Shelby the Blue Heeler Commission – Finished

After filling in the last few details, thickening up her fur, finishing her collar and tags, and, of course, signing it, this drawing is now complete.

Shelby is a beautiful dog, and it was a pleasure to draw her.  With all of that thick, plush fur, the deep blacks of her face and spots, and the whiskers…this one kept me alert and focused.  It was a great dog to draw!

Shelby

– Measures 8×10 inches, drawn on Strathmore 500 series Bristol Plate paper.

– Drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens, ranging in size from 005 (primarily), 01, and a touch of 03.  Despite the darks needed for this drawing, I stuck with a very fine-tip pen as much as I could, so it wouldn’t look blocky or rushed.

A couple of close-ups.

And finally, here is a short video of the progress from start to finish.

https://thecozyred.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/shelby.wmv

Thank you for following along, for the likes, and for the comments.  The support is much appreciated! 🙂

 

Bear and Cubs

Several days ago, I was out for a walk with my camera and camcorder, planning to hike up to our pond to see if there was anything of interest up there, which there always is.  On the way, I spotted something much more exciting than frogs or ducks!  A mother bear and two cubs were at the woods’ edge.  It was one of those extremely fortunate moments when I happened to have all the camera equipment I needed.  Well, everything except for my tripod…I’ve got to make a habit of carrying that!

For a half hour, I snapped photos and recorded video of the happy little family, smiling to myself as those cubs tumbled and wrestled and climbed trees.  Only once, last spring, we saw a bear on our land.  The bear in this video may or may not be the same one, since she did happen to be in the same part of our field.  I spotted the mother bear first, and was thrilled by that alone, but when I first noticed something black moving in a tree, and spotted the cubs, I was in awe.  I’ve never seen wild bear cubs at all before, let alone on our farm!  As you can tell by the quality of video and photos, I stayed quite far away from them for the sake of safety. 😉

We’ve seen them several times, and now it’s part of my daily routine to look out the window and see if they’re out there.

I hope you’ll enjoy the pictures and the video.

…For some reason, I always choose sort of silly music to go with my bear videos. 🙂

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Today, at long last, I am going to share my Christmas card drawing.  While not everyone on my list of friends and family have yet gotten their cards, I wanted to share this on Christmas Day.

This year, I worked from a photo I took last winter after a breathtaking storm.  There was a woods laced with snow and ice, and a single Angus cow standing before it.  It was a beautiful scene, and I was fortunate to have my camera handy.  It was very, very slow mapping out the whole woods for this drawing.  Talk about time consuming!  But I always do love a challenge, so that was ok.  I enjoyed this one a lot.

Christmas Cow

– 8×10 inches in size.

– Drawn in pen and ink.  Almost exclusively the Prismacolor Premier Illustration Marker, 0.005 mm size.

– Drawn on Strathmore 400 series Bristol Smooth paper.

Feel free to click on the images to see them larger.

Below is the actual Christmas card we used the image for.

And here is the inside.  I wrote the poem for the card this year.  It was the first time I wrote the inside message, but I do love to write, so it was fun.

I hope you are warm and happy and surrounded by family and friends.

Merry Christmas from Oliver and me. 🙂

Yes, he actually seems to enjoy being dressed up.  He feels extra special then.

Thank you for looking.

 

Goodbye, Sweet Scooter

It is a sad time for me.  Yesterday we had to say goodbye to our beloved house cat, Scooter.  While Oliver has stolen the spotlight more than once around here, Scooter was a wonderful girl.  She was between thirteen and fourteen years old, which means I was eleven or twelve years old when she was born.  Sadly, she was failing little by little, and we knew it was time to say goodbye.

Below is a picture of me holding Scooter when we were both a lot younger.

Scooter started out as a barn cat.  When she was a pretty young kitten, she got hurt.  We brought her into the house and bandaged the wound – a nasty scrape on her back leg.  That leg took some time to heal, and in that time, we grew pretty attached to her, and thus, Scooter joined the family.  Her leg healed up fine, except for the pink, hairless little scar on her back leg; she carried that scar with her all her life, poor dear.  We named her for the way she would run across the floor and scoot to a stop playfully.  Whether from her frightening kittenhood experience or not, Scooter grew up to be a very shy, timid creature who liked to keep to herself.  I would fondly call her a dust bunny, because it seemed that if you so much as looked at her, she would billow out of the room like, well, a dust bunny.

A few photos of her when she was a young cat.

Here she is (on the right) with a house cat we had several years ago named Chub.

She was always a big fan of napping.

And napping…

And napping.

She had dark rimmed, slanted green eyes that made it look like she was wearing trendy glasses.  Her nose, so pink, seemed to be extra pink when she was feeling content and happy.  Scooter treasured attention, cautiously, and though she was so shy, she loved us very much.  She had a very audible, sort of rasping purr (as you’ll hear in the video posted at the end of this post) that could be heard a room away sometimes.  She also snored like a human being sometimes when she slept (you’ll hear that in the video too).

Scooter saw many cats come and go throughout her life.  I’ve rescued and raised many orphaned kittens, and she was always pretty good about other cats being in the house.  Oh sure, she would hiss and made a fuss at first, but then she mellowed out.

Pictured here is Scooter on the right, and sibling kittens that I took in.  One of them is Chub from the above photo.

And then there was the day she met Oliver.  Oliver was just a young kitten when he came to live with me, and he’s sleeping in a chair beside me right now.  I am especially thankful for him today.

While they didn’t have the most loving of friendships (Oliver always wanted to play, and Scooter would hiss and run away instead), they had their sweet moments together.

Below is actually the last picture I took of Scooter.

Scooter was never a very playful cat, but she did have her moments of silliness.

When she was trying to get your attention, she would balance upright and make a funny clapping motion with her front paws.  I have never seen another cat do anything quite like that.

But above all, she liked to nap.

And nap. 🙂

She reminded me of an owl with her stout shape and big, unblinking eyes.

But she was a beauty.  Here are a few of my favorite photos of her.

She looks so blue in color below, doesn’t she?

A short video of her.

Goodbye, sweet Scooter.  You will be missed so much.

Thank you for looking, and if you have a cat, give him or her a hug today.

 

One Scratched Man (Scratchboard Portrait)

At last, I have put the final scratches on this portrait and am calling it done.  I have filled out his coat – what a fun texture that was to play with!  I also reworked his hair some and made a few other small changes throughout the piece.  The eye has been troublesome all along, but I am finally content with it after making some changes.  Here is the final piece.

Scratchboard Portrait

-8×10 inch Ampersand Scratchboard

-Tools used: X-Acto Knife, Scratchboard Tool, and Faber-Castell Brush Pen for corrections

A few close-ups.  Sorry for the blue haze – these were taken outside in daylight, and it gave the images a blue tint.

And finally, here is a short video showing the progress stages of the drawing from start to finish, as well as some of the technique I used.  I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for looking! 🙂