Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Valentine's Day

colored pencil daffodil work in process
on 5" x 7" Ampersand Pastelbord
Stacy L. Rowan

Forget the groundhog's prediction about how long winter is sticking around. (Is he ever right anyway?) I have a prediction for Valentine's Day. I predict that a lot of people are eschewing material gifts for their loved ones. Instead they are opting for creating handmade items to express their feelings. What gives me this insight, you might ask? The recent increase in searches for the topic "how to draw roses". I always get a fair number of hits from this search string, but since last weekend there has been a definite jump. Love is in the air and everyone is trying to draw roses!

Speaking of searches, I recently solved a little mystery I had surrounding image searches. Many of my blog visitors find me through an image search. (Is this true for other art blogs too?) Yet whenever I tried to find my own images using Google image search, I always came up empty handed. I know I'm not the best searcher out there, but could I really be that bad?? I didn't think so. So I came up with the hypothesis that when the search originates from my ISP, Google won't show me images from my own Picasa blog albums. To test my hypothesis, I gave my husband some appropriate search terms and asked him to do an image search from his work computer. After some gentle reminders, he finally tested my theory for me. Lo and behold, my hypothesis was right! Okay...so I admit that I don't know if it is exactly right in all the details... but I do know he can easily find my images. The same ones that I can't find when searching from my computer. Ahhh...it's good to know that my internet search skills are not as horrible as I feared. Now I can rest easy and enjoy Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day to you too. I broke with tradition and decided to share this daffodil work in process instead of a rose. Too many people were already doing the rose thing.

10 comments:

Dave said...

Quite right...why should roses get all the action? Daffodils are a sign that spring is just around the corner, after all! This is beautiful already...I love the strong shadows.

Anonymous said...

Hypothesis? Is this turning into an engineering blog? Just kidding. I've be curious about the image searches too because my most searched on photo is the horse in the pirate costume! The daffodils look great.

Mary said...

This is beautiful Stacy, I love the contrast in it and your lights and darks.

Jennifer Rose said...

Lovely looking daffodil :)
Very nice lighting on the petals. I'm not a rose fan. Never could figure out why people think its a good idea to give something that maybe will die in a few days as a gift on Valentines day.

Stacy said...

Thanks Dave! Believe me, I'm hoping Spring is just around the corner!

Denise, what can I say...once an enginerd always an enginerd. And can you blame people for wanting to see a horse in a pirate costume?!? That's not exactly an everyday occurance.

Thanks Mary! I'm really enjoying this one.

Thanks Jennifer! I agree with you on the gift of roses. Much better to give chocolates which will live on my hips for life. ;)

Anonymous said...

I think you need a title: How to Draw Daffodils.
Very nice beginning. So glad you broke tradition.

Billie Crain said...

to tell the truth,i'm not a huge fan of roses. i love your daff! i'd much rather receive a bouquet of daffodils anyday. btw, great depth on this one, Stacy. keep up the good work.:)

Jeanette Jobson said...

This is a great start to your daffodils Stacy. I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day or cut flowers for that matter. I prefer the flowers stay on the plant and that no one buy me Valentine's junk.

However, if I had my 'druthers' I think daffodils would win over roses any day.

Anita said...

I was just saying on Robyn Sinclairs blog how I long to see daffodils! And here one is! Lovely work, Stacey!

Stacy said...

Robin, Billie, Jeanette and Anita, who knew daffodils were so popular? I'm almost feeling sorry for roses now. But I love daffodils because they are a sunny, bright sign of spring and all the good things it brings.

Anita, I'm wishing to see the daffodils that grow in my garden, but they probably won't be popping their heads out for another month or so. My husband said the leaves are starting to poke through the ground, but they got covered in snow last weekend so I haven't been able to see them!