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.