New line of cards

I haven't done anything with my stationery line for quite some time, so it's about time to do something new. I'm very excited to announce that my "Rear View" cowboy drawing is now available on blank note cards.

It's available here. I hope to have it listed in my ArtFire shop soon as well.

Anyone need a dose of cute? :)

I promised calf photos, and it just so happens that we had a set of twins yesterday!

Here's twin #1, a little heifer (girl). While she's small, she's stronger than her brother. Twin calves are notoriously small and weak, and often the mother only accepts one of them, rejecting the other. Here, she's all cozy in the barn, waiting for her mother and brother to come join her.

Twin #2 - a BIG bull calf! I really can't believe this guy is a twin, and I feel sorry for his poor mama as she's not a very big cow! Despite his size, he's quite weak, and he's got a little bit of a problem with his front legs - they roll over, and he walks on the fronts of his ankles. We didn't think he'd make it, but we caught his mother, and my husband got some milk out of her. I dipped my fingers in it and let the little guy suck the milk off my fingers. He got quite pushy - I guess I wasn't dipping my fingers fast enough for him - so he decided to get up and do something about it! We got him over to his mama, and he managed to suck for a little while. He was too tired and weak to stay up very long, but that first milk is vitally important, so we're feeling hopeful for him even though he's not out of danger yet. 

This is the best photo I could get - Mama was still pretty protective of him and didn't want me to come around the other side of the hay feeder (you can see her feet right behind him, she was guarding pretty close).

Here's my favorite calf this year (or he was before the twins came along) - he was born on Valentine's Day and had a "brother" (different mother) born the same day that looked exactly like him, even down to the funny markings you can see in his ears. Sadly, the brother died - we think one of the cows laid/fell down on him. :(

And last, here's our Brown Swiss calves we get from a dairy. They're a few months old now, but I just love their coloring and cute faces.

In an art funk

I don't know what it's been the last month, but I have not been able to get myself motivated to draw (hence the lack of blogging).

I continued with the daily sketches until mid-February when I tired of my model. I've been on the lookout for new ideas for daily sketches, but nothing seems inspiring.

Also, around that same time, I got a letter from the Art Instruction Schools telling me that since I had taken too long on their course, I'd have to pay the difference between the tuition I paid and the current tuition if I wanted to continue. It took me 45 minutes of looking through all the original paperwork to find one place where it mentioned any time limit - ONE sentence, buried in the middle of a 4-page document of legal jargon. I was under the impression that it was a work-at-your-own-pace course, and I would've appreciated some sort of "reminder" that I was nearing the end of the limit.

Can you sense a little bitterness here?

I was really looking forward to the figure drawing segments that were coming up since my drawing of people can really use some work, but since the tuition difference is $900, it's not going to be happening. Needless to say, this school will not be getting any more glowing recommendations from me!

Anyway, I think that really put a damper on my artistic desire.

I haven't been completely useless lately though. I picked up my oil paints again and have been having a great time experimenting with them. I've been painting on scraps of matboard since canvas costs money, and I've got a million squares of matboard in a box that I saved from cutting mats for my artwork. I've been hoping to find some use for them.

I've also been busy around the house and farm with getting bookwork done for taxes (farm taxes are due March 1 instead of April 15), and taking care of cows/calves - we're now up to 11 little baby calves! I promise I'll take some photos soon - it's supposed to actually be pretty warm this weekend, so if there's enough sunshine, I'm planning to get some photos. Though we also got a new computer, and since we switched from a PC to a Mac, I have no photo editing software, so you'll only be getting raw photos - I usually do very minimal editing anyway, so shouldn't be too much change.

I'm hoping getting outside and getting some sunshine will spike my creativity again!

What do you do to overcome an art funk?