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.

Van Rhino? Oh, where oh where is your ear?

It's been a long time since my last post. I just haven't felt like posting. And since this is something that is within my control and I can decide if I want to post or not, if I don't want to post, I don't post. So there...;)

Today, on this fine spring day, I will post Van Rhino. He was actually drawn last week, but I didn't post him last week as I didn't feel like posting, so he will be posted today, a week past the day he was drawn. Since Van Gogh was a Post-Impressionist, how fitting is that?

Edited to add, I really need to update my books at Goodreads. I was done with most of those ages ago. "Being done" with them doesn't necessarily mean that I've finished them, but I've moved on.

Happy St. Paddy's Day

No, I don't have a St. Paddy's day picture. Well, I guess it could be if you want to imagine that the rhino's bow tie is green. I drew him in honor of the honorable judge who presided over the case I participated in (as a member of the jury, I might add, not the defendant). I loved the judge. He had a sense of humor and was a cute little guy who wore a bow tie every day. Before we entered the court room the jurors would place bets on what color bow tie he would be wearing that day. Unfortunately, he never got to polka dots, only solid colors and stripes. I do wonder if he will be wearing a green bow tie today. Possibly a green polka dotted bow tie? On the last day of my civic duty, after the verdict was read and everyone was cleared out of the court room, the judge called us back in to thank us. At this point he invited us to ask questions. Since we had been wondering about how many bow ties he owns, one of the jurors asked that question. I could tell he loved that and that he enjoys talking about his bow tie collection. It turns out he owns about 50 bow ties and he started the tradition about 10 years ago, when another judge convinced him that it would be a good idea. He is retiring next year and is hoping that another judge will carry on the tradition. I hope so too.

I've got my eye on ewe

I know--corny title. Sometimes I just can't help it, especially since this ewe does have quite the stare. You may note that this ewe is of indeterminate hues. In real life, it is very violet, but here it looks brownish and blackish with only a tiny bit of violet. That's what happens when you take a photo of a painting with your phone at night.

I know I haven't been blogging for quite some time. Why? Lack of inspiration, reading rather than writing and drawing, jury duty, etc... All kinds of excuses... I can't guarantee that I will be back with a blog post anytime soon. Let me finish jury duty first and then I can try to get back into the swing of things. Am not thrilled with daylight saving's time. it's 9:06 and it feels like 8:06. I want it to be 8:06. Let's go back! I don't care that it's lighter later. What am I going to do during that extra hour of light? Go play in the snow?

Penguins and Snow

Since it is snowing again, I thought it would post this photo of a picture I drew on the white board at work last year. Anyone who has seen March of the Penguins will understand the "humor" in it. Penguins have to work so hard for everything. Poor penguins. I kind of like snow days when I don't have to go out. Fortunately, I don't have any overdue library books at the moment.

Post Valentine's rhino ballerina

Hi everybody. I didn't post a Valentine's rant this year. Some of you may know how I feel about the portrayal of women on t.v. shows and commercials during the Valentine's season. I won't rant about it this year, but I will just say that I don't like it. Most women I know aren't silly about Valentine's Day. Maybe I just know a bunch of smart women. Well, in fact, I know that I do...

Today we have a little sketch of a rhino ballerina. I did this yesterday before work, and again, the photo was taken with my phone, so it does leave something to be desired. I know pachyderm ballerinas are nothing new. Disney did it oh, so well with the hippos, but I haven't seen a lot of rhino ballerinas. I think rhinos are just begging to be portrayed as ballerinas, especially ballerina princesses.