Busy, busy, busy and TAG! I'm it.

Well, I've been away for a little while - our homeschool group had its annual art and talent show recently. I put together the program covers together and shared the drawing for it earlier. But, here's the final result.

Besides that, we've had assorted end-of-season soccer parties (now all-stars begins), we've been putting together spring classes for our co-op, and a couple of my kids had a recent encounter with the stomach flu.

So, I have been on to respond to being "Tagged" by Tom Barrett. I get to share 7 things about myself. Hmmmmmm, why does this seem hard? I mean, I'm sharing stuff on my blog all the time. I guess there's plenty of stuff I haven't shared yet. So, let's see what I can dig up...

1. I go through phases when I really get into cooking - I get tired of making the same things (which tends to happen when I'm busy) and I'll start craving other flavors and variety. I'll be making the Thanksgiving dinner this year for only the 2nd time ever.

2. For someone who works in a bookstore and enjoys children's books, I really haven't read very much. I wasn't that into reading as a kid and I was never assigned the reading lists that are given out today. I'm really enjoying reading a lot of those missed titles aloud to my kids every morning (we're reading "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin right now).

3. More than reading, I was much more into drawing (obviously) and writing. I used to write screenplays starring all of my stuffed animals and the model horses I collected. I partially minored in creative writing in college but ran out of steam before finishing.

4. Growing up, I wanted to be a horse trainer or forest ranger.

5. I'm related to a famous modern-day explorer - Rober Ballard (finder of the Titanic, Bismark, and assorted other historic vessels). He's my uncle (my maiden-name was Ballard).

6. I have very ecclectic tastes in music. I like anything from country and bluegrass to classical to rock. Mainly, I listen to a lot modern Christian rock these days.

7. Speaking of music, I got into the whole punk/alternative thing as it flourished when I was in high school and college. While I still enjoy some of that music in terms of style, I've come to regard the message and the language (and the "scene" in general) irritating rather than intriguing like I did when I was a teenager. And, I married a man who plays bass for and listens to only punk rock bands.

So, those are 7 things you probably didn't know about me. In turn I'm tagging the following artists to share 7 things about themselves (but don't feel obligated).

Kathy Hare

Julia Denos

Shawna JC Tenney

Illustration Friday: "Wise"

Forgive me for resurrecting a picture posted a long while back, but I knew I wouldn't have time to explore something new this week. It's not the most original interpretation of the word - I'm guessing there will be a number of owls posted this week. But it is one of my favorite drawings and it's always fun to see how everyone can approach the same subject in different ways.

At one point, I xeroxed the drawing and colorized it with watercolors to see how that would look (yes - I'm that low-tech). The result is below.

Illustration Friday: "Vacant"

This was one of those instances where I had an idea jump into my head as soon as I read the prompt.

Well, I didn't exactly envision the above drawing. But, I did immediately think of the bronze figure sculptures of antiquity - I've always noted their more stylized features (like swirly hair) and the empty, "vacant" eyes that so many of them have. So, starting with that, the drawing just sort of evolved from there.

I was thinking that I might have a close-up of the head with a figure peering into the eye. But, as I began working on it, the figure ended up being placed at a distance.

One struggle I had was that some of the poses I envisioned were a little tough for me to pull off. Usually, I'll recruit one of the kids to pose for me when I get stuck. But since they were already in bed, I had to change some plans. Anyway, I realized that I need to do some practice sketches involving more dynamic gestures.