Art: Seen Peanuts

It's been years since I last tried using a dip pen and ink, but I recently bought a cheap Speedball set and have done a few inkings to exercise remembering pen control.

Lucy yells "A Troubled Mind in a Troubled World!!!" as Charlie Brown stands there dumbfounded.

Here I attempted to make a copy a panel from the Peanuts strip for August 2, 1957.

A suited man holding a heart-shaped balloon sits on a park bench as a giant eye in a tree shines light on him.

Seen - an original. The archway isn't great, but I think everything else looks pretty good.

The fanatic Linus, foreground, stares like a madman, as Charlie Brown looks on dumbfounded.

Attempted copy of a panel from the Peanuts strip from October 22, 1958.

Art: Ass

Happy Pride month! It's also Shakespeare season, and I had butts on the brain, so although our local Shakespeare in the Park is performing Twelfth Night, here's a little Midsummer Night's Dream:

BOTTOM
I see their knavery. This is to make an ass of
me, to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
from this place, do what they can. I will walk up
and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
I am not afraid.


1ass \'as, 'aa(ə)s, 'ais also 'ȧs in NE & Brit esp (in Brit at least) in sense 2\ n -es [ME asse, fr. OE assa, perh. fr. OIr asan, fr. L asinus, prob. fr. a language of Asia Minor; akin to the source of Gr onos ass] 1: any of several mammals of the genus Equus that are smaller than the horse, with a shorter mane and shorter hair on the tail, with long ears, and without callosities on the inner surface of the hind limbs, that are hardy and gregarious sure-footed natives of Asia and No. Africa, and of which one species (E. asinus) is the domestic ass, a rugged, patient, but somewhat stubborn beast of burden, made a popular symbol of obstinacy and stupidity — see kiang, mule 2: one that is utterly silly: a simple-minded fool often marked by stubbornness or stolidity <when they make ~es of themselves they do it in the grand style — Leonard Bacon>

4ass or arse \in the US 'as, 'aa(e)s, 'ais also 'ȧs, and sometimes 'ärs euphemistically by speakers who have preconsonantal r and who are aware that there is a spelling "arse"; 'ȧs in standard Brit and 'ȧ(r)s or 'ärs or 'ārs or 'ers in Brit and Scot dialect; in the US the pronunc 'ȧs occurs chiefly in NE and is there prob more often associated with the spelling "ass" than with "arse"\ n -es [ME ars, ers, fr. OE ærs, ears; akin to OHG & ON ars buttocks, Gk orrhos, Arm oṙ, Hitt arraš, OIr err tail] 1 a: buttocks, rump — often considered vulgar b: anus — often considered vulgar 2 dial Brit: the lower or rear end of anything: bottom 3: sexual intercourse — usu. considered vulgar

from Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1981, Volume 1, p. 130

Art: Desire

An eel looks at the centerfold of an erotic Play-eel magazine while dreaming of fried shrimp.

I watched a “Bizarre Beasts” YouTube video on eels. In short, eels do not have a functional reproductive system until the end of their lives, at which point their digestive system essentially vanishes and they starve to death.

From the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1910, volume 9, pp. 8-9):

The majority of the eels captured for market are females with the ovaries in an immature condition. The male eel was first discovered in 1873 by Syrski at Trieste, the testis being described by hin as a lobed elongated organ, in the same relative position as the ovary in the female, surrounded by a smooth surface without laminae. He did not find ripe spermatozoa. He discovered the male by examining small specimens, all the larger being female. L. Jacoby, a later observer, found no males exceeding 19 in. in length, while the female may reach a length of 39 in. or more. Dr C. G. J. Petersen, in a paper published in 1896, states that in Denmark two kinds of eels are distinguished by the fishermen, namely, yellow eels and silver eels. The silver eels are further distinguished by the shape of the snout and the size of the eyes. The snout in front of the eyes is not flat, as in the yellow eels, but high and compressed, and therefore appears more pointed, while the eyes are much larger and directed outwards. In both kinds there are males and females, but Peterson shows that the yellow eels change into silver eels when they migrate to the sea. The sexual organs in the silver eels are more developed than in the yellow eels, and the former have almost or entirely ceased to take food. The male silver eels are from 11½ to 19 in. in length, the females from 16½ to about 39 in. It is evident, therefore, that if eels only spawn once, they do not all reach the same size when they become sexually mature. [...]

There is every reason to believe that eels and conger spawn but once in their lives, and die soon after they have discharged their generative products. When kept in aquaria, both male and female conger are vigorous and voracious. The males sooner or later cease to feed, and attain to the sexually mature condition, emitting ripe milt when handled and gently squeezed. They live in this condition five or six months, taking no food and showing gradual wasting and disease of the bodily organs. The eyes and skin become ulcerated, the sight is entirely lost, and the bones become soft through loss of lime. The females also after a time cease to feed, and live in a fasting condition for five or six months, during which time the ovaries develop and reach great size and weight, while the bones become soft and the teeth disappear. The female, however, always dies in confinement before the ova are perfectly ripe and before they are liberated from the ovarian tissue. The absence of some necessary condition, perhaps merely of the pressure which exists at the bottom of the sea, evidently prevents the complete development of the ovary. The invariable death of the fish in the same almost ripe condition leads to the conclusion that under normal conditions the fish dies after the mature ova have been discharged.

I included in my painting a couple of Leptocephali, which is one of the early larval stages of the eel. Here's their representation from the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry quoted above: