This is a new 'thing' I'm working on. Its been on a back burner for too long, and one of my resolutions for the new year was to move it to the front, and turn up the heat a bit.
These first few samples were done with traditional colored pencils, then some 'digital colored pencil' to enhance them. I'm going to see if I can do the rest in the series all digitally. I really want to be able to go all digital for some stuff, and am determined to figure this out, once and for all.
These may remind you of some popular TV characters, or not. I'm not trying to copy specific people, but there may be a strong nod to someone we recognize here and there.
Its fun to adapt human 'costumes' to cat proportions. Sometimes. I'm trying not to do 'people bodies with cat heads', although that would make things a lot easier.
The ladies are next!
Happy New Year!
I'm starting it off by painting a lot of dark little paintings. You may be able to tell what I'm up to here, but I won't spill all the beans yet, and instead will talk about how I'm painting them, and how they're kind of giving me fits.
My plan was to do these with watercolors on illustration board.
So I went into my supply closet, where I knew I had a whole box of boards (Strathmore 500 Series). But when I opened the box, . . . it was empty! Somewhere along the line I'd pulled out the last board; but because the box is a sturdy, very boxy box, I didn't even notice there was nothing left in it except for some liner boards (and whatever they built the box with to make it sturdy enough to ship fancy illustration board across the country without it getting damaged).
And so onto Plan B. I wanted to get these started, and didn't want to wait for new board to arrive, so I dug out some Arches watercolor paper. Which is really beautiful paper. But its very bumpy. And kind of rough. And I'm trying to get used to painting on it.
The piece above has several layers of different blacks, but still isn't quite what I wanted the finished 'look' to be.
With this next one, I did a bit less, and somewhere along the way figured out I will still need to add some colored pencil to get the final look I want.
So then I started doing just a base layer of color, without worrying so much about modeling the form or any details, which let me relax a little and enjoy just putting some paint down. The 'splotchy' look is driving me crazy though. I wet an area, then apply the paint (see, I do know how to do this properly), but am still getting uneven-ness. It wouldn't kill me to use a larger brush, which would probably fix the problem. But like I said, I now know I'm going to go over it with pencil, so that will even it all out.
I can see I need to fix the buttons on this one, because they're not lined up right. (How did that happen?)
The paper warps, which drives me insane. I am too lazy to stretch it, and don't want to tape it down either (these are really small little pieces.) I learned all that stuff in art school, and remember running whole sheets of paper under the tap in the bathtub, then taping them down to a board to dry overnight. !!!!! I just don't have the patience for that anymore (but do have the patience to fiddle endlessly with a 00 brush or needle sharp pencil point - so go figure).
Anyways, that's what I'm up to. And I'm not complaining, really! I'm just sharing. I'm actually having fun, and am looking forward to getting these finished.
I hope the new year is starting off well for you. So far so good here. I confess I was happy to get back in the swing of things after the holidays. Its all fun, and emotionally uplifting, but also exhausting. There comes a point when you just can't eat one more cookie or fat-laden thing, and anything red and green and sparkly makes you twitch, and you know you're done. Amirite?
I did have one bit of drama for Christmas, involving a kitty. I'll copy it here as I recounted in on Facebook, if you're interested (and haven't already read it). It has a happy ending, and won't even make you cry or anything, so its an easy read. And with that I'll say good night, and go back to my little black paintings. Good night!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
* * Christmas Miracle * *
On Christmas EveEve, Tracy kitty got himself stuck in a Barnes & Noble plastic bag, with the handle around his body. He freaked out because he couldn't get away from the crackling bag noise, and although hysterically funny to watch at first (just because it was only a stupid plastic bag), it quickly turned serious as he dashed madly around the house, knocking stuff over, then out the cat door. I heard him and the crackling bag whoosh past the front window and off down the street, poor thing, madly trying to run away from the bag.
So I put on shoes, got the flashlight, and even though I was trying to hurry, felt like the slowest moving beast on the planet - he was long gone, down the street who knows how far and to who knows where? I went to the end of the block, but how did I know which way he turned? He could be blocks away already. I trudged home, simultaneously thinking "Oh, he'll be alright", and "I'll never see that cat again".
A long evening, then sleepless night passed, with me imagining every awful thing that could happen to a cat with a plastic bag attached to himself, and listening for any sound of him coming in the cat door, and getting up more than once to check to see if he'd snuck in. All his beds were empty, and in the morning there was still dry food in the bowl, (its usually totally empty), so I knew he hadn't been back and gone out again.
A long Christmas Eve day of Christmas prep and worrying - no Tracy. Then out to dinner, trying to keep a brave face and smile, and be entertaining to my Mom who was spending the night, doing Christmassy things and just saying "Oh, he's outside somewhere" when she asked about him.
Did I mention I was praying to everyone and anything who might be able to help? Jesus, guardian angels, cats on the Other Side . . . .
Mom turned on "Its a Wonderful Life", and I sat in the kitchen, listening to George and Mary and Mr. Potter in the other room, feeling completely miserable.
And then. Twenty four hours after this story began, in the shadows near the cat door, the next room over, I see a little body. At first I thought it was one of my other cats, but then realized they were all accounted for somewhere else in the house. "Tracy?" . . . He'd popped back outside . . . "TRACY?!" again, and he popped back in, and ran right to the 'treat station' (here, next to the computer) and was perfectly fine! Not a scratch on him! Hungry, but not starving, just his regular self, pretty much. Joy! Relief! There was lots of thanking god, jesus, all the others who'd helped bring him back! In the living room, George Bailey was just starting his journey with Clarence, and so I watched and appreciated George's joy at getting his life back, and it really felt like Christmas.
Tracy slept tucked in next to me, right by the pillow, all night, which he's never done before. Santa brought him a new cat nip cigar, and he's been enjoying that and some Christmas sun all morning.
It does feel like a wonderful life today. And I will never let the cats play with plastic bags again. Especially ones from B&N.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
By Lucy Delap
Downton Abbey specialises in dramatic twists and love affairs at all social levels. The world of domestic service provides an ideal backdrop for thwarted passions and sexual machinations of all sorts.
Well that was quick! I’m glad I saw Laurie’s comment about there being only three episodes before I watched the show. I hadn’t realized.
More surprises last night, and more than a few touching moments. I’m left feeling like there was at least one underdeveloped thread (Lady Percy) and one character who didn’t really have a growth arc (Agnes), and I want to see more, more, more of Rose and Hallam (who turned out to be a really interesting, layered character) and the rest. I absolutely loved the scene with the cook and the photographer. Delightful.
Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Episode two. I’ll post thoughts in the comments tomorrow. Hope you will, too.
Marienwürmchen,
setze dich auf meine Hand,
Ich tu’ dir nichts zuleide.
Es soll dir nichts zuleid geschehn,
Will nur deine bunten Flügel sehn,
Bunte Flügel meine Freude.
So what did you think?
A few years back, Scott and I watched the first few seasons of the original. Enjoyed it very, very much. So I got goosebumps when I saw the old familiar house number and realized we were coming back to 165 Eton Place.
And again when we first saw Jean Marsh! I absolutely love the premise of the new show: not a remake of the original, but another chapter in the life of the house…and in at least one of the people who lived and worked in it before. Brilliant.
The mother-in-law delighted me: not a stereotype at all. Her secretary, perhaps a bit.
Favorite moments: the cook’s reluctance to take the job offer, her mild scorn at the “newness” of their baronetcy, her susceptibility to the lures of a gas range and top-of-the-line refrigerator. That, and the quietly emotional pleasure on Jean Marsh’s face as she looked at the word ‘housekeeper’ on the tag.
The housemaid is going to be trouble, obviously.
Side note: I once began writing a novel inspired by the original Upstairs, Downstairs series, in which the main character was a girl whose mother worked in a turn-of-the-20th-century London household. In the story’s the girl’s mother was accused of theft, and it was going to be up to the girl to save her. About four chapters in, the entire story up and transplanted itself to a small homestead on the Colorado prairie. I know, that’s quite a shift! It became an altogether different kind of tale, but the kernel of the original idea is still there. It will be published in Summer 2012 by McElderry Books—I can’t wait!
Maisie Dobbs
by Jacqueline Winspear. Soho Press 2003 (Hardcover) Penguin Books 2004 (Paperback). Reviewed from audiobook from ListenNJ.com
The Plot: 1929. Maisie Dobbs opens up her own London office as a Private Investigator. Her first client -- someone who wants to find out if his wife is cheating on him. Maisie, thinking of her education, background, and training, internally sighs at how mundane this is but takes the case. Nothing is what it appears to be, however. Maisie is not an upper class woman, despite her accent, bearing and education; and this, her first solo case, is about people and a country haunted by the Great War.
The Good: I've heard great things about the Maisie Dobbs books forever but just got inspired to make time for them. ListenNJ.com has audiobooks for the iPod, so it seemed like a good idea to read a book I wanted to and play with the downloading.
Love this series! Now I have to carve out time to read the rest of the books in this brilliant series.
Who is Maisie? A working class girl who was in the Downstairs world, that slipped into the Upstairs life based on education and drive. Part of the mystery of this first book is finding out exactly how that happened. It's not linear; we begin in 1929 with the investigation, get some clues into Maisie's life, then slip back to 1910 and a young teenager who has lost her mother and been put into service because it's the best her father can do for her. Long story short, her employers realize her potential and she ultimately ends up going on to Cambridge. With the entry of England into the Great War, Maisie interrupts her education to become a nurse.
Maisie's backstory is fascinating; and the Great War shadows everything. It matures Maisie; and it changes the society she lives in. Her Downstairs/Upstairs background, combined with her own war experiences, and her education and training, create a uniquely talented investigator with great insights into motivation.
The mystery was well told; Maisie's investigation was interesting; the various characters were nuanced; and I'm looking forward to reading more in this series.
I had one quibble with the book; but with a series, it may be something that is addressed later. It also may well be that my issue isn't with the book, but with the realistic burdens and challenges Maisie faces. As a teen, Maisie has to be twice as good as everyone about her and this isn't recognized in the book. Yes, an education is provided but she still has to perform her full workload as a maid. So, she has to work full time PLUS pursue knowledge; and in that education she has to show herself to be twice as dedicated and smart as any upper class teenager, because she is studying while working full time. When it seems like Maisie is overwhelmed, the book diagnoses the problem not the dual workload but rather the pressure of navigating between two classes. While I don't doubt the truth of the class issues, particularly for this time period, on Maisie's behalf I wanted someone to recognize she had to be twice as dedicated as the next person to achieve what she did.
Downloading review: Overall, it took much longer than I'd anticipated. The actual download had to be done twice because it didn't all download correctly the first time; then it turned out I had the wrong application OverDrive media console; and then it took a very long time to transfer to my iPod. The iPod mini worked OK for listening to the book; the main drawback was that halfway thru, I turned it on to find out it hadn't saved my place and I had to figure out where I was. I'm not sure if this was all human error (and wireless) or typical.
© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
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Good to hear you enjoyed this. I've read the first three in the series so far. I find them to be a nice enjoyable break. Good stories, a bit of a gentle pace and an interesting time period.
I've never listened to them, but it sounds like the audio version was good. Might have to consider audio for one or more of these.
I love Maisie. Glad that you enjoyed the first one (and good to know that it holds up well as an audio). I think that the series just gets better.
Ooh, the cover is DIVINE, and I think I'll enjoy these.sa
I liked the first Maisie Dobbs book, but I didn't find the second and third to be as good. I love that historical period, but I've yet to find a "new" mystery series (vs. one written back in the nineteen thirties or earlier)that works for me.
I love that historical period..
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Julie
Naton wide cash is easy and fast