Fuzzydragons

Photos from the bathroom window of the sunset the other night (best view of the hills from this room). The sky was just this gorgeous grey/purple colour. Too bad about the house in the bottom of the pics. The next day one of those antenna had falling against the roof, the wind had been that strong. Art to come tomorrow: a tiger and a candy still life (I actually did draw one without eating the subjects)

"Magpie" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip 10 by 5 Inches Coloured Pencil Finished Magpie. The scanner seems to have picked up a blue outline around the shadow that doesn't show up in person. If people want me to post a bigger copy of this I will. :) I'm not 100% sure if I am going to leave the background that sparse, come back to it in a few days and than I will decide than. I really like how the tail feathers turned out and they were very simple to do. And strange sight to see. Look out of your window and see a bunch of neds high-tailing it down the street carrying a box of beer and a couple bottles of vodka, with a shop attendant in hot pursuit. They almost didn't get away with the box of beer having abandoned it in the chase, but came back for it when they saw the shop keeper was far enough away. But a bottle of vodka was dropped so at least they didn't get everything they stole, even though they got away. Links: SnapShots Magpie Post #1 Magpie Post #2

"Magpie" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip 10 Inches by 5 Inches Started to colour the Magpie Sketch I drew the other day. Decided to use the light sandy/peach coloured paper. I'm actually glad I chose this colour over the red. I think it would have been very hard to get really white whites with the bright red paper. The bird is not this brown in person, more of a dark blue-black. The plan is too leave the background very simple, suggest a few rocks and possibly blades of grass. The bird is less than 5 inches tall, I wanted a challenge but it is actually turning out to be easier than I thought (killing my sharpeners though keeping the points on the pencils so sharp). The nasturtiums have flowered. We ended up transplanting all the plants into hanging baskets as they were starting to suck the life out of everything else in the little corner garden. After a few weeks of looking like dead hanging alien arms, they have flowered nice bright red, yellow, orange and really nice ...

"Blue" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip 2.5 by 3.5 Inches Coloured Pencil Canson Mi-Tientes I actually did an ACEO in an hour. *does a little dance* (actually better not dance, might break another toe). Of course it was a very simple subject matter, so really didn't need that much detail. I'm still happy that I managed to finish one so quickly though. (referenced from a stock photo) If anyone can think of a better title, please let me know (I'm horrible at thinking of titles for pieces of art). :) I have no idea what kind of lilies these are but they are gorgeous! Definitely going to be drawing them in the future.

"Hoot" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip 2.5 by 3.5 Inches Coloured Pencil on Canson Mi-Tientes I still have no idea how people can do an ACEO in an hour. This is 3 hours of work and I could work more on it, time will tell. They are fun and easy to do, but I tend to still use most of the day colouring one so that it is to my liking. I really like how the eyes turned out on this one. I decided to let the paper colour show through a lot because it was very close to the owls colouring. I'm running out of space for artwork (my portfolio is overflowing and the boxes under the bed are full). I'm going to have to start selling it soon to free up some space. I guess its a good thing, just shows that I am drawing more than I was a few years ago. So keep reading here and on my site for news about when things go up for sale. And if you see anything that you like, ask for more information about it. :) And its stopped raining!! About time we had a nice summer day. Ok, so I'm a...

I was bad today and didn't draw a thing. Spent most of the afternoon in Borders looking at reptiles and an owl (and books, I was good and didn't buy anything even though it was hard not to). A 4 month old Barn Owl named Lily. I got to hold her, which was really cool (yes, I had a huge childish grin on my face the whole time, can you blame me?). Took lots of really nice pictures of her, so will definitely be drawing her in the future. (thats not my hand in the picture, its her handlers) And Ziggy the Iguana (2 years old). He was a rescue from a place that didn't feed him properly so he developed Metabolic Bone Disease, and his tail is all kinked because of it. The reptiles and the owl were at Borders because of the Harry Potter book being released. Something to excite people and draw them to the store.

"Magpie Sketch" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip A sketch for another coloured pencil piece I am going to work on. The reference picture came from Susan Borgas' SnapShots Blog . Go have a look at the blog, lots of gorgeous pictures to look at. :) I know he looks angry (I'm not an angry person, I swear!), but its from the lines I laid down to make sure the eye lined up correctly. Hopefully he doesn't look so angry once coloured. I'm torn on whether to use a really nice red paper, or a lighter kind of sandy brown. I like the red paper and have been trying for ages to find something that would look really nice on it, this might be what I choose. I think the white markings of the bird would stand out really nicely. I have a few more sketches to do and than I can start colouring/inking. I haven't forgotten about that scarab tattoo that I did awhile ago. I'm still working on transferring it onto paper that I can ink and than I have to figure out how I am g...

Oops, better stop right there before I get sued. ;) Part of a huge rainbow that showed up yesterday evening taken while we had a quick little rainstorm. Snapped from the window, hence the weird angle. And the sky once the rain stopped and the rainbow left. The fog was so thick yesterday, as soon as I saw it I though of this short story I had read years ago. Was just waiting for some tentacle to come reaching out of the haze and grab the nearest cat. There is a movie coming out. Either it is going to be a really bad horror movie, or a really good, bad horror movie. Nothing better then a cheesy horror movie that tries to take itself seriously. I do remember the story creeping me out, wasn't scary just creepy, but I was probably 10 at the time. And a few pictures of Lunan Bay. No pictures of the castle ruins, the batteries in the camera died. But we are going to go back when the weather is a bit nicer and remember a few sets of batteries next time (and a coat). Horse tracks! Saw hor...

"Old Blue Eyes" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip A4 Dark Blue Canson Mi-Tientes Coloured Pencil Okay so technically its only one eye, but "Old Blue Eye" sounds wrong somehow, (like its some kind of pirate with a patch over one eye) and the horse could have very well been a young blue eyes. This is about the closest I have come to getting the colours matched up, if the paper goes darker you lose the image of the horse and if the horse gets lighter the paper end ups a lovely sky blue. (no idea what this will look like on other monitors) I coloured the tack very basically. I just wanted to hint that it was there. I like it, but would like to know from people if it needs to be more defined or if it just doesn't work at all. And a picture from a drive we took yesterday. Great scenery, and a gorgeous blue sky. One problem though is that you never really get a grand view of the area with a photo (unless you have a really, really nice camera). You can sort of see the mo...

"Blue Eyes" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip Almost done now. Just need to finish off the muzzle and the tack, add a few more highlights and than on to the next piece of art. :) If anyone has any suggestions about the colouring, please let me know. Probably the only way I am going to get a nice scan of this where the paper colour and the coloured pencil are true to life is by getting a good photo, failing that it will be back to the print shop to get a scan.

One can never have enough books (and a few DVDS thrown in for fillers). I used to have a lot more than this, but because I couldn't make up my mind where I was going to live, I had to leave many of them behind when I moved. The library is now slowly starting to grow. Always nice when your husband works at a book store :) You can sort of tell which books are his, and which are mine. Yeah I do read a lot of cheesy books, and chick-lit, but thats usually only before I pass out for the night. If I read anything that has a good plot before bed, I am up all night until its finished (its worse when its a series, I'm reading until I pass out on the pillow). I will read anything at least once, and try to finish everything I read. There has only been a few books I haven't finished and I don't remember what they were called, so obviously they were that bad (or my memory is completely shot ;) ). I love the big hardbacked Tutankhamun book. It has such gorgeous pictures. Couple of th...

The sky a few days ago. Was really nice to see after the rain clouds. Because of the sunshine, all the flowers are really starting to come up. The bed of Livingston daisies is really starting to be filled with colour. Little bare in some spots, but it looks a lot better than it did a few weeks ago. Everything in there looked dead (I thought I had killed them all, but thankfully my black thumb of death was defeated this time). Another picture of the lilies in the backyard. I really like this picture, and the bright yellows of the flowers. Another possible drawing (like I need any more things to draw, but at least it will keep me busy) A picture of the whole bushel of lilies (not sure if it is a bushel, or what a group of lilies this size would actually be called). And the blog isn't turning into one filled with pictures of flowers, I promise. I am drawing, just can't really show people what I am working on at the moment. Still working on the horse, but the other art is having ...

"Blue Eyes" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip I love the dark blue colour of this paper but it is really hard to get a good scan because of it. Not really sure why that is, but it probably is the same reason it is hard getting good scans when using black paper. Worked more on the Clydesdale, its taking a little longer than I thought it would. I'm trying not to rush this, and it takes longer trying to get as much detail as I can on the horse when its not that big of a drawing. So I have to keep sharpening the pencils, good thing I have new sharpeners or I would have to use knives to sharpen them to a point. And people don't like when I use a knife. (I'm not going to stab people [no really I'm not], I just have a bad habit of accidentally stabbing myself. That and I'm often tossing knives into the sink. Knife throwing is a good skill to have ;) ) Anyway, the colour of the paper is going to show through the coloured pencil, I don't really want to burnish th...

"Blue Eyes" Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip I only had yellow transfer paper left, so I'm hoping that it comes off fairly easy when needed. Only worked for about 20 minutes on this, so all you get too see right now are some ears. And very simplified ears at that. This is actually on very dark blue paper, its almost black. So I have to rely more on the highlights to define the shape of the horse. Its a nice challenge, and time will tell if it works. Once this is done, I will have to do some colour correcting to get the right paper colour, so right now its not a true colour likeness (at least on our monitor). More daisies :) Many of them are starting to flower, and it would be nice if they all decided to come up at once, I know they won't, but I can still hope. A bed that is 6 by 3 feet roughly full of daisies would look gorgeous and a little chaotic. And we finally had a day where the sun was shining for most of it. About time.

Went to Duthie Park yesterday, took lots of pictures (800 or so, not posting them all here, don't worry people on dial up ;) ). Very nice park, with The David Welch Winter Gardens full of various flowers and huge cacti. Love the pink colours, even though the camera did make anything red or pink a lot more vivid than it was in person. One day I will have a hanging basket full of these. Just gorgeous. Some of the cacti. Huge and prickly (I probably could make some kind of crude joke about that, but I will refrain). Not sure exactly what kind of flower this is, but took lots of photos of them to draw. And this huge fat koi fish kept pushing the other fish out of the way and there wasn't any food to eat. He seemed to just like picking on the little fish. View of the North Sea and Stonehaven taken on the drive back. You can kind of see Dunnottar Castle in the distance (I think that is the right one) . Its in ruins, but would still like to go one day. Links: http://www.scottishreci...

So for a more positive note to end the day on, here's some animals from Campderdown wildlife park when we were there in march ( 2 is some :P ) This piggy is a BIG boy. I have posted pics of him before but I don't think I posted this picture before now. I love snowy owls, they are gorgeous but have HUGE talons...fluffy! but...hopefully one doesn't mistake my head for a tree...ouch!!

The Wildlife Centre in Dundee was broken into and the animals attacked. Links: Here and Here We have been there and it is a very nice small zoo, and this make me so angry because those animals couldn't run away and so some ned decided to do what they do best. Violence and destruction the only thing they know. Could very well have been some other person that wasn't a ned but I highly doubt it. If it happens again and I really wish it doesn't, I hope who ever does break in gets eaten by the bears. No wait, the bears might end up sick.

Copyright Jennifer Rose Phillip Quick 10 minute sketch of one of horses that was at the Highland Show. He/she had the most gorgeous light blue eyes. Very haunting looking. After I fix the throat area I am going to transfer this onto some better paper and probably colour it. The head on this horse was huge! After this horse, I'm thinking it might be time to draw one of the skeebies from the show. That might take awhile with all that hair to draw. Technorati Tags: art , graphite , horses

We have life!! I didn't think that I would actually get any daisies because of the shock of getting transplanted. But surprisingly there are flowers blooming. There are a lot of little yellow ones about to come up, and a few really red/pink ones. And then there are a lot of this little guys hanging around in the backyard. Not sure what kind of moth they are, or even if they are a moth. The have gorgeous patterns on their wings.