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This time I did two cartoons at once, but held one back. For a brief time, I was actually ahead of my schedule! (It was an awesome twenty-four hours.)

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They let Kathryn call us the day before Mother's Day. I don't think it was a coincidence, but either way, I'm glad they did, because we love hearing from her. Our letters are frequent and large, so she's getting all the news from home. Only a few more weeks and we'll see her!

In the meantime, Anti-grav continues. Our intrepid hero is still struggling with his sister, who has no sympathy for him. (Or maybe she's struggling with him.) Obviously, as they are stuck in the same space-exploring vessel together, it's going to be an interesting ride.

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We've gotten calls from Kathryn twice now. The second one was quite a surprise, since we didn't think we'd hear from her for weeks. It's probably part of her training to make the calls home erratic. You have to be ready for whatever comes in the military.

As you can see, our hero is finding that his talents don't quite click with his sister's world view (which is more along the lines of stay-out-of-my-stuff-or-I-will-get-you). His sidekick is Allen, a newbie to the strip. I'll be introducing a few other characters here and there. Good things are in store, so follow if you don't want to miss any. : )

Where I'll be this summer

Yes, instead of enjoying the sunshine and chasing chickens out of my hastas (unsuccessfully), I will be teaching acrylic painting to kids at the local Michaels. I'm excited about it, because usually art class ends with school, but this year it's going to continue all summer. Quite frankly, I'm giddy at the thought of someone paying me to have fun painting with kids. What could be more fun? There is a certainty that at no point during the summer will I wake up and say, "Gee, I could have been an accountant." Nope. I'd rather be painting.

: )

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I'm finding it a little hard to keep cartoons coming at the rate that my letters to Kathryn are ready. I'm getting about two out each week, and fortunately other family members are sending her letters, too, so maybe she won't feel the gaps so much. (My letters are composites of several days running, because that's how long it takes me to get the time to do cartoons.) The cartoons aren't exactly professional level, not having done frequent cartooning over the past years, but at least they get the idea across. Just like any art (and probably anything else), you have to do it for hours daily to become good at it.

Enjoy.

: )

Anti-Grav 0001: Cartoons for Kathryn

Kathryn left for basic training last week (Air Force), so I'm sending her cartoons in my letters. I'll share them here, too. : )

Please forgive me if my posts are shorter. Kathryn's letters are pages long, and I think I'm emptying my word quota on her.

Getting together with an old friend

Right before Easter break I asked my older students what they would like to do for the rest of the year. We'd tried many new things this year, besides revisited some old favorites, and although they seemed to enjoy each project, I just wanted to know their preference. It turns out that the general consensus was that they wanted to paint. Since we've done some watercolor and acrylic in the past, I suggested gouache.

I don't know if you've ever tried gouache, but it's a great medium to use. It is like watercolor, but opaque instead of translucent. I became acquainted with gouache in college, where I slowly built up my Winsor & Newton collection of tubes, not having tons of ready cash. For some reason, possibly because I became enamored with pen and ink for awhile, I quit painting with gouache around that time.

I thought I'd share a sample that I got ready for my class this week. (We'll be doing a little from Rod Lawrence's book to get comfortable with gouache before we strike out on our own projects.)