Drawn In

ACTION!: Today's drawing lesson, delivered via author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka on his YouTube channel, was about how to use motion lines effectively in illustrations.


I am really impressed with how CJ is embracing these lessons, and his attitude and work are paying off. Here are some of his drawings from today.

 They definitely evoke movement, and his humanoid figures are really improving!

Annabelle, who draws for hours each day, was up to the task.

JJK had a guest illustrator on the program today, Mike Curato. His debut title was "Little Elliot Big City." Elliott is an elephant, so viewers were encouraged to try their hand at drawing a pair of elephants. 

 Cute stuff.

Speaking of art-ing, we signed Annabelle up for a whole bunch of online art classes thanks to a local school, Gage Academy of Art, graciously offering up free lessons. They're calling the series #ArtToGo. 

The classes will be conducted via Zoom, and here's how they describe the program: "Art to Go is a free community art series presented by Gage 360! As a public service to the community, we have developed twice-weekly classes that are FREE to anyone interested in learning about art! This new program will provide free art tutorials, demos and lectures from our most esteemed Gage artist instructors." 

MUSICAL INTERLUDE: One of the things we're trying to do is get back to making music on a daily basis. And by 'we' I mean CJ and Annabelle, playing guitar.

Today, they worked on an over-wrought song, "Bring Me to Life." We found a decent YouTube tutorial (video below) and some guitar tabs on Songsterr 
https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/evanescence-bring-me-to-life-tab-s6728t1

Maybe if they practice it for a week of so, we can actually make a video and post it. Stay tuned. 

I'LL JUST LEAVE THIS HERE: While I was hanging out in the basement for a couple of weeks, I kept seeing an ad on TV featuring me. 

Yes, really. 

It was an ad for an NBC News podcast with host Trymaine Lee. The ad had a voiceover of a woman talking about voting in November. The image on the screen is a blue ballot bag. When I first saw it, I thought, "Hey, that looks just like the one we used at King County Elections!"

About the third time I saw the ad, I thought, "Gee, those pictures on the wall in the background look just the the ones where I worked."

By the fourth time, I spotted myself (in olive green in the background), assisting a woman in a printed skirt.

It was surreal, sitting in the basement seeing that over and over while sewing masks to help combat a virus I almost certainly caught while performing the work in the photo. Here's a link to the podcast the ad