They say I'm chicken...

IF prompt: resolution

"resolution: learn to fly"
one-line #8

pileated woodpecker

"pileated woodpecker"
one-line #7

old man winter

this week's Illustration Friday prompt: winter

"old man winter"
one-line #6

rocket

"Rocket"
one-line #4

Today we built a rocket that my youngest got with some Christmas money. 950' later this drawing is all we have left (that thing took off!) - across the field, then the road, then into the woods...we search the woods intently to find it - when it's all said and done it made for a great Christmas break memory.

Going

"Going"
one-line #3

Violet Snap

one-line pen & ink w/Prismacolor pencils

The violet snap

is an impatient bird;

I find it’s song

is quite absurd.

A new journal & daily challenge...

Christmas delivered a new journal my way from my brother & sister-in-law (handcrafted by Ey Truman, an Argentine craftsman). I thought I would use it as a daily journal to hold my one-line drawings...here are yesterday's and today's (also composed with my new Prismacolor colored pencils!)

"Tree"
one-line #1

"diamond hoofed giraffant"
one-line #2

Snow Day & Talking Snow People

A very happy Yankee...

Down south in GA for Christmas (where it rarely snows) but woke this morning. looked out the window, and was given this sight of the world!

Merry Christmas

"...O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today,

we hear the Christmas angels the great tidings tell:

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel."

from the Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem

"The Night Before Christmas"

My boys and I got out the puppet 

for a retelling of the classic Christmas poem

see more here: http://dthaase-lines.blogspot.com/

introducing the omnium-gatherum...

I am going to take a slight break from the blogosphere to spend my holiday vacation working on a new project...come and see...

http://dthaase-lines.blogspot.com/

Tally Tuesday is here @ the Web of Whimsy...

Come cast your vote for the Wizard of Whimsy 
(click the button)

"I Am a University Student Who Follows Jesus."

An 8+ minute video from Nathan Chud.  Nate just completed the nation-wide God on Campus Tour with Trent Sheppard and shared this each night as they visited campuses all the way from Rhode Island to Hawaii. 

The Ache from Campus America on Vimeo.

paradox:

This sentence is false. 

meet Stamp, the armadillo, in his coat of mail (he happens to be a philatelist - I hope he doesn't go postal)...

for the Illustration Friday prompt: mail

one-line pen and ink drawing

C.S. Lewis

"Remember that, as I said, the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge.  When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him.  When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.  A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right.  This is common sense, really.  You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping.  You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them.  You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk.  Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.”  ~ Mere Christianity, 93 

The Pilgrim's Progress: From This World To That Which Is To Come, John Bunyan (ed. by C.J. Lovik, illus. by Mike Wimmer)

Crossway Books, 2009 (240pgs)

A time-tested work of classic status (originally published in 1678) and the illustrations accompanying this edition of the story are stunning.  I read this to my boys through the semester.

OVERVIEW
Written in the form of a highly imaginative allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress tells the unforgettable story of Christian and the extreme, soul-threatening dangers he encounters on his journey to the Celestial City. But it is much more than an allegory; in a sense, it is both the personal story of Bunyan and the universal story of anyone who undertakes the same eternal pilgrimage. The result is a masterpiece of literature as well as spiritual truth - a book that one time was loved and read in nearly every home in England and North America, a book that has endured as a classic for more than three centuries.


INTERVIEW WITH MY BOYS
Dad: What was your favorite part of the book (what did you enjoy most)?
son 2 (age 9): When troll-man captures them.
Dad: Do you mean the part with Giant Despair.
son2: Yes, that's him
son1 (age 11): I like when Christian and Hopeful get trapped in the Giant's castle.
Dad: You two seem to enjoy the troubling parts, why is that?
son2: Cause for some reason in good books they always get out!
son1: Because it is fun to see how they escape.
Dad: Any other favorite parts?
son2: I really like the last chapter where Christian and Hopeful cross the River of Death.
Dad: Why?
son2: Because sometimes when you are so close to finishing something there is still something in your way.  It's like a board game.
Dad: How about you son1?
son1: When they want to go to sleep but they can't because they are on magic ground and if they went to sleep they would never wake up.
Dad: What did that section teach you?
son1: To keep on going even if something is tempting.


Dad: Is there anything you didn't enjoy about the book?
son1: The only thing I didn't like about it is that the author made it seem long and dreary but it was still a good book.
son2: I didn't think there was any bad parts.  I thought it was amazing!


Dad: Why should someone read this book?
son2: Because somebody tells you to.
son1: It helps you understand more things about the Bible.


Dad: What was your favorite illustration in the book?
son2: When Christian battles Apollyon.
Dad: Why that picture?
son2: Because it is cool.  There is dark but there is light - like evil against good.
Dad: How about you son1?
son1: When Christian and Hopeful gaze at the the Celestial City.
Dad: Why that picture?
son1: Because it is so beautiful and it is a really good painting.


Dad: If you had to rate this book, how many stars out of five would you give it?
son1: For a kid I would give it a 2.5 and for an adult a 4.5.
Dad: Why so different for a kid and an adult?
son1: Because a kid doesn't understand it all as much but a grown-up would.
Dad: What if an adult read it to a kid and explained it really well as it was read?
son1: It would be a 3.5 then.
Dad: How about you son2?
son2: I am going to say, for a kid, I would give it a 3 and for an adult a 4.9.
Dad: Why do you have them so far apart?
son1: Because for a grown-up, they can read it and when they read it they can understand it and know where the different phrases are in the Bible and a kid has a harder time doing that.

A FEW FAVORITE QUOTES

     "I advise you to quickly get rid of your burden."  Worldly-Wiseman explained, "for you will never be settled in your mind until then, nor will you enter the benefits of the blessings that God has given you."

     "That is what I am seeking," said Christian.  "I want nothing more than to be rid of this heavy burden.  But I cannot free myself from it, nor is there any man in our country who can take it off my shoulders.  That is why I am going toward the small gate ahead, as I told you, so that I may be rid of my burden."

     "Who told you to go this way to be rid of your burden?"

     Christian answered, "He was a man who appeared to be very honorable and great.  His name, as I recall, was Evangelist."

     "Shame on him for such counsel!"  Worldly-Wiseman protested.  "There is not a more dangerous and troublesome way in the world than the way he has directed you.  Look at the difficulty you have experienced already.  I can see that you are already covered in dirt from the Swamp of Despond.  Listen to me: that swamp is only the beginning of the sorrows and troubles you will find if you follow that way.  Hear what I have to say since I am older than you: if you continue on the way that Evangelist has directed, your journey will be attended by weariness, pain, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death!  The truth of what I am telling you has been confirmed by many testimonies.  Why should a man so carelessly cast himself into such peril by giving heed to a stranger?"

     "Why, sir," Christian said, "this burden upon my back is more terrible to me than all the things that you have mentioned.  I do not care what I meet with on the way, as long as I can also meet with deliverance from my burden."  (pgs. 32-33)

after Faithful is killed...

     Now I saw in my dream that Christian did not escape Vanity Fair by himself, for there was with him a man named Hopeful (a name he was given as he watched how Christian and Faithful in their words and in their deeds conducted themselves during all their sufferings at the fair).

     Hopeful had joined himself to Christian and entered into a brotherly covenant with him, promising him that he would be his companion for the rest of the journey.

     So one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another rose out of his ashes to be a companion with Christian in his pilgrimage.  Hopeful also told Christian there were many more men in the fair who would in due course follow after them to the Celestial City.  (pg. 140)

Hopeful offers counsel to Christian...

     "But as for footmen like you and me, let us never desire to meet with the enemy or presume ourselves able to do better when we hear about the struggles of others.  When we hear of others who have been sorely tested, let's not be deluded by thoughts of our own manhood, for those who do so are often the ones who have the worst time of it when they are tested."  (pgs. 182-183)

risible Rita

one-line pen & ink drawing 

Risible Rita has a great grin
from under her nose,
down to her shin.


come add your whimsy 
at the Web of Whimsy! 
(or simply enjoy what others have submitted...)

vote for this week's Wizard of Whimsy...

It is "Tally Tuesday" over at the Web of Whimsy - come vote for your favorite submission.  Click on the weedy seadragon floating at the top of the blog.

Annie Dillard:

"I cannot cause light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam." 

from: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 

zinnia

Today's temperature is a high of 14 degrees so I thought I would post a bit of beauty in the starkness.  Also using this as my submission for the Illustration Friday prompt: phenomenon & the Inspiration Avenue prompt: believe

pen & ink w/color pencil

New Mexico

A sketch for Sunday Sketches

peace:

the prompt this week at Inspiration Avenue

Inspired by the song below, I thought a one-line drawing was a fitting way to represent peace...unbroken, continuous - climb aboard:

Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) plays his classic: "Peace Train"

beware the me-monster...

I have been struck recently at how often we talk about ourselves - a grave danger in the blogosphere, while traveling through facebook land in the forest of tweets...

comedian Brian Regan made me stop and wonder - who really has something worth hearing...enjoy this laugh and listen in for his answer:

wisdom...

beauty, truth, and goodness enfleshed

a reverb10 prompt

Community Art....

click photo to see enlarged

Here is a mural that was completed today in the Post Office of the College where I work.  It was a project envisioned by a community arts class on campus and my boys and I helped paint some of it.

I thought it was a fitting post for Reverb10  - days 6/7/8/9 as it was made by a community and celebrates the beautifully different - then when the students finished they stood and sang together - it was a party.

vision

"If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery,
adapted from "The Wisdom of the Sands"
French writer (1900 - 1944)

Whimsical Wednesday is here...

this week's line of whimsy:

pen & ink drawing w/color pencils

Plum Bird

Plum bird flew to the plum plum tree,

lands and sings the plum plum song,

sweetly nests in the plum plum boughs

then dreams the dreams of plum plum wilds.

Wakes to the pop of the plum plum bloom;

drinks the nectar of plumish juice,

nibbles the fruit of the plum plum plum—

takes to the sky till its nighttime roost.

Add your whimsicality & see that of others: 
click here to visit the Web of Whimsy...

Tally Tuesday

It is time to vote for this week's Wizard of Whimsy - you are allowed two votes...come and pick a favorite from the week's submissions (voting is open today until 9pm US Central Time):

click here to be taken to the Web of Whimsy...

Reverb10 prompt: make

Here's one way to "make" the prompt:

put a snowflake into cyberspace 
click above to visit flurrious.com
make a snowflake and let it go...


visit Reverb10 - a daily word prompt for December invites you to create...

Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. Use the end of your year as an opportunity to reflect on what's happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10 - and the 31 prompts our authors have created for you - you'll have support on your journey. 

Something my boys made...

thought I would post this for the reverb10 prompt today: make

tag team creation of poem and picture by Chris (11) & Ben (9)

Snoopy is a dog
that can hypnotize you.
If you look at his eyes
they will swirl
and hypnotize you.
But he is kind -
(it is opposite day).

trilobite w/bumbershoot

Illustration Friday prompt: prehistoric 
(I remember having one of these embedded in a rock when I was little - thought it was the coolest treasure - amazing to think you can touch the imprint of something from 500 million years ago!)

a one-line pen & ink drawing w/Inktense pencils

As Trilly left his house that day
he took his brolly on his way
for he heard the news man say,
"Be prepared for rain today."

But the rain that fell on down
was not the kind you want around
and in an instant all were bound
to be fossils in the ground.

Amaze the sage

Here's my submission for this week's Inspiration Avenue prompt:
"Once upon a time..."

one-line pen & ink drawing w/Inktense pencils

Once upon a time

I drew a bit of line—

Suddenly on the page

Appeared a wizened sage

His name was Amaze

And I asked of his days

Wandering the shores of Lore.

He told me to sit

And listen for a bit

Then he made me cherry tea

Said, “It’ll help you see.”

But then my ink ran dry

Was that a tear in his eye?

I wonder what the wizard would have said…

  

What do you think; what would the wizard have said? 
Leave a comment below.

fire hydrant

one-line pen & ink drawing w/color pencils

two quick thursday reads...

Pulled these from the local elementary school this afternoon - check them out at your local library or children's bookstore.

Don't Bump the Glump! by Shel Silverstein

A pure Silverstein delight.  This was actually his first poetry collection and the only one in color - it was published in 1964 and recently re-published in 2008.  It contains all the zaniness of Silverstein's better known poetry and the addition of the watercolor is marvelous.  My kids had fun picking out their favorites and reading them to one another.
This book will cause you to smile.



ish by Peter H. Reynolds

I pulled this as it was standing on the top of the shelf and I was drawn to the cover art.  The story really drew me in.  My son then took it and read it and decided to check it out so he could share it with his brother later.  Any artist who has struggled with not liking what they are creating will enjoy this book - a wonderful tale of being confident in what you create.

Come join in the whimsy...

Here is my one-line drawing & poem for Whimsical Wednesday

Sally had a flower

whose bloom was blue and gold

and if you were to smell it

oh, the treasures you'd behold.