Happy Halloween!

I don't have anything scary to post today, but I do have these punkins (yes, that is how I meant to spell it) that I painted a week or two ago. I figured I should make a Halloween post as I completely forgot about Columbus Day. I shouldn't neglect all of the October holidays. I don't have much to say today other than "Happy Halloween." I did not decorate for Halloween this year, but I do have two black cats, so that should suffice.

Drawing

I tried to paint tonight. It was disastrous, so I won't be posting it. Instead I will post two sketches that I've done in my sketch book in the past week. They are both "copies" of Durer's work. It seems that everything that I tried to do today didn't work out. I have been making soup pretty much every weekend, trying new recipes... Most of them have been successful. Today's lentil soup just ended up a muddy, ploppy pile. I don't even think I will be eating it. Tonight I ate spaghetti instead. Anyway, I enjoyed working on these sketches. I like sketches. I like creating them and I like looking at them. It's too bad that a group of teenagers had to rowdily arrive in the room where I was looking at sketches while at the Institute of Art earlier this week. Teenagers should not travel in packs in art museums.

Self Portrait with Fish

Just a very quick sketch that I did this morning. It seems, judging by photos from my early childhood, all I ever did was hold strings of fish. This is a sketch from a photo from those times. I might add, if you can't tell from the sketch, which is again, very quick and rough, I am also eating a Popsicle. I can't do anything more than quick sketches right now as my right index finger is all swollen and seems to be infected. That's all for now...

Edited to add the actual photo because it's funny.

A quick little painting and a quick little post...

Hey gentle blog readers. It's me again. I'm afraid that my evening labor did not allow me to produce a good piece of fruit. It strayed far from my original idea which is fine, but it is not a pretty piece of fruit. It is a bit bruised and battered I have to say. I like to stray, but sometimes straying makes for a not so good picture. Should I try coming up with an idea and sticking to it until the end or is it better to stray? But really, this not so good painting doesn't warrant deep thought about straying or not straying, it just is what it is. The one thing I never go for with painting is realism. Maybe I should try that sometime and see what I come up with. At least the original painting looks better than the scan.

Do I have anything else to talk about tonight? Hmmm.... I don't think so. Right now I'm just typing for the sake of typing. I do like the feel of the keys under my fingers even if I'm not saying anything interesting. I like to type.

Hiatus over?

Well, hopefully... It really has been a long time and unlike the t.v. shows, I didn't even feature re-runs. But then again, are t.v. shows even run again anymore? Don't they just fill the summer hours with inane reality t.v.? I was looking at my blog and saw that I took a much briefer break last summer, but returned right around this time as well. I haven't been drawing much at all, but did this sketch last night. It was a quickie from the weekend drawing event photos selection. I don't have much to say, actually. I have to get back into the groove gradually, I think...

Rhino belly dancer...

Yes, I know--long long time, no post. Bad bad Anne. It's rare that I go this long without blogging. I am on the third day of a 12 day pet-sitting job. Since I have several days to go, I may post more often. I feel like I'm having a mini vacation. Yes, I still have to work, but I am staying in a nice house with a sun room and a yard and I don't have to contend with my noisy neighbors. Everyone needs a break from my neighbors now and then. Other than that, I don't have much to say. I was just playing around with Corel Painter this morning and this digital belly dancing rhino was born. This particular version isn't the original. I used an oil paint filter on this and quite like the effect. That's the thing with digital art. You can play around with it, run it through filters, change the background, to your heart's content. I like to do that type of piddling. One of these days I need to get some batteries for my stylus pen. It is much easier to work with that than the laptop mouse. I do have to say a laptop mouse is one of the more difficult things to draw with.

Almost a month?

Yes, it has been almost a month since my last post, but not quite... As you can see my last post's date was April 5th and today is May 4th, so almost...

Why haven't I posted? I suppose part of the reason is that it is such a pain to scan these days. My desktop computer died and my laptop does not have a battery. My printer/scanner is set up in my bedroom, but I prefer to use my laptop in my living room. So, in order to scan, I have to unplug the computer and plug it in in the bedroom. And then I have to unplug it and move it back to the living room and plug it in again. Oh, the joys of not having enough money to fix my technology issues. Obviously, if I had a battery for my laptop, it would not be as much of a pain. And obviously, if I had a working desktop computer, it would really be easy to scan, just as it used to be. Also, with the death of my desktop computer, I no longer have Photoshop and I really really miss it. OK, enough of my technology woes. Every once in awhile, I do plug my computer into the printer in the bedroom and scan a couple of items as I did this weekend (see above).

I was very happy to look outside my window today and see dandelions on hill in front of my apartment. I know people don't like dandelions, but I heart them. It also means that maybe spring is actually here.

In other news, I rescued a mouse this morning. I already watched one of my cats kill a mouse on Sunday and the whole, morbid drama was not at all pleasant. Yes, my cat does play with his food and I do not approve of that behavior. I did not feel like viewing that much nature inside my home again, so I put a fork down next to the poor little creature and he climbed right on and I took him for a ride on the fork and set him out on the steps. I checked a short time ago and he was no longer on the steps. I hope he's out enjoying the dandelions and does not decide to come back inside because that would just be incredibly stupid.

I know I've done many different versions of this rhino, but this one is my favorite so far.