Welcome Home Camel

Just got back from a lovely family dinner at my mom's (nachos and chili - yum!) to welcome my little sister back from her recent overseas deployment. Since she was gone for Christmas, I gave her her yearly drawing today. This year she requested a camel.

Superb Owl Sunday

Hey everybody! Happy Superb Owl Sunday (unless you're a Patriots fan, I guess...)

Edit: Wow - I guess that's what I get for posting before the game is over!

Nothing to see here

Today I'm sketching some ideas for future pictures, but nothing ready for public viewing yet. Stay tuned!

Back To Work

Today I head back to my job
With a big elementary mob
And though no days remain
My vacation's made plain
I prefer sitting 'round like a blob

Epiphany

Today I got to read the scripture in church about the arrival of the magi. The camel is just because I felt like drawing a camel.

Anybody There?

So I'm checking my postings and it seems everyday
That I'm getting from 6 to 8 views
But it gives me no data on who has stopped by
So I end up all sad and confused

And I wonder if anyone's reading this thing?
Do they like it a little or lots?
Does my audience have any people in it
Or is it just trackers and bots?

So if you're a person who's reading this thing
Post a comment or note to say "hi"
And if you have stuff that you'd like me to draw
I'd be happy to give it a try

Owl Be There For You

Not much new going on - back to school and work for everyone but me! I'm still on vacation until next Monday. Tonight I'm trying some different brushes and effects on a quick little owl.

Yes, I know the head looks a little like a cat. Whoooo cares?

Plus, I just discovered a new feature! This program I'm using automatically saves everything I do while drawing and then can play it back as a time lapse video! Wanna see how Mr. Owl was created? Of course you do!

Nebula 1

Feeling a little better - still not 100% but getting there. Here's another quick little space scene. I wanted to make it a little brighter than the first one and played around with the lighting and textures on the dark clouds and asteroids.

Still Ill

Another day's done
    And I'm still feeling icky
A headachy, queasy and
    Tired old sicky

Since I don't feel like drawing
    You just get this verse
And if I'm not well soon
    You're sure to get worse!

Fountain

So I've been doing something a little different with these posts - creating them the day before then posting at midnight so they're relevant for the entire day. This works well for things that you can plan for, like holidays. Then there are days like today.

Today (actually now it's yesterday, Monday) my wife and I spent most of the day either asleep or in the bathroom after we both came down with a nasty little stomach bug. I had the added excitement of almost throwing up at my daughter's orthodontist appointment in the afternoon! Now that it's night, I'm feeling somewhat better and have (so far) been able to keep down a little food and water. In fact, I felt so much better that I was able to take a few minutes and sketch up this little doodle which is, of course, just a happy little picture and is in no way relevant to the way I've been feeling today. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to bed.

It's so splashy!

Galaxy

Nora asked me to draw a galaxy for her, so being the good and caring daddy that I am,  I started looking into how to do it with Procreate (the art program I've been using on my shiny new iPad Pro). And oh boy, did I hit the jackpot. I found 16 free, downloadable space art brushes that allow me to easily draw a variety of star fields, nebulae, bright stars, etc. So, with just a little playing around, I was able to make this for her. I'm very happy with this first attempt and I'm looking forward to really seeing what I can do with this in the future.

(Click for full size - can you find the astronaut?)

2017!

Happy New Year!

Despite everyone complaining, 2016 was a pretty good year for me. I was awarded a nice fat grant, traveled to Daytona Beach to begin training as a citizen-scientist astronaut, earned my PADI scuba certification and got to help test a new spacesuit design while floating weightless above Ottawa. 2017, you have a lot to live up to! (Luckily, there are quite a few things in the pipeline that I'm looking forward to.)

I'm also going to do my best to get back in the habit of posting something here every day. It might be a poem, it might be a drawing, it might even be something good (but don't hold your breath!) I am going to work at getting better at digital art, so there could be more works-in-progress than in the past. We'll just have to wait and see what shows up.

So once again, Happy New Year! Here's to a bright and shiny 2017!