From 2009. I have mentioned this before, but I have mentioned most things before: every time I look at my artwork from recent years, I cringe at how blah it appears, because it is from the period I was using felt-tip pens. Felt-tip pens are convenient. They greatly speed up the drawing process, a big plus in my book, and they are very portable. One of the best things about my job is, I can do it anywhere. However, as many times as I’ve done it, traveling with India ink and accouterment is always problematic. Felt-tip pens eliminate that concern nicely. However, the resulting drawing just isn’t the same. Not for me, anyway. About a year or so ago, I went back to the old dip pen method, and I am much happier with the finished product, although I’m always trying to do better.
157 responses to “Inking Aloud”
Snow here tonight all night? These danged cats better make up their minds to be house cats.
I believe the last snow accumulation here was in January of 2014. I spent two days and a night at a friend’s house, because our employer* declared them snow days. We enjoyed popcorn and hot chocolate and stuff.
*Yes, same employer, but she was not a member of my all-female staff. I don’t roll that way.
Ghost kitty ran back into house post haste when I called “Kitty, kitty, kitty.” He is in training as Alpha Kitty of the cat pack.
Just finished my oatmeal, blue berries and cranberry English muffins, Diet Coke. Weight is going down again.
Seafood diet, more glazed salmon and fresh Vegs , salad and whole grain for dinner. Yes, I am eating two meals a day mostly with a diabetic shake to add protein and more nutrition.
Ghost Kitty came here as a donated kitty and may or may not be related to the ancestry of my cats, he was found in a flooding storm in field nearby. He has more personality than all the others put together.
Just now he was sitting in breezeway loving on Hoochie Mama, licking her ears and face. Somehow that seems righy.
Good, Jackie. We’ve had snow off and on since last night. It stops for a little while then goes again… probably worse farther up the road. Be safe!
Hi Jimmy. Did you realize that Arlo and Janis were mentioned in yesterday’s New York Times crossword puzzle? Yup. The clue was Janis’s husband in the comics, and of course the answer was…Arlo.
That is awesome, Jim! Maybe a Pez dispenser is next?
Jackie, you have either a pounce of cats or a clowder; not a pack.
What makes up either term?
I am sitting on bed and each corner is staked out.
Big Boy inherited from my late cat whisperer, Spotty inherited from Mark’s mama, Sylvester inherited from the fired minions and Dickens who thinks he is cat.
Just looked it up and found this blog on numerical groups of animals including cats. I like the term glaring of cats. A descriptive word if I ever heard one!
http://piperbasenji.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-many-cats-does-it-take-to-make.html?m=1
Note the writer is from Basenji. Does emb know the author?
Jimmy, [current daily] All hail the 4th wall/crossover/wink-wink, say-no-more mastery of humor that is Jimmy Johnson! A very satisfied smirk on Janis’s face. Is the first swipe of the nib/brush always best? How many re-edits did today’s face take?
I’m late to the party today, and may not catch up until tomorrow. But I had to give Jimmy a big clap on the back for today’s offering. Thanks.
Good question, Jackquline. Here’s the list I used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_terms_of_venery,_by_animal
A gloaming of ghosts?
Perhaps…if there was more than one Ghost. 😉
I still remember the last time “bath salts” were featured in A&J. It predates the blog, of course, but I’ve always wondered what comments it would have drawn had it not.
http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2006/01/19
Reminds me of the reaction to my bath gel, body Cream, spray Cologne, all of which are same scent, toasted sugar and vanilla.
When people figure out what it is they say “You smell just like cookies!”
That all began when I loved idea of the Archangel Michael smelling like baking cookies. That and me baking Cowboy Cookies, people would comment on the cookies when I really did bake them, getting the cookie smell on my skin and hair.
The writer refers to a basenji sibling, which would be a kind of African dog, not something from a place named “basenji”. Our eMb colleague is from Bemidji.
Sitting here on a cold night, I’m thinking, “Now why didn’t I think about this yesterday in time to get everything I needed last night and bung it into the slow-cooker this morning? If I had, I’d be enjoying it right now.”
http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2016/12/stew.html
“Oh, wait. It will be even colder tomorrow night.”
The stew sounds mighty good.
‘Dearest Ghost, and Jackie — You are so kind to ask how I am doing, and I am touched by your concern. I am feeling good and am at home, have been since September. But I am still using a walker and am so slow at getting anything done; seems as though I’m just spinning my wheels. I am cheerful, and not depressed, don’t worry — unless laziness and procrastination are symptoms — no they are not.
A (fairly new) iPad has entered my life and I must say that I am wasting far too much time on this nifty little toy, than I ought to. I can sit at the kitchen table and read about the Villagers and their doings, and I do so, every day. Since I’m not going out and doing much, I haven’t posted, but I will make more of an effort. You guys are awfully fast typists! You must get lots of practice. I am very slow compared to you.
I loved Old Bear’s most recent, long, letter. That sandwich he spoke of sounded wonderful; I love liver wurst … Oh dear, Hal wants to make two words of it! He has hardly bothered me at all but I can’t ignore this. Try again, liver wurst. Darn. Coincidentally I’m reading “Between You and Me — Confessions of a Comma Queen” by a New Yorker copy editor — it’s funny, and useful too. copy editor (a Christmas present) it’s funny and useful as well. Actually at the chapter “
Attacked by cursor problems, will continue am at chapter 6, Who Put the Hyphen in Moby-Dick? Compound words, Long entertaining section on the hyphen.
Anyway, I’m very fond of Braunschweiger — is that the same sausage as you-know-what? And am inspired to make a sandwich on Rye bread with caraway seeds. There’s a slice or two in the freezer. No liver sausage but will use chicken; healthier too. Enough for now, the iPad keyboard is nice but I do better with the desktop computer keyboard. Fingers getting tired.
Love to all my friends in the Village — Charlotte.
So glad to hear from you Miss Charlotte. You can just tell us what you are eating, reading, thinking. It needn’t be dramatic, just to know you are OK.
Just got through with my salmon and have to go clean stove where I boiled the garlic honey brown sugar glaze all over stove by turning my attention away.
My two teenager helpers just dragged in groceries and a freezer full of meat, I just stuck a bone in pork roast, sirloin I think into oven with honey garlic rub. I will brush it down with glaze tomorrow when I reheat for lunch or dinner. Depends on who shows up for work.
Bought myself roses, mini carnations, large carnations to make my flowers with. I want mine now, not when I cannot enjoy them.
Instant gratification is too slow.
Ghost honey, the food is always pretty tasty here and the ingredients handy if you’d like to come cook anytime. And it is even colder here than Mississippi.
It’s so nice to see your posts, Charlotte! “Between You and Me” sounds interesting. I have been meaning to get to the library and will see if they have it. Thank you!
I’d suggest also reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, written by Lynne Truss, the former host of BBC Radio 4’s “Cutting a Dash”.
cx-p: Thanks. Same author writes ‘all of these words are for animals or birds.’ Well, so does Genesis, but don’t know what Hebrew word was translated as ‘animals.’ Today, even attentive elementary students know that birds are animals, and that what author means is ‘mammals or birds.’
Some of those peculiar groups are also rare, because many adult mammals and birds are intolerant of conspecifics. That group of cheetahs, for instance, is most likely mom and her nearly grown kits, who had probably dispersed, perhaps being driven off, within the next few months. Foxes are mostly loners, too, except that males often help raising young. That group of 3 male lions is not a pride, but perhaps 3 brothers on the lookout for a pride they can oust the resident male or males from, then kill all the cubs they can to bring the girls into heat when they can no longer be nursed by young.
And they will willingly with those infanticidal males, as will female in a troop of Hanuman langurs when a new male [just one] takes over. Ref: Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer, ‘The langurs of Abu’, Harvard U. Press. Very readable and instructive book. [3 new words for dictionary]
Peace,
Plural: ‘as will females in a troop’. Hanuman langur troops comprise one adult male and many adult females, and any young of females he knows he has mated with. Common for females, preggers or not, to solicit matings from cruising males. Girls don’t know what they’re up to, of course, maybe just want a quickie, but infidelity is selected for because any seduced male who takes over the troop is likely to remember that tryst and not kill her young. It’s nasty out there.
[Speel czech didn’t know mating was a noun one could add s to, didn’t know ‘preggers’, and didn’t realize langur was the singular of langurs, which I’d just added. Slow learner.]
Peace,