This will be the last sketch I will sign in 2011.

For all you people thinking this will be the last year on this planet, I hope you live your life like it is. As far as the Mayan calendar countdown, read this, please. Oh, and stop it, you’re frightening the kids.

Here’s a good website from NASA.

I shot a forty four magnum Desert Eagle today. One round shattered a frozen milk jug (filled with ice, not milk) into a million pieces. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. I have taught my children that a gun is meant for one thing and one thing only, and that is to destroy. They both have a deep respect for firearms and know how to handle them. Shooting this hand cannon renewed my respect fairly quickly.

It’s been a while since I’ve written much about my technique, so I will now. I love shiny objects and materials, and I have been really wanting to develop textures that I can reuse. This is an experiment in textures as well.

I turn around and it’s already my bed time. Sheesh. I was really busy today trying to finish up the assets for the swamp.

I am not complaining.

This is another sketch I did for Century Granite.

This is for Mrs. Grady.

When I was in grade school at Maine Memorial Elementary, I did a lot of custom holiday decorations for certain teachers. I don’t think I ever did one for Mrs. Grady. So, here it is…about thirty five years after the fact, but here just the same.

The writing above is my “hand” at cursive writing. This is one pass and no erasing. I wanted to see what it would look like. I thought it appropriate, since I think that’s the age I learned how. I’m sure if I were being graded on it, I would get about a seventy five percent. I made the paper look old to give it an aged look, as if it lives at the bottom of a cardboard box that holds the family tree ornaments.

By the way, when is the correct time to start wishing people a Merry Christmas? I officially started yesterday.

We finally got a tree today.

Woohoo.

I am getting into the spirit of Christmas.

This drawing started off as a simple candle on a desk. The Christmas mouse was an afterthought. I didn’t want to “over-campify” the drawing, so I made it a skeleton.

I have discovered that I love crunchy peanut butter. This is a recent discovery for the sole reason that I only buy smooth. Why, you ask? Because, that’s what I ate growing up. That’s what my mother bought then, therefore, that’s what’s in my house now…that is until about a week ago when I had a spoonful at a friend’s house.

Crazy, huh? What have I been missing all these years. I wonder how many other “pre-conditioned” products there are in my house.

I read a story once about this woman who had visited a friend on a Sunday after church. She was in the kitchen preparing a roast. After some idle banter, the woman noticed her friend had cut two inches off the end of the roast and placed it in a bowl. Curious, the woman asked what was the purpose. “I don’t know. My mother always did it this way.”

The obvious conclusion was to make a call and find out once and for all.

Turns out, mom’s roasting pan was a small one an didn’t accommodate a full roast, therefore, she cut some off and put it in a bowl for stew later on in the week.