Autumn Rhino

Can you tell I have autumn on my mind? Tonight we have an autumn rhino. I'm hoping to fill up my 6x6 pad of acrylic paper up with paintings in the next couple of weeks. They're just so squarely cute when they're done.

Autumn Elephant

This is a painting that actually looks quite a bit better in person. It is not so white and bright and I was unable to make adjustments to make it look better. I hate that. I tried to keep this loose, just sort of globbed on the paint. I thought I needed an autumn elephant. He looks good amongst the golds and reds and yellows. They suit him. He, like me, wishes that it was autumn all the time (or at least for 6 months out of the year).

I would like autumn back

I know, I know, I suppose I shouldn't complain. Soon we'll be blanketed in a foot of snow, but we had so much hot weather this summer that I did not want to see temps. higher than the 70s for quite some time. I like cool, wet (but not too wet) days in October with gray skies and clouds that make the leaves even brighter. I'm sure everyone is going on about "what a nice day it is today." I'm glad I wasn't at work today to hear it. As if it's been ages since we've had "nice" days. It's not like it's April when warmer temps. are a novelty. It's been warm all summer.

Anyway, on another note, I'm going out this evening, but I'm hoping to to do some painting when I get home. If not, I'll get to that tomorrow. For now, here's a painting that I did last week on a page of my new little tablet of paper for acrylics. I should have made the rhino a bit smaller or cropped some of her rear half, so her head wouldn't be so close to the edge of the paper. Not the best composition in the world, but I like the painting itself.

And weather fairies, I would like temps. in the 60s and 70s again. Thank you.

jiggle jiggle

I sketched this little rhino this morning and then wanted to stay home from work to draw or paint her in color, but alas, I could not. Now the inspiration is gone. It can be difficult to anthropomorphize rhinos, especially when they are belly dancers and they're supposed to be wearing sexy clothes. I made mine a bit more modest than the woman in the photo that I used as a reference. Her bra top was skimpier. It's just not right to put rhinos in skimpy bra tops with cleavage.

In other news, I am sitting here wondering what I'm going to have for dinner. It all seems like too much work. I think I might just have some cereal. Capn' Crunch, to be specific. I don't usually buy cereal, but this small $1.00 box of cereal was calling to me when I was at Walgreens the other evening.

Elephant Booty

It turns out that the $5.00 booty that I got at Penco the other day was a great asset. It enabled me to draw this elephant booty just like that *snaps fingers*. "What?" you may be asking. Why did whatever you purchased contribute to the quickness of the sketch? Well, it was 2B refills for my 0.7 mechanical pencils! I have never been able to find 2B refills for these pencils and have always had to stick with Bs. I have found 2Bs for my 0.5 pencils, but they're so fine (as in barely there) that I don't use them very often. So, now I can use a mechanical pencil with B graphite to get started and continue with the 2Bs and I can get darks much quicker. I know I could do all of this with drawing pencils. I actually have 8B (the higher the number, the softer the graphite) drawing pencils, but I'm attached to my mechanical pencils. The tip always stays sharp and you never have to use a sharpener. If you couldn't tell, I'm very excited about this find! And no, I'm not going to say that I'm such a mechanical pencil nerd as I'm sick of people feeling special because they are nerds. Nerd cool is so over, in my book. I just happen to love my mechanical pencils and that's all.

Yes, I'm up early. Sometimes I just get an itch to get up early so I have ample time to do things (in this case, draw) before going to work. Now I'm going to continue watching "The Wire." In case you don't know, The Wire was an HBO cop show. I had tried watching season one before and just wasn't in the mood. I'm not a huge fan of cop shows, but this one is often touted as the best show of the previous decade, so I decided to give it another chance. I'm liking it better this time (I'm on episode 5 of season one), but I'm still not blown away. We'll see if I make it through the whole first season and move onto season 2... Yay for free t.v. box sets from the library, even if you have to wait months to get them.

In other news, I bought this lovely red pepper at the farmer's market last week, so I decided to make stuffed peppers yesterday. This is the recipe I used and I was fairly impressed with how they turned out. As Rachel Ray would say yummo (I can't remember how her "yummo" is spelled and I'm certainly not going to look it up.

ugly brown shadow

Hi all. I wasn't going to post this digital drawing that I did this morning before work, but I suppose I will, just so I can document my progress as I learn how to draw with this darn laptop mouse. In my partial defense, I did distort the shape of her face on purpose, so I don't mind that part, but I do mind the ugly brown shadow. Ugly brown shadows are just not good. They invade drawings in an ugly, brown, unruly, uninvited way and then just stick around and stick out their tongues and say "na na na na na na, we ruined your drawing." Not nice at all. Had I worked in layers (as I can with Corel Painter), I could have just stuck my own tongue out, thrown the shadow in the trash and hurried along my way, but I didn't have the foresight to do so. I think I'll try the layers next time.

I'm just realizing now that banned books week is over and I never did my banned books week post nor did I even read a frequently challenged book, but I did download this nifty little poster that I will post to let everyone know that I was thinking of banned books and intellectual freedom this week.

some digital elephants

I was just sitting here tonight thinking "why don't I install my Corel Painter on my laptop?" So, I did. I don't know why I didn't do it much sooner. Yes, I'm stuck using the laptop mouse, but I could, if I do find my software for it, hook up my tablet to this computer. Maybe I will do that eventually. For now, here is something I did with the laptop mouse. Again, my wrist doesn't feel great, so I'll have to stop, for now. Only one digital drawing per day...

My friend dragged me along to Penco (the best art supply store in the city--sorry Dick Blick) today and I thought it was rather cruel as I don't have any money. I did buy a little 5x5 tablet for acrylics and some mechanical pencil refills and managed to only spend $5.00. I was proud of myself for finding something for almost nothing.

I don't have much to say tonight, so I'll keep this short. Tomorrow is a work day although I'm sure I won't be in bed anytime soon. Maybe I should go to bed. It would be nice to go to work on a full night's sleep, wouldn't it?