this week, a beast

It's a bear with some rose hips!

Things haven't improved any with my brain function. But that isn't all bad - like yesterday, here's what happened. I had tallied up all my completed drawings, based on my multiple countings, my torn apart scrap paper lists, my hormones, and the position of the moon relative to this and that but nothing much. I need a total of thirty pieces for the two shows I have coming up. My precise calculations had shown, disappointingly, that I had only 24 that were exhibit-worthy.

Then I says to myself, you know, you're more of a pictures person than a numbers person, so maybe you should spread all the drawings out on the bed, and see where you're at, just to be sure. Lo and behold, I had thirty-three totally acceptable drawings! That means I was off by, like, a really big percent. Which is no matter - I'm going on vacation soon, and my to-do list just shrank measurably. That puts it not quite into the can-do realm of things, but closer.

The moral of this story is, sometimes your own ineptitudes will delight you in the end!

the Each Week, One Beast project: week ?

The beasts are on hiatus, because their maker is overwhelmed. I feel like doing what Otto is doing above, fleeing from his responsibilities. Matt bought me an enormous bottle of gin, and it wouldn't be hard to go sit with it out in the garden, with the season's last flowers, and then eventually tip over, from which perspective I could enjoy the vees of geese as they pass by.

One thing about this art business is that my busy season is the holidays. Or so it seems - I'm still learning. So - I'll be sharing what I'm working on as I'm working on it, and beasts will come on an irregular basis, and if you want to come visit me, I'll make you an awesome cocktail and we'll sit on the back porch and not answer any of our email or fulfill any of our promises.

the Each Week, One Beast project: weeks 34 and 35

Well, these beasts just don't draw themselves. I didn't post one last week, and I'm just barely making it this week. I've been drawing plenty, but nothing I feel like sharing. So. I've just done these Ottos, they took about seven minutes, and they're way better than the other Ottos I worked on for, like, a million hours. Does this say something about my usual technique?

I've been trying out these little fast side-of-the-pencil-lead sketches because I think they help me loosen up and determine the basic shapes a someone ought to be, before thinking about details. They're fun and satisfying.

Other than that, I have only one other little happy event to tell you about. The baker's brand new 25 pound sack of organic dark chocolate chips took a tumble (which Otto had NOTHING to do with) off the stack of boxes by the flour. This sucked for the baker because a bunch of them spilled, and while I really did feel sympathy for Matt and his lost investment, it's hard to feel very sorry for someone when their misfortune is your big bowl of chocolate, you know? Floor chips really can't be baked into cookies for customers, but they can be eaten by your wife. That's lucky old me.

Happy weekend, everyone.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 33

We've talked a lot about what Otto doesn't like, but not so much about what he does like. He likes cooking. But alas, he is not technically allowed on the kitchen table. Here he is, about to be whisked off.

I thought I'd share the before picture for this finished drawing, from my sketchbook, below. Sometimes I get a sketch I love, and man, it's so challenging to capture the energy of the loose sketch in the next drawing - the one I do on the nice, expensive paper. If I'm lucky I get something just as good as the sketch, but different. If I'm not lucky I get pages and pages of F-ed up Ottos, ready to be recycled into something more useful, like toilet paper.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 32

The cat whose name is a palindrome. Again. Sheesh.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 31

One more Otto. I'll share the complete drawings that these little Ottos came out of soon. Happy weekend, all!

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 30

Ha! It's Otto again! It's now the Each Week, Otto project. Maybe, maybe not. This is again a sneak peak of a bigger, tiny picture. So far, with your help, I now know that Otto hates: cold milk (which is the same as milk that has not been warmed), the tedious task of painting trim, wet shoes (who doesn't?), dogs and everything having to do with them, sticky paws (and even just the mere thought), and Rude Awakenings. Please feel free to add to the list! Either here in the comments or an email to me, Otto's personal assistant and keeper of files, records and such.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 29

This week's beast is a small part of a larger (but still very small!) drawing, and also an introduction to Otto, a cat of extreme grumpiness. I think we'll be having more of him around here, because, since I am currently pet-less in real life, I have been entertaining myself with tales of Otto and all the shitty things that annoy him. Like being stuffed in a loaf pan. He hates that. I'm just at the brainstorming stage, so if you can think of anything that might really get Otto's goat, do share!

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 28

One week, three beasts - oh well, it's kind of on topic.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 27

It's Charley! Reclining on a pile of pillows purchased especially for him.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 26

A chipmunk on some milk caps, for my very own Matt, on our second anniversary.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 25

Little raccoon, just finished grooming her tail.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 24

Well folks, I've crapped out, as they say. I drew a crabby duckling in a puddle, but I don't like it. It sucks. It's a suckling. It's been a long week, and that's no excuse, but I am just not up to a Beast right now. However - being someone who can wriggle her way out of almost anything, I have come up with an escape plan! It is a link to these delightful sketches my mom made at the petting zoo this week.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 23

Laika in her bed. I did this drawing a few weeks ago, when I wanted to remember what my constant companion looked like while we did our hardest work. Not my favorite drawing, but she is my favorite girl. She liked her bed in the breezy spot under the window.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 22

Three cows conversing.

One of my favorite projects last summer was an art-for-food trade with my friends at Hemlock Creek CSA. I drew them a butterfly, and they provided us with many weeks of beautiful vegetables. We canned and froze a lot of those, which fed us well over the winter. So I was stoked that Stephanie wanted to do the same thing again this year. I got to draw their three very sweet cows (two are Dutch belted, and the speckledy one is a Randall).

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 21

Top half of a great horned owl. My first portrait, and my only job ever commissioned by an actual owl. Mm-hm.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 20

Mink gone fishing. On a recent hike, Matt caught a glimpse of someone long, dark and slender slipping into the creek. From the opposite bank, we spied the hole it might have disappeared into. After consulting a field guide, mink is what we think... but it's hard to be sure.

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 19

Screech owl in the pines. Everywhere I go, I am ALWAYS looking for owls. That is why I trip and fall so much. And also why I forget the things I am supposed to bring with me. I haven't seen an owl in the feather lately, so I keep a virtual eye on things at the Avian Reconditioning Center for Birds of Prey. Someone there takes great pictures of their birds. I am in love with the little one-eyed screech owl...

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 18

So, I think we all know what's happened here. She was sleeping under the kitchen table, snout resting on mangled old squeaky toy. The fresh scent of newly-spread manure wafted in on the spring breeze. Her nostrils quivered... one eyebrow perked... and she popped up, nudged the screen door ajar, scampered down the hill and into the field, rolled in the poop, had a dip in the cow pond, and now here she is in the kitchen again, having just had a good shake. She used to be a white dog, but now she's sort of... off-colorish.

But I think she needs a name, and I can't seem to come up with one. Help! What do you think?

the Each Week, One Beast project: week 17

Snowy owl flies north. I've never seen one, but it sounds like they're more common in Vermont, so maybe I will one day. When we first began searching for a place to move, we considered many places across the country... It took a while before we were willing to entertain a spot farther north, with a colder climate, a lower hardiness zone, and fewer exciting things in the bulb catalogs to plant. Now, with northern Vermont in our future, I'm looking forward to other species - plants and animals both - that thrive only where the freeze goes deeper. So, there will be no Anemone coronaria for me - but perhaps a snowy owl!