Moon

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the MOON...

Pastel and Digital, combined in Photoshop. Yet another one inspired by, or in this case partly drawn during my vacation in Oregon. I had done a pastel of a strawberry-roan cow we encountered during the trip, scanned the pic and pasted it over a digitally drawn moon. With some tweaking in Photoshop, I tried to make the cow look like it was leaping.

Wikipedia has some interesting takes on what the "Hey Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme meant. Some think it was about Queen Elizabeth I. Others say it was Richard III. Still others theorize the rhyme has to do with astronomy, explaining that nearly all "characters" are constellations. Cat (Leo – the Lion), Fiddle (Lyra – the Lyre), the Cow (Taurus – the Bull) jumped over the Moon (the Moon); the Little Dog (Canis Minor – the Lesser Dog), the Dish (Crater – a dish shaped constellation), the Spoon (Ursa Major – the Big Dipper).

You can see the theories here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Diddle_Diddle
Details about the Queen Elizabeth I connection can be found here: http://childrens-verse.suite101.com/article.cfm/hey_diddle_diddle

Poem

Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

This is a reproduction of the artwork on the Emily Dickinson stamp issued in 1971, which I found at an antique/junque shop in Oregon last week. I incorporated her poem "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" into the illustration. Her poems are beautiful, though some quite sad, but I love her use of similes and metaphors.

Another well-known poem of hers that I like is this:

I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
There's a pair of us, don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog,
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

More of her poetry can be found here: http://www.bartleby.com/113/
Her life and story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson

Discovery

Christopher Columbus shows off his Discovery. Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

Whew! I barely made it for this week. I just got back from vacation in Oregon, and the only inspiration I could get was from the horses I saw during my trip.

Anyway, on Chris Columbus' second journey to the Americas in 1493, he brought with him 17 ships, 1200 men, and some livestock. The purpose of the voyage was to return to La Navidad in Hispaniola to relieve the men left behind from the first voyage, settle more colonists on the islands, and explore and claim other islands.
It is said that one type of horse breed brought over was the Andalusian. I can just picture Columbus riding on this very beautiful horse, looking very pompous and feeling rather important. Little did he know what he would *discover* in La Navidad.

Click here to find out what happened.

Geeky

May the Star Wars geek be with you...

Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop. Since this year is the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, I thought I'd draw a group of fans with homemade costumes at a movie screening. I myself, admittedly, am a star wars geek.

There's an interesting article on CNet.com about this geeky, but still cool, culture phenomenon that endures today.

A bunch of parodies have also been made of the films, such as "Hardware Wars" and "Thumb Wars". Both can be seen on YouTube (I liked Hardware Wars). Anyway, hope all fellow SW geeks enjoy and have fun this year!

Twist

Come on baby, let's do the TWIST!

Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop. This one's a late entry this week. I was experimenting with the background again on this piece. Is she dancing in space? Or maybe just lost in her own world as she dances away with this Chubby Checker hit. I just love these 50's/60's songs. Simple, catchy tunes and just a lot of fun. Sometimes at friends/family gatherings, we have hoola hoop and limbo contests and play a bunch of Chubby Checker hits.