MAY Chicken and Some "Catz"

From my art journal, a chicken sketch from May:

Exploring how to draw chickens.

Also I am continuing to learn about CATz -

Drawn...

In ink...

Very quickly :-)

A Hostile Alien Invasion: One positive outcome...

would be alliance over divisiveness.  This is my theory, anyway :-)

Humanity MOOdle

Word-y things:

My feelings manage to surface in my doodling -

Oy...

and thoughts -

Allow thoughts to roll around; do they withstand scrutiny?

RONA Day

I've had to restrict my physical activity for 72 hours but today is RONA - Resumption Of Normal Activity - day.  Yippee!  Remy and I were able to sort of roughhouse and play our version of Tug O'War after breakfast and later we will go for walkies...finally!

This is a 15-second impressionistic sketch of Remy's demeanor during my (our) 72-hour down time.  He'd lay down with a sigh and look over at me with his puppy eyes:

Keeping an eye on me :-)

He isn't a pushy dog.  He's cool and patient; and he has a 100 percent belief that something great is going to happen... next!

He inspired this:

OPIs

From Agnes:

From Adlai:

From chickens to cats

My study of chickens continues and I am also adding cats to my warm-up sketching.

As I mentioned in this previous post, "I don't know much about cats." , I still haven't learned anything new about cat behavior because I very rarely interact with them.  However, I can still work at creating a representation of a cat:

And still on the subject of my relationship to cats, here's a relevant word:

Mixed media word art

Mixed Media Dogs

Process:  For the background, I began with a selection of favorite colors which I randomly applied to Arches 140 lb (300 gsm) watercolor paper that had been gessoed on both sides.  When the paper was completely dry, I gathered up ink, charcoal, soft lead pencils, fat graphite sticks, and pastels and let my imagination take over.

I <3 dogs.

Word art - possibly inspired by the cool, rainy weather of a few days ago:

Green, inky goodness :-)

And a quote from Agnes Repplier:

I've been studying chickens...

because I watched an Australian documentary about a club for chicken enthusiasts. 

Chickens are beautiful creatures and there are so many breeds.  I am working at getting the basic form down:

And having nothing to do with chickens, here's a quote:

First thing in the morning...

a nice steaming cup of java :-)

Mug of  hot coffee...thank you, Michael!

Pleasant start to the day.  On some mornings the coffee is so exceptionally smooth and caramel-y that I have to sit and drink the entire mug while I look out the window, perhaps daydream.  Ah-h-h.

Here's a visual:

Positive is better :-)

And something about a favored subject - dogs:

Our furry buddies <3

A sketch and some word art

Remy is also known as "Reporter Dog".  He alerts me with one or two barks if he hears something - a delivery at the front door or some interesting or alarming activity he spies from the window.

But usually he looks like this :-)

"Remy, keep me company."

Doodling in my art journal -  positive and negative word art:

Cheer up

Recently I've had a need to lift my spirits.  I turned to my art - seeking a way to cheer myself up.

The result:

This made me smile!

Drawing dogs wearing hats... all good :-)

My art journal: "Words, words, words" (and dogs)

Purloining Shakespeare, I know, I know... boo.  My excuse?   In attempting to describe my fascination with words, this is the phrase (completely out of context) that came to mind.

No surprise then that MOOs and word art make regular appearances in my art journal :-)

New MOOs:

New word art:

When is comes to word art, I also have favorite words such as solitary, peculiar, singular, absinthe, twirl, woof - I could go on... but goodness, I won't.  Why some words are more appealing than others?  Possibly it's simply the look of the letter combinations, the sound of the spoken word, the denotation or connotation of the word itself.  Well, I love a mystery :-)

And dogs:

Dogs are a constant journal entry, too, because I love them.  Perhaps I ought to challenge myself to posting "a dog a day" sketch.  O, on second thought, not now.  No need to get carried away!

Doodled from my imagination :-)

As I write this my sweet dog, Remy, is snoozing by my chair.  This autumn afternoon the weather is sunny and beautiful and soon we will be heading out for walkies, yay!

Art journal, dog nose, MOO, and a quote

Amazingly, I began my fourth art journal on October 13th.  This is the title page -

Pretty much to the point :-)

Although I have been an artist for as long as I can remember, the practice of serious daily art journaling began a year ago.  I took Cat Bennett's class, Sketchbooks: Making Art a Practice, and during the course of the class I made a commitment to journal every day.  And now, twelve months later I have three completed journals and more importantly, a daily art journaling habit, yay!

About a dog's nose?  My golden, Remy, loves to go walkies and spends the majority of the time sniffing... everything.  I have learned to take it easy, not rush, give him the time to investigate the world in his own way.  Oy, even if it involves standing about for 45 or 50 seconds while Remy is sniffing an unremarkable bit of grass or a single (!) leaf.

This activity, which is of paramount importance to my boy, deserves a drawing:

A different world...

Today's MOO is a word combination that materialized in my thoughts.  I am not entirely certain what it means, but it does have to do with thinking that is not jaded by negativity:

The quote is from Shakespeare -

For me, reining in Expectation in its many guises has been only positive :-)

Ever have the feeling you are being watched?

Hm-m-m...

O-o-oh.

I have passed by this tree with Remy an uncounted number of times - more than many - and Tuesday was the first time I noticed the eyeballs/face thing happening on this tree trunk.

I have another quote that I think is funny (attributed to Albert Einstein):

And from my art journal, some word art:

Dog focus today

Remy and I took our regular walkies this afternoon.  The weather was just lovely.  The bunnies were out in force - hopping hither and yon, in some instances right in front of Remy!  He's doing really well keeping his predatory drive in check.  While he does give the bunnies a good look, he doesn't chase after them.  Of course he  gets a nice treat for being a very good boy.  And just see the face I get to look at:

<3

And from my art journal, a couple of things -

Another (!) dog:

Quick pen sketch.

And this quote that I like and illustrated for fun:

:-)

"Scaredy Cat" Goodies and egberts and etcetera

I enjoy supporting fellow artists.  I love to purchase artwork directly from them or from their online shops.  Recently I have backed a few Kickstarter campaigns.  I love to hear about the progress of the campaign and the excitement of reaching the campaign goal.

My most recent Kickstarter was in support of a long-time children's book author and illustrator, Shoo Rayner.  He was looking for backing for his project, "Scaredy Cats -  Funny Scary Stories for children by Shoo Rayner."  The project was successfully funded at the beginning of August.  My copy of the book and a lot of other goodies arrived a few days ago:

"Not too scary" tales for children :-)

I know I've mentioned a few times that I don't know much about cats, actually, hardly anything except that cats are as loved by their humans as I love dogs.  That's good enough for me :-)

These also arrived the other day - two egberts:

Honestly, I had to have a couple of egberts :-)

I don't know where I've been, but I had never heard of this kind of brush.  It was described as an elongated filbert - and I really enjoy using filberts - which enticed me to give this brush a try.  And whoa-a-a, that is an apt description.  I think they will be fun to paint with :-)


I continue to work in my art journal, daily. And from it, here's a sketch of a duiker - reminds me of a deer:

Ink, conte, pastel.

And recent word art:

Ink.

Wolfhound Whippet Warm Up

Just before leaving my studio for the evening last night, I used a broad acrylic marker to lay down the basics for a little dog.  It was waiting for me this morning, but, I restrained myself :-) and did a couple of warm up sketches:

A Wolfhound.

And a Whippet

Okay, warmed up... time to break out mixed media :-)

I had a little Westie many years ago and I was thinking about him as I began working.

The result:

"Pensive Little Dog"

Media: acrylic paint, acrylic ink, ink, graphite, charcoal, and pastels