Sprout Afternoon Nap

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In a virtual portfolio class I am encouraging my student to draw from life more.Many of my younger students are stuck in a world of video game art. They constantly draw characters from their favorite game. My goal is to get them to look away from the computer screen and sketch from life.

While my student drew her dog, I went to the living room and sketched our dogs. I wanted to encourage the student to work quickly and rather loose. I did three of four of these quick studies, while my student worked on a single sketch.

Working quick and loose is a message that never sinks in right away. I hammer away at the message over and over while showing them how I approach a sketch.

Cone of Shame

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This is Sprout‘s enclosure for now while he recovers. We finally went a whole day without his wound opening up. The vet supplied this plastic cone to keep him from getting at the stitched leg.

The cone freaks him out. He keeps bumping it up against the cage and we discovered that he can not drink from his water  bowl while it is on. Pam ordered an inflatable neck cone which resembles an airplane pillow. It is rather large and makes him look like he has a lions mane. It doesn’t restrict his movements as much or freak him out and he can drink from his dish. We take it off any time we are there watching him now. but it goes back on when we leave the room.

He was very restless this first day. He would lie down then get up then lie down again over and over. He was never comfortable. Pam got in the enclosure with him and kept him company for much of the afternoon. Donkey lay outside his enclosure jealous that he was getting so much attention. Friends got him several stuffed toys and this was the first time Donkey could not steal them from him and destroy them.

Pam put a bath mat down so he cant slip on the wooden floor. he spends most of his time on the dog bed sleeping now and Pam brings him outside alone when it is bathroom time. Donkey gets locked in the back bedroom so she can not terrorize him when he goes outside. She had been rather good about his confinement although she still lusts for his stuffed animal.

Sprout is finally on the road to recovery. Over time he will be going to hydro therapy and short walks to start getting using the surgically patched knee.

Sprout Needs More Stitches

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The next morning we woke up to start the weekend. We woke up however to find that Sprout‘s stitches had once again busted open in the same place. Pam was in tears as we got sprout ready to once again go to the Emergency vet.

This time I wrapped the wound tight but on the trip there it slipped down because of the shape of his leg. I had wanted to secure it with a large band aid at the top but was vetoed. That probably would have slipped as well.

The wait  at the Veterinary Emergency Clinic Waterford wasn’t as long because I didn’t have time to finish the sketch. This vet, Kim Al-Mayyah, was very kind and she explained how she planned to relieve the pressure on the stitches by doing a series of stitches across the wound to distribute the pressure.

Pam was convinced that the way Sprout sits is part of the problem. He tends to sit right on the wounded leg and when he get up he awkwardly stretched the skin on that let. A vets assistant came in and said we have to be diligent about keeping him in his collar so he is never tempted to lick the wound. The vet also put in many sub cutaneous stitched in the muscles to further alleviate pressure on the joint. I wish this vet had performed the original surgery. She was thorough and a solid day has gone by and the stitched are still holding. Sprout is never out of our sight now. Pam took time off work and this 4 day Labor Day weekend is devoted to making sure he is on the road to recovery.

Knee Surgery

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Pam and I have two dogs, Sprout who is older and Donkey who is a rambunctious and large pup. One day donkey jumped off the bed onto Sprouts back and he let out an ear piercing squeal. He is usually stoic and silent so this was very out of the ordinary. In the days that followed Sprouts back leg began to shake any time we went for a walk. His vet only prescribed pain medications and some vitamins.

Over time however Sprout stopped using this back leg preferring to hobble about on three legs. Pam finally found a better vet who looked deeper into what was happening.

A ligament called the Cranial Cruciate Ligament had torn. This ligament holds the two bones together allowing the knee to rotate. When it is torn the joint floats forward and back grating the bones against one another. A meniscus acts as a shock absorber and because of the way the joint was broken it began to tear.

The vet decided to do surgery. He drilled a hole in the bone and used essentially a string to substitute for the torn ligament. He also removed a bone spur. The surgery resulted in a 4 inch long suture down and over the knee joint. We were given a series of instructions for his care in the weeks to follow. He came home with a cone around his neck to keep him from licking or tearing at the wound. We took off the cone when he got settled in. Pam had set up two dog crates and several gates to make him an open space in the living room. He is not allowed to jump up on furniture or the bed so he stays confined. He was so drugged up and woozy from the gas that he immediately passed out.

That evening however Pam discovered that his stitches had torn open. There was a one inch gaping wound on his knee. Thankfully it wasn’t bleeding but the muscles poked to the surface. I have first aid bandages and let Pam do her best at covering the open gash so we could get him to an emergency vet. The vet who had performed the surgery was out of the office until the next week due to the Labor Day weekend. We waited in the vets office for an eternity. We waited much of the time in our car to avoid the other people in the waiting room. 9 out of 10 people who entered to vet wore face masks. As I did this sketch I could hear a girl crying for about half an hour in the waiting room. I also over heard a phone conversation about a dog that had overdosed on a bottle of its owner’s Claritin.

A vet finally took Sprout out back and we waited for her to sew his knee back up. When we got back home late that night once a gain Sprout immediately collapsed and we went to bed.

Donkey Barrier

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This is a sketch I did with one of my Elite Animation virtual students to demonstrate one point perspective. I am always encouraging my students to sketch the simplest of scenes.

This is a view from my desk and shows the entry to my studio space. My sketchbook bookshelf can be seen to the left and books are stacked on a table in the mid ground since each time a sketchbook goes on a shelf another book has to loose it’s spot on the shelf. Even my childhood bible has lost its spot on the bookshelf and been demoted to tabletop storage.

You might notice that the entry to the studio is blocked by plastic storage bins. I step over those bins every time I exit or enter the studio. Stepping over those bins has probably been my best exercise all year during the pandemic. The roll top desk against the far wall was acquired by Pam and was once owned by a renowned local syndicated cartoonist.

Pam’s pup, Sprout, got upset every time Pam went to work each morning. She thought it would be a good idea to get Sprout a play buddy, so we ended up adopting a pup named Donkey. The first day Donkey was in the house, she decided to enter my studio and immediately poop on the carper. That dog never again entered the studio since I blocked the entry with storage containers. Donkey is evil incarnate.

Sprout used to huddle under my Disney Desk while I was working when afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. He felt safe there. Unfortunately he has to deal with the fear of thunder on his own now that Donkey is in the house.  Donkey also chewed the hell out of a coffee table in the living room. All four legs are half chewed off. They look like they were splintered by lightning. She also chewed up an antique wooden Monopoly game board. I suspect that is irreplaceable.

Donkey chews Sprouts face and legs incessantly. He growled to assert his dominance but she had outgrown him and literally stands dominant over him. He still pouts any time Pam leaves for work. He probably gets exercise trying to survive Donkey’s attacks but I am not so sure he his happier than before she arrived.

Outside the window, a dark silhouette is visible of an outdoor bar with bar stools stacked on top of the counter. Those seats are covered in rat poop since a rat discovered he could chew his way into plastic storage bins outside filled with seed. He got fat and happy and pooped all around the bar. I managed to catch the rat so he is no longer causing havoc around the bar.

Beach Day

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The day before Thanksgiving, Pam and I decided we wanted to get away for a beach day with the dogs. Pam researched and found  a beach near Melbourne that allows dogs. The drive to the beach as fairly uneventful though Donkey kept blocking my view out the back window.

The beach had its own parking lot long with a bathroom and the lot was almost full with just a few parking spots left. Rather than carry the umbrella and towels out we decided to walk out to the beach with the dogs thinking we might have to turn around if it was too crowded.

We both wore masks the entire time and discovered that no one else on the beach wore masks. The beach was crowded but we decided to try and find an isolated spot. My comfort level included at least 30 feet of space or 5 times my height removed from others. That amount of space was hard to find. A sign staked out the limits for the dog beach and all said, maybe 100 yards were allowed for dogs. It was also high tide which meant people and dogs were crushed together. More than half the people on the beach also didn’t have dogs which was frustrating because they could spread out to the vast stretched of beach that were deserted on either side of this crowded mess.

The breeze was coming off the ocean so my other thought is that we should find a spot with no one camped out directly in front of us. We found one spot back by the dunes that was properly isolated. As I held the dogs, Pam started setting up the umbrella. As she was doing that a woman with her dog plopped down a few feet directly in front of us. Pam picked up stakes and we moved about 30 feet south to another spot.

We relaxed for a bit and then took the dogs out to the surf on their leashes. Our masks stayed on, we were no going to swim ourselves, we just let the dogs pay in the surf. Sprout was caught off guard by one wave, but swam back to shore like a pro. Donkey, a puppy, had never been to the beach and she had a blast. We played out in the surf twice. One lady lost her flip flop in the surf and we recovered it for her. On the way back to our umbrella that same lady lost her French Bull Dog and we had to catch it. All three dogs on leashed got tangled up. It would have been funny otherwise, but this lady was not wearing her mask. I worked hard to pull back from the chaos as dogs barked and tugged in all directions. When we got back to the umbrella two college girls had plopped down a few feet from us. We decided to call it a day rather than constantly having to pick up and move. The congested strip of beach kept getting more crowded.

We actually did spot one other responsible dog owner who wore a mask as she walked her pup. Several mask less children flew kites.

Crooked Can

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Pam Schwartz and I have been to the Crooked Can several times because Pam was hoping to find a puppy to keep her dog, Sprout company. An animal rescue group is at Crooked Can on the weekends with puppies. She was courting a white dog who had some health issues. The pup was brought to her home several times and she went to a dog obedience course to work with her, but in the end the pup went to a family in the country. The puppies name was Heather. She was my speed of a dog. She was calm and collected and just wanted to snuggle and be pet.

After our visit with her on this day we relaxed and watched this musician outside the Plant Street Market. This sketch was a bit of a breakthrough for me in that I treated it like the fast watercolors I usually create. Color was just added in thin layers leaving much of the white background visible. When working digitally I usually tent to work dark to light with only a few bright highlights being pure white. I am finding that this tends to take longer to create and the paining might feel incomplete if not enough time is taken.

We returned to Crooked Can on another day to look at what was supposed to be an Irish Wolfhound. The mutt we met want that bread but instead maybe part pointer and maybe part lab. Anyway we took that pup for a walk and instead of the long series of meeting to see if we were the right fit for the pup, the rescue workers just said, “Do you want to take her home today.” So. This black coated pup came home with us that day. She was named Darcy, which became Darcino, since we were always shouting “Darcy, No!” That name later changed to Donkey which better suited her stubborn disposition. She has turned a coffee table into Swiss cheese as well as an antique couch which she ripped open spewing horse hair everywhere. On the first day, she pooped in my art studio and since then I built a moving box igloo to keep her out of that space. The las thing I need is for that pup to eat my sketchbooks of paintings. She also is so high strung that she is impossible to pet. Pam’s other pup, Sprout takes the main brunt of Donkey’s high stung violent play. They are growling and biting each other constantly. How can that be fun?

Baldwin Bark

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As I write this, Hurricane Dorian has become a category 5 storm, causing devastation in the Bahamas as it heads west towards Florida. Earlier in the week, Orlando was right in the line of the storm’s path, but newer computer forecasts show the storm turning north and heading up the coast of Florida without making land fall. Orlando is still in the cone of uncertainty. This is all happening on Labor Day weekend, which was already a long weekend because of the holiday, and now the city of Orlando, as well as Orange County, have shut down through Wednesday. The result is cabin fever, since most events that I would want to sketch are also cancelled.

For three days in a row Pam and I have taken the dogs to the dog park to let them run and expend some energy. The result is calmer, sleepier puppies. Although Donkey is a bit of a hurricane in her own right. That dog had already eaten a coffee table and several TV remotes. Couches are shredded and toys are just tiny shredded bits that get clogged Debbie the Deebot in any clean up attempt. The threat of a possible storm outside pales to the ongoing devastation from Hurricane Donkey inside.

At the dog park Donkey runs everywhere at full speed with her long tongue hanging out of her mouth. She has a high pitched bark that is created without her ever moving her jaws. Sprout, on the other hand, tracks dogs in order to hump them, from the front or back, it doesn’t matter. He was fixed but that doesn’t stop that primal urge to shake those hips. The final trip to a dog park ended with an outer rain band soaking everyone. I was the only person with an umbrella but it wasn’t much help with the rain coming in horizontally in high winds. Now we are hunkered down and just waiting to see if the storm will turn to the north before hitting us. The forecasters might have fancy computer models, but the storm will do what it wants. Right now Orlando is under a tropical storm warning and I can see the hurricane on my iPhone radar. For the first time I can watch the storms progress any time I want. I’m hoping the winds that hit Orlando will just be around 39 miles per hour. We will just have to wait and see.

Indie Folk Festival at the Mennello Museum.

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Flynn Dobbs invited me to exhibit a few of my painting along with three other artists at the annual family-and pet-friendly event, the Indie Folk Festival on February 10, 2018. The fourth annual Indie-Folkfest was presented by PLR Florida at the Mennello Museum of American Art. Pam Schwartz and I got there around 11:30 AM to get set up. Flynn had the tent ready and there was just enough room for my 6 framed paintings. Sprout, who is Pam’s scruffy pup was excited to experience all the new smells.

The event showcased local, national and regional art, music and culinary talent.

Last past February, in 2017,  the event welcomed nearly 5,000 guests to the museum grounds. Guests enjoyed beautiful weather, local music, food, beverages and art.

This annual free event serves as a gift from the Museum’s City-Appointed Board of Trustees in an effort to promote local art and community. A portion of all proceeds benefit the Mennello Museum of American Art’s education and family-friendly programs.

Each artist in our tent was active painting at some point during the day. I sketched our tent to document the day. Loren Berry set up a table and started doing some marbling. She poured multiple colors on the panel and let the colors swim together as she rotated the panel letting the paint flow across the surface. Then she lay the panel flat and used her gloved fingers to create pointed divots in the flow. This was followed by blowing the paint to create even more pattern. It was a fun process to watch and I sketched frantically. Her results, resemble the cloud formations on the planet Jupiter.

Terri Binion opened up the main stage with her unique folk music styling. She was followed by Beemo who got the folks gathered on the lawn warmed up to dance away the afternoon. The musical afternoon was capped off by Eugene Snowden who brought the crowd to his moving gospel of song and a crowd gathered in front of the stage to dance.

Howl at the Moon Fundraiser.

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Howl at the Moon raised money for In Harmony Nature Animal Haven. Patrons were invited to dress up their dogs for Yappy Hour at Orlando Brewing, (1301 Atlanta Ave, Orlando, FL 32806). Nature Animal Haven is a sanctuary for wolves, wolf dogs, dogs, cats, parrots, reptiles and pigs. They work to find forever homes for animals ready for adoption.

There were folks at the door to explain the event and accept $10 donations. The donation allowed for money off of draft beers. Pam Schwartz brought Sprout her gentleman of a mutt, He wore a green polka dot bow tie for the occasion. His hair was spiked up into a Mohawk for as long as it lasted. There were plenty of dogs in the house, and my favorite costume was the German Shepard in the foreground dressed in a yellow rain jacket with a red balloon. This is of course reminiscent of the beginning of the Stephen King movie, It, where a little boy chases a paper sail boat down a drain, only to have his arm ripped off by a demonic clown. The dog had all his limbs. Another smaller pooch won the costume contest wearing an inflatable power pack from Ghost Busters. His owner had on a similar power pack. They spent all their time at the bar and I didn’t notice them until the end.

There were wolf dogs and dogs everywhere. Sprout had a great time sniffing and meeting all the dogs, though none of them were particularly interested in playing. Dogs in Orlando are so well behaved. There was a silent auction and none of the items had bids yet, so Pam put starting bids on several items. She didn’t end up winning anything. She ordered us a beer sampler with 5 different beers. I liked the German Blonde beer the best.

Once the  sketch was done, we went outside to try Mighty Weenie which was vending Seattle-style hot dogs. What is different about these dogs is that they have thick cream cheese spread inside the buns along with onions. It was a rather bland tasting hot dog to be honest. It needed something other than white bread and cream cheese for flavor so I mounded on the sauerkraut.