Category Archives: Drawings

13

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 13, 2012 - 8:22 pm | ,
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This is the first unfinished drawing I’ve posted, I don’t want to blow it by just trying to finish it and get it out of the way. The person who requested it asked for a drawing based on this poem by e.e. cummings:

my love is building a building
around you,a frail slippery
house,a strong fragile house
(beginning at the singular beginning

of your smile)a skilful uncouth
prison, a precise clumsy
prison(building thatandthis into Thus,
Around the reckless magic of your mouth)

my love is building a magic, a discrete
tower of magic and(as i guess)

when Farmer Death(whom fairies hate)shall

crumble the mouth-flower fleet
He’ll not my tower,
laborious, casual

where the surrounded smile
hangs

breathless

I feel like I took the whole thing too literally, with the buildings hugging (based on this) and the pseudo Mona Lisa smile, but that’s just where I am, not in a super sophisticated place as an illustrator, just trying to work where I’m at. Maybe it’s done just like this.

We’ll see where life takes us tomorrow.

Bleven

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 11, 2012 - 6:29 pm | ,
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This first drawing started out as Mark Twain, and then Jackson came up and said, “Oh, Einstein,” so of course then I put his head on a pole and added a bunny. I really wanted to start adding color to these, but if I bust out the colored pencils the people at the end of the line won’t see their drawings until there’s another Clinton in the White House (Chelsea, most likely).

I was not able to find a strict attribution for this quote, because as we all know the Internet loves photos of Einstein overlaid with quotes that he didn’t actually say. So the source was not impeccable (its earliest source is a book of Einstein quotes published in 1996) but of course I didn’t even bother to try to verify in until I’d finished the drawing. So that’s a lesson learned.

The direction for this second drawing was “a crow or crows.”

I didn’t mean for it to turn into a rejected New Yorker cartoon, but I wanted them to be talking and I wanted to incorporate the collective noun for a group of crows, which as you know is a murder. I don’t know if single crows ask to join established groups but I’m pretty sure they’re smart enough to ask politely.

Thus endeth Day Eleven of National Blog Posting Month.

And now it’s Day Ten

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 10, 2012 - 6:16 pm | ,
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Today’s drawings were done to accomplish two specific requests, one from a kind Twilight fan who asked for an Edward and Bella drawing, and that it not be sarcastic because she sincerely loves Twilight and she didn’t want me being all, “Ha ha, Edward looks like a muffin with pointy teeth.” But my first drawing was so terrible that I couldn’t send it to her. I know I’m supposed to practice drawing people for this life list business (which perhaps means I shouldn’t have used action figures as models), but I can’t in good conscience send out something like this:

I went on to just try to copy the hands-and-apple Twilight book covers, but you know what else is hard to draw? Hands holding apples.

At the moment I’m reading the book What Was She Thinking? (Notes on a Scandal) by Zoë Heller (which is fantastic, especially if can forget you saw the movie), and she has a funny throw-away description of a student’s drawing where the hands in it look like “odd, fingerless trowels.” I, too, am working at Odd Fingerless Trowel level, so I backed out and drew this instead:

Secondly, for the lovely person who asked for a drawing of a sheep or a dog, I did this:

Can you see?? It’s a sheep standing next to another sheep in sheep dog’s clothing. It’s funny because it’s true. Also, I couldn’t remember what sheep have on their feet, is it hooves? I just let them be little pegs instead. If you only had two sheep pegs to stand on it would be hard to keep your balance, but with four sheep pegs you’re good.

Eight Bait Mate Plait Concentrate

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 8, 2012 - 6:37 pm | ,
4 Comments

I’m still not done e-mailing people to ask them what they want me to draw and it’s been a week! What the hell, me? If you haven’t heard from me, you will soon; or, if you didn’t put a note on your PayPal donation telling me what to draw, you can e-mail me your instructions (fussy at fussy dot org). Honestly, I spent the entire day organizing this stuff and only got one drawing done.

Just to be clear, no one has yet asked me to draw anything with a sneezing fetish or sickness theme, so that drawing capped the least-efficient day of drawing request fulfilling in drawing request-fulfilling history. I guess this one’s going to sit in the box waiting for just the right person to come along, and then we’ll put it on their tombstone after he or she has hacked his or her lungs up or has been struck down by The Ungodly Head Cold of 2012.

And now I have to go make ravioli. Why are there only 24 hours in a day? I need at least 36 to fit everything in.

Some Thoughts On Day Six

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 6, 2012 - 2:46 pm | ,
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You know what turns out to be everso just a little nerve wracking for someone who has plenty of electricity, a healthy child, and who doesn’t know what it’s like to have no home at all right now? Drawing pictures for people who have given you five dollars. I’m trying to stay loose and just sort of, you know, channel it — and I know nobody’s expecting a timeless work of art, but it’s been a little awkward getting started. However, as part of my life list pledge to draw every day and shame myself track my progress by posting my efforts, I am going to show you some of the stuff I’ve been dropping in the mail.

For my very first drawing I wanted to make an owl wearing overalls. I didn’t question the source of this inspiration, I just went for it. But look:

It’s a sad owl, and he’s got a barn owl face mixed with eared-owl ears, and he’s wearing an overalls barrel, and I have no idea what’s up with the smiling flower pots.

So then I thought, maybe instead of making up zoological problems for myself I should try to draw something that’s right in front of me, so I went outside and I ended up with this:

This wonderful donor specifically asked for a drawing with “no boobs” in it, so my constraint was to draw anything else in the world besides boobs. As you can see, I can work with those kinds of restrictions; they might even free me up. My watchword with writing assignments has always been that constraints sometimes free us to think in new ways, and I think the same thinking applies to crazy little drawings, too.

Thank you again for all the donations, I’m closing it down tonight and sending all the money out tomorrow morning, and I’ll post the total amount of our donation then. I’ve already sent the $200 to Charity Water, so that’s done. I really appreciate the way so many people were able to come out and give.

Two drawings down, sixty-two drawings to go.

And now it’s Day Two

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 2, 2012 - 7:21 am | ,
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Part of my evil plan in offering drawings in exchange for donations to Charity Water and the Red Cross was to get myself drawing again. I used to draw a lot; in fact, my old sketch books are half diary, half whimsical expressions of my whirling inner vortexes. But part of the whole Camp Mighty thing is to write a life list and then open yourself up to the magical forces that will magnetically draw the things you wrote on your list toward you. So the other day I started a list, and the first thing on the list is REMEMBER HOW YOU USED TO LIKE TO DRAW? YOU ONLY GET BETTER IF YOU PRACTICE, NUMBSKULL. And then I got my idea to exchange drawings for donations, and then you people began to donate! And now I’m forced to draw pictures for you! You are helping me achieve the first goal on my list! This life list stuff is magical. I’m almost afraid to put anything else on it. I might actually end up with my pet skunk flying a helicopter with Martin Starr’s face painted on the side. (Note to self: Keep dream journal separate from life list.)

Here’s a lady who looks like she’s made out of wood:

So, thank you. If you’re still interested in donating, all the info is here and the PayPal button is here:

Also, if you’re not sure what to do with all your leftover Halloween candy, or you want to keep your kid from eating the rest of their haul today, Hulk has a brilliant tip for you.

Of course I’m doing NaBloPoMo

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 1, 2012 - 12:39 pm | ,
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I am going down to Camp Mighty next week and in order for them to let me in, I need to bring $200 with me to donate to Charity Water. Last year, the money raised by Camp Mighty attendees helped to bring fresh water to 1,000 people. This year, we’re giving to help build wells in Rwanda, where they will change people’s lives in ways I probably can’t accurately imagine.

However, in light of the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy on people from Cuba to Canada, some of whom are friends of mine, here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m asking you to donate whatever you can to my Charity Water/Hurricane Sandy combo plan. (I’m just the middleman, none of it goes into my wallet.) You can donate $1.00 if you want and I will thank you personally via e-mail and tell you how everyone envies what you’re doing with your hair. If you send me $5.00, I will draw almost whatever you want on a 3 x 5 postcard and send it to you. If you send me $15.00 I’ll frame it as a commemorative knick-knack ready for holiday giving. Below are some examples of what I’m willing to draw (i.e., nothing outright pornographic or disturbingly violent).(This is just stuff from my sketchbook. Your drawing will be brand new and just for you.)

Random California landscapes

Intergenerational laundry-doing

Old ladies thinking about sex

Spiritual beings

Hand lettering of the sentiment of your choice

A nerd in a kilt

Inexplicable channellings of the Universe

Whatever money I receive above the main $200 I need for Charity Water will go directly to the Red Cross, and I will match it dollar for dollar. UPDATE: I am matching for the first two days of donations only, and I’m sorry to cap it like that but I’ve raided my yoga retreat/shoe fund/art-supply-and-lunch-money piggy bank and, as of Saturday morning, that means we’re still sending almost $500 to the Red Cross. FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, KIDS. Keep donating and I’ll keep drawing and everything from now on will go directly to the Red Cross.

Here’s the PayPal button. You know what to do. Thanks for even considering it.


Day Fifteen

  By Eden M. Kennedy | November 15, 2011 - 6:30 pm | ,
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Draw a squirrel choking a chipmunk.

Why does the chipmunk look like Hitler?

Put sunglasses on the squirrel!

Put a fedora on the squirrel.

Now give him a beard.

Let me do something to the chipmunk! *Adds little mustache*

Yes, Chuck Norris squirrel with platypus feet is killing swollen Hitler chipmunk.

You are welcome to suffer through me learning how to draw cartoon characters, but it’s not going to be pretty.