A Sunday (oops, I mean Monday) night drawing

Today I spent some time on this drawing, hoping that it was a portrait that I was going to want to finish. Unfortunately, I jumped in without having the line drawing right and it's too late to fix things now. So, it will go into my huge pile of unfinished drawings. I have a tendency to be impatient. You can't always just jump into a portrait, it takes planning and careful observation, neither of which I engaged in here. On the plus side, the start of my shading is good, so not all is lost. Practice always makes better.

And speaking of practice, I made another batch (my second) of lentil "soup" today and this one tasted better than my first batch. It could have had to do with the fact that I added cumin this time, even though the recipe didn't call for it. I think a lot of things taste better with cumin. And I say "soup" because I like it thick, so there really isn't much broth. It's more like lentil stew. One thing I realize in making this recipe twice is that I really hate chopping carrots. Celery and onions are easy, but I feel like I'm going to chop off a bit or two of finger with carrots. Maybe if I had a better knife it would help.

Hope everyone had a good long weekend. I think I'm going to be confused about what day it is all week long. Is it really Monday? Oh, and one last thing about the portrait. I'm not sure I would have had the patience for those braids. Hair I can handle, but hair with patterns is another matter.

A post without a picture (this one is about writing)

So, I just finished re-reading (well, some of it was just skimmed) the first draft of the "book" that I wrote for NaNoWriMo in November and I was pleasantly surprised. Now, don't get me wrong--it is still very flawed, just not as bad as I remembered. I think I really like my main character. I think I have given her some good and funny insights. I like some of the dialogue. I like how I tied elements of my main character's life with the subject she was studying. What I don't like very much is the plot. Do I think I can work with it? It is, after all only a first draft. Plots can be difficult for me. I'm just debating whether or not I should continue with this or start something new, perhaps using some of the characters that I used in this story? Hmmm, it's a dilemma.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you one tiny scene from the story (and remember it's an early draft, so keep that in mind. I had so much fun with this part as it was kind of a comment (although a bit exaggerated, I suppose) directed at some of my co-workers that get so worked up about the fact that kids (and adults) so often travel to the library without their library cards. Here it is:

James and I head to the service desk with our stash. We plop our pile of books on the counter, and then it hits me. I don’t have my library card. It is sitting at home, by my computer. When I tell the man behind the desk that I don’t have my card and ask if I will still be allowed to check out books, he peers at me suspiciously over the top of his wire framed glasses, like I’m some sort of juvenile delinquent. Hey, at least I read. Isn’t that enough to prevent a call to the library police? Obviously irritated, he asks with a sigh: “Do you have your school i.d.?” Geez, don’t they pay you people enough? I hate to disappoint him, but I do have my i.d. and I produce it from the lanyard hidden beneath my coat, triumphantly. Again he eyes me suspiciously, closely scanning the photo to make sure that it’s me. When there’s no doubt in his mind that I am who I’m claiming to be, he checks out our stack of books like it’s this big burden. Hey, some of us trekked all the way to the library in the cold, through the mud and and now have to carry all of these home in our backpacks, ensuring that we'll have back trouble by the time we're 35. We work for our books, while you sit behind that desk and act superior. Thanks for making a teenager and little kid who both like to read feel so welcome. I force a smile and thank him through my teeth. I think it comes out a bit sarcastic, but can you blame me? I thought the people that worked in the library were supposed to make young people feel excited about books. I guess I was wrong.


Edited to add, how great is it that it's 66 degrees?!

An elephant that needs a bit of tweaking

I didn't notice that this elephant's leg needed some tweaking until after I put my paint away. I think the next time I take my paints out, I'll try to fix it. In the meantime, I have been having fun playing with drawing pencils. As someone that stopped using drawing pencils a couple of year ago, in favor of mechanical pencils limited to B and 2B graphite, it' fun to play with the higher B's again. In case you're wondering about what I mean, the higher the number in the B range, the softer the graphite. The softer the graphite, the darker the marks you can make. Moving to the mechanical pencils all started with an on-line portrait "class" I was taking a couple of year ago. The instructor was teaching us a specific technique and wanted us to use mechanical pencils. It was all about laying down layers slowly and building up values gradually. As much as I learned in the process by working slowly and carefully, I feel ready to get my hands smudgy again. I should be posting something done with dark, dusky values soon. I'm sure you're way excited about that fact.

I worked today and am so glad to be home on my couch right now. It's not like it was overly busy (in fact, it was quite mellow), but there were very few workers there, and technology kept failing. And of the few workers that were there, there weren't very many that were skillful. I know, I know--meow, catty. Anyway, before I started this blog post, I was on this same couch watching something via "watch instantly" netflix when my spyware software decided to do a scan and caused it all to freeze. I'm going to attempt to watch again when I'm done here.

Tomorrow, as it is my first of two days off, I have decided that I'm going to continue with the great cleaning project of 2010. I plan on finishing the closet and possibly scrubbing the floor. We'll see what happens. Hope everyone is having a pleasant Saturday evening.

If you see a lot of missing "s's", it's not my fault. I'm having issues with my "s" key as well as the shift key on the left hand side of the keyboard. I think I need to try to clean the keyboard. There are probably crumbs under some of the keys. It really annoys me because I like to write fast and furious and this slows me down.

Edited to add that I spent some time in the used book room at the library looking for some books to rip apart. I know, I know, destroying books is a travesty. But, I recently was looking at a book that had pictures of paintings that were done on book covers. Hey, and I'm poor. One book for 50 cents can provide surfaces for two paintings. And I didn't just grab random books. I looked for books that I didn't think would be likely to enrich anybody's life. Yes, I know--who do I think I am? The book judge? Oh well... I guess I am.

Two Beautiful Faces

Yes, I do think these two have beautiful faces. They're not glamorous, but they're full of character and very interesting. I've talked about beauty before and that I don't like to draw faces that are considered to be typically "beautiful." I think I would call that glamor rather than beauty. Flaws and character are what makes a face interesting.

peace and quiet

As someone that values peace and quiet, often when I look (and listen) to the world as it is, I wonder if anyone else shares this value. Is there a place for quiet contemplation anymore? People seem like they can't be alone for 2 seconds. If they are, they have to whip out their cellphones in order to blabber on about nothing. Is this dumbing down our world? I'm not saying "oh this up-coming generation blah blah blah as it's not just the the younger generation--it seems to be everybody. And I'm no luddite--I love technology as much as the next person and I've certainly used it to my advantage, but I have problems with the constant noise (and I don't mean just physical noise, but the constant stream of what seems like often worthless information seeping into our brains at the expense of our own thoughts). I think of a certain co-worker that is always following certain people around, blabbing about nothing and then when she's not blabbing, she's texting. I've also heard her brag about the fact that she doesn't read. This is the kind of person I have a problem with. Texting is fine in moderation, as is blabbing, but find some time to think and read and learn something about the world. I've been thinking that I want to do a series of drawings or paintings about what peace and quiet mean to me. This one is just a sketch I did this morning based on a painting. It's not part of my "series (as it's a copy of someone else's work), but it certainly fits into the theme. It's certainly not a very exciting drawing or even well done, but it's what I had time to do this morning. As for the "series" drawings, I don't have any time frame for producing them, but just expect one to make its way onto the blog from time to time.

Edited to add that it's hot!

I decorated my sketchbook

This morning I started working on a colored pencil drawing. I spent about 3 hours slowly laying down color and it is not turning out to my liking. I hate wasting all that time getting nowhere on a colored pencil drawing when it's more than likely not going to work out in the end. So, this afternoon, I decided to do something fun--that is, I painted the cover of my sketchbook. jb, this is the same sketchbook that I dropped in the Japanese stream earlier this week. This was the most fun I've had with a drawing or painting in a long time, probably because it was something totally different. "What?" you say. "You've painted that subject 50,000 times already." Yes, I know the subject wasn't new, but the black background and the texture were such a departure from what I'm used to, that it felt all new and exciting. It was one of those things that one has to do from time to time if one wants to develop creatively. It's like driving a different route to work or brushing your teeth with a hair brush (well, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea). You're creating new paths between your neurons. I'm sure you get the idea... And all in all, it was fun and invigorating. And yes, I do wish I would have tried to remove the sticker.

As for the mundane, I was trying to decide what I was going to have for dinner tonight when I bell suddenly went off in my head. I remembered that I had frozen some lentil soup a couple of months ago. I had eaten it for several days and I was very sick of it. Rather than throw it away, I decided to stick it in the freezer (I rarely do that). I am so glad that I did as I think it was better than it was when it was fresh. It had more flavor. Anyway, I mixed it with some Basmati rice and, added a bit of tabasco and there it was. Mmmmmm Hope everyone is having a good Saturday.

Symbiosis

The question is: What would rhinos like to read? Probably, like all folk, they have diverse interests. This one wants to find out why this bird fellow follows him around, making a home on his hide, wherever he goes. He knows the bird is pecking and removing the ticks from his hide and that is a good thing as it is tough to lumber through life feeling creepy crawly itchy all the time. And Mr. Oxpecker keeps telling him "boy, your ticks are delicious," so the bird is benefiting from their partnership as well. Being the curious type, Mr. Rhino must go to the rhinoceros library and check out a book to find out if there is some kind of scientific name for this phenomenon. It turns out, there is: symbiosis. Mr. Rhino and his stool, unfortunately don't have a symbiotic relationship. The only one that is benefiting in this exchange is Mr. Rhino. As you can see, the stool is beginning to droop a bit. Hopefully, our rhino is a fast reader or he may find himself crashing to the ground before he learns all there is to know about Biology.

I think I had mentioned the other day, that I downloaded google chrome. Boy is it making my Internet life much more pleasant. I don't know what was going on with Firefox and me, but we have officially broken up, unless Firefox finds a way to clean up its act, which it may, eventually... But for now, google chrome is my main squeeze. A browser that doesn't freeze up and crash all the time, is a very good thing. Are we participating in a symbiotic exchange. Yeah, I'd say we are, in a way. We are both benefiting, aren't we?

This is the one Friday per month that I don't have exercise class and I always kind of miss it, despite the fact that it's difficult to get up on and go in the morning. I know I should stretch on my own, but between aerobics and the occasional weight training, how can I motivate myself to engage in a half hour or so of stretching on my own, as well? Going to a class has worked out great, but unfortunately, the class ends next week. Yes, stretching classes will be out for the summer. I guess stretching is not a summer activity?

Before I keep rambling along, I think I will stop here. I hope everyone has a good day. Enjoy the weather before it gets dreadfully hot this weekend. 90 degrees is really too much for May, I think. If I were a rhino, I think it would time for a good mud wallow.

self-censored

Well, I'm no stranger to self-censoring as I have to do it from time to time, but I do hate self-censoring my drawings. I only did this because, as some of you may remember, yahoo censored a perfectly innocent figure drawing that I had posted on my old blog and I don't want to have to deal with that again. I was in the mood for drawing a figure as I haven't done it in quite some time. And as I tend to do, when I draw figures, I morph them into some type of mythical being. I hope it is obvious that she is a fairy. My proportions aren't perfect, but it is a fairly o.k. effort as I am quite rusty with figure drawing. Actually the top half is the best part of the drawing, and unfortunately, I had to cover some of it.

I can't really seem to come up with anything interesting to say tonight. I had a perfectly good day off today, but it was anything but eventful. I could write about not having anything interesting to write about, but that wouldn't be interesting would it?

A drawing for the weekend drawing event

I used to participate in the weekend drawing event almost every week, so I always had a drawing or two from that to post here. For some reason, I had gotten away from doing that and I was missing it. So, this week, I decided I would participate again. It didn't hurt that there were such great photos to choose from. Anyway, I do know that the subject is Mr. Hanna and he lives in the Bahamas and is 90 years old.

So, I broke down and downloaded Google Chrome this morning. My Firefox has been constantly crashing and I don't really like IE, so I have been making my Internet rounds today with a brand new browser. So far, so good. Hope everyone is enjoying their day. I was so tired last night that I fell asleep at 11:00, so I've been up since 7:00. I'm amazed that it's only 11:35 AM as I feel like I've been up forever. I even went through my closet one more time (this was the third round) and got rid of more clothes already. I now have extra hangers.

Baby rhino walking

I'm going to try this and see if it works. If you try to post an animated gif to blogger via the photo uploader, it loses its animation. So, I was just wondering if I uploaded it to photobucket and copied and pasted the code to my post, it would work. *crosses fingers* The animation isn't much, but creating one was one of my goals for the week, so I spent the last couple of hours working on it. And hopefully, here it is. I don't have much else to say tonight. I hope everyone had a good day!

Edited to add, in case you didn't notice, it works! Don't stare at it too long or it might make you queasy.

Happy Mother's Evening

Well, since the day is over, I can't say Mother's Day anymore. So, Happy Mother's Evening to all the mothers out there reading my blog, including my own. As you can see, I'm posting a flower, or more specifically a bud. As usual, my attempts to scan colored pencil were frustrating, but this will have to do. I saw a picture of an allium bud and I thought it was the coolest looking thing ever. I actually like the buds better than the flowers. The reference photo that I used was the only picture of one that I could find that was public domain, but I may do another one using a copyrighted photo as there are much more interesting looking buds out there. I'm not selling the work, anyway.

To those that know how obsessed I was with eating a donut last night and that my attempts to procure one were futile, you may be happy to know that I did get to eat one tonight. It was delicious and now my craving has been satisfied, so all is right with the world...

In other news, I think it's possible that I'm coming down with a cold or I'm just having allergy issues. Either way, I'm dealing with phlegm and a cough.

Two Tonight

I have two drawings tonight, both in graphite, but very different. I suppose the style is similar, but the subjects are quite diverse. The first is a "copy" of a Renaissance painting (I can't remember which artist--I'm going to have to look it up, but not right now). I do find the hats of the Renaissance to be fascinating. Why would this man want to wear this hat? Does it serve any purpose or was he just very into fashion? He was maybe a metrosexual of his day and just liked to wear fancy hats and carry bags. Yeah, that's it...



And as for the rhino, I have now achieved my goals for the week on the drawing end of the scale. I still have to finish reading my book, but I'll do that tomorrow. This rhino is the brother of Hornelius Unicornus and is tentatively named Brutus. As you can see, he is a fan of rings. What you can't see in this picture is that he also has rings on his toes. That is just in my imagination, at this point.

I am most annoyed right now as it seems that someone is either smoking in the hall or has the door propped open while smoking and the fumes are very strong and it is making it difficult for me to breathe. Just go smoke in your damn apartment and stop polluting my air! I'm not even a major grump about smoking, but I like to be the one that controls whether or not someone is smoking in my space.

So, I really enjoyed the rain today. I think one of the problems that I've had with this spring is that there hasn't been much rain and therefore, it hasn't felt quite like spring. Hope everyone else had a good day.

On another note...

Bad photo of a rhino in oils...

Hello gentle readers. Having just had a 4 day weekend where I was busy most of the time, I finally today have a day to just do stuff around the house. It is May (as if you didn't know) and May is more like the beginning of my new year as my existence began in May (and I like the month much more than I like January, anyway), so yesterday, before work, I embarked upon setting some creative goals. That was way too many commas in that sentence, I know. Comma comma comma comma comma commameleon, you comma and go, you comma and go (but mostly stay). Sorry, I went off on a comma tangent. My goals for this week, written on my white board, are: start work on website (I'm re-doing my rhino website using a wordpress blog--sorry blogger); produce one drawing or sketch for my book, finish a book (I haven't been reading enough lately); do one acrylics or oil painting; purchase new white board markers (the old one's were dry, crusty and stubborn). So far, so good. As you can see, I started working on the website. I may start playing around with a banner tonight. Obviously, it won't be called Anniepete's blog. I produced an oil painting (see above) that I unfortunately can't scan as it won't be dry for a few days and had to photograph with my phone as my actual camera needs new batteries. I am well on my way to finishing (as in reading)a book and I have purchased a set of white board markers. The only goal I have yet to meet is the drawing or sketch for my book. Yes, I was easy on myself, but doable goals are the way to go... *pats self on back*

Hope everyone is having a good day. The wind out there is nasty. I thought it was bad enough on Saturday when I was participating in the Walk for the Animals. This wind makes that wind seem like childs' breath (whatever that means). Tomorrow it's back to work again. At least today I got to have some fun.

Edited to add, just because I know my mom likes to hear it, I did also vacuum today.

my birthday crossword

Yes, I have been missing in action all week, but most of my blog readers have been in Washington DC, so I wouldn't have had much of an audience anyway. I do have a few drawings that I have produced in the past week, but for now I am just going to post a screen capture of my birthday crossword puzzle. I do this crossword puzzle every day and my favorite animal has never been included, but lo and behold, on my birthday, there it was. You will have to click on the photo in order to see it.