Auntie's Hideaway

I just had to say that, because I will be baking myself into oblivion today. Mom has taken over the reins for Thanksgiving this year, because the Salt-Encrusted Ham of Doom convinced her that the Flaky Sister just... should not cook for Thanksgiving. I mean, it wasn't just the ham, it was many, many other things, mostly... it's because after cooking since she was old enough to stand at the stove and stir a pot for our mom... the Flaky Sister just... can't cook. Mom and I were chatting about it a few weeks ago, and reliving last Thanksgiving, and then went on to talking about other meals we've had at the Flaky Sister's, and... *shakes head*
( Cut because of length and pictures, omg! )

I'm busy, busy, busy, trying to finish working on a piece, but I just wanted y'all to see how much the Impertinent Daughter's artwork has improved.



She's come to the attention of the art teacher at her junior high, who has encouraged her to participate in this year's art UIL. And that, in turn, has encouraged her to sign up to take art in high school. Of course, you know I'm incredibly proud!

On a lighter note, here are some more of the notes I've slipped into my kids lunch boxes after I pack them. Now, keep in mind, I'm not quite awake when I write these, and I usually don't have my glasses on. And they've been in the lunch boxes of a 13 year old and an 8 year old all day long. What? Scan them before I put them in the lunch box? Didn't I mention, I'm not quite awake when I draw these? Sheesh!!

( here they are, for you to snicker over... )

OMG, have you guys seen THIS???

Lunch Bag Art!!

He's a dad, at home, he makes his kids' their lunches... and decorates the bags, just regular, brown paper bags, and he does it elaborately, with Sharpie markers, crayons, pencils, etc....

I'm stunned. And yet, I don't know if I could do that much work on something my kids were just going to crumple and toss!

My favorite? It's far down in the queue, but it's the Calvin and Hobbes one, where Calvin is throwing a hissy-fit and declaring he doesn't want to go to school. It got sent back home with a note from his son's teacher saying it was cool, but the comments on it weren't!!

Go look! Go look!! *pushes y'all*

Look at the Husbandly One's new tattoos!!

His first tattoo had faded badly (the tattooist had too light of a hand) and he has disappeared into the bright blue yonder, so... we went to the place where the Impertinent Daughter had her ears pierced, originally to have his tat touched up. However... we ended up decided to get a NEW version of the portrait tattoo, somewhat larger and on THO's back, and get a coverup tattoo over the original portrait.

He had the portrait done last week, and I had to wait for it to heal a bit before taking a shot of it. It's still a teeny bit red, and still has some flaky skin, but I couldn't wait any longer, so here it is...

( Click to see his tattoos!! )

Yes, yes, I know I'm spamming you with my creativity lately. Miss Priss and I did another round of scribbling the other night, and this is the result! (gosh, I hope you guys are liking this, because aside from about two comments... I've had no feedback on it!)

( Under the Bed, Part 3!! )

Okay, so the Impertinent Daughter and I have been busy. Actually, she drags me out of the bedroom after I read to the Impossible Son, and gets me to scribble with her until I'm so sleepy, I can't stay awake. The result of this is, of course, more Phil and Lucius. Lucius is the cat, by the way, and he has a boy, whom you will meet in this episode.

Watch out, dial-up users, there's going to be a lot of images, and they're large. I'm sorry, but you wouldn't be able to read the dialogue if they weren't large. And for those of you who are not manga-proficient, I have put again put numbers on the pictures so you can follow them in order. For future reference, though, manga are read from right to left, instead of left to right. Just think of it as... reading backward, and you'll be fine.

Anyhow, on to Phil!

( Under the Bed... )

Okay, so last night, the Impertinent Daughter decided we were going to do a sort of... manga round robin type... thingy. She's tired of me saying I wish I had time to sketch, etc, but not doing it, so... she grabbed me and sat me down at the kitchen table and the next thing I knew, we had done this...

( Click if you want to see what we did!! )

This is what happens when the class Tell-It-All tells the Object-Of-Your-Daughter's-Affection... that she likes him.

Well, actually, I think this is what she WISHES she could do to him.

You know, if I was that kid... I think I'd make myself really, really scarce tomorrow.

The Impertinent One wanted me to post this some time ago, but I couldn't because our printer was all fershmeckled. Now that it is fixed, I can live up to this promise. And I will also solemnly promise not to overload you with her art. Though later this week, I might show you the page of one of the mangas she's working on that I posted about a few weeks ago, the one that was blowing me away. But that will be later.

This, however, you can file under "ID's Family Life Observations." It's... amazingly accurate...

( It's big, but funny! Clicky!! )

Sometimes, I find my daughter to be a most astonishing person. Truly, I do.

She drives me nuts at time, especially when she gets hormonal, and her brother can seemingly do nothing right, and I have to intervene before World War Three and the gushing of blood begins.

And then sometimes... she blows me away.

Y'all know she wants to be a manga artist, and she is constantly drawing, and she now has at least three manga she's working on at this time, right? I haven't been able to scan them, because of a software issue between my Mac and my HP printer/scanner, but now I'm motivated to fix it because... omg, y'all, her current project is just...

*is nearly speechless*

Let me put it this way. It left me in tears. Because while the artwork is still a bit rough, it is light years from what I last posted from her sketchbook. There's this one panel that I just stared at, and it was just a three quarter side view of a clock, but it was executed so well! She must have sat and pressed her face against the wall to get that angle right...

And another, a sequence where she has a winged character landing. You see the shadow of the character with moonlight behind it, you see the wings spread and back-winging to slow the descent... then you see one foot touching down, a rather worn, ratty sneaker, and... a circular puff of dust pushing away from around the tip of the shoe. I know where the influence came from, I know the specific scene in Kiki's Delivery Service but... she pulls it off in a 2-dimensional setting in freaking pencil and... she's only twelve!!!

*dies*

You guys, I swear... I have no doubt my daughter is going to be published by the time she's fifteen.

*jaw-drop*

And all I can think of is those years I spent, lying on the floor with her when the crayons were nearly bigger than she was, a big 18 X 24 inch pad left over from my days as at art student at UH opened in front of us, coloring and drawing whatever she wanted me to draw, and guiding her hand to help her draw circles, squares, loops, cats, dogs...

... and here we are now.

She is going to be something, I really, truly do believe that!

Okay, this is better, but it's still not quite where I want it. And just how the hell does one draw grizzled hair? What exactly makes hair grizzled?? I'm going by the description in the book, by the way. Is it frizzy? Or hair that is kind of rough, and refuses to lie smooth when you pull it back? Or does "grizzled" refer to hair color? Grey and brown, say?

Hellify know!!

Well, for all intents and purposes, here it is...

( He ain't pretty, but that's the point, right? )

I'm trying out some new pencils we bought last night. They're nice and dark, smudge well, but have a good clear line when you want. This is just a scribble, so don't get too excited...
( I tried really hard not to to make him pretty, but it's just a thumbnail... )

Since it's just a thumbnail, I have plenty of opportunity to rough him up a little and make him more like the way my mind's eye sees him. But I really like these new pencils. YAY!!

Today is our last day, and the Husbandly One insisted that we hit the Freer Gallery so I could gawk at art to my heart's content. We mostly hit the Japanese art and pottery collections, as well as the Indian sculpture, and Chinese and Korean pottery.

( More pictures, y'all! )

The Impertinent Daughter and I were having a discussion that pretty much only the artists on my f-list are going to understand, so all y'all others, just... be patient, okay?

We were talking about... the perfect pencil.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, most people think, a pencil's a pencil, it writes, you sharpen it, what else is there to know?

For an artist, though... well, you can always go to an art supply or hobby store and get drawing pencils in varying levels of hardness (my personal favorites? 2b and 4b, Faber Castell). But every once in a while, you've got the urge to noodle, and your drawing pencils aren't around, so you just grab an everyday pencil and sort of start scribbling, and you're like, "Holy Mackinoly... it's... THE PENCIL!!"

Because the graphite is just the right shade of darkness/lightness that you like, just the right weight, it feels right in your hand, and you like the way the line smudges when you rub it with your thumb...

The Impertinent Daughter was doodling ideas for her manga (yes, she has a manga she's working on, isn't that cool?) and looked at the pencil I had left on the table. She started to reach for it, and I snatched it away (yes, I'm childish early in the morning, so sue me!). "What?" she said innocently, but I could tell by that gleam in her eye that she was coveting my pencil!!

"I love this pencil,"I said simply, sticking it in my pocket with a loving pat.

"Oh," she said knowingly. "It's a Perfect Pencil."

"Yep," I said, going back to making bacon.

"You know, I had one, and I had sharpened it down to a teeny, tiny nub." She demonstrated by holding her fingers apart just so, and I grinned.

"Yeah, I've done that, too."

We all do. You find the Perfect Pencil, and you don't want to let it go. You want to use it every time you doodle, or draw, because it's just right, then it gets down to a particular size, and you suddenly realize, it's not going to be here forever. So, you start saving it for special doodles, or drawings. You only use it for particular drawings, like, only for dragons, or shading, or eyes, or when you're outlining, etc. And you actually buy a manual sharpener just for that pencil because electric sharpeners take too much off, and you're trying to make this pencil last as long as possible. Just a few turns, and you worry you've taken too much off! You sharpen carefully, and hang on to that pencil until all you have is a nub. I mean, it is sharpened all the way up to the metal, or to the cap (if it's a drawing pencil, like the Faber Castell pencils). You have to hold it between your fingertips to use it. And you know, one day soon, that tip is going to break, and that's it. It's... The End. Because you can sharpen it no more.

Yes, we get ridiculously attached to pencils. It's a sickness, I'm telling you. It doesn't happen often, but when it does... *sigh*

The Impertinent Daughter reached into her pocket and pulled out her current stub. It had about an inch and a half of actual pencil before the point left. "Wow," I said.

"My teacher tried to take it," she said, looking at it fondly. "She asked me how I could possibly write with that, and I said, I don't write with it, I draw with it, and she said, you're not supposed to be drawing in math class. And I said, I don't draw until I'm done with my work."

"And she tried to take it?" I said, buttering the toast.

"Yeah, but I gave her the big, teary eyes, and said, but it's my favorite pencil, and it makes the eyes just right and the texture is just the way I like it..."

"And she thought you were insane, and decided to keep the insane person from going berserk, and left you the pencil?"

"Yeah, basically."

I snorted. And now you know why everyone thinks artists are insane!!