Running on Plenty

As long as I'll be gone for a week and I know that, daily, I have 5,985,236 viewers, I am posting an extra one for good measure. This one is due to the fact that by the time you or your 5,985,235 friends read this, I will be running along miles and miles of sandy beaches... (well, maybe only one of those 'miles', as I hear it's tough to run on sand)

FuzzyWazzup

I am soon to leave the now chilly Chicago for the ever-warm San Diego for a bit of a respite from the Mid-west. In honor of this occasion I have for you a picture of Fuzzy Wuzzy and a poem.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear,

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair,

Fuzzy Wuzzy got a condo in the Florida Keys

Due to inclement weather up north.

A poet, indeed. Is rhyming excessively necessary?

N*ice Cream

Yesterday was a scorcher. My friend H*lly* came by and we headed off to find novelty ice cream treats to cool our sweaty brows (sweaty because we stepped outside our nicely air conditioned offices). We succeeded a short time later. I did not find the Mickey Mouse bar I had hoped to find, though I had an ice cream sammich and it's not a bad second choice.

Alas, I had to color something involving a Micky Mouse bar in it, with an ice cream sammich to boot.

*H*lly's name has been slightly changed to protect her identity

Tire-d Cartoon

Some days my brain feels like it let out all the fun the day before and it is a large-ish space waiting to be filled again. It's not as depressing as it sounds- it means I need to go for a nice walk or jog and take in some of the world around me.

Today my brain is in that state. Bear with me. Bear with a cartoon containing a bear, on a tire, making friends and right quick.

Medium- no different, faithful ole crayola colored pencils and ink

To all the grills I've loved before

My brain is frazzled today. It's a beautiful day out, once again, and yet I am inside. Ah well, summery pictures are in order. Here is a sketch I did last year when I felt it a good and right thing that I draw summery pictures.

Medium: pencils of varying hardness

Slowly making progress

I have, on occasion, made cartoons to send to friends via emails. I was looking at all the pictures I have stored on my computer in the hopes of finding some decent samples to send to a cafe ownder when I ran across one of my favorite cartoons. It was inspired by some really nasty pictures of sloths I found online - a creature that really ought to be cute and cuddly given the fact that it has fur and hangs from trees and eats leaves- but is pretty gross due to ... slowness? uncleanliness? I don't know. Sloths are an enigma to me. As are fast food joints- the two together would have to make a decent 'toon.

Reel Family Getaway...

I've been hand selected by someone to create t-shirts for a family gathering later this summer. While this is an honor in some cultures and in some venues- I was more or less asked by my own dad if I could whip up something to slap on our family vacation t-shirts. Not as glamorous, but who am I to complain?

I thought about word plays, etc, and came up with "a reel family getaway"- and thought of that picture that Shel Silverstein for 'Crowded Tub'. A mess of limbs- but up-north style with some fishing poles sticking out the sides!

Here 'tis, enjoy. Medium- Bic pens, brushed up on Photoshop.

bubble-licious

This morning brings hot weather and beautiful skies. Summery cartoons are in order. I got this picture of bunnies learning to blow bubble gum in my head and it just had to come out in the form of a cartoon.

Even if this has never happened to you (and i hope it hasn't, for real, man), you may very well have felt like this when you were learning to blow bubble gum.

Enjoy.

Rapidly bearing with foxes

After watching one of my favorite artists in concert, whose name is Teitur (Faroese dude, it is pronounced (TIE-tur), I started a series of pictures with these characters. Why he inspired such drawings I do not know. I am glad the ideas came, though, I had fun with them.

Medium: Prisma colors (ie, very GOOD coloring pencils)

A 'corny entry

To be fair to all mediums, I have decided to put up a piece I did about a year and a half ago. The idea for the sketch came while riding the 'el' here in Chicago. I was thinking of moving here at the time.

The subject matter: The unicorn is hope- and the creature looks up; as is good and right when you hope for something in life. It stands on a wee cliff and hangs by a wee thread, as hope feels sometimes.

The medium: mixed media, as there are clippings underneath and oil painted over.

#8, 9, and 10

It is another glorious late-spring afternoon here in Chicago.

My thoughts be drifting 2,000 miles west, however, to California, where my boyfriend is inflicted (yes, inflicted) with a case of poison ivy so bad that it has become systemic and requires high dosages of steroids. It is icky and unfun and hugs just get lost in translation over email. This coloring endeavor is for him. I hope it puts a smile on his and your face. Both.

Medium, crayola-magic and bic pens.

Letting the air out of the tire-d spring

It is beautiful outside. Weather dot com promised rain, but thankfully they are empty promises, and blue skies are waiting for me to go enjoy them after work today. In honor of such a loverly day, I have yet another drawing of someone (some-bunny) enjoying summerish activities.

The medium, rockin awesome Crayola colored pencils.

A candidate for Painthood?

After taking a modern art history class (which Iwas bound and determined not to like but ended up loving), I got the impression that artists are somehow emotive, expressive, and use tremendously ginormous hand gestures not only in conversation but also whilst creating their work. While I paint I stand quite still and find that everything about me stills(brain, body, etc) and that is one of the alluring things about painting for me.

All this to say- yes, I paint too. People think I paint fruit and landscapes when I tell them I use oil but this is not the case. If you are an artist who loves using oil and feel forced to render photorealistic objects - it is not too late for you. You too can paint whatever you like. Do it.

Meltymelt

It is warm today- warm and windy and wonderful. It is not so warm that your kidneys feel like they're melting into your Keds©- but nearly so!

Here's a bit of fun, done with good ole Crayola© colored pencils and a Bic© pen. (And yes, I got $3, 907.44 for putting that on this site©. The brainchildrenrecess© site©. ©©.

Some-are funny

My job, which I love, has slowed some since the students left for summer. In honor of their departure - or rather, the arrival of summer slowness- I have a couple of summer funnies. As you are new to my blog and perchance new to me (who knows, it may only be my very good friends whom i've paid to view my blog...very good friends indeed, raising their rates), I need to warn you here that i like old man drinks and old man jokes. The 'only a dad could love' sorts of jokes. The ones that make you groan like you did when you ate bad Chinese- which, i hear, is quickly remedied with a good Scotch and soda, incidentally a great old-mannish drink. So I hear...

Strategically placed fish are not always necessary

I've been reading with a third grader from the elementary school a block away from where I work. His name is Guillermo* and we have a great time reading books like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and various other books, many of which contained bits of information on spiders and dinosaurs and such. All of this to say I get very interesting pictures in my head after such readings- perhaps certain parts of the brain are stimulated more than normal, who knows?

In the end, let's just enjoy the odd thoughts that each day brings, yes? I'm glad we agree.

*Guillermo is not his real name, and it is not pronouced "Gwiller-mo"

Art to finish

This is my first blog post - really, in the end, a sneaky sneaky way for me to include you in on the artings of Steph.

Without further ado ( as ados can be long and arduous, no? ), I'm going to post two drawings done on Saturday. As I am not a fantastically famous and financially set artist quite yet, I proctored an exam for some extra cash and had about.. oh.. 12 hours to draw..er, watch to make sure the test takers were not cheating. They did not.

Medium used- pencils. The 'sucker' is done with 2b, b, 6h, and perhaps 4b. The 'snacktualized' is done with 2b. The panel du jour, computer copy paper the head proctor was reticent to give me. I think the paper is much prettier now, but you can make up your own mind.