horses

Inktober Day 19

| Gina Lento

Wow, 13 days to Halloween and 13 days left in the Inktober Challenge. Today’s prompt is ponytail and I decided to have a little fun today with…..a pony!

Yeah, I could have done a girl with a ponytail but I thought it would be more fun to draw a pony. A happy little thing with a big flippy tail. Usually I am trundling along, trying to make the prompts fit my Little Witch series. I was going to do my Little Witch series but then I just started playing with different things in my sketchbooks and I moved on to other ideas. I have to say I have been having fun pulling ideas from my head but that’s part of the whole Challenge.

Being since today is the first day of the 13 days of Halloween, I am playing with working on a side project to the Inktober posts. I have a prepped sketchbook but since I only want to do 13 days plus maybe Dias de Los Muertos, I may just make one just for this quick side project. The prepped one I have has more pages than what I want for this side project. I also have to run our truck to the dealer for it’s 15,000 mile maintenance today so we’ll see how far I get with that.

Our sweet little Chloe had her oral surgery yesterday. She needed her teeth cleaned but since she’s getting older, some of her teeth needed to be pulled, too. She came through the whole procedure like a champ. The vet we are using now is very good and said that Chloe did very well. Their process is very safe and the vet explained that if there were any issues, they could pull them out of the anesthesia quickly. I feel much better that she had her teeth cleaned. We tried to do the “awake” cleaning with Chloe but she gave the techs a tough time. Maybe now that the bad teeth are out we can try it again. It takes two people to do Chloe’s nails so we’ll see. As tiny as she is, she’s tough and wears you down. She’s such a diva.

Mack did the “awake” cleaning with no problem at all. They said he was a very good boy. He also gets his nails trimmed like a good boy, too.

Inktopber Day 19 Ponytail Pen and Ink drawing of a prancing pony with an elegant flippy tail ie ponytail
Inktober Day 19 – Pony Tail

Inchies Day 10

| Gina Lento

This is Day 10 of the Inchie Challenge with two days to go. Today’s prompt is “eclipse.” When I first saw the prompt. I thought of a bunch of little partially covered moons, but I also thought of a “man in the moon” concept and the “man” bemused that his light was being blocked by the sun.

I played with both concepts to see how they would look. The nice thing about working small is you aren’t using up a lot of art supplies to experiment and play and you can see quickly if something isn’t working. I did a second man (boy?) in the moon because the first one wasn’t as crisp and clear as I would have liked it to be. I added the dark background, stars and some “satellites.”

2x2 inch square art...Moon faces with the light slowly being taken away to eclipse the face of the moon, which looks like a boy/man. Also two 2x2 squares of moon rocks
Moon Eclipse Inchies and moon rocks

As I was working, and being a horse lover, the term “eclipse” made me think of the name of the British racehorse, “Eclipse” who’s descendants are still on the thoroughbred tracks all over the world even today. The American Eclipse Award commemorates the memory of Eclipse and the awards are given out annually to recognize outstanding achievements such as “American Horse of the Year,” American Champion 3 year old colt, American Champion 3 year old filly, American Champion Steeplechase horse, etc. The award is also given out to the Owner, Breeder, Trainer and Jockey of the Year.

A large amount of race horses today carry Eclipse in their bloodlines.

Tiny sketch of Eclipse the thoroughbred racehorse from the UK. Pen and Ink drawing with watercolor (burnt umber and Sap green)
Eclipse the thoroughbred horse (UK)

My little Eclipse isn’t meant to be a portrait, just an Inchie. But sometimes drawing whimsy, when you can draw the real thing so well, takes a bit of practice to make him look like a cute illustration and not a breed profile photo, LOL. If you research Eclipse on line, the portraits of Eclipse in the 1700’s look awkward. I don’t think he had a snaky neck but that’s how horses were painted back then. I would love to see better drawings because horses like Eclipse were closer to the foundation stock of the Thoroughbred.

Horse

| Gina Lento

Today’s prompt is ‘horse.” I trained Lucy to carry a wreath instead of her flowers. I also made an handmade ornament out of her that looks really cute on the tree.

And today’s carving….

Figment

| Gina Lento

Figment is another imaginary creature, so for you model horse folks that follow me, Figment isn’t meant to be anatomically correct….she’s just another of the many creatures that wander the pages of my sketchbooks….and started as a random mark on the page….

Figment is a small stocky pony that lives on the Emerald Isle. She can go places that larger horses can’t and can climb steep hillsides.

The first time I ever saw a unicorn

| Gina Lento

The first time I saw a unicorn, I was on Chincoteague Island. I was painting plein air in the woods on Assateague… I was trying to capture the memory of when Paul Beebe saw Misty for the first time…I rubbed my eyes, (ended up with pastel all over my face), but yes, it was still there! A REAL unicorn! It shimmered and it was almost ethereal, like it was a vapor, or maybe it was a mist rolling in. I don’t know but I’ll never forget when I saw that unicorn!

The unicorn

This was a painting that I did several years ago. I came across it recently and thought it would be perfect for an assignment/prompt from Carla Sonheim’s ‘Best of 365.’ I added the unicorn with Procreate.

As far as painting it on location in Assateague, this is true and I actually was trying to capture the feeling Paul Beebe had when seeing Misty for the first time (as described in the story; Misty of Chincoteague.’)

Maybe some day I’ll meet another unicorn on Assateague.

Spirit Kitty and the Budweiser Clydesdales come to Patchogue

| Gina Lento

Here is today’s kitty:

This was an exciting day because the Budweiser Clydesdales came to our town! They we here to celebrate 85 years of the repeal of Prohibition. Plus, Blue Point Brewery is getting ready to open at their new location on Main Street. I was lucky (and smart) to get a great spot to do some sketching! I managed some time to do one of the trucks and the big guy right in front of me. It was very exciting to be able to sketch them. The new Blue Point Brewery is behind the truck.

Also, some photos! Main Street was packed from Waverly to just east of the Theater but I knew they were marching all the way to the east end of Main Street and the crowd was surprisingly lean there.

Oh, and today’s Inktober sketch….

Santa Clown and something totally awesome

| Gina Lento

I found out last week that my Horses of Asia map was selected for They Draw and Travel’s Maps of Asia book! I am so excited! You can get a copy of the book from Amazon!

This morning’s sketch inspiration:

There are multiple submissions on Sktchy of clowns, especially since clowns are thought of as being sinister, thanks to Stephen King. I sketched this clown and turned him into something benign, a clown Santa.

Over the River

| Gina Lento

This post is a week early since the map has already been posted on Instagram by They Draw and Travel. I am really excited they liked this map!

Thanksgiving Day is a day of long tradition.  It is a day for spending time with family and friends over a traditional meal that usually involves turkey.

This year, I chose to do a map for Thanksgiving.  The most logical choice for subject matter was the poem that most people know as “Over the River and through the woods to Grandmother’s House….”

What many people do not know is it wasn’t grandmother’s house in the poem, it was Grandfather’s house.  And it wasn’t a song, it was a poem.  The title of the poem is actually “The New-England Boy’s Song About Thanksgiving Day’ and it was written by Lydia Maria Child.  It was published 1844 in a collection called “Flowers for Children Volume 2.”

Lydia Maria Child lived in Medford, Massachusetts and after much digging, I found where she lived and how long it took her to actually get to Grandfather’s house. (Not long, actually, they could easily walk it on a warm day.)  She wrote the poem from her childhood memory of going to her grandparents house for the holiday. I never knew it was based on the writer’s memories.

New England did indeed get snow for Thanksgiving in the early 1800’s.  Which is not unusual, even in these times of climate change, some places still will have snow for Thanksgiving.

I started out this map drawing farmhouses and sketching covered bridges. John and I even took a trip upstate to see covered bridges for me to use as references for this map. I even used my Breyer stablemate horses as models for the two on the map….I have included that sketch below, as well as taking a photo of them “posing.” I had the poem all printed out and the last part of all of this research was where the author was from. Finding information about the author of the poem completely changed my map and the result is what you see here.

I hope this map brings you some fond memories of a holiday that is truly belongs to every American, whether you have been here generations or you are a new citizen.

Enjoy

IMG_5953

Below is today’s sketch….

Sketching stuffed animals at the library and library Sketch Club display

| Gina Lento

The Patchogue Sketch Club meets at our local library during the dark winter months. We occasionally sketch at a restaurant or other indoor venue in the winter, but the library has become our winter home.  The library staff members are very gracious hosts and many of the library’s visitors stop by to see what we are doing.  Winter is a good time for us to do skill building exercises like anatomy or values, or activities like making sketchbooks.

This week, we sketched various stuffed animals. Many people have them but don’t usually think of them as something to sketch, so we had quite a few people stop by this evening, curious about what we were doing with the stuffed animals.

Sketching stuffed animals is always fun.  How can you not be charmed by a stuffed beanie baby or homemade crocheted horse?  It definitely was a cute way to end the day.

I found this beanie turkey in my attic recently while doll hunting.  I forgot we had him and pulled him out for Thanksgiving.


One of my fellow sketchers brought this totally awesome crocheted horse that her mother made years ago.  I had to sketch it twice.


I have had this chubby dragon for a few years.  He sits on my bed.  I brought him out to the library.  He seemed pleased to be there.


Last but not least, here is our display of sketches at the Patchogue-Medford Library.  It is on view during the library’s hours until December 6th.  Then we’ll sketch it out for a holiday sketch display.