The Suspicious Barnyard Animal series

Like so much of what I draw, I drew the Suspicious Barnyard Animal (SBA) series primarily for my amusement. I hope it will amuse you, too, and perhaps provide you with an opportunity to ask yourself some deep, philosophical questions about life and art.

Here are some sample questions, if you are having a hard time getting started:

• What causes a barnyard animal to be suspicious?
• How can I tell whether a barnyard animal is in a state of suspicion?
  
• Is this series really a metaphor for something else?
  
• Where did those mushrooms come from?
• Why is food falling out of the sky?
• When is Laura going to draw more SBAs?

#1 - Suspicious Pig

#2 - Suspicious Sheep

#3 - Suspicious Horse

#4 - Suspicious Cow

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of the English

So perhaps you know from her title that this picture represents Eleanor of Aquitaine after her marriage to Henry, Duke of the Normans. Henry went on to become Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor became queen.

Unfortunately for Eleanor, who was by all accounts a most powerful and politically shrewd woman, Henry viewed her freedom as a threat to his throne, and he imprisoned her for 15-or-so years. Seems she'd committed a wee bit of treason for supporting a revolt against him--a revolt led by her son, Richard.

After Henry's death, Richard became King Richard I, or Richard the Lionheart (you may remember him as the benevolent, imprisoned king from the Robin Hood stories). And like a good son, he freed his mummy from the clink.

Although she was no longer officially the queen, Eleanor ruled England while Richard was away on Crusade. She died in 1204. The picture I drew of her is pen & ink & colored pencil on paper.

Legendary Slacker

Last week's IF, which I missed, was "legendary". The final product, which you see here, is from a sketch that I drew in plenty of time to post, but because I am a legend in my own right (in the realm of procrastination) I never got around to it.

There were many obstacles, real and imagined. I hated the way the drawing looked after I scanned it: The colors came out wrong; I couldn't make it look nice in GIMP; I didn't have a martini of my own. But today, after someone said, "WTF is up with your blog?!" I decided, WTF, indeed, and got motivated. (Thank you, MP.)

Unfortunately, I still hated the way the drawing looked. I decided to go on an artistic quest in the land of GIMP and make the old girl look good (or at least better, poor thing.) Many layers later, I discovered a filter feature called "old photo", which eliminated the problem with the colors. Then, I added a border and a coffee stain (another cool, if chaotic, filter feature).

The result is an illo that looks like a photograph of a bathing beauty (probably a once-famous model) with a drink, upon which a careless boyfriend (most likely Hugh Hefner) set a drink of his own.

Now it's legendary.