To me, it is so much easier to draw a man than a violin. Even though this was just a sketch and I wasn't going for perfection (and I certainly didn't achieve it), that violin was a real struggle. The man wasn't. He was easy. Some people have this idea that people are the hardest thing to draw. I would highly disagree with that. I suppose achieving an exact likeness is a challenge, but I think doing that is even easier than drawing a violin.

It is rainy and dark and almost November. My favorite month is almost over and it barely even made an appearance. This year it was all about November in October. Maybe November will be more like October to make up for it, but I doubt it.

Have I mentioned my rhino mask yet? No, I don't think I have. One day I got to work and there it was hanging in my locker. Somebody actually brought such a gem to ARC and one of my co-workers found it. Can you imagine that? As it is still in my locker and I have to work tomorrow, I suppose I could walk around dressed as a rhino (well, at least from the neck up), but I wouldn't be able to see very well and it might be hard to breathe. I am going to my friend's house after work to help her hand out candy, maybe I can dress as the neck up rhino for that.

Ratu Rhino

This is my sketch of Ratu Rhino. I actually drew it from her Facebook profile picture. Yes, even rhinos have Facebook pages these days. According to her facebook profile, the name Ratu means queen, which is fitting, to be sure. She has a royal quality to her, I think. I sketched Ratu while watching a documentary that I got from library called Stone Reader. It is about books and the power of books, or more specifically, one man's quest to find the author of a book that he read and found to be extraordinary. It was a book called The Stones of Summer that got a glowing review in the New York Times in the early 70's. The reviewer was certain this book would have a lasting impact and define its generation, in a sense. Instead, both the book and the writer sunk into oblivion. The documentary questions how this can happen, how a writer with this kind of talent just disappears and never publishes another book. I haven't finished watching this yet, so I don't know how it ends, but I have enjoyed watching (more like listening, since I was drawing) this man following all kinds of threads that are certain to lead to information about this author, but ultimately turn out to be dead ends. Nobody knows who he is or where he is. In the process, as he is talking to book people, we get to hear all of these discussions about books and the power of books by people that are very passionate about books. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone that loves books. I am now off to find out how it ends. Does he find him? I will only let you know, if you want to know the answer.

Purple Pachyderms on a Page

I wanted to have something to post today and since I found my beloved purple pen, I thought I would scribble some purple pachyderms on a page in my sketchbook (And no, it's not pink. That would be taking the alliteration over the limit). I like doing these quick sketches (I limited myself to 5 minutes for each pachyderm)with a pen as you just have to go with it. I can't erase, and while I have this great urge to keep scribbling and fixing things and playing with the sketch, I make myself stop. No room for perfectionism in sketching.

I got up way too early this morning. Sometimes I just want to have extra time in the morning before going to work and convince myself to get out of bed (even though the don't wanna monster tells me I should stay in bed and really, this time she was right), and then I end up regretting it. It was only an hour earlier than usual, but that hour can make a difference when you have a long day and evening of work ahead of you. I wanted to have some reading time and I did do some reading, so I guess the extra time wasn't a waste of time. I think I mentioned in my other blog that I have been missing school a tiny bit (which is ridiculous, so yeah, go ahead and laugh at me), but upon pondering the idea, I realize it is really only the last class that I took (Library Materials for Young Adults) that I am missing. My idea for satisfying this longing is to read some YA literature, so that is what I was doing this morning. I think I really loved reading 5 books per week, but it's just not something I can keep up with if I want to do other things as well. But with young adult books, I should be able to read one book per week, don't you think? I, in fact, read three chapters of a young adult book this morning. Now it's time to get ready for work, even though I really don't wanna...

Don't Wanna Monster

The Don't Wanna Monster is my friend. She comes along every day with some regularity and in some form. Some days she just flits by for a second or two. Other days, she sits on my shoulder and sulks. She always knows when to come a calling. Today, she is sitting across from me, glaring, just daring me to get up and exercise. She also encouraged me to go to my desktop computer and play with my tablet, trying to delay me as much as she possibly could. She grins when I do the things that I wanna even when I'm supposed to be doing things that I don't wanna. For that reason, I quite like her, even though she sometimes is a bad influence. That's o.k. though. We all need a bad influence or two to come around from time to time, don't we?

Edited to add that the Don't Wanna Monster delayed me so much that I now don't have time to exercise. Oh well, it was just a 15 minute workout with weights and I can do it after work if I can keep the monster at bay. Maybe she can go visit someone else's house for awhile. Would anyone like to host her for a few days?

Bye bye Geocities and thanks for playing host to my rhinos

As of tomorrow the host of my rhino website will be no more. Yahoo's Geocities will be packing its bags and leaving the Internet. This means that my website will no longer be available until I make some revisions and find a new host. It's not like I even, prior to tonight, had looked at in ages. But I always knew that it was there and now it won't be. I'm not going to even post a link to my site as it will be gone by tomorrow, so no point... This summer when I heard Geocities was closing, I immediately saved my html files. Tonight (yes, I know it's the last minute) I went to my yahoo file manager and saved all the pictures that I had stored there. The pictures that I used for my website were all there, so I will have to store them elsewhere and then change all of that in my code. It seems like a lot of work. That's why I haven't done it yet. Anyway, in my file manager, I found this picture. It is not included in my website, but I must have contemplated using it in some way. I'm sure I've posted it in blogs of yore, but I will post it again now. It has obviously been doctored in Photoshop and I quite like the effect. Unfortunately it was scanned with my old scanner that was full of scratches and you can see some of them here.

I don't have much else to say and my fingers are not in the mood for typing, so I will just close with a "goodnight."

Two more efforts...

Yes, I was busy yesterday. Here are two more weekend drawing event efforts. This week I chose three different images and used three different mediums. The one in the last post was done in acrylics and these two were done with watercolor and graphite, respectively. I think you can tell which one is which, so I won't even explain;)

Last night I went with my friend to the airport to pick up her husband's brother. All I can say is that I'm so glad that I don't have to spend much time at that place. I really do not like that place at all. Not fun... I always find it a bit creepy. It's not that I'm worried about terrorism, but it's more like I always feel like I've stepped into a sci-fi movie. There is this sterility and coldness that you see in a lot of movies of that genre that the airport possesses. And when someone speaks on the intercom, it always sounds like a voice from another world. I don't like it and do expect something catastrophic, in the sci-fi sense, to occur whenever those voices appear.

I do have to work today, so it won't be producing two drawings today, instead I will be dealing with books and people and lots of disorder. Hope everyone has a good Sunday.

Here there won't be Rhinos...

OK, I tried to do something with a bit of perspective today and it doesn't involve a rhino. I could have added a rhino as I did add some items to the painting that weren't there in the photo. That being the cat and the jack-o-lantern. But, I resisted. This was done for the weekend drawing event and while I see it as something of a failure, at least I tried something different. You know by now that straight lines (as you can see I sort of lost my straight lines in the process) and perspective are not my thing. I like organic shapes. Nonetheless, I tried and really had nothing to lose by trying. It was a summer photo, but I decided to turn it into a fall scene.

Anyway, it was good to see you today, jb. I enjoyed our conversation and my pumpkin latte which WAS a bit too pumpkiny, but good nonetheless ("nonetheless" appears to be my word for the day).

It has been raining (with a bit of snow mixed in earlier for good measure) all day. It really feels more like a November rain rather than an October rain, but I guess I have to just accept that we are not having a "regular" fall. I usually go over to a friend's house on Friday evenings, but I will just be staying home tonight, which is good as I kind of feel like hibernating.

*snooze* warning: this post will put you to sleep.

Rainy Rhino Weather

I'm so glad that rhinos were able to find hats with ear holes in 19th century Paris. We wouldn't have wanted them to feel outside of the fashion loop. It seems that these two are enjoying the rainy weather. I think Mr. Rhino looks quite dapper in a bow tie and long coat.

A portrait update and some sock monkeys (yes, you read that right)

Because one must always follow a portrait with some sock monkeys... One thing I like about the weekend drawing event is the wide range of photos that are offered. There is usually something for everyone. I generally choose the portraits of people or animals and others may go for landscapes, flowers, buildings, etc. and then there are the sock monkeys... Yes, sometimes something comes up that I would never in a million years think of drawing or painting, but then I see it there and just have to try it. Obviously that was the case here. These didn't turn out as colorful as I would have liked as the paper didn't seem to soak in the color of my water soluble ink pencils that well. On different paper, the color comes out very vibrant with minimal effort.

In non portrait, non sock monkey news, there has been a "for rent" sign outside my building for the past couple of weeks. Today I found out that the person above me must be the one that moved out as I could hear workers working away up there. Earlier today they were blasting very obnoxious music while I was dealing with a rare headache. Thanks so much dudes! I so appreciate how considerate you are while you are working in a building where people live. Now they're pounding stuff. Isn't it a bit late for pounding? There is also water running now. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she's still there and just had some noisy workers there earlier. Maybe she was playing the music for them. Who knows... The walking sounds kind of like her walking. She walks all the time, so I should know...

Today while I was out, I bought some peanut butter. I was out of peanut butter and was really craving it, so much so that when I opened it and discovered that the seal was already lifted up a bit, I still ate some. It looked and smelled fine and I'm still alive, as you can see. Yes, my craving for peanut butter was that intense that I just had to live life dangerously. Sometimes a little danger isn't all that dangerous.

Yma Sumac - Pachamama

She was so interesting and strange...

I drew a portrait

Yes, it's weekend drawing event time and I drew a portrait. I usually choose the portraits when participating in the weekend drawing event. I wonder if the hosts usually show the people the drawings that people have done of them. I noticed after I scanned the drawing, that the eyes are a bit off (I didn't do the mirror test), but all in all, it's certainly not too bad for a two hour drawing. Portraits are my thing, but I haven't drawn a complete portrait in a long time. I usually just do these two hour exercises. One of these days I'm going to have to do a complete portrait, from start to finish.

In other news, I am quite cranky about the fact that I had to carry the supervisor phone all day at work and forgot to take it out of my pocket before I left. Now I'm going to have to get up earlier than I would like tomorrow morning and traipse (can it qualify as traipsing if I'm driving a car?) all the way to work to return the phone. *grumble* If we had some guidance and people knew what they were supposed to do, they would know that that there is a person that is supposed to gather the phones at the end of the night. I'm not blaming anyone else. It would just be nice to have a back-up person. That's all...

093009 Timu MV Archive

OK, one more entry for the day. What a fabulous artist she is and it's all done with her lip.

My "Killer" Chocolate Chip Cookie with edit....

As you can see, I can't draw digital chocolate chip cookies that are worth a dang, but this guy certainly thinks that he's all that...

Edited to add, Jane, I'm very glad you liked your rhino. jb, you should be able to read the text if you click on the picture for the larger version. Otherwise, I can type it out.

Happy Birthday, Blog Buddy...

Happy Birthday, Jane! I know you have been celebrating for the past couple of days. I hope you keep it up for at least a week (or for the rest of the month). You deserve it!

As you can see here, I found my stylus pen! I won't even tell you where it was as it's a bit embarrassing how it really wasn't even hiding. Well, I suppose since I already gave you this much information, I will say that it was actually under my desktop computer's keyboard. The thing is, I thought I had remembered carrying it out of the room and setting it somewhere, thinking at the time, that I had better remember where I just set it down. I must have, after that, brought it back to its rightful place. And I had already looked all over on my computer desk. I just hadn't lifted up the keyboard, I guess. How silly of me... But anyway, enough of this. Now it's back and I can play with it again. I would like to learn how to use it better. My hand has a tendency to get all shaky when I'm using it and it's like I'm having to learn how to draw all over again with a shaky hand.

As for the little fellow here, he somehow ended up looking a bit wizardy. That is supposed to be a birthday hat, not a wizard's hat, but maybe you could figure that out, considering that the rhino is wishing Jane a happy birthday.

I spent a bit of time this morning brainstorming about ideas for a story (any type of story would have sufficed) as I have felt like writing lately. The idea that caught my imagination most is about chocolate chip cookies that come to life (that's all I will say about it now), so I guess it will be a children's story (a somewhat scary children's story, I think). The only reason why I'm mentioning here is because if I tell people I am writing a story, I am more likely to work on it. And maybe people can even gently tell me to get to work;) I might even draw a picture of one of these cookies with my newly recovered stylus pen.

Purple Rhino, Purple Rhino and Yellow Becomes Electric....

Yes, I did one more of these. This one is for somebody, so that's o.k... Again, I wouldn't post it here since it's so similar to others, but I have nothing else to post. And that yellow?! That's the scanner. I don't know why the scanner makes the yellow look so bright and yellow and electric, when in fact, it is very subtle. Just one more scanner annoyance. I just finished this one and another painting and I don't feel like drawing or painting or anything else that involves putting any types of marks on paper or canvas for the rest of the day. As for the subject of the painting, I am finding, as I often do, when you paint from the same photo over and over, the paintings don't get better, they get worse. They start getting boring to do and lose their spontaneity. For instance, even though I've painted this guy (or girl)6 times, I like my first one the best. That's just how it seems to go. In other painting news, I seem to have splashed a bit of white paint on my couch cover. I'm trying to scratch it off right now.

What am I going to do for the rest of the afternoon? Well, I think when I am done here, I am going to get up and make some chili and then I will either read or watch a library video. Sounds like an exciting day, doesn't it? As the videos that I have are library videos, they may or may not work. Other library video checker outer's here will know what I'm talking about. I am really quite sleepy today and don't feel like doing much of anything. It's good to have Wednesdays off, even if I do have to work on weekends. But then again, on Saturday morning when I have to get up and get ready for work, I will probably be wishing that I had worked on Wednesday instead.

Oh, and before I go, I should share this link. It lists the most popular names by decade for the last century. I kind of like that my name, in its true form (Ann and Annie, make some of the lists, but not Anne), doesn't seem to have made the list in any of these decades. I'm glad to have a name that is a little less common. My sister's name, however, seems to be on the list for several of these decades.

Midnight Rhino

I painted this rhino quite some time ago and never posted it here as he is pretty similar to the others that I have done. But, I have nothing else to post today, so here it is. I gave this one to a friend, so he is no longer in my possession, but on a desk at the library. I do plan on painting this one again with a red background. I want a set of 4 and I think the others would look good with a red one. This particular guy is on the cheap little flat canvases that I usually use. The others that I have done are a little larger and on the canvases with the sides that you can hang directly on the wall. I have really enjoyed painting this one over and over as I love the chubby little pear shaped physique. In fact, I have been emphasizing that quite a bit. The model is more slender, if a rhino can be called slender, that is...

I haven't "throwed up" yet. Maybe I will dodge that bullet. Maybe little 5 year old James just ate something that didn't agree with him. My track record for picking up stomach viruses at the library is pretty high, so if someone throws up in the library or is in the library telling me that they "throwed up," I expect to throw up.

It looks like a nice day today--very sunny and fallish. It seems like winter has gone away. And yes, I do like the sun. Just not every day...

In reading news, I am reading "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Why Sherlock Holmes you might ask. I just felt like it and when you can just go grab it off the shelf while you are at work and check it out for free, why not? I just found out how Sherlock Holmes and Watson met. They are quite an iconic fictional pair, those two and I never knew how they met or how they came to be. Now I do...

Slouching Couple

Well, one is slouching, at least. This is a slouch that only a teenager can do and it is usually accompanied with surliness or whininess. This sketch was done from another WDE photo. I am not posting anything at wetcanvas because it is late and I would then have to comment on everyone's work. Again, the bench is just lightly penciled in because that is what one often does with sketches... Again, unfortunately, their scanned versions often look a bit weird. The subjects looked much more world weary, edgy and European in the photograph. I'm afraid I Americanized them a bit...

I see there is more snow on the ground. And yes, I know weather is unpredictable and all and we sometimes get early snow, but this is really early. I know it won't stick around, but it's there and that's enough for me to whine. I want fall back. That one week of fall was fun while it lasted. I did hear that it is going to warm up a bit by the end of the week, but I'm still going to whine as I feel like fall has already been tainted by snow monsters (unfortunately not the abominable variety as they are, at least, cute and when they have their teeth pulled by elf dentists can put stars upon Christmas trees).

In other news, my farmer's market carrots are almost gone and I dug into the potatoes last night. I was going to make chili, but decided to do that later on this week. The cilantro should hold up that long. I did add cilantro to my potatoes and that was a good combination. Cilantro makes just about anything taste better.

Yesterday afternoon at the library a little boy came up to the desk with his mom and was very chatty. I learned right away that his name was James and he was 5. I tried to give him a sticker, but I guess the dog sticker I offered him wasn't good enough (we would have a much better selection if someone wouldn't have kept putting piles of our limited supply of stickers on the counter for people to take on their own. grrr...) He told me I could give it to his mom. Anyway, after much chatting and after I checked out the books that he carried to this desk, he told me that he "throwed up last night." I am hoping that I will not have to come here later on this week to say that I "throwed up" last night. I don't want to have to do another Pepto Bismol vomit post.

Is he floating?

No, he's not. I have the bench he is sitting on lightly sketched and the scanner, being the imperfect piece of equipment that it is, didn't want to pick that up. This is a weekend drawing event drawing and I have only spent about an hour on it so far, so I could technically work on one more hour before posting it there to stay within the two hour limit. As I was only working with a pencil with B graphite, it is not this dark. I just darkened it a bit with Photoshop, so you could see that he is sitting on a bench. But, I still think he looks a bit suspended in air and all I can say is that my scanner is a piece of crap. I can never present my drawings as they actually look in person (even when I doctor them in Photoshop). It takes away certain values (as in darks and lights) that I try hard to achieve. Anyway, moving onto the subject, I thought this guy had a very strange hairstyle (very flat on top, isn't it? Kind of Frankenstein's monsterish). As the host this week is European, maybe this style is all the rage in Europe. Who knows...

I have to work today, so I will not be sitting at home eating carrots all day long. I went to the farmer's market yesterday (in the snow, I might add)and became obsessed with the carrots that I bought. Unfortunately, the containers of carrots were very large and I asked if I could just have half, not because I was being cheap, but because I figured if I bought that many carrots, some would go to waste. Well, considering how many I ate yesterday, I don't think they would have. Now I wish I had more carrots. Unfortunately, next Saturday is the last farmer's market and I have to work, therefore, I will not be able to buy more carrots. *sniff* I didn't buy much yesterday as I got a late start and didn't have a chance to go the cash machine. But, in addition to the carrots, I got some potatoes and a huge bunch of cilantro. Now I will have to make more chili. I'll do that tonight, I think. I also had Indian food yesterday, so with the curry from that and all the carrots that I ate yesterday, I'm pretty sure that I have developed an orangey glow. Is it easy being orange? I'm not sure. I'll let you know when the day is over...

snow

This is what my friend's deck looks like at 3:00 AM on this October 10th. Are my fears coming true? I had a feeling that we were going to just skip fall this year and not pass "go" on our way to winter.

My Apologies...

I will apologize in advance for posting this rather pathetic cow, but he (or she, I should say) is the outcome of my attempt to go large. I tried. And she is large (18x24 maybe?) and I will paint over her when I finally get a container of gesso. I may still post her for the weekend drawing event just to show them that I tried, but I will have to do a graphite portrait too (something I'm comfortable with) to balance it out. In my defense I will say that it does look better in person. Even though I didn't use a flash, it didn't photograph well. But that is not enough of an excuse...

Fun with Dead Dragonflies

I was going through my camera's memory card and found some pictures that I took this summer and had forgotten about. I think this dragonfly looks fairly healthy and bright eyed for something that is a corpse.



Anyway, he was a good model, fully cooperative, even fastening himself to shirts when I directed him to do so.

I have a feeling that a live dragonfly would not have been so easy to deal with.

I do plan on coming back with some art later on today. The challenge for the weekend drawing event is to work large, so I may do a large painting. We'll see... For now, I will just say that I am very happy that my heat has finally been turned on. It was getting a bit chilly in here.

Edited to add, in other news, my neighbor (a male person) has been coughing for about a week. Judging by the nature of the coughs (very loud and dramatic), he either has the swine flu or is just suffering from the male "I'm so sick" syndrome.

Oh, one more thing... I did also want to say that if anyone sent me e-mail a couple of days ago, my inbox was full. So, if you sent me anything, I'm not ignoring it, I just didn't get it. I actually even had an address verification message on my library card because the library tried to send me an e-mail that my book was in when my box was full. I found that amusing.

Baby Rhino

This is the new baby rhino that is being hand reared in a zoo in Germany. More info here. Of course I think she is very cute and am envious of the zookeepers that get to sleep next to her. It seems like she is being treated like a princess, as she should be... I decided I would just do a little sketch of her and one of her keepers (if I ever work on it more, which I probably won't as I don't usually revisit sketches, I will include the zookeeper's other leg).

So, how crappy is it that now on my day off, the weather is getting warmer and sunnier? I wanted to enjoy a dark, rainy day at home. I had to waste the two lovely, rainy days by working through them. I did, however, see on Facebook that one of my co-workers was over the moon because the weather was cooperating and he was planning on riding his bike to work. So, somebody is happy. In fact, from the complainy (yes, I know that's not really a word) statuses yesterday, probably everyone on Facebook is happy. I guess those of us on Blogger are more the dreary day types. I should conduct a survey.

I think in a little while I will have some more chili and pretend that it's raining. How does that sound?

Edited to add, I forgot to mention that last night at work, someone came up to the desk all in a panic because someone had sneezed on one of the keyboards. She wanted me to wipe it down. The county has made it clear that they can't afford to provide wipes or hand sanitizer for the workers, so they're certainly not going to provide this for the public. I think we're going to have a BYOW (bring your own wipes) policy for those that are going to be overly paranoid about every little sneeze. Hey, maybe they can wipe down all the books too while they're at it. Everything could use a good wiping.

A repost of my sketch of Vermeer's "The Milkmaid"

I guess it isn't even technically a re-post since I haven't posted it here, but it is in my other public blog. I'm posting it today because I like it and I feel like staying home and doing quiet activities (although not pouring milk from a pitcher as that would be silly--my milk will stay in its carton) today, but again I have to work. The painting that this is based on is one of my favorite paintings. I could just sit and stare at it for hours. This is also (even though it was basically just a spontaneous sketch) one of my favorite drawings (even if it is just a copy of someone else's work). I just like how it turned out. I like the mood of it, her expression and her form. I also think it is a good example of my style of drawing. Someday I would like to try painting her. I'm hoping to get to some painting tonight.

It is raining again and I am loving it. It is fine when it rains like this all day long, it's just the intense downpours that I worry about as they can leak into my apartment. The only problem with this rains was the fact that the darkness it created caused me to sleep until 10:30 which makes it difficult to get much done before having to be to work by 12:45. I'm still sipping my coffee now at 11:32 and I think that that means that I won't be getting my exercise in before work today. Oh well... Today is another party day at work. Yes, someone else is leaving us. It's supposed to be a barbecue. I guess that means someone will be standing out in the rain barbecuing, doesn't it? It will not be me. For one thing, I have never barbecued in my life, for another, I'm not that self-sacrificing, even though I really like the person that is leaving. Also, even though barbecuing is a traditional male activity, I have noticed that for most of the parties, it is the women that do all the work (even when men are on the party committee) and I have a problem with that. We all (well most of us) work equally hard at work, so why should the women do all the kitchen stuff? It's not like the men are out chopping wood? So, I will not be pouring milk from a pitcher for the men at this party. They can get their own milk.

Edited to add that I'm getting annoyed by all of my Facebook folk whining about the weather. You guys had your day after day of sun and warm weather. Let those of us that enjoy this kind of weather, enjoy it. Every other status today is "so and so is so sick of the rain and cold." Come on, it's only been cooler for like a week and the rain is wonderful. I heart it. I suppose now it's really time for me to start getting ready. I just want to say home and enjoy the rain. *whine*

A sketch

I feel like blogging while I sit and wait for my clothes to dry, so I thought I would post this sketch that I started doing for the weekend drawing event a few weeks ago and never posted anywhere (I didn't like it all that much, but it is just a sketch, and not something I spent a lot of time on, so why not post it?). I would like to start another painting, but alas, I have to work today and I still have to fit in my exercise (not sweaty exercise, just pilates with weights that I have been doing every Monday and Tuesday before work), so no time for painting. Yes, I know I had all of yesterday off, but I sure wish I had today off too. *whine* I have to go to work soon which is unfortunate as I don't think I can stomach stupidity today.

So, how does one tell the difference between a hen and a rooster? Julia said that what I thought was a hen was a rooster. I thought it seemed to have a smaller comb and was not quite as showy, so I thought it was a hen. I wish people wouldn't label their photos with the word "chicken." Be more specific please. Let me know if it's a hen or a rooster. I didn't grow up on a farm, so I don't know unless the rooster is very obviously roostery. Some of them don't seem to be...

Oh where oh where is my stylus pen? I would like to try my hand at some digital art again, but I have not been able to find that pen. Even after cleaning... It's very annoying. The tablet is no good without its pen. And I'm just rambling now, so I'll shut up. I had thought of something that I wanted to blog about, but it went away. If I can think of it, I'll be back with an edit. Actually I don't think it was very important, so even if I think of it, I may not come back to bore you with the details. Right now I have to prepare myself for facing stupidity. At least I have chili to look forward to.

Edit: Don't you just hate it when you spend $1.50 to "dry" a load of clothes and when the dryer stops, they're not dry?

Autumn Elephant

I will call this guy the Autumn Elephant since he has colors like my Autumn Rhino. He was also painted in autumn, obviously... If he looks a bit similar to my recent elephant drawing it's because I did transfer the drawing onto the canvas, therefore, he could be his twin, but his colorful twin.

When I'm done here I am going to have to search for stamps. I had a whole sheet of stamps in my car, but I think they must have been stolen out of my glove compartment. Isn't that weird that stamps are what someone would take when they had the choice of many empty water bottles and cans?;) I know I have more stamps around here (I only use one or two a month, so they don't go very fast), but the question is "where?" I do have to go out, but not until I find my stamps. I'm very annoyed that someone stole my car stamps...

So, I discovered when I tried to edit the video below, that my camera (not my little video camera, but my actual camera) takes Quicktime videos. I am very annoyed with that as these videos are not compatible with my Windows Moviemaker software. The video really needed some editing (specifically lightening up), but in order to edit with the Quicktime player, I would have to get the Pro edition which is $30.00. No thanks... I guess I can get some freeware video converters, so I'll either have to do that or just always use my actual video camera if I want to take video that I plan on posting anywhere.

In other news, I think I'm going to make some chili, but I will do it the condensed way. I have a can of chili (not Hormel, but some fancy organic version) and I think I will just add to it a can of beans and a can of tomatoes and some cumin and chili pepper. But first, I have to find my stamps! Grrr

Edited to add now after stepping away from this painting for awhile, I see I should blend that orange more into the background. It looks kind of like he's walking on orange sludge rather than foliage. But mostly I came back with an edit to say that I made chili and it was pretty good, despite the fact that I started with a can of chili and just added stuff to it. So Jane, now you have some chili company;) I don't have any apple pie though, just a Halloween Snowball (well, not really a Snowball as it's not Hostess, but the kind I have is better than Hostess). I was thinking of doing another painting, but I may be a bit lazy tonight for that tonight. I do want to try some pears (yes, once in awhile I get into fruit) in oils. Maybe tomorrow night after work, but maybe not... Oh, and I did find a stamp.

The real fingerpuppet monster

Poor guy. He can't even scare a cat. In fact, the cat thinks it would be a good idea to eat him...

Fingerpuppet monsters aren't scary.

Poor little guy...

What should I draw?

I'm sitting here wondering what I should draw tonight? Is there anyone out there? Any suggestions?

Edited to add, or should I paint? I can't decide. Help!

Where is everybody?

Lone Elephant

Here is the elephant I promised last night. I'm sure you've just been waiting with bated breath;) Some of you may recognize the elephant with the strange ear from this drawing. It is the same elephant, but I did not use the same photo as a reference. Someone took a bunch of photos of this particular elephant and posted them in the Wetcanvas image library. I'm very glad that they did as they are such great photos.


I just finished watching a documentary that I got from the library called Milking the Rhino. It is a film about conservation that puts a human face on the problem. We see the issue from the humans that live with these animals, and in some cases, feel very threatened by them. Can you imagine having an elephant or a rhino in your garden? Most people think that rabbits are bad enough... I think anyone reading this knows how I love the big, bulky pachyderms and if I could do anything for them I would (for now, I have to just settle for drawing them), and I do love how there are people out there that are trying to do something. The title of this documentary has to do with the idea of educating the people about how they can "milk" the wildlife like they can their own cattle--that the wildlife can be just as essential as their cattle. Yes, it is about making money, but these people are very poor and if they can make money and preserve these animals at the same time, why not? By creating these wildlife tourism parks, they are benefiting their own communities, giving people an opportunity to see these animals in their "natural" habitats, and protecting the species all at the same time. If all goes well, everyone benefits. At least it's something...

Again, I am really enjoying this fall weather, but I did just have to close the window. As much as I was enjoying the crisp, clean fall air, I was starting to shiver. It felt good for awhile though. Another good thing about this cooler air, my cough is subsiding a bit. I've had what I think is an allergy cough for about a month. It's been much quieter the past few days...

Is it dry yet?

In reference to the question, I would say "no," but I scanned it anyway. This was the oil painting that I did (I think) over a week ago. I thought it was dry, but then when I added a few pen outlines, I saw that there was paint on the tip of the pen and that my fingers looked a bit smudgy. And these were water soluble oils, not the real ones! I know some people were probably thinking when I was talking about trying oils, "you've tried oils before." And yes, I have, but like the paints I used here, they were water soluble. I have yet to try actual oils. I thought about it last week, but I've had a cough for the last few weeks and was thinking that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to breathe in linseed oil and turpentine. I also worry about the cats breathing in these chemicals(and yes, I know--I'm obsessed with them. I won't even talk about how I almost poked my eye out last week because I was tending to their needs in the dark). Anyway, about the painting itself. At first I thought I would try for a bit of realism, but then thought "no, I'm just not interested in realism with paints. Paints give me the opportunity to go for a bit of whimsy. I'll save any semblance of realism that I want to achieve for pencil. I like oils. I think I like painting with them better than acrylics because I like their buttery texture and the fact that you can blend them so easily, but I don't like the fact that you have to wait for them to dry. I do think I'm too much in love with instant gratification as in "I want to paint this and I want it to dry in a minute so I can scan it. What do you mean I have to wait a week? No way!"

Tonight, after I got home from watching t.v. at friend's house, I started drawing a graphite elephant while catching up on podcasts. What did I ever do before the days of itunes and free podcasts? I heart them. Again, I'm not at all tired, but it's not as late as last time I posted in the early morning hours. I see that the weekend drawing event photos are already posted, so I will have that to work on tomorrow.

Did you want to hear the story about my eye? Some of you already heard about it, but I didn't post the story here. The other night, when I was already in bed, I realized that I had not returned my cat Frodo's bed to its spot on my drafting table. Knowing that is where he loves to sleep, I decided to get up and provide him with his bed. I did not turn on the light as I knew where the bed was, so I reached down quickly(it was on the floor) to pick it up, forgetting that the music stand was parked there. Unfortunately, my eye and the sharp peak of the music stand collided (and not at all gently). At least my eye was closed, so I didn't blind myself, but I ended up with cuts and bruises on my eyelid. As someone who grew up knowing of someone that fell on a fork and was blinded, I have always had a fear of sharp objects meeting my eye. Fortunately I wasn't blinded, but it sure did hurt.

Do I have anything else to post about tonight? I don't think so, but I should be back with an elephant tomorrow. We'll see if I can think of any interesting stories to include with it.

Oh, and special points for anyone that can tell me what kind of rhinos these are. Hint: think bumps and unicorns.