REVOLUTION!

Ah yes, the school project parade begins. This from our youngest, copied freehand.

BONUS POST: Warriors!

Another example of how introducing something to my kids will cause them to run all over with it. Our middle child brought Erin Hunter's "Warriors" books into the house in a flood, infecting our youngest with them as well. Here's his take on a new cover for one of her books. Or it might be the Warriors book they're writing of their own. Once I lay my hands on their text, I'll post it. And probably weep over it, because it'll be better than anything I'm currently writing on.

The Room Cleaning

Each Christmas, I tackle a home improvement project, because I've got the forced time off work. This year, we decided on painting our youngest's bedroom because he was the one who got stuck with the pink and green room when we moved into our new house in February. He's now got an orange and yellow room. And because we organized his stuff when we moved it all back in, I got a crop of drawings with which I can make a final blitz on this blog for 2012. Enjoy.

Grumpiest. Caroler. Ever.

Our youngest says this is me, singing a Christmas carol. Neither one of us know why I appear so grumpy.

Of course, seeing the original drawing, which he traced - then added legs to - helps explain why.

Scout Camp

Remember, if you have an artist in the house and you ask him to make a list, this is what you're going to get. Alas, the "continued" part has been lost . . .

Friends

Coming from a kid who on occasion has a hard time making friends, this is pretty powerful stuff.

It's A Horsie

What self-respecting girl wouldn't draw a baby horse getting milk from her mommy? The horse mommy, not the girl's mommy, that is.

Superstitious About Safety

Out at work, they're having another kids' poster contest on the theme of superstitions and safety. We'll see if the kids can get better than consolation prizes this time around.

I have to admit, I have my doubts . . .

The Amazing Ryan

Yet another school doodle, featuring an occasional Scooter comic strip character: The Amazing Ryan. He never has any luck, no matter what he does.

Paddle Treatment

You know, I don't think they do paddle treatments at school any more. Maybe this is why. This was done on the back of a bit of math homework, by the way. The apple did not fall far from the tree.

Lisputania, or, He Is Definitely My Son

Our oldest, tired of meticulously copying maps of the states out of the atlas -- because he can; I don't ask for explanations any more -- decided to create his own country. Just like I did when I was a kid. The cartographer never falls far from the tree, obviously.

Rata Tata Tata!

Ya gotta watch those Nazis. They'll sneak up on you.

And if I didn't know better -- I know he hasn't seen the movie -- I'd think he'd gotten the idea for this from "The Battle of Britain."

Again, I enjoy seeing these ideas come out of my kids' heads.

Christmas Wish

Yes, it is clear that we have successfully transferred the pop culture of your youth to our own children, seeing as our oldest, in this Christmas card, managed to work in that everybody likes a fat Santa. Eat, eeeat!

Quality Zombie

Aside from Garfield, another major influence in our oldest's cartooning life is Dilbert -- merely because I"ve got several Dilbert comic books that he enjoys pawing through. So here's our oldest's renditions of Adams' famous Quality Zombies.

Farewell to Summer, Part II

Ordinarily, I might save drawings like this for the dregs of February, when spring seems too far off and fall is only a distant, snow-covered memory. But winter came early and often this year, so it seems apropos to post them now.

First, a calm summer scene from our daughter who, ironically, is scared to death of dalmatians. Not that I blame her. The only dalmatians I've ever met were barking brutes full of teeth.

Now a very serene scene from our oldest, who, ironically, doesn't mind a walk in the woods if we give him very specific goals to accomplish. Just telling him we're going for a walk just sends him into a frenzy.

I'm feeling better about winter now.

The Little Details

As a student of "The Great Escape," I know that it's often the tiniest little human frailty that can unravel even the best-laid plans.

Our oldest son knows this as well. Behold:

And the detail shot:

I just taught him the intricacies of Pig Latin a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see the lesson sank in.

I'm also pleasantly surprised at how easily he gets his characters to emote. You know the guy on the left is disgusted. You know the guy on the right is trying to fix things. You know the colonel is aghast. And you really, really know the guy in the middle has to go ottypay.

The drawing is incomplete because I fished it out of the trash. He decided he didn't like the picture, so not only didn't he finish it, he tossed it. I'm glad I rescued it.

I Wanna Go Back to My Little Grass Shack

Once and a while, your kid will draw something so out of the blue you'll wonder and wonder and wonder where the idea came from. Such as with this drawing:

My daughter as a little wahinie? She has no idea who Arthur Godfrey is, thank heaven.

The only place she's seen a wahinie is from an old Garfield cartoon. Whew. That seems innocent enough.

But back to the picture. I have no idea who was wearing the dress situated next to my daughter, nor why there seems to be a purse blowing away in the wind. Maybe it's a hat. I'll have to ask her.

Chore Ch(Art)

We've had this gem on our refrigerator for a few weeks now. It started out as our oldest outlining what chores he'd do for a few weeks to fulfill a Webelos Scout requirement. Ordinarily, he does lists, because he loves lists and loves knowing what comes next. But on occasion he will do a list, but in graphic form.

When he draws, he has two principal influences. We've already seen the Scott Adams influence. Here, we see influence from Jeff Kinney and his "Diary of A Wimpy Kid" series. He loves the books and loved the movie, but loves the art most of all. I think he does a pretty good job. My favorite is the vanity cleaning, as we've got that nice reflection going.

Found Art

I found this scrap -- obviously a map to some kind of treasure -- stuffed inside one of my Terry Pratchett books (Monstrous Regiment, in case you're wondering.) It's possible I used it as a bookmark on one idle night. More likely, however, some kid just stuffed it in the book out of mischief. As soon as I had it scanned, they reclaimed it and went on a treasure hunt. They never did tell me what they found. Probably another one of my books.