Cavies

 We have been thinking about getting Guinea Pigs for a while now and when we saw them at the Honolulu Zoo last Sunday, My husband and I looked at one another and said, "We have to get Guinea pigs." We went out looking yesterday and this morning for some Abyssinian Guinea Pigs. PETCO had some cute ones, but they wanted $37.99 for them. The other pet stores ranged from free to 24.99. Much more realistic. We ended up going back to Pets R Us in Mauka where we saw two yesterday and getting these two brothers. We thought they had the prettiest coloring. They are 4-6 months old and about half the size they will eventually be. Pirate was born without an eye, he's the darker brother with Cy, and was free. We didn't want to split the brothers up and they have great personalities, plus they do better in pairs, so we bought them both :) Cream Puff is the lighter one with Megs. The bottom picture is of their temporary home. Tomorrow I shall get cage materials and build them a 2'x4' home on the back lanai. The chips are Aspen and I seem to have less of a reaction to them than the usual pine chips, hurray!

A plug for Pets R Us - They are nice, helpful, and friendly in their clean shop.

Sketch #32 Red Water Dragon 1

This is the first of a pair of Red Water Dragons. I have decided to color them both Reds and oranges because of their tails.

Sketch #29 Green Blue Sea Dragon

This is the female. She is hiding in the grass :) This pair was fun to color.

A few of the kids and I went out looking at guinea pigs. They are so cute and way less expensive then a dog :) They would be fun to sketch.

Sketch #28 Green Blue Sea Dragon

This Sea Dragon is the first of a pair. I think this is a male because of the horn. He is in a hurry to get to the next post ;)

Sketch #25 Green Blue Dragon

I have been thinking about this guys colors for awhile. Finally, this morning I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. What you see is what I did... A blue booted and spined green dragon with pink ears. Friendly - don't you think :)

Sketch #24 Momma and Baby

I like this one, because the little one has such trusting eyes...

Sketch #23 Swirl A

This swirl is more like the doodles I do on Sunday mornings - without the color ;) I enjoyed sketching this one with all the curves and then choosing the colors was fun.

Sketches #21 and #22

 These two I did when I was thinking about visiting my parents. I hope they like them :) I sure enjoyed drawing them and then deciding the colors.

Sketch #15 Orange Leaf

It's fall and now I have a pretty fall leaf :) We don't get this kind around here, memories... This leaf turned out better than the last, I think.  Much Cleaner :)

Well, I spent about two hours waiting for the car and ended up doing about 7 sketches in my waitbook. I'm very glad I brought it, but now I have a lot of inking and coloring to do :) It will be fun!

I scanned some more sketches last night and early this morning. After I take the car down to the dealership for it's check-up, work with the boys on their school, and get the sketches cleaned up, I'll start posting them :)

Sketch #16 Fire Dauber

This guys eyes are what led me to color him red, orange, and yellow. He has a bit of a different attitude carried through in his eyes, ears, and stance. Annabelle's cat sometimes got this look, especially before he attacked.

Sketch #14 Blue Water Dauber

This happy guy I sketched about a month ago and colored this week. I like the way his coloring came out.

Sketch #30 Elf/Gnome Scene

This is the Elf/Gnome drawing I did for my son last week. He wants an even more involved scene, so I may have to get out the drawing board and a bigger piece of paper.

Sketch's #17, #18, #19, and #20

Ok, so my daughter and I are going through this simple learning how to draw book (You Can Draw Anything, Kim Gamble) as a precursor to a better, more complicated drawing book. This exercise is sort of to get us warmed up for the other book :) I had a half hour break between tutees and decided to see if I could a) remember what we had drawn the day before and b) see if I could remember how to draw them according to the book. Well I did and they turned out okay. The cat has a long neck and looks like he is either annoyed or trying to hypnotize you. Mr. Tiger has great fur and whiskers. The pelican needs to eat better. And, believe me, the owl looks way better than it did the first time.

We finished the people last week and this week will start on perspective in the book. The people were interesting... Perspective will be better.

Sketch #13 Fall Leaf

I'm not sure how much I like the way I colored this one; I think I was in a funk. Oh well, I have another leaf to color and I can always draw this one again or colorize it in Photoshop, if its worth the trouble.


On another issue, I took one of those thin plastic cutting pads that come three to a pack at Wal-Mart and cut it to 5"x8" and it works excellently between the pages of my sketchbook. It is thinner than the Sizzix pad I was using and is a better size. I am quite happy with this solution.

Sketch #12 Mud-Dauber

This guy I decided to color brown after the mud-dauber. He looked like he should be 'skipping' around in the mud having a grand time.

#3 Layout for The 2011 Book

So this is my third layout for the 2011 Year Book. For some reason I'm going for simple this year. Maybe 'cause I'd rather be drawing :O

These are some photos from the Keaiwa Loop Trail which is billed as a keiki trail, i.e. it's suitable for children. The children in question better be hung onto tight or they might slide down a ravine. There was a lot of mud on parts of the trail when we went, so their was quite a bit of cleanup before getting into the car. The views from the trail are fantastic of the airport  area and the upper H-3. This particular day we were also blessed to find brightly colored fungi and mushrooms.

The Keaiwa Loop Trail is a fun trail when it's not too muddy. There is also plenty of parking (a plus on island), several bathrooms, and the trail is marked well. So even though it can be a bit heart pounding at times when with little ones, it scores pretty high.

Sketch #4 with additions

My dad added some surfer dudes on short boards - phantoms of the waves.

Sketch #7 Mouse Scene

This day I felt like incorporating several elements into a scene. I started off with the mushrooms and then doodled in the mouse. The mouse had to be looking at something so I added the ladybug. Then to fill fill the page and make a better setting, I added the foliage.

The 5x8 sketchbook is quite sufficient for my individual sketches, but I feel the need for more space when I do something like this. One thought I had would be to use 12x12 paper, then store the pages in a scrapbook album. In other words build the pages rather than have them already in a book. Then I could use page protectors and the chalk wouldn't get all over. That could give me more medium flexibility. I have page protected some of my small pastel drawings in the past, but not stored them in an album. The are samples for the kids to see.

If someone does this already, please leave a comment on how it works or doesn't in your experience.

Sketch #11 Yellow Green Sea Dragon

Here is another Sea Dragon, this time in yellow and Green. His horn is a bit hat-like, bit I think it's cute :)