Man Eating Crocodile

I created these two images to illustrate a point about punctuation in a future article for AzarGrammar.com, the website I manage at work. I generally don't like to work from photos, but Dan refused both to eat or to be eaten by a crocodile in the interest of creating authentic sketches from life. So I had to resort to photo references for these. 

Man eating crocodile

Man-eating crocodile

Richard Firsten is the author of the article and asked me to do the illustrations. These are his words from the article regarding the importance of the hyphen:

Punctuation marks were created to aid readers, to make phrasing clearer and more easily recognizable for readers. Here’s a case in point. If I write here Man Eating Crocodile, which picture reflects what I’ve written?

In actuality, it’s the picture on top that depicts what I’ve written, but a show entitled Dangerous Encounters on the cable network NatGeoWild (National Geographic Wild) used that title for one of its episodes. Of course they should have written Man-Eating Crocodile. That hyphen shows readers that man and eating are being used together as a single adjective to describe a ferocious crocodile. The hyphen helps readers to understand that and phrase it properly in their minds. In fact, the rules of prosody in English dictate a change in how these words should even be spoken if the hyphen is present or absent. (I’m going to use capital letters and bold face to show which words or parts of words receive more or less equal stress in the flow of speech): 

                                    man eating crocodile = MAN EATing CROCodile

                                    man-eating crocodile = MAN eating CROCodile

Post Turkey

Hubby prepared a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us.  A contented and well-deserved rest for the chef followed. 

Talking Turkey with Frances

Lingering at the Thanksgiving table talking (and sketching) after the dishes are cleared. By the by, everyone said it was the best turkey they've ever had. White meat was uncharacteristically moist and juicy. America's Test Kitchen recipe: Breast side down at 425 degrees for the first hour. Flip the bird over and reduce temp to 325 until done (when thigh meat reaches 175 degrees). Gobble, gobble.

Thankful

I'm feeling especially thankful for friends this Thanksgiving. Interesting headgear is just a bonus.

Thanksgiving Greetings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More Catch-Up

Where did time go.....? Whidbey Sketchers enjoyed an

evening at the Anchor Pub in Everett to sketch the wonderful

Magnolia Big Band. This is a view of the bar below.

The Big Band in Action. Some have been with the

group since the 1980's!

At the piano!

This great line up happened as the group

arrived and was setting up.

Old dart board at the Captain Whidbey Inn.

From some random sketches these last

few months.....

Whidbey Island Winery

A small piece of Labor Day color in our yard

One of so many color spots in Sue's yard from

late summer..

A late summer moment at Mo's

Morning greeting from our local papier mache kitty...

She doesn't move much...

A Little Bit of Catch up

I've been a derelict poster.... Now it's November.

I'll begin with yesterday afternoon's Puget Sound

Group Annual Auction at the Design Center in

Seattle. Some wonderful art went for such

reasonable prices.....This group has an amazing

history and amazing talent archive.

The group has a gallery on the second floor of

the Design Center open to the public. If you are

in the area, take time for a visit.

5701 6th Ave S. , Seattle

A switch, to my Granny week with son Sam's family

in Aruba. The water is as turquoise as it looks, the

beaches white powder sand, the people very friendly

and my grandchildren adorable. This is from Baby Beach

a sheltered shallow bay at the south end of the Island.

Cat Scratches

Cats.Trying to sketch them drives me crazy. They can't hold still for 10 seconds, I swear.

The many faces of Kate

Kate x 5

Colorful Kate

Soft Kate

More Kate

Kate is Kris Wiltse's large gray velveteen-coated kitty. I don't do her justice. A big beautiful girl, but not a great model.

Captain Whidbey Inn

Dart board in the bar.

I liked this whisk broom at Captain

Whidbey Inn next to the fireplace.

Neocolor II Beats the November Grays

The perfect way to combat our dreary, grey rainy November days?  Neocolor II water soluable crayons made by Swiss company Caron d'Ache.  Think of them as Crayolas with an attitude!  They produce extremely rich color and are a heck of a lot of fun. 

Here are some gray-day-busting pieces using a mixture of Neocolor II, pen and regular watercolors or Prismacolor markers.

 

Captain Whidbey Inn

It was blustery outside and cozy, comfy inside the Captain Whidbey Inn this week. Here are my attempts to capture a view towards Penn Cove, a warm corner in the Inn's main room and a quick sketch in the bar of the bear's head and dart board over swatches of gray.

Penn Cove Hedgerow Gifts

There is no limit to the number of inspiring subjects for painting along Penn Cove. This fall, the rose hips and blackberries in the hedgerow across from our house enticed me to bring them indoors as sketching subjects.

Catching Up

Interesting gentleman at Whidbey Telecom and the children's room at the Freeland Library.

Demystifying Winter

Captain Whidbey Inn

Flowers on the mantle

Could the Captain Whidbey Inn  really be haunted? It felt as cozy as "home sweet home." I think the friendly ghosts kept the storm at bay for our sketching friends. We had a delightful afternoon with good company and good food.

Cozy Inside the Captain Whidbey Inn

First big storm of the season was promised, but the afternoon turned out to be cold but calm.  The fabulous Captain Whidbey Inn was the perfect place to tuck in for an afternoon of sketching inside its cozy confines.

pictures on the wall of the madrona log-lined lobby

looking out on Penn Cove

Captain Whidbey: Wind Storm Be Damned

The big wind storm appeared to be much ado about very little, so we decided to make the trip up to the Captain Whidbey Inn after all and had a most enjoyable afternoon of good company and sketching.

Our Lisbeth

Captain Whidbey Lobby

Children's Room at the Freeland Libary

Many happy and mysterious adventures are in store for our young future readers and writers in the Freeland Library's children's reading room .

Friday Afternoon in the Freeland Library

"It's the sketchers!" I heard this as we descended on the Freeland Library yesterday afternoon.  The place was packed with activity for us to sketch.  Of course I had to draw Computer Guy but also tried to capture my view into the children's room where lots of sketching was going on. 

 

Library Guys

What a hub of activity the Freeland Library was on Friday. Dozens of people of all ages were making use of the library resources - it was a model of community vitality. And a truly happening place!

A guy with a long gray beard AND a funky hat? Of course, I drew him.

I thought this guy was very interesting. Everything about him said "Grandpa", except that prominent hoop earring! I was getting too hungry to sketch by the time I got to him and didn't have the strength to draw the details. Added color and finished it up over appetizers at China City.

Friday at The Freeland Library

So many people and interesting things to sketch. I chose just two in the short 2 hours I was there today.

Museum Sketching

Visited The Frye Museum in Seattle last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the Gabriel von Max exhibit.  I could only sketch in the exhibit using a museum-supplied golf pencil - dull of course.  At first I was cranky about that, but after doing a couple of pencil sketches, I decided I should pull out my #2B more often!