MOCKINGBIRD

I am a big mockingbird fan. I like their attitude. They're scrappy.

Here's a Work In Progress:

And here's a closeup of what might be the BEST eye I've ever drawn:

And here's a poem to work you into a bidding frenzy:

There once was a bird known for mocking
That I'd watch while the clock was tick-tocking
He took on all comers
Through winters and summers
With bravado at times quite shocking

Not my funniest, but accurate, I think.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

GAS TANK BASS PLAYER

There's a band called Split Lip Rayfield that I find to rock quite sufficiently. They have a bluegrass/punk/whoknowswhat sound. The bass player's instrument is made out of a gas tank. Enough said, I think.

I'm particularly proud of the subtle detail of his face, so here's a closeup:



One of my favorite lyrics:

It was just like a Gillian Welch song,
Except it was mine.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

GRACKLE IN THE GRASS

When traveling by foot, most birds hop. Some run. A few (of the non-water fowl type anyway) actually walk. Grackles have a stroll that I find quite satisfying. If you're lucky, you'll see one doing a grapevine (that's walking sideways, for those of you who've never seen an aerobics class).

I have to go to work. I'll update with a limerick or something later.

UPDATE: Obligatory poem

Here he is, the bird of the hour
Walking around his piercing eyes glower
His beak is set to make him look dour
As if he has eaten something quite sour
Or heard the phrase "junk bird" from some ivory tower

Rhyming words not used: flower, shower, power, our, wower (as in one who wows). Any others?

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: REMEMBER

My downstairs neighbor used to be in a band in the 80's. He asked if I would mind drawing some aceos of his past. Here's one from his trip down memory lane.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIM: DOC WATSON

I'm not very good at drawing people in a way that ends up actually looking like them. This one turned out pretty good, though. So my good buddy and Doc Watson fan Tim gets this aceo.

Thanks, Tim, for making me take my guitar out of the closet and start playing again. Keep teaching me strumming rhythms and I'll return the favor with harmonies.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

NOBLE SAVAGE MYTH

Let's pretend that this is a portrait of an individual who lives in a society that is without all of the trappings of modern technology. It could be in the Congo, Amazon, Indonesia, wherever. Doesn't really matter. It seems like people either glamorize (noble) or demonize (savage) dudes like this. Me, I just see an opportunity for a goofy limerick.

There was a man on a mission
To give up his life filled with fishin.
He wanted more wealth
And much better health
And perhaps to be a beautician.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

SUNDAY SCRIBBLINGS: (UN)ROOTED

The trees grow really tall around here in NC. And you know what they say about tall trees: big roots.

Yup, that's what they say.

"Trees have fallen and continue to fall," said the park ranger on a very windy day last week. "Enter at your own risk."

You can tell what kind of person you are by how you read that last sentence. Most people probably read "Enter at your own RISK." I read "ENTER at your own risk." But years of self-restraint/denial overrode my unhealthy desire to see trees falling, so I waited until the next day to see the carnage aftermath.

Here are a couple of non-paint pictures to show what I saw:




So I exaggerated the size of the tree a bit in the painting. Artistic license.

There they were, all the roots and inner workings of a tree on display, covered in red Carolina dirt.

The easy thing to do would be to draw some lesson from this - like the capillary action of the roots drawing water from the ground (too much analogy?) - about the impermanence of life and how all that once nurtured you will knock you down and leave you exposed to the world. But I'd rather say:

Dude. Big weather event. Destruction. Cool.

Does that make me insensitive? I hope so.

Sunday Scribblings.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: OLDEST POLAR BEAR

Here he is, the man, the myth, the legend. Dude has been jumping in freezing waters wearing nothing but a speedo and a swim cap for like forever. I thought I'd spare you the the full figure image.

You're welcome.

The old man lived life by his credo
To only do things that were neato
Don't need to be hotter
To jump in the water
In nothing but swim cap and speedo.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

A DEER

A deer. Exchanged for a caulk gun and basic electricity lessons.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

JUST A GUITAR

I bring you: another guitar.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

TRUMPET

I enjoyed drawing this in art class. If it sells for the cost of that class, I'll be breaking even.

I guess you could say you're not paying me, but rather the Art Alliance of Greensboro.

Anyway, here's a trumpet for your enjoyment. You can't actually play it, of course, but that may be a good thing. If you are a terrible player, for example. Like the guy that was painfully honking a rendition (for lack of a better word) of Girl From Ipanema. I loved that song, once.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

CRAZY SINGER

There's a great restaurant called Hillbilly Hideaway. It's one of those one meal on the menu style places. They also have music in the barn out back (NO DANCING, DRINKING, OR CUSSING). There's an old man who I believe owns/previously owned the place singing in the barn every time we go. He'll forget words, sing a little off key, the usual stuff that will get you kicked of American Idol, but he's very entertaining. That's who I was trying to draw.

Instead, this crazy looking dude is what materialized. Funny how life can be.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

THE WIZARD

I had (and still do, actually) Ozzy singing "The Wizard" in my head the entire time I was drawing this one.

I don't know why he looks angry. I hope it wasn't anything I did. Not that I believe in magic or anything. I just don't want to get hit with that stick.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

ART CLASS: INSTRUMENTS

The mountain dulcimer I got for my birthday is making the rounds: here it is in art class, modeling with a mandolin, tamborine, flute, and one of those thumb piano things.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

Draft: crow landing

This is the India ink version of the crow below.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

CROW LANDING

Subtitled: LITTLE SPIKEY BALL

In North Carolina, little spikey balls fall from trees during fall and winter. When you're trying to clear the sidewalk with a leaf-blower, they roll in unpredictable directions. Tenants complain about the risk to injury they pose.

I hope someday they manage to genetically engineer a beautiful tree that drops NOTHING.

The crow couldn't care less. He just doesn't want to accidentally miss that branch, as that would be embarrassing.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

FIDDLER #2

Another fiddler.

I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my days
I did farewell to old Kentucky
The place where I was born and raised

For six long years I've been in trouble
No pleasure here here on earth I find
For in this world I'm bound to ramble
I have no friends to help me now

It's fare thee well my own true lover
I never expect to see you again
For I'm bound to ride that Northern railroad
Perhaps I'll die upon, this train

You can bury me in some deep valley
For many years where I may lay
Then you may learn to love another
While I am sleeping in my grave

It's fare you well to a native country
The places I have loved so well
For I have seen all kinds of trouble
In this cruel world no together can tell

Maybe your friends think I'm a stranger
My face your'll never see no more
But there is one promise trhat is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

SECRET

Rooster Hanshaw plays a mean guitar. He's not a pro - pro guitar player anyway. He IS a pro auto mechanic. He just plays his guitar to get the sounds of drilling and revving out of his head.

He also has another hobby, one that no one knows about. He's not ashamed, mind you. He just knows no one would understand and he doesn't want to try to explain anyway.

He has a blog with his essays on the intricacies of Austrian Economics.

That's right. This dude from the mountains of western North Carolina engages in flame wars with both loony lefties from the left coast to wretched righties from the right. To them, he's a professor type from George Mason University who wears crooked glasses and a suit. They don't see his greased-stained keyboard. Or know that his friends call him Rooster.

And when the computer screen ceases to amuse, he goes back staining the frets with car guts.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

CROW VS OWL

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: FORTUNE

I had the fortune to see a great horned owl the other day.

The wife and I were walking the dog in the park and heard some crows going crazy. They were mobbing something. Looking up in a tree, we saw the crows hurling their anger at a nonplussed great horned owl. We ran back to the apartment to get the camera. Zooming in, the owl was looking right at us. Very spooky.

Did you know that a great horned owl has enough claw strength to take your face off?

Anyway, here's an ACEO to commemorate the event.

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.

MANDOLIN PLAYER

Here's a close-up:


My sweetheart is gone and I'm so lonesome
She said that she and I were through
I started drinkin for a pastime
Drivin nails in my coffin over you.

I'm just drivin nails in my coffin
Every time I drink a bottle of booze.
I'm just drivin nails in my coffin
Drivin' those nails over you.

Now ever since the day that we parted
I've felt so sad and so blue.
I can't help thinkin about her,
And I just can't quit drinkin' that old booze

--Jerry Irby

-----
LOOK! Pretty shiny things to buy @ NUTMEGNINE.COM!

And look here! Art to buy!

Need more wittyness and birdwatching excitement? Click this VERY SENTENCE.