The yellow belt-iest thing I saw today!

On the way to dinner with fine friends after a sunny and cold afternoon enjoying the Art Shanty Projects, we drove past this clever placement:
Are the ninjas disbanded, or disguised?

I hope you did not need any martial arts experts in a hurry along HWY. 55!

The fixiest thing I saw today!

On a windy, snowy, nicely below freezing night recently I saw this dedicated Minnesotan and fixed gear enthusiast fixing a chain suck:

When you are riding at night in snow and ice, against the wind, who needs brakes?!?!

That green thing on the bike is a hockey stick. Awesome.

I will note that he DID have both front and rear lights turned on. Nice. Safety first....erm...visibility first!

Some call Minneapolis the #2 biking city in the nation. I have no clue who can decide these things, but there are plenty of bike commuters even in the bitter cold and snow. I am not sure how many of them also play hockey.

The gaardiest thing I saw today: Monster Challenge!

I received a new monster to post today! Fantastic!

Today's entry comes from my friend Dave, he drew a lovely monster for the challenge and he also creates them in his writing, as evident by his 2009 Bram Stoker Award Nominated (nice job Dave!) debut novel and friend to us all, Tellon:

Tellon, with Richard "A-Bomb" Klatte and Troy LaFaye, in The Hardworking Man From Nebraska.

Now, let us meet Krangaard:
Dave reports: He was born on a Monday morning after a three-day weekend, was made to go to work in the Pain Mines of Blech, and has been enraged ever since.

I hope I never have to work in the Pain Mines of Blech, but if I do, I will say a cautious 'hello' to
Krangaard.

Thank you for this great monster, Dave!

Any one else have a monster? Will I ever get my own drawing act back together? Questions we all have to live with on a gray and drizzly spring morn, I guess.

The Frankencheesist Thing I saw today: Monster Challenge!

Oh this week has flown by! I have another monster submission waiting in the wings. You people are awesome!

This installment is by Jeremy Couturier
I actually bought a drawing of his on etsy.com, it is a timeless piece portraying an epic battle. Take a peek. I think Chuck Norris will win! Todd questions my where my loyalty lies. What do you think will win?

Jeremy says: This familiar trio has decided to ham it up for an opportunity to be in the monster challenge!


Boy howdy! They certainly have. And they look great doing it, still scary.

I bow to your talent, Jeremy. Thanks for sharing some monsters with us!

The Frostiest thing I saw today: Monster Challenge!

This is the first of 2 new contributions to the Monster Challenge! Hooray!

Sarah describes how here monster came to here:

Attached is a sketch of a monster that I saw the shape of in some frost on the inside of a car window. He's kind of messy since I had to draw quickly before the window defrosters melted him! Really, I saw this shape and I thought, that kind of looks like a face, a kind of creepy but cute monster face. He doesn't have much of a story beyond that, but maybe he will become a character in some future drawings or something.


And people wonder how we can live with the winter! There is so much beauty and inspiration in all of the seasons.

Great work Sarah! I encourage you to visit her blog to see how she is so creative in so many ways.

I have another entry to post tomorrow! Please come back to check that out. Also, if you have a Monster waiting for you to create and to contribute, I encourage you to do so!

The Overextend-iest thing I saw today: Monster Challenge Submission #1!

Meet Work by Eric G.:


The artist reports:
My monster is work. All I can say is that this is a literal depiction of the scene in my office right now. The geniuses in upper management decided to lay off some of my coworkers while we are in the midst of the hugest project we've ever been involved in, and now it's down to just me and a couple other tattered individuals to shoulder the workload.

Eric G., I wish this multi-tasking monster could actually come and help you out at work. I hope you had a few fun minutes in your day creating this work of art. I really love the detail and the colors.

Thank you for your submission! Hooray for Eric G! Here's hoping his workload lightens.

Anyone else??

The CHALLENGE-iest thing I saw today!

In the past I have posted some drawings from Monster Attack, the drawings of the son of the artist behind American Elf, my favorite daily webcomic.

Today this drawing and the story behind it made something burst in me, like a pin to a balloon:



This drawing is genius, simple, full of fun and imagination.

Also, this drawing also lacks boundaries of reality and the limitations of studied talent and time. This drawing is not grown up.

This piece made me realize that I have been too grown up. Not only have I been slacking on my drawing blog, but have been wrapping myself up in responsibility and worry. I have turned down my imagination and free spirit.



I am sadly willing to bet that some of you have too.

So, I am posing a challenge to myself and you, and your partners and your friends and you colleagues and your children, or whomever you feel like it sharing the challenge.

I hereby challenge you to create your own monster and send it in to me to post here, or just show someone you would like to see smile.

You can draw a picture and some background information like Eli has above, you could play in photoshop, make a collage, doodle on a post-it or what have you.

Do you dare to think outside the grown up box with me? To toss away worries of judgment or financial gain?

We know you can!

I wanted to make it a contest, but I did not want people to stress about bigger, better, best......but I still have a grand prize in mind if enough people want there to be a public vote......

What do you think?

Take a deep breath, let yourself go!


****Functional details, if you do not already know my email, or know me on facebook, you could post a link from tinypic.com in the comments, or we can figure something out!

The Bow Wowiest thing I saw today!

I love holiday decorations! I do!

We all know about houses that go crazy filling their yards and homes with props and lights, and then more props and lights!

Well, this house in my neighborhood had a different vision than most and I love it! I salute it!:



I hope it is clear that they gave their house jowls and a red tongue so that it looked like a dog, because that is just what they did!

The varying sizes in the upper windows make the dog that much more charming, in my opinion.

I cannot wait until I have a house to decorate. Bravo!

The Humbugiest Things I saw today

We got our new license plates in the mail today. I laughed our loud and beamed with pride when I saw them:

Bah ha ha ha ha!!!

Meanwhile, did you know there are actually more than 10,000 lakes in MN?

The Lovingest Thing I saw today!

I went to a wonderful wedding. It was full of love and caring and smiles. All their familiy and friends were helpful and welcoming and thrilled for them. Heart. Warming.

The bride was a dear friend of mine and the groom was a fantastic man.

Look at those smiles of joy:
I wish "Paint" and my mousing skills could capture their true beauty and bliss.

Not only was the wedding a joy, but the handy groom did one of the most clever things I have seen in a while. My friend needed a little more height on the cute bridal sneakers she bought so he attached a rubber stopper to the heel. GENIUS!

Wow!

The instinct-iest thing I saw today!

My darling and I hitched the overnight Megabus to Chicago over the long weekend. Good times!

On the bus trip down there were some kids sitting across from us. Like most of us aboard, they slept through the trip, they even slept through the rest stop. But when the Mom got back on the bus and opened a fresh bag of chips, the sleeping little girl knew just where to reach:

So cute and hilarious. Her little person knew to grab at the goods even while she snoozed!

More to come from Chicago!

The Dutch-est thing I saw today!

This homeowner knows how to brighten up the block:


Tulips fill the whole little yard!

It is like a mini-field in Holland!

All they need is a windmill and some wooden shoes.

The Whimsy-est thing I saw today!

Look at what I found at Drawn via Etsy:

Some genius in Korea is taking drawings made by children and turning them into real life photographs! And fashion, I might add!

I love it: The link to the Korean site via Drawn is not working and it is all in Korean, so I am afraid I cannot give all the credit where credit is doe, but I will when I find it!

Anyone speak Korean??

This is much related to shortsupply, an etsy seller who takes the drawings that her daughter makes and turns them into huggable dolls for Autism awareness:

The Politest Things I Saw Today

Driving home across Wisconsin from visiting Green Bay we came upon some road construction.

We saw the usual signs and a little Wisconsin charm:

Thanks for the grin, Wisconsin Department of Transportation!

The Landscaping-est thing I saw today!

My darling friend and I were out and about Saturday. We ventured out of the city to White Bear Lake- Go Bears! (As in this Fargo scene.) Oh yeAH.

On our way back to the freeway, we spied this genius landscaping scene:

Treehorn Thug: [holding up a bowling ball] What the f--- is this?
The Dude: Obviously you're not a golfer.

So majestic! Those are my kind of bushes! Bowling bushes!

Do you think they drive one of these?:


It's got that Clear Coat. Ya know they put the Clear Coat on at the factory.

I'll bet you have a house like this in your town, I HOPE you do! What does it look like? Could you draw it? I'll post it!

The Keystone Cop-iest Thing I Saw Today: Part 4

And we're back!

This series really challenged my stick figure art ability. Two new people joined the scene. I was still watching all of this from my car waiting in the airport baggage claim pickup zone.

The final set is to come.

I hope they all did their stretches before this....

The Scariest Blog I saw Today.

Today I have to lure you to another drawing blog that I have grown to love so much.

Monster Attack!

The blog is an ever growing collection of drawings by Eli, the 4 year old son of comic artist James Kochalka. James is a favorite of mine too.

Eli has quite the clever little mind and his drawings always bring my heart back to days of innocence and unbridled imagination.




I had thought about promoting him before, but todays' picture sealed the deal:

I dare you to find a better drawing of R2D2.

I DARE you!

Ok, wait, don't show me one, it will crush my spirit!

Instead:

All images swiped (saved and reloaded) from http://www.americanelf.com/comics/monsterattack.php

Peeps on the web

Well, my Peeps did not wion, but they were posted on the internet this time!

This year readers can vote on the pieces too......all 400 some entries. People are so creative and clever! I love it.

Here are some other peep dioramas:

Another Creepy Pants Cat!

Last Friday I posted a couple of drawings between a friend and I that was probably a little too much of an inside joke, but we both drew what we imagined "AH! Creepy pants cats! LOL." was referring to.

I did get one submission from Starshrines:

Check it out, yo:

Remember the fairy tale Puss in Boots? I always found the illustrations a little creepy:

I mean, they were more like hip waders than boots. And hip waders are kind of like creepy pants. So here is my creepy pants cat!

So very true! I love this rendition of Puss in Boots. I hope it does not give your cat any ideas.

Although.....hip waders might be an interesting Project Runway challenge: "Fly Fishing Fashion".

The creepiest pants cats I saw today!

The Pariah and I did some imagining yesterday. It is fun to imagine.

You see, we both have the same "cat-a-day" calendar which I purchased on clearance from Target after the holidays. Together we enjoy some silly cats and our own commentary on the cats.

Yesterday, The Pariah was away from her calendar when I shot her an email that said"AH! Creepy pants cats! LOL."

Since The Pariah had to wait in great anticipation to see the creepy pants cats, she decided to venture a guess at what they looked like (click to enlarge):
And even though I KNEW what the creepy pants cats looked like, I drew my vision for them too:


What do you imagine the creepy pants cats look like???

If you want to draw your vision I will post them for you!