Waxing Poetical

(poetical is funnier than poetic and you know it)
In Which: I am momentarily inspired to attempt vaguely serious art.
I recently read the Graphic Cannon series (check it out) which contains illustrated excerpts from famous illustrated literary works. As with all interpretations of art, I love some of them and disagree vehemently with others but since it's possibly more fun to dislike something than like it (and certainly more fun to dislike something than feel apathetic about it) big fans of art and literature should totally check these out.
As a result of reading some of these my drawing this week is waxing poetical and I'm afraid you will have to bear with - reading this book in combination with a recent interest Byron (Poetry's James Dean? Calliope's bad boy?) resulted in this overambitious doodle.

Alright so my typography is struggling a bit there and I broke off the lines in the wrong spots because I just cant make the words any smaller with my paint brush- just for you hardcore lyricists I will put the whole thing up:

SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light	5
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face,	10
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,	15
But tell of days in goodness spent,—
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

The Ides of March

The ides of march hit me particularly hard this year. I am not a fan.

My car got stolen. I got it back and instantly became horrifically ill.

This is the cycle I go through every time I get sick:
1. I think I'm coming down with something
2. I think that I can fend it off with vitamin C, tea, and workouts that I should not be doing.
3. I think I'm dying. I think sadly of all of the nothing that I will never do. I text Meghan to remind her to throw me a wake once I am dead and that under no circumstances should my funeral be open-casket. I regret that I have never done any magic.
4. I think that I will probably never be well again and spend the rest of my life breathing wheezily, wearing an eye patch and being accompanied by a three legged dog. Though I no longer believe that I will die, I am now convinced that I will spend the rest of my life in a slightly ill state.

Doodle Challenge

Doodle with me Challenge: 

Okay so I have tried this before and it was met with tepid success but - draw me a stick figure doodle. (or any doodle really - maybe its a pattern you made as a kid, try it again)

Why Should I do that?

-To reconnect with art: everyone should make things. When we are kids we make things and get lost in the imaginary worlds that we create on paper. As kids grow up they tend to lose this ability to enter an imaginary world through drawing. Doodling can bring it back to you again and it is a cool experience.*

- Feel like a kid again: Are you feeling old and jaded? Do you hate your job? Doodling can make you feel like a kid again. Make a drawing that is a story. Let the story tell itself to you.

- Because I want you to

- everyone can draw stick figures you have no excuse

Because due dates help people get stuff done you have two weeks until March 21 to send me doodles.
Where to send it: to my twitter account @liz_rosema
I will post them. Send me doodles from your kids, send me doodles from your aunt Marge, send me doodles from homeless Bob. Share it - ask your friends.

* If you are an artist, or a human being, or a faerie princess you should read What It Is by Lynda Barry. It is a book that asks questions about the images that we create - where they are from, why we make them and why we stop making them. I think it is a sort of graphic novel version of Aristotle's Poetics. 

Grain of Salt: be ready for something different. Like reading Faulkner, begin by absorbing, if you flail around trying to understand you may drown.

A Doodle:

About this doodle:
Yes that cactus is a periscope.
It is red vs. green. duh.
Hot air balloons are of course a useful military vehicle. A squadron of them is not at all a bad plan. (I just wanted to draw some okay?)

When I was a kid I was forever drawing intricate stick figure battles during the long southern baptist sermons of my youth (these sermons outlined the importance of various and sundry golden objects placed in the tabernacle in the book of Deuteronomy - which was already tedious and a sermon about these objects increased the tediousness five, nay! tenfold).

To relive the joys of drawing of my youth I choose to doodle a battle for my (and hopefully for your) enjoyment. It was way fun.

 Detour 
A "Kids these days" rant: brought to you by the letter "c" for complaining
because my job is to teach stuff to kids I am relatively familiar with fads in toys.
One of them is: doodle books. They are pages with drawings that are somewhat started, and they say "finish the castle" or "draw a battle". I see how they are kind of fun but also partially I inclined to say, "Really? you can't think of anything to doodle by yourself? You need help doodling? Alas! Alack! The fall of the imagination!"
rant over.