Animal Wednesday - Beaver II

I think I mentioned that I didn't like last week's "beaver" picture, so I redid it - and like the proportions much better.  Still a Work in Process as you can see but better proportions...I think.

I've had to put Word Verification on again...hopefully just for a short time.  I've been getting at least 150 "Anonymous" comments and therefore emails every day, and it's a pain to delete them all. I'm hoping that a week or so of word verification will reduce the spam attacks and then I'll take it off again.

Have a lovely wednesday - the last before labor day - can you believe it?  I welcome the night coolness, but am always sad about the shorter days.

HAW to all

More drawings in process

First of all...yes...it's 2:30 in the morning.  DH is away this week and for some reason I can't sleep well.  Last week on vacation, I did nothing but sleep, snooze, nap, and sleep some more. I napped while reading, and when my head hit the pillow at night I was out like a light.  This week, I'm up all night. I nap for an hour, and then wake up.  So I decided to make the most of my midnight wakefulness, and continued work on the Water Lily Girl adventures.  These are works-in-process - in varying stages.  I now have about 16 drawings...and it might be time to actually work on a story of sorts, I'll have to think about that.

The kayak pic - I think finished. 

From another angle

Asking the frog for a ride across that stone wall

Actually getting the fide across the stone - which you have seen before, but now the frog has spots. 

With another WLG - waving goodbye to the frog ride. 

Giving a stick to a beaver, but I think this one has to be redone, as the beaver is too small.  

Hitching a ride back to the original pond, with a dragonfly. 

A partially colored pic of a dragonfly ride - wheeeee

Bye bye dragonfly - 

Day is over, jumping into the pond to go home for the night 

Home is where the upside down boat is. 

Hope you're enjoying this series.

Animal Wednesday - living tank and sea cow and a frog ride

I think that I have some sort of wish-come-true thing with Animals these days.  

We were in Florida last week, and were biking along the Legacy trail, which goes from Sarasota to Venice.  It's a long straight dry ride, and as I was riding along I hoped that I would finally see a gopher turtle by the side of the road. DH has seen many of them, but I've never seen one - and have only seen their dug out dens. 

No sooner did I wish to see one - then BOOM, this guy showed up and let me take some pics of him.  Then I saw at least 3 more, some of them eating, some skittering away from me like little tanks.   It was amazing, and unusual as it was early in the day. 

 They're amazingly fast and very sturdy looking - they were so much fun to watch!

A few days later we went to visit a cousin who lives on a waterway - and I - again - wished I could see a manatee...and boom there she was.  See that ripple in the water?

My cousin turned on the fresh water and the giant gorgeous manatee came right up to the boat to have  a drink of fresh water - it was amazing!   My cousin kept hitting it in the nose with the water but eventually it drank enough and slowly swam away

It was SUCH a treat to see these animals - the manatee in the wild was an especial treat, such lovely quiet gentle animals.

I've got to start carrying my better camera around with me. The iphone takes decent pics but I would love to have a better pic of this manatee.  Well, next time. 

And more WLG pics.  There's only one way to get across a dry rock bed to get to the water on the other side, and that's to take a ride on a jumping frog.  Work in process but fun.  I think the previous pic will be a WLG asking a from for a ride across the rocks - we'll see.  

Happy Animal Wednesday! 

Test

Trying to post from my iPad- not working easily!

Three Water Lily paintings that I am working on - all work in process. Would love comments and I hope this posts!

art on vacation

First of all, let me explain the last post.  I liked that piece because it changed!  Every little clock apparatus switched colors, so one hour you could have a multicolor art work in your house, and the next hour it could be all blue.  Doesn't matter - I thought it was cool.

So, back to Art on Vacation.

What I love to do on vacation is to pick something to learn - artwise - and work my way thru it.  I did this last year, and this year I picked a watercolor book that seems very informative  - and there are exercises to work thru. 

The first full exercise has you masking out shapes, then putting down a wash, then masking more and putting down another wash and so on.  It was fun, and a good experiment.

I copied the example in the book - a sugaring house surrounded by trees.

I think what's the best about this pic is the setting.  Watercolors, cup of coffee, pool.  Vacation.

We've kayaked in the bay, biked thru heated tropical parks and smooth trails. Today  - the beach, if my poor sunburned legs can take it.

Hope you are all well - and enjoying the last few weeks of summer. 

Very Cool

Watch this for a few minutes. What a clever idea

Friday - painting for fun

I don't think I showed this one before - I'm calling it "Lessons" or "Friends" - just not sure yet .  More color to come but I'm waiting for it to "talk" to me before adding more color. 

Last night I decided to play more with painting, and did what I call a draft painting.  I'm calling it draft for a few reasons - the first being that I hate the paper that I am using, and therefore messed up the little round guys clothing and tried to rescue it...and don't like the result.  But calling it draft means that I will do it over again with paper that I do like and will enjoy the result.

The paper that I don't like is a block of "Arches 140 cold pressed".  I've used it before successfully so am not sure if it's just this block or what!  It smells funny, it sucks up color like crazy, it's uneven...I could go on.    Plus it's expensive!  I tried this on the back side of a sheet and it wasn't any better. 

Either way - I like doing a draft painting cause I can see where I'd like more tension and balance, so the whole experience is not wasted.  I'll show the final one when it's done. 

Have a lovely weekend! 

Animal Wednesday - what I've seen.

Between biking and walking I've seen lots of animals this week...well "seen" in a funny word to me this week. I've had an eye infection that has been painful and won't (of course) allow me to wear my contacts that I use for reading.  So my vision has been long, and I've had to look up and out and enjoy what I can see far away.  Unless I have glasses on I can't see the camera lens picture, so I just "point and shoot" and hope something good comes out.    A long philosophical discussion about eyes and glasses at a later date - stay tuned. 

This is a pic of one of my favorite walks - a water reservoir near my house.  Walking distance, round trip to the lake, around and back is about 4 miles.   Good on a lovely cool summer morning. 

There was a heron in the lake and I got a very fuzzy far away shot of it. 

These Canada geese were enjoying the water and completely ignored me - which was good cause they can be scary if they want to.

We saw this little turtle on the bike path. He was super still, and so brown and funny that we actually thought he was dead. But after I took these pics he scuttled away.   Is he/she a snapper? I'm not sure.

Then I saw this toad, just sitting by the side of the bike path.   I think it's a brown toad. He didn't move at all as I snapped away,  and I managed to get down and get a picture of his happy face.

Isn't he awesome?

I missed getting a pic of the snake that slithered across the path, boy can they move.  By this time I was starting to wonder why I was seeing so many animals, and then realized that they sky was darkening dramatically and a huge storm was on it's way.  So we turned around and went back to the parking lot to pack it in.

In the parking lot, I saw this poor little painted turtle walking and heading to the grass. How he/she got into the parking lot I'll never know but it was obvious that there was no way it could get over the curb.

I got gloves from the car and tried to help by picking it up and putting it on the grass.  I succeeded but only after practically chasing the animal - clearly it thought I was about to eat it and it scuttled SO fast that I couldn't keep up.  I finally did catch it, put him on the grass and hopefully it found a place to stay.

 Finally a RedTailed hawk flew right by us - chasing a small bird (didn't catch it).  He/She perched for awhile and then flew away with swooshing wing sounds.

Happy Animal Wednesday - we're off on vacation and no good computer access, so have a lovely few weeks.

Animal Wednesday - my Sammy

Do you recognize the painting style?  Yup - it's an original Lo painting, lucky me.

A few weeks ago I commissioned Lo to paint a portrait of my best dog Samson.  She painted it and kept me updated via email about it's status and we agreed that she would mail it to me when completed.  Lo mailed the package and I waited and waited and it didn't come.  I was SO upset, so was Lo...then we found out that the Post Office had sent it back for address corrections.  So then Lo sent it back again and I got to open it and (of course) burst into tears.  I adore this painting!  He was such a good dog and Lo captured his peaceful yet somewhat anxious (how can I please you?) look.

And look at the background?  Isn't it gorgeous?

Happy Animal Wednesday - kiss and hug all your pets - they are so precious!