Poem: Sticks and Stones

Sticks and stones may break your bones
But words cause lasting pain.
Their impact’s soft, you brush them off
But your bones they irradiate.

Sticks and stones may bruise your skin
But words are a cancerous fist.
They grow inside and though you may hide
The damage, it’s hard to miss.

Sticks and stones may build a home,
But words give warmth and light.
So choose your words with grace and care
And be aware: they are tools abused in fights.

Painting With Coffee, Part 2: Painting Seattle

Now that you've made your coffee ink, it's time to paint something with it. I decided on a stylized rendering of the Seattle skyline based off of this photo:

As you can see, it's not an exact replica so we don't need to worry too much about precision.

How To Paint Seattle With Coffee

First, gather your materials. You will need: several small paintbrushes, watercolor paper, pencil/eraser, paper towel (for blotting), a jar of clean water, and your coffee ink (this can also be done with liquid India ink and/or watercolor).

Block out the buildings with a light pencil and a light hand. Don't press hard; your ink will pool in places where the paper's been dented. Afterwards, lightly erase your marks so they're only just visible (I recommend a kneaded eraser but pink's fine, just don't press too hard).

Ink should be applied from light to dark, so give your dark areas a light underpainting first. Always allow to dry before layering any ink on top.

Begin adding detail and darkening, working your way from the top down (background to foreground) to create the "dripping" affect.

Continue at this, allowing time to dry between layers. There's no shortcuts, just pay attention to the details and keep a relaxed hand. Start to add in details.

Darken certain areas you want to stand out. Actually, here's an artist's tip for you: if any part of your drawing ever doesn't make sense, make it darker. I do this aaaaaaall the time.

When you're happy with how the city's turned out, it will then be time to add in the water. To do so you are going to need to create a wet wash. First get the affected portion of your paper wet and then prop it up so it's sitting at an angle. The next thing is to take your brush and apply ink to the waterline, adding more in areas you want to drip further or be darker. You may have to work it several times to get the look you want. Just be patient, and wait for it to dry before adding more layers.

The very final step is to add a subtle sky with just the hint of clouds. Normally, you should do the background first, but it's such a light background that it doesn't make much difference to save it for last.

And there you have it! I hope you had fun.

Painting With Coffee, Part 1: Making the Ink

Making your own ink can be a fun and creative project as well as a very personalized approach to art. You don't need to be a chemist to make it work either. Think of drawing with ink as no more than controlling a stain on a piece of paper. Anything that creates a stain potentially can make ink.

One of the simplest inks to make is coffee based. Coffee is relatively easy to get a hold of, and it doesn't require much equipment to work with. As an added bonus, it just seems an appropriate medium for drawing something like Seattle (coming next week) and creates a beautiful sepia tone.

How to make ink from coffee:

1. Gather equipment and ingredients.

Equipment: saucepan, spoon, means of filtration (cheesecloth, french press, or a good old fashioned coffee filter will work fine) and a little glass jar for final storage

Ingredients: coffee (beans or grounds), salt, and vinegar

2. Take three cups of water, heat to boiling, remove from heat, and add approximately 1 cup ground coffee. Allow to steep for thirty minutes or so (the longer it steeps, the darker your results will be), stirring occasionally with a spoon.

NOTE: Coffee should be as dark of a roast as you can acquire and be ground coarse. (Fine ground steeps darker but I find coarse ground easier to filter out. The difference is minimal.) If you have no means of grinding your own beans you will need to buy preground coffee.

3. Strain out all coffee grounds and return the solution to your saucepan.

4. Now you need to reduce your solution. Simmer on medium heat until mixture is reduced to desired thickness and darkness. Be careful it does not burn. I reduced 3 cups of liquid down to 3 ounces (3/8 of a cup), which took about forty five minutes.

5. Once you have reduced the solution enough, place the desired amount in your storage jar. Include your additives, which turn your solution into coffee ink and not simply thick, burnt coffee. For every ounce of coffee solution, add 1/8 tsp of salt (this acts as a preservative) and 1/8 tsp of vinegar (this acts as a mordant).

6. Stir well, allow to cool, and enjoy your new ink!

NOTE: There is no need to worry about your artwork molding. If you are still worried a fixative can be sprayed over the finished picture. If you have no specialty art spray, simple hairspray will do fine. Make sure to spray in a well ventilated area and test it first.

That's all there is to it! Feel free to play around with this formula somewhat. Making ink doesn't have to be an exact science, but there are many possibilities for tone, thickness, and viscosity that can be achieved. Have fun!

Poem: Pilot

I always wished to be a pilot,
(Although I'm afraid of heights)
To tear down the runway
And rocket into the sky.

To feel the motor rumbling,
Unconstricted by highway signs.
To point my nose and boldly go
Wherever I had in mind.

To see a new perspective
On the land below.
The shifting moods of the restless air,
Rising first, then sinking low.

But my stomach rises to my throat
On a roller coaster ride.
I don't think I'd have the nerve
To ever truly fly.

November Update

November was a busy month. Here's all I accomplished:

Writing-

FINISHED WRITING MY ROUGH DRAFT!!! I finally completed writing out my manuscript (appx. 66,000 words) at the beginning of the month. (Confetti! Cake! Loud noises!)

I also read through and edited said manuscript several times and have now sent it off for review by some fellow readers (I expect more editing to come).

Wrote some poetry and short stories.

Organized and mined my old journals for ideas.

Authored several "tips and tutorials" posts for my blog.

Art-

Drew some illustrations for my poetry and uploaded them to the computer.

Organized photos.

Started an 11"x14" charcoal drawing of two crows.

Here's what you can look forward to in December:

I will not be able to work on my writing while it is being reviewed so expect more poetry, short stories, and artwork.

I have specific plans to include a post on how to make ink from coffee and show you how to draw Seattle with it (should be fun). I also expect to finish more illustrations and artwork I've been putting off. Quite possibly I will also start a large canvas painting (I'm leaning towards a space theme, though I may change my mind).

Expect more "tips and tutorials" posts to come.

--Thanks for following!

Reacting to Your Own Writing

There are essentially two reactions you will have to reading your own writing:

1. This is the worst trite ever conceived and it should be ceremonially burned or

2. I am pure genius and they will write essays on my work in high school.

Often you will flip-flop between both extremes, and never believe something in the middle. Which is unfortunate, as most often the truth lies somewhere in-between those two sentiments. So how should you feel about your own writing?

It's best to have a healthy amount of belief in your abilities, but at the same time you should be open to improvement. My only advice then is this: do as well as you can and then hand it to a group of trusted individuals to form opinions for you.

The truth is, you as the author are too close to your writing to be objective. The jokes are no longer funny, the plot is no longer original, and the characters are no longer inspiring. You're just not going to see the flaws anymore, or the highlights.

So don't be too hard on yourself and don't believe you can stop trying to get better. Get it reviewed. It doesn't even have to be done by a professional. Just get feedback from a good sized group who will make you feel good but also tell you the truth. It's one of the hardest things to do and also one of the best for your writing.

Print it out. Post on social media. Start a blog. Show it to strangers and show it to friends. And when your turn comes, be willing to do the same for them.

The best reaction to your writing is somebody else's.

More Photographs

Ellensburg, Washington (Cow, Scottish Highlander)

Mount Rainier, Washington

Mount Saint Helens, Washington

Ocean Shores, Washington

Iron Goat Trail, Washington

Ruby Beach, Washington

Seattle, Washington (Gas Works Park)

Mount Rainier, Washington

Near Denali National Park, Alaska (Kissing Crows)

Short Story: Pizza Mix Up

One time while I was still in school my mom made me order pizza on the phone and pay for it. This was part of her ongoing effort to make me a Responsible Adult. TM

Now, I hate talking on the phone. It is the worst. I don't know if it's because I can't see the other person's facial expressions and body language or what, but the whole thing fills me with dread every time the ringer goes off. Or when I call and get voice mail. Or a phone tree. Or a person. Basically any phone interaction.

So I felt some trepidation when my mom made it pretty clear that it was going to be up to me to order our pizza. We had no dinner plans that night and there was no way out of it. So after mentally rehearsing what I was going to say a few times, I finally called the pizza place and placed my order. And it went surprisingly okay. I was pacing the whole time and speaking with my "mousy voice" but I got the pizza ordered and told them our address, 17811 Skippy Lake Boulevard. I was just relieved I'd managed to do it without bungling things.

A half an hour later, ding dong! the pizza man was there, some fresh faced teenager like myself holding two pepperoni pizzas and a liter of root beer. I said hello, he said hello, then "seventeen eighty-one please."

"You're at the right place," I assured him.

Long silence, blank stares.

He narrowed his eyes. "That's seventeen eighty-one."

"No, that's the right address," I repeated, wondering why he was missing the last 'one.'

More staring, and things were starting to feel uncomfortable.

It suddenly occurred to me then, that perhaps this young man was not unsure of himself, and in fact, the last 'one' was not missing because there was a silent decimal and dollar sign hovering in his '17-81.'

Without a further word, I handed him a twenty, grabbed the pizza and pop, and fled back into the house without bothering about change.

Just goes to show, even if you get the one thing you're stressing about right, there are bountiful opportunities for confusion.

Archived Unfinished Projects

These are projects that, for various reasons, I never finished and probably never will. Some of them are interesting in their own right, in their half-finished state, so I thought I'd share:

Liquid India ink. This picture was drawn completely without reference photos, so it was a real stretch for me to attempt. Somewhere along the way I lost where the picture was going and thus abandoned it.

Acrylic paint. This picture was an old one I started a long time ago. It was done on the wrong kind of paper for paint, which is why I ultimately never finished it. That, and shading cobblestone is nightmarish.

Large acrylic painting on canvas. This painting really made me sad to stop working on. It was based off of a picture I took of the old fire lookout at High Rock, Washington, but I decided to paint it as a night scene. I got this far before I realized night skies are actually gray and the ground silhouetted, not the other way around, at which point I lost steam. I'll do another large painting someday.

Liquid India ink. This airplane was part of a larger drawing I made. It got cut off because (yet again) I realized partway through finishing a drawing that my perspective was off. To finish, thus demotivated, I had to cut out the more interesting part. Sometimes that's just the way it happens.

This is not an "unfinished project" per se, but rather the result of many projects. Every time I draw with ink or watercolor I need a test sheet to check the darkness and color of the medium on my brush. This sheet was the result of years worth of testing, and turned out beautifully in its own right.

Poem: 3 a.m.

Three a.m. is no man’s time;
No man’s time it should be.
‘Tis too late to be staying up
And none should rise so early.

Three a.m.’s our lowest point,
The darkest and most dreary.
The whole world should be asleep,
For it’s the haunt of want, and lonely.

Dealing With Perfectionism

"Perfectionism" High School quick sketch, charcoal.

Perfectionism is a killer.

An insidious, pervasive monster that will poison you and paralyze you. People cursed with perfectionism may eventually create projects of high quality, but if they don't get a handle on it first they will never even start.

I'm speaking from personal experience. And while it may not be a problem personally for you, it can be a problem for many people. So for those who struggle with perfectionism, here's some things that have helped me to overcome it:

Remove the stress.

Stress, especially for perfectionists, can come from feeling you have impossible expectations to live up to. Oftentimes a perfectionist will have higher standards for themselves than others have for them. It is important to try your best, but remember 'your best' is not the same thing as 'the best.' So the first thing to do is to lower your expectations. It takes time and it takes work to get good at anything, so reevaluate what you are really trying to accomplish with what you're doing, and why.

Learn to not take yourself too seriously.

Learning to laugh at yourself is a great life skill. And I don't mean in the self-deprecating, low self-esteem kind of way. I mean learning to roll with the flow and accept mistakes. A lighter approach and a good sense of humor can turn a mortifying experience into a good story or learning opportunity.

Accept the mistakes... and strive for better.

Mistakes are part of the learning process. And honestly, if we ever did accomplish something flawlessly then there wouldn't be anything left to work towards. How awful would that be? You will always be making progress, and always have progress to make. So accept that mistakes will happen, and view them not as failures, but as something to work on.

Try something unfamiliar.

This seems counter intuitive. After all, if you try to learn something you've never done before you will be bad at it, which can be frustrating. But that's the point. It can be humbling to have to learn the basics of something. So much of perfectionism is tied in with pride. It's about not wanting to appear substandard before others.

As an added bonus, trying something new can lead to new discoveries and at the very least get your brain working in unexpected ways. Plus, you're new at it, so you're not expected to be good at it! No pressure there. So pick up an instrument, or try a drawing in medium you've never used before. It can be incredibly grounding.

Learn to enjoy the process, not the result.

Learning skills and living is a process, not an accomplishment. My final word of advice for the perfectionist then is this: don't worry about the results. Put your effort into doing things the right way, and you will eventually get the good results. Be that in writing, art, weight loss, your job, or whatever.

Overcoming perfectionism itself is a process. So keep these things in mind, lighten up, and start. It's much better than doing nothing at all.

Poem: Wild

I want to know where the wilds are found;
We’ve marked all our borders, we’ve paved all our towns.
Give me hardship and danger and deeds of great worth!
Give me space to walk on the face of this earth.

I’m sick of Associations, your Zones and your Codes.
Civilized by light and heat, we’ve forgotten the dark and the cold.
I want the reminders that these places exist, that
There’s something to fight for, something we’ve missed.

I want the thrill of discovery, the love of the new.
The crouching unknown met with brave attitudes.
Give me picture imperfect, and a map incomplete!
Give me space to explore and a future to meet.

I want to know if the wilds exist,
Or if I’m too late, and my chance I have missed.

Short Story: Franken the Snowman

I consider myself to be a fairly creative person. And I pride myself on being able to work with whatever's on hand, be it home repair or cooking dinner or whatever. But that mentality has backfired pretty spectacularly on a few occasions, and one winter years ago was not an exception.

Snow is a rarity in the Pacific Northwest, west of the Cascades. We usually get snowfall a couple of times a year, but it tends to be the big, wet flakes that are pretty to watch fall but don't stick around. Accumulation that lasts for more than three days can be pretty rare, and sometimes only happens once in a whole winter. So we seize snow days. We revel in them.

This one winter we'd finally gotten something like three or four inches of snow and I was determined to make the most of it. "Making the most" of course, involved making a snowman. It was cold and quiet and I hadn't done this in a while, so I was excited.

Building it in my own backyard would have been ideal, but we had a dog and I wasn't so good at picking up every pile of his poo regularly. Rolling around the snow there could be perilous, so I built it in my grandparents' yard, who also happened to be our neighbors.

The first thing I did was roll out a base, torso, and head in the classical fashion. But since we only had about three inches I couldn't make him very big. Still, he was well proportioned and decent sized. As a bonus, I even sculpted a little dog to keep him company and modeled it after our basset hound, Oliver.

Now it was time to accessorize him, and this was where things started to get a little hairy. We didn't really have any of that "classic" snowman stuff, and he was a little small for boots and a scarf even if we'd had an extra available. And with things starting to already feel a little sloppy outside, I wasn't sure his head would hold a hat up for very long.

I rooted around in the fridge for a while but we were out of carrots. The closest thing I could find were some fingerling potatoes, so I grabbed one that was long and skinny and had a hook on the end. It would be an ugly nose, but it'd work.

The real discovery came when I stumbled upon a package of stale peppermint candies in the back of the baking cupboard. They were perfectly circular and a pretty red and white color. I grabbed those, dug up some gravel from the driveway, and found two branches in the backyard.

I was ready to roll.

In the end, I had a very nice snowman, with two peppermint eyes, a hook nose and gravel smile, and three proud peppermint buttons down his front. He even had a little peppermint-eyed dog! Well satisfied, I went about completing "making the most" of my snow day, which included such activities as having hot chocolate, throwing snow at my sister, and walking to the lake near our house.

Day wore into evening, and with everybody now home I decided to show off my creation to my family. But when I led them to the backyard I gasped because my snowman had been murdered.

It turns out peppermint reacts weirdly with snow, and something in the candies lowers the melting point of the snow as they dissolve and melt. The result is a bored tunnel in the snow. You can stick your fingers into them, it's a very localized effect. However, the red dye in the melted candies is another story. It bleeds everywhere.

So instead of a classic little Frosty I was able to introduce my family to Mr. Murder Victim and his Hound of the Baskervilles. Because instead of cute peppermint eyes they both had hollow, bloodshot sockets, and as an added bonus the snowman had three neat bullet holes blooming in his chest.

And of course, his hook nose had fallen out, leaving him noseless and with a gravel smile that now looked a little toothy.

I was mortified.

Actually, we did get a good laugh out of it, and thankfully my family believed that I wasn't some disturbed psychopath but rather the victim of chemistry and circumstance.

I've made other snowmen. I've sculpted dogs. But that snowman has to be my favorite.

My grandma's dog stayed up all night barking at him, until in the morning he simply melted away.

Don't Go Looking For A Soapbox

"Birds on a Wire" 2009, acrylic paint

This is a tricky article to write without getting very ironic, and not in a good way. So I'm just going to share a short story about this old painting I made.

It originally started out as a commentary about how teenagers in my age group spent more time on their electronic devices instead of interacting with each other and the world around them. It was supposed to be satirical, comparing that group to birds on a wire, sitting still and not saying anything to one another.

Not getting that vibe from this painting? Neither did I.

Truth is, this was the first (and last) time I set out to make a point with my artwork. In part because the point completely flopped. By the time I had finished, I thought it looked slightly comical and, well... fun. I wanted to join this group of friends listening to music on a bridge. So in a strange twist of irony, I was schooled by the piece I tried to school others with.

And I vowed to never be so pretentious again.

So many times, art can be a powerful tool to make a statement. It speaks to people on a level that perhaps plain words cannot, be it music, art, or a story. So the temptation exists to abuse that power. However, most people don't like to be told things. If they catch even a whiff that you're trying to scold them about something they'll put up their defenses.

Additionally, forcing a point tends to feel... forced.

It's far better to make art that means something to you and then let any statements that people take away from it be incidental. If what you make is authentic, is honest, what you believe will bleed through it in an honest way, and people will not feel like you are ramming your point of view down their throat.

So make art! Be creative! But bear in mind that a soapbox is a slippery place to stand.

Poem: Hourglass Mentality

My life would have much less stress
If I could banish just one thing.
Not a ticking clock, or a digital watch,
But an hourglass mentality.

Once it starts it does not stop,
And hourglasses have an end.
Once this day is gone I can’t
Reclaim it or bring it back again.

Each moment is a grain that tumbles below
To lie in a heap with all the rest.
And constantly in the back of my mind
I wonder: was it well spent?

Books I've Liked And LOVED

I have certainly read a lot of books over the years. I used to work in a library, and I'd bring so many books home my mom complained I wasn't getting anything else done. I don't think there's any way to calculate exactly how many I've read.

In my profile I claimed there was too many books I like to list. That was in error (and partly due to laziness) and while this is not an exhaustive list, here are some I've enjoyed over the years, in no particular order:

Title, Author. Why I liked it.

How to Train Your Dragon (series), Cressida Cowell. Irreverently humorous and surprisingly deep, this series was everything I like to see in a book and is further proof that things not meant for adult readers can be enjoyed by adults nevertheless. As an added bonus, Cowell managed to end the series in a satisfying way; you don't always see that (looking at you, Suzanne Collins). Well worth a read, especially if you enjoy light fantasy and sarcasm.

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. The only "dystopia" novel I have ever actually enjoyed reading. It's actually one of those books I come back to reread periodically. If you think it's just about book burning then you haven't read it. Bradbury's voice can be a bit wandering and poetic, but it fits the main character's personality perfectly. And given that it was written in 1953 I find the technological predictions a bit spooky.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. "Classic" can be a curse word and "love story" is a turn off for me as well, but this is the one classic love story I actually like. The main characters are relatable and witty, and if you have no problem reading stories written in an older style then this is a good one.

All Creatures Great and Small (series), James Herriot. My actual favorite series and author, the memoirs of a country vet in 1930's Yorkshire are some of the best stories to come back to. Written with a real honesty and pathos, Herriot will have you laughing, crying, and celebrating with him through the years. Seriously. Check these out.

Star Wars Trilogy, George Lucas, Donald Glut, and James Kahn. I actually read the Star Wars series long before I ever got to see the movies, book loaned to me by an enthusiastic cousin. I have lost count over the years how many times I've read it, but if you ask me the series is even better in writing. Absolutely epic.

Collected Poems of Robert Service, Robert Service. Robert Service was a poet who wrote a lot about the Far North, and for that reason his poetry tends to strike a chord with me. It is also unpretentious and very authentic, an easy read and very enjoyable.

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien. Another classic, but how could I not include it? The best thing to come from the movies is that now I read Bilbo Baggins dialogue in Martin Freeman's voice, but seriously. Charming story.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, John Jackson Miller. I don't read many graphic novels, but I felt these had to be included. Anyone who's ever played the old RPG will find lots of references in these stories, but thankfully they're centered around their own cast of equally interesting characters. The humor's spot on, and the stakes just believable enough. And it's nice to read a story about characters that have to be clever rather than strong. Additionally, if you ever need to know the definition of dramatic irony, read these stories. It's insane how much they added.

Hatchet, Gary Paulsen. Paulsen's always good, but Hatchet was the first survival story I read in elementary school. You really journey with Brian through his story and it's great.

Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan. Wonderful book about the relationship between mothers and daughters and a very interesting look at the difference in view between first generation and second generation immigrants. I made that sound pretentious and boring, but I promise it is a good read.

How to Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee. One of the very few required readings in High School that I actually enjoyed. Sequel notwithstanding (there should be a statute of limitations on how long you can wait to write a sequel).

Tales of the North, Jack London. Another author of the Far North, London has written some great novels and short stories. I actually got to see his cabin once, so that's pretty cool.

What If?, Randall Munroe. First nonfiction on this list. Ridiculous science and humor at its finest.

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov. Classic sci-fi, and I dare you to find a robot story that doesn't in some way reference Asimov's robot stories (Three Laws, anyone?). He literally created the word 'robotics'.

Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Waterson. It's a toss up between this and the Far Side for my favorite comic, but both are great. I actually had a sarcastic Calvin and Hobbes cartoon on my writing notebook for AP Language Arts that'd I'd post if it weren't for the whole 'copyright' thing. They're funny, artistic, and actually make a statement without making a scene.

The Far Side, Gary Larson. Larson's humor is a little further on the bizarre scale, but being such a fan of science and dry/bizarre humor I really love these. You either get the Far Side or you don't.

Kenobi, John Jackson Miller. Generally, spin off books written for established series end up being enjoyable but not really great. This one was good. Really, really good. It was nice to have high stakes that didn't necessarily mean the whole galaxy was in danger. And you've got to love Obi-Wan. A must read for Star Wars fans.

The Poisoner's Handbook, Deborah Blum. This one's also a documentary, but the book's pretty good too. Fascinating read on the birth of forensics science in Jazz Age New York. Crazy stuff.

Ollie's Odyssey, William Joyce. Another case of a children's book that's written well enough to be read by adults. Which is the best kind of book really, but it's a very sweet story about favorite toys and growing up.

Stuff Matters, Mark Miodownik. Another nonfiction, but if you are interested in materials science in any way then this is a fascinating read.

One Point Perspective

Anybody who has taken an art class has done one-point perspective at some point. It looks kind of like this in real life:

The docks in Silverdale, Washington.

And nothing like that when drawn for those Middle School art projects we did.

That is one looooong living room.

And while it's useful to learn one point perspective and doing those drawings taught it to us, they never ended up looking very good. Which can be frustrating if you want to draw something from your head.

One of the keys to drawing without explicit reference photos is getting a good grip on perspective. I've had pictures ruined after a lot of work was put into them simply because I realized the perspective was wrong and it was too late to fix it.

If you want to get perspective right, it really helps to have a photo or a real life reference. It is, however, not completely necessary. It is possible to get very in depth on the subject of perspective*, but I thought I'd just share one tip for one-point perspective that I wished I'd been told a long time ago. It was mind blowing.

The hardest part (to me) of a one-point perspective drawing is getting the spacing right. If your objects are spaced evenly going out towards the horizon, then they're going to seem smaller and closer together as they go farther out. But how much do they reduce by? You could try math (which I have), but there's a much easier way.

Draw your point and the lines coming off of it and then add a line exactly between the two (this is important).

Then place your first layer. In this case, I'm doing the boards on a dock, but you can draw palm trees or tiles or whatever. These lines are simply to help space your objects out.

Here's the trick: take your ruler, line it up with the bottom right corner and run your line through where the center line bisects the top. Where the ruler meets the left line is where your next upper line goes.

And repeat!

Voila, perfectly spaced one point perspective. You may now continue and finish the drawing.

*If this sort of thing appeals to you, I would recommend the book "How To Draw: Drawing And Sketching Objects And Environments From Your Imagination" by Scott Robertson. It's very technical, so it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's very helpful in this area.

Poem: Opportunity

Opportunity doesn’t knock,
It whispers and eludes.
Lies dormant for years and years
And sometimes never moves.

Opportunity doesn’t knock,
Doesn’t bang down your door.
It scuffs at the edge of your chimney
And seeps between the floor.

Opportunity doesn’t knock,
Doesn’t politely wait outside.
You really have to hunt for it
Because it loves to hide.

Opportunity doesn’t knock.
It either simpers and evades,
Or mugs you in an alley
And leaves you quite afraid.

Slant Rhymes

Confession: I have poetry pet peeves. Sad, but true. One of my biggest is the overuse of perfect rhymes. Especially the cliche trifecta of "fly," "high," and "sky." Yuck.

Perhaps this requires some explanation.

There are many ways to dissect a poem, and a lot of words can be used to explain them. I mostly ignore the minutiae of technical analysis of poetry (to some that may be obvious) but the difference between perfect rhymes and slant rhymes bears some looking into. They're the most obvious rhymes to differentiate and the most fun to play around with.

A perfect rhyme is a rhyme where the last vowel and consonant sounds correspond perfectly, such as in the aforementioned "fly/high/sky." Other examples include "head/dead," "visionary/cautionary," and so on.

On the other hand, a slant rhyme is a rhyme where the last vowel sound corresponds (or comes close) but the consonants don't necessarily have to match. These can range from the very similar, such as "art/dark" to the more dissimilar, such as "palm/lung."

Perfect rhymes have their place, but slant rhymes are open to much more possibility. I feel a lot of stress is placed on rhyming things perfectly, especially to people just starting to write poetry, but it's simply not critical.

Give them a try!

(I was first acquainted with slant rhymes when I started writing down and looking at song lyrics, especially those of Death Cab for Cutie and Radical Face. If you need a further example of what I'm talking about, take a listen to the lyrics for "Winter Is Coming" by Radial Face and "Stable Song" by Death Cab for Cutie.)

Poem: Everything Costs

I once was told
That “nothing comes free,”
But the phrase never made
Much sense to me.

It’s better to say
That “everything costs,”
For each breath we take
Is a breath that we’ve lost.

For every upside
There’s always a catch.
After all, our lives are just
A great balancing act.

I don’t mean to alarm you;
It isn’t bad news.
For things that don’t cost much
Should not be worth much to you.

Tips On Drawing Faces

As stated earlier, drawing people can be one of the most challenging things you can do as an artist. Here are some things that have helped me to improve.

1. Learn the basic rules of proportion.

Proportion: (n) how one thing relates or appears to relate in size to another

This first tip might seem on the boring side, but like any skill you attempt to master, you have to start with a solid grasp of the basics. Just going off on your own will result in flawed foundations that will come back to haunt you later.

When we first start drawing, the efforts we make are more akin to how we see things than how they actually appear. For example, children draw people with really big heads, sometimes all head. Looking at the basics of proportion analytically will make a huge difference in your artwork.

There are many rules of proportion, but the one's I've found most helpful and easiest to remember are these five:

1. Heads are round or ovoid, but not a perfect circle.
2. Eyes fall at about half the height of the face, the nose falls at about half the height of the remainder, and the mouth is about half of what's left after that.
3. No, people do not have anime eyes. Make them smaller. Usually, about 1/5th the width of the face.
4. The ears generally run from about the tops of the eyes to the bottom of the nose.
5. People have a wider forehead than you think. Seriously, the hairline runs way high. Even if they have bangs, those bangs have to start from up top.

Of course, these are just the rules of thumb (or face). What truly sets one face apart from another is how people's individual proportions deviate from the 'norm'. You can play around with proportion later to achieve faces with unique characteristics. The important thing is to apply this at the start. You will immediately have better results.

2. Gridding... it's not cheating. Really.

Sometimes, gridding (taking a picture and applying a square grid over it, then drawing a proportional grid on your own paper) feels a bit like cheating, like tracing someone else's drawing. But really, it helps you to be more accurate when you're starting out and helps you to get a better grasp of proportion. Not just how things seem to look, but how they really look. And while you may someday want to be able to draw without a reference picture or grid, it's good practice for getting there.

3. Draw people you are unfamiliar with.

This one might seem a bit odd, but trust me it helps. People you are familiar with (family, friends, anyone you see a lot of) are harder to see objectively. You know their faces well, and you and others will be able to tell if something is even slightly off. It's better to first practice getting proportion right on people you are unfamiliar with because a) you won't expect it to be as perfect and b) you can actually see the individual facets of their face and how they fit together. With someone you know, you might not be able to distinguish that at all.

4. Don't be afraid of sucking.

Middle School tempera paint project. Our teacher took an (unflattering) picture of us, which was then printed out with a four layer gradient and traced out. We then had to paint it "Andy Warhol" style. This was one of the projects that put me off of drawing people for years. To get the complete sense of this little beauty, imagine it about three feet tall.

Let's lay this out right now. You are going to make some horrible drawings. You will have sketchbooks full of things no one will ever see. And even if you do make something you're happy with, you may find it looking pretty shabby a few years down the road. This is normal, this is expected. This is okay. The important thing is to not get bogged down by perfectionism. No one has to see anything you don't want to show them. Just make sure you practice and thus make progress.

5. Practice.

So of course, the last tip is simply this: practice. Draw faces. Many faces. Look at pictures. Look at people. Fill sketchbooks with your efforts and eventually, you will improve.

I get told a lot "I wish I could draw well" or "I'm just not naturally gifted" and I always find those comments confusing. While it is true that a certain amount of natural talent or predilection for artwork helps, true skill comes from doing something until you improve. Anyone can draw. You just have to practice and find enjoyment from the effort itself.

The Novel I'm Writing

I love to read.

Like, really love to read. I finished the entire Lord of the Rings in five days. When I worked at the library I used to bring so many books home that my mom complained I wasn't getting any of my chores done, I was too busy reading. I've lost count of how many books I've read over a year, let alone a lifetime.

The thing is, all this reading has a cost. It gets harder and harder to find a "good" book. And it was this push to find something good to read that got me into writing again.

I wrote all the time in Elementary School, but when writing in school stopped being fun I stopped doing it. It wasn't until we had a two week long creative writing segment in eighth grade that I picked up the pencil again. I was having a hard time finding good books to read and this was school sanctioned creative time. I wrote a one page opener about a girl fleeing through the woods from some monster, in contrast with the beautiful post-storm scenery around her. That was it. But looking at that, I knew suddenly that I wanted to write again, and not just anything. I wanted to write the book I wanted to read. From start to finish.

This is many years later. And of course, easier said than done. It's so easy to write first chapters. Story ideas. Names. Dramatic scenes. It's the brick by brick build up that makes up the whole book which is hard. I wasn't very good at that. So I dabbled here and there a bit and never took it very seriously. But the idea, to write the stories I wanted to read, wouldn't go away.

The story's changed a lot since that first page. I've had many false starts and stops. But the novel I'm writing is the first one I ever decided to write out completely. I've had what I have thought of as better ideas for other stories. They've all been dutifully outlined in their own journals and then put back on the shelf, so I could finish this one. Someday, hopefully, they'll be told as well. 

I once read somewhere that if you want to write when inspired, write poetry (which I do). But if you want to write a novel, you have to sit down and write it page by page, whether you're inspired or not. Now that I've taken that admonition seriously, this one, first book will finally be laid to rest by May of next year. This is what it's about:

     In the isolated kingdom of Lannan Dús, nestled between the ocean and the mountains, alarming events are taking place. Entire villages are disappearing, and the current King is doing little to address the needs and fears of his people. But all of this is far away for a young girl called River, who was found in a peripheral seaside town, senseless and either unable or unwilling to divulge her own past. Through a series of events, she ends up saving the life of a boy named Javin, an outsider with a past and agenda of his own. Despite their differences and the difficulties involved, the two seize their chance to find some answers and head to the capital city. But what starts out as a simple hunt for River's home quickly becomes more complicated as they find themselves pursued by soldiers of the King and start piecing together how the problems of today are linked to themselves, the royal family, a missing prince, a decade and a half old tragedy, and the slumbering past of the kingdom itself.

Poem: A Musician And A Painter

[Musician]
There’s a magic in paintings that I cannot hear,
A moment ensconced and perfectly clear.
It grabs your reflection and shows you the truth
And static remains a reminder to you.

[Painter]
There’s a magic in music that I cannot touch,
A swelling of sound that pours and drips out.
It echoes through time and then disappears.
The faintest of memories, the whisper of tears.

[Both]
I’ll always appreciate my counterpart,
For together we fill space and time with our art.

I Do Photography Too!

I enjoy art and writing, but I take them pretty seriously sometimes. It's important to have diverse but complimentary hobbies to keep things fun and interesting, and one of mine is photography. Most of my photographs are taken with making artwork in mind, but some are just for the sheer fun of it. More of my best can be found at my Zazzle store here.

But here's a few of my favorites:

Water droplets beading up on our newly stained deck.

My sister in our Dad's oversized coat at Ocean Shores, Washington.

Praying mantis, captured at a gas station in Idaho.

The creek on my grandparent's farm in Ellensburg, Washington.

Fireworks from the backyard.

Two crows in Colorado, looking for all the world like two judgmental old men watching the passersby.

Essay: How To Write

My Senior year of High School I took Advanced Placement Language Arts. It pushed me to my limits of writing ability and undoubtedly made me a better essay writer.

And I hated it beyond words.

Actually, most of my writing experiences in school left me with a bitter taste, and by Senior year I'd reached the pinnacle of frustration with the school system's idea of the written word. Thus it was that for the first assignment that year (and only non-essay assignment), prompted "How to...", I wrote about how to write.

And yes, I read it in front of my teacher. As I recall, she laughed throughout.

The Writing Process
From Kindergarten to Publication

       The madness begins with a simple child’s song. A, B, C, and D (and let us not forgot elemenopee) are really your first introduction into writing. Little do you know that in this seemingly innocuous song lies the foundation for years of writer’s block. The first thing you can scrawl is your name. After learning to read, the teacher then introduces the basics of writing. And since the teacher decides that their life is much easier when they don’t have to decipher chicken scratch, mounds and mounds of handwriting worksheets and spelling lists are sent home and must be laboriously filled out. Later, you are introduced to this wonderful thing called “Word” and “spellcheck” and never need to write legibly or spell correctly again. Something similar is also done in cursive, an archaic form of lettering that is never used past the third grade.
After this painstaking initiation into the writing world, you are then free to –for a time– write whatever you wish. For a couple of years, many fun and fanciful stories are created until they are squashed by something grown-ups call “reality.” If we had known the tidal wave to follow that first persuasive essay, I’m sure we would have balked instead of cheerfully throwing ourselves into the surf. I mourned the death of the fiction assignment, but worse things are to come.
  Much like the ABC song, the next phase starts out innocently enough, maybe even fun. After all, who doesn’t like to write in colorful pens? Blue for topic and concluding sentence, red for concrete, and green for commentary. But Jane Schaffer’s writing system strikes like a snakebite to the heel. The next few years are spent churning out fodder essays, mindlessly filling in the blanks until you’re sick of concrete and commentary sentences.
If you survive the inundation of Jane Schaffer, you reach High School and are told that Jane Schaffer is not only evil, but that further, to write well you must break all those painfully accumulated, maddeningly eccentric English rules. In the end, it is okay to start a sentence with words such as ‘and’ or ‘but’. And to top things off, you are taught many tedious citing format standards, which will probably change in the upcoming years.
  And finally, should you decide to go to college, within the first five minutes of English 101, a clear minded professor will confidently and quite smugly tell you that your High School teachers were oh so very wrong and that they, the Instructor with a Bachelor’s degree in English, is here to teach you correctly. At this point you’re probably trying to get a picture of Yoda out of your swimming vision, gently admonishing you in his gravelly voice, “you must unlearn what you have learned.” Again. And perhaps at this point, you begin to think back to a dimly recalled, distant time when writing was fun, and wonder what the heck happened here.
  But I guess you like pain, because instead of merely finishing the class and washing your hands clean, you decide to take all those stories that have been festering and forming and dammed inside of you and write them down. After all, it would be a shame to waste all those writing skills you’ve been learning for the past decade and a half. And what job can you think of off the top of your head that requires you to write MLA style formatted research essays? A scientist, maybe. But you have bigger problems to contend with now.
After years of writing expository, persuasive, and research essays, you have developed an almost incurable shyness about any writing that isn’t based on the world around you but is spawned inside your head. In fact, anything read aloud carries almost a sense of shame, like someone accidentally catching a glimpse of something they weren’t meant to see. People can be cruel about creativity and art, and any story that is written is a tiny glimpse into somebody’s fragile soul. So heaven forbid anybody actually read your stories! And yet, overpowered by a sense of almost desperation to find anybody of a similar mindset, you might fearfully show a little bit of your story to your closest family or friends. And with a little bit of gentle encouragement, you may actually take the chance and send your book to a publishing company.
Now, when you submit a book, not only do you send the first ten pages, but also this really daunting thing called a “cover letter.” I honestly think that the publishers came up with this thing just to weed out all but the most dedicated and to laugh about the bad ones over coffee. This thing requires a (non-trite) hook, a catchy title, a summary, and a desperate plea at the end. The summary is actually the kicker. The cover page must be at most one page long, so you have to take your 300+ page book that you have poured your heart and soul into and condense it into a paragraph. This must be done without neglecting the major characters, events, and your writing voice. To top it off, you have to state the ending and everything, so before your book is sent in, it has to be finished. Many sleepless nights are spent trying to cram everything into a summary and getting a really nice hook. It’s got to be perfect, because you’ve got one shot and people are lost or won in the first few sentences. After all the toil, sweat, and blood, you shove the hope-laden package into the mailbox with a tiny prayer.
If you’re lucky, you’ll only be rejected by thirty or so people before you get the point, but if you’re really lucky, you might actually be accepted. Of course, for that to happen, your story can’t be too far out there. Publishing companies only have so many slots open per year and prefer to play it safe (i.e. what’ll probably make money) than go for the masterful piece of art that’s probably going to flop.
Once your work is accepted, the trials are far from over. Mounds of revisions are made (not always with your expressed permission) there is a lot of back-and-forth, contracts have to be read and signed, and finally, finally, you’ll have a watered down version of something that resembles your story sitting on a bookshelf. And if you’re really, really, lucky the masses will decide they like you and you’ll be able to keep writing. But, if you’re like everyone else, you’ll keep your day job.
In fact, it could turn out that the most important (or at least most useful) thing you learn in your writing career was also the first thing you learned: how to scrawl your name on the dotted line.