"Lawnmower Attachment #1" - New ACEO

Here's a drawing I've wanted to do for a while. It's a close up of my horse's muzzle when she was eating. My horse is a 25 year-old palomino Quarter Horse, Bess (her registered name is Honey Moore Bess). I got the idea for this drawing a number of years ago at the local Draft Horse Classic. The art on the t-shirt that particular year was from a beautiful painting of a grazing draft horse by Adeline Halvorson. Her painting showed the horse's entire head, part of the neck and the lovely feathered front feet, but the part I loved best was the wrinkly muzzle. I tried to find the art on her Adeline's web site - that particular painting isn't there, but she has some other great equine art worth checking out.


Update 11/9/08 - this ACEO has sold.

To get the reference photo for this drawing, I put some hay out on the lawn and sat in front of Bess with my camera, happily snapping away while she happily munched away. Here's the original photo:


I decided to do a really close crop on the photo to create a somewhat abstract drawing that focused on the wrinkles of her muzzle. I cropped to ACEO size (2.5" x 3.5") and printed the color version and also a greyscale version (which helps me figure out the tones and contrast when I'm working in pencil). Then I transferred the image to my paper and started drawing. I didn't do a WIP (work in progress) of this one, but you can see my process for another pencil drawing in this video.



This drawing is "#1" because I'd like to do one or two more some day. I'll crop a bit differently and perhaps use color pencil for the next one.

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Greyhound Puppies!!!

A few weeks ago, I had the joyful opportunity to visit a litter of 10-week old greyhound puppies. The local greyhound rescue facility (I've blogged about them before), Greyhound Friends for Life GFFL) had a "puppy open house" to show off these adorable little dogs. I was also fortunate enough to visit a litter of pups at GFFL in 2007. It's rare to see greyhound pups, so these were "can't miss" events as far as I was concerned! Of course I invited my dog-loving friend Sandy and we headed to GFFL for some puppy fun and photography. We took lots of photos and had a wonderful visit - I can't tell you how many times we said "cute" in the nearly two hours we spent there!

My first artistic endeavor as a result of that visit is this small drawing of "Paddy", which I'm donating to GFFL for the silent auction at their upcoming fundraiser "A Weekend of Grace & Joy", June 27 - 29.



Although the original is no longer available, I've made Paddy note cards - find them and other greyhound art merchandise in my Etsy shop. I'll donate a portion of the sale from these items to GFFL.

I scanned the drawing as I worked on it, so I was able to create a WIP (work in progress) video of it. It's posted on YouTube, click here to see it.

I suppose you'd like to see some photos from greyhound pup-a-palooza? No problem!

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House Wren vs. Gopher Snake - Video

A very cool nature moment that I have to share! Earlier this afternoon, John spotted a large gopher snake near the veggie garden and a very agitated house wren nearby. He came and got me and we stood there and watched as the wren flitted and fluttered and fussed around the snake. The snake didn't pay much attention and went about its business, slithering around. At some point the wren had had quite enough and started dive bombing the snake, actually making contact with the snake's head! I ran inside to get my little video camera. Of course by the time I got back, the excitement had ceased and the snake had moved a bit further away from the wren, but I hung around for a while hoping the encounter would happen again. Well, perseverance paid off - the snake moseyed a bit too close to the wren again and I was able to capture the action.



You can hear the agitated chattering of the wren in the video.

Last I checked, the snake was still cruising around the yard near the garden. A very handsome specimen, about 3 feet long and it looks as if it had shed recently - very shiny and fresh.

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My Ostrich Egg Art Featured in a New Book

A few months ago, Cheryl Hall contacted me to see if I'd be interested in letting her include my ostrich egg art in a book she was putting together. Of course I said yes. What's interesting is that Cheryl is in Australia - through the magic of the internet she found me and via e-mail I was able to get images of my art to her. Well, her book is now available . . . called A Showcase of Decorated Eggs, you can find it on-line at blurb.com.


Click on the image to see the book.
Click here for my page in the book (scroll down about 6 pages, my page is on the right - with a bobcat, giraffe & frog).

Oh, I suppose I should back-track a bit and explain. I've been drawing animals in pen & ink on ostrich eggs for many, many, many years. It all started when I began volunteering at the Sacramento Zoo. I started out as a keeper's aide, then became the volunteer volunteer coordinator and later a paid staffer as the volunteer and events coordinator. The zoo's administration staff had been presenting ostrich eggs to donors and as event prizes for some time before I started working there. I was happy to get involved and start doing some ostrich egg art. Even after I left that job, zoo staff has continued to commission eggs from me. At one point, I calculated I'd done at least 200 eggs! They commission at least 10 eggs each year. It's a fun thing to do and very unique.


This is one example, you can see more on this page of my web site.

I buy drained, cleaned ostrich eggs and use a technical pen with India ink to draw critters on the egg. Usually, zoo staff tells me which animals to draw - it's often dependent on the event's fund raising goal. For example, the giraffe barn is old and really needs to be replaced, so the money raised from the recent golf tournament goes toward the wonderful new giraffe exhibit - I was asked to draw giraffes on those four eggs. The eggs were presented to the winners of the golf tourney.

If at all possible I use my own photos of the Zoo's animals for reference, but sometimes, I have to borrow a photo from the Zoo's photo collection. When I'm drawing the same critter on 4 eggs (which usually occurs twice a year) I'll print my reference photo, sized to fit the egg, and then trace over the photo onto tracing paper. I transfer the traced image to each egg, filling in some of the details with pencil. Then I do the ink work on each egg. If it's a single egg, I'll freehand the drawing onto the egg with pencil and then ink it.

Here's a set of 4 eggs:



. . . and if you're interested in an ostrich egg of your very own, of course I accept commissions!

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Western Screech Owl ACEO

This striking guy is Bob, a western screech owl. I met Bob at an open house back in January of 2007. He was rescued by California Foundation for Birds of Prey (CFBP).


This a small format graphite pencil drawing (ACEO - 2.5" x 3.5")
This drawing of Bob has sold and is now in Pennsylvania.

Find out more about Bob and a gorgeous golden eagle named Tesla in this post from Feb '07.

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