Author: Elizabeth Ruffing

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Sick Days and Ducks in the Rain

In between sketching and resting, I watched the goings-on in our backyard. This is one of the first iris of the season. I ran out and got a photo just before the rain started here. It blooms faithfully, but I cannot remember its name. I will have to look it up sometime. I took some artistic license with the color of this iris for my “Jubilee” watercolor.

“Jubilee” was one of many paintings (and other projects) that I started and finished years later. I believe I had painted the iris in the upper left, and most everything else, except for the remaining matching two iris. There was something I didn’t like about the already painted iris, like the direction the light was coming in from, and so I intensified its color so I could move the shadows. The existing dark areas became the new light areas. With watercolor, you can’t just paint over what you’ve done, and so you have to get creative when you want to change something. That’s how all the iris ended up much richer in color than my model. I thought it looked quite joyous when I was done, which is why I named it “Jubilee”.

Once the rain started, we got some visitors. We used to have geese wandering through, and I was sad when they disappeared. This year, we have ducks on the pond down the hill, and they wandered up in the pouring rain to nibble on our unmowed grass.

I got a little wet photographing them, and my zoom lens doesn’t zoom as much as I might like. Still, they are awfully cute.

Not long after the ducks showed up, a pair of rabbits came to play leap frog, or leap bunny? I didn’t manage to get a picture of them, but they were very amusing, running and leaping over each other. At one point they each anticipated a charge by the other and leapt, simultaneously, straight up in the air.

“Afternoon Delight“! That’s the name of the iris. It just came to me!
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The Owl and The Pussycat

I have a cold, but I am trying to be productive while sitting in bed. These are my first two entries in my new sketchbook, an owl and a pussycat. He is a Northern Saw-whet Owl and she is a Persian kitten. Both are dressed in vintage clothing. They are tiny pencil drawings, four by five inches.

I have been scouting around for mini canvases and found some at Michaels (in their store…again, can’t seem to find the same thing on their site) that are four by five. Of course after buying a couple of canvases, I’m now thinking I’ll do the paintings in watercolor on paper instead. It’s always a good idea not to get a bunch of things before trying one out. This time I only bought one each in two sizes, but I’ve made the mistake of being too sure about what I wanted to do before. Somehow, certain artwork tells you how it wants to be done as you are working on it. So, you can’t always plan in advance. These just seem to want to be paler and more delicate in a way that watercolor would work best.
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Emerging Art

I think I painted about eight million hairs on this kitten doll, when two million might have done just as well. I have her shoes, socks, and pantaloons left to paint and I’m feeling terribly slow. I may be coming down with a cold. It’s gotten everyone else here so far. I really want to get my doll done so I can photograph her with Ziggy. They look great together.

I don’t think that I believed how labor-intensive this kitten-making would be. Max had moved on, at least temporarily, from making the sewn, stuffed, and dressed dolls because, with all the sewing, they were extra involved and time consuming to make, and because Max prefers the sculpting and painting end of things to the sewing and stuffing end. I thought since I enjoy sewing, it would be right up my alley, which it may be. Oh, but all these hairs…I think I went a little nuts.