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!

"Doris"-1st Donkey Sketch

I shared my first attempt at sketching a goat with you, so I thought I'd share my first attempt at sketching a donkey. It's a quick sketch from a photo I took, and I used a Zig marker. I seem to have an aversion to leaving room for feet, and the large ears almost didn't fit, but all in all, I think I did okay on it. And Doris does have woolly bangs. :)

This is Doris. When we answered the ad in the paper for a donkey, the guy told us it was a female. For some reason hubby started calling her Doris as soon as we went and saw her.

Doris is various shades of tans and beiges with a really dark brown stripe down the spine and shoulder blades. He also has a deformed back foot. The hoof turns up like an elf's shoe, but it doesn't hamper him about getting around. We don't know if he was born that way or it's been broken. The halter was so tight that it had grown into the top of his head and made sores under his chin. We finally got it off him though, and it's healed up and he is free of it. He's only a couple of years old and has been through so much. He's loved now though and is a pet.

Doris was in a small pen with a horse and a pony, not a blade of grass, just mud, with a makeshift shelter barely big enough for the three of them, a roll of sagegrass hay, and an empty dishpan for water. They were a sad lot. Cooter goat went in and out of the pen as he pleased, so he was getting plenty of grass and water.

We fell for Doris and Cooter as soon as we saw them, and we felt sorry for the other two. The fellow was selling out to move up north, and hubby got him to make a price for the three of them, plus the goat. So the next morning, on our 40th anniversary, we brought them to live on our small farm with our cows.

We kept them in the barn lots with plenty of feed, water, and shelter for a few weeks. We wormed them, gave them treats, and spent lots of time with them before turning them loose to have the run of the farm. They are still having trust issues with us, but they are getting better. They look like different animals than what we first brought home, and they have already given us much joy. You can no longer see their bones and the lice are gone. They are fat and sleek and have life in their eyes again. I'm thankful we are able to give them a home and love, along with carrots, apples, and they adore caramel cookies.

Doris turned out to be male, but the name had already stuck, so Doris it is. We wanted a donkey to help with the coyote problem with our calves, but Doris likes the barn and Cooter doesn't get too far from him. We've been told that most donkeys are hateful, but Doris has such a sweet personality and spirit that everybody just falls for him. Doesn't matter whether he helps with coyotes or not, he has a home and love now, as do Cooter and the other two.

Two of the Four Musketeers (Doris and Cooter). Stay tuned for the third member, and if I get REAL brave, I may try a sketch of the four together...

"Cooter"--First goat sketch

Yesterday I did a quick sketch of my goat in my sketchbook with a Zig pen from a photo I had made and loaded onto my pc. He was laying in a twist. The proportion is a little off, because I did it in a hurry and wasn't really focusing on every little detail, but I thought I did okay for a first attempt on sketching a goat. Please ignore the "to do" list in the corner. ;)

He is mostly white with black around his face, chest, and legs, and he has yellow eyes with pupils that look like black dashes, and a light pink nose. His beard is long and part white, part black.

We've only had Cooter a few weeks. He was thrown in with a deal for a donkey, a horse, and a pony. The four of them go around together like the 4 musketeers. He hasn't let us pet him yet, but he will eventually. Animals take patience and you have to let them come to you. He loves apples, carrots, and caramel cookies.

I've always liked goats, and I fell for Cooter the first time I saw him. He has so much personality! He makes me laugh every time I see him. His best friend is the donkey, Doris, and together they are hilarious.

I'm sure there will be more sketches of Cooter and the gang, and hopefully they will be better. In the meantime I thought I'd share this quick sketch with you. Hope Cooter and I made you smile! :)

Learning Needlefelting 2-ATC?

Since this month's theme at Creative Every Day is intuition, I guess I can call this an intuitive yarn painting, of sorts.

I wanted to do some needlefeltting this morning, and since I didn't have any backing material handy, I decided to try felting yarn to yarn. I took the black yarn that was left from the kit project I shared before and pulled and tangled it into a flat shape and layed an atc template over it.

I started out to make a landscape atc by felting the blue and green yarns onto the black, but then it called for a pink stripe. I liked it and was going to leave it that way, but then the muse whispered, "If you felt it on the back too, it will lock it together better."

Okay, the black backing had pulled apart some when I pulled it off the foam punching block, because the needle punches the yarn into the foam, so this sounded like a good idea.

Memo to me: Get a bigger and better punching block-the brush type which doesn't hold onto the yarn

So I turned it over and happily punched away. It did lock together better, but now there were lots of black fibers sticking through the pastel colors (the lesson here is not to use a dark backing under light colors). I added more blue, green, and pink yarn to the front, but still could see the black showing through. I kind of liked it like that, except that there was a small black cluster over the pink and down into the green that looked sort of like a swarm of bees, thus the yellow wispy piece diagonally across the front. Ms Muse told me to do it. ;)

Because I desperately need to do some cleaning, I'm calling it finished, for now. If I trim the black edge off it and add a decorative stitch around the edge it's an ATC. I'm kind of liking the black edges, and as I sit here looking at it, I see all sorts of possibilities, like maybe beads or charms or decorative stitching added...

Anyway, just thought I'd share what I'm playing with right now. Thanks to all you who inspire me every day by sharing whats on your work table! :)

Learning Needle Felting

I've been learning needle felting because I needed ANOTHER hobby. LOL

Seriously, I saw some little needle felted animals online and just fell in love with them, and I naturally thought, "I can do that!"

I've been looking at you tube videos and other instructional sites and decided to give it a try. The other day hubby and I were near a Hobby Lobby, so I went in to see if they had the tools and roving wool. They had sold out of several things, but they did have a couple of these little kits left for $5.00. It contained everything I needed to give needle felting a try, two  punching needles, black and white yarn, a foam block to punch into, a pattern already stamped onto a pocket, and simple instructions.

I started working on it that night and then skipped a couple of days and finished it in just a few minutes today. Now that I have the hang of it, I could do this flower in probably half an hour. It goes pretty fast. I love it! It's one of those projects that is conducive to listening to my mp3 player while sorting out the stuff swirling around in my head. It's a good frustration venter too. You do have to watch your fingers though. The needles are very sharp and have a little burr on the end that tangles the yarn when you punch it through.

Basically, you tear off some roving wool yarn, put it on your pattern and over the foam block, then with one or more needles held straight up, you jab the needle(s) straight up and down on the yarn into the block, thus fastening it to the base. My kit had the pattern on a pice of white felt, which could be used as a pocket on a felt purse, or you could cut the flower out and applique it to jeans, pillows, whatever. I chose to cut it out to applique.

The flower in the kit, as you can see, was supposed to be black with white. However, since I had bought a small  bag of different colored yarns, I decided to make mine white with pink. I'm considering adding a pink tinge around the petal edges. The top of the flower has a felted feeling to it and the underneath is fuzzy.

I am anxious to try some animals, but I need a little more practice first. I did okay on the flower for a first attempt and I learned, but it takes a little practice to get the density right, so it's a little lumpy. Like me! :)

I LOVE learning new things, and this was fun, so I thought I'd share it with you all...