Sambo and another Portrait

Still keeping busy with artstuff. I had put the background to Sambo in ahead of time. It's acrylic so watercolor wouldn't work well and I didn't feel like using gouache or collage so I used the Tombow pen to draw my little black poodle-chihuahua mix. I like how he turned out. I guess I could have drawn him larger but it's okay this way. At least I got him down before he moved! Getting faster with my sketching and that's a good thing when you try to get an animal down without using a photo.

The other is portrait number 9. I'm really slow at doing these. The challenge was to do one every day during the month of August but I've changed it to doing 30 no matter how long it takes! I'm pretty happy with this one although once again, it doesn't look like me or the other portraits! My eyes are too big but at least I got the head shape better. And the nose is better too! Wish it looked like me though!

Everyone ready for fall to come? I've had enough of this summer between snakes and the heat. I think everyone has had lots of heat this year and many of you got Irened too. I hope all of you did okay through her rage up the East Coast.

Damn the Rattlesnakes Anyhow

I came home from California today as it was a very bad day for us. Our Brandy was bit by a rattlesnake last night. My husband took her to the vet but she couldn't be saved. Evidently, getting bitten in the nose as our big Sarah dog was is a better place than the fleshy underside of a dog. Brandy was only about 3 years old so we are really, really sad and wishing we weren't living in the desert right now. I know the snake was only doing what comes natural to them for their own survival but it hurts so much to see the dogs hurt by them. My husband almost stepped on a snake when he was out looking for her. That snake didn't make it either but I don't feel so bad for it.

Brandy was a shelter dog who'd been turned back in three times before I found her. She got over a lot of her fears and was enjoying life to the fullest so we at least can be happy about giving her that. It's just so hard; we feel like we failed her even though logically we know we did the best we could. We will miss you forever Brandy. We love you.

New Pages

I am back home from California. My Skoshi dog is doing fine now that the blockage is gone from her intestines and I am catching up on blogging and some painting.

The bee picture was done because my youngest granddaughter has moved beyond truly loving all animals to including some of the insect world. She likes bees now even though her sister and a friend have both been stung recently. There is an avocado grove on the hill behind their house and the owner imported bees which have decided this granddaughter's swimming pool is a good water source for quenching their thirst after a hard day pollinating trees! Anyhow, I told her I'd show her a quick way to draw a bee so she and one of her sisters grabbed their composition book journals and we drew bees and daisies. They did a great job and I wish I had thought to scan in their versions but then again, this youngest granddaughter wouldn't have allowed me to share anyhow - she is beyond shy.

With nothing to do one morning while all the kids were doing schoolwork (being homeschooled), I drew one of the family dogs. This little dog is a rescue dog. She's perfect for my granddaughter and was dressed up in such a cute little dress. I had to try drawing her. Painting her was a bit more difficult but I think I got the gist of her down.

The last pic is of my Pandora kitty. She was sitting this morning, where she could see me, the dogs and the canary, Taxi. I thought she made a simple shape the way she was lying down so grabbed a Tombow pen and quickly drew her. Good thing I was being quick because no sooner than I began and she up and took off for a better spot leaving me to finish without my model! With this pen I just had to add a bit of water to have the essence of a painting. I thought it looked like a Chinese or Japanese sumi ink painting so I added a bit of origami paper and made my date look like one of their little stamps. The writing is a bit of haiku (minus the word Pandora) I made up for the page.

Now I have to catch up with some lessons I am behind on. Hope you all have a good day.

Happy Mother's Day - Mitzi's view

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!  Hope you have a wonderful day. 

We celebrated yesterday as everyone but my mistress are going to Disneyland today.  Mistress says that's fine with her as she'd rather spend the day with just us dogs for a change.  No people unless she decides to go out somewhere to eat. 

The girls picked such lovely flowers it was a shame not to try drawing them.  The scanner lightened the picture quite a bit but we can only do a basic scan with no adjustments since it's not our scanner (don't have the software to do all the adjusting).  The vase was on a brownish table so I painted what I was seeing and should have painted that part to how I was going to have the background on my paper which is good to learn if I want to make pictures that aren't journal entries.  No pencil was used here; it was straight penwork and then painting. 

We are having a good visit even if it was due to Skoshi (one of Mistress' other dogs, a shih-tzu) having a stomach blockage from swallowing a rawhide chip.  She was rehydrated, given barium and lots of xrays but not the surgery we thought she might have to have.  We are all relieved but now we don't get to chew on the rawhide strips anymore.  I hope Mistress finds something else yummy for us to chew on. 

Note by Timaree:  I know Roz's International Fake Journal Month is over but Mitzi hasn't filled her small journal so we will continue till it is filled.  Besides, it's fun!

Three Inchies

The theme for inchies this week at Inchybyinch is babies.
The pictures I made these from are from my own photos.
The two pictures of the goat are from when our Mary Muffin was a baby. She's almost 8 years old now. The woman in the picture has a new baby now so it's fitting that she is in the photo. The calf is a picture I took outside our gate last week. This little guy will probably be sold off but if he is a she perhaps she'll be around with her own calf in a year or two. She'll be sporting long horns as she's one of those long-horn breeds and I mean looonng horns. I would not want to upset her when she's grown. (She/he is not ours - she's just in a free range area.

I reduced these in size and added script to them in PSElements. Then I added chalk ink to the edges.

Photo Theme for Thursday

This wasn't the photo I was planning to put here
but the theme for this week is: "SIMPLE" (Minimalist, Simple Things, Simple Composition, Pure,...). What could be simpler than enjoying life as it is. I think my dog shows life is simple - just enjoy it.

(She thought a lizard had gone under this log but the lizard was long gone)!

Update to Rattlesnake Bite

Yay! It sounds like Sarah is going to live and be okay. She survived the night and is getting wound care to her nose today and then tomorrow (when I get home) we'll bring her home from the veterinarian's. Thank you all for caring and hoping and praying for her. I really love the community we have here online.

The Snail

I thought I would point out the "snail" in my picture I posted earlier (my printer is not doing color well at the moment). Some of you couldn't find him - I think you might have been looking for a real snail which we don't have here since it is so dry. (We have lots and lots of other bugs though - crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions...)

Now go back to the other post and you will see him for sure. I always find things when looking at the clouds (which are really strange here at times. You can watch a cloud form in the clear sky and then watch it fade away in minutes while another one forms- must be the lack of humidity) and now I find things looking at the landscape. I might be the tiniest bit wacky but I do find life exciting in the details (even though most details like time, what people wear - unless it has lots of color - buzzes right on by me).

Walking in the Desert

My husband and I took a walk around the "block" last weekend. It's 2 1/2 miles around so it's a good sized walk. We have to go more slowly when he goes than I normally would because of his heart problems but it was good for him to get out. He hadn't shut the gate on the goat pen (his memory isn't so good either-- just joking) so the goats joined us as well as our german short-haired pointer. You won't see her because she runs all over chasing rabbits the whole way around. I bet she goes 10 miles to our 2 1/2!

The goats have never taken such a long walk but they really enjoyed it. This is the good part about living in such a rural part of the desert. We can
take our animals with us and not worry about traffic. Do you see the flowers in the road? This one gets only 1 car every few days! The other side of our house has a road much more
frequently traveled. Yesterday we passed a car as we left for town and one as we returned. I don't think that's ever happened before but really, cars do come in and out some.


How do you like the last picture? Everytime I pass these two cacti I see a snail. Do you see it? It's the largest and prettiest one I've seen. Hope you've enjoyed your little bit of desert for today.

Dogs

I just thought I'd post pictures of all my sweet dogs. They don't cuddle together as we got them at such different times but once in a while they will get pretty close.

Time's Up!

Well, I didn't make it. I will have to carry December over to February but it shouldn't take too long now.

Getting ready to take a picture of how far I got, my dog Brandy had to have a look.

The ornament is being done in a stylized way. I saw some beadwork done in one of my magazines but don't know which one. Perhaps one of you know the artist who does much of her work in circles like this. This isn't my usual way of doing the work on these pages but since it's a round ornament I thought I would have fun trying out her method.


Well, on to February via December and January!

New Doggy

I got a new dog the a couple of days ago. We went to the pound to
look for my granddaughter's lost cat. I knew it was a dangerous place for me to go and it proved to be so. I now have my fourth dog! I changed her name from Chiquita to Brandy. Chiquita wasn't bad except everyone seemed to think or add "banana" so after many names to consider I settled on Brandy.

She was supposed to be a scared and mean dog but one look into her eyes and I didn't care! This mean little dog is now happy and playing with my grandchildren! She is also getting along pretty

well with my other dogs already. My Sambo, the black dog, is actually the most moody (mean?) dog of the bunch.

Ode to Pandora

You're a brat, kitty cat!

Up on my table where you should not be,

You purr and you preen "look at me!"

You're a brat, kitty cat!

You nibble my toes and wake me from sleep

so I'll play with you at a quarter to three.

You try to sit on my keyboard,

then play with my screen.

You're a brat, kitty cat!

You tip over my beads, tangle my threads,

and then sit right on top of my project.

You're a brat, kitty cat!

Oh, and I love you sweetie.

My Pets

I want to share my pets with viewers of my blog. Sambo, my poochihua is on the left with his chewbone in his mouth. Skoshi, my shitzu, is on the right keeping an eye on Sarah's bone. Sarah, my german shorthair pointer is in the back wishing for Sambo's bone. They are always wanting what the other has - hmmm, sounds a lot like the trouble we humans have, yes?

These are close-ups of each one. Once in a while I get a good one of Sambo. Being all black with dark eyes makes it difficult to get a good picture.