sketched out

… oh… ahem… yes, hello! You might remember me, my name is Joey. I’ve been asked by my lazy lovely human to say a few words. Actually, I don’t know why she’s getting all this attention, when clearly it is I who deserves all of it.

But I digress.

Yeah, so she got all emotional today, about getting this Brillante award from some wonderful, talented, super-cool folks, and sent me out here to speak on her behalf about it. I told her I’d do it, even though I have the 12:30 dust bunny attack, 2:00 toilet water tasting going on, not to mention the daily locking of Spooky (my nemesis) in the closet (busy, busy, busy.)

She wanted me to give hugs, kisses and rub up against the legs of Alicia, Tom, Mônica, Erin, Jannie, and Kathy (last week). Thank you all soooo much!

I may spend most of my time napping, but I do know talent when I see it and these people have all that… and a bag of kibble! Plus all 5 of them are some of the nicest humans I’ve ever run across and they’re animal lovers… so, what’s not to like?

Although some of them like dogs… go figure.

Ok, thank you Joey. I can take it from here. I just want to say, to Kathy, Alicia, Tom, Mônica, Erin, Jannie, to everyone in the IF community and to those folks that found me by Googling “Hot Chicks” thanks for making this past year (it’ll be a year in Sept.) so gratifying, full of support, educational and just downright fun!

Here’s to another Brillante year!!

I don’t want to get all up on my High Horse or anything, but I’m done. Stick a fork in me I’m done!

Actually, it was a really great experience and I sort of hate to see it end. So, I may do it again some time in the future. But for now, I am free to do as I please, which actually, probably won’t be all that much different from this exercise, hee hee!

You just never know, do ya?

Thanks everyone for all your great comments, feedback and cheering me on. I really appreciate it more than you can know. You’re all a stupendous bunch, you wonderful bloggers and blog readers you!

When the cat’s away, the mice will play

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The cat was barely out the door, before the card game began.

Unfortunately Seymour thought they were playing “Go Fish,” and was accused of cheating at Poker by his unsavory friends.

If her clothes didn’t end up severely stretched out and reeking of wet dog, Sheila Sheepington-Fleecewater would probably have less of a problem with the wolf borrowing them.

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It’s been a while, so thought it was high time to do an animal idiom.

One uses this saying to describe someone or something that seems to be good but is actually bad. There seems to be a few different ideas about it’s origin, but here is what Wikipedia has to say about it.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Bunnyhyde

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The Illustration Friday theme this weeke is “Foggy.”

I think of foggy, and London comes to mind. I think of London, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” comes to mind. I think of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and immediately think of bunnies.

Doesn’t everyone?

This morning’s denizens of Peets Coffee, sketched while sitting under an umbrella, sipping cappuccino.

BUNNY BOOTS

From the day Beatrice was a wee kit she wanted a pair of cowboy boots. After landing a job at the Burger Hutch and receiving her first paycheck, she headed over to the Boot Barn, and bought herself a pair of snazzy Tony Lamas.

Nothing challenging today, just the old tried and true bunny… marching in place, eating a carrot. Eating healthy and exercise have been on my mind a lot lately. So I must have been channeling all that, as I absent-mindedly sketched today.

Mortimer became a mole, not for any political reasons, nor was it a passion for intrigue… he simply liked the trench coat and all the cool gadgets.

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Kathy of Moongazing Hare bestowed this award upon me, which is really an honor, since I just adore her work! Thanks so much Kathy!

The rules of accepting are as follows:-
1) Put the logo on your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

You know, I’ve met so many lovely people and visit so many “Brillante” blogs that I am tempted to just list all of them… but that would be a ridiculously long list and a cumbersome task, and I’m way too lazy to work that hard.

So I’m going to follow the rules and hone the list down to 7. Whoops, forgive me, I messed up, there’s 8… oh well, you see, it’s reeeeeally difficult.

Here’s my list in alphabetical order… drum roll please:

Alicia of My Place over the Hill

Colleen of The Frog Blog

Eli of Art by Eli and creator of “Critters”, (a great comic strip)

Gina of Dua Mata Saya

Julia of Bobo’s Fun Place

Laurel of Studio Lolo

Radha of Ratlion’s Den

Roberta of A Mouse in the House

You guys are Brillante!!!!

So I bought this really cool book about a year ago and never really did much with it… until today. I figured, what better time than during a creative exercise, to work on facial expressions? Although these sketches seem a bit stiff to me, I can see how continuing to work with this book could be very useful in helping me loosen up and really delve into some expressions.

Sketching these faces today, reminded me of a head drawing class I attended years ago. It was a fantastic class… that is, as long as you were the one drawing. Unfortunately, everyone in the class had to take turns posing and man was that ever uncomfortable. It felt almost impossible to sit still and not change your expression, or scratch your nose. Then there was all the staring and scrutinizing. Oye!

However, in the end, it was a riot a to see how fellow students handled your mug… heh heh, yeah, a real laugh riot… *sigh*… did you really have to draw those dark circles under my eyes? Whoa, I didn’t realize I had such a double chin… do I really, hmmmm?

Anywho, head drawing, a great class. I highly recommend it, if it is offered near you. Then again this book might just be a tad less intimidating.

We’ll see.

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Oh, and (tee hee) wouldn’t you agree that these faces look awfully “Sour?”

What Barney thought was a cool refreshing celery juice, was in fact, a glass of sour rhubarb cocktail… a common mistake in the bunny community.

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The Illustration Friday theme for this week is sour.

Happy 4th of July!

It was also my nephew’s first birthday. He’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy!

So in honor of the wee dude and Independence Day, I colorized today’s sketch and threw one of Tom’s photos of tonight’s fireworks into the background, (I used a filter on the photo, in hopes that it would fit a little better with the sketch.

Also, I would like to invite you to click here and visit Alicia’s wonderful blog to see my tree drawing, from the previous post, colorized and to check out all the other beautiful tree illustrations entered in the giveaway. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

I did a preliminary sketch for my entry in Alicia Padrón’s book giveway. The theme is the importance of trees in celebration of the publication of the gorgeous book she illustrated, “The Wish Trees.” Her children will be the judges and chose the winner of the giveaway. Should be a pretty good test of how well one’s art is recieved by children, eh?

So, before I enter this drawing, I plan on adding color. But for now I’m going to try to get a little mileage out of my little tree dude.

I drove up the coast to Ventura to visit my mom tonight. We have a weekly, standing date. As we strolled along the Harbor, after a nice seafood dinner, I detected the annoying, whiny hum of mosquito. A few moments later, I was barely able to walk, as I was desperately scratching myself like a flea-ridden dog. All in all it was still a lovely visit, but as I sat down to sketch, there was only one thing on my mind.

RUDE AWAKENING

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, there’s nothing particularly challenging about this sketch… no attempts at action, no endeavors to create a series, no effort made to look up a dragon’s nostrils. Where’s the challenge in drawing a squirrel, you ask?

Well, I’ll have you know, there was indeed a challenge tonight. Keeping my eyes open. For some reason, I am so tir…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz