A bug pic. for a friend

I got a call the other day from a friend who has been asked to go through some pretty tough times.  How I wish that I could just take from others their sorrows and challenges.  Yet, there is growth and development that comes as we are stretched and we can learn things we never hoped to learn through such trials, if reacted to with hope and perseverance.
She asked if I would do a little something for her to put on the wall, and gave license for what came to mind. So, I've been pondering the whole process of birth, sleep, transformation, stillness, flight, etc.  I've also thought about the moths suicidal obsession with a flame, or scorching light.  This is what I came up with:   My favorite part was antiquing the paper before painting on it.

E.D.M. Challenge #16, Draw Your Favorite Tool

I stayed home today and worked from the home office.  I knocked out as much as possible quickly, and found that I had a couple of hours of solitude at home whilst the lovely wife was away doing errands.  The EDM challenge that was next for me was "Draw Your Favorite Tool."  At first, I thought of screwdrivers, because I use them constantly at home...and for things that they weren't designed, but that's a different story for another time.
Earlier I had explained that I was going to start illustrating or journaling some of the entries or letters that I wrote to my dad after he passed away.  I reflected back to some of the things that I had written, and pulled up this portion of a letter I wrote.  It also fits the EDM challenge.

This tool.....A BOOT-REMOVER that was carried across the plains by my ancestor, John S. Haslam

(Here is his picture)

His Grandson, Ralph Wesley Haslam, was my Great Grandfather, and he had the boot-remover in his living room and I remember it from when I was just a pup.

Here is a picture of my Great Grandpa Haslam with my brother in his front lawn...in the house that I used to visit when I was a boy.

Here is the resulting doodle and "journaling" of my letter to Dad:

EDM Challenge 15, Draw a Tree

I had to sketch my favorite tree for this one.  I haven't seen many or really, any of these in the part of Georgia where I live...yet, back home in Utah, I recall spending lot's of time in the mountains in the groves of the Quaking Aspen watching the leaves dance in the wind, but seeing the white barked trunks as friendly pillars to walk through...and some, even to leave your mark upon if you remembered your pocket-knife.

EDM Challenge 14, Draw Something You See When You Wake Up

This one may be a little off color....but that's o.k., it's honest.  

Beetle-Mania

I realized that I had sketched another entry into my Bug Book the other day and hadn't scanned it yet.  I've been trying to get most of my catches recorded with a little doodle, and I'm falling behind.  But here is August 7th's entry:

You can see also from the picture below, that I have run out of yet another box to house the "pinned" ones until I can decide which ones I want to put into a display....time to visit the cigar shop again to pick up a big, empty cigar box.

EDM challenge 13, Draw a phone

Today I decided to knock out the 13th EDM challenge, wherein we are encouraged to draw a phone.  All of my cell phones are pretty boring to look at, just a black brick of a thing, and so I started thinking about some of the phones I was familiar with in yester-year.  When I was a kid, I used to go to Grandma Haslam's house, where she had this horrible green phone on a stand in her little hallway.  I found a picture of a similar model online and decided to doodle that.
Enjoy.

EDM Challenge 12, Draw Your Dinner

I have long waited for the day to have enough time, and permission from the wife (she doesn't like the house to smell like fish) to cook up fish the way I used to when I was in Brazil...HEADS AND ALL!!!  Tonight wasn't the evening, sadly.  Instead, it was crazy busy waiting for a call from my boss that didn't happen, rushing home to hear about the first day of school from the kids, speeding off to the church for youth night and interviews with members...and not even eating dinner at all before the end of the night showed up.  But, if I had my druthers...this is what I would have fried up...

EDM Challenge 11, Glasses....(Also, remembering Dad)

Moving onto EDM challenge number 11, I am tasked with drawing a pair of glasses.  As I thought about all of the various potential compositions...this one seemed boring.  But, I remembered a picture of my dad that I picked up when I was back home a few weeks ago.  This was of him on his mission in August of 67...he was  just a young man, but I love this picture!   It is blurry, the color is faded, but I decided that I wanted to draw it and include it in a project that I will be undertaking soon...namely, "Letters to Dad."
Shortly after my Dad died back in 2001, I found that I really began to struggle with coping.  The only thing that I could do to help me with the loss was to write him letters.
It's been a long time since his passing, and the pain has changed from a wound with a constant, hemorrhaging flow of pain, to a more dull, deep longing to see him again.
I thought that it would be interesting to go back to the letters and begin to sketch out some of the key passages, maybe turn it into a book for my kids and family on the memories and feelings and challenges and resultant growth that came from putting my feelings on paper....
Well, if I do it, this picture will probably be the cover.

(Also...don't those glasses rock?!  He made 'em cool before George McFly!

Here he is, Mark J. Monson, just before his 20th birthday, California

RABID SPIDERS!!!!

I have been doing all of my sketching in attempt to keep up with the EDM challenges...but today I took a day off, pulled some of the frozen specimens of bugs that I have caught over the last few days, and decided to get a few of them ready to be pinned and added to my collection.....I also did an entry in the bug-book to document a bit of the festivities.

The main focus was a rabid wolf spider that my wife and son found on our porch that was HUGE...it just so happened to be carrying a few (22 to be exact) babies on its back.  Here's some pics...

Here's the little babies next to my probe for scale.

Here's mama next to the same probe for scale

Here's one of the little-'uns under the microscope

Here's mama with the little one's hitching a ride...

Here's my "bug book" entry for the spider and her hairy legs.

EDM Challenge 10, Draw Your Hand

One more post for the day.....I wanted to do something abnormal for the hand sketch....so I went "Superman Style"....Xray vision.

EDM Challenge 9, Draw Your Organized Chaos

....hmmm, I think all the text in the drawing explains this one sufficiently:

EDM Challenge 8, Draw Jewelry

I struggled with this one, because I don't wear jewelry, and am not too horribly interested in it.  So, I went looking for something else "metal" that someone wears, and found an old award that belonged to my Dad.....

EDM Challenge 7, Draw a Jar from the Kitchen

After a long drive up to the mountains to see grandparents, and hanging out under the scorching Utah Sun, we drove back, napped, and now are rested up for the evening.  A great time to knock out my next EDM challenge.  Here's #7 in the mix:

EDM Challenge 6, Draw a Childhood Toy

This week I have been in Salt Lake City, visiting my mother and other family and friends, and have had a chance to relax and doodle a bit more.  The other day we were looking at old family albums, and I found the picture below.  This is a pic. of me when just a "pup", but in my lap sits the object of the EDM challenge 6, or the childhood toy that has significance to me, that I am to draw.

I must have been only 6 or 7 when I got this Koala teddy bear.  I loved it, as a kid.  And, successfully hid my affection for it as I grew older and more mature.  I believe I still kept it tucked away for snuggling up until I went on my mission at age 19....where it is now, nobody knows.  Hopefully, it is being snuggled by some other youth that needs it.

EDM Challenge 5, Draw a Bed

I have been busy the last couple of days making visits to old friends and family while here in Salt Lake, and I have gotten behind on my goal to do an EDM every day.  So, here is EDM 5, "Draw a Bed", which I stayed up until around 1 am to knock out, after enjoying Pizza from THE PIE, and kickin' back with my mom for a few hours.

EDM Challenge 4, Draw a Mug or a Cup

Here's the 4th on the EDM list.  "Draw a mug or a cup."

EDM Challenge 3, Draw a Bag

Here is the 3rd on the E.D.M. list....what's next?  Yes, the suspense is thick...more to come.

EDM challenge 3, Draw a Lamp

The story continues....Here is #2 on the list, "Draw a lamp or light"

EDM Challenge 1, Draw a Shoe

So, years ago I started to be involved in an online group that encourages a daily belching of drawing, painting, etc.  It is affectionately called E.D.M. or "Every Day Matters" and was created by the talented Danny Gregory.  One of the fun things encouraged is to follow the list of suggested items to draw, each one changing daily....  There is a list on the website.  But I decided to go back to the basics and churn something quick out every day.  This week has been hard because I have been traveling, and not much time to doodle has been given.  Here's EDM #1  "Draw a shoe"

Black Widow

Yep, the Bug Book continues....Here's a little entry of a black widow I did at the request of a friend.

The Mighty STAG

I had some time away from other responsibilities tonight, and was able to kill a few hours, so I made another addition to the "bug book."  A good friend brought this Stag Beetle to me the other day, something he found at work.   This guy is actually the largest beetle in North America, and I scored it!  WOOHOO!

Anyway, here's what the page is starting to look like:

Here's the little bugger while he was pinned, and waiting to dry into final shape.

Holding Out

The other day, when I posted on Facebook a quick photo of an insect related "journaling" moleskine, I was accused of "holding out." And so here are a few pages recently completed from that little compilation. The last one was done at our church's youth conference that I returned from today. I'm not really liking the pages or paper in this particular moleskine because it is to thick and poster-paper-ish that watercolor is impossible (it doesn't absorb) and when I draw with pen and ink, it seems to sit on top of the paper, instead of penetrate. So, I am using prismacolor pencils to add color, and I'm not convinced that it is working the way I like...but, I will finish, at least, with the sketchbook before moving back to the paper I'm accustomed to.

 

Back to Basics...enjoying MIND JUICE!

Years ago I started this blog to house random scribbles that I did while in meetings, or on the phone,....it has evolved into displaying other types of art...but there is something wonderfully simple and yet beautiful to the randomness of scribblings. Over the past few weeks I have been on numerous calls at work going over costings for this, or reviews of safety procedures for that, formulating responses to bid requests for them, and how to configure the network for access to a certain new functionality...... My hand is always moving, and taking notes, but when the conversation tends to repeat itself, or someone on the other side wants to linger and be verbose, that's when it happens.....scribbles. I love the end result, and hardly realize I'm doing it until I hand up the phone. One of my employees made me pull them out of the trash because he thought they were cool....So I thought I'd post a few pages of complete, unadulterated MIND JUICE...

I added a bit of color, while I was waiting for my lovely wife to come home from shopping....and whilst my youngest tried to reason with me as to why it was a parental responsibility to allow him to have our credit card number in his Nintendo DS for those late night emergency purchases of the newest games. By doing such, he wouldn't have to wake us up and bother us with such trifling things.....he's only 8....but looks to have a good future in used car sales.

"Bugger" invasion

Over the past few years, I have become very interested in insects, collecting them, drawing them, pinning them....catching them....employing all my friends in catching and freezing them..., I believe I am in need of professional help. At night, when I can't sleep, I'll sneak outside in my jammies and a butterfly net, hoping to find some cool visitors by our floodlights. My neighbors probably think I'm drunk. Anyway, I have started a little "bug book" in one of the many Moleskines that I have laying around the house. Here are the first couple of pages...and a snapshot of my "insect morgue" where the little buggers are prepared for mounting and display.