Some odds and ends

March 21, 2021March 21, 2021 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 3 Comments

I’m still getting used to the new editor on WordPress, It’s been around for while but I’ve been using the Classic option which seems to have disappeared. I have to say, I very much dislike this block editor.

Anyway, I’m still missing Sammy. I think I probably always will. My sketchbooks are full of small sketches of him. I turned one into a small embroidery.

While I’ve been crocheting more than anything, I have also been having fun collecting Victorian drawing books. Many of them are out of copyright and some companies have been reprinting them or pieces of them. I love looking at the old drawing prints. I tend to leave a good bit of white space or implied backgrounds, you know a few squiggles here and there. It’s a bad habit. The Victorians are the opposite, looking at their prints reminds me to fill things in, not every thing but some things.

I started this, which is a fairly small drawing, in a fairly small sketchbook. It’s a tree, thought I’d tell you that in case you didn’t recognize it as such. (I think I’ve using emojis too much, I so wanted to put a little face with it’s tongue sticking out there.) (oh no and then I wanted to follow that parentheses with a rolling eyes emoji!) Anyway, I digress, this tree is enormous, It’s one of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen. You can see in the background what I mean by an implied background, a few squiggly things here and there. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s only that I tend to do that every time.

I’ve also been on twitter too much this last year. Now it’s not what you think, I do occasionally get sidetracked by the political drama for sure but mostly I follow the museums and archeologists and such. They put such fascinating things out into the twitter world. Lately I’ve been looking at old Roman coins. It’s interesting how modern and stylized the designs are.

This is a drawing from a coin that was minted in Lyons around 330-337 BCE. It’s the Wolf with the twins Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome who as infants were sent down the river in a basket to drown, instead they were found by a wolf who suckled them and a woodpecker who fed them until a shepherd arrived and took them in as his own).

I’m going to make an embroidery out of this as well.

I hope you are all safe and healthy.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2021

Sammy Sampson

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 8 Comments

It’s been a month since Sammy suddenly passed away from an aneurysm.

He was stolen so quickly from us, it came as a complete shock. He had been playing and chasing his toys that afternoon and when he laid down I thought he was simply enjoying the sun. Tallie let me know that something was wrong and he passed away in my arms that evening.

I am distraught and yet I know that as much as he liked Tallie and enjoyed playing with her, he was never the same after Zeus passed away. He loved Zeus and missed him so so much. Zeus was his feather, Sammy could always be brave and big when Zeus was around. After Zeus passed, he was inconsolable. Tallie’s friendship brought back moments of the old Sammy but he never really recovered from his loss.

I am grateful that his suffering wasn’t long. That he had no lingering illness. That his last day was spent playing and tossing toys around and generally making a big mess. That he was able in his last moment to know I was there and give me one last doggy kiss.

When I look at this photo, it makes me smile every time. He was so joyful and charming and stubborn and funny. And that smile. I loved that smile.

I know in my heart that in his last moments, he was at peace and that gives me peace.

But I miss him so much.

Sammy Smile

My eternal gratitude to the staff of our local Animal Emergency Hospital. They were indescribably caring, kind and honest on a horribly difficult day.

Hello..it’s me..

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

I was wondering if after all this time
You’d like to see my blog…

I have been neglecting the old blog, there’s all sorts of cobwebs and paintbrushes laying about in here.

Sampson the purple dog is doing well. He is 13 now. He had to have surgery on his leg to remove a tumor but it was benign, thank goodness. It was a ruff operation but it didn’t take him long to get back into his yoga routine.

He’s been pretty lonely since Zeus passed away. He grew up with three cats and Zeus of course was his nonstop companion. He was having fits every time we left him alone and let me tell you terrier fits are very very loud so in March we got him another friend.

This is Tallie, she’s a little girl lab. She loves Sampson so much even though she finds his chipmunk obsession bewildering. He seems to find her entertaining too.

She’s growing quickly and is already bigger than Sampson. She won’t get as big as Zeus was but she’s big enough now that she can reach the countertops and that has been loads of fun.

Arts and crafts wise I was so sure, I’d have all sorts of time with the quarantine to do stuff but nope, Life was like “Hey! You! Busy! Busy!”.

I did make a few animals. This is from a pattern on “All About Ami“. She has such great patterns. Check her site out.

This turtle is a combo of a few different patterns. I really wish I had written down what I did but I think it’ll be easy enough to redo. The hat I made up with scraps.

I’ll be back soon with some experiments and such that I’ve been doing. Until then pass this lemon Bundt cake around and I will talk to you soon.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website. Check out their advice on making Bundt cakes, if you’ve never made one before. I doubled the icing recipe because why the heck not.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2020

Return of the eagles.

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ Leave a comment

The eagles are back!

I live in an area where bald eagles flock to breed. They come back every year in the hundreds.

I haven’t been taking too many photos as my camera’s shutter seems to be wearing out but I did take these while I was walking Sampson. This one seemed very interested in Sampson.

This one did too. His claws are in such sharp focus.

I was playing with some white ink on black paper. The paper seemed a bit soft, it wanted to absorb and absorb which ended up working in my favor, I was able to put many layers. Now in my first eagle here which is about 5×7, I went a little too crazy with my top layer and lost some of the shading.

This one is better. I would have continued down the shoulders but it ended up in a card frame for a friend who likes eagles. The one thing I love about ink, is that it tends to look complicated but it’s all just little dots and lines. Pretty relaxing to do.

I used a dip pen with a G nib on it. I buy the ones that are marketed towards anime online. They flow well and you can make thick or thin lines depending on how much pressure you use.

Since I mentioned Sampson, here’s a quick one of him in white ink on card stock.

I also did a squirrel in the white and grey ink who looks a bit of a know it all.

I did a polar bear too but had to weigh down the paper afterwards as it buckled. He looks like he’s fretting, given that the icecaps are melting fast, I can’t say I blame him.

If you have questions, please ask in the comments.

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2020

Sampson the Dirty Dog

August 15, 2018August 15, 2018 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 7 Comments

Sammy recently had surgery on a tumor on his tush. Unfortunately it was malignant but fortunately they were able to remove it with a clean margin. We will be keeping a close eye on him and hoping for the best.

In the mean time, Sammy is supposed to be staying dry, clean and being a respectable puppy dog while he’s healing.

So of course he did this.

Yup, in the middle of a drought, within minutes of being let out, he found the only bit of mud for miles.

And he’s not sorry at all!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2018

The Pumpkin Dragon

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 2 Comments

Through triangle eyes

He glared at the night

He stared at the night

He dared the night

To try and break through

His stalwart candlelight

He had read

Of a serpent

On a medieval page

Who loathed all pumpkins

And in a serpentine rage

Would crush the life

From innocent gourds

Leaving pieces scattered about

For the rampaging hordes

He heard the leaves rustle

Crackle

And break

Oh no! It was that

Evil and Ancient old snake!

It wrapped round his midriff

And he started to shake

He found it surprisingly fuzzy

For a centuries old snake

And in that moment

As it started to lean

He realized it was only Dummy

Dressed up for Hallowe’en!

Happy Hallowe’en

From Sammy

And Zeus

Medieval Pumpkin Dragon ~ Ink and metallic watercolor, 11×9 inches

My rather shabby Latin reads “Beware the Pumpkin Dragon ~ It will eat your Eyes ~ Your Heart ~ And steal your breath ~ Beware!

©Virginia Spencer, thepurpledogpaintingblog.com, 2017

April Showers Bring..

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 1 Comment

Much smorgasborgery.

Starting with some watercolor cherries from a Challenge on WetCanvas (in the miniature forum, thanks Lil, for the photo).

On this, I used only Alizarin crimson, ultramarine and yellow cadmium light.

Keeping it simple.

This dragon was also for a WetCanvas Challenge (in the Sci-fi/fantasy forum, the theme was wings). It doesn’t have any limbs as I am a bit of a defeetist.

Hahahahahahahahahaa..haha..ha..

*cough cough*

Ahem, pardon me.

This was done from a scanned sketch I did then I added the colors with a photo program. That’s about all digitally, that I know how to do.

My original sketch of the defeeted dragon.

Next up was this oddity. She’s a masthead that has escaped from her ship.

Metallic watercolors.

I’m still working on the linocutting. Having a great time of it.

I decided to make rampants for us. I was going to go traditional but then I thought why use a lion rampant or a unicorn rampant when you can use a Westie Rampant and a Labrador Retriever Rampant.

I intentionally left the rough bits in on this. I liked the look of them.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, everything is growing.

I love Spring!

Happy Birthday, Dog!

March 2, 2017 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 15 Comments

Sampson is ten years old today!

Here are some of my favorite photos of him.

Just woken up Sammy

Sassy Sammy.

Suspicious Sammy

You hurt my feelings Sammy.

Look at my paw Sammy.

Defiantly muddy Sammy

Leaping Sammy

Groucho Marx Sammy

Aw Shucks Sammy

In the wind Sammy

And of course…

Purple Sammy!

Elephants and Pumpkins

October 16, 2016October 16, 2016 ~ thepurpledogpaintingblog ~ 3 Comments

And no, this is not a political post.

Fall with it’s dramatic skies and dancing leaves is here with a vengeance. I really need to do some catching up on the blog.

This painting is a two inch square in acrylic and will most likely be bigger on your screen then in real life.

This ink is more than double the size at 5×5 inches. This was part of a monthly miniature challenge on WetCanvas. WetCanvas has a huge reference image library, it’s a fantastic resource. Thanks to the member that added the photo I used as a reference for this.

In the original photo the wall was brick and there were solar panels everywhere. I altered those which is always a good idea when you have discordant elements. You don’t have to paint or draw exactly what is in a photo or right in front of you. The pens are Microns.

This pumpkin in acrylic is from the same challenge. This quick study is 5×5 inches.

This is also from a photo reference from WetCanvas. This was a fun one, it was a challenge to use restricted palettes.

This is the Zorn palette which is Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black and Titanium White.

Anders Zorn(February 18, 1860 – August 22, 1920) was a Swedish painter who generally painted people and figures. I’m not sure why he used such a restricted palette but after playing with it for awhile I can see the lure of the colors he used.

Fish on a plate, acrylic, 10×14 inches (not a mini!)