Friday, February 19, 2010

Updated Website

PicturebookM

Updated the article  'How to Create a Picture Book' on the Maysun In C website. I had linked to it on this blog previously, now I've rewritten the text and added a few illustrations. I rather like the result.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

La Mariposa y El Pollo

Butterfly1
Cock1
A couple of old illustrations that I dug up today.  I had these up on OrangeMellon. I'll be overhauling that blog this weekend, changing the black background to white and tweaking the html.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sketchbook - Taumadhi Square

Taumadhi Square

This is a view of Taumadhi Square in Bhaktapur, Nepal. If you ever go to Nepal, be sure to visit this place. They have done a wonderful job of preserving much of the ancient town. It actually feels like stepping back in time.

I have a particular fondness for Bhaktapur because it was where I met Meijin.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Photo of the Week - Meijin

Meijin1Feb8-10

This is Meijin. He is originally from Bhaktapur, Nepal. Now he lives with me in Nasik, India. He's four years old.

Here's how I met him - 'How I Met Meijin'


MeijinPuppy
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Meijin

Here is Meijin looking particularly fierce. He had some aggression issues when he was a puppy - if he didn't like something, he would switch from sweet to savage with such speed it was scary - but we worked through that with clicker training, positive reinforcement and some helpful suggestions from the members at Agbeh.

We're working on search and find at present, and we both enjoy that very much. I'm glad I went online to seek help, rather than going with a local trainer the vet recommended. Many of the trainers here follow the 'old-fashioned' training methods, which usually involve punishments and rough corrections. I once saw one of them work with the neighbor's dog, wielding a stick and yanking hard at the choke chain, and I thought, no way I'm ever going to let anyone do that to my dogs. I have to mention here that my other two dogs, Munchkin, 11,  and Chubary, 6, are both local breeds and never once displayed the type of frenzied aggression that Meijin did.

Anyway,  that sort of training would have ruined him. He's very intelligent, he likes to have things explained to him, he does not like being ordered around or threatened or yelled at or being forced anymore than I do. It is important to respect your dog as an individual, to build up trust and liking rather than fear and submission, and clicker training has certainly helped us understand each other better.

I told the vet about it, so he would pass it on to his other clients and perhaps it'll help them too. The problem is some people like having an aggressive dog that nobody can manage, they somehow think it's a good thing.

A gentleman in the area has a six-month old bull mastiff that he is afraid of already, and there's a chap with a quite dangerous rottweiler - it has bitten him four times and recently it went for his mother when she ordered it off the bed; it bit her on her arm, going right down to the bone, and if she hadn't grabbed a chair and hurled it at the dog and got out of the room and slammed the door, it would have gone for her neck.

And these people still get a kick out of telling everyone what an aggressive creature their dog is. The vet said he has given up treating some of these animals. It's too risky for me, he told the owners, which probably only bolstered their egos more. Some people really shouldn't keep animals.

Friday, February 12, 2010

The ABC's

Typography A

Typography B

Typography C

I'm learning the alphabet all over again. :-)

Ten things I like starting with the letters A, B and C -

  • Airplanes
  • Air by Bach
  • Alps
  • Alice in Wonderland
  • Apples
  • Art
  • Animation
  • Autumn
  • Arias
  • Arabian Horses

------

  • Butterflies
  • Birds
  • Bamboo plants
  • Bananas
  • Berries
  • Brown Bread
  • Books
  • Barefeet squishing mud
  • Babies
  • Blues - colors and music

------

  • Cucumber
  • Clouds
  • Cauliflower
  • Camera
  • Caribbean Islands
  • Carnations
  • Camellias
  • Cartoons
  • Carnivals
  • Camels

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Drawing - Two Trees

10 Feb - Drawing1a 

Two trees. They stood side by side and had nothing to say. All day.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Photo of the Week - Cosmos and Bees

Bee2

Bee1

Bee3

Photos: Kadambini Panse

We have a new camera and the garden is quite lovely right now. I'm going to be painting it this month, one garden painting a day.

I'll be posting them on the  AutumnSee blog. I also posted some self-portraits  there last week.  Called, very originally, self-portrait 2 and self-portrait 3 (self-portrait 1 is too wonky to be linked).

It feels real good to be painting again.

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