The Three Amigos

I haven't updated here in awhile and I suppose I should now and then, just in case anyone decides to pop in. I call these guys The Three Amigos for obvious reasons. I find the picture interesting as these are black rhinos and they do not usually hang out with each other. They are very much solitary creatures. In fact, only the white rhinos form groups, or crashes. I've probably mentioned that before in one of my written forays into rhino nerddom (yes, I know that's a made up word). Anyway, what do you suppose these guys are up to? I think they're probably out in search of Nachos Navidad (yes, it is that time of the year again), but what do you think?

So, I broke down and bought a set of oils and just thought I'd have to come here and share my first oil painting. Here he is--Mr. Rhino, of course. Don't tell me you're surprised. All in all, I liked oils, but I like the fact that acrylics dry right away. It took 4 days for this to be dry enough to scan. That type of thing makes Anne very impatient. I'm also including the cow that I painted this morning. Yes, it was done with acrylics, so I could post it right away. I like that.

Gorillas and a spot of blood...

Well, I made the jump from the wrinkly hided pachyderms to furry primates. I am enjoying doing this drawing so much. I have drawn a gorilla once before, but that was with charcoal on blue paper, so that was quick. This one is taking longer as it is with mechanical pencil, but I am enjoying every minute of it. You know how people say that they put their blood, sweat and tears into something? Well, if you look at the lower right hand side of this drawing, you will see a spot of blood. I suppose I will have to admit though that I didn't work myself to the bone on my drawing, but only didn't wait long enough after cutting myself on a Fancy Feast can while washing dishes. It was more about the hazards of recycling rather than a passion for my work. Hey, I tried anyway. I bet Van Gogh bled on his paintings. Maybe someday...

Not a rhino, but a pachyderm, nonetheless...

Yes, I seem to have a thing for the large pachyderms. Here I am taking a break from the horned ones and indulging in a trunked one. I used a little 6x6 canvas for this guy and I loved painting on it. The surface was much smoother and all in all, more pleasant than the surface of the little acrylic boards I have been using for the rhinos. Now I'm thinking that I would like to do a series of painted elephants and, in fact, have another one sketched out. I haven't given up on the rhinos though and in fact, painted a new one just this morning. I am waiting for the paint to dry (this does not take long with acrylics) so I can scan it.

I do find it very interesting (and rather pleasing) that these largest of animals in the animal kingdom tend to be vegetarians. Some people have this idea that rhinos are these vicious creatures with a constant trickling of blood on their horns and mouths, when in fact, they usually just use their horns to fake other animals. Sometimes two male rhinos will clash horns, but usually without extreme results. And elephants, as we all know, are these amazing, sensitive creatures.

Red Rhino

Here is my latest rhino. I have been good about painting one of these every day (I'm up to 9 now), but last night I was just too tired. I will try to fit one in today amongst all of my homework. Yes, I have class tomorrow and have saved all my reading for the day before. I am really sick of school. Anyway, I will post more of these in the next few days. I plan on giving some of these away, but they look good all together as a group! Oh well, at least I will have the scans...

Orange Rhinosicle with Spots

Here is another of my daily rhinos. I decided to go with some polka dots. Indian rhinos have these bumps on their hide, so it is not so far fetched. Unfortunately, I splattered on the dots kind of messily. Rather than a monochromatic painting, I decided to use some of the complementary color, so I went with a blue background and blue dots. I kind of like him, but not as much as Mr. Blue. I gave one of my rhinos away yesterday. It was hard, but what else am I going to do with all the paintings? If I don't start giving some away, I will soon be drowning in canvas boards--or, at least, tripping over them.

Mr. Blue

I have to be to work in 25 minutes and have yet to start getting ready. So, what am I doing sitting on my butt blogging you may ask. Well, that's a good question... Anyway, I have been doing these little 6x8 acrylics paintings of rhinos. I have been calling the project "a rhino a day." This is the one I did last night and I am quit happy with him. I had never tried a monochromatic acrylics painting and now I am thinking that I may want to do a few more. It was fun! This is Mr. Blue, an Indian rhinoceros, otheriwise known as the greater one horned rhino or scientifically, rhinocerous unicornus.

Time for a crash...

Yes, I am back at it with my favorite cutie-pie beasts. This time I wanted to draw a group of rhinos or more specifically, a crash. I still have to do more on this, but thought I'd post what I have now as I haven't posted in a few days. I've been working on acrylics and have been doing the exercises in a book--mostly veggies. That might be a bit too boring to post here, or maybe not... This is a crash of white rhinos, of course. If it were another species of rhinos, they would not form a crash as the other 4 species are solitary animals. You can also tell they are white rhinos by their wide mouths. In fact, they got their name from the dutch word for wide, which is "widje." Bet you didn't know that...

Portrait update

Yes, I have continued to work on this, despite the lovely coffee stain. No matter how hard I try to tell myself that the stain can just be a character mark, it is just not working for me. You can't justify brown splotches on a graphite portrait. Anyway, it's just a practice run, so it's really all o.k.. I can't imagine something like that happening to a commission. That would make me rip my hair out and run down the streets naked yelling "shoot me"! It is fortunate that I don't have to do that. I know nobody is reading this blog now, but I hope to get some visters again soon. I've mentioned before that I have another blog and that one is active with comments, so don't feel sad for me if you see all of the "0 comment" entries. I'm just trying to update this one more and then maybe the readers will come. Or maybe not... There are a lot of unread blogs in cyberspace, so I'm in good company.

Double the Rhinos...

I was just up north visiting my family for a few days and this is all the drawing I managed to squeeze in. Yes, it is the rhino duo again. Double the drawings of the double rhinos... I start class again next week, but this one shouldn't dig into my drawing time as much as the last one did. Those summer classes require all of your time and energy, the regular school year ones do not. I need to finish my ATCs for the trade and then get going on the animal alphabet project I signed up for. I'm afraid I've been neglecting all of my on-line projects. I also need to get going on perspective studies that I promised myself I would work on and I may play around with that today. But now I'm off to Target to purchase a new VCR. Yes, this is the second one that has died this year. Oh, and my laptop is dead too. This has not been a good month for electronic equipment.

This is just a quick drop-in to post a portrait that I am working on. Unfortunately, as you can see, it has a "character" mark. I could pretend it is a smattering of sepia added to create interest, but we all know it is the mark of coffee. Oh, the dangers of coffee... Anyway, it is just a portrait for practice, so it's not a tragedy, but it's still annoying. And to top things off, it now also has a cat paw wrinkle. As much as I love cats and coffee, they are not always good for one's art...

A Pomegranate and some stew...

Tonight, after a long and rainy day that I had hoped to spend drawing to my heart's content, I finally did a quick little painting. I have these fairly new Inktense pencils (they're like watercolor pencils, but they're more vibrant and inky) that are so much fun to play with and that's what I used for the pomegranate. I also cooked today for the first time in ages. I made sweet potato and black bean stew and it was delicious. Too bad I didn't have a pomegranate for dessert. After a long, dry, hot summer, we finally had a cool and rainy day. When I went out earlier there were all of these prissy types with their umbrellas and I just had a great time splashing in the puddles and getting soaked. I'm not much of a fan of the sun to begin with and we have seen more of it than usual this summer, so today was a fantastic treat. And we're supposed to get more rain tomorrow! Yay! Unfortunately, tomorrow I will be at work, but still...the rain makes me happy.

Rhino Update 8/07/2007: Bath and Weigh-in for Zuri

More Rhinos

Yes, I have drawn more rhinos. I drew a cow today that ended up looking slightly deformed, so I wanted to draw some figures that I was more familiar with. So, I drew my favorite stocky, less than graceful looking beasts. I like them in all their awkward beauty. Yes, cows are maybe more poetic looking, but I like the reality of the rhino. I was really happy to find this reference photo on wetcanvas a couple of months ago as I had just about exhausted all of the public domain rhino photos. So, thank you lisilk for your fabulous photo.

Speaking of rhinos, I have been meaning to post this video (see above) of baby Zuri from the Cleveland zoo. She is a black rhino that was born on July 11th and the zoo had been posting regular video updates. She is the cutest little (well, maybe not little as she is already over 200 pounds) creature.

ATC trade

I don't think I've discussed here the ATC (artist trading card) project that I'm participating in. I am taking part in a trade with (I think) 30 other people from all over the world. ATCs are little cards (2.5x3.5) that can be done in any medium. This trade is actually not limited to ATCs (some people have done postcard sized works), but I'm sticking with the minis. It has been a lot of fun, but unfortunately, my class kept me away from it the past few weeks. Now I'm ready to get back in the groove! I have about 12 that are ready to be mailed and have, I think, 10 left to do. I thought I would post some that I have already sent out. This little puppy travelled all the way to Australia. Sometimes the cards are hard to part with. This one I almost didn't send out... *sniff* At least I still have the scan.

Rhino Collage

I made a little photoshop collage of some of my rhinos the other day, just because... Right now I'm avoiding homework (I have a 12 page paper and a presentation due on Saturday). Blogging is a great distraction. Some of these rhinos you have seen before, some you haven't. Oh, why can't the homework fairy just come along and finish my paper for me?! I really don't have much to say now as this class has sucked all the writing out of me, so I guess I'll just leave this entry in its brief state.

Singing the Blues

Oh, you poor neglected blog. What am I going to do with you? I am on post 506 on the other blog and this one has been lying here neglected. I guess what I will have to do is post a picture and make this place a little less lonely. This is a picture that I drew today for the weekend drawing event at wetcanvas.com. I really liked drawing this and even though I see a few things that need tweaking after scanning the sketch, I do like how it turned out.

I had the worst time trying to sign onto this blog as I forgot that it was all associated with my gmail account now and kept typing in my old username and password and when I tried to reset my password, it kept wanting me to reset my g-mail password and I absolutely did not want to change that one. That was when I finally realized that all I needed was my g-mail user name and password and not the old blogger password. Too many passwords and way too much stuff to remember...

Elephant of a Post...

No, not really--it's just a post of two elephants. Otherwise there is nothing elephantine about this post. It's not going to be large or weighty, it's just a post and a drawing, as usual. This could be a challenge for me to create a post that matters, but I have my other blog for wordiness and right now I'm feeling all worded out, so I will just quietly post my elephants and leave and let them speak (or trumpet) for themselves. Have I mentioned how much I love elephants? Magnificent creatures...

I Otter Draw Some Otters

This otter drawing is for my nephew--that is, if I finish it. I used the smooth side of Mi Teintes paper for this. I really enjoyed using colored pencils with this paper. I know some people have lamented over how much they hate this paper, but I really like it. I have used both sides of it and have for the most part, had a good experience with it. Anyway, I like otters. Recently I saw a a PBS special about a woman who was raising some baby otters and it was the most adorable thing you can imagine. They were swimming in her bathtub and she was rubbing their little tummies. She left them alone in the bathroom and they made a mess--toilet paper was everywhere. When she came back to reprimand them, it was like they knew they had done something wrong. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

Another Rhino--Oh My!

Yes, another rhino. I still am not sick of drawing the beasts. I find that when I really want to relax, I am drawn to drawing rhinos. Yes, they have become fairly easy for me. I know all of their little (or more like big) body idiosyncrasies, such as the humps (sometimes they look almost camel-like) on their back and silly little lips. I just love the creatures to death. I would really like to do a bunch of rhino aceos, but I seem to have a difficult time drawing them that small (2.5x3.5). I included in this sketch some oxpeckers on the rhino's back. That is a first for me, even though they are constant companions and relieve the rhino of pesky, blood-sucking insects. The rhinos are lucky to have such friends. This isn't finished, but what's new...

Rhinoceros in Red Galoshes

I haven't updated here in awhile. This is the result of me playing around with an idea that I have for a children's book. Yes, I know everyone always says you should not even attempt to do your own illustrations unless you are a professional illustrator, but that doesn't mean that I can't play around with ideas. And of course my idea is going to include a rhino of some sort. So, here she is. I think she's pretty cute. She was done with watercolor with some ink outlines. I have also done some in graphite with a touch of color for the galoshes. I saw a book last night at work (you encounter lots of books at work when you work at the library) called Bad Cat. It was fantastic--very creative with lots of fun illustrations and ideas. That is the kind of book I want to write.

Do you Recognize This?

Time for a new post. I've been playing around with copying master paintings in graphite. Who better to learn from, right? This is my "copy" of a Vermeer painting. I think it's called Woman with a Pitcher or something like that. Why wouldn't it be? I'm too lazy to look for the title at the moment also I have to get ready for work. I'm so comfortable and warm, sitting on my couch right now. The idea of going out in the cold does not appeal to me in any way, so I'm stalling. What better way to stall than by composing a new blog entry?

Girl and Dog

I'm here to update again. This is a drawing that I started quite awhile ago and haven't finished. It was one of those drawings that was just really easy and I'm very happy with it. One of these days I will have to work on it more. Here I have my two favorite subjects together--people and animals. I have decided that I am going to finally try to tackle perspective--that means drawing a lot of things I don't like to draw--buildings and landscapes and geometrical objects, oh my! So, even though nobody has been visiting this blog, if for some reason you are here and you see no perspective drawings, you need to yell at me. Drop me an angry e-mail or flame my account with negative comments. I will let the people at my other blog on in this too. That blog is much more active, so there should be some people to yell at me there.