nenethomas

I gave my sister her birthday present today, only 3 weeks late..... She loved it, really, really loved it though, so I don't feel quite as awful  for being soooooooo late :(

Edited to add: And I have a new nephew--YAAAAAAAAY!!

Good thing first: I am really, really, REALLY looking forward to the new Star Trek movie. Trailer goodness here: You can watch it about a billion times like I have!

Then, the bad. I have to get a cavity filled this week :(

And because misery loves company, now that my cat Little Dude's ,cat IBS seems to have cleared up, we need to take him in to have 2 rotten teeth extracted. Poor Little Dude. So both of us can dread the Dentist!

First off the three paintings together:

These 3 prints are available here:

And for some closeups:

Snow and a hoof.

Long tail and trees.

Prince Valeriad's hand and the horse's head and silky mane.

And lastly the faces of the handsome Prince Valeriad of Dakkadia and the beautiful Queen Lyrahe of Illymar.
Duet is of course one of the new paintings for Marionette: Book 3 of the Zarryiostrom. Slowly but surely I am working my way through the stack of paintings to be done!

I'll be releasing Duet and its two companion pieces this week, but in the meantime since I JUST finished, I think I'll go to bed now. I've a terrific headache, and I kind of want to sleep for the next 12 hours or so! I'll post up some previews of the new paintings when my head isn't pounding so....

So I look up at my monitor and the temperature reads 31 degrees!!! I think all this snow I am painting is jinxing the weather. Either that, or we have somehow skipped summer and have just gone on to autumn. o__0

I had to make a Vet appointment for one of our cats today. Nothing serious, thanks goodness.

It's a gray day here in central Oklahoma. We had rain, lots of rain, and even some hail last night. I was going to go photograph spring flowers today, but I'm sure they have been flattened into the ground, so I think I"ll wait a few days. Besides that, I don't want to use my sister's Nikon. I don't like it. Actually, I hate, loathe and despise it--would be more accurate! I'm hoping that maybe my Digital Rebel will magically heal itself in the meantime.... I still don't even know if the body works. I have another lens I could try out--a 200mm lens I think. It's basically for photographing celebrities in the next state over or something like that. I hardly even use it 'cause it weighs, oh, about 10 lbs or something crazy. But I need to see if anything can be salvaged from my Digital Rebel.

So I'm closing in on the end of a couple of pieces--companions to my unreleased Zarryiostrom piece Duet which I have previewed on my FB page, and my life is only eat, sleep, paint..repeat, repeat, repeat. I'm painting a particular animal in one of the pieces, and I have been painting nothing but fur for the last two days.. I had an idea to do a painting with a 'group' of these creatures, and now I know that it will take me 2 soild days (about 10-12 hours each day) to paint just one. Maybe it's not such a good idea then!

Steven made Chicken Curry last night and went out and bought me some carrot cake from the wonderful bakery La Bauguettes. Steven is such a good cook. He's been making dinner on the weekends when our friends come over to game. I don't game though--haven't since High-school. I've noticed since Steven has started cooking everyone is darned punctual about coming over...

I finished watching Season 7 of PR, and am now just starting Season 8. Gosh, I love that show, and I'm actually happy how my piece is going even if I am unutterably weary of painting fur!

I just found out that the amazing artist Quinton Hoover has passed away. This is terribly, terribly sad. I remember his art from the original Magic the Gathering. His gorgeous paintings were always my favorites--such a perfect balance between exquisite line work and bright jewel-toned colors. I only had the opportunity to speak to him once, but he was really friendly, I'm sorry I didn't get to know him better.

If you aren't familiar with his work, please do check it out, you'll be glad you did.

I went and 'friended' people who had added me as friends. Sorry it took so long, I hardly ever check it.

And more randomness, since with me, there is always randomness on my LJ....

Actually, I'm posting soooo much and about such pointless stuff, that I"m sure I'll have even more people remove me from their friends list. Sorry about that. I like to...not rant, exactly, but put my wandering thoughts down as it helps me focus before another long day, in a (it seems) never ending succession of long days of pushing pixels. And the thing is, when I go to sleep, I can hardly wait to wake up so I can paint some more, I love it so!

So back to what I was going to write about--Honestly, I am glad we adopted all these outdoor cats. Almost anything is better than looking out the window early in the morning and seeing a still, small, shape on the road, and with a sinking feeling of dread, knowing instantly what it is...
However, when I have had dreadful, horrible, awful sleep, because Domino keeps jumping up on the bed and putting his paws on my face with claws oh, so delicately extended to wake me so I'll pet him, and then nips me when I stop petting him--because, y'know, I'm tiiiiiiiiired, yeah, I sort of hate all cats. But then Domino rests his face on my cheek purring so loudly, and I don't hate him quite so much.
But I'm still exhausted!

So back to painting snow, snow and more snow. And snowy branches. Maybe I'll even get to the owl today? Actually, I'll probably be painting for a good long while since I discovered that Hulu has the last 5 seasons of Project Runway. Of course I watched them all as they broadcast since PR is my favorite show ever, but it's nice to watch them again!

We had a terrific hail storm yesterday. but luckily for us, a cold front held over OKC proper, though I heard Norman, OK got hammered by hail. I was napping during the storm (or trying to, since the thunder kept waking me up). I usually love storms, I love the feel of the wind, and seeing the heavy, heavy rains, and the flashes of lightening that illuminate the entire sky with jagged streaks of light flashing from one side to the other. In the daytime, I like looking at the roiling masses of clouds that tower up thousands of feet. In theory, I should like seeing tornadoes, because they are beautiful, but the one time I actually saw a real tornado, it was many years ago when we lived in Minot ND, and they (there were 3 of them, faint grey, swirling smudges in the sky) absolutely terrified me!

But the storm is passed, though the cold front remains, and poor Gozer was curled up on her little kitty heating pad, probably wondering if Spring, much less Summer will ever get here. And speaking of cold, I am painting snow. Snow, snow and more snow, on two little companion pieces to go with my unreleased painting Duet, which I previewed parts of on my FB page.

So while I am pushing pixels, I am currently watching "History of Britain" hosted by Simon Schama on youtube, and it is excellent. I recently finished his "Power of Art" series also on youtube, and though I did not agree with the choice of artists he covered (Rothko--not my favorite!), I thought the series itself was phenomenal and I highly recommend it!

So back to painting snow--snow, snow and MORE snow!