Cards arrived

Two cards from my Out of Africa trade have arrived with their new owners. One is of the Southern Crowned Crane and I really like this one.....I haven't done a bird in ages and was very happy with the results. The second is a close crop of an antelope.

Not a lot happeneing here at the moment, but am hoping to get a bit of sketching in this week.

New ATC's

I have been making ATC's for a musical instrument themed swap. I decided to do Aboriginal instruments to do something Aussie. They don't have many instruments....there is the didgeridoo that everyone knows, plus they use clapping sticks, some were solely instruments but as a nomadic tribe many things had to do double duty, so the women often would use digging sticks and the men boomerangs to get the dinstinctive clapping beat behind their music. Also I have included bullroarers, while really being a communications device, they can be heard in the background of some modern Aboriginal music. For those who don;t know what they areyou may recall having seen PAul Hogan swinging a device which hummed in a low growly sound, was a bullroarer.

Here are:
1) a bull roarer with kangaroo design
2) clapping sticks with an emu design
3) a didgeridoo with seed pod design

Introducing the "Paw People"

As I said I am owned by 2 dachshunds,. They are both red in colour and each comes first in their own way. Buster (13 yrs old) believes that if he doesn't get his meal on time that his throat has been cut. The poor little man thinks with his stomach, so he is fist to get his meal. Maggie (10 yrs old) waits for hers, but she will brook no interference when it comes to cuddles.....she has to be first and she will put herself between Buster and me until she is picked up, then she is happy enough to allow him his cuddle....just as long as he knows she is first!

I love watching them, they re so entertaining and can be delightful time-wasters. So here is a photo. Buster is the one under the blanket .... he has a strange fetish for having things draped over his head. He will set his blanket up that way and he will sit under the long curtains and have them drape over his head doing what I call his "Babushka" act.

Well I have finally bitten the bullet and started a blog.
I have no idea if I will be good bad or indifferent at this but I am dipping my toe and trying to find out how to do things with the pages on here - like all the pretty background colours people get??? Being technologically challenged I will eventually get there.
The name come from my lifelong love of (and being owned by) a succession of possessive dackies (doxies to those in the States) - I only work to keep them in the lifestyle they've come to expect! I also enjoy my art and its something else that will last a lifetime - especially as it will take that long to learn as much as I can which I am sure will only be scratching the surface because I am reading new new tips and tecniques every day.
I hope to keep myself (and others) entertained with talk of what my "paw people" are doing, with pics of them and scans of my art and the problems of the blank page staring at me daring me to make a mark!
So welcome to my new blog and I hope that I will get the hang of it quite quickly.




I thought I might start by showing an ATC from a recent "Out of Africa" swap on Wet Canvas - this is a beautiful Congalese woman that I could not resist drawing in graphite.