Outfoxing Your Reluctant Artist

January 6, 2009January 6, 2009 / still a dreamer

bluefootedbooby Actually, this is a follow-up to the earlier post, with a bit of success to report. Sunday was another day that I had time available to work on my children’s book dummy. Once going, I love working on this. Getting myself to sit down and start? Another story. Procrastinating, avoidance, outright fear … whatever you want to call it, it’s all the same in the end. Years ago, someone very close to me said, “You know, we could really talk about this forever, but sometimes you just have to nail your ass in the chair and do it.” Well said. Couldn’t agree more.

Ergo, the plan outlined in the earlier post. This has been working rather successfully in the few short days that I began. You’d think, since we’re all in the same person, that we couldn’t outfox ourselves, but clearly, it’s possible. Above is Sunday’s drawing. Clearly, I had a bit more time than Monday, whose sketch, made at 9:30 p.m., is nothing I will post. Having applied my butt to my drafting chair on Sunday, I drew the rather endearing Blue-Footed Booby you see here. I was helpless to walk away from the dummy which I’d just happened to leave lying on my desk. Quite crafty. So I worked on it.

For the weekend, I got two sketches done, but also figured out where the remaining two page spreads would go in my PB, roughed them out, and did a fairly good sketch of one of them. That was my plan! Even I am surprised that this works.

Are you someone who paces, distracts yourself, and otherwise has discovered 50 things that all need to be done N-O-W when you finally have time to devote to your creative work? You might try this – you, too, can be outfoxed.

Jump-starting Creativity after the Holidays-Equine Sketch

January 4, 2009January 4, 2009 / still a dreamer

penink-colt2 The holidays take up a lot of time one way or another, and it’s easy to lose our creative drive as holiday demands drive us in 15 different directions. Speaking for myself, I need to get back into my drawing and was looking for a way to jump-start my drawing efforts again. I’m quite sure a variation of this will work just fine with writing as well.

I wanted to make it fun, something I wanted to do, AND relatively painless. So I gave myself a challenge. I gathered up all my calendars from 2008 and a couple for 2009 I’d been mailed as fundraisers and stacked them on my drawing desk. My challenge is to draw one animal – yes, all my calendars are animals – every day AT my drawing desk. That’s an important part.

My drawing desk is in the room with all my art supplies, so if I’m feeling I might not do justice to a wolf in pen and ink, I can always grab my pastels. That’s the obvious. The secondary gain is that once I’m at my drawing desk, where my other current projects lie, it makes it much easier for me to park my butt there and settle into some of the more time-consuming projects I have to do.

I’m no stranger to procrastination, so while I may be wanting to pace the room awhile before settling down to work on some serious illustrations, or finding the opportune time to clear out and dust an entire bookcase shelf by shelf, I’ll already be sitting there in work mode. Tricky, eh?

That’s my plan anyway. Maybe it’ll work for you, too! My own challenge is on, and here’s my first sketch.

Animal Artists and Authors Join for A Cause

November 3, 2008November 3, 2008 / still a dreamer

Do your gifts tend to have an animal theme? Then stop by and do some holiday shopping and support a great cause! Eight animal artists and authors, including myself, Jeanne Balsam, are participating in Paw Prints – an art and book sale fundraiser to help Animeals. 20% of all our sales will benefit this charity who delivers pet food, supplies, etc. to the homebound, indigent and handicapped, a kind of Meals-on-Wheels for pets.

The following artists and authors will be participating:

Doris Ettlinger, children’s book illustrator
Andrea Gianchiglia, pet portrait artist
Mark Mueller, wildlife artist
Jerilyn Weber, Equine and pet portrait artist
JoAnn Dahan, dog trainer and author, Kids Training Puppies
Loren Spiotta-DiMare. author, pet-reference books for adults and picture books for children
Diana Tuorto, Horse Columnist, Today in Hunterdon. Author, middle-grade horse books for children,
and of course, yours truly, artist, author, and illustrator.

Date: Saturday, Nov. 8th

Time: 1:30 pm – 4 pm

Location: Clinton Community Center, 63 Halstead Street, (next to the Public Library) Clinton, NJ

I will be there with animal themed Christmas cards, blank note cards, prints, etc. Check out some more artists’ and authors’ offerings on the PAW PRINTS flyer.

Hope to see you there!

Chimney Swifts Grace A Dusky Sky

August 29, 2008 / still a dreamer

Chimney Swifts Flying Overhead

Each evening in the summer, before the crickets and frogs begin their serenades, there is a loud chittering outside, a beckoning to come see the sky. The light fades and in increasing numbers, small birds dart about in the approaching dusk. Their rapid wing movement nearly mimics that of a bat, but as I watch, I note their too-slender bodies and elegant lines. They circle overhead, first in sight everywhere, then seeming to disappear. They return to recklessly swoop in random patterns, now close, now hundreds of feet overhead, criss-crossing the sky in repetitions.

They are Chimney Swifts, small birds that live inside uncapped chimneys and open vertical structures. Practically swarming the sky, they bring Alfred Hitchcock to mind. I’ve learned a family of five Chimney Swifts eats 12,000 small insects per evening, mosquitos, gnats, no-see-ums, all the ones that quietly bite and torment. The suspense is clearly for small flying creatures, not me. The birds also migrate 6,000 miles every year, in pursuit of their meals.

I’d never seen Chimney Swifts until I lived in this part of the state, and never so many `til I moved to this location, just a few houses from the Delaware River. The dining by the river must be nothing short of gourmet for the Chimney Swifts.

Swifts Eating on the Fly

I stand on my back porch, lean on the railing. The sky deepens and I watch in amazement, perhaps for 20 minutes. I am mesmerized by these flickering shadows on a blue-grey canvas. I am happy to be a part of their evening repast, if only as a bystander.

Photographing them with a digital flash cannot do them justice, but do click on the photos to get an idea of what I see. For more information on Chimney Swifts, check out their own web site, chimneyswifts.org or the HSUS Chimney Swift info page.

Catching A Catnap

August 16, 2008September 9, 2009 / still a dreamer / 1 Comment

It occurred to me the other day that the small fry in my life were getting far too little face time. In fact, they were getting none, and deserved a little respect. So what better time to catch them than just at the time when I settle down to work and they, with nice full tummies, settle down to catch that most cat-like of all endeavors, the catnap.

It was easy to catch Mewsette. Once she settles down for a snooze, she’s out like a light!

But then surprisingly, everyone else decided something interesting must be happening, so let’s pose! And Gypsy Rose started her on-the-back rolls and twirls which has earned her the nickname of Twirly-Girl.

Not to be left out, Claude, a.k.a. Claudie the Dog Boy, decided to sit up and get his mug in the camera. But it didn’t take terribly long for him to give it up and find his catnap spot on their favorite brown paper bag. He couldn’t keep his eyes open and was soon out like a light, too.

Ahhhh – but I did say face time, didn’t I? OK, Mewsette, a beautiful tabby and white girl with kiwi green eyes, is the delicate soul of the bunch and so bonded to me that my moods become her moods. She is terribly devoted to me. I rescued her from Weequahic Park in Newark when she was about 9 months old. As cats go, she is the old soul, always wiser and more in tune, but sometimes in need of protection from the other two.

Gypsy Rose was another rescue from that park who’d been living in the adjacent cemetery; I snatched her while riding through one morning to work. She was 6 months old at the time. What’s so unusual about Gypsy is her tortoiseshell markings – she has touches on her face, chest and paw, stray hairs through her body, but all her bright, flashy colors are on her tummy! Gypsy is the top cat and the most independent.

I rescued Claude at the age of 5 weeks from a railroad bridge where he was waiting, no doubt, to be hit by a car or go over the edge and a 100′ drop. I hadn’t wanted a kitten, (because I would take an older cat, a pair that couldn’t be separated, a handicap, etc.), but felt he was meant to be mine. When I saw him run under the chin of my 12 year old pit bull terrier, Chloe, I knew it was true. Chloe raised him pretty much with her energy. He does all kinds of tricks no self-respecting cat would ever do, ergo the name, Claudie the Dog Boy, and is a bit on the goofy side.