Birds, Squirrels and Creations

Over the summer we've had lots of wild birds eating their way through my wages (or put it another way, through fat balls and bird seed!) At one stage the baby starlings were going through 10 fat balls a day. Now they've slowed down, it lasts perhaps two days ;p But it's okay because there is one shop which sells them cheap (49p for six fat balls, way cheaper than anywhere else - usually they're like £1.99 for six - ridiculous really!) But this isn't a blog post about the price of bird food! It's actually about what I witnessed today. I happened to be looking out at the bird feeders when I saw a squirrel sat on the bird table. It's the first time I've ever seen one here and I really hope it comes back (after all, it's practically a rat with a fluffy tail ;)) I was concerned it might destroy my peanut feeder (it's made of very thin wire, it wasn't very pricey) as that was the only thing really for it to eat. I've since topped up the rest of the food, so maybe I'll catch sight of it again soon. I don't understand why some people hate squirrels when they feed the birds. I've often heard customers complain where I work about squirrels but they've got to eat too. Hopefully it won't freak the birds out though if it does return!

Ironically, I finished a picture of squirrels recently (perhaps my pictures act as a premonition?!) This one is in acrylics and very large. Makes me want to do another large and detailed picture but not sure what of yet.

Other than that I've arranged to have a stall at another show (hopefully). It's a dog show so I'm trying to fit in time to do some new dog related art. I'm also pondering on whether to go back to college for a part-time course in accounting. I'm really unsure whether to or not... Maybe I'd try it for a year and see what happens (it's a three year course). It's killing me to think of sacrificing art time though as that's the day I typically do art (I work full time so other days of art are limited - I could probably get away with doing more graphite work but painting I prefer to work for hours rather than stop and start. It's too much cleaning up all the time otherwise and having to remix paint which never turns out exactly the same colour again). Arrggh, what to do?!

Lastly on the art front I finished creating Arrow. I still haven't managed to get any more detailed photos yet so the following will have to do for now. He took hours! The proportions aren't exactly right but as it was a first attempt for me doing something like this I'm happy enough with it (and the fur is so lovely quality all I want to do is cuddle it hah!) I hope to try and make something else like this but only have limited fur colours (black and grey) so would have to be something those colours until I have money to spare on fur!

-The Blogging Rat

Watercolour Paintings

The last few pieces of art I've worked on have been in watercolour. It's strange, I seem to go for ages avoiding watercolour only to get addicted to it when I do get back on it. I must admit sometimes I don't feel I have the patience to use it. With acrylics my typical way of working is 'throw it all on and then refine' (basically my initial bottom layer looks like some crazy form of modern art perhaps...) With watercolour you simply can't do that. It's rather less forgiving. I've had times in the past where I've dropped a paint brush loaded with paint only to splatter it all over the lightest area. It's annoying in any medium but at least with acrylic you stand a good chance of painting over it!

But anyway, at times I really want to work in watercolour!

And onto the art:

Hooded rat pea fishing (based on a photograph I took of Jasper). It's A4 in size.

Gerbera plant. I couldn't resist buying this plant because of it's unusual colouring. I painted it over a course of days from life (desperate to finish it in case the flowers developed more!) Also A4 in size.

And this blog wouldn't be the same without a rat image! This is possibly the strangest capture I've had. I didn't even realise what was going on until I looked back at the photos once they were on my computer. Felix taking a bite out of baby Jake (not really, no rats were hurt as there was definitely no argument that day when they were freeranging). Perhaps it was just his face happened to be there, or he was going to groom Jake, who knows? As for my new rats Jake and Domino, Jake is far more social as he was when I first got him. It's strange really as they've both had the same upbringing etc. Jake will 'groom' my hand if I put it in the cage (he even went as far as licking my arm too!) It's a sign of affection in rats and I find it very cute even though others might not!

And on an unrelated note, I'm very into dreams and what they mean. However the last few days I've had quite random dreams involving the killer whale from the film 'Free Willy' (like starring in a film with him, and taking part in a video game based on the film?!). If anything, you'd think I'd dream of rats ;p

- The Blogging Rat

Lack of Updates and Ebay

Firstly I apologise for the lack of blog entries lately! Things have been crazily busy since the last update.

So onto the typical topics, rats and art ;)

On the art front, lots of new pieces done. I've been working on a lot of rat related art as I have booked a stall at a rat show in a few months time. I'm hoping people will like them. Here's just two of my recent drawings, one in acrylic and one in watercolour as I hadn't done anything in watercolour for quite some time.

I'm also working (not to sell) a rat sculpture doll. I'm not sure how it will work out, I've already realised I should have done one thing differently but hopefully I can get round that little hitch. It's taking forever so can't say I'll have an upload of it anytime soon unfortunately! (One leg took me about an hour! Although it is a rather large rat!)

I'm also trying to sell a few slightly older pieces on ebay.

Oh and also have recently signed up to having a Facebook page (so any social media fans please take a look!).

And onto rat related chat! A few weeks ago Jasper had a run-in with Seth. Seth was sat on me and Jasper lurched down from the bed quicker than I expected. I grabbed him before he could get down but unfortunately Seth also grabbed at the same time getting hold of Jasper's tail. To cut a long story short the result was two vet trips, one on emergency time and then a bandaged tail (rats definitely aren't inexpensive pets if anyone is wondering...!) It was a horrible week as I kept thinking Jasper or Felix would chew the bandage off whilst I was at work. Luckily Jasper left it alone but Felix was more of a problem - I'm sure he thought he was helping when he yanked at Jasper's tail every so often. Jasper wasn't very tolerant of such behaviour and started to do exactly the same thing back to Felix (not intending to cause damage, just to show his annoyance I'm sure).

Luckily the bandage is off now and tail pulling has ceased. However, Seth's bad temper hasn't - I think it's because he's getting older and his sight isn't as good as it was. He also seems to be developing the problem Arrow had with his back legs and unfortunately there's no cure to that :/ I'm also a lot more careful to make sure Jasper doesn't say hi to the older boys anymore.

More recently I acquired two more rat boys. At first I resisted but that night I dreamt about them so took that as a sign (that or I'm too addicted to rats...) They are currently undergoing introductions with Jasper and Felix (and definitely not ever meeting Seth or Levi...!) Their names are Jake and Domino. So far I think Domino is sure Felix is his mummy (I think he's a little confused ;P) and Jasper is more interested in their cage than these new, tiny little shapes!

- The Blogging Rat

A little more art and etsy!

I've been a little neglectful of my blog again having been too busy with art. 

 

One of my most recent paintings, a wolf on stretched canvas. I originally planned this to be a watercolour piece but it didn't work out that way. Instead I scraped it to work in acrylics (which I'm addicted to it seems).

This was another piece for the exhibition I spoke about in my last blog entry. It's a very small piece on stretched canvas, based on one of my previous cats. She'd always lie in very tightly curled positions, or when not doing that she'd sit with her paws completely tucked under her like a teacosy.

As for other arts, I've got one more to upload shortly that I've recently finished. I'm also working on a rat piece - I'm hoping it has a rather interesting concept behind it but I'm not sure how well it will work in practice! Hopefully it'll turn out okay. Following that I'm planning a butterfly piece too :) I've got to work on a few pendants/rat art as I'm hoping to attend a rat show in a few months time to sell. Should be fun!

As for my other pendants, I've now listed them on Etsy. I need to create a few more as my shop looks pretty empty at the moment! So far from early experiences I'm feeling Etsy may hopefully be a better choice than trying to sell on Ebay.

And this blog wouldn't be complete without something rat-related added to it! Jasper and Felix during free-range time!

- The Blogging Rat

Pendants

I've been working on artwork pendants for the last few weeks to see if I can sell a few, and these were a few of the results.

The middle two aren't for sale - the rattie based on my little Arrow.

They've been fun to create but really time consuming!!! Each is painted in acrylics. I've listed them and some other pieces of original artwork on eBay here.

Other than that I really had no inspiration to draw today, I really couldn't make anything look right which was very frustrating. Near the end of the afternoon I decided to try a seascape instead, I think I need a little break from drawing animals. Hopefully it will turn out okay, I've bought some stretched canvas and will be working on it with acrylics. A part of me wants to do something watercolour-ish but I'm lacking the inspiration!

As the weather was warm today I gave my rats their first pea-fishing of the year. The adults drived straight in, they know what to do (although this time they have a massive ceramic dog dish as I foolishly broke my rabbit dish they used for the purpose). It makes it a little more of a challenge though. The young ones have yet to work it out but hopefully by the morning they might have realised they have to fish ;)

On a slightly different rodent note, my cat (who hasn't caught anything for years) came back with a young mouse today. It was fine, no injuries and I managed to persuade it into a (hopefully) safer area. Our cat is very good at giving things up, she wasn't bothered at all when I came over to her. It's so unlike our other cat who is sadly no longer with us. He would run the minute he saw me when he had something live (guess he got wise to me rescuing things ;))

- The Blogging Rat

Bulldog and Rat Problems

Technically this is last week's art but I doubt I will get anything finished this week unfortunately.

This bulldog was painted with acrylics on A4 sized acrylic canvas paper. It was an attempt to try out my new paints which I am really happy with. It did however make me want to paint more things in acrylic which is what I intend to do tomorrow. My other day off saw practically no art because I felt too tired which was very frustrating (especially as I have less time to draw this week because I'm on more hours at work).

As for my rat situation the last week has been rather stressful. Arrow is getting worse by the day and is hardly eating and Levi has taken a serious disliking to Jasper. My plan with Jasper was to separate him from my other boys and instead house him with his brother who happened to still be at the pet shop. My reasoning was that he'd have someone his own age (rather than boys who are over a year and more) to play with. At present he just winds the older boys up which is why Levi is having a no tolerance approach to him. They can't keep up with his hyper, bouncy energy. However, the plan hasn't yet come into action because on returning to the pet shop I found Jasper's brother wasn't very healthy (it may be stress or something more serious, hopefully not). So he's remaining there so they can take him to the vet (which is the best decision as if he had something seriously the matter with him I wouldn't want to risk my current boys being exposed to it). I hope everything sorts itself out, it's so stressful not knowing what to do for best.

- The Blogging Rat

Parrot and a Dog

Two pictures to upload here today, although technically one was from last week.

Firstly, a parrot in watercolour on A4 sized paper. I really should have added a bit more darker shading to it in parts but at the time I was scared of either going too extreme or messing up the colours entirely. I do quite like the light tone effect in a way though.
The second, finished today, is based on a little dog I saw recently. It's on scratchboard, slightly larger than A4 in size.




Other than that, I don't have too much to say. Unfortunately next week I'll be working more hours which means less time for art, although I'm hoping I'll somehow manage to finish a picture a week as I'm doing now. I guess it just depends, some things like painting take me far longer than graphite or scratchboard. I'm currently working on a few things at the moment, an acrylic painting of a bulldog (I treated myself to some new paints as all my old acrylics are so old most of them are pretty awful to use!) and I may try pastels again after being inspired looking at some art yesterday.

On the rat front, my lovely Arrow is still with me but seems to have got worse very quickly over the last few weeks. Levi and the 'baby' (Jasper) keep having words with each other which is rather stressful. Sometimes they are fine together, other times Jasper just casually walks on Levi's shelf and then Levi has to chase him. Rat introductions are such fun... not :P

- The Blogging Rat

The Story of the Rat

With my latest piece of art being of my own rats, I think it's about time I properly introduced them (since this blog is both rodent and art related!)



Firstly on the picture front, it's an A3 watercolour piece. However, it didn't really come out like I'd wanted it to. I think the background was where it all went wrong, I wanted a smoother, darker background but was too lazy to mask off the rats first which made it quite difficult to get round their shapes and maintain a flatness of colour (I failed at that!) I wanted to make it darker but was afraid of actually making the whole thing worse, so I left it as it was. Shading mainly white rats was also a bit of a pain, I didn't want them to appear too dark and I haven't really figured out a good way of handling fur in watercolours. Ah well, it's all practice!

Onto the real subject, rats!

I've kept rats since about 2003. I've only kept males (not for any particular reason, it just so happens that all the rats I've ever had have been males). But onto my current boys...

Arrow (black capped):
Arrow is my oldest boy, bought in March 2010 with his brother Splodge. When I first bought him and his brother, neither would come out of their cage for freeranging time for almost a whole month despite lots of encouragement! However, once they got over that they were fine, hyper active typical young rats. Unfortunately Splodge didn't live very long, I guessed he may have had some sort of problem as he slept very heavily for a rat at times. However, I'll never know for certain what was the matter, I just remember the terrible shock to have a rat die so suddenly and so young.
Because of Splodge's untimely death I decided Arrow would need some more, younger company. My other current rats at the time were old and had had numerous problems in their later life so I went out to find Arrow some little friends. Thus Levi and Seth came into Arrow's life.
...Little did I know that Arrow did not like friends. Fortunately he seems to be more accepting of them these days but I'm sure if there was ever a rat who wanted to be a lone rat it would be him! As I type this he sleeps next to me in his little soft igloo-rat-slipper whilst his friends are locked away in the cage.

Levi and Seth (white and white with grey patch):
Bought as companions for Arrow, I acquired them from a pet shop about half an hour away from me in another town. The people that work there always seem nice and the pets always seem well handled there. Levi and Seth had been there a while, they were older than the typical rats I had got before. Initially I didn't buy them. One of the worker's said it would be difficult to introduce them to my others at their age. However, overnight all I could do was think about these poor rats who'd never had a proper freerange time whilst being stuck in the pet shop for however many months. So the next day I rushed back to get them before work (luckily my shift didn't start until 12 that day!)
I must also say that the first time I looked at these boys one of them bit me. I didn't think much of it at the time, passing it off as just frustration of being locked up for so long. (Although looking back at it, I think it must have happened to the staff as they were very relutant just to scoop them up, they wanted the rats to climb on them rather than pick them up which wasn't happened when I did go back to get them!)
When I got them home for the first few months I never saw this behaviour again so I forgot about it. Then Levi became a proper 'rat teenager' and my hands became useful for biting. I'd be watching a DVD and he'd sneak up and bite my hands if I didn't notice and move very quickly. He was a very dominant aggressive rat, displaying behaviour I'd never seen before in any of my past rats. He'd rub his paws on everything (which I read up later is to do with scent marking). I've lost count of the times it happened. Despite the many times he drew blood (perhaps 'vampire rat' would be a better nickname) I wouldn't swap him for anything. As he's aged he is more predictable and less prone to random attacks. Basically as long as you don't pick him up or stroke his head (his back is fine) he'll be fine. Seth on the other hand has never displayed any tendancy to bite and is a very relaxed, happy-go-lucky sort of character.

Fergus (faded husky rat):
I think I bought Fergus because the introduction of Seth and Levi had made Arrow the odd one out. I think I thought they'd turn their attention to a newcomer and cut the older Arrow a bit of slack. I hoped Arrow would find a friend in Fergus and they'd 'hang out' together as Levi and Seth did.
Strangely it seemed to have an odd effect now all of them are older. Usually Seth and Fergus sleep in the same area and Levi and Arrow together.
Fergus typically will do anything for food. His favourite by far is dried pasta. As long as there's food he's a happy boy, although a rather big happy boy!

Jasper (grey hooded):
I can't really write much about Jasper yet. At the moment introductions are a little shakey. He tends to wind up the older rats which they dislike. Sometimes he likes to curl up with Arrow (perhaps the similiar face marking makes him feel some sort of connection with him?! Who knows!) He's very, very hyper... I forget how hyper young rats are (and secretly can't wait for him to calm down and get too fat to fit under the bed, last night I 'lost' him under there and that was a nightmare as it's too small to fit my hand under!)

And that's my boys for you.
Other than that I took both Seth and Arrow to the vet today. Seth has been a lot due to respiratory problems in the past. Last week the vet asked us to bring him back in a week (today) so I took Arrow along too (as he's growing weaker in his back legs, typical of old age in rats but I wondered if there was any thing that could potentially halt the problem). I'm a lot of money poorer and I'm meant to take them back in a couple of weeks to see their progress. If anyone thinks rats are 'cheap pets' let me assure you, they're not!!! The moment I heard the cost I was reminded of this great picture I found on the internet a while back. I'm not sure who originally created it so unfortunately can't give credit where it's due (unless someone knows?) but I have to share it again!:



- The Blogging Rat

Tigers and Rats!

Finished my latest picture the other day, this time of a tiger in mainly watercolours (with a touch of acrylic and watersoluable pencil in the early stages). I wanted to try drawing some sort of animal mainly in watercolour and was relatively happy with the result. I regretted doing just a random coloured background really, but can't really do much about that now!



Other than that on Monday I gave in to temptation and bought another rat. It was a little strange as I've not had the feeling of GMR (get-more-rats as the rat community calls it!) for a long while. However, one night a little before Monday I was thinking about a new rat. When I went into our nearby pet shop to buy my boy's Biocatlet cat litter for their litter tray I just had to see the rats there (as usual!) There were three boys, two of which were rexes. I have a real soft spot for rexes. It was impossible not to go home with one. I probably would have bought all three however if I'd had the room! I stuck with just one however (with the logic that hopefully the remaining two would find a home together as my little one would be with my boys). I actually chose the slightly less rex coated boy because as soon as I held him he just wanted a snuggle. I've named him Jasper. Despite his teeny tiny size he has already tried telling my adults (who are about double the size of him) that he's the boss! There were a few scary moments where he wouldn't leave Levi alone (who is a little unpredicable at times, at least with me!) However this morning I saw him cuddled up in the front of the igloo with some of them so hopefully they're all getting used to each other.




Also uploaded a new video to Youtube. It's only a quick video of my boys freeranging but shows them all (pretty much anyway, Levi is in the cage so you get a super quick glimpse of him!!!)



- The Blogging Rat

The Blogging Rat

Welcome to my blog, the blog dubbed as 'The Blogging Rat'. The reason for the name is simple, I adore rats and share my life with as many as I can get away with! Rats are a marmite sort of pet, you either love them or hate them. However, I hope through my blogging those who fall a little in the latter cateogry will see that rats actually make excellent pets.

When I'm not talking about my rats I'll be sharing some of my art, photography or other things that I think of at the time. At this moment in time I draw mainly for fun and with a desire to improve. I also maintain a role-playing game website (Wolf Mountain RPG) which has been around since the year 2000, so any major updates will probably be listed in this blog also.

Affectionate regards,
The Blogging Rat