Drawing My Characters Part 2

I have mentioned the novel I am working on many times, now I am starting to add some art to keep me connected to the story.  My main character communicates telepathically with a wolf. I have been wanting to try drawing one. I hadn't been successful up to this point.  I found a great picture online and thought I would give it a go. This is on mixed media paper using prismacolor colored pencils. This could be way darker than it is and I will continue to work on it.  Colored pencils is all about layering the colors and it takes a long time.

Posting for Paint Party Friday Check them out here.

A Fall Trip To Yellowstone

Our new trailer has been in the shop for months. So when we finally got it back we immediately headed up to Yellowstone Park.

Here I am with Bell in Lamar Valley. This is one place where we look for wolves.  I saw more wolves than I ever have before.  The one we saw here was close, you could see it without the aid of binoculars or spotting scopes. One day we saw 17 wolves out of a pack of 24. That was all through a scope far away. That was pretty awesome. I had never seen more than 7 wolves before so this was pretty special.  Also got to hear the howl of wolves.  There really is nothing like hearing that. It really calls to me on a different level.

This Raven sat on the picnic table next to our campsite and talked to me.  He was huge but the picture doesn't show that at all.

Elk Bull, can you see all the dirt on him.  During the rut(mating season) they urinate on the ground and then roll in it. I guess it makes them smell just like the cows want them too.

We saw these two young bulls going at it right in the city of Mammoth.

They connected there antlers but they were really just playing.  We thought we were going to see an elk fight but it did not happen. Later on we saw an Elk through our scopes that had been in a fight. It looked like he had puncture wounds in his side.

There is a rest stop on the Idaho Montana border. If you don't look you might miss these sculptures. They were hard to photograph but well worth seeing.

You can see the sun shining through the spots on this Appaloosa horse.

This last one shows the whole train of people walking. It was quite fun to see. Some great art right on the side of the road. I loved it.  I like it when I can find little surprises when traveling.

Yellowstone Bound

I am off to spend some time in Yellowstone N.P. Will be back to blogging next week.  I am hoping to be able to see some wolves this time. We heard there is a pack with 5 pups. They are so far away that they will look really small through our scope but I am hoping we get to see them.  Sometimes it a hit and miss thing.

We saw this black bear today.  Picture is not the greatest since it was taken through the windshield.

This one was taken with my window down.  I had to work fast before the bear was gone down the hillside. This is probably the closest I have ever been to a black bear.

We also saw a big bull elk with his harem and a car almost got nailed by his extensive rack.  You don't want to mess with elk during the rut.  We were right behind this car so I am pleased that the elk didn't want to take it out on us too.

I'll be back in a week hopefully with some fun pictures to share.

Kate

Dining, Wallace and Wolves

On one of our off days from biking we headed up to Coeur d' laine. When we are traveling some times we like to find a triple D restaurant.  One of the ones that were featured on the Food Networks  show Diners Drive Ins and Dives. We knew there was one here so we checked it out.

It was called Jimmy's Down the Street and the food was great.

I had the chicken and dumplings which was amazingly good. Dave had the John Wayne, can you see the size of that sandwich. It was a heartburn special, fried chicken, fried bacon, fried onion rings, fried pickles and all the trimmings. He said it was good but it did give him heartburn so he paid the price.

On one of the days we drove to Wallace, its an old mining town where the movie Dante's Peak was filmed. This building held a small train museum.

Inside the old ticket window was still intact but alas there was no one to sell me a ticket.

The old routes were still visible ont those clipboards and a replica of the town was on the table.

Wallace even has its own space ship, so we had to check that out too.

























I am a big SciFi and fantasy fan so I couldn't resist the opportunity to climb aboard.

The last place we went was in Cocolalla Idaho, to a place called Wolf People. Its a wolf educational facility where they raise Timber and Arctic Wolves. They had pups and adults and a wonderful tour that we took. I think the pictures will tell you how much I enjoyed this experience.

I This is Mike the wolf handler who conducted our tour.  I have a ton of more wolf pics but I think I will just put them on flickr. Check back in a couple days, this will be the link

Yellowstone Recap

We had a wonderful time on our trip to Yellowstone. I didn't manage to take that many pictures.

This is the view from Fishing Bridge, it was really beautiful that day.

I loved the seeing this little splash of yellow among all the green.

We managed to see four different wolf packs. We were watching a buffalo carcass through our scopes when this pack came across the ridge behind us. There were four adults and 5 pups. The pups got scared when they saw all people so they went back up the hill. The 4 adults made their way to the carcass and challenged the grizzly that was there. I ran for my camera but I really didn't get very good shots.

In this photo are two members of the Agate pack. The whiter wolf is the alpha and she is 9 1/2 years old and the oldest wolf in the park. It was really awseome to be able to see her. We ended up seeing 3 different grizzly's on that carcass. We also saw a grizzly with 2 cubs at another location.

When you go to Yellowstone in the fall you get to see these amazing bull elk. They hang out in Mammoth Hot Springs with their harem of cows. You can hear them bugling during the day and sometimes at night. Bugling is the sound them make to call in their cows and let other bulls know this is their territory. Its a really interesting sound to hear. We also heard coyotes and wolves howling too. There really is nothing like hearing a wolf howl in the wild.

Baby Wolf Learns to Howl

My friend Carrie showed this on facebook this morning and it is so cute.  I couldn't find a way to embed it so you'll have to follow the link.

http://www.maniacworld.com/baby-wolf-learning-to-howl.html

When I went to the Farmers Market this morning there was a man with a Timber Wolf.  I knew right away this was no dog.  It was grey, had a beautiful coat and the they way it looked at you you could tell it was was not a dog.  The eyes were so different, its feet were much bigger than a dogs and it had such a long body too.

Dave and I talked to the guy and I he had said they start training them at 3 weeks before they bond with their wolf nature.  I got to pet the wolf and although the coat seems like it would be rough it was incredibly soft. The next time I see a wolf in the wild I will remember the look and feel of this one.  What a fantastic moment. 

In hindsight I wish I would of asked the guy if I could get some wolf fiber to spin.  I am sure he has to brush the wolf when he is shedding. Their coats have a down layer which would be wonderful to spin. Oh well maybe I will run into him again.