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The Organic Farming Manual: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Running, or Transitioning to a Certified Organic Farm (Paperback)
~ Anne Larkin Hansen (Author) Bethany Caskey (Illustrator)

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Two New Pencil Works

Print series

Interest in the recent pencil drawings helped me decide to offer these images as limited edition prints.

Right now there are two in the draft horse series: The Black Draft Team and the Norwegian Fjord.

Limited Editions of 50.
S/N Image size: 12 x 9″ Paper: 14 x 11″

Prints are $20 each and $5.00 shipping.

Norwegian Fjord

new pencil drawing – black draft team

Winter-bound and in between illustrating books, I have had spare time in the evenings to draw and experiment with pencils and papers. I am “working” on these at the little farm house, which does not have the studio space I have in the shop, so I have kept supplies at a minimum that can be used on a portable drawing board. I also brought out some scraps of watercolor paper and my ever trusty box of Winsor Newton pan watercolors. We are anticipating above freezing temps for the rest of this week and into the next. More time will be spent in finding items under the drifts, moving snow and unlocking padlocks that have been iced shut for weeks.
Using a photo resource for this drawing, taken last October at the local Teamster’s Challenge Day, I still have the struggle between “photo realistic art” and more “artistic” renderings. Bottom line has been which has been the most marketable. Sad, but true.

So glad it didn’t snow hard last night

Digital Experiment

I stumbled upon a fellow that does digital illustrations using Photoshop and a digital pen and tablet. He used mostly the burn and dodge tools. The method was very intriguing. Spending yet another day snowbound, I gave the technique a quick try. This was my first “doodle”.

New watercolor of Total Recall

Last April, I had a call from my good friend Roxy that there was an Arabian gelding in desperate need of a new home. We joined forces to check out the horse. Another friend of Roxy’s had a DVD of videos taken of the fellow during his show career. We stopped by to watch that first. The night before I had reasoned that this was probably a little, brown, nondescript Arabian and nothing to get excited about. What I saw instead was the vision of Sham painted in Margaret Henry’s “King of the Wind” by artist Wesley Dennis. The owners and the horse had both fallen upon hard times. Owned by a young lady that was now in college and soon going out of the country and a father who had just lost his job in one of the major layoffs, they were becoming desperate to place the horse soon and get out from under his rather large stabling/pasture costs. When selling had failed, they offered him for “free” and that caused most people to not consider him sound. When I heard that they were thinking of soon sending him to a public auction, I knew I needed to visit with the owners. I know what happens to Arabians at a public auction in this area and it is usually not pleasant.

Fast forward – the gelding was in my pasture within two days.

Of course, he is an older fellow, in need of extra care and a hard keeper. Just what I needed for extra chores.

The holidays and imposed house confinement gave me the long missed opportunity to dabble, draw and paint just for the fun of doing it. I decided Total Recall (Reko) was a good subject to use for a painting. I finished the painting yesterday and this will probably be the last painting of 2009.

Total Recall

Christmas Eve 2009

Iowa fog