that's a very large rooster!

Edit- this needs some work. It's a very odd angle, and I'm just not thrilled. Stay tuned.

Years ago I inherited a very nicely made 30x40" canvas on cleanout day at the art department. Six coats of gesso later, the horribly ugly naked man somebody painted on it is no longer visible, and I have hereby fully reclaimed the canvas. I've been wanting a splash of bold color hanging on the wall in here for a while, and I'm too broke to buy art so I have to make it myself. ;-) So.. a Sumatra, but the colors won't be what you expect of that breed. I knew it was going to be large but it wasn't til I sketched it on there that I realized just how huge it is. WOW. Like, oh my gosh, that's huge! This is craziness! This'll be a long-term project. Just due to size and detail it's going to take much longer than the dog paintings, but it will be that same style. So this will be something I'm working on for a while, here and there around other projects. It will be for sale too (most everything is at the right price!) ;-)


Just how big is it? How's that for big?

fruit with a sense of humor

Oh my!

nature study

While I was in the kitchen this afternoon I heard a bird hit the front window. I don't know that I've ever been aware of a bird hitting the front windows (other than those silly bushtits a few postings back!). Sometimes they hit the kitchen window, but even that's rare (most of the windows have those lines through them, I don't know the official word but it's like the window is divided into squares, so the birds generally seem to steer clear). Anyway, I ran out front and was shocked to find a female California Quail. How strange! Oh sure, I see them around, but it's definitely not what I was expecting (scrub jay, robin, etc). Poor thing must have broken her neck, and she died in my hands. :-( Such a pretty bird. I took some photographs of her feather patterns before I buried her in the garden.

framed!

About the only interesting thing that's happened is I framed a bunch of drawings today, finally! Should have done this a week ago but this was the first chance I had to get it done. These will be shipped out tomorrow if all goes as planned (meaning I have to find boxes). I love the red mats, I am totally drooling over them, I wish I could hang them on my own wall! ;-)

limited edition art prints now available

Click on the image to make it readable!



I can have the first ones ready to go out around May 1st.

turkeys again!

Today was a busy day. I didn't do any art stuff (which was kind of nice...) but just tried to get caught up on a few things. Didn't finish though, *sigh* I still have things to frame and places to go and I'd better not forget to mail my taxes tomorrow!

JJ's two horses are here right now, Dusty and Blue Top. How fun to have Dusty back! He definitely seems to remember me, and he sure remembers the mares and stays well out of their way. They are just here for a couple days to share a vet appointment and farrier appointment. This afternoon all four horses spent some time tied to the fence, and everyone got a bath (well, just a rinse really). I have let Shylah in with the geldings but Evil Mare Gwen is separated because, well, she's rather evil. She's calmer now though because she doesn't have to spend her entire day keeping Shylah away from the boys. Gwen's weird.

Anyway... got some cool photos this evening...

Dusty and Blue Top and....hey, those aren't horses!

They were around the side of the shed so I snuck right up to them and poked the camera around the corner (yay for moveable view screen!) and took these.



Wild Turkeys are certainly nothing rare or amazing, they are around here all the time (and I chase the darn things off!) but I still find them to be very cool birds and interesting to photograph.

more chick pics

These are from the two Duckwing-cross pens (B and T4). I suspect these will be Birchen or Black (the black ones), BBRed, and Golden Duckwing (top right and middle).

The fuzzy red-headed chocolate morsels are Brown Reds. They aren't show quality Brown Red, but I use them in the BBRed program because they seem to produce some nice BBRed babies that are less inclined to have excessively red chests and tails. These chicks do not usually have pale bellies like the Black ones do.

The little chipmunk-wannabes are of course the Black Breasted Reds. Can they get any cuter?

Brassy Backs and Blue Brassy Backs. There are two forms of each color ("morphs" as the bird-watchers would say). There is the solid colored dark morph and the striped light morph. It does not affect adult color and is not sex-linked, I haven't ever figured it out except that these are the first dark-morphs I've seen for years so maybe I had bred it out of them until this year when I introduced the black sport Brassy Back male into the mix.

Cuckoos. Both males, I think? These are much more pale than last year.

Black chickies have varying amounts of yellow-white on them.

They're pretty small. :-)

Batch 1 chicks

If you aren't into chickens and genetics don't read this.

I was NOT expecting single combs from the BBReds. This means BOTH my Brown Red males are only heterozygous rose combed. Ugh. On the flip side, the older male is what produced the best offspring last year. Darn I don't like that this is producing more heterozygous birds though.

Pen #O1: Brown Red male X BBRed females = 6 BBRed (2 of which are single combed, ugh!), 5 Brown Red (1 single combed)
Pen #O2: Brown Red male (son of O1) X BBRed females = 6 BBRed (1 singled combed), 6 Brown Red
Pen #B: Golden Duckwing OExRC male X Black, BBRed, Blue Brassy Splash females = 2 Black (?), 1 Brown Red (?), 5 BBRed-ish (1 single combed). I suspect two of them are golden duckwing.
Pen #E: Brassy Black (Black sport) male X Blue Brassy Back females = 5 Brassy Back, 2 Blue Brassy Back
Pen #T4: Cuckoo male X Cuckoo females: 2 Cuckoo
Pen #T5: Black male X Birchen OExRC and Blue Silver OExRC female = 1 Black (?)
Pen #N1: BBRed male X BBRed and Brown Red females = 6 BBRed
Pen #N2: Black male X Brassy Back females = 1 Brown Red (?)
Pen #N3: Black male X Black females = 2 Black
Pen #N4: Black male X Black females = 6 Black
Pen #N5: Black male X Black females = 1 Black

just so ya know

If anybody who reads this is on LiveJournal, I also have a blog there. There is no need to read both, they are exactly the same stuff, I just wanted to pimp my art a little more so I set up another blog. ;-)

overworked and underpaid

I found this letter on a artist forum that I visit. I guess it had been circulating on craiglist. Author unknown. These are things I rant about myself, and I like what this says, so I'm posting it here:

"To those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world

Every day, there are more and more CL posts seeking “artists” for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.

But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.

To those who are “seeking artists”, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?

More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on craigslist to find them.

And this is not really a surprise.

In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.

So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!)

Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?

If you answered “yes” to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered “no”, then kudos to you for living in the real world.

But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?

Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.

A few things you need to know;

1. It is not a “great opportunity” for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a “great opportunity” for YOU to have their work there.

2. It is not clever to seek a “student” or “beginner” in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be “students”, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a “student” once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.

3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their “portfolio”. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.

4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.

5. Students DO need “experience”. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the “experience” they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?

If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.

6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to “submit work for consideration”. They may even be posing as some sort of “contest”. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the “contest”, or be “chosen” for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or “spec”, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.

So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are “spec” gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them.

And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.

DISCLAIMER: Apparently this well written post has been floating around on CraigsList. I first ran across it when Steph Doyle’s post I Wish I Had Written This came across my google alerts.

He got it from HOWmag forum where Cal posted before they could take it off CL (thanks Cal!).

The attempts to locate the author have failed. If you are the author, please contact us."

the article comes from this link:

http://www.no-spec.com/archives/i-wish-i-had-written-this/