Foaming at the Mouth

My wife figured out it was due to dishsoap because she insisted on smelling the cat's mouth. I thought she was a little crazy, but the kitten smelled breezy fresh which helped us figure out what happened. I'll try not to doubt her methods again.

Three hour school board meeting

Not one of my best visual drawings, but I made myself draw it and post it because I need to get comfortable drawing in public. I had people all around me and my wife said I was all hunched over. People were probably paying me more attention because I was being all secretive.

Anyway, this was done at a school board meeting in my wife's school district where they are facing the problem of being $2,000,000 over budget for next school year. Nuts. After three hours I think they decided to have a referendum in April. It was a long meeting with many interesting perspectives. My brain is now mush. Goodnight.

Gray Foster Kitty

Belt Buckles...

It's hard to tell from the scan, but I did a couple of gray tones and counted that as my color for the day as well as visual journal #2 for the week.

By the way, the Packers are going to win tomorrow!

Watercolor Traveling Palette...

For Christmas my parents gave me a $50 gift card to our local Art Store. I finally used it today and got this spiffy traveling watercolor palette. It was in a price range where I never would have gotten it if it were my own money, so thanks Mom and Dad. I've also got to say thank you to my wife who bought me all the fancy colors. I've had them for a while, but just couldn't use them because there were so many. Now they are all in front of me and accessible without a lot of work. Thanks family!

My Day Off

It's MLK Day, so no school for me. Woot! Woot! Spent the day drawing and painting.

Here's the final flower for my wife. I managed to get all dozen finished by Valentine's Day, but it was close.

I started this a few days ago, but just finished today. It counts as my second Visual Journal for last week. Two more to go for this week.

 

Make that one more. Here's my usual puppet sketch I do when I'm home and my wife is stuck at work. Click the puppet label at the end to see how much better they have gotten over the last couple years.

Foster Kittens

We are a half-way house for single mom cats and their unplanned kittens. My wife talked me into doing this years ago with the Humane Society and we have had almost 50 cats come through our house. Some needing meds, socialization, or growing until they weigh at least 2 lbs (Those were some very small kittens.). It was great, but we took a break for the last year and a half as we put the house on the market. Now we have the house off for a month, so we decided to have a group come through. We have three new kittens with ear mites, all needing to put on a few pounds before they can be adopted. It's great fun.

Our cats, that always live with us, have had to do a little adjusting. Emma's trying to make friends, but all her growling is a little intimidating. She's starting to share her toys under the door, though. That might just be a trick to get one close enough to grab and eat.

The kittens are actually very cute, and not quite a demonic as this one looks.

Jury Duty

How did jury duty go, you ask? Just fine. I sat all day.


There were two rooms to sit and wait in. The quiet room, where I could work at a table, or the auditorium, that showed movies and T.V. the whole time. I wanted the quiet room because then I could set my sketchbook on the table and face people and draw them. I walked into the room and quickly turned around when I noticed a parent of one of the students I taught a few years back. At parent/teacher conferences he continually referred to his son as being a stud. The kid was ten. I decided to avoid him so ended up watching "The Proposal" (Not too horrible), more episodes of Friends then I have ever seen (2), and drawing the back of people's heads.

It wasn't bad all in all. I got a free pass to the museum and saw "Samson" the gorilla, dinosaurs, and got surrounded by butterflies. Not only that, but I drew all day and got some school work done.

What will tomorrow bring?

Here are two more flowers I gave my wife. I thought the daisy stunk, so I didn't write anything on the back or count it as one of her twelve. I'll do one more and that will be her dozen.

Speaking of my wife, here she is with her favorite kitty, Emma.

Tomorrow will be interesting. Not only do I have jury duty , but my wife is bringing three, one month old foster kittens in our house. I wonder how Emma and Chin will react. It will be great visual journal material.

Flowers

This is a flower I did a few days ago and gave to my wife today.

 I worked on her last two flowers today and will post those once I've given them to her.

Night of Sci-Fi

Friday night was an intense viewing of sci-fi. My wife was off with her girls so I had the house and TV to myself. It started off with The Animatrix, followed by Repo Men, and finished off with Doomsday. The last was pretty awful, but the wine I was drinking made it passable. Repo Men, was pretty cool, but the scene at the end where they blow up the computer was ridiculously stupid.

While watching I added a little more to the collage, but mostly relaxed, so it's not even worth posting. Today, I woke up and was still thinking about the movie, Repo Men, so I drew myself kind of as one of the characters. I used a pose from Cory Walker's, Scatchblag, and went from there.

Coffee...

This is no joke, even though it was very funny. It shot out three feet to my left and right and blew into my coffee cup just as hard making it shot up. It was insane. Luckily I still had a lot left I could drink. I know I'm not making a great sales pitch, but the thing is awesome. You never have to worry about it spilling because of the quick release button. I just have to figure out how to open and pour it without so much drama.

Added another layer.

Chin!

My wife and I went to Barnes and Noble for our date night last night. I drew a couple quick sketches and water colored at home.

I also did one of my two visual journals for the week.

The licking sound of a cat in the dark of the night can be one of the most annoying things in the world for my wife.

Collage...

I don't really ever feel the need to do crazy collages of mismatched ideas and images, but I'll try anything once. It was actually kind of fun. I drew and inked it a while back, just trying to get ideas and emotions out, but never posted. I started water coloring it this evening. There is more to come.

Some more flowers I hid around the house for my wife to find. I'll spare you the mushy notes I wrote on the backside.

Gorilla in the Works...

The first gorilla I did practically last year and never felt like I finished it. Time to go back and rework it. Experiment with layering watercolor.

 The original.

Some color added last night.

Some more color added today.

I'm going to keep adding and take it past that finished point on purpose. I never know when to stop and usually stop way a head of when I should.

2011 Resolutions...

I’m desperate to get it all out of my head. In 2009 I challenged myself to draw everyday and loved it. I learned a ton about myself and my art. In 2010 I slacked off and hated it. I did create somethings I'm very proud of, but it pains me to think about all the other artwork I could have created. It’s 2011, and time for some New Year’s Resolutions. 

It was hard to choose just two. I feel torn in so many directions. Visual Journals are very important to me, but they don't always allow me to progress and try new things. "Color" is going to be my main focus this year. 

That being said, here are my resolutions for 2011...

1. I will create something with color everyday.

2. I will create at least two Visual Journals every week. 

I'm not going to require myself to post everyday, but I will be sure to post as often as possible and at least once a week.

I hope you check back often and leave some comments. I love to hear what you think; the good, bad, and everything in between. It’s going to be a great New Year!

A few hours later...

Here's the first Visual Journal of the year! With a little color too.