I wasted a good chunk of time today just looking at catalogs and various online shopping places. I saw more brass doodads and various 'collectibles' than I ever have before in one day. After viewing some 5000 thumbnails, I now know we could buy aluminum blinds with brass fittings, brass door knockers in every shape imaginable from leaves to lions to dolphins and fancy little toppers for lampshades and... You get the idea. I'm not sure why I was looking, just to see if something irresistable caught my eye, I suppose. I did enjoy the vast array of Shiva statues I saw, and I looked in Wikipedia to learn about other Hindu deities. Some of the statues I saw were at a site called Dolls of India . All of that might have influenced the following intuitive drawing (cleaned up a bit digitally):

That's another item sought by 'collectors' these days. I'm not sure, but I still might have a couple of my old dolls.

August 6, 2007
I experimented with a new colored method. As the original pen drawing was unusable, I printed the line drawing out on 8.5x11 inch paper, which worked perfectly. It was only a tiny bit clipped, which I just redrew. I not only did colored pencil, I experimented with watercolor pencils, to even out the grainy bits that I get from colored pencil. This works. Okay, some of the line overflows its borders, but I just fix it digitally! While I was at it, I decided to put a border around 'Triva' so she would fit nicely in an 11x14 inch frame.

I'm pleased! I'd felt timid initially about trying something new, but it was kind of silly. I mean, I could just go ahead and print another out to color if I had botched it irredeemably.

When I showed Julia the initial drawing and the entry about it, she came up with the name 'Triva'. Northern mythology meets Eastern mythology to form 'Triva'. I had fun!