This is Buddy
The other day I went to a gathering at the home of one of my friends. She has a beautiful house that she and her husband built in the mountains of Morrison County.
Whenever we go we are greeted by her two dogs. There is a cat that is at best indifferent to our arrival and may tolerate being petted but never makes any effort.
The dog pictured here is Buddy. I caught him in the middle of a yawn. It’s kind of a smiling yawn. I wonder how he does that.
The other dog is a senior and usually wakes up long enough to come out and receive his required scratch before he goes back to his doggie bed to snooze the rest of the day away.
Buddy, being younger, always gets his scratches and rubs first before everyone goes into the house. The poor senior, whos name I forgot, is usually just beginning to wobble toward us and is sometimes not noticed. I usually wait for him and give him his scratch behind the ear so he can go back to sleep feeling loved.
This last time we didn’t see him until we were piled in the cars and leaving. I thought about telling the driver to stop so I could get out for a minute or two but I didn’t. I am feeling a little guilty.
Meanwhile I am glad I caught this picture of Buddy giving me a wag, a smile and a yawn all at the same time.
Cheap Pencils
When I went to art school it was drilled into me that my art materials had to be of the highest quality. Anything else was crude and beneath the status of a high caliber artiste.
While I agree that your drawing paper, mats and backing board must be acid free, I don’t agree about things like pencils and pigments. I am happier and more relaxed with a set of cheap markers than I am with a set of expensive ones. I bought my last Rapid-O-Graph years ago. There are wonderful alternatives like Sekura Micron or calligraphic pens.
I have found since leaving school that successful artists are getting away with all kinds of innovative art materials. I even heard of someone using shoe polish.
But I really want to talk about pencils. I haven’t bought a “professional” pencil since art school. I really haven’t. I collect pencils and pens when I go to public events. People will always have them as giveaways and I will sometimes take a couple or three: one in every color.
I don’t even know where I got most of my pencils. Some say “Vote yes UAW organizing department.” I don’t even know what that is. Some say “Texaco” “Machinists Union” or “Diversity Day 1994.” And I have a lot of those number 2 yellow pencils. Don’t even ask me where they came from.
I must admit I have bought some novelty pencils that had unusual attributes like a hologram design or a fridge magnet taped to them. And believe it or not, I still have some Ebony pencils from 20 years ago. I just don’t have a use for them so they stay in my pencil box.
Maybe for old time’s sake I will buy a few B and 2B pencils from the art store. But as long as the non-artist pencils will do the job why spend more money?