Tag Archives: cow

The Other Minotaur, for Illustration Friday

Mino-Taura, 6″ x 9″ Copic Markers

For the topic “Myth” at Illustration Friday.

Historians call her Mino-Taura, though her real name is not known. It is believed she was the twin of Asterion, the Minotaur famously slain by Theseus. Zeus spied her upon her birth, stole her, and took her to a secret island where he would visit her with gifts of servants and exotic fruit. Unlike her twin, Mino-Taura had no taste for meat. Despite these gifts she was a lonely soul and died young, having never met another of her kind. Her death went unnoticed, the same as her life.

So this was another case of trusting to the end product, because as you’ll see from the scans below, she was an ugly thing for a while there! But I have learned to push through to the end, and I’m usually glad I did. I even stopped sooner than usual, instead of filling in more of the solid spaces. (Though that could still change.)

Artist retains rights to text and image. Thank you! Thanks for visiting!

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No Room at the Couch Part II, Copic Markers

Cow, Donkey, Cat, Dog, Shrew with Couch in Copics 8 x 10

The topic is “Nursery Rhyme” for Monday Artday. Until I looked it up just now to link it, I was sure it was “Fairytale”, so that will explain what comes next. (There could very well be a nursery rhyme about this story and I hope Mike at Monday Artday will be ok with that.) :D

McCalls Books, The Enchanted Princess & The House in the Forest

I wanted to do another pile of animals and I remembered a story called “The House in the Forest“, which was part of McCall’s Storytime Treasury series. Do you remember those? (It goes back to the 70s! But maybe you got some hand-me downs. Ours went to a second cousin. I may have to reacquire some.)

In any case, though I could not find a summary of the story (and my memory is a bit hazy), it was about a girl who lived in a house in the forest with all her animals. One night a magical guest disguised as a beggar came to test her, to see if she would feed herself before she fed her animals. She had a cow, a dog, a cat, a donkey… I think! She almost certainly did not have an elephant shrew in the original (but clearly should have). I don’t know if she had such a fancy couch. Probably not. I’m not sure there was any delivery service for one thing, and she wouldn’t have been able to afford it if so.

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Thank you for visiting! This is my second consecutive couch full of creatures. I was actually going to do these all in blue but decided on browns and I think blue would have been better. I also considered some fancy detail on the couch but worried that would take the focus off the critters. More outlandish experiments coming soon.

Cow face reference photo, sleeping cat reference.

Illustration Friday, Puppy and Cow, Copics

Yield for Illustration Friday, Puppy and Cow

Before the new topic came out at Illustration Friday this week, I had sketched a very silly but promising cow:

Cow Sketch

I figured she made the perfect platform for something, but what? And then the topic “yield” was posted, so I thought about how I could use this cow and that word and what I came up with was to put a giant pie on her head with the words, “The apple tree produced more than double the yield of the previous year due in no small part to the fertilization efforts of Hannah the cow.”

Cow pie. Fertilizer. Yeah, not a highbrow moment. I’m ok with that. But I didn’t think a pie would be visually very interesting. I have since decided a pie would have been totally doable – but I went with cute, in the end. Which may be cheap but so is cow pie. ;)

Cow and Puppy Sketch

Cow and Puppy Mask

This was actually a really great blue that I lost with too many light colored coats. Alas!

Cow and Puppy Color 1

And this is the stage where I say to myself, ugh, this is not going well. But that always happens in the beginning color stages so I don’t despair quite as much as I once did. Which is good. Unless you’re one of those people who thinks inspiration is only sparked by misery. I am not.

Cow and Puppy Color 2

Cow and Puppy Color 4

I really need to finish all of the color before adding the black ink (which isn’t supposed to smudge, but does a bit!) Lots of muddy spots as a result. Probably could have done more with the background but a decent effort overall.  Thank you for coming!

Note: In case you didn’t know, I have put a detailed tutorial on how to make yourself a thumbnail for IF (or avatar or other tiny image), on my sidebar near the top of the page. I hope someone finds it useful! A thumbnail will get you more views than no thumbnail.

Illustration Friday “Capable” Copic Markers

Cape a Bull With Copic Markers at The Slumbering Herd

“Capable” for Illustration Friday this week, where 104 entries have already been posted.

Yes, this entry is quite silly. I saw some other folks had gone with the cape concept, so I had to crank it up a notch! I think (again) this one is overly busy. Arggh! What I’ve been aiming for is ‘neat and intricate’, but where I have been landing is ‘overworked and confused’. But I’ll keep trying.

Here’s how it happened:

Cape a Bull Sketch

Cape a Bull Liquid Frisket, Ink 1

Cape a Bull Ink 2

Cape a Bull Ink 3

Cape a Bull With Copic Markers

A decent effort but definitely overworked. And I don’t love this color combination quite as much as I’d hoped. Next time I’d go with browns instead of blues. I’m often worried that browns are too subdued but 1. sometimes subdued is good, and 2. I really do have a lot of different browns and I generally like it when I go that way. And so ends today’s ramble!

The font is Ugly Qua. Thank you for your visit!

Fancy Cows in Copic Markers for Illustration Friday

Costumed Cows, Copic Markers 8.5×11

So I left town for about 4 days and when I came back I started playing video games (Civilization 5, meh – I start over a lot because the beginning is more fun than the middle) and some tower defense games, all the while glancing worriedly in the general direction of my drawing table. Before I left, I had been completing two pieces a week, posting 2-3 times, getting right on the IF prompts and so forth.

When I finally sat down to draw a couple days ago I was not happy with anything and started over repeatedly. Then finally I glanced up at the Bonny Bovines and I was back in business. (The last sentence was brought to you by the letter “B” and curious cows everywhere.)

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “separated” and Mavis and Bernie (above) have not been separated for more than four hours in the twenty-seven years they have been married. The four hours happened the first weekend their neighbor, a Shetland Pony, first brought home a small herd of miniature goats.  The goats promptly jumped the inadequate fence between their properties and proceeded to stamp across Bernie’s garden.

Bernie, with ineffective help from the pony,  gave chase and returned home with most of the goats four hours later.  He extracted a promise from his neighbor that the goats would be properly penned in. (It was not, of course, the last incident involving the goats. But that’s another story.)

Bernie and Mavis sat for an earlier portrait in one of my earliest pieces with Copic Markers, which can be found here. And now some progress pics!

Costumed Cows Initial Ink

Costumed Cows Color 1

Costumed Cows Color 2

Costumed Cows, Copic Markers 8.5×11

There is an ear overlap problem that I left alone. Bernie’s right ear (our left) should just have been angled backward more (and been smaller), but alas! Mavis’ nose got muddied up because I forgot I had used the Copic black marker rather than pen for some of the dark in her nostrils. (The marker is meant to blend and so smudges easily, unlike the pens.)

A final note about this pair. They were bickering at each other ALL DAY while I worked on this portrait. Bernie wanted to wear the mustache on his nose and Mavis told him not to be ridiculous because it is too small for his nose. He retorted that her headdress thingie was totally from the wrong time period if they were going to the costume party dressed as Victorian steampunks. (The party, incidentally, is at the shetland pony’s house. Apparently the goats have been dressed as Oompa Loompas and will be serving oat and carob snacks.)

It is Sunday evening and already 186 IF entries have been posted!  Thank you for stopping by to visit mine!