A Story Please

If I was a vulture, I'd still like someone to read me a good storybook.
Just a quick, impromptu, "let's see what comes out of my pencil" kind of sketch.
Scribbling allowed and encouraged.

Finding a Place to Stand...

Found a nice little 1934 Lincoln Wheat Penny in the dryer today when I pulled my shirts out of the dryer at the apartment laundrymat. I wonder what places (and pockets) it's been during its lifetime...


Got an Archimedes quote (of sorts) in my fortune cookie the other day:
"Find a place to stand, and move the world."
Haven't found it yet...could say that that is my main work-in-progress.


The sketches I posted today are more of those ideas from that ongoing personal projects concept library that have been drifting around in my mind, some for many years...some going through revision after revision of mental sketching before I finally actually put them down on paper. For example, a couple are from a story I first read when I was 11 years old, way back in the summer of '76. Others are from more recent random blips of inspiration. Somehow, survival and the daily grind of work (gotta pay those bills!) always got in the way.


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My Uncle Al died.

It's been close to 15 years, possibly longer, since I've seen him. I did hear about him now and again, from either my cousin (his daughter), or my aunt (his 2nd ex-wife and my mom's sister).

One of the earliest memories I have of this uncle (one of the four men that was actually part of what I consider my immediate circle of family when I was growing up), was when I was about 4 years old. My mother, my 2 yr-old baby sister and I were visiting him, my aunt and my cousin who was just a couple of months older than me. At some point during those first few days, my uncle found out that my little sister still liked to suck her thumb; especially when she was upset and definitely when she was napping. He didn't like that. How did I know? My uncle Al told me that if he caught her sucking that thumb while she was napping, he would cut it off. And as he told me this, he took out his pocket knife and folded out the blade so that I could see what her thumb would get cut off with. Terrified, I remember standing next to my sister's bed during that nap, reaching over to pull her thumb out of her mouth at least twice, maybe more, before my aunt discovered me doing so and asked me why. I told her that Uncle Al had told me that he would cut her thumb off if he caught her sucking on it again, and I didn't want that to happen. My aunt scolded my uncle the rest of the day for that bit of fun.

I was such a gullible kid.

He did tell me later that he was just kidding...

More Castle sketching

More pencil sketching. I'll post some more after tomorrow.

Friday the 13th Twisters

When the wife of one of my co-workers was sent home early from her North Dallas office because of the bad weather forecast, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get home early myself so I left at 5:30pm instead of my usual 6:30 to 7pm. Plus, I definitely wanted to get my car under the covered parking I have at my apartment complex. I already have dings and dents from a bit of hail damage at work from the previous year (we're in a large warehouse location with open parking), and do NOT need all the windows broken - especially since the weather forecast included the potential for golfball sized hail.

Pictures from the local news show the 4 twisters that swept through the North Texas area around 6pm as well as the hail. It wasn't fun hearing all the sirens going off and the pounding of the hail on the roof and the day turning into the dark of night as the storm passed over; while I was tucked away with my pillows and blankets in case the roof blew off...it didn't. My cat Tabby sat with me - the others hid under the bed. They didn't like the noise either.

Interesting fact I found out - the billboards that were twisted like bits of paper and scattered over in Haltom City (next to Ft Worth) were built to withstand straightline winds of over 100 miles an hour.

Sketching

Some WIPs - a couple of very rough sketches of potential layouts for a previous illustration project.

It's Spring?

It snowed early this weekend. But it's April...and today is Easter. From what I've been hearing in the news, just last year it was close to 90 degrees on this day. The latest snow that I can recall since I've lived in Texas was March 28th. So I figured it was safe to plant some new flowers (for pretty) and herbs (for cooking) in my patio boxes - and, of course, I had to bring them all in for the weekend so they wouldn't freeze. That's Texas for you, I guess.

Happy Easter!

And check out this funny little bunny video to celebrate those sinful little bunnies of Easter past...as I vaguely recall from one of my old art history lectures at university, bunnies in early christian religious art were symbols to represent the "sin of lust" possibly to challenge the old pagan fertility association. What fun!

Have some more freelance illustration going on for the next few days (wee), but as I wait to get approvals on my concepts I keep on with my own work as much as possible. I'll post some of the work in progress from that in the next few days.

Behold the Enemy