Putting Up the Tree

Thanksgiving is done

  Black Friday is, too

There was just one more thing

  That we needed to do

To get ready for Christmas

  (Oh, what could it be?)

We hauled out the boxes

  And put up the tree

We put up the lights

  And we plugged them all in

The sparkling glow

  Made the family grin

We hung all the ornaments

  Homemade and not

We covered it all

  Without one empty spot

Now the girls are in bed

  And my wife is as well

But I sit and I bask

  In the Christmas tree’s spell

I’ll turn it off soon

  And call it a night

But not yet, cause I love

  All that color and light

Pancakes!

By popular request (i.e. - being reminded repeatedly) here's a pangolin about to enjoy a large plate of pancakes. This is just a still image - hopefully I'll get it animated in the near future...

Purple Pangolin

Happy Thanksgiving! After dinner tonight, my sister requested a new background screen for her phone. She happened to see this picture I drew back in 2007 and wanted it, but it was just a line drawing - so I added color, a background and a ladybug. Now I need to go slip into a turkey-induced coma...

Holiday Card 2

Another day, another card. The text inside this one says:

For you, these
little puffins raise
Their hopes for
happy holidays!

Here's the front picture:

Holiday Card 1

Over at deviantart, they've started a new project involving holiday cards. (Get all the details here.) Basically, anyone who wants to can create one or more holiday cards and mail it to them by December 16, and they'll pass them out to as many hospital patients as they can. Here's the front of my first one. I'll probably make some more and then send them all in a single package - if anyone else wants to make some, I'd be happy to include them with mine.

Inside text: May your days be merry and bright!

Drawtober Recap

The Drawtober challenge was fun

But sadly, those drawings are done

They chose the top tier

Then posted them here

And just look at the very top one!

(Spoiler - it's my Rain Station picture! I'm completely blown away, especially considering how good a lot of the other submissions are. If the above link doesn't work, go to this address: http://www.sketchbook.com/news/drawtober-wrap-up.html) 

Take My Hand

Another drawing from the archives - this one from 2000.  The original is a pencil sketch on a 3x5 card.

Take my hand and come with me

Into the future, we will see

If dreams of youth will still come true

Or if you'll fail in what you do

Regardless, if you never go

You'll never try and never know

Totes Magotes

A totally ridiculous drawing for an utterly ridiculous phrase...

Friday Night Football

Through ability, karma or fate

Bishop Dwenger has scored thirty eight

While old East Chicago

Scored a whopping zero

Which means Dwenger is going to state!

Dino Days

Have you ever had one of those days when you just feel like drawing a bunch of cartoony dinosaurs...

Red Panda Dreams

Red panda, way up in your tree

Red panda, looking down at me

From on your perch, so high above

I wonder what you’re thinking of

Do you dream of running free

To soar the skies or sail the sea?

Perhaps great fortune is your goal

To buy your very own atoll?

Or do you lust for worldwide fame

While paparazzi scream your name

Do you want to take a cruise?

Or hide away like Howard Hughes?

Be Sherlock Holmes and find some clues

While you peruse the daily news?

Please share your views on what you choose!

He shuts his eyes and starts to snooze

Red Panda

Tonight, a request from my younger daughter. She's doing a project at school on red pandas and she asked me to draw her a picture of one...

Walter Tell

Happy William Tell Day! On November 18, 1307, William Tell was forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son Walter with his crossbow for insulting a local noble. He succeeded and ended up leading a rebellion against the noble.

Octopus

I'll admit it, I didn't put quite as much effort into yesterday's post as I have for some others. To make up for it, tonight I went back to the basics - good old ink on 5x7 cardstock. I chose an octopus to draw because they have interesting shapes and skin textures, and they're generally awesome!

Dreaming of Home

Today we took a road trip to Indianapolis. It went very well and we made it back home safely, but now I'm tired and not feeling like starting a big project - so here's something I've been meaning to do for a while. I want to post some of my old sketches from years ago so just in case something happens (like a giant sinkhole swallows the entire house and I lose all the original drawings) I'll at least have some record of them. However, since this does not technically count as a new drawing, I'm going to add a little poem to each one. Tonight, a picture from 2005 and a haiku...

Astronaut on Mars

Lives his dream yet finds himself

Now dreaming of home

I Love To Write Day

I Love To Write Day is today

A day when words and phrases play

And if you write them down, you’ll see

Your nouns all verb so adverbly

Your similes and metaphors

Pull back the shades, throw open doors

So, unconfined, your thoughts escape

And just might leave the world agape

Yellow Savannah

Another picture in the monochrome series. Tonight - yellow! (and giraffes!)

National Pickle Day

Posting this tonight so you can be properly prepared for a full day of celebrations tomorrow!

On November 14th of each year

Comes a day full of sweetness and cheer

So don’t be a pill

Grab your license to dill

Cause it’s National Pickle Day here!

Autumn Leaves

Tonight just a quick little animation of some falling leaves.

Star and Candle

To all who served, and all who supported them - thank you.

Happy Birthday, Little Sis!

Today is my little sister's birthday! Happy Birthday! I won't say how old she is, but today is a big one. I gave her a card tonight at a family dinner. From her reaction, I think she liked it. Here's the front:

And here's the inside - it folds open from the top:

Newtown Pippins!

Today’s the day I’ve dreamed of

For at least a dozen years

I found some Newtown Pippins

At the farmer’s market here!

It’s my favorite kind of apple

And they’re really hard to find

I tried one in Seattle

And it almost blew my mind

It’s tart like apple cider

And it’s just a little sweet

And even old George Washington

Grew orchards of this treat

But since I had that first one

I’ve been looking for some more

But as a heirloom apple

They’re not sold in any store

I even tried to grow one

In our little backyard here

I bought the tree and planted it

It didn’t last a year

So this morning when I found them

Well, it really made my day

And so I think I’ll end this poem

And eat one right away

Return of the Monsters!

Yup, once again not a lot of time to draw so I went with another page of monsters. I think I have a pretty good excuse, though. Tonight our youngest daughter is staying overnight with a friend, so we decided it was time to give our oldest daughter "The Talk". Now that I think about it, maybe a picture of some birds and bees would have been fitting...

End Of The Road

Another one-color drawing - this time in orange!

Pulchritude

Would it be rude

Or misconstrued

To make a case that ‘pulchritude’

Has been imbued

With meaning you’d

Not expect it to exude

It sounds so lewd

So crass and crude

You might expect it to allude

To nasty food

That’s being chewed

At least that’s what I might conclude

Perhaps a mood

Depressed, subdued,

Where sordid thoughts always intrude

You mope and brood

Your attitude

Makes you a most unhappy dude

Yet ‘pulchritude’

If truth’s pursued

Means beauty bold and ballyhooed

Like hair, shampooed

Or dawn renewed

Extremely pleasing when it’s viewed

The Grim Beaker

So, I've been wanting to do a picture of Beaker from the Muppet Show for a while, but I wanted it to be unusual somehow. Tonight I did a quick search for words that rhyme with or sound like 'beaker', and the word 'reaper' was on the list. Of course, that naturally led to this...

Tut

On November 4, 1922, Howard Carter and George Herbert discovered the tomb of King Tut. Today a news report (promoting an upcoming documentary) claims he died because of a chariot accident and a botched embalming job caused his corpse to spontaneously combust! It's stained glass-style just because I felt like it.

Baninja

Here's my take on a ninja banana.

The Cave

Yesterday I enjoyed using a simplified color scheme so much that I thought I'd try it again. This time I'm catching up with a drawing challenge from last month - the cave of your imagination. As I envision it, the cave of my imagination would be vast, but not dark. There would be many layers, nooks and crannies to explore, filled with countless shining ideas - some, of course, brighter than others. Some of these ideas could be arrived at easily while others would take some effort to reach. A persistent fog would also be present, sometimes almost transparent and revealing spectacular vistas while other times so thick that you wonder if there are any ideas left at all. Luckily with time and dedication, the fog will always eventually clear.

Prime Meridian

Happy Prime Meridian Day! In honor of the spirit of exploration this represents, I'm trying something a little different today. I wanted to try drawing a picture with only 5 shades of the same basic color (lighter to darker), plus white. This is what I came up with...