Update: I have been very very busy. I have stacks of drawings that I have not scanned yet. These are sketches from our summer vacation last year in Hong Kong and Bali and also sketches from our christmas vacation in Paris. Scanning is just taking way too much time. In fact, scanning my recent sketches took already more time than I thought….sigh…
I have recently (sort of) adopted a Welsh pony as part of my extracurricular activity to learn more about pony and horses. The pony actually belongs to the faculty and is also used for embryonal research. I train and take care of her twice a week. Her name is Anky. Oh, and I am also learning horseriding (dressage) now. It’s very cool.
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Recently I also learned how to culture bacteria. Well, I had the chance to culture bacteria from Wasabi’s faeces (my cat). I am proud that her E. coli is bile salt resistant….
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We got to know the occupant of the underside of our shoes. The swab is taken from the shoe of a fellow student. Meet the Baccilus…
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Artis, bedankt voor de inspiratie.
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Hmmm….what am I getting for my 4th birthday???
I am suddenly very interested in mice, guinea pigs, hamster, rabbits, etc… My homework that I did last night was about the ‘woelmuis’ (don’t know the name in English…it’s a mouse). I think they are cute. I am just not sure if they can get along with the cats. Can rabbits (especialy the super size giant type) can get along with cats? Are they big enough to take care of themselves?
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EDM Challenge #65: Draw a nose, can be a human’s nose or an animal’s nose. In this case, I drew the noses of my cats.
Miauw miauw…in 2007 we want better quality food, more food, longer massages, regular manicure and pedicure, better grooming….etc, etc.
I have made sketches of them over and over again but I have never shown their photo’s on my blog. So here they are. I had 8 cats on Januari 1, 2006. This year the gang has only 6 members. Pirozjki has been living with her new owner in Hilversum for a year now and sent her love (via the owner, see bottom picture). Red passed away last spring.
Joseph Guy (Joe; Joey). Ex-male. Type: Maine Coon. He’s the boss at home.
Bacardi (Bac). Ex-male. Type: Ragdoll. He takes 2nd place in the ranking.
Wasabi (Blobp; Wasaaab). Ex-female. Type: Housecat/European shorthair. Can get really catty to the others especially to the ex-males. She suffers from chronic renal failure.
Salami (Fatso, appropriate name seeing the size of her body). Ex-female. Type: Housecat/European shorthair. Always runs screaming throughout the house, but is relatively friendly to the ex-males.
Koolrabi (Koolcat or Kool (o pronounced as in owner)). Ex-female. Type: Half Norwegian Forestcat, half European shorthair. Very sweet, likes to sit close to us or on our lap. Will sit on your chest when you sleep.
Gurami (Gui). Ex-female, sister of Salami, but then the skinny version. Type: Housecat/European shorthair. Very hyper cat, tough to approach, but can also be close to us.
Joey vs. Bac. Sleep boxing.
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Pirozjki or Pi (below) enjoys her new home in Hilversum very much, according to Madelon, her new owner. We are very happy to hear that. Madelon sent this pic of Pi to us along with the Xmas card. Very sweet. We still miss her.
The pink ink blotch is caused by my sketch on the previous page (the flowers). The ink bled through the paper and I didn’t mind it.
Another day at another zoo. This time I visited the Amsterdam Zoo (Natura Artis Magistra). Visiting zoos is so much fun.
A type of Egret (Grey Heron?), Ardea cinerea or de blauwe reiger (thanks wikipedia!). Many of them live inside the Artis freely. They come and go when they want and some even have their nests at the zoo.
Same bird, slightly different build.
Other visitors at the zoo were looking at the lions who were busy eating their lunch.
Three cubs were born last year. This one stole a chunk of cow rib from one of the adult lionesses. She was lucky that she got away without getting any slap.
I am having several days off and went to the Rotterdam Zoo (Diergaarde Blijdorp) today.
The Bos javanicus javanicus shares her living quarter with her family and a group of Antilope cervicapra.
Giraf/giraffe. One of my favorite animals. They have such lovely gentle eyes with great eye lashes!
Meerkoet (Fulica atra). One of the residents of the VU Hortus Botanicus. If everything goes well, the birdie family will have seven little ones soon.
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Our cats love to sleep in a box full old paper. Today, Kool claimed the box for the whole afternoon. Sorry to other kitties.
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My fat cat Salami (and the squashed couch). Graphite pencils and watersoluble graphite pencils.
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The dog is preserved and stuffed. He guards the entrance to the exhibition spaces faithfully. Contrary to the usual sign of ‘Niet aanraken (Don’t Touch)’, he has a sign that says ‘Ik mag geaaid worden (I may be petted)’, which encourages kids to touch him. I touched him to for a second. The coat felt real but it gave me a strange feeling, which I could not explain. May be the fact that it did not react to my touch and the lack of warmth. Petting a static stuffed dog felt certainly different than petting my neighbor’s always drooling dog (a real sign of life). Conclusion: Life really makes a difference.
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I spent a day at the Natural History Museum (Naturalis) in Leiden last Friday. I used the visit to make many small sketches of preserved animals and plants. I considered it as a preparation before going to a zoo. The animals at Naturalis are as real as those in the zoo, only they are dead and therefore, static. It was a good exercise. And I think, I like the challenge of sketching different animals within a short period. The variation is refreshing. This summer, I’ll visit one of the zoo and see how I deal with moving animals other than my cats.
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Enjoying the warm living room and the fluffy new couch.
Another cat. It’s Wasabi’s turn.
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Materials: Van Gogh sketching pencils and Rotring XONOX 0.1 pen on coloured paper (Fabriano Artist’s journal).
My cat: Red. The only cat in the house that responds when we call her. Also the most persistent cat when it comes to wanting some attention.
This sketch is done with watercolor pencils. I have mixed feelings about the result. I’m not sure if I like it, but I can’t say that I don’t like it either.
Our new couch arrived this week. The couch is much bigger and fluffier than the old one. And guess what? The cats totally love it. As usual, they took it over from us, human, and formed a ‘Couch Club’. Cats who usually have ‘issues’, suddenly they can sleep peacefully on the couch side by side. What a miracle! We just have to rearrange the club sometimes, when we want to sit down.
On the sketch above: Gurami, Salami, and Bacardi sleeping on a blanket on the couch.
…or ducks to be exact.
And after I made these quick sketches, I felt guilty. Just before I drew these, I actually ate a sandwich filled with duck livers/foie gras for lunch. I got it from a local butcher near my office.
NOTE: Click to enlarge. Pen/ink + Derwent ‘Drawing’.
Something different: bird sketches. I was back at work today after taking a week off. During lunch break, I stood in a nearby park and made these two very quick (gesture) sketches. My first sketches of birds ever. I don’t know a lot about the world of birds, so I can’t tell you what kind of birds these are. That tall leggy bird on the 2nd sketch is a ‘Reiger’ in dutch. For the English equivalent, you can ask Google for help.
NOTE: Click to enlarge. Sketching pencil in Sanguine.
Additional note (22.01.2006): I’ve also submitted this drawing for this week’s Illustration Friday - Cats.
Happy New Year everyone!
Here is my first post and drawing in 2006. A baby Pirozjki.
It is drawn based on a photo we took when she first arrived at our house. It was mid-July in 2002 and she was about 6 weeks old. She was about as large as my palm (she weighs around 5.5 kg now). So cute and so small. We got her from the local animal shelter. Tomorrow we will take her to her new home in Hilversum. We’ve got one more day to spend with her.
I’ve been busy surfing and visiting other illustrated blogs since yesterday. After reading other people’s New Year resolutions, I feel like I have to add a few more ‘details’ on my own art resolution. I will draw more people, activities, plants/flowers, animals especially my cats. I will not be too picky about choosing a subject. I will also draw more from photos, if necessary and when I feel like it. Sketch more, think less. More patience, less worry. Practice more more more…
NOTE: Click to enlarge. Coloured pencils on Moleskine.
My cat, Pirozjki, will be leaving us next week Monday. A new year… a new home for her. It is a sad fact for us, but it is unavoidable.
More than half a year ago, we started to notice that her behaviour changed. She is afraid of the other cats, especially of the two ex-males. She rarely plays with the others. She often hides under the unfinished kitchen cabinet, beside the mobile pedestal/trolley in Nor’s office, and the latest favorite place of hers is on or beside the TV (a place where the other cats seldom bother her). She doesn’t seem to understand the word ‘play’ in cat language. When Bac or Joey approaches her, they usually want to play. But she seems to translate that into ‘intimidation’. She growls, gets irritated, runs away, and hides. When Bac gives her a cat hug (Bac’s way of showing play mood, usually to Joey but also to others), Pirozjki’s reply is a growl of ‘go away, you brute!’, ‘you’re suffocating me!’ (Bac is heavier and larger), ‘help! I am being strangled’. But she usually doesn’t hiss and doesn’t give Bac (or other cats who is being a pest) a slap or two in his face, just to show his place. I noticed that Red and Salami do this to him or Joey when they are being annoying. However, Pirozjki is apperently not that assertive. Her rank went down to the bottom of the list in our household about 6 months ago, or so we think. We kept hoping that she would somehow ‘fight’ back, but it is just not happening.
So after waiting for months and seeing that the cat is not getting anymore comfortable, we made a tough final decision last week. We would look for a new home for Pirozjki where she will be the only cat. No more cat hugs or attempts to strangle.
We placed an ad online the day after Christmas. Yesterday a young lady called and wanted to take a look. She came with her mom and liked Pirozjki right at once. We like her too and we think she will give our cat a good home. We will take Pirozjki and all her favorite things monday evening next week to her new home and will take a look at her new environment.
NOTE: This drawing is also an entry for Everyday Matters Challenge #44. Coloured pencils on Moleskine. Please click on image for larger view.
Our next stop was the Boqueria market. The market is said to be a popular tourist attraction and I wondered why. We couldn’t see that from the outside, but once we stepped inside between the narrow aisles…The market was very cool! The most interesting one I’d been to till that moment. We could find fresh produce, fresh meat, varieties of sea food, even some insects. To me, some products which were being sold, were very ‘unique’, e.g. heads of an animal (young cow/goat/sheep?), some organs that I couldn’t name. I wondered what they do with those heads. For soup? I saw the biggest fish head (the body was missing), masks/faces (used to belong to cows/goats/sheeps?), other types of seafood that were new to me. Everything was fresh, some of the sea produce were still alive, e.g. clams, mussels, snails, etc. Rabbits, ducks, chickens, were skinned/cleaned but being sold whole. It was such a different market than what I am used to here. And the prices…we can’t get those produce at such low prices here. The fishes offered here are so dissapointingly small compared to what I saw at Boqueria. I wished I could move the whole market here…well, may be leave the heads, feet, some organs, the preserved scorpions, and insects behind  .
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We watched a program on the Animal Planet this afternoon on “The Most Extreme, Killer Cats”. Here they list the best hunter and most extreme killer among all the cat family/Felidae in the world. We were so curious about which cat would be on top of the list:
#4 is Cougar/mountain lion in North America
#3 is Jaguar in the Amazon
#2 is Leopard in Africa, a very sleek, beautiful and agile animal
#1 is….DOMESTIC CAT.
We couldn’t believe it and we laughed so hard at this. You can imagine why…we have 8 most extreme killers in our house! Ok, statistically it might be right. Domestic cats kill the most (mostly small animals including insects). Their population is the highest in the world among the Felidae. If it is counted that way, well yes they are the most extreme. We just couldn’t stop smiling at the ‘fact’. We feel that we now have to walk really quitely around the house, just in case, you know.
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This is an entry for Everyday Matters Challenge #31, a collection. I don’t think that cats can be categorized as a collection, but other things that I “collect” fit other challenges better e.g. books. I really don’t have a unique collection in my house. So I thought, well, I have 8 cats and they are all precious to me…so why not?
What you see is a drawing of 6 out of my 8 cats. The other 2 did not fit on the page of my sketchbook, so I stopped at #6. I did this sketch this afternoon, and as you can see, they were all sleeping in various position. Hey, it now fits the edm challenge better! A collection of cat sleeping positions sketch!
A little about my cats…Gurami and Salami are our very first cats. They are sisters and when we got them we came up with names based on food. We were (and still are) so obsessed with food. Our 1st to 6th cats are regular house cats; they are all females and have names based on food. The 7th and 8th are with pedigree; they are males (not quite anymore) and their names are based on liquor.
1. Gurami - a type of Indonesian fish
2. Salami - the popular Italian sausage
3. Wasabi - the green Japanese horseradish sauce
4. Liekamki (nick: red) - popular brand of Chinese sauces Lee Kum Kee. We changed the spelling for fun and it’s easier for the Vet.
5. Koolrabi (nick: kool) - a type of Dutch root vegetable.
6. Pirojzki - a type sausage bread from Russia/Eastern Europe
7. Bacardi (a ragdoll) - rum
8. Joseph Guy (a maine coon, nick: joey) - cognac
Pirozjki was sitting in front of the window. Something outside caught her interest. It was a chance for me to quickly sketch her for the first time. I found back my two Venetian glass pens last weekend. Since then I had the urge to use it. So I thought that tonight was perfect for that. I used india ink (waterproof) and colored it with grey and black ecoline (waterbased ink). I am quite happy with the result of this quick sketch.
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Quick sketches since Salami kept moving…The orange spot on the head was added later.
A lazy sunday sketch of one of my cats. Salami…and she does look a bit like the sausage . She is one of the fattest cats in our house. Her competitors are Bacardi (a ragdoll) and Pirojzki (a.k.a. Michelin cat).
It is unfortunate that I don’t have a color pencil that matches her orangey coat. That orange/vermillion I used is actually way too orange.
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My first sketches of JosephGuy a.k.a. Joey, one of my cats. He is a Silver Maine Coon and has quite a large body frame. However, when he is sleeping, he can fold himself to be really short/small that even in reality he always looks out of proportion in his sleeping position.
These two were done last weekend and I think drawing cats on a lazy Sunday afternoon is very relaxing.
After having breakfast at Cafe Luna, I went back to the museum, bought a ticket, and stepped into the exhibition hall. Turned right, turned around a bit, and I frozed.
 There was a dead kitty on a display platform. He must have been no older than 10 weeks and got run over by some car. They didn’t say when it happened (that is beside the point), but they explained that it is part of city life. When people, animals, cars, bikes etc. get thrown into a city together, this is what happened. (I left this first bit of the exhibition feeling angry and slightly sad. I am just partial to kitties…)
 I walked across the hall to the ‘bird section’ and found this: “A sparrow and a pot”. According to the explanation, the pot itself is called “De Spreeuwenpot” Sparrows pot) and it is from the 17th century. I am not sure if they still do this nowadays, but in the old days, the sparrows used to make a nest inside pots that hung outside some houses in Amsterdam. There is even a photo of a wall of an old house showing that this had become a symbol. Someone in the past has let the image of a sparrow and its pot be carved in limestone along with the text “In De Sprevpot” (old dutch spelling).
Then I reached the vermin zone. This piece really caught my eyes.”A damaged book and a mouse”. Mice are long time residents of Amsterdam. With all the canals all around the city, they are quite happy to live alongside the Amsterdammers. There was one or two in my old office. I saw one running accros the warehouse at IKEA Amsterdam a few weeks ago. This part of the exhibition shows what mice can do to your house, e.g. eat your antique book collection, chew on cables, etc. While I was busy reading and drawing this piece, there was even a mouse trying to chew my shoe….kidding…it was a fake mouse, like the one that my cats have. They put a sensor on the floor, so whenever a person steps on that particular spot a small white mouse pops out from its little but lighted hole under the cabinet.
This is my first try at sketching Wasabi. I sort of drew her silhouette. She’s solid black cat with just a few white hairs on her neck. We’ve had crazy idea of dying these white hair black by using for example a permanent marker. She would not like it, of course! But till now we still love her as she is. The original Wasabi with a few white hairs.
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