Illustration of the day (Nature and us) / Ilustracija dana (Priroda i mi)

Good evening everyone! How are you? I'm sharing this illustration even though I haven't quite finished it. What I found most helpful in terms of productivity as a hobby artist is being consistent. 

I (like everyone else obviously) don't have entire days to devote only to painting. So what I do is that  when I don't have the time or the energy to do a proper painting, I try to set apart some time to do a sketch or a doodle. 

Because really you never know when a doodle or a sketch can be turned into a painting. In anything you do in life, if you invest time constantly, even if it is five minutes a day, you're likely to do some results.

 For example, if you're working on some creative project. Even if you set only a small portion of your time to spent on it, you might end up figuring it all out and finishing it earlier than you thought it was possible. 

How? Even if all you have to give is five minutes of work, those five minutes might make the subject linger in your mind and make you think about it. 

Once you're thinking about it, you might come up with more ideas. So, that's my tip of the day as far as creative hobby activities go. A little bit goes a long way. 

One minute a day doing what you like can sometimes make a difference. I suppose it can be applied to other areas as well. 

Anyhow, I've been working on loads of illustrations today. I managed to finish some of them, but now all. Some of them you might see tomorrow (if I manage to find the time to post them). 

Today I broke out of my routine a bit. I spent some time watching TV today, which is something I rarely do. Not because I think that TV is bad, it is just that ever since I started blogging, I had to cut down on at least some time-consuming habits and I guess TV was the first thing to go. 

The two of us (both sick his fever is way higher) ended up watching one program about animal friendship. It was quite nice, watching TV for a change. Anyhow, there was this farm cat that had her kittens the same day as some ducklings hatched. 

The owners of the farm were afraid that the cat ate them but they discovered that the cat has in fact adopted them and was keeping them warm. The ducklings were nestled in cat’s lap together with her kittens (there was no mom duck in the picture because the farmers just bought the eggs).  

It was so funny once the ducklings got bigger and more active and the cat was all super protective so she kept returning them to the box. She would grab them by the neck and carry them back to the box where she was nursing her kittens and she couldn’t understand why the ducklings won’t stay still. 

Naturally, the ducklings were only following their instincts to go about and search for food because they are born ready to find food for themselves.  Anyhow, the ducklings eventually became grown ducks but they are still very attached to their surrogate mother. It is one happy farm. 

Was it all instinct? I don’t think so. I think that animals are capable of genuine friendship and affection. Alright, perhaps not all of them. I don’t think that spiders can have complex emotions, but all higher animals are capable of it.

 If you look at the behaviour of apes, you’ll be amazed at how similar they can be to us. Not just apes. In this show (forgot its name but it was aired today on Viasat nature if you want to look it up), there was also this example of a cappuccino monkey that adopted an orphan baby monkey of another specie and spent the rest of her life caring for it. Her baby was adopted into the cappuccino community and there is actual footage of it taking the food of a cappuccino male monkey and he is allowing it get away with it- not something that is common at all. 

How to explain it? These cappuccino monkeys have no benefit of feeding and caring for this little creature. They know it is not a member of their specie, but still they protect it and feed it. One could be a cynic and say that it is because this other species is smaller than them so they don’t feel threatened but that doesn’t really explain it. 

markers on paper/ markeri na papiru

I will never remember watching another documentary about a young boy who got lost in the woods.  I don’t remember whether it was in SAD or Canada, but it was one of those two countries. Anyhow, he was all alone in the forest when a herd of reindeer gathered around him. He kept shouting and throwing stones at them but they just kept their distance and stayed near him. 

Eventually the child grew tired and slept on the dirt. In the morning when the rescue team found him, there was no snow around him even though it was snowing heavily all the night. The reason why there was no snow around him is because once he was asleep the herd protected him from the snow with their bodies. The entire herd kept him warm and slept in a circle around him.

 Had they not done that, the child would die of hypothermia. 

The point of all this? I believe in miracles. In love. I believe we all (not just humans but animals as well) are more than a sum of our instincts. We’re more than that, we can be more than that and we should be more than that. We should never be too old to believe in miracles because they happen. All we need to see them is to open our eyes. 

UPDATE: MORE FASHION ILLUSTRATING LINKS

FRIDAY FASHION ILLUSTRATION: TWO PORTRAIT SKETCHES (modaodaradosti.blogspot.com)

 DIGITAL RETOUCHING WITH PAINT 3D,  LADY IN A LILAC DRESS and BALL PAINT FASHION ILLUSTRATION. 

FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: WATERCOLOUR PENCILS -IVANA'S FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY- FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: INSPIRED BY COLOURS OF AUTUMN- A GIRL IN A RED GOWN: FASHION ILLUSTRATION OF THE DAY-CUSTOMIZING A NOTEBOOK WITH A FASHION ILLUSTRATION- FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: ILLUSTRATING A BLACK DRESS FROM DOLCE & GABBANA COLLECTION- 10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR FASHION ILLUSTRATION SKILLS- HOW TO CREATE A 3D FASHION ILLUSTRATION DRESS WITH DRY FLOWERS?- FRIDAY FASHION ILLUSTRATION: HAT OBSESSED -FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY INSPIRED BY SUMMER STYLE- FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: SUMMER TO AUTUMN TRANSITION- FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: ILLUSTRATED TOTE BAGS-FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: HAT OBSESSED - FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: NEW AUTUMN INSPIRED ART FASHION ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: MY INSPIRATIONS