Catpaw – diary of an angry cat

I am a very contented cat this morning. If you have been a diligent reader of this blog, you will know the area I live is a frequent victim of construction – road construction, condo construction, subway repair construction, garage repair construction. It has been endless. Well for about 3 years now there has been work done, on and off, across the road as the city and land owner feebly repair part of the subway line that runs under the property. Initially we were told it would take 6 months. HA! Anything this city has a hand in seems to take a lot longer. As I said we are now in our 3rd year, roaring up into a 4th year soon of erratic digging and jackhammering. One month they are going at it great guns, the next men in little bobcats spin around the lawn carving it up and then disappearing for weeks at a time. The endless, erratic nature of the work is wearing on m. And while the rest of the city worried about standing pools of water (ie their bird baths and kiddie pools) and diligently emptied them, the city allowed the huge trenches, carved into the land to fill with water and become mosquito breeding ponds. Even after complaints were made about the amount of standing water over there (I saw a pair of ducks paddling about once) nothing was done. Oh, wait, water was pumped out once. We were eaten alive by mosquitoes last year. As usual I digress….

Last year some of the work had to be done between 2am and 4am for safety reasons – not a good idea to have heavy duty jackhammers going while a subway car is trundling underneath. No notice of the work was given, and we found out about it when the neigbourhood was jarred out of bed. Those responsible for the lack of notice were scorched by the neigbourhood so badly that this time we were given plenty of notice of the work which started this week… or was it last week… lack of sleep tends to do things to your memory.

All week we’ve endured, construction during the day and then the 2am wakeup call. It’s not just loud, it’s rattle you out of bed loud. It’s actually quite funny in a sad, perverse way. Neigbours now greet each other with “did you get any sleep?” “I wonder how long this will go on for” and my favourite “at least the (insert favourite invective) gave us notice this time”. Ah but last night there was NO construction. No trucks, no jack hammers, no little bobcats roaring around tearing up the lawn. Oh sweet bliss. I woke up around 3am and thought “what’s going on”. It took a few minutes to realise it was silent. I snuggled back under the covers and thought oh how wonderful! I know they are just lulling us into a false sense of relaxation. They will be back. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the quiet.

Sigh…

Because I got such a wonderful nights sleep, I’m going to reward you… with a claw:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

I looked and didn’t see this in a previous post. I’ve been paying pretty close attention to claws … or are they feet?… so I can bring more realism to my birds. It’s paying off. It’s hard to see the feet in most photos, so if you see someone in a cafe peering very, very closely at some bird legs, that’s me. Gotta go…time to work so I can buy more art supplies… and lattes…and bird photos….and dark chocolate m&ms ….

I never realised a person could have so much fun drawing little birds.  It can be quite frustrating getting the feathers down and don’t get me started on the beaks.  I’ve been practicing bird feet lately, I’ll scan them in later and let you see them. I have pages and pages of feet and eyes I’ve drawn. If I’m ever stopped by animal welfare, they’ll think I’m some sort of animal serial killer!

Now, I said in an earlier post that I had been reading books on how to draw and that I’ve given up on them. Know why? They totally screw me up. For some reason, each time I read a lesson I can’t draw for a couple of days because everything ends up lopsided and cartoony. I guess I’m stuck with drawing a detailed eye and then drawing out from there. Yes, I start with a very detailed eye (and feathers around the eye) and then use an H lead to sketch in the basic outline from there. For some reason, if I draw an outline first, everything goes pear shaped and funny as hell to look at. Dunno why, just the way my brain and hand eye coordination works.

So, where are those bathing beauties? Here you go:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

And I’ll bet there were some of you that were hoping for something a little less feathered. This nice Chestnut-sided Warbler, taking a bath was easy to do. This simple pencil sketch took about 1 hr to do today. I’ve been trying to add more detail into my sketches, make them a little less disembodied in look.

Here’s the second:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

He’s a bit on the plump side, I got carried away with his feathers. Never drink too many lattes and then try to feather a bird, you just won’t want to stop. I was never able to get his eye and his head balanced because I started out with the eye too small and didn’t correct it soon enough. He’s not entirely proportioned, but I like this little Yellow Breasted Chat. I just figured out what is wrong with him. I was too symmetrical with his chin feathers. They should be all poofy, and not so precise. I’ll have to go back and fix that.

One day, I may get tired of sketching little songbirds. But I don’t think so.

A dragon lives forever but not so little [girls]
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, [Mary Travers] came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

Mary Travers – November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009

Do you hear that sighing in the wind? That’s the thousands of people here in Toronto that know the end of the International Film Festival signals the complete end of summer. Fall is officially here. Some people look for the leaves falling from the trees… TIFF people look for the last movie reels to leave town.

I’ve been so busy this week I’ve not had a chance to blog. What with movies, taking the car in for repairs, movies, drawing, movies and the dreaded work beast, I’ve hardly had time to sit and think. I have spent a lot of spare time working on my sketches. I’ve been concentrating on getting the eyes and claws right. Soon I’ll be tackling the beaks. I am pleased with my progress on claws especially. I have pages of bird claws scattered about my room. I never realised there was so much diversity in bird design. When I started drawing birds, it was more an exercise in trying to get the perspective correct. I never envisioned it would turn into an obsession. There are subtle differences in how the ring around their eye looks, how their claws and lets are designed… good grief, I’ve had a Darwinesque epiphany with my drawing! What is truly amusing to me is that this all started because I simply wanted to draw some simple streetscapes. I stumbled with some god aweful ones and then thought “why not start with something smaller”. I didn’t realise there was so much detail and delight with little birds.

I must admit, I have to blame a couple of my customers for this bird turn. I have 5 customers who are hard core birders – I think they are called twitchers in the UK. They have travelled to the Antartic to see penguins, the jungles of Papua New Guinea to see birds of paradise … you get the idea. Yet they are still thrilled with little song birds here in the Toronto area. I love going to fix their computers because it gives me a chance to see their latest photos. I found out the other day that one of my favourite birders died of cancer.  I had nicknamed him Penguin Grandpa because one of his granddaughters told her class that he could come in and tell them all about penguins because he knows “everything there is about them”. He was going through his photos of his trip to the Antartic fretting over what to say when I laughed and called him Penguin Grandpa. He laughed and threw up his hands and said his granddaughter seemed to think he was an expert on the subject and he couldn’t disappoint her. He gestured to the computer and told me that was why he needed the computer fixed so urgently. I still chuckle over that. He was already very ill at the time, but I couldn’t help hoping.

So good bye Penguin Granddad… thanks for sharing your passion with me.

Periodically I receive a comment that can only be called noxious. While I try to be tolerant of other view points, I do have limits to my patience. The posts I delete tend to be either vile racist rants, pornographic insults or as in the case of one I deleted today – simply odious.

I knew, before I even hit the Publish button, that I would receive hate mail over my previous post on the Charles Darwin pic, Creation. Barely had the post hit the web than I received a silly, anti-Semitic rant that blamed the British for all the world’s woes because of Darwin… I think… I didn’t read the entire comment because I really hate wasting my time on drivel and it can be fun using that old delete button! I find it fascinating how even the mention of Charles Darwin’s name can bring out the raving lunatic glee club. Where do they lurk?

I’m sure I’ll receive more. So to all of those from the abusive lunatic fringe I leave you these last thoughts:

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, Evolution, tolerance, Faith – these ideas are not mutually exclusive.

No none of the above are connected or in the correct order. It was the only way I could think of to tie together three seperate thoughts bouncing around in my head.

First the observation – bugger, it really is fall isn’t it? The nights have been quite chilly here. I can tell because my trusty weather vane, Cat, is always accurate. He’s been hogging the blankets, a sure sign the weather has begun to cool at night. Plus Bonnie, our scottie dog, has gotten very, very lively. She goes into overdrive with the cool weather. We think her ancestors took a left turn at the north pole on their way from Scotland – the colder it is, the happier she is. In weather that drives huskies indoors, she’s out cavorting in the snow saying “what a bunch of wimps”. Go figure. Now that I’ve depressed everyone – except those readers from warmer climes…

A movie, or rather two. It’s TIFF time. For those not in the know, TIFF stands for the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s that time of year when the nuts start falling from the trees and movie stars are thick on the ground. Most movie folks aren’t bad, it’s the damned photographers that get up my nose. Oh and the occassional “body guard” as well. I figured through the years, the more “body guards” – read big, beefy, useless – a star has, the more bloated the ego is.

I digress. TIFF time is great fun here in Toronto. It’s a chance to see movies from all over the world. Plus a lot of actors, directors – both well known and many new or unknown in this country – are available for the masses to ask questions about their work. Often when a film ends, the director/actors etc come out and field questions from the audience. The questions range from the truly cringeworthy to the well thought out. Either way it can lead to hilarous answers or some insights to the process of movie making. It is through TIFF that I’ve acquired an addiction to Indian and Chinese films. Let me tell you, if you want to see sweeping epics – they know how to make them. I tend to be quite uncritical in many ways. I may not be overly enthused about a movie, but I’m often just happy to get the chance to see the work. In all the years (eep… decades now) I’ve gone to TIFF, there have been only 2 movies I seriously didn’t like. When you sit there and say “oh for god’s sake kill all the characters already so I can leave”, you know you don’t like the movie. So… with no further interuptions… our movies:

Creation, by Jon Amiel was my first one. Good film about Charles Darwin and his family. It’s a snapshot view of the time he was struggling with whether to write his ground breaking book Origins, and the death of his beloved oldest daughter. As of this time, the film had distributors worldwide, with the exception of the US, where the distributors have said it is “too controversial” for American audiences. No… it’s too controversial for a small group of close minded idiots who use faith like a weapon. The rest of the US can handle the film very nicely. It’s a good view of how Darwin’s writings were not easy for him. He struggled with the book, and the theories he was pulling together. Worth viewing.

Mao’s Last Dancer, by Bruce Beresford is visually beautiful and, of course, an excellent story. One promotional blurb said it was “about ballet in China” … er… no … that gives the wrong impression. It’s about 1 ballet dancer, Li Cunxin, who was a product of both Mao’s Cultural Revolution and China’s post-revolution thaw. Li was plucked from a life of grinding poverty in rural China and sent to a special dance school in Bejing at the age of 11. The movie starts there and moves on through to his defection to the US in the eighties. It covers very vividly the pain his decision brought to him and his family. I am not a particular fan of ballet, but boy was I stunned by the dancing. Oh… yes… another movie worth watching.

And now the bird:
Well how about some feathers. I have a book on bird anatomy that I got from the library. I’ve been reading certain sections on feathers, wings and feet to try and come to grips with how they are structured. I’ve given up on how to draw books. They just screw me up or have really vague advise. Anyway… I sat down yesterday and did some sketches of feathers:

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

Yesterday, I also spent extra time working on this little scarlet tanager. It took nearly 3 hours work, but I’m really rather thrilled with him. I intended to only draw his head and a bit of his chest, but began to feel frisky and did the entire bird.

From Catpaw’s Art work – birds

His feet worked out very well. I’m even impressed. I guess spending all that time drawing bird feet has begun to pay off. I never realised how different birds have such radically different feet. Colour me amazed! The tail feathers aren’t quite right, but I haven’t spent any time working on their structure yet. Give me a few days of just drawing them and I’ll be much better. I’ve been working on smoothing out the feathers as well. My birds have been a bit, er, fluffy and I’ve tried a variety of methods to give them a smoother look, without taking away their distinct features. I finally am getting there. I don’t have time to detail what I’ve done to get the effect, off to another movie in a few minutes so I’ll leave that for another day. So forgive any errors, typos etc. I’ll catch them later today.