Illustration Friday: "Wisdom"

Its amazing to note how many places wisdom can be garnered if your willing to soak it in. A good book, the news, even potentially the internet are all obvious choices, but there are so many other places where wisdom is sitting on her doorstep with a tall glass of lemonade, an open door, and a giant welcome mat ready to take in all who dare embark for the visit. Yet all too often we seem oblivious to her invitations, and we don't realize the wisdom we've soaked in until years later. Such was the case with my grandparents. Most every Sunday we'd travel to visit, and I'd sit with my 'gampie' and look at all the pictures while he read the comics section to me. There were many other wonderful moments shared on those weekend afternoons, but for that brief moment, it was a treasure trove of joy and knowledge to me. Its a tradition I strive to keep with my own children, to share even a few minutes to read to them, no matter how small it may seem. Hopefully one day they may share similar sentiments as I.


We sat with the paper
And read through the capers
Of Opus, Calvin or Brown
And gaze at the fixtures
Containing the pictures
That bore to themselves wisdoms crown

Doodle Oodle Dojo

Similar to The Drawing Board's Drawing Jam, Paintmonster's Drawing Dojo offers participants an opportunity to draw their impressions of a choice of weekly images. I find it to be an entertaining excersize, and its always a pleasure to see how many different interpretations can be achieved from one single image. I haven't managed to participate in a while, but recently I managed to squeeze out two sketches for it.



On a side note to go back to the whole IF: aging topic, I suppose I did have something that would have qualified.

I'd worked on it as a bit of a retake on an older image while trying to come up with an idea for it, but I didn't really want to use it as the actual image, cuz I figured I could do something better. Well, perhaps I can, but I didn't manage to get it done in time. I think I tend to overthink things from time to time. Ah I guess it could be worseTo scribble on paper
Can be quite a caper
When wanting to bend them just so
I'll scribble, erase
Or mark with some haste
But worst is when crumpled they go

Illustration Friday: "Empty"

I'd tried to do an IF image for last week's aging topic, but unfortunately the image I've got in mind is ending up being more time consuming than I'd previously thought. So I decided I'd place it on the backburner for the time being and work on one for this weeks topic, 'Empty'. After running around between work and the fam and trying to squeeze a few moments in to pray to the gods of black goo and graphite, I find my noggin to be feeling pretty well empty. Sometimes I wish I could just switch out the ole grey matter to rest while I do the less fun things only to replace it at a later, more enjoyable time. Anyone else ever feel that way?

Rufus Elgrombie was a weary ole Zombie
With tummy all bloated and sore
For he was in mood
To fill with some food
That hole while it hungered for more

He sat down and thought
"People? Theres nary alot.
Too wary of us here you see
But all with good reason
In undeadly season
Innards are hardly for free"

"I wonder, why pain?
When I have me a brain
Up in this skull painted blue
I'll open it up wide
To chomp the pink inside
And find myself empty in 2"

The meaning is this
Tis far better to miss
The fill in one or the other
For while hunger's no fun
Its far better than dumb
Least thats the word from my mother


(edit: It was brought to my attention that the prior image could do without the 'empty' wrote in it, so I tweaked it a little and posted it below. If you feel so inclined, feel free to tell me which one you prefer)

I've Lost My Remote...

...Not that I've ever had control of it for more than 5minutes anyway. I find whenever I do have control of the remote, either I'm the only one home or someone else grabs it the second I look away.
This seems to be the most prevalent during the entire period of baseball season, or at least from opening day till the Sox found some way to screw it up (I know I know, they won it all last year, somehow it still doesn't seem possible) Ah the joys of having Sox fans in the house.
I must admit, I've never really been all that big a fan of the game. I dunno, something about seeing 9 innings of balls being thrown from pitcher to catcher just doesn't keep me engaged enough for my awake senses to stay functioning. Lately I've been tolerating it more (mostly cuz I don't have a choice), but I'm still finding it hard to sit through the entire game.
So I decided instead of just sitting there, I'd at least make an attempt at squeezing a pencil long enough to make some interpretations of the whole thing. If I get the time, theres a couple of them I might like to work out a little more, backgrounds and whatnot. Ah, there's still a couple months left to the season...


Slide into first
And hear the crowd burst
Delight from the all loyal fans
With swings of the bat
Worn gloves, or a cap
Tis that time of year once again

Play Ball!