Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! (And Happy 115th Birthday, Grandma!) For today's drawing (and my last Drawtober challenge picture) I took this picture I drew back in February and added some creepy color. I could have had time for more, but most of the evening was spent Trick or Treating with Nora, and then drying out and warming up afterwards.

A Quiet Night

It’s almost too quiet tonight at my house

The girls are upstairs fast asleep

And my wife’s getting ready, she’ll soon be in bed

In a slumber both tranquil and deep

I’ve been reading all night, but I took a short break

To jot down these lines that you see

But I’ll wrap it up soon cause I don’t often get

Such a quiet night given to me

It’s because our TV has been sent for repairs

The screen would stay dark when turned on

And I’m sure I’ll be glad when it finally comes back

But for now it’s nice having it gone

Red Bird's Garden

It's nearly the end of the month, which means the Drawtober challenge is almost over. I'm very disappointed - soon I'll have to start coming up with my own ideas again. Today epitomizes the weirdness I've come to expect - I'm supposed to draw something using at least two of these words: time, feathers, throne, topiary and iceberg. I think I managed to get all five into this one!

"Now this display requires a little more maintenance, but the fertilizer costs are practically nonexistent!"

Genesis

This challenge was to draw a comic with the punchline: "Oops!" I was trying to think of the biggest, most Earth-shattering oops moment possible. I kept thinking of things like someone starting a nuclear armageddon after sneezing on the launch button, or a bunch of dinosaurs somehow attracting an asteroid, but everything I came up with just seemed more depressing than funny. That led me to start thinking about who could possibly have the biggest oops in history, and this is what I came up with...

"That's going to make a HUGE mess!"

Sharpshooter

Here's one I just completed last night for a challenge from a week ago. It's supposed to be a female character with at least two of these attributes: sharpshooter, curls, electric, freckles. You might not be able to tell that she's got curly hair and is wearing an electrical wristwatch, but if this is your view of her, you've got other things to worry about right now!

Free Candy

Here's the finished drawing from yesterday. Thanks to John for the trick-or-treaters idea. They may not be in the picture, but they're on the way! (Click the picture to see it bigger!)

Cave Creature - In Progress

Another work in progress. Today's challenge was the phrase "The creature stirred, waiting in the darkness of the cave for the perfect time to strike." So far, I've got the creature and the cave, but I'm still not sure what to put outside. Any suggestions?

National Crazy Day

Today is National Crazy Day! Here's a little limerick to celebrate:

Let’s go out and dance with a cow

Or take a slow boat to Macao

Put on a bee beard

Or do something else weird

Cause it’s National Crazy Day now!

I know it's pretty brief, but I'm trying something new. Two nights ago, I really got caught up in drawing the cyborg superhero picture and I ended up staying up past 2:00 AM on a work night. I was a wreck the next day, so last night I made myself go to bed at 11:00. I can tell you, I feel worlds better today. So at the expense of some deep and meaningful poetry (which I've never been accused of writing anyway), I came up with this little thing and now I'll go do some dishes and head off to bed. Crazy, I know, but that's the way I roll!

Awaiting Rescue

This is my submission for Day 22, where the challenge was to draw a superhero using at least 2 of these words: synthetic, apple, neon and cyborg. I think I got all four. He's a cyborg (part human, part robot) with synthetic parts (and his super suit is made with synthetic fibers). The glowing neon effects were fun to draw using a very low opacity airbrush tool, and the spinning beach ball effect in his eye is the icon you get on an Apple computer when it's frozen up or thinking hard. Sometimes you don't want to rely too much on technology...

Your rescue will begin momentarily. Please be patient.

Chewie's Gift

Unfortunately for all involved, Chewbacca was not amused by his gag gift.

(Drawtober Day 21 Challenge: Draw something inspired by a movie you like.)

Back To Work!

I’ve been waiting for weeks

Here with nothing to do

And today is the day

That my wishes came true

I went back to work

Yes, the furlough is done

I can get back to teaching

And having some fun

So today I got up

While the sky was still dark

Took my coffee in hand

For that sweet caffeine spark

And the rest of the day

We just tried to catch up

Printing books, calling schools

Drinking cup after cup

So now I’m back home

In my back there’s an ache

It’s been a good day

Now it’s time for a break

Best Friends

Yesterday's challenge was a simple one: a boy and his best friend. A lot of the posted drawings had a boy and dog or a boy and dragon. I decided to take a softer approach...

Welcome Home Weapon

The topic for this drawing: "The weapon lay on the table, next to a note that read 'Welcome Home'."  In case the resolution is too low to read the note, it says, "Welcome home! I polished your hand grenade, like you asked. I will be staying at mother's for a while. XOXO"

Blue-Eyed Alien

This is the drawing for the Day 16 challenge - a humanoid alien with blue eyes. I actually got a compliment from the moderator of the challenge for this drawing. She said I did a nice job on the fingers!

300

Can you believe it? This is Post number 300 already! I think I might actually succeed in my New Year's Resolution and post a new picture or poem here every day for an entire year. To help celebrate this milestone, one of my recurring characters wanted to make a nice dinner, but things didn't go quite according to plan...

"Darn it, Pangolin! Did you waste all my ketchup again?!"

2013 Arrival - final

I think this is the final version (for now). Here's my new, updated for 2013 picture of a city at night (on the moon!) with fire somewhere in the picture.

Silver Linings

Everything’s stupid, everything’s bad

This is the worst day that we’ve ever had

One girl is sad, she tried out for a play

Got a role as a boy with nothing to say 

The other is grumpy - piano’s no fun

She plunks through her practice, can’t wait to be done

And I’m still on furlough without any pay

While my wife is just jealous I stay home all day

If there’s one silver lining to this bitter spell

For National Grouch Day, we’ve done pretty well

(It really is National Grouch Day! - this all happened, but I’ve made the day sound worse than it actually was!)

2013 Arrival - Work in Progress

So, a couple of days ago the challenge was to draw a city at night, with a fire somewhere in the picture. I wasn't having a lot of luck coming up with any non-cliche ideas, but last night I remembered a little pencil sketch I drew ten years ago. It's a picture of a spaceship landing at a moon base with a silhouetted astronaut watching from the foreground. I realized if I just darkened it up a bit to make it at night and added a bigger moon city in the background, I'd have a great and original picture.

At this point, however, I'm nowhere near done. So here's what I've got so far. I'll post more as I finish it up.

Just for reference, here's the original 2003 drawing:

Shutdown, Day 13

Lately, with the shutdown, I just wait to go to work

Every day I hope the Congress clears away the murk

The President should lead and try to reach a compromise

Harry Reid and Boehner need to learn to share the prize

And while they fuss and argue, I just sit around and rot

Rooted to the couch and rarely moving from my spot

Getting nothing done is not the way to spend my Fall

You guys better hurry or I’ll never move at all!

Never Gonna Happen

Another day, another drawing challenge. This one was to draw a picture based on the phrase, "Two friends looked longingly at what could never be." Of course, first thoughts go to forbidden love or unfulfilled dreams, but then I decided to go in a slightly different direction...

Click the picture to make it bigger, or click here for the really big version.

My Little Pangolin

No pancakes, but yesterday's challenge was to draw your favorite animal in the style of a TV cartoon character. Of course it had to be a pangolin...

Medicine Man

So here's the final picture from yesterday. The challenge was to draw a dark, mysterious man with a strange hat. I based my drawing on this picture of an Inuit medicine man from around 1900. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Click here to see the high resolution version I submitted.

Aurora

Today I started working on a new challenge drawing, and I thought I'd begin with the background. Unfortunately, that's as much as I've gotten done so far. But since I'm pretty happy with it, and since a lot of it will be covered up in the final picture, I thought I'd post it here as a nice little landscape on its own.

Drawtober - Day 2 - A Girl and her Robot

So, admittedly, yesterday's drawing was pretty quick and rough. That's mainly because it didn't warrant much work, but also because I wanted to finish up this one, which I've been working on (i.e. putting off) for a few days. Anyway, the theme is "A Girl and her Robot", and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Click here for the robo-sized version!

Drawtober - Day 6 - Favorite Song

Today's Drawtober challenge: Draw something inspired by a song you like. This picture is based on the first lyrics that came to mind - so I gave the picture the time and attention to detail such a fine song deserves...

"How about some red beans and rice?"

A Science "Joke"

Today's Drawtober challenge: a comic using items sitting on your desk as characters. Since I have some things on my desk that most (normal) people don't, this led to a pretty strange comic.

For the full-resolution image, click here!

(Note: The other request is under consideration. To do it the way I want will take a little time...)

Shutdown, Day 5

October 5 is Do Something Nice Day and World Teacher Day. In light of what's been going on recently, I thought they tied together nicely...

Today is the day to go do something nice

And you don’t have to stop, you can then do it twice

And if you’re in doubt who to do something for

It’s World Teacher Day, they’re the ones to adore

So Congress, in honor of both of these days

Let me go back to work, please, with no more delays!

Rain Station

Today's drawing is another entry into the DeviantArt Drawtober challenge. (Visit my DeviantArt page here to see a higher-resolution version of this.) Today's challenge was: "Draw something inspired by this snippet: 'By the time I reached the train station, she was gone, and I stood there in the rain.' "  At first I didn't think I was going to do one for that theme because it seemed a little depressing and I want to draw happy pictures, but then I started thinking about animating the rain and the umbrella drip, and here's the result...

Jupiter Jackalope

This month the art hosting site DeviantArt is hosting a project called Drawtober. (Click here to go to my gallery over there.) Every day they give a different drawing cue, to be made with the program Sketchbook Pro. Coincidentally, I just happened to install that very program on my new tablet. So here's today's challenge - a classical mythological creature on another planet. It's a Jackalope on Jupiter's moon Io...

The Astronaut's Speech

This evening I went to an astronaut’s speech

He talked about all of the things that we teach

Of staying in school and of following dreams

Persisting no matter how dark it all seems

He talked about spacewalks, he’s done quite a few

All the things that he’s done are what I’d like to do

He’s flown in the shuttle, he’s launched seven times

(While I’m sitting here making sketches and rhymes)

As I heard all his stories I had to look back

On the chances I’ve missed and the skills that I lack

Cause our choices in life make it branch like a tree

And if things had been different it could have been me

It could have been me signing books for a crowd

With a stellar career that makes everyone proud

It could have been me soaring up into space

With a heavenly view of the whole human race

And it could have been me with those medals and pins

Enough to fill boxes and baggies and bins

But instead of a life filled with rockets and flight

My own humble home’s what awaits me tonight

When I get there my girls are asleep in their beds

So I whisper good night and kiss each on their heads

And I realize if anything changed in my life

I wouldn’t be here with my daughters and wife

So despite how attractive that “What If?” game seems

Sometimes it works out when you table your dreams

Shutdown, Day 1

I should have been leading a classroom today

It’s the end of our class, and I don’t mean to grouch

But a nice graduation where videos play

Was cancelled, instead I sat home on the couch

We should have been mapping and seeing the planes

And building a circuit board out of some shapes

But the government’s yanked on our old funding reins

Where there should have been honey there’s now sour grapes

And I get why they argue and put on their show

The House says, “We won’t fund this law, it’s just dumb”

Then the Senate replies with a petulant “No!”

In the meantime I’m squashed under government’s thumb

So tomorrow another class misses the end

And the kids for the rest of the week go without

Their program finale, while I will just spend

All my time on my couch ‘til they sort it all out

(Note: The program where I work is funded through the Department of Defense, so we're not allowed to go to work or have any of our student groups come in as long as this shutdown continues. Since our schedule is full for the entire school year, I don't know when or if these kids will get to make up their missed program days. Won't somebody think of the children!)