My son enjoys drawing

Above is my rendering of my son Avery hard at work drawing some mini-masterpieces. Right now he's really into faces. There's an efficient formula to his work. He simply draws a closed in shape, then he puts in the eyes, nose, mouth and eye brows (or as he calls them: eyes brows). Here's on of his pieces I found to display here.

I think it's great. He also likes making rainbows because he enjoys using all of the colours. That's really the inspiration for his work, he likes drawing parts of the face and colours that he can recognize and name.

He just turned three today. I think this art of his is solid evidence that's he growing up fast. Below, I've embedded a video of the young artist at work. If he keeps it up at this pace, there's no telling what he could accomplish. 

Happy Birthday, Avery. You already make me proud.

 

some more Russell Mussell

A few months ago on this blog I posted some artwork for a new character I just designed called Russell Mussell.  I only had that one drawing of him at the time.  Well, since I've been somewhat laid off from my day job (because of this big big virus), I've had time to draw lots more of him.  It's been an intense labour of love of course and lots of fun.  Moreso than just the act of drawing being fun, it's the discoveries that an artist makes along the way that are just as fun.  Here's one such discovery I have made in drawing this character:

First I'll tell you a bit about Russell's design.  His head has no shape really.  I start by simply drawing two eyes and a crooked smile. Then I draw everything else around that.  He does tend to look somewhat flat when rendered this way, mostly in the front view.  However, I found that I can easily give him the illusion of a 3rd dimension by simply drawing his eyes in perspective.  As you can see, the eye closest to us is bigger than the farther one, thus the perspective is achieved.

I'm not the first to discover this of course and I'm not claiming to either.  Way back in the late '40's/early '50's many animation studios were experimenting with a graphically flat design in their cartoons.  They absolutely achieved that same illusion with their flat designs and many of the results were pretty cool.

I'm very proud of myself for rediscovering nitrogen in a way and applying that to what I'm drawing now.  I hope I can have much more drawings of Russell Mussell done very soon.

Nurse

Here is a picture of a nurse I have drawn.  Just so you know, it ties in with this character I've drawn as well as this guy I've drawn.  "What is the connection between all of these characters?", you ask.  Hopefully everyone will find out soon long before this year ends.

This old man...

...he played one.... and so on.

Anyway, yes I drew an old old man.  I hope all of you people in internet land who stumble upon this post enjoy it.

Russell Mussell

There he is. He's up on my blog right now.  It's my creation. It's official. You've seen it. I've seen it. It's a done deal.

THEY'RE FINALLY HERE

Back in December of 2016, I got married to a wonderful Filipina named Janet and in the process adopted her equally wonderful daughter Raianne.  I blogged about it at the time here.  However, that ceremony took place in the Philippines because she's a Philippines citizen.  So after that wedding, I had to leave her behind and fly back to Canada to simply carry on with my life.  She and Raianne had to do the same thing with their lives as well.  Long distance relationships never feel good.  Sending and receiving messages to each other online is certainly fun and lifts the spirits, but there's still an emptiness felt throughout simply because this person is so far away.
But, in that time since then, we all completed the necessary paperwork for my wife and daughter to achieve permission to immigrate to Canada to be with me.  This passed January, they were both accepted!!! They were both sad to leave friends and family behind, but at the same time they were also excited to meet the new family and friends that awaited them in Canada.  April 8, one both ago today, was the big day when they finally made the journey.  My wife documented their trip in this video:



 Lots has happened in the first month since they've arrived.  Yes, they've both applied for things that every Canadian citizen needs like SIN numbers and health cards.  Our daughter has also been enrolled in school and is already doing quite well.

Here she is getting a guided tour of the school by some of her new friends.

But it's not just been laboriously filling out forms or listening to stuffy seminars about citizenship.  We've managed to have some fun too.  We went to the Saskatchewan Natural History Museum where Raianne got to look at some real dinosaur bones.

I know that she's interested in science, especially dinosaurs, so I knew this would be a big treat for her.  With that in mind, we also went to the Science Centre.  Raianne enjoyed herself there too.  We watched an IMAX movie about rescue dogs that was quite enjoyable and informative.
However, there was one attraction there that I had particular interest in.  There's something at the Science Centre called a 'zoetrope'.  For those who don't know, that's the device that was used to view animated drawing and/or photographs before film was invented.  Patrons can make their own animations on a slip of paper, put it into the device, then give it a spin and watch it move.  I tried creating what's known in animation circles as a 'walk cycle'.  I brought it home, scanned it into my computer ad put those pictures into Flash so that I could show you fine people on the vast internet my meagre accomplishment.  Here it is embedded below:



On April 28, there was a freak spring snow storm that made it look and feel like winter for just that one day.  Most people from hot climates like the Philippines tend not function well right away in snowy conditions.  They either try to stay inside as much as possible, or they just shiver profusely no matter how many layers of jackets and sweaters they're wearing.  Raianne however took to it naturally.  She sang Elsa's "Let It Go" song the entire time and could've frolicked in that snow all day.  I showed her how to make a snow angel and she did that many times.  Also, at one point she taught herself how to make snow balls and throw them.  One of those snow balls hit me right in the face.  She said "sorry, daddy" but I wasn't mad at all.  If anything I was proud.  In just a short time, she taught herself to throw snowballs at people's faces like a Canadian pro.  That's impressive.  The next snow fall won't be for several months, but I'm sure she will not have forgotten her newfound skills by then.  So look out anyone who's within throwing distance of my daughter next winter.  Your face might be getting cold and wet very quickly.

Oh yes, Raianne is having fun with her new family members as well as you can see.

It's not just the cousins close to her own age she's having fun with.  She enjoys spending time with her new grandmother too.  While we were playing cribbage together, Raianne drew this picture of grandma (who insists on being called 'babchi').

She loves to draw and draws often.  It shouldn't be hard to steer her in an artistic direction.

"Yes, we know your daughter is having fun.  But what about you and your wife??"

'What are I and my wife doing for fun since her arrival into Canada' you ask oh hypothetical person that I've concocted just for this blogpost.  Well, I won't post any grizzly details.  I'll just leave this here.



Skyrockets in flight indeed.

So anyway, that's been their first month in Canada.  I know there will be many many more great months and years to come.  I'll end this post with another of my wife's videos showing her and our daughter having fun in Rochdale Park.  Enjoy!

My daughter's dream

That is my daughter Raianne. I believe I've posted her image on this blog more than once. Oh well, if you missed her those times then you're seeing her now.

Recently I was having my daily correspondence with my wife when she told me of a strange dream that her/our daughter Raianne had the other night.  It was an exciting dream where she was being chased by a bad fairy.  Luckily, she was being helped by a little alien creature who resembled a bee.  Upon reading that, I figured that this could be a fun scenario to draw.  I asked for more details of the fairy and the bee alien to help me with this drawing.  Here's what I was given:

So I took all of that information and managed to whip up the neat little doodle below.

Just so I'm not having all of the fun, my daughter drew her own version of the dream she had.  Why not? It is her dream after all.  He's her work:

I think that looks pretty slick.  To me, the fairy resembles a young Katherine Hepburn.  I wish she would've told me about the happy tree in her dream.  I could've added that easily.

Anyway, kids are great, daughters are great, drawing is fun, and life is great.

So long for now, everyone.

Remember............. keep smiling.