Diana McCabe

Can it really be a year...

dmmccabe — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 23:45:54 GMT

Wow - it's been a year ago today that we took in our little feral kitten. (Story is here.) Zoe won our hearts immediately, and after weathering her getting-into-everything-every-minute-and-making-me-wonder-if-I'd-ever-get-any-work-done-again kittenhood, she has grown into a lovely, loving cat who no longer tries to climb the curtains or the bookshelves or into the washer, and who remembers she is not allowed on the kitchen counter. :) She does still get in the middle of anything we're doing, because that just is a cat's job, after all, ;-), but her presence is now an integral part of our day and she has become a beloved member of the family. As I type this, she is curled up, warm, sleepy and purring, on my lap. <3

Art: In Memory of Alan Rickman - sharing the sadness and shock...

dmmccabe — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 20:59:54 GMT

Alan Rickman was without question one of my most favorite actors of all time. His untimely death has been a shock and I have felt this loss keenly. I am also deeply grateful for all the joy he has given me - from his stealing-the-show performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves to his heartful portrayal of Col. Brandon in Sense and Sensibility to the glorious silliness that was Galaxy Quest (to name a few) - I have loved all of them. But perhaps above all, he was Professor Severus Snape. He will so be missed.

In Memory of Alan Rickman...

Chihuly Art Glass in San Francisco

dmmccabe — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 18:35:10 GMT

Chihuly art glass ceiling at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. We visited this exhibit in 2008 and this has to be one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen. I could have stayed in this room for hours...

Posted for participating in LJ_Photophile's Theme of Color

Just sharing the cuteness...

dmmccabe — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 20:11:25 GMT

Well, we are entirely in love with our new kitten, Zoe. I think that makes us kitten smitten! *grin*

We've had her two weeks today. Behold the CUTE!:

During a wild game of peek-a-boo & chase the people around the house...

Queen of the piano...

Jungle kitty...

OMG - we have to do something about all these computer cords...

The story of how we got her is here...

We have a new kitten!

dmmccabe — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 20:46:27 GMT

This was completely unexpected, but we have been adopted by a little feral kitten! We have not had any pets since our parakeet Pippin died in 2011, so this is going to be fun and challenging! At least the kitchen remodel is finished! lol

This is Zoe. :) She is the sweetest little thing. You would never know she'd been living wild. She's moved right in and taken over the house - and us. ;-)

More pics and story under the cut.

A couple of weeks ago, we started seeing a mom cat with one kitten, once in our yard down by the street, but mostly wandering around in the lot next door where two houses are being built. Last weekend, I was only seeing the kitten by herself. She was running around in all the mud and construction trash, so Monday I bought kitten food and went out to try to coax her to me.

I really thought it would take a couple of days to befriend her, if at all, since we've not had any luck with other feral kittens. But as soon as I went out, I heard her meowing and saw that she was alertly watching me. I sat down and called her and she came running! She climbed right into my lap and purred and purred and purred, and when I got out a handful of food, she ate and ate and ate. I think she would have eaten the entire bag of food, if I'd let her. But I was afraid she would get sick, so I just gave her a little at a time, and then brought her in the garage and gave her some water.

The rest of that afternoon, she followed me around everywhere, and wanted to be held and petted, even climbing my leg a couple of times when I didn't pick her up fast enough. I don't think she stopped purring the whole afternoon.

We kept her in the garage that first night (since it wasn't that cold) with food and water, a bed in a box with an old quilt and a litter box, which she knew to use right away. We left the door to the outside open enough for her to leave if she needed to. We didn't want her to feel trapped, or to not be able to get back to her mother if she showed up. But she didn't go out, and the one time I saw her look out the door, she ducked back in immediately. When she was still with us the next morning, I cleared out a small spare room and made it the cat room.

And I was so glad she came to me right away on Monday, because on Tuesday they had all kinds of bulldozers and earth movers digging on the construction site, including one going around grabbing up all the trash right where I had seen her playing, as well as huge dump trucks dumping loads of rocks and gravel. I'm thinking it was really a miracle we were able to save her the day we did. o_O

So this week has been taken up with shopping for all the new kitten stuff we needed, getting her cleaned up and visiting the vet. :) She is so playful and clever and loves to sleep in our laps. I think every chair in the house has also been tried out for napping, too, when the laps are momentarily unavailable. ;-) She is a huge ball of energy when she's not napping, and watching her has worn me out. lol It's been fun though. :D Kitten antics are the best!!

My chair has turned out to maybe be the favorite chair...

Sleeping in the chair next to me while I'm eating lunch and reading...

Hiding in the bookcase...

Making a funny face while grabbing at the phone while I was taking her picture...

I took a little video of her playing with a catnip mouse in the kitchen but I can't seem to get it to embed. I can see it on my videostream page, but I'm not sure anyone else can. But here is a link to it: Link to my video page . If anyone knows how to make this work, please let me know!

Animated art post: Happy Holidays!

dmmccabe — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:12:56 GMT

Hee - I'm in the middle of my annual Christmas Eve cookie baking marathon! So far, I've done three versions of oatmeal cookies - raisin/walnut, cranberry/macadamia/white chocolate chip, chocolate chip/pecan - and chocolate peppermint cookies. Still to go - gingerbread! :D

Thank you so much to saras_girl and dannyfranx, demicus, and leochi for the wonderful Christmas cards!! *hugs to you all* ^.^

One of my most loved books of all time is the Hobbit, so here is a little holiday greeting from Middle Earth!

Preview:

(The animation can be made to repeat if you refresh the page in your browser.)

Happy Holidays to Everyone!! May the new year be filled with joy and blessings!!

It's been an insanely busy year...

dmmccabe — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 01:08:10 GMT

Looking back I see that I last made a post here last January. (Yikes! How could it possibly be December!) I had no intention of disappearing for so long! Looking back, so many of the creative projects - art and writing - that I'd intended to do this year, are still waiting to be started. You just really don't know what life - that sneaky bugger - is going to throw at you! Most of the time-consuming things this year were good, and some were hard...

Shortly after that post last January, I bought a new refrigerator. We had been talking about beginning to replace our very old (like original to the 1970's house old) kitchen appliances as the start of a gradual process of remodeling our kitchen. I wanted to strip everything down to bare walls and start over, and we assumed much money and time would be involved – hence the idea that slow and gradual would make it affordable. After the refrigerator was ordered and delivered, we went shopping for a new oven and cooktop at our neighborhood Lowe's. And as we got to talking to the sales people there, we found out that what we wanted to do wouldn't cost nearly as much as we'd imagined. And suddenly we were deciding to go ahead do it all NOW! Buying that refrigerator was like starting a tiny snowball rolling down a mountain and ending up with an avalanche. Completely unplanned!

So it took, overall, from January to September to completely remodel our kitchen. We did some of the work ourselves, which was intense, and there were a few not-so-nice surprises along the way – like what we found under our old flooring after we pulled it up – but the Lowe's people who installed the new flooring and cabinets were marvelous and the job was very well done.

I took pictures all along the way and intend to post a detailed photo chronicle of the process. But for now, here's the before and after pics. We went from this:

and this:

to this:

and this:

.

OMG – YAY!

Then just when most of the work for the kitchen was winding down, most of my time this fall was taken up by helping my mother and grandmother. My mother, who is almost 80, started having increasing trouble with a blind spot in her right eye, and needed me to help her more, especially driving her to doctor appointments, grocery store, etc. She's now had three eye surgeries since August – two to remove cataracts in both eyes and the third, in late October, on the blind spot area itself. But my mother was also the primary caregiver for her own mother who turned 100 on May 6 this year. This fall, my grandmother's health also began to rapidly decline, and she died in hospice this November. We held a memorial service in her hometown in NJ the first week of December. So it's been a hard few months here at the end of the year. But my grandmother very much wanted to pass before the end of 2014, so that her tombstone could read 1914 - 2014.

On her 100th birthday:

I bought the headband with the number 100's for her and she had a great time wearing it. She had such a great sense of humor, always ready with her instamatic camera to take candid shots of our most embarrassing moments. She was the one responsible for this set of pictures of me as a baby. :D She was also the first of four generations of women artists: herself, my mother, myself, and my daughter. We all owe a lot to her wonderful creative spirit!

She did get her final wish:

Hopefully, I can be back on LJ more now. I can't wait to see what 2015 is going to come up with! ;-) New laundry room is on the radar... And some of those on-hold art and writing projects hopefully will get finished. I'm more than ready to get to work on those! <3

Art Post - The Gory, Spoilery Alphabetic Guide to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

dmmccabe — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 23:43:30 GMT

I started this back in 2005! I'm happy to say, it is NOW FINALLY FINISHED!!! Actually, it is not only finished, it is entirely reworked, and a brand new "B" has been added. This project was one of the very first things I tried to draw digitally, and over the years as I learned better how to do that work, the style changed significantly. With B in particular, I realized that the original version was not in keeping with the rest, in that it was not an illustration of an event in the book. So therefore, I've redrawn a new B and redrawn the others a bit so that the style, while still not exactly the same, at least is more consistent overall. And finally, I've added the missing letters: W - Z! :) Yay!!

Title: The Gory, Spoilery Alphabetic Guide to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Rating: G
Media: Photoshop
Notes: The poem in this work is inspired by The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey. I did not try to imitate Gorey's very unique art style, but I did do B/W digital illustrations as a tribute to the wonderful ink drawings he is famous for.

Preview of W - Z:

The Gory, Spoilery Alphabetic Guide to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Art: Two book covers from the world of Harry Potter

dmmccabe — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 19:59:08 GMT

Happy New Year, everyone! Hopefully, the 3rd is not too late to say that! :D I was tied up with extended family events on the first - we have a tradition of spending January 1st together with lots of great food and fun games. ^.^ Then yesterday, I did nothing. Well, that is - haha - I played PS3 Lego Lord of the Rings all day. ;-) OMG - Lego Legolas! He has a little braid on the back of his hair! *dies from the cute* :DD

Also welcome to new friends!! <333 I am excited and grateful to have you here! ^.^

And here is some new (or rather not-posted-here-yet) art! This past fall I did cover designs for two books mentioned in the Harry Potter series. These were drawn for hd_fan_fair's 2013 Harry/Draco Book Fair.

Preview:

Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland

The Invisible Book of Invisibility

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2014!! ^.^

Happy Holidays!! A Snail's Christmas Story...

dmmccabe — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 15:32:38 GMT

Wishing everyone a blessed holiday season! <333

Please enjoy this little Christmas story written by saras_girl and illustrated by me. ^.^

Title: A Snail's Christmas Story

Rated: G

Media: Photoshop

Preview:

NEIL GAIMAN Awesomeness and ART!!

dmmccabe — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 04:15:16 GMT

I went to "An Evening With Neil Gaiman" Wednesday night. :DD He is definitely one of my favorite writers, and it was so much fun to see him in person! He was on tour, promoting and signing his latest book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It was truly a delight to listen to him talk, answer questions from the audience, and read a bit from his book. As it happened, a thunderstorm rolled in just as he came on stage, and he told us with understated glee that he had promised himself that if that ever happened during his tour, that instead of reading the usual bits from the first chapter of the book, he would read the really scary part from the middle of the book that happens during a thunderstorm. So as the actual thunder rumbled and growled outside the auditorium, he did just that. It was marvelous, as many times the thunder seemed to come just on cue. Hee! :D

Sadly, I didn't get to actually meet him or get a personalized autographed book. Circumstances were that I couldn't stay that night as late as it would have taken to stand in a line of over a thousand fans to get my turn at the signing table. I opted for a pre-signed book, but I was able to stand for a bit on the outside of the ribbon from him and just enjoy the aura of Neil Gaiman nearness that came across while he signed other (early luck of the draw) people's books. ^.^

Two pictures, the second one was taken by my friend L:

AND, there was another recent connection with me and Neil Gaiman! Earlier this spring, Neil created a mass participation project called, A Calendar of Tales. He asked twelve questions, one for each month of the year, and invited anyone who wanted to, to answer in a sentence or two. Then he picked one answer for each month, and wrote a short story based on it. Finally, he posted those stories and invited anyone who wanted to, to illustrate them. So I did!

The window for creating and submitting the illustrations was about two weeks. O_o I managed to do three - one for February, April and July, and all told, he received over 5,000 entries. My July piece was short-listed for the final published project, so I was thrilled. I now have a lovely e-mail that I may save forever that says, "Congratulations, your art was short-listed by Neil Gaiman... :D I have absolutely no quarrel with the art that was chosen for the final project - they were all brilliant! You can see the final project webpage and read the stories here.

My illustration for the February Tale:

Grandmother's Locket

My illustration for the April Tale:

Don't Bet Your Socks

My illustration for the July Tale:

Walking Home from the Heartbroken Ice

Art, movie nights, and back to class...

dmmccabe — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:32:00 GMT

Ken and I did an unheard-of thing this week - *grin* - we went to a movie in the theater both Friday AND Saturday night. Friday night we saw the Hobbit, which I loved. And last night we saw Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away, which was gorgeous and amazing. I am now feeling very inspired to make art with fabulous costumes and bodies covered with intricate designs. :DD

The only piece of original art I did last year was a card design of the Reiki Principles. As of last December 2011, I am a Reiki Master-Teacher and this card was a gift to my Reiki teacher. I think it may the first of a small series of card designs I'll do for Reiki/energy healing...

Classes for Winter quarter start tomorrow. I'll be taking a class in Business and Marketing, which I think will be very interesting, and also the second level of Jin Shin Do, also very interesting! :D

Happy New Year!

dmmccabe — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:20:36 GMT

Wow, I haven't posted here since June, 2011, when I quit my job! I've been quite busy, as I somehow found myself back in school very unexpectedly that following September, but I've been enjoying it immensely. I've met lots of lovely new people and have learned many new and very interesting skills in massage/energy therapy! I love doing the energy work, like acupressure and craniosacral therapy, and even if I don't actually become a LMT, I'm still loving learning it. Right now, that's really all I know - that I want to learn it. And at least for last year, my involvement in school pretty much took over all my time. But this year, I'm cutting back to one class a quarter, and probably will drop out in June. I want to start working seriously on some original art & writing projects this year, and hopefully using this journal more often. :D

Wishing everyone a very blessed 2013. ^.^

Well, I've done it now!

dmmccabe — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:45:15 GMT

I quit my day job.

Monday, driving home from work, I said to Ken, "I don't think I can stand doing this job even one more day..." and he said, "Then you need to go in there tomorrow and tell them you're quitting."

So I did. Wow! My last day will be August 31, and I've already started training my replacement. The college girl that's been helping me with stuff part-time has not been able to find a job in her major since she graduated this spring, and she's already got a handle on doing some of what I do. They offered her the job the same afternoon that I gave notice, and she took it. So win-win!! :D I'm really happy that this worked out so well.

It's obviously a leap of faith on my part, since I don't have something else specific planned. But I have this very strong intuitive feeling something will come up. And I wanted to be free and ready! :DD Yay!! I can't wait for September 1! ^.^

Goodbye, dear Pippin <3

dmmccabe — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:02:40 GMT

Our little Pippin died yesterday afternoon. It was very sudden, and very quick - a stroke most likely. He simply fell from the perch in his cage and was gone. Ken and I were both there in the room. I saw him fall and jumped up immediately to see what had happened, but there was nothing we could do. It's such a helpless feeling to stand by and watch a beloved pet die before your eyes. But I am so very grateful that we shared his company for six years, that we were there with him in the end, and that it was quick.

Pippin
3/15/2005 - 6/11/2011

He was such a lovely, funny and dear little personality. He could always make us laugh. He will be missed very much.

ART Post - new Portrait art

dmmccabe — Sat, 28 May 2011 03:51:48 GMT

I took a break from doing fanart for a bit to paint art for my dear kupukello for her birthday. I've wanted to paint this portrait of her beautiful daughters, Katrina and Bramble, for ages. The references for this portrait were three photos taken at different times by kupukello.

Preview:

Katrina and Bramble

I just came back from a really fun vacation trip to Florida. We visited some fabulous art museums and Universal Islands of Adventure/Harry Potter World and the Kennedy Space Center. Pictures to come!

Snow - make it stop already!! :P

dmmccabe — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:08:51 GMT

I was telling some people just last October, that we rarely get any snow here. Boy, was I wrong for this year. We have had more snow this year than I ever remember seeing in my whole life. For some of you, I realize this is the way things are every year, but people here go crazy when it snows. Case in point: Wednesday it started snowing around 3:30 in the afternoon. We left work at 4:30. Traffic was SO insane it took us 5 1/2 HOURS to drive the 6 miles to our house!!!! People were getting stranded - not from the snow - from running out of gas! We didn't get home until 10:00 pm. :(( What an ordeal! Not to mention we were pretty hungry by then...

Snow in our yard. It really isn't that much, either... :P *boggles at drivers here*

Hee! Robin party on the frozen birdbath! :DD

Art Post: The Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort

dmmccabe — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:45:38 GMT

This is my entry for this year's "Imitation of a Famous Work of Art" Challenge on hp_fringeart. I had the hardest time finding something I wanted to do this year, and finally came up with this. Just because I'm a huge fan of Mucha, I had to do something of his again... :)

Title: The Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort

Rating: G

Characters: Harry Potter, Nagini, assorted horcruxes, basilisk, Sword of Gryffindor

Notes: Imitation of "Lorenzaccio" by Alphonse Mucha (copy under the cut). In the panel under Harry's feet, I added two of the things that destroyed the Horcruxes: the Sword of Gryffindor and the basilisk.

Preview:

The original, "Lorenzaccio," by Alphonse Mucha:

My imitation:

.

Massive Photo Post - Rock City Gardens

dmmccabe — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 04:57:27 GMT

Every October, usually the last week of the month, Ken and I take off work and take some little day trips to places in the area that we love to visit. I'm finally getting around to posting my photos from our trip to Rock City Gardens - er... in 2008. lol

So before everyone is completely out of a fall/pretty leaves mood and into winter (is anyone really into winter??) or rather Christmas, I wanted to get these up before I feel I must wait another year. :D

I've been four or five times and it never gets old. ^.^

For any of my friends who are fans of the book "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, the final battle takes place on Lookout Mountain, and partly in Rock City. You can read what he had to say about it here.

Rock City Gardens

The Entrance and a very pretty tree right outside the admission gate:

Starting on the trail. Rock City Gardens is a long winding paved trail across the top of Lookout Mountain, outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. The trail passes around huge boulders and into tight crevices, over and under stone bridges and through tunnels. The scenery is beautiful at any time of the year, but we happened to pick a gorgeous day just when the fall leaves were at their most stunning.

"Mushroom Rock"

More pretty leaves and rock formations:

So after winding through the woods for a while, you eventually come to the edge of the mountain and this stunning view:

There's a swinging bridge to cross here, and it does really swing! (In the second photo you can see Ken and my shadows on the rock on the lower right.) :D

Then up some stairs, and you come out on Lover's Leap, where they say you can see 7 states. A 100 foot waterfall pours out from the side of the massive rock ledge.

A very cool table and benches on the terrace of Lover's Leap:

This tree was right next to the terrace and was just gorgeous! Of course, I had to get all up under it and take pictures:

Walking on, more pretty leaves and the amazing Balanced Rock:

And this is one of my favorite spots. :D The Rainbow Corridor:

Then you begin your descent into - the very rock! The steps get narrower as they go deeper... and you wind your way through mysterious tunnels. I just LOVE these little doorways into the rocks. :DD

End of the trail! We now go down again into the rock, this time into "Fairyland Caverns." This is for the kiddies, with lots of lighted dioramas of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. It's impossible to take photos for the most part, but I did manage to get one of some gnomes. lol

The exit tunnel and the waterwheel at the end of the trail:

They light this place up with Christmas lights at night during the season. One of these days I'm going back to do that!

dmmccabe — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 04:33:05 GMT

Last Sunday was the last day for the Chihuly Art Glass exhibit at Cheekwood. I had seen it in July when it first opened, but wanted to see it again before it left. So I went Sunday afternoon, and was very pleased to be able to get photos of all the pieces that it had been too dark to photograph well the first time. :)

Preview:

You can see all the photos from this exhibit here.

Flower/Bird/Critter Photos and a Funny Fox Tale

dmmccabe — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:58:52 GMT

Massive Photo Post! :DD

This spring I put up a bluebird house since we'd been seeing one in the yard all winter, and sure enough, the most adorable bluebird couple moved in. We think they have raised at least two broods since this spring.

Other flora and fauna pictures from this spring:

A couple of rabbits in a face off up on the hill. lol They took turns rushing each other and jumping high into the air. Very fascinating and hilarious to watch. :D

Lily of the Vally:

Roses:

Some birds and flowers from early this Summer:

A lone Goldfinch:

Echinacea:

Hydrangeas and Lilies:

Zinnia, Petunias & Verbena:

Trumpet Vine:

Hahaha - squirrel on the windowsill. Maybe this was a cool spot...

Squeeee! OMG - we have figs on our fig tree! Our first! :DD

*grin* And now, a very funny Fox Tale:

This is our bird bath:

It is a very popular watering spot and is usually very very busy this time of year, and while mostly we get just birds on it, like this pretty blue jay...

...it is also frequently visited by squirrels and the occasional wandering cat. No doubt a possum or two has found it handy during the night, though we've not actually seen that, we know they are around. But lately, every few days, we've been finding the bird bath knocked over, which means something larger has been getting drinks, but we had no idea what. Until last Friday when I spotted this cute critter in the yard...

As I watched him, he jumped up on the birdbath and sat there lapping away! Hee!! I ran to get my camera and was just focusing and pushing the shutter release when a second fox leaped past in a blur and the first one jumped down. I was so disappointed that I'd missed the shot, but was totally entranced by watching the two foxes. They gamboled all around the corner of the yard, climbed up the walls and jumped down, then spent a few minutes resting in the shade:

Then one of them came back to the wall behind the bird bath and seemed to be trying to find a spot to jump down to get to it.

And that's just what he did! And just as I pressed the shutter release to take a picture of him sitting on the birdbath, that little pink tongue lapping away, the whole thing crashed over. So this is the shot I got! LOLOLOL!

After that, he had to go sit in the shade for a minute to lick his very wet belly. *grin*

I seem to have acquired a sudden adoration for foxes. So cute!!! ^.^

Chihuly Exhibit photos

dmmccabe — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:39:57 GMT

Last Friday, I went to the new Chihuly art glass exhibit at Cheekwood, and of course, I took my camera! I LOVE his work - it's just incredible. Many of the pieces are lit after dark, so we stayed to see that too.

Preview:

The exhibit at Cheekwood is spread out over the grounds of the botanical garden and inside the museum. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed of the installations inside the museum. :(

The first installation is inside the Botanical Center in the atrium.

Macchia:

Then I began the walk around the grounds...

Cattails:

Saffron Tower:

Fiori:

Niijima Floats:

The Moon:

Bamboo Reeds:

Walla Wallas:

Boat:

Blue Marlins:

Yellow Herons:

Mille Fiori:

The Sun:

Persians:

It was starting to get dark at this point during the walk around, and the last few pieces were not lit, so I didn't get really good photos. I plan to go back to rectify that!

Blue Reeds:

Blue Polyvitro Crystals:

Silvered Purple Herons:

Erbium Fiori:

These are only a sample of the many photos I took at the exhibition. All of them, including close-ups of many of the pieces, and after-dark photos, may be seen in my gallery HERE. Please do click to see full-size - the glass is absolutely gorgeous! I will definitely be going back to see this again!

Hee! I won! :DD

dmmccabe — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:39:52 GMT

I've been sitting on this announcement for a few days while I put the finishing touches on this new journal, so with no more delay....

I am very excited to announce that I won this year's Rosatide Art Competition with my Wraeththu art, "Portrait of the Tigron". Beginning in March the art will be featured on merchandise in the Immanion Bazaar on Café Press!

Preview:

Portrait of the Tigron

Many thanks and hugs to calanthe_fics for introducing me to the fascinating world of the Wraeththu books by Storm Constantine and for inspiring me to draw art for them. Thank you so much, my dear!!! ♥

Harry Potter art - The Gory, Spoilery Alphabetic Guide to Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

dmmccabe — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:39:19 GMT

Finally I finished the next set of four of this series. Only 4 more letters to do!!

As I said with the last set back in March, my style has evolved over the length of time it has taken to complete this - I was just learning digital art when I started, just learning to use my tablet and Photoshop. But it's impossible now for me to work the way I did in the beginning - so there's no help for the change.

For anyone new to this, the explanation is with the first post, and a link to each of the previous sets of letters is under the cut below the art.

Title: S-V: The Gory, Spoilery Alphabetic Guide to Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

Rating: G

Media used: Photoshop

Preview:

S-V: The Gory, Spoilery Alphabetic Guide to Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

The entire series so far may be seen HERE on my website.

Cross posted to hp_fringeart and hpart.

Vacation photos - pretty fall colors...

dmmccabe — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:35:20 GMT

Monday, Ken and I started our "stay-cation" by taking a little hike around a local lake. It was a beautiful afternoon, really the only one we had all week, and the fall colors were stunning:

Creek and waterfall beside the trail in to the lake...

View from the bridge at the beginning of the trail around the lake...

Mr. Grasshopper and Ms. Ladybug

There were also quite a few Canada Geese

And lots of brightly colored leaves

For some reason, I found this sign to be quite amusing...

We ended the evening by going to the symphany hall to see two silent films, with live organ accompaniment. Very fun, and the organist was truly awesome. :)

The middle of the week was too rainy to do much, but today, the sun peeked out for just a bit, so we took a picnic lunch to the park and drove through the winding roads to look at the trees.

Part of the entrance to the park - I've always loved these stairs that go up the hill. At the top is a lookout area.

Road and surrounding forest in the park...

Pretty leaves...

And an awesome lookout...

Seen driving home: this has to be either one of the coolest or one of the weirdest houses ever - I haven't quite decided. But what on earth is that black inverted cone shaped structure on the left???