Draw Like Nobody's Watching

Yesterday I was thinking about all the art classes I used to take in school, and all the silly exercises we had to do in them. One that I always enjoyed was drawing pictures without looking. It never turns out right, but I like that the distorted drawings are something I probably wouldn't be able to produce if I was looking. So I decided to draw a few for old times' sake, without looking at the paper as I was drawing.

Guess Who!

Look at these cute little characters! They are part of a brochure that I got to help create. I did very little, really. I drew some simple cartoony character sketches, and then my coworker Greg Lookerse colored them and designed the poster they're being used for. Now, normally when I draw anything, I want to do it all myself. No teamwork where I draw something and hand it off to be colored by somebody else. Maybe I have trust issues. Well, art-trust-issues, at least. But coloring is my least favorite part, so I agreed to do illustrations-only and let Greg color them in. And I was so happy I did! I love the finished product. Not to mention, I now use his shading techniques (like how the girl's shirt is two shades of green) whenever I color in my own cartoons. It's like he brought my characters to life, and he showed me how to shade properly. Win-win.

I gave Greg these sketches and then he made them wonderful and colorful! 

And I didn't have to do any of the hard parts!

So maybe teamwork isn't so bad.

It might just be the best thing ever.

Anna Howard Shaw Day

Ahhh, February 14th. We meet again.

I'm celebrating Valentine's Day by lying on a couch all day with an icepack on my cheek.

Because yesterday I had dental surgery, and today I'm recuperating. Coincidentally, I realized that I went to the dentist on Valentine's Day last year. I only remember this fact because I remember thinking it was cool that 30 Rock's Liz Lemon also went to the dentist on Valentine's Day one year. So apparently this is my new tradition, and one that I think Liz would approve of. In the episode, Liz insists on telling everyone that they should be celebrating "Anna Howard Shaw Day" (Shaw was a leader of the women's suffrage movement) instead of Valentine's Day. This is, of course, ridiculous...but if I ever see Liz Lemon in the dentist office on Valentine's Day, I'm pretty sure this is going to be my opening line.

Rainbow Rain

This is the latest stencil I've spraypainted on my office wall. 

It went like something this:

I was hoping the paint would be drippier than it was. 

I was using coffee stirrer straws to get the paint on the wall, and it was not a cooperative process.

The spraypaint wall is getting pretty lively:

The best part (and really, I mean the very best part) is that the girl/umbrella stencil was cut out of an oversized 'N Sync birthday card I've had in my room at my parents' house since I was in high school.

My Week in Sketches

 A few sketches from my days last week: 

I spent most of Superbowl Sunday visiting friends, eating great salad, 

and listening to the Hunger Games audiobook as I drove home. It was fantastic. 

A typical dinner with my housemates: 

My friend got engaged!

I don't know why I felt the need to draw the coffee cup in her hand,

but she was holding a cup of coffee when I first saw the ring, so I guess it had to be included.

This is me, driving anywhere and everywhere I could think of, 

just so I could listen to more of the Hunger Games audiobook in my car:

Tomorrow I have a 2.5 hour drive and I can hardly wait! 

The second Hunger Games audiobook is beckoning!

The Hunger Games

Boy, I kept hearing people talking about "The Hunger Games" book trilogy, and I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. I read the books' descriptions and they didn't entice me. But last weekend I knew I had a two-hour car ride on Saturday and another two-hour car ride on Sunday, and that's a perfect audiobook storm. I've become rather addicted to audiobooks, perfect for long car rides, and now that's how I want to read every book. (So just when I thought I couldn't get any lazier, I make the decision that I won't read a book unless someone is reading it to me. Fantastic.) Once I got into the first Hunger Games book, I realized it was my kind of story. Come on, a girl running around a forest climbing trees with a bow and arrow? That's my kind of heroine. I'm into it. And I can't help but picture myself up in those trees...

Horseboy

Today's drawing was inspired by a friend of mine who casually mentioned that she rode her pet cow once.

I was taken aback first by the thought that anyone actually has a pet cow, and then I found myself blurting out "Why don't people ride cows more often?" I was asking this for real. Not mocking. Suddenly it seemed like such a logical mode of transportation. My friend explained something about how cows aren't built for that sort of thing, but I still couldn't shake the idea that, at some point, people must have tried it out to see what kind speed and dependability you could get riding a cow...and I wager it would have looked something like this.