Monday Bunday: Layered Look

I've been learning how to work in layers using my graphics tablet and Corel Painter.

In this instance, I took a photo of Cadbury and added a new layer where I colored over the fur using the digital watercolor tool. Then in another layer, I added a background, and in a third layer, I colored in his eye using the artist felt tip tool. When I was done, I went back to the original photo and deleted that layer.

The advantage of working in layers, besides being able to essentially trace your image, is that you can erase anything that isn't working. Colors don't get muddy when you stray outside the lines. Mistakes are more easily corrected.

It's also easier to be lazy. Paint over the bunny when you do the background! Who cares? You can always erase later.

In fact, the most enjoyable thing about using the graphics tablet is that one's mistakes aren't recorded for eternity in a sketch book or consigned to the landfill. A few clicks of the mouse, and it's gone forever. No waste.

So, lots of artistic fun is going on here at the House of Cadbury. I hope everyone else is having a fine time as well.

Monday Bunday: Sleepy

To sleep, perchance to dream...















Last week, I had my sleep schedule thrown off by all the crazy stuff happening at work. This is a busy time of year, and between having to work late to load the new fiscal year merit raises, and trying to use up some of my excess vacation hours, I swear I hardly know what's day and what's night any more. Add in my new obsession for playing with my graphics tablet until the wee hours of the morning, and you have a recipe for exhaustion.

Luckily I have a sweet spotted bunny to show me the proper way to relax.

Thanks, Cadbury. I'll be taking some tips from you.

Have a restful week, everybun!

Lola the Cat

Many of you have asked how Lola is doing. She's settling in just fine. She and Cadbury still haven't really met, but they look at each other through the cage and through the fireplace screen. They don't seem particularly interested in each other, and that's fine.

Lola can be quite a handful. One of the reasons Dan picked her out was because we wanted a sedate, older cat who wouldn't be much trouble. We thought we were getting someone who would do a lot of this:



















As it turns out, she's more like this:















Always playing, running about, stalking things (both real and imaginary), and getting into places she's got no business being. She chews puzzle pieces and knocked my nearly-complete puzzle onto the floor. She gets in cabinets. She climbs into weird places, gets stuck and needs rescue, and then she's off again like nothing happened. Nothing that we do escapes her notice, and she gets very jealous when one of us goes in a room and shuts her out.

She's a fun girl, though, and for all her activity and leaping about, she's pretty graceful and hasn't broken anything (yet). We're glad she's so happy and confident, but after so many years with an old cat, we're a little overwhelmed at times by all her energy. Day or night, she's never in one place long, not even here:















Oh well. Things will calm down as we continue to get to know each other.

Monday Bunday: Screen Test

One of the dilemmas of bunny ownership is that you may want to close off areas of your house to your rabbit, but the most obvious choice of barrier - a baby gate - is unacceptable because rabbits can easily chew through plastic.

What I needed to keep Cadbury in his room was a fireplace grate, and this past weekend I found a perfect one at a garage sale. It's very heavy, and if positioned correctly it's very stable as well. A four pound rabbit sure isn't going to be able to knock it over, and it's unlikely our cat will, either.

After getting the screen positioned, I witnessed this scene:

















Be nice, kids. No taunting.

Have a great week, everyone!

Monday Bunday: Graphic!

Last Friday, I became the proud owner of a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet. What fun! I spent the weekend learning how to use it with the bundled software, which includes Corel Painter Essentials. This allows one to paint and sketch freehand:












Or take an existing photo:
















Convert it into a sketch:















And then paint it using different colors and effects:















Don't tell Cadbury, okay? He might be upset to learn he's on his way to becoming the new Blue Bunny mascot.

Have a fun and creative week, friends!

Monday Bunday: Shedding

I guess it's just a sign of summer, but Cadbury is going through another shedding phase.















I find bunny fur in the strangest places, although the study is always the worst. When I moved the computer desk to hook up a new printer two weekends ago, I found enough fur to make a whole warren of new rabbits.

Cadbury is better than Tidbit was about letting me pull the loose tufts off him, but he's not crazy about when I get out the tape. What can I say, except that the tape works?

Cadbury: Weird biped. Tape isn't for bunnies!

Have a great week, everybun!