100 Picture Challenge, Day 6: Break Away

I'm sorry that today's posts are just boring ink lines without any fun color treatment but I'm behind and I had to do two today.  Tomorrow will be much better.  I promise.

100 Picture Challenge, Day 5: Seeking Solace

Solace - noun, comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness.

Who is in greater need than a dog with a cone on his head?  Probably nobody?  How does one make a sad picture sadder?  One puts a fallen ice cream cone in the foreground.  (It's not a giant ice cream cone it's just close to the viewer.)

100 Picture Challenge, Day 4: Dark

When I was a kid I used to think his name was "Dark Vader." When I was a kid I also wondered how he ate anything with that helmet on. I also think Anakin would have been cooler if he were Vader from the time he was a kid.



Also, while searching for images of the dark lord online I found this guy.



Yeah, I know. Today's post is just weird all around weird.

100 Picture Challenge, Day 3: Light

100 Picture Challenge, Day 2: Love

Have you ever met this girl?  I see variations of her all the time on BYU campus.

100 Picture Challenge, Day 1: Introduction

Good Evening.

The best part of any episode of Alfred Hitchcock presents is always the bits on the front and back ends with Alfred himself talking about murder in the most dry tones imaginable.  My favorite episode involves a husband poisoning his friend who he thought was sleeping with his wife.  The husband finds out that he was wrong just as the friend dies.  Cut to Hitchcock who says, "And they all lived happily ever after."

Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha.  Ha.

100 Picture Challenge!

100 illustrations. 100 days.

Believe it.

Will Strong Recommends: "Lawn Boy" by Gary Paulsen

Most people know Gary Paulsen for his wilderness themed books like "Hatchet" and "The River."  I'm pretty ashamed to say that I've never read any of his wilderness books.  They just don't interest me much.

 

A few weeks ago Tiffany (my beautiful wife who teaches 6th grade) brought home "Lawn Boy" from the school's book fair.  I decided to read it on a relaxing, post-final-exam afternoon and I'm glad I did.

 

The titular lawn boy receives for his birthday, a busted and rusted old riding lawnmower from his eccentric granny.  He gets hired to mow his neighbor's lawn and after a while is mowing all the lawns on the whole block.  In a bizarre turn of events he ends up running his own lawn care business with dozens of employees working under him.  He also ends up buying a bunch of stocks that really take off and before he knows it he's running a big business.  And he has no idea what he's doing.  It sounds like a bad lesson in economics but it's quite entertaining.  I'd rather not say how but his investments in the stock market end up being very amusing.

 

The chapters all are named with titles like "Capital Growth Coupled with the Principles of Production Expansion" and "Economic Expansion Combined with Portfolio Diversification."  The chapters do discuss each of these topics but in a very loose and easy to digest way.  

 

"Lawn Boy" is very short, only 88 pages.  It's a quick read and would appeal to kids from 10 years+.  Fun Stuff.  Now maybe I'll have to take a stab at "Hatchet."

Will Strong Recommends:

I never was much of a reader as a child; it always felt like work to me.  Many years later I love reading.  I'm not sure when the switch occurred but now I can't get enough books to satisfy my appetite.  

I like to tell my friends and family about books that I love because I believe that good things are meant for sharing.  Any entry into my blog entitled "Will Strong Recommends:" will be just that, a recommendation for some book I like.  So if you are crazy like me then you might just like what I like.  Please feel free to ignore all recommendations for any reason.

PS: What you won't find here is criticism.  There are far too many critics in this world.  I say, "Stop criticizing, go create something instead."

Talent Show

This was a fun idea but I'm not sure I pulled off the color quite right. I'm going to take another pass at the color later. Any suggestions?

Language Arts

This is a bit of writing that I did for a group I belong to. We each wrote a story of about 500 words and they have been and continue to be posted on the group's blog one story per day in April. I say any excuse to write is a good excuse.

I got the idea for this one while helping my wife, Tiffany grade papers (she's a sixth grade teacher.) There are some kids in the class whose papers we actually look forward to grading because they are so funny. Sometimes this humor is intentional and other times it is accidental.

This is only a test. Had this been a real homework assignment the spelling and punctuation would have been much worse.





Find the rest of the daily stories here: http://utahchildrenswriters.blogspot.com/

Bunky is Fully Awesome

This is fun stuff.  I didn't illustrate this; that honor goes to my amiga Michelle Weaver.  I just did the writing.

A word about Bunky.  He is half rabbit and half monkey.  Bunky is a stuffed animal that Michelle had when she was just a wee lass growing up on Long Island.  Bunky moved out west with Michelle and has somehow managed to gain a following of devoted fans.  Joe Olson even made a Bunky fan art.  

Don't ask me how these things happen.  They just do.  Enjoy at your own risk.

Foxen

I had a lot of fun with this one. I want to go see some foxes in the wild now.

Foxes and a Bugel

Just a couple of things I'm working on. Stay tuned to this station for further developments including texture and color. (Apologies to anybody I may have ripped off. If you don't see it then it's not really there.)

Behold the Stupid

I was forced into this against my will. This is only partially my fault. Other than that, I offer no explanation or excuse.

Tire Swing

I feel like I'm really starting to get a handle on that elusive beast called "style." It's funny to me that when I stop trying to find my style it jumps out from behind a corner and yells, "Boo!"



I had a ton of fun with this one.