I really love drawing animals. When I’m stuck for ideas, I find some reference pictures and draw an animal.
And then…..and then I give them a coffee cup.
I don’t know why.
It just makes me happy.
So, here they are (most of them, anyway). I hope they make you happy too!
If you aren’t a coffee person, think of them as giant, steaming, mugs of tea.
Several of these are up on my Redbubble shop already–the rest are pending! I’m also hoping to get some of them as stickers for sale on my Etsy. But that’s a project I’m *just* beginning. Let me know in the comments which ones you think would be the best stickers.
What animals would you like to see cherishing a nice steaming cuppa?
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It’s been a quiet year at the barn. What with 2020 and all. I mean, it’s a quiet little place to start with, but especially quiet the past 12 month.
But then came the fake goose dog.
I noticed the dog when I drove in. A little black silhouette of a German Shepherd type dog slowly rotated in the gentle breeze at the end of the drive way. Closer examination revealed he was part of a goose deterrent effort, and he was on the way to one of the fields we frequent.
Knowing how distrustful Midas is of changes in his familiar landscape, I decided we’d come see the fake dog in hand before riding. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal, Midas likes dogs. So I tacked up completely and then led him down the driveway.
This isn’t the first time I’ve done that, but Midas saw the dog and was interested immediately. Midas likes dogs…but there was something off about this one. We went up, he warily sniffed it, shifted around, looked at it with the other eye. I made sure to touch it and wobble it so he could see it was safe. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but he was calm, and so I led him back up the driveway to the woodpile to get on.
While I fussed with the girth and stirrups, he looked over his shoulder at the fake dog. Then he looked again, more alarmed. Then he began to snort, and looked again, shifted his feet nervously.
Then I realized what was happening.
The fake dog MOVED every time he looked away.
Looks like a dog, but doesn’t smell, move, or have shape like a dog. Not a dog.
This is not normal behavior for inert objects–things he’s confirmed with his own nose are not living.
Without getting on I led him back to the fake dog, telling him it was just cardboard turning in the wind. Midas did a lovely little piaffe the whole way there, and then when we arrived he swung his rear at the fake dog menacingly. He didn’t kick, though, because he’s a hunt horse, and you don’t kick dogs.
I was surprised and delighted to see him trying to scare it away. Midas is the responsible guard horse at the barn. He’s the one who stands watch when everyone else naps. He’s attentive and watchful, and while he likes dogs,
THIS WAS CLEARLY NOT A DOG.
FOUL MACHINATION OF SATAN.
I tried to reason with him, and honestly he was calmest walking in a circle around the haunted dog, but being in sight of it was, overall, NOT OK. The Cardboard Weeping Angel Dog that would surely attack if he blinked.
With a sigh I decided to start my ride in the ring–from the ring we could still catch glimpses of the fake dog, but Midas considers the ring as SAFE, so he’s pretty brave in there. We had a great ride.
I caught him eyeing the dog now and then.
We cooled out outside the ring–and went past the Haunted Dog, giving it a wide berth and goggly eyes so it wouldn’t try anything as we went past.
The next week, the Haunted Dog was still there.
Midas still DID NOT LIKE the Haunted Dog. But then I noticed that there is another Haunted Dog in sight of the pastures. The horses had probably been watching it all week. We still gave it a wide berth, but apparently this was a peaceable Haunted Dog that wasn’t going to eat him.
The Haunted Dogs have been patrolling for geese for weeks now, moving around the yards every couple days, turning in the wind.
We ignore them now.
Mostly.
Midas keeps a casual eye on them in case they’ve just been luring us all into a false sense of security.
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I did some sketching on my tablet–it’s been a while. Apparently, i’m better at it than i remember. This looks way better than I remember art on the tablet looking. I’ll have to mess around some more!
The CEO of Tee Public had a great reminder for artists, so I thought I’d share it here:
“Today, you don’t need to be Pablo Picasso and you don’t need to have something poignant to say. But you are an artist. You do have a sword to wield. Can you push through anxiety and find the space to be creative? Can you find your voice and whisper to us, a joke, an idea, or a memory of some better time? “
Read a book, look at art, make art…get out those coloring books, the beads you were going to do something with…If you can’t get outside, you can find solace in art or escape in stories. We’ll do our best to keep you supplied!
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We were at a friend’s house to play games, and one of their daughters (who is…5?) presented my husband and I with paper and pencils and told us we each had to draw half the picture.
I think it was me who suggested a hobbit hole, with the circular door being in the middle. I sketched out the left half of the hill, and when I looked over at my husband’s side, he was putting intricate scales on the head of a dragon.
The little pencil sketch ended up being really cool so the next day I sketched the whole thing out again, and then painted it.
I used a piece of paper too big to scan easily, so I’m still trying to get a clean image so I can upload it. But I really love how it came out. Especially the tall grass spines of the dragon.
This picture also reminds me to be imaginative and try crazy things. I never, ever, would have thought of making the hill a dragon, but he did. And I love it!
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