Inktober Day 3 – Bulky

So the dragonet didn’t have a name but Sid kept coming to mind. Since the dragonet is a Pern dragon, it couldn’t be a normal name, it had to be a Pern name, so his name is Sideth.

Sideth is growing like a weed. He misses his friend, Kitty. I did this in Ink and I just think it looks fine in B&W so I left it.

Inktober Day 2 – Wisp

Will o’ the wisp…..I got this sketchbook back in 2018 when I attended an Artsnacks Inktober outing. I came home with a lot of freebies, this sketchbook and my favorite Kuretake grey brush pen being two items from that haul. It’s a 4×6 Bee Super Deluxe Mixed Media sketchbook and I love the paper. It’s superb quality. I layered a lot of ink and it did not bleed through.

It’s nice just to take a break and play in my sketchbook. The reference photo I used was one I took many years ago.

Inktober 2020 Begins

Three weeks ago, I was starting to think about Inktober and what I was going to do this year. I was mulling ideas for my Little Witch and Kitty series and then Cleo became ill and eventually had to be euthanized. Now her ashes are in a cherry wood box.

As we said good-bye to Cleo, I was distraught. My mind screamed NO! No! This can’t be happening. It has to be a nightmare. I’ll wake up and everything will be normal. But it wasn’t a nightmare, it was much worse.

Could I ever bring myself to do the Little Witch again?! Kitty is Cleo and now Cleo is gone. I am sorry but I can’t “wing” this one. Cleo is gone. There’s no more black kitties in my work, I just can’t do it. It still hurts.

So today starts Inktober, without Kitty. The prompt is Fish so the Little Witch and the dragonet went fishing to escape the reality of Kitty being gone. I think this little vignette sums up the feeling without saying what happened to Kitty in the story. She’s gone, too.

Sloth plant revealed

I haven’t been posting these but this week is a little different. It was a sad week but it was also a week where the sloth plant finally bloomed.

Sloth plant you ask? Yeah, what was that plant I called the “sloth plant?” I wasn’t giving this plant it’s given name until I saw flowers! Sloth plant is a dry loving, sun loving, slow growing plant. It’s an 18 month old cutting from a plumeria, aka Hawaiian lei flower, so “ta da!!!” Sloth plant is a Plumeria!

It took 18 months to flower. Lots of sun and patience. If you want to grow a plumeria in the Northeast, you have to have a full sunny window for it in the winter and it doesn’t like the cold.

We had it in a pot and we transplanted it to the front flower bed, where it is really happy! It does get cold here in the winter but I noticed that there are plumerias all over Jensen Beach and my part of Port St Lucie and they made it through the cold nights here, but they would die in a Northeast winter outside.

I want to get more in different colors. They are definitely worth it. So pretty and the flowers last a few days.

Sloth plant blooms
A neighbor’s plumeria

Sad news

This morning we had to make one of the most difficult and painful decisions that a one has to make when living with fur children. This is very difficult to write but I won’t be able to write this later when reality sets in.

Cleopatra, our foundling kitty, the kitty that was inserted into many of my sketches and paintings, had to be put to sleep this morning. She crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge a little while ago. We got the news a little after 4 am and we drove back to the ER to say our final good-byes.

We don’t know what happened. Erin took her to the vet on Saturday. They took blood work to see what could be ailing her, That night she had to go to the ER because she was quickly getting worse. It just snowballed from there.

Cleo was only 5. They can’t tell us why. She wasn’t injured. This is why everyday is precious when there is life.

Good-bye Cle. You were loved.

Refreshed sketch

I have been updating some of my work digitally. This was always one of my favorites that I did several years ago and I decided to give it a digital facelift. I purchased the bouquet in the pumpkin during a festival in Cape May and did the sketch immediately after I took it home. I thought it was such a great idea. I would never have thought to use a pumpkin for a “vase.” I don’t know what the blue flowers are but I always wanted to grow them. There used to be a U-pick place in West Cape May where you could cut your own flowers. Don’t know if it is still there.

This is a low res file for posting.

Autumn Floral revisited