Blog Hop

I meant to post this days ago, but got caught up in life. It's a great way to find others' blogs and let others know about yours.

If you would like to add your blog link to a blog hop, just add your link at the bottom. Copy and Paste the script link at the top into the html gadget on your blog layout for it to show up on your blog sidebar. New links will be added to your blog as they are added to the blog hop. Here is the link http://lapsedsketcher.blogspot.com/2010/06/artist-blog-hop.html or you can go to my sidebar to Blog Hop. Can't wait to go blog hopping!

Thanks for the link Kelly Watts!  :)

Miko-Horse Sketch

This is actually NOT the first time I ever tried to sketch a horse. It WAS the first time I ever tried to draw a goat, a donkey, and a pony (see previous posts). I used to try to draw horses all the time when I was young and in school. My best friend and I were crazy about them. I was never good at it though. I'm still not, but this is about the best attempt I've ever made. I meant to try another one before I posted, but can't seem to get focused enough. This sketch is again with a Zig pen in the Moleskine book.

This is "Miko"-the horse. The 4th Musketeer (or Horseketeer). Miko looked almost like a skeleton with skin stretched over it when he came to live with us. His ribs and hipbones were very visible, and he was infested with worms. He has never been broken to ride, and he was very antisocial to begin with. He would take carrots out of our hands, but didn't allow us to touch him. He would lay his ears back and try to bite us or run away if we tried. It took a while, and much patience, to get him to let us pet him. Miko is a beautiful horse, and the only member that will put Boxey-Tail in her place. They don't really fight though. They are like siblings squabbling at the dinner table.

Miko has come a long way. They all have. With plenty of pasture and water and attention, he has gained weight and filled out. His coat is slick and shiny, and he let's us pet him without trying to bite us now. He won't push himself on us though, and is still a little standoffish. They have come a long way, but we're still VERY careful around them. I guess we're still learning to trust each other.

The thing that I love is seeing them all four coming toward me, side by side, different heights, sizes, colors, species, fur textures and patterns, personalities, voices and lauguages, and backgrounds. As different as they are from one another, they still move as a unit of friends. They sleep together, eat together, communicate, cool off together in the barn, receive attention from us together, and play together, and except when they scuffle a little over treats, they get along together really well. People could learn a lesson here. :)

They have a hundred acres to ramble around on with the small herd of cows, which they also get along with, but seem to prefer being segragated from. The cows are usually at one end of the farm and the Horseketeers at the other. There is shelter, plenty of food and water, woods, and fields for them to explore, and they seem happy. They provide me with lots of photo ops, and the happiness they've given us far exceeds what we paid for them.

I had to use two photos below to show you the 4 Horseketeers (sometimes Cooter thinks he's one too), and I was further away in one. It's hard to get them all four in one up close. Anyway, from left to right, it's Miko, Doris, Boxey-Tail, who is actually a little shorter than Doris, and Cooter.

I know my sketches don't do them justice, and this one concludes the introductions, but I'm sure there will be more sketches and tales to come...:)

Hope you enjoyed meeting them. I sure enjoyed introducing them to you! :)

"BoxieTail" X3-First Pony Sketches

The theme for June at Creative Every Day is Bliss. The time spent bonding with or sketching our animals is blissful to me, so I thought I'd share these. There is nothing like being with animals (the furry kind) to lift your mood. :)

I'm also sharing with my drawing group Everyday Matters. I find so much encouragement, inspiration, and joy there. I also find it blissful to have time to look at everyone's art and enjoy it, so I guess this could fit in with CED's them too. :)  They also have an active Facebook group.

Anyway...

I wasn't going to post my first two attempts at sketching BoxieTail, the pony, because they are the bad and the not so good. But then I thought, why not? I can share my progress and growth with you. There are lots of mistakes in all three, but I also learned from all three. I never did get a fair likeness though. I think I was trying too hard.

Anyway here is sketch 1, the bad. The thing I hate most is the left eye. I got carried away trying to shade with a zig pen and the eyeball and the shading ran together. I couldn't figure out how to fix it since the paper in the Moleskine is an off white color. I learned from it though.

BoxieTail 2nd attempt...the not so good. I actually like this one a little, despite not leaving room for her nose. Still using the Zig pen in the Moleskine.

BoxieTail 3-the better. I tried again, this time a sketch to participate in World Drawing Day 2010, which was yesterday. They have it one day a year and try to get a million drawings done and uploaded that day http://www.worlddrawingday.org/ . This was my first time to participate, and I enjoyed it a lot. Still not real happy with BoxieTail's likeness. I got her nose a little too wide, and I messed up her back and had to fix it digitally. The crosshatching looks a little like patchwork, but what can I say? I was listening to Aerosmith singing "You Got To Move" on my mp3 while I was sketching. :)

A cropped version of #3, which I considered using for drawing day, but decided to go ahead and upload the double page spread instead. These were also done with the Zig pen in the Moleskine. I will try sketching her again sometime, but for now I'm moving on to the horse, Miko.

BoxieTail is the 3rd member of the Four Musketeers. She was rescued with the other three, and is our little diva. She is very social and loves to be petted. She is pushy and bossy. And very impatient. But lovable. She and Cooter goat were not in as bad a shape as Doris donkey and Miko horse (see previous posts about Doris and Cooter). We didn't know she had white stockings until it rained and washed her off, the mud was so bad in the pen where they were. Someone had cut her mane off, which is why it looks like she has a mohawk. It's growing back out. 

Boxie is very bossy to Cooter and Doris. She doesn't hesitate to turn her back end around and kick at them with both hind legs to make them move. She will put herself between them and us to try to get all the petting and the treats. She doesn't try this with Miko. If you aren't petting or feeding her fast enough, she will stomp her front feet or ram her head through the gate and nibble on your clothes or hands. Or she will back up and then come toward you like she means business. We think she may have belonged to someone with children at some time. She likes children and people, but she does not tolerate Sammidog at all. She will run him out of the lot or pen every time.

The brother-in-law says Boxie is part mule, and I'm beginning to agree with him. She does have some mule trademarks and tendencies. Doesn't matter to us. If we don't pet her, she pets us. I just wish she wasn't so hard on the donkey and the goat about the petting. Otherwise, they all move pretty much as a unit together, and they are all fun.

By the way, hubby named Doris and BoxieTail and I named Cooter and Miko. We have no idea what, or if, they had names before we got them, but they respond to their new names. Doris is beginning to bray some, and we love to hear Cooter baa, which he is beginning to do more. They are all beginning to be more trusting and verbal with us. Love it!

Hope something in my post made you smile!

Three of the four Musketeers, or maybe I should call them Horseketeers, since Cooter seems to think he's a horse too sometimes. :) Watch for the 4th member, Miko, soon!