Happy New Year!

I really am just shocked that tomorrow is 2009. Let's hope it's a good year, this one certainly left a lot of room for improvement.

I've spent the day doing housework, some baking, and a rather unfortunate trip to the mall to attempt to find a new scarf to replace the one I lost last month, and a few other items as long as I was there. That was unsuccessful, and let me just state for record that shopping for bras is even worse than shopping for shoes. There, I said it. Gah! I could totally go on a rant about that topic, geez!

Grumble...

Anyway. There are a lot of things I'm thinking about tonight, and a few things I really need to stop overthinking, but nothing I really want to get into here and now. I'll talk about stuff when the time is right. I know this probably sounds mopey and way too introspective. I suspect it is! This isn't how I'd thought I might be spending the evening, but c'est la vie. ;-)

I think I'll be in bed long before midnight! Party hard peeps, but stay off the road if you do.

Shiloh portrait

There's a story here too of how this came to be that dates back about a year, but I think the back-story will just stay in the background. I never met Shiloh. He belonged to a dear friend. :-) A memorial portrait tends to have such a different feel to it versus drawing an animal that's still living, like my approach to it is completely different, more delicate I guess I would say. I really am kicking myself for not photographing it along the way, it was an awesome progression. It's always a huge and daunting challenge to try to "capture" any animal in a portrait, but one I've never met is much more difficult. There is a certain point during the drawing process where the piece seems to come to life. Usually it's the eyes. This one was the nose, at least that's where it started, then the eyes, and I sat back and thought "OMG I hope I captured the right dog!" Yeah, I REALLY should have photographed this in progress, sorry!

I totally love this piece! And it just brings me so much joy that the recipients do too. :-)


"Shiloh"
8x10 inch colored pencil and graphite
on warm white Stonehenge paper
© 2008
sold

scrimshaw engraving - family crest/coat of arms

This is the scrim that I was in a mad rush to finish before Christmas. This was a LOT of work but it turned out great! Well I think so anyway. ;-) I'm hoping to get word from the final recipient at some point.

For reasons of privacy I can't really say much about the story behind this piece. I was given a photocopy of the crest to work from originally. I really didn't like how it looked, so I did a lot of research to find out just how closely I had to stick to what I was given, or could I make some changes. Found out that the important parts are the "parts" (the raven, the mountains, their size and location, etc) and the colors, but aside from that I could interpret it in my own way. So I did. I changed the scroll work from a very clunky acanthus leaf to this more "pretty" ribbon scroll, and redrew the raven so it's actually properly proportioned (the original was a bit pigeon-ish).


family crest/coat of arms scrimshaw engraving
38mm diameter
on pre-ban elephant ivory
sold

ketchup, again

Yeesh, I feel like I'm always catching up these days!

I left Christmas morning for the annual pilgrimage to the homeland (San Diego where most of Mom's side of the family lives, and also stopped to see Aunt M and Uncle K in Riverside). I got back yesterday evening. I think I might actually be all caught up on sleep from the last couple weeks of staying up way too late and getting up way too early. Yay! I had a great time down south, it's always so good to see all the relatives and spend Christmas with family, though I will be the first to admit that after a few days all I want is some peace and quiet! ;-)

I have a ton of housework to do in the next day, so once again I will be spending my New Years Eve doing something really exciting, like vacuuming. Yes indeed, I'm THAT thrilling!

I'm going to really buckle down and see if I can teach myself to engrave metal here in the immediate future. I'm open to commissions in fine art or scrim, prices are not changing in 2009.

I know you want pics. Here are some pics from the trip:

The sun setting over the Pacific ocean on Christmas day. Photo taken near Camp Pendleton.

I call this "The Evil Angel." It's the tree topper on Poppa's Christmas tree, and it's evil, truly. It's older than dirt, nobody would ever make anything like this anymore. All those fine little hairlike pieces... that's glass. And it gets EVERYWHERE. I think everyone has been subjected to glass slivers at some point. I got one in my toe this year, in the guest room! Evil angel! I wish they would retire that thing.

Flamingoes at the San Diego Zoo:

Siberian Lynxes at the San Diego Zoo:

Um, I think these were New Guinea Singing Dogs. Puppies will be puppies, wild or otherwise!

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I ran out of time to take pictures of the animals wearing the Santa hat this year. I didn't even have time to do a Christmas email, or a Christmas poem. I finished the last project last night, whew! Got up at 5:30am today and between barn-sitting, airport-shuttling, and a meeting I seemed to be gone more than home. I'm absolutely exhausted!

However, I'll leave you with a December memory from long ago. This was the one time I remember it snowing when we lived in Redmond, WA. My brothers and I pulled each other around on big shovels. To this day I remember how fun that was! I have a strong urge to go sledding lately, might need to do a snow adventure this winter!

(Was I adorable or what?!)

Goodnight!

catching up

I'm on break right now. Well, my hand is anyway. Mentally I'm still going a zillion miles an hour. I decided to try using the GraverMate on the scrim I'm doing. It's proving to be a HUGE time-saver but I have to hold it in a way that it's not meant to be held in order to keep it vertical, so it's wearing my hand out. Then again, doing that many solid black areas "by hand" (one dot at a time) would hurt even more. It's all good. It has to be done and framed by tomorrow night. Hoo boy!

This is probably the closest to Christmas I've ever been scrambling to finish things. Plus I have other things I need to work on around here. And spending 3.5 hours per day barn sitting is challenging.

I did take some time off on Saturday. BV and I went to see "A Winter Night's Yodel" up in Sutter Creek. This was a performance of bluegrass and old cowboy music (Faux Renwah, Sourdough Slim, Robert Armstrong). I had a GREAT time and really enjoyed it. I think this is the fourth one I've been to, except it used to be different, and I hadn't gone for maybe two years. As fun as it was, having seen it with the duo Doo Doo Wah in the past, I sure missed them. Oh what I would give to hear "Don't Pet The Dog" again! There was a guy playing a saw with a bow (like, a fiddle bow). That blew my mind, it was pretty amazing. Those people are so talented (says the girl with zero musical talent, a side note here, we are learning the zils in dance class and OMG my hands march to their own beat, it's pretty ridiculous). Anyway. Another lovely evening. ;-)

It's been raining, everything is muddy and gross. The horses are eating the fence in the corral because they are bored. They are bored because they are shut out of the pastures so that the grass gets a chance to actually grow this year.

Okay, I'd better get back to it. Oh crap, I have to drive out to Sloughhouse in a half an hour. Gah!

coming up for air

I'm fine, I'm just REALLY REALLY insanely busy and don't have much time to sit and do this (and am still completely neglecting emails, sorry!). The last project is extremely time consuming. I'm taking care of horses about 15 miles from here, twice a day, so that takes a big chunk out of my day. I'm pretty frazzled. Tonight will be a fun evening, and I'm looking forward to relaxing over the holidaze!

*Gulp* I'm going back under, see y'all around!

Nellie

Nellie
April 28, 1996 - December 17, 2008

It's never easy, but anyone who's ever shared their life with an animal can tell you that when that time comes, you'll just know it. It was Nellie's time. Her health had declined rapidly in the last few weeks, and just within the last few days she lost her strength. She was such a sweet dog. A bonehead, for sure, and yes she often drove me up the wall. I always joked she didn't have a brain, just a head full of styrofoam packing peanuts, and when she would go nosing around some place, well, "she must be looking for her brain." If you ever wanted to feel completely adored, all you had to do was spend some time with Nellie, she loved to sit next to a person and put her head on their knee. Talk about unconditional love. :-)

Her last day was a good one, she mostly spent it flopped out in the sunshine on this chilly but bright day, grunting happily as she received belly rubs, and spoiled with her favorite foods (eggs and cheese!).

Rest in peace sweet Nellie. I'm sure those who went before her are there to welcome her home.

seeing what isn't there

Two down, one to go! Woo hoo! Yup, that means I finished the drawing tonight. :-) I totally love it. Look for it after Christmas....

This drawing was an example of what I refer to as "seeing what isn't there." Thankfully I was given a LOT of reference photos to work from, which was a saving grace because the pic that had the best pose was very very small, partially obscured by something else, and in shadow. It's a strange process, a strange feeling, something I can't really explain, but even though at first sometimes I look at these things and think "I can't possibly work with that" after a little while it's like I'm drawing what I can't actually see but know should be there. It's like this whole other level of perception. And that probably makes me sound like a weirdo so I'll just quit while I'm ahead since you can't see what I'm talking about anyway. ;-)

It rained a bunch. It's cold. It's muddy.

I'd started working on the scrim image. I thought I'd done the image transfer properly but part of it didn't come out, and by the time I realized that I'd already removed the paper printout from the surface. Bleh! So I'm sanding and polishing it down and will redo the transfer. Live and learn. I think this is a hard piece of ivory. That's okay. This is a VERY complex piece with a lot of lines (which will all be done with dots, whee).

That's all I got. I think I'll go to bed. Before midnight, what a concept!

adventuring and other things

I need to catch up on answering emails. That's sort of a mass apology to everyone who's asked or told me something in the last couple weeks (or entire lifetime) and has not received a proper reply.

The art works in progress are going well. I have not been photographing the drawing in progress. It just dawned on me I should have been doing that so I could post a WIP after the fact. D'oh. Oh well.

Since the trail ride today got cancelled and that gave me an entire weekend to work on art, I decided to get out of foggy valley yesterday and headed up the foothills for another day of adventuring with BV. Didn't find any real great riding areas this time (not that are easily trailer-accessible anyway). We had a destination in mind, a lookout point high up on a mountain, but the little GPS thingy didn't know that every gate on every road that lead to this place would be closed. Strangely, we seemed to be in the part that was closed off, so go figure. Never did make it to the destination but had a little picnic dinner alongside a pretty creek as the sun set, and it was really quite a lovely day. :-) And cold. Really freakin cold. Soon it will be snowy there and even more of those roads will be closed. Here are some pics of the creek (river?):


Today I've mostly been working on art. I did put up the outdoor Christmas lights this afternoon, which I haven't done for a few years. And Mom asked me to help decorate some cookies this afternoon. Bwahaha! It's dangerous asking me to do that, because I just can't resist doing things like this (if you haven't seen The Christmas Story then the red one with white text won't make sense, and remember you can click on the pics to see them bigger):

Alrighty, I just downed an iced tea, so hopefully that will be a little caffeine boost to keep my fingers drawing for a while longer tonight.

the stars are stacked against me

Boy, things are just not working out too well in the horse-riding department this fall. The endless postponement and eventual cancellation of the week up north... And now Saturday's ride at Mount Diablo is off due to inclement weather. Sigh. I was really excited about that, but riding there in rain and high wind... eh no.

It's that time of year when it's pretty hard to plan anything more than about two days in advance because you never really know what the weather is going to do. We NEED rain though. I usually don't ride much this time of year (Jan/Feb) because it's so muddy, but I have a new riding buddy (with a truck!) and access to a trailer we can borrow (thank you JJ!) and we have lots of plans for whenever the weather decides to cooperate. :-)

random thoughts

Okay, so I can't post any more art works in progress til after Christmas. Bummer, I know! I will tell you that one's a drawing and one's a scrim, just to whet your appetite a bit.

I went down to Stockton today to meet with an engraver (I am lucky to have so many engravers in driving distance!). I didn't have a lot of time today but had a great time down there studying some castings of bulino engraving and learning about the different styles. Bulino is a type of engraving using dots and lines (there are some similarities to scrim), photorealistic figurative work, really exciting to me. There are so many different avenues within engraving, different styles and different "things" that get engraved, so looking at a lot of sample work really helps me fine tune the idea of where I want to go with it. And what I want is to do bulino. I want to learn more than that, I want to be competent at scrolls, because the two often go together, but the figurative stuff is where I want to focus. I saw some pictures in books today that just blew my mind, it was engraving on guns and knife bolsters that had no scrollwork, only bulino scenes. Absolutely stunning. I want to do that. Inspiration strikes! However, since classes are a tad out of budget, I need to get my hands on some books. I want these two books (should any random strangers have the overwhelming urge to get me a Christmas present, these are available from grstools.com or fega.com, ha ha, hey a girl can wish) ;-)
1) Firmo & Francesca Fracassi – Master Engravers
By Stephen Lamboy & Elena Micheli-Lamboy, Edited by S.P. Fjestad & Dag Sundseth
2) Advanced Drawing of Scrolls - 2nd Ed.
by Ron Smith

It's been cold here and overcast/foggy for a while, I haven't seen the sun for... days?

The dogs are actually wearing little doggy coats now. Nothing sissy, mind you, they are like little horse blankets. They are both old and creaky and seem to appreciate the extra warmth, particularly Nellie as the Cushing's Disease has made her lose a lot of hair.

I've been thinking about a few dilemmas. One is I can't decide what candy to make for Christmas this year. I'm not sure how much I'll be shipping this year (that add$ up!). Buckeye balls, fudge, chocolate mint fudge are the usual, but the chocolate buttercream truffles I made for Valentine's day last year were absolutely to die for. But I can't make four batches of candy for Christmas, that's overkill. Hmm. (I know, seriously, tough decision).

I also need to figure out what I am going to do about showing chickens in 2009. Everyone knows I've cut back, and it's really no secret my heart just isn't there like it used to be. Heck, how many months has it been since I've read the Press?? Yeah, things have changed. And I just can't afford to travel to all the shows. There are four that I know of this winter. The most I would possibly make it to is two. I hate to miss going to Eureka, because I sure enjoy that, but I think it's unlikely I'll be able to pull off the 600+ mile round trip this year. And I have a date conflict with the show in Stockton (plus I wouldn't go anyway, ahem). So.. I guess maybe I ought to plan to head down to Hollister and then just play the rest by ear, knowing it may not work out. I have to go to one. I miss my poultry people! I just think that travel expenses ought to be for going to art/engraving shows.

I'm not sure I'll be doing much hatching in 2009 either. We'll see.

Anyway, I think I'll do a little more mystery art and then hit the hay.

drawing done!

One down, two to go. This is good. :-)

I'm VERY pleased with how this turned out.

"New Arrivals"
7 x 9.5 inches
colored pencil and graphite on natural Stonehenge paper
sold

My good clients make my life wonderful. :-) I treasure my good clients, they more than compensate for the occasional rotten apple. There's some saying about how you should never work for friends. Bah humbug on that. You have to keep it professional (EVERYONE signs a contract) but most of the time if a client wasn't a friend to begin with they are by the time I'm done.

Well, it's going to be a super busy week again. Tomorrow should be interesting. I'll keep ya posted.

December 5 work in progress

All together, now, awwww. Just need to do the background! :-)


not yet titled
7 x 9.5 inches
colored pencil and graphite

I miss my waterbed, I must say. It went kablooie last spring, so this is first winter that I really understand why people complain about cold sheets. OMG. I can see the appeal of flannel sheets, might have to get some of those!

We need rain, but please hope for good sunny weather on December 13, there are trail ride plans!

I saw the movie Twilight last night. I have not read the books and didn't know much about it. It was pretty good. And I didn't even scream or faint over the actor. I guess Thursday nights aren't too crowded. There were 6 people in there. The couple sitting a few rows behind us was having a heavy duty make-out session while the credits rolled. Oookay.

I baked a gingerbread cake tonight. Mmmm. :-)

December 3 work in progress

The reason a lot of this looks so flat right now is that I don't have all the color layering done. The hen's back/wing/chest are not done. Neither are the chicks.

I don't know what I'll blog about when this one's done (which will be by the end of the day Sunday). The other two Christmas projects can't be shown here til they are done, just in case the recipients are checking in (doubtful, but possible, can't chance it).

December 2 work in progress

The challenging part of this drawing for me is that this bird is quite a bit larger than life!

December 1 work in progress

If you aren't familiar with this subject this is going to look REALLY weird for a while!


not yet titled (DM, I'm open to suggestions)
Quail Belgian D'Anver hen and chicks
7x9.5 inches
colored pencil and graphite on natural Stonehenge paper
sold

proof, and other things

I think I have proof that it was Dusty who let himself out of the corral back in October.

Here's how the gate looked when I went out to feed this morning:

And here's how it looks when it's latched, which is how I left it last night:

Does that look like a guilty face to you? Yes, yes it does:

So it's December, I'm officially freaking out, there's kind of a lot of things in various aspects of life all catching up to me right now that are weighing pretty heavy on my mind. Plus deadlines! Three projects, three weeks. I can do this.

I'm finally starting to feel better, this has been a pretty bad cold that I've had. I did end up sick on Thanksgiving but I went anyway, just warned everyone not to hug me. ;-)

I had a really fun day on Friday, other than feeling crappy. Spent the day with BV and we went on a long drive up in the El Dorado National Forest in search of good places to take the horses for some trail riding. We found some really nice areas that would be fun to ride, but of course now it's getting to be the time of year where that won't be too practical up in the mountains, so that may wait til spring, we'll see. It was really pretty, I didn't have my camera with me because I didn't know we were doing that. Note to self, take camera everywhere. :-)

Anyone know of good local day trip or overnight rides that aren't way up in the high country? And aren't on bike trails?

Sadly, the Bears and Boulders ride will not be happening this year (that is the week at JC's). Circumstances have not worked out in our favor this year. This is a bummer. :-(

Alrighty, I gotta get to work. Clock's a-tickin'.