By: Dot,
on 2/5/2009
This week's challenge inspired me to do an entire cephalopod week on Dabbled :)
So I present to you other ceph's I've drawn this week:
I call this octopus "Edvard - Looking For Love"
And here are some of this week's squids...
Click through to see better:
By: Dot,
on 1/29/2009
For some reason, this topic just totally inspired me to go all out... so here ya go! Which is your favorite? And hey-- I have a new challenge on Dabbled - the Black Heart Anti-Valentines Day contest... Surely you can come up with a cool Anti-Valentines Day card illo, right?
Love
Peace
Snarky
By: Dot,
on 12/3/2008
I'm not sure a balloon is fast enough to get Santa to all his destinations. Reindeer might be speedier! Well, I did this for IF: Balloon this week, but I figured I could make it work here too.
And since we've had the Speed challenge for a while on Monday Artday, I figured some of you might want another challenge, so stop by my blog and enter our holiday card challenge...! 
By: Dot,
on 12/3/2008
I'm not sure a balloon is fast enough to get Santa to all his destinations. Reindeer might be speedier! Well, I did this for IF: Balloon this week, but I figured I could make it work here too.
And since we've had the Speed challenge for a while on Monday Artday, I figured some of you might want another challenge, so stop by my blog and enter our holiday card challenge...!
By: Dot,
on 10/14/2008
I'm working on my artday submission right now, but this was my IF for this week. Watercolor pencil, no digital this time. I love the sad feeling she invokes.
dot
By: Dot,
on 8/7/2008
These are some sketches from a book I'm working on. I love this little guy.
I'd love any feedback on him..
dot
dabbled.org
By: Dot,
on 6/22/2008
Illustration Friday's topic this week was Hoard. So this is what i did.
I imagine all toddlers go through the hoarding my toys phase, so why not a robot toddler!
Pencil sketch, done in my sketchbook, colored in Photoshop
Previous Illo Fridays here..
To feel more Robot LOVE click here...
By: Dot,
on 6/5/2008
Continuing in the theme of my Ad Posters... here is Cthulhu advertising squid.
Hey, he needed a quick paycheck!
(as always comments welcomed, cuz i need to feel loved..!)
By: Dot,
on 4/6/2008
Not thrilled with how the line work turned out on this -- was trying a new technique -- but i like her anyway...
By: Dot,
on 4/5/2008
I'm still working on my Pirate ... there are some great ones out here already!
But here is my IF entry for the Save theme...
We couldn't save him, so we made an omelet
Part of my ongoing Nursery Rhymes mini series
Dot
dabbled.org
By: Dot,
on 3/20/2008
If japanese anime style was around in the 40's.
By: Dot,
on 3/6/2008
I did this for Illustration Friday this week...
Also, this is the logo for this month's April Fool contest. The Anti-Valentines day contest was well received, but there were alot more crafty entries than illustrations, so I'm hoping my artist friends will be more in evidence with this one!
Sketched in pencil (long work meeting!), scanned, colored in photoshop.
By: Anne Boles Levy,
on 3/5/2008
On Top of the Potty and other get-up-and-go songs
by Alan Katz and David Catrow
Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster)
Did you know that girls don't poop or pee? I had no idea. Here I am, trying to potty train my 2-1/2 y.o. daughter who, I can assure you, has the requisite girl parts and, as far as I can tell, produces the usual prodigious excretions.
But in 32 pages of goofy songs and illustrations, there isn't a single girl going potty. Not one. Every single child in this book shown going potty is a boy. Every child showed in need of potty time is a boy. Every song features a boy character. There are two girls in the background in a single scene, and two completely random women characters who aren't shown in any potty-related activities. Everybody else is male.
Where have the author and illustrator been for the last 2 billion years? We're past the amoeba stage, guys. We have two sexes now.
Okay, so this doesn't try to be a primer on potty training and we don't see any boy parts anyway. It's the latest in their series where they've rewritten lyrics to old kids' songs--some really old--for maximum gross-out humor. So we get "Tinkle, Tinkle on the Floor" and "On Top of the Potty" (for "On Top of Old Smokey") and the like.
Maybe the duo thinks girls are the gentler sex and don't like to mention the unmentionables. They should've been at our dentist's when Lael proudly announced, "My have vagina!" That the dentist doesn't examine that particular orifice was incidental.
I don't have the patience for authors who ignore half their intended audience, or who treat girls as mere extras. They have five books out and I see a girl on only one cover, so I doubt it's any better in Take Me Out to the Bathtub and their other books.
And the quality of the lyrics? Set your mind to it and you can rewrite just about anything for potty humor. It's not like they've cornered the market. And, yes, it'll draw the expected laughs and guffaws--mostly from my kindergartener, who no longer needs help on the subject.
Rating: *\
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By: Anne Boles Levy,
on 2/29/2008
Lael gets short shrift a lot. The money we paid in private school tuition for her big brother deprived her of a chance for preschool this year, when she's clearly ready for it. Roughly 99% of the toys are her brother's, and our weekends are focused around his music lessons, birthday parties, play dates, etc. If you don't think a 2-1/2 y.o. is aware of such things or feels deep jealousy, you're way, way wrong.
Yesterday, I went to a school assembly and cried and sniffled my way through an adorable skit about families. Seth's line was "Every family has Sabbath traditions." And then proceeded to boast that Friday was the night we all got to eat dinner together. Er, probably a little too revealing, that.
Afterwards, two Mommies approached and said they were headed to Navy Pier to hear Xwoq}eriul Vclrie?uo.
Who? I asked.
Qsdlfjk Jenkins, one replied.
Never heard of him, I said.
It's a her, Ella Jenkins, and she's great, and ... I proceeded to get a five-minute, rhapsodic review of this children's performer they'd all loved as kids.
I said sure, braved traffic, got lost, found parking for $19.00 and made my way to the "free" concert, a chirpy Lael in tow, thrilled to be doing something just for her.
And Jenkins was amazing.
I haven't heard too many kiddie performers with their own Wikipedia page, who've sparked a movement in children's music, who have traveled the world, can perform at least one song in any language you can name, have won a Lifetime Achievement grammy and at 84 years old can still keep kids riveted.
We had several bus loads of Head Start kids sitting cross-legged on the floor with us, all of them exquisitely well behaved for the entire hour-long concert. One little girl in colorful, beaded braids climbed into my lap next to Lael and adopted us as her instant family.
Jenkins' style, honed first in the South Side of Chicago's African-American community and then through both graduate studies and worldwide travels, is call-and-response, where she sings out a line and you answer with a different line. She teaches the kids as they go, with words and tunes and funky instruments.
We sang, chanted or shouted in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Swahili. Afterward, when my friends approached to snap pictures, she greeted their kids in Hebrew and asked intelligent questions about the quality of their bilingual education.
I'd like to order one of her 29 albums, but have no idea where to begin. Anyone familiar with her work? Have a recommendation?
Here's the list again: Ella Jenkins
By: Anne Boles Levy,
on 2/29/2008
God Bless the Child
By Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.; illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Amistad/HarperCollins
Oooh ... tingles. Pair a classic song by legendary Billie Holiday with the illustrator's fascination with the Great Migration, and you've got one powerful depiction of an amazing era in African American history.
Pinkney's watercolors capture every detail in a subdued palette that brims with diffused light. You can make out the grains on wood and the hope on faces as sharecropping families leave the South behind and eke out a better existence in northern cities.
That things didn't work out so well for so many isn't dealt with here, where we're still on the cusp of something new and great. The full-bleed illustrations dwell on intimate family scenes or the sweep of cityscapes, with the storytelling left to the readers. Holiday and Herzog's lyrics suggest the fickleness of fortune; Pinkney's art picks up on its more redemptive notes.
Money, you got lots o' friends,
Crowdin' round the door,
When you're gone and spendin' ends,
They don't come no more.Rich relations give,
Crust of bread and such,
You can help yourself,
But don't take too much!
Mama may have,
Papa may have,
But God bless the child
That's got his own!
That's got his own.
Here she is with Count Bassie. Enjoy!
By: Alkelda,
on 12/28/2007
Here is my iMix (i.e. music mix posted on iTunes) for my Advent and Christmas music compilation. Newly included is People Look East, sung by Diane Taraz.
By: Alkelda,
on 12/17/2007
When I chose the name Alkelda as my blogosphere user-name, I didn't anticipate the number of times it would be misspelled "Akelda." I should have-- my real name, Farida, has had variant spellings: Frida, Florida, Fareda,Vorida, Florinda, Farinda, and Fareakda are a few (though the last one is really a friend's play on the word "freak"). We shan't even delve into the mockery names such as Burrito,
By: Erin,
on 12/7/2007
Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of the year
Snowflakes in the air
Carols everywhere
Olden times and ancient rhymes
Of love and dreams to share
Sleigh bells in the air
Beauty everywhere
Yuletide by the fireside
And joyful memories there
Christmas time is here
We'll be drawing near
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year...
Poetry Friday roundup is at Becky's today.
By: Alkelda,
on 12/5/2007
For Diana (of St. Fiacre's Garden) and others who who find some winter holiday songs completely unbearable, here is my Advent and Christmas mix. It's called "Love Past All Measure," a line taken from "Lullaby from Poland" by Madeline MacNeil. "Coventry Carol" by Loreena McKennitt, is of course for after Christmas, and it's a wretchedly sad song. Then again, even the proportedly merry tunes have
By: Alkelda,
on 11/10/2007
For those of you who wanted the music for yesterday's Lantern Song, I couldn't find a sound file for you, but I did scan the sheet music we're using in school. If you don't read music, I hope you can find someone who does and who would be willing to sing or play it for you. I've got a link to a virtual keyboard here. If you're willing to make a go of it yourself without reading music, here are
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By: Matthew Cheney,
on 11/9/2007
For two days I have had these lines stuck in my head:
Don't worry about meThe lines were written by Jack Kerouac in a song (which you can hear him sing here) that Tom Waits later adapted. There are two very different recordings of the Waits song that I know of: a sad, weary version included on Orphans
I'm about to die of pleurisy
(listen here) and a lively collaboration with Primus (from the album Jack Kerouac Reads on the Road
; mp3 here).
By: Alkelda,
on 11/9/2007
St. Martin and the Beggar by El Greco On the evening of Monday, November 12, Lucia's class will take part in her school's annual Lantern Walk. The children and their parents will gather outside to walk through the woods holding homemade lanterns and singing songs. Afterward, we'll gather around a bonfire, drink warm cider, and listen to a story. The Lantern Walk coincides with the feast of St.
By: Anne Boles Levy,
on 11/5/2007
Okay, I've seen some cute book promotions, and many annoying ones. Fortunately, Jarrett J. Krosoczka , author of Punk Farm on Tour, made me laugh instead of cringe when he suggested his characters do a Q&A with various bloggers.
Bloggers at 7-Imp and Fuse #8 took the bait, and so did I, but on one condition: that my five-year-old son and his classmates do the asking.
I dropped off the galleys at school and his teachers read the book about five farm animals who form a punk rock band. They were kind enough to write down the questions, but asked that the children's anonymity be protected on the Internet (hence, no photos of the dears).
I then emailed Jarrett, who admits:
These are hysterical! What a cool twist! PF has faced many tough interviewers...but the Kindergartners from Chicago Jewish Day School? Yikes, they were tough ones... =)
If you like, here's my review as a refresher.
And now, a transcript from the toughest little interviewers in Chi-town (many thanks to teachers Alex and Jaimie):
CJDS: Pig -- Why would he do all the stuff, when he had to stop the people?"
PIG: Well, you know how it is. When you're a pig in a rock band, sometimes you need to just make things happen. The other band-mates got a little upset when they had to wait for me.
CJDS: Sheep -- Why do you make the animals go fast?
SHEEP: Oh yeah - uh...about that. Well, you see the thing is, we needed to get back to the farm and quickly! But speeding is wrong and I don't think it's a good idea...
CJDS: Pig -- How did you make the song?
PIG: I made the song by practicing playing my guitar every day. Practice makes perfect! So does confidence. And that's why I ROCK!
CJDS: Sheep -- Why did they start the show?
SHEEP: Well, the owl who was running the club needed us to start playing on time. A lot of animals bought tickets to see the show and they'd get upset if they were kept waiting.
CJDS: Cow -- Why did he say hold your horses?
COW: Well, I said "Hold your horses" because everyone was getting upset because we were lost. I saw the barn and knew that's where we had to go!
CJDS: Why couldn't they fix the car?
GOAT: Little dudes, I tried my best to fix the van. But it's an old van and we traveled very far. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did!
CJDS: Pig -- Why did he say I don't want to get dirty, since pigs like getting dirty?
PIG: Well, I'm not like other pigs. I like to be clean and presentable. I also don't like manual labor. So fixing a tire just isn't my thing.
CJDS: Goat -- Why are you so cool and not the other animals?
GOAT: Well, well, well...looks like the jury is out. I'm the coolest one in the group!
PIG: Hey!
SHEEP: Now, is this a scientific poll?
CHICKEN: What about me?! I'm cool!!! And not one question for me?! (sniffle)
GOAT: See...I'm the coolest because I don't get upset. Sometimes life throws you curve balls and you just need to roll with it.
COW: Well, Goat is really cool. But look at my cowbell! Cowbells rock! That makes me cool. Doesn't it? Oh.....
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By: Alkelda,
on 10/18/2007
In lieu of one song of the week, I'm going to give you at least seven. Noodle of Thoughts From My Noodle tagged me with a meme to list Seven Definitely Random, Possibly Odd, Things About Me. I'm supposed to tag seven more people, but only if you read this and you want to participate in the meme should you consider yourself tagged. I've decided to keep the meme S & S blog-related, so here are
By: Alkelda,
on 10/8/2007
Lucia contemplating the beginning of Autumn Today I've decided to round up my favorite posts written over the past two months. Other bloggers have reported that readership of their posts has flagged. I've certainly noticed it on my end. I figure that if I list the high-points of the past two months, I will have displayed the posts I want read most without anyone having to slog through
This is so cute and perfectly drawn.
Wonderful series! You had some fun with this.
These are all so good. The Shrimp hear is classic.