Lent

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.

(The pictures don't look as nice without white in the background.)

More Chesterton- this is a good one! :)

You know you live in Missouri...

... when you are outside barefoot one day, and the next morning you wake up to sleet and ice.

I wonder if putting the snow effect on my blog yesterday has anything to do with it? (lol!)

At least, it is not as bad as last year, when the boys were out in shorts and short sleeves, and two hours later, it was twenty degrees and snowing.

Snow

Yes, that is snow you see falling all over my blog! It's been nasty out, in my opinion, not warm enough to play outside very long, but not cold enough to turn the drizzles we had a few days ago into snow.
So, I put snow on my blog.

If you want to put it on yours, copy this:



Open up "blog layout", click "Add a Gadget" and paste it in!

"How To"... Just Because

How to do a "pen and pencil" drawing, which is what alot of my artwork that are not sketches are.
1) Draw a rough sketch of the picture and trace the outline. This is usual the hardest part- especially picking out what you are going to draw!!! (btw I'm not left-handed, I was just erasing with that hand. lol)


2) Color in the main shadows with the pen. At this point, the picture should look like a half-finished ink drawing. (This usual takes the longest, because you are figuring out how you really want the picture to look.)

3) Pull out your trusty colored pencils, and...

... color it in! Use those shadows you colored in before! Don't be afraid to pull out your pens and go over any black line that gets smeared by pencil.

4) Add in shadows (you don't want your people floating in mid-air, do you?) and a background (I didn't draw a background on mine because the picture did not turn out the way I wanted it to...)
The effect is a fun picture with very dramatic lighting!
Volia!

But WAIT! We're not done!

Step 5) Take pictures of the drawing from weird angles, just because you can!



and... 6) Post them on your blog because you think that the picture above is simply hilarious!

A Duck

For some reason unknown even to myself, I have not been doing that much art lately. Just not inspired. Yesterday, however, I undertook the gigantic (and I mean humongous) task of organizing my desk- which meant sorting all the art supplies stashed in little nooks and crannies. I also found an old birdwatching book. I opened it to a random page, pulled out my trusty pencils, and drew a duck. Not sure what kind of duck, but it's a pretty duck with a shiny green head. :) I actually spent more than 15 minutes on this picture- a record of about one and a half hours! I'm a little surprised I managed to spend that much time drawing without stopping in the middle and going and doing something else, as usual, but... here is my attempt!

This is my first "plain colored pencil" drawing in a long time. Plus, the photo I was copying was four inches big... not the best size for detail!

Chesterton and Lewis

Today, I was reading The Club of Queer Trades; Speculation of the House Agent by G.K. Chesterton. I came across this interesting quote:

Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction... for fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore it is congenial to it.

G.K. Chesterton is great. He throws out these one-liners, like this one, in the middle of a funny mystery story.
Anyway, this quote made me think of C.S. Lewis' idea that the old religions, like the Greek and Roman myths, were based in part on truth. The truth that the Romans knew were the good things they saw every day- the sun, the water, the growing of plants, kindness, mercy, justice; for God had not revealed Himself to them. They built a strange religion around these and invented a god for each of the traits that belonged to the true God. (someone who actually knows about mythology could explain better).
Yet, however strange those myths are, think of something that is even stranger. One God created the entire universe, and created planets, stars, trees, plants, and animals. He created a rational animal in His own image- Man. Mankind turned from Him, abandoning His truth for the lies of a fallen angel. God sent His own Son into the world. His Son suffered at the hands of Mankind, and died. Then He rose from the dead. By doing this, God saved Man from evil, if only they would listen to Him and follow Him. Now, Man has a chance of living forever in Heaven, a place of everlasting joy.
You see? That is so very strange, if you really think about it. It trumps the Greek myths by far! Yet Christianity is the truth. That God is the true God.
Anyway... just your interesting thought of the day. :)

Valentine's Day cards

I made Valentine's for all the girl in the play. (The Pirates of Penzance) Here are some pictures: (click on the picture to blow it up)





Other Valentines

And the birthday card for Elise. :-)

Happy Valentine's Day (a day late)

The Long-Awaited Pictures

It was so nice out on Thursday! Then it had to go and get all cold again. Brr. Yesterday I only grabbed a sweatshirt on my way to play practice, and BRR! And I normally don't get cold at all...

The "Mudball King". No kidding.

Playing in the mud

Marcus reminds my of James Hamacher in this picture. Not sure why...

Our broken tree. :-(

Our not-broken tree. :-)

The often-fought-over hammocks. I can't believe that no one was sitting in them...

Aww. Markie is just too sweet.

On our rock wall.
I love my camera. :-)