Arizona Herpetological Society, January 21, 2012

A photo was on display in the classroom of what can happen when bitten by a venomous snake. This image was of a bit finger on day six. Fortunately and amazingly this person's finger healed with medical treatment but obviously was never the same.

Here are sheded snake skins removed while cleaning the snakes' enclosures.

Nate is preparing the king cobra's meal.....dead rats sewn together with a piece of flesh from a dead snake at one end. King cobras normally eat other snakes so the smell of snake makes the meal more appealing.

I'm not normally interested in seeing things like this...I find them upsetting, frankly. But I must have been under this king cobra's spell from staring at it too long, because I just had to photograph its behavior as it got around to having its meal....remember the rats were not alive. I don't think I'll be putting this type of image on my site again any time soon.

And there were other animals besides snakes at the herpetological society.

Word to the wise, not all "smiling" faces are friendly. Here is a little belly biter.....someone lost their perspective of what they were handling. It's a baby Nile crocodile. It demonstrated just how quick a little guy like this can respond.

Less ominous animals like tortoises were not far way.  The children who attended found the real fun here.

And are these tortoises well fed! The above are from Africa, the ones below are Galapagos.

Good by for now......happy travels.

32nd ANNUAL SKETCHCRAWL AT MIM

July 23rd at the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.

I'm still slow after all these years so this is the only page I was able to put together.  I photograph the places that I visit so I have plenty of drawing references and lots of good memories. So here is a very tiny example of what the museum offers.

This is one of the videos that I refered to. The music automatically comes through the head phones and radio receiver that you get for your self-guided tour.

This is one very elegant marble staircase!





SketchCrawl April 16, 2011

In a way it was good that we had to leave the Desert Botanical Garden by 12 noon because the temperature was supposed rise to the mid 90's. What time we had was well spent.

And here are my photo references.

Here is CHAOSinCOLOR sketching your alien cactus.

And here are some of the fleeting flowers of spring.

Goodby for now....... Hope to see you next SketchCrawl.

 

SketchCrawl January 22, 2011

The first SketchCrawl for 2011 was held at the Talking Stick Resort/Casino Arizona in Scottsdale, Arizona.

It was a magnificent day and a very peaceful and relaxing experience sketching at the resort. I love eating there, too. The food at the Wandering Horse Buffet restaurant is way above what you think of when you think "buffet." I should have photographed my lunch. Absolutely heavenly.

Here is the one and only drawing/painting that I did for this sketchcrawl. I bit off more than I could handle for a one-day project. I decided to take three subjects and put them into one image--like I do when layering photos in Photoshop. The nice thing about photos is that the work is done by much faster processors than my brain's!

And here is the photo from which this drawing/painting was made.



I recently purchased a Lenovo "Idea Pad" which was my alternative to the I-Pad.  It is approximately the same size but has a keyboard.  Because it has a system I can use Photoshop wherever I go inasmuch as I like to work from photos. The computer fits into my carrier along with my art supplies and journal.

A few of us met at the coffee shop on the ground  floor before going our separate ways to sketch.  The cappuccino was so aromatic and the pastries in the display case looked so good! It was a great way to get energized for the hours of sketching to come.

Here are a few more photos.

I lived in Las Vegas for four years and never was attracted to gambling but casinos definitely have a unique energy about them. And I love the color!

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