Drawtober Eve

So some of you might have been noticing
A trend that’s been going on here
I’m heavily featuring poetry
With not many drawings, I fear

But there is a reason I’m doing this
Tomorrow’s a fabulous day
It’s my deviantArt anniversary
And Drawtober is starting! Hooray!

It’s a month full of pictures of everything
Every day there’s a new drawing prompt
And I’m going to try to do all of them
Wish me luck so I don’t end up swamped!

And some might be close to a masterpiece
While others are terribly lame
Either way, it’s enforced creativity
And that’s the whole point of the game

So prepare for a month full of randomness
I can’t tell you what you might see here
But I know that the prompts can be interesting
I’ve been waiting for this day all year!

Garden Window

Can you guess what was installed today? I'm so excited I wrote a little song about it (which, now that I think about it, might bear a slight resemblance to another song about a little yellow bath time friend.... What a coincidence!)

Oh, Garden Window, you’re the one,
You make dishes lots of fun,
Garden Window, I’m kind of enthralled with you;
(Bo bo-bo de oh!)

Garden Window, joy of joys,
When you open, there’s no noise!
Garden Window, you can close again when I’m through!

(chorus)
Oh, Every day when I
Make my way to the kitchen
I’ll see an open vista that’s
Wide and green and bewitchin’
(Come see what you’re missin’!)

Garden Window, you’re so fine
And I’m happy that you’re mine
Garden Window, I’m kind of enthralled with you!

(repeat chorus)

Garden Window, you’re so fine
And I’m happy that you’re mine
Garden Window, I’m kind of enthralled with - 
Now I wish the whole house had been walled with - 
Garden Window, I’m surely enthra-a-a-a-lled with you!



And here are the pictures!

If you look carefully, you can see where I stopped mowing last night because it got dark!

Click to embiggen

Mowing In The Dark

I tried to mow the yard tonight
I couldn’t get it done
And not because I’m lazy or
I wasn’t having fun
The mower had some issues but
I still could make it run
I simply couldn’t see due to
The setting of the sun

Yes, the setting of the sun made it
Impossible for me
I tried to keep on going but
I ran into a tree
My wife, she had a garden, now
She hasn’t got a pea
And I’m really, really sorry but
I really couldn’t see!

And I’d rather not discuss what happened
To the neighbor’s cat
I somehow wound up in their yard
I shouldn’t have done that
The darkness made it hard for me
To tell where I was at
But I think it might get used to having
Fur that’s shaved down flat

And so, my friends, please listen to
The moral of this tale
If you try to mow in darkness
It will be to no avail
Cause although you’ll see a little
While the moon is shining pale
If you’re mowing while it’s dark out then
You’re surely bound to fail

Koala

Happy Saturday! Here's a friendly koala.

Friday

It’s Friday! You know what that means?
Time to party like drunken Marines!
Ha ha, that’s a lie
A good time for this guy
Is a couch and some gadgets with screens

The Wink Writes Back

Way back in May I wrote a poem
About a strange event
A lady winked at me and I 
Was not sure what it meant

But then we went our separate ways
I never thought I’d see
Or hear from her again, it’s just
A distant memory

But then today, out of the blue,
A letter in the mail
Addressed specifically to me
So what did it entail?

She’d read about my nice award
And wanted to express
Congratulations for my prize
And yet I couldn’t guess

How she remembered who I was
From that one far off date
But she’s not wrong when she says I
Make Indiana great

And so tonight I send my thanks
Sincerely out to her
I’m grateful for this note from our
Lieutenant Governor!

(Don't believe me? Here's a scan of the letter itself! I'm actually a little blown away by it.)

Bluebird

Here's hoping everyone has a very happy National Bluebird of Happiness Day!

The New Girl

This morning I met our new teammate at work. Now I can't stop thinking about her! I even wrote a little poem about her:

Is the new girl attractive? Yes, very!
When I stare I try not to be scary
But she’s taking it well
Cause she has a thick shell
Say hello to our terrapin, Terri


And here's a picture:

Isn't she cute? She's a midland painted turtle. Our office manager thought we needed a pet at work. She's been raising her since she was the size of a quarter. Now she's the size of my hand (the turtle, not our office manager!) and apparently she pays me more attention when I'm teaching my classes than some of the students do. What a smart turtle!

Elephant Ice Cream

Today is both Elephant Appreciation Day and National Ice Cream Cone Day. I had no choice but to draw this....

Armadillo

Happy Sunday! Here's an armadillo!

A Splendid Day

Today has been a splendid day
My sister’s home from weeks away

Her husband’s celebrating, too
So happy birthday, John, to you!

This morning we had fun, as well
A local festival is swell

It honors Johnny Appleseed
And did we go there? Yes, indeed!

There was a large and surging crowd
But we were brave and were not cowed

We got a broom and lemonade
An apple dumpling, freshly made

We saw a lot of things and then
For lunch we went for Mexican

The next part was the highlight, though
We got dressed up and got to go

Off to a dinner, all for free
They called me up and gave to me

A nice award, it was so dear,
They named me Teacher of the Year!

So thank you to the AFA
This truly was a splendid day!


(I realize this is a goofy little poem, but I sincerely want to wish my brother-in-law a very happy birthday and I'm incredibly honored to be named the 2014 Elementary Teacher of the Year by the Fort Wayne Chapter of the Air Force Association.)

Octo-whoops!

An octopus used all his legs
To juggle about twenty eggs
But he got distracted
The eggs all impacted
And now he’s engulfed in the dregs

Pirate Day 2014

Shiver me timbers, me hearties, it’s here!
Tomorrow, it be the best day of the year
So don’t be a lubber, partake in the cheer
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, mates!

Ye never say “yes”, in its place ye say “aye!”
A beauty’s a woman, a bucko’s a guy
And up in the crow’s nest yer touchin’ the sky
On Talk Like a Pirate Day, mates!

So go weigh yer anchor, prepare to set sail
Cause adventure be yers, if ye can, without fail
Just be mutterin' “arrr” every time ye exhale
On Talk Like a Pirate Day, mates!

Spotty Graduation

By request from my sister, who will soon finish her training to be a Chaplain's Assistant (NOT an Assistant Chaplain!) Congratulations!

Collect Rocks Day

Happy National Collect Rocks Day!! (All the windows are in and looking great, except for the garden window and the new shutters, which we're still waiting on. However, when I saw that today celebrates rock collecting, I just had to write something about that!)



As a guy who once studied the Earth and its rocks
I urge you to gather some up in a box

Then take them all home and explore what you’ve found
Keep the ones that you like, throw the rest on the ground

As simple as that you’ll have found you’ve begun
A nice rock collection, now isn’t that fun?

But then, once you’ve got them, the fun doesn’t end
You could try to decide what you’ve got there, my friend!

Perhaps it’s an igneous sample you’ve got
Like basalt, which is cool now but started off hot

Or perhaps metamorphic is more of your thing
A nice piece of gneiss could make anyone sing

Sedimentary rocks could be there in your hand
Some solidified chunks of a beach full of sand

And fossils are cool, even though they’re long dead
From a small trilobite to a dinosaur head

If you’re lucky you might find a meteorite
That blazed through the sky in the middle of night

But really, you don’t need to know all that stuff

As long as you like how it looks, that’s enough!

Taft

Well, the windows aren't completely in yet. They need to come back tomorrow to finish up some of the trim and the kitchen garden window and shutters are still being assembled at the factory, so they'll be installed at a later date. In the meantime, I have to post something else tonight, so...

Happy Birthday, William Howard Taft!

Old Windows

Tomorrow we're getting our new windows installed. Today we spent most of the day clearing everything away (furniture, plants, pictures from the walls, and so much more!) from all our current windows and the big sliding back door. Now they seem so isolated with nothing else nearby...

Early Birthday Poem

Today is my birthday!
I turn forty-three
So here is a present
I’m giving to me

I’m posting this early
Then going to bed
So the rest of the day
This won’t hang overhead

And now I am free
From a job to be done
And you should be too
So go out and have fun!

Cupcake

Grumble Grumble

My wife got a new phone today
It’s a little unfair, I must say
Cause we paid the amount
From our checking account
But for mine, I alone had to pay!

(Actually, she needed a new one because her old one won't hold a battery charge anymore and we got her the same type that I and my mom are using from Republic Wireless, but if I was being completely rational, I wouldn't have an excuse to grumble.)

Edit - After re-reading the last line of the poem, I realized the meter was way off and it was just completely terrible! So I replaced the offending line with the current one and I apologize to anyone who actually had to suffer through the previous version!

Scooping the Rice

Some chicken powder, ain't that nice
Some veggies and a scoop of rice

Then in a bag and seal it tight
Repeat five hundred times tonight

We made these packages to feed
Some hungry Haitian kids in need

And now that we have done our best
I think I’ve earned a night of rest



(Tonight at our church we packaged food to be shipped to Haiti. We ended up with nearly 4 pallets of boxes which equals over 21,000 meals. I'm happy but exhausted!)

Feeling Foxy

Another Award

So my boss has been writing away
With apparently nice things to say
Cause today I was floored
By another award
It’s for best Science teacher! Hooray!

Explanation - recently my boss has apparently been nominating me for as many awards as he can find. A few weeks ago, I found out that I would be receiving the Teacher of the Year award from the Fort Wayne chapter of the Air Force Association (which focuses on teachers of STEM and aerospace topics). Then today at lunchtime, in front of the whole class, he announced that I would be receiving the Education Award from Fort Wayne Business Weekly in the Science K-12 category. (The issue with the winners should come out by the end of the week.) I'm a little overwhelmed and so thankful that I have such a supportive boss! Thanks, Scott!

Cassowary Experiment - Part 2

Okay, here it is. The long-awaited final result of my little experiment. First I'll post the picture, then add my thoughts.

I didn't crop the scan as much as usual specifically to show the amount of warping of the paper. Clearly it did not enjoy getting wet. However, it appears like the warping is worse along the top right where the clouds are and with the grass along the bottom. That's where I used the bigger, wetter brush. In fact, there were some places in the sky where the paper was starting to turn gray and spotty from the absorbed water, but that went away as it dried. The warping doesn't look as bad around the head. That's where I used the very fine brush to do a small patch of color and then immediately dab it dry with a paper towel. Next time I'll probably try wetting and stretching the paper before painting, just like a real watercolor artist would do.

Looking at the color itself, it blended together nicely when wet but ended up very pale. I'll have to remember to color darker with the pencils, or maybe I can do some interesting effects by layering (color with pencil, brush wet, let dry, repeat).

Finally, I'm very happy with how the ink wasn't affected at all by the water. It stayed completely black and didn't run or smear, even while gently scrubbing the wet brush over it. This means I should be able to do my ink drawing and then wet and stretch the paper (so if I mess up on the sketch, I can just redraw it on untreated paper rather than wasting another day doing another wet and dry paper conditioning cycle).

In short, it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to this time, but I've got some ideas to make it better in the future.

Cassowary Experiment - Part 1

Tonight I'm trying a little artistic experiment. I have this old set of watercolor pencils that I've never used, so I figured this was as good a time as any to try them out.

These are the questions I'm trying to answer:
- Will the ink run when it gets wet?
- How will the paper react to getting wet (how much will it curl/wrinkle)?
- How vibrant will the final colors be?
- How well will the colors blend together? Will they look like a real watercolor painting?
- And basically, how good are the results from this technique?

Here's how it's going to work. First, I'll draw something with my good old standby Staedtler pigment liner pens on the nice, white 5x7 cardstock I typically use. I chose to draw a cassowary. (I didn't put much time into this step, I just needed something for the experiment.)

Next, I colored it in with the pencils. I started with the lightest colors filling large areas, then added darker, more vibrant colors on top of them. I wasn't trying to be particularly careful with the coloring or blending the colors because I wanted to see how the water would affect it. I also added the clouds and grass to see what it would look like without the ink outlines.

Finally I got a cup of water, a couple of brushes (one medium-small, one very fine) and some paper towels and started wetting it down. I used the very fine brush on the head and leg details, and with wetter, broader strokes on the feathers. I used the medium-small for the clouds and grass. It's drying now, and you'll get to see the final result tomorrow! Stay tuned!

An Unfortunate Gaffe

A pangolin and a giraffe
Made a rather unfortunate gaffe
Their barista, a cow,
Glared and furrowed her brow
When they ordered their coffee half-calf

football time

me get me some pizza and beer
me sometimes be yelling big cheer
for this me been waiting all year
me glad finally football time here

me glad that me wife will allow
me to watch football right now
me sure think that football is wow
but wife she say football lowbrow

me not really sure what she mean
maybe me wife has not seen
the game on me big plasma screen
it making the football look keen

me wife sit on couch to me right
she say boy those pants sure are tight
she say that a real pretty sight
me think football done for the night



(As I sit here watching the Seahawks and the Packers face off in the first NFL game of the year, I think it's a little disturbing how easily this "poem" (?) flowed onto the screen, even though I don't actually have a plasma screen and my wife was in the other room. As I wrote it, I was trying to channel my inner Neanderthal, but now that I re-read it, it almost sounds like my inner Cookie Monster instead!)

Gnarled Tree

One more from the sketchbook

Sir Spotsalot

Me: "Oh, won't somebody help me? I'm feeling uninspired and need someone to be my salvation and muse!"

Sir Spotsalot: "Moo*"

* translation: "I would, but without opposable thumbs I'm having a tough time picking up this sword."

Return of the Childhood

This morning my daughter appeared by my bed
“You’ve got to get up and come down now!” she said

“I’ve been waiting all night, now I’ve just got to see
How the whole story ends!” she was yelling at me

You see, all summer long many hours we’d spend
Watching Star Wars, complete, from beginning to end

The movies were great, and “The Clone Wars” was fun
And today was the day for the very last one

I selected “Return of the Jedi”, hit play
Off we went to that galaxy far, far away

As we sat on the couch it was simply sublime
Watching her watching it for the very first time

And I realized, with time, that my role’s been reversed
She’s now the same age as when I saw it first

But now that we’re done, I’m a little perplexed
I’ve got to decide what we’re gonna view next

We could always choose Star Trek with Sulu and Spock
Or Back to the Future with Marty and Doc

Perhaps some adventures with old Doctor Jones
And the Ark and the Grail and those Indian stones

But whichever I choose as we usher in Fall
Spending time with my daughter’s the best choice of all