Best Friends

A dog named Bella and an elephant named Bubbles are best friends.  This just seemed like important news to post.  I hope one doesn't squish the other on accident.

Poseidon (or Neptune?)

I just finished reading one of the Percy Jackson books (Mark of Athena) in preparation for the next one coming out.  Then, I was doing some reading in the Odyssey, because it's an awesome story.  It made me think of how unpleasant it would be to have a god pitted against you, especially if it were the sea god and you were, you know, on the sea, like Odysseus and his men.

So I came up with a character design for Poseidon.  He's got some barnacles, a kelp beard, and a trident that's made of pieces of an old dock.  He also has tattoos which are based on designs found in Minoan paintings.  This is not a guy you want to have mad at you.

sketch

colors

scene and color adjustment

Hey, It's Been a Long Time!

Well, howdy, folks!  It's been a long time since I last blogged...I didn't realize it's been since June!  Life is crazy like that.  Before you know it, it's suddenly autumn.  We've already made a pie, watched a football game, and been all over the world since I last wrote!  From France to England to Sweden to Disney World, it's been a whirlwind two months.  Highlights include:

• eating croissants in the Luxembourg Gardens
• wandering random Parisian streets
• happening upon a Mass at Notre Dame
• driving through Devon and Somerset
• discovering the graves of Emily's great-great-great-grandmother/father in a little churchyard in southwest England
• enjoying the history of Bath
• hiking in Dartmoor National Park
• having lots of fikas with friends in Stockholm
• eating Swedish meatballs and reindeer
• Skansen!
• quality time with family throughout Disney World, including a wonderful lunch with my grandma and grandpa at the Coral Reef restaurant in Epcot
• seeing the new Be Our Guest restaurant and Fantasyland expansion

I'm happy to be back, but incredibly grateful for family, friends, and the ability to see and experience so many incredible things!

Here's the clan at Disney...what a good looking group!

And here's me, happy to be at Disney.  I love that place so much.

Smoky Mountains

I just returned from a delightful trip to the Smoky Mountains with my mom's family.  The mountains are gorgeous this time of year, and we had some fun experiences, including a five mile hike in the middle of a deluge where we lost the trail and a bear encounter in Cades Cove.  The bear we saw was in the middle of a meadow and crossed in front of my uncle's van, just a few yards away.  It got me thinking...what would happen if you were all alone on one of those trails and happened upon a bear?

Remembering D-Day

Taken from the internet:

You know what I did this morning? Maybe it would be better if I told you what I didn't do this morning.

I didn't have to spend over 12 hours on a transport ship in choppy water, then clamber down a cargo net into a plywood landing craft, all while carrying up to 100 pounds of gear on my back. Then, I didn't ride through the rough surf in that little plywood target, only to have the steel ramp (the only part of the little plywood boat that was even remotely bullet-resistant) flop down and drop me into the cold ocean water in front of a beach filled with steel obstacles, mines, flying bullets & exploding artillery rounds.

I didn't fly over enemy occupied territory at 1000 feet in a C47 cargo plane and then jump out of the plane into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft fire. I didn't have to worry about my bright white silk parachute making me a good target for troops on the ground who wanted to use me for target practice, and after I landed, I didn't have to worry about engaging a vastly superior force with only the gear I carried with me (providing that said gear wasn't ripped off by the turbulence I encountered exiting the plane) with whoever I could gather together from the other troops dropped behind enemy lines the same as I was.
I didn't march into a plywood glider (PLYWOOD, as we've already established, is NOT very resistant to gunfire and explosions) and sit quietly while I was towed into anti-aircraft fire, only to be released and experience a controlled crash into trees, buildings or apparently open fields that were booby trapped with wooden poles and steel cables by the enemy. 

I wasn't asked to take my place in a McGyvered together amphibious tank, where I would most likely be swamped by the waves and sink to the bottom of the English Channel like....well, like a tank rigged for amphibious operations with lumber and canvas. And if I DID happen to get to the beach, I would have been the prime target of every enemy artillery piece for miles around. 

I wasn't asked to sit in a command bunker deep beneath London looking at casualty projections that predicted that we would lose 60% of the airborne troops committed to this battle and a good chunk of the troops storming the beaches, and I also didn't prepare a letter taking full blame for the possible disaster in order to protect my political leaders. 

You know what? Now that I've told you what I DIDN'T do this morning, what I actually DID seems pretty freakin' trivial. Veterans of the Normandy landing are becoming scarce now that we're sixty-five years down the road from that horrible day, but if you know one of them, make sure to thank them on this day. And don't limit yourself to D-Day vets - whether it was Normandy, Okinawa, the Chosin Reservoir, the Tet Offensive, Grenada, Panama, Mogadishu, Fallujah, or just some godforsaken mountain road at the ass-end of Afghanistan, EVERYONE who served this country in uniform deserves a hearty handshake and our everlasting gratitude on this day.

Many of them were 18 or 19 years old...barely even adults.

And here's Reagan's speech for the 40th anniversary.  Whether you love, despise, or are indifferent to Reagan, this is an unbelievable speech.

Some Singin' Ladies

Last weekend, a group of ladies from a sister congregation came and sang at our church.  They had great character and came in such different shapes and sizes, so I decided to draw them up.

A Color/Composition Study

It's a killer whale attacking an otter, all dramatically and stuff.  Kind of a followup to this one.

On a totally different note, apparently Alabama is the last state in the union where homebrewing is illegal.  I had no idea!  The legislature just passed a bill to legalize it, and I think the governor is expected to probably sign it (he hasn't committed though).  I was planning on brewing up a batch this weekend anyway, but now I'll do it in solidarity with the new Dixie brewers.

Cactuses

Arizona inspired me to draw a bunch of cactuses.  There were so many cool and weird ones out there!

Been Drawing Many Elephants Lately

Ever Been Mauled by a Cougar?

We just got back from a delightful trip in Arizona, where we had a great time visiting friends and doing a lot of hiking.  One of those funny things about the Midwest is the fact that there's almost nothing that can harm you.  Um, yeah, that's not true with Arizona.

I have a bad habit of researching the wildlife of whatever place I'm traveling to before going.  Sometimes that's cool.  Sometimes it just convinces me that I'm going to die.  This time, it was the latter.  Turns out everything in Arizona can kill you.  If it's not a saguaro cactus falling on you, it's a mountain lion mauling you.  Or a scorpion stinging you.  Or a black widow biting you.  Or a rattlesnake striking you.  Or a tarantula chomping you.  Or a gila monster chewing on you.  Or a javelina charging you.  As far as I can tell, you pretty much can't go outside without automatically being preyed on by something.

Luckily we beat my mind's odds and survived all our hikes.  They were beautiful, but I did spent the entire time absolutely convinced that this is what was happening:

Now I can just look forward to the next time I go swimming and get eaten by a shark.