The two Rosies

OK, I painted two different versions of Rosie this morning. Right now I just sort of want to play around and create her in different mediums and different colors to see what I like. I do kind of like my monochromatic Rosie with a bit of red. I've drawn her like that before with graphite and colored pencil, but I like this watercolor and colored pencil effect more. I know I've seen writing at forums about drawings that are monochromatic with a bit of color and people have found them pretentious. I guess I don't know why. This didn't come from a place of pretension. I just started out not knowing what I was going to do (after doing the color version of running rhino), and this is what happened. Running Rosie is done in the color palette that I most often use for her. Standing Rosie is more of a departure for me. Along with her limited color palette, she's a bit beefier than usual. I think I may have gone overboard with her solidity, but I think she's cute that way. Running Rosie is built more like the rhino in the photograph that I used. She's a bit less zaftig (I've been dying to use that word to describe a
rhino):)

Running Rhino

So, I've pretty much decided that my rhino will be called Rosie. It's the only name that works. I really don't think she could be called anything else. She not only looks like a Rosie, but she also wears rose-colored boots, so the name just has to be. I know I said I would be back with a version of what I did last night in color, but that didn't happen. I just sketched another picture of her, this time running. If you've ever seen a baby rhino, you'll know that they like to run. They're little trotters. And yes, I know her boots are not actually rose colored in the sketch, but they are in my head.

Tomorrow I plan on doing both versions from the past two days in color. I wasn't home much today, so I just had a chance to sketch tonight. I feel the need to have a project. I sometimes think that I miss school, but I really don't. I hated the having to get up and go there and sit in a classroom all day or all evening long and listen to people talk. I do, however, miss the homework. So, I suppose that is what working on ideas for this book is--a sort of homework. It's not like I don't work on little things all the time, but this is a structured project. And it's not that I need a lot of structure in a broad sense, just my own sort of structure.

Rhino in Boots

I hadn't drawn my favorite bootied rhino in quite awhile and just thought I would sketch her tonight. I think I will do this particular version in color tomorrow. I do want to, one of these days, start working on the book in which she will be featured as the main character. One of my problems is that she won't tell me her name. You may remember that I did a post about naming characters during my nanowrimo month. If my characters don't tell me their names, things can get awkward. One of the problems is that I don't want to use the name Rosie as that name is so associated with Rosie O'Donnell. It's almost like she has that name trademarked, at this point. My character looks like a Rosie, so that's a problem. Other "R" names just aren't very cute. There is Rita, Roma, Roberta, Raeanne, Roseanne, Reese, Renee, etc... None of those names are cute. What is a person to do when they need to give a cute character a cute "R" name and the only one that could suffice has been taken over by a larger than life celebrity? And that comment has nothing to do with her weight... My big question is, can a rhino character in a kids' book have a name that doesn't start with an "R"?

My mom noticed a typo in my last post, so now I'm paranoid about typos. Thanks Mom. I will still wish you a happy birthday as it is 11:24 and still your birthday.

Otters

I will not title this post "I Otter Draw some Otters" because it is corny and I already used it on my other drawing blog when I posted some otters. I see this title all the time as my other blog gets constantly spammed and spam comments then get sent to my e-mail for screening. For some reason, it is usually the "I Otter Draw some Otters" entry that gets spammed. It's annoying. These otters are not the cute sea otters that you see in photos, floating around on their backs with shell fish perched on their stomachs, but they're still cute but not quite as cute cousins, the river otters. I was going to paint this morning, but then thought "nah, I don't feel like dragging out my paints," so I opted for the much more relaxing option of scribbling with pencil. As I was scribbling, I was trying to catch up on "watching" Lost on the computer. I had two episodes to view, but only got to one because the second one was full of subtitles. Subtitles and drawing don't mix.

Now I must vacuum. Now that I have my new vacuum cleaner that I a pleasure to use, I think Wed. will be vacuuming day. Get ready cats! Your peaceful and happy day is about to come to an end. The dreaded vacuum monster is about to emerge from its shadows and mess with your feline lives.

p.s. I don't know what happened with my scan. Maybe the band of light came from the sun streaming in my window and spilling onto the scanner. I don't know. It's strange.

Today a bit of Manet...

I decided, after doing all of my rhinos based on the old masters, I wanted to do one with the actual person in the painting. This is based on Monet's The Bar at the Folies-Bergere. As you can see, I left a lot out as it was just a morning sketch and I didn't want to include all of it.



I probably wouldn't do all of it, even if I spent more time on it. Here Manet captured a fleeting moment in time. That was one of the aspects he gave to the Impressionist movement. They seemed to be pretty obsessed with capturing subjects in a specific moment. For instance, Monet painted the same subjects (e.g. haystacks) over and over, but at different times, so he could capture it with different light. That is one small tidbit I remember from art history class. Anyway, Manet's subject seems to have a fairly world weary look on her face, whereas my "copy" seems more wide eyed and innocent. We'll say mine is from her first day on the job, o.k.?

It looks like it's going to shape up to be another nice day. Hope everyone enjoys it. I'll be stuck inside with the books (and a few people) all day.

To Rhinocerbach on his 325th birthday...

It was 7:00 and I realized I had done nothing to celebrate the birthday of one our greatest composers. jb basically had a marathon Bach weekend going from one Bach birthday celebration concert to another and the only thing I had to show for it was the time I spent listening to the public classical station this afternoon. So I decided, because Bach has given me many hours of listening pleasure, that it was my duty to pay tribute to him. But, then I remembered... What about Rhinocerbach, Bach's lesser known, but equally talented (hey, you try playing the harpsichord and writing musical notation with only 3 fingers on each of your hands!) contemporary? Where were the Rhinocerbach tribute concerts? Nowhere, of course. So I decided to play tribute to him in my own small way by drawing his portrait. He was quite the handsome musical pachyderm, I think. Much more handsome than human Bach(shown below).




While I was drawing Rhinocerbach's portrait, I listened to human Bach's Brandenberg's concertos. This way I could pay tribute to the two of them at the same time. When I was done, I played human Bach's (I cannot find any of Rhinocerbach's sheet music) Gavotte from the Suite No. 3 in D on the guitar. Since I have practiced this piece quite a bit, I did it a fair amount of justice.

OK, I'll be serious for a moment. I know I said that I would not be adding head hair to any of my rhinos and *gasp* here is a rhino with a full head of hair. But I thought this portrait needed it as the head hair is such a big part of the look. It's a wig anyway and rhinos can wear wigs even if they can't grow a head of hair.

In other news, I did some aerobic exercise for the first time since I came down with this blasted cold. I feel alive again.

knitting with one arm?

I downloaded the pattern for this sweater because I feel like I really need to make it. The problem is, the yarn that was used costs an arm and a leg (really, I mean it--I would have to sell at least one arm and one leg and possibly a kidney) to buy it. I certainly cannot knit with one arm, I like both of my legs and I suppose my kidney is useful, so I will have to do a search and find a reasonable substitute. I wouldn't knit it in this color (even though I like it), but in a plum or a rasberryish shade.

In other news, I feel like I should have gotten double wages at work today. We had three extra volunteers come in to help and I had to show them around and explain what they had to do. That's not part of my job description...

I had more spaghetti tonight. My cats still would not eat any. I kept telling them there are cats all over the Internet that can eat a simple piece of spaghetti and seem happy to do it and become Internet stars in the process. They just do not care about all of that, I guess.

My cats are not spaghetti cats

Much to my disappointment, my cats are not spaghetti cats. The above photo is the famous spaghetti cat (and he or she looks very much like my cats) and there are countless videos on youtube featuring felines that seem to be at least a part Italian or just have a thing for pasta. But my cats = not interested. I offer them spaghetti and they walk away like they are offended or have had a run-in with an Italian at some point in their lives. All I ask of you kitties is that you just try it, so I can take some pictures or make a video that would illustrate that I live with a spaghetti cat. Is that too much to ask?

Double Shamrock Dance with Rhino...

I'm posting this to say Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy jb's B'day (one day late)! My rhino is supposed to be dancing a jig, but I thought it looked more like some sort of Spanish dance in the end. But then again, many Spaniards did settle in Ireland, so why not? Hope everyone is having a great day and that jb is continuing to enjoy her birthday week and everyone is living it up on St. Patrick's Day. The weather is amazing and I vacuumed with my new (used, but new to me) vacuum cleaner and my carpet is so clean you could eat spaghetti (yeah spaghetti, it just came to mind)off of it. Unfortunately the vacuuming and the open windows has not been good for my cough, but oh well, it's been worth it. Olé!

Some *gasp* nudity...

Yes, you know it was a only a matter of time before I was going to sketch The Birth of Rhino. It is obvious that this is the Goddess of Love and Beauty, isn't it? She's the fairest rhino in rhinodom.

In other news, it's back to work for me tomorrow after not going for a week. I'm sick of being sick, so I think I'm glad I'm going back to work, but that will probably only last for about 2 minutes after I walk in the door.

The White Rhino or Rhino in a Nightgown

OK, maybe I'm pushing things with this particular rhino. Rhinos translate into some paintings better than others and this was maybe not a good choice, but oh well, it was fun to sketch. As with the blue boy, I had to make the rhino much more short and squat than the subject in the actual painting. Whistler's The White Girl is very long and lean. Rhinos are not. I do think I could probably change my title to Rhino in a Nightgown.

I'm sure you're waiting for an update on my cold. I do believe, and I'm sticking to it, that the grease from those curly fries last night cut through my mucous. I should get the word out to other people with colds. Last night, maybe two hours after I ate the curly fries, my cough started to loosen. I can only attribute that to the fries. I do feel much better today and even went to my exercise class this morning. I did tell the instructor before I left that they should disinfect my mat because when I was lying face down, I kept sneezing. I think they should disinfect the mats anyway. Maybe that's where my cold came from in the first place.

Should I give this post a title? And an edit...

Can I just pop in and say "yum?" I bought these at Target the other day and kind of forgot about them until tonight. They are really a nice little jet-puffed chocolaty treat. Sometimes when I have a cold, I crave unhealthy food. I'm not talking about these marshmallows (they're nothing), but about the turkey sandwich and curly fries that I stopped to get when I was out. My head was splitting and the mucous was continuing to flow in my throat, chest and now my nose, but I was craving curly fries. And to top things off, I ordered a small order of fries, but ended up with large fries and I ate them all. There is just something that tells me that despite what all the food obsessed and nutritionists say, it is important to listen to our cravings at times, so that's what I did. Maybe the grease will help cut the mucous? Maybe?

Oh, and I'm drinking my first cup of tea since this cold struck. Why did I forget about tea until tonight?

Edited to add that I just saw a commercial for curly fries. I don't think I've ever seen a commercial before that was specifically for curly fries. Strange... Also, Celestial Season's black cherry berry tea is mmm yum.

The Blue Rhino

I told jb that I was going to do a painting today. I may still do a painting, but for now here's a sketch. It is the The Blue Rhino and it is based on Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy.



Obviously my rhino is a bit more rotund. Even though I like to try to capture some part of the look or feel of the person in the painting, I want it to look like a rhino. I don't want to anthropomorphize too much. No fingers, no head hair, etc... And it would have been wrong to make my rhino as skinny as the boy. I think I captured at least something of the attitude, at least.

Yes, I am home sick again today. I hadn't totally decided whether I was going to stay home or not last night. I thought I'd wait to see how I felt in the morning. When I woke up coughing and gagging on my throat full of mucous at 4:30 and then had to stay up for awhile because lying down just made the coughing worse, I then decided that I would stay home. I finally went back to bed after having some cough medicine and writing some e-mails and forgot to set my alarm. The funny thing is that I woke up at 8:30 on the dot, so I called work right on time.

Tarra the elephant and friend...

Yes,I said Tarra the elephant and friend, but you have to look very closely to see her friend as I only have lightly sketched her at this point. You may have heard of Tarra and Bella before. I know they've been featured on 60 minutes. Tarra lives at the Elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. Most of the elephants there pair up with other elephants, but not Tarra. Tarra's best friend is a little white dog and they are inseparable. Very sweet. This is very unfinished, but I just posted this so I would have something to post. I thought I would have lots of time to draw the past three days being home sick and all, but I just haven't felt like doing much. I do think I will be home again tomorrow. Maybe I'll feel like doing something then.


So, what have I been doing these past few days then? Just computer playing, watching t.v. and coughing. Fun stuff...

skinny legged funny looking rhino

I wasn't going to post this guy because he is so skinny legged and funny looking and certainly not my best work, but then I remembered that this blog was never supposed to be about posting my best work, but just about posting stuff, flawed or not. So, here he is, skinny legs and all.

Today I'm having a sick day. I have a cold that is not all that terrible, but still a cold, nonetheless. The strange thing about this cold is that it is all in my throat and chest. I have no nasal dripping at all. It just went from a sore throat, to phlegm, to a cough. And I know I probably could have gone to work and it wouldn't have killed me, but why go when I'm feeling a bit rotten when that would just expose others to the bit of rottenness as well? I'll just stay home and feel a bit rotten. There's no harm in that.

I did go out earlier to get some soup at Noodles, but other than that, I've just been sitting on the couch. I just finished watching two episodes of Lost on hulu.com and I'm just as confused as ever. The show makes no sense at all. Now I am contemplating doing an acrylics painting, but I think I will nap first. Maybe I'll be back later with another painting. We'll see what happens...

A bit of color

Wow, it's so nice to breathe in fresh air. I have the windows opened a crack right now. My cats are enjoying it and I'm enjoying it and probably everyone else in the Twin Cities is enjoying it. I'm sure there are people walking around in shorts today. Hope that at least everyone that is reading this is enjoying it.

I think the lovely weather was responsible for this color version of my rhino milkmaid. It certainly does have a springish quality, I think. I just sort of loosely based it on the actual colors of the painting. It would have been difficult to achieve the actual rich blues in watercolor and I do like that mine does look like spring.

In other news, I have that show The Doctors (or whatever it's called) on in the background and had it on while I was painting, and boy, do I find that show obnoxious. The whole time I was "watching it" I was wishing that they would just shut up, but I was too into my painting to change the channel. Aww, daytime t.v.. Don't you just love it?

March comes in like a gentle rhino milkmaid...

Well, at least mine did. So, how will it go out then? You don't know how thrilled I am that it is the first day of March. This long, cold, musty winter is almost over. I'm ready to let it go. Yes, I know it can snow buckets in March, but it usually melts fairly fast. I'm sick of the snow mountains that have been here since December. They're finally melting away. I really don't have much else to say as I have to start getting ready for work. But I will say happy first day of March to everybody!