Les Misérables: More Volume One Revelations

I’m really making some progress reading Les Mis.  Here are five facts about the book.  The first three don’t spoil any plot points.  The last two may.: 1. Les Mis is very long because Victor Hugo included lots and lots of historical facts.  There are entire chapters of historical facts with maybe one line of

“Oh, Holy Night”: Top Five Christmas Song #1

  “Oh, Holy Night,” 1855, John Sullivan Dwight Did you know that it’s likely that Jesus was born in a cave rather than a wooden stable like we might picture of today?  They think they know which cave it was in Bethlehem and the site is a now the oldest Christian church in the world,

“Same Old Lang Syne”: Top Five Christmas Song #2

Today, I bring you song number 2: “Same Old Lang Syne”, 1980, by Dan Fogelberg Until I started researching for information on this song, I thought it was called “Toast to Innocence ”  But it’s not.  It’s called Same Old Lang Syne.  If you can’t remember it, google it to listen and then the images above will

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: Top Five Christmas Song #3

Today’s song: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, 1957, by Hugh Martin. (The original was written in 1944, but Martin added the line that inspired the picture above in 1957.  Thanks, Wikipedia.) This is such a great bittersweet song.  When I hear the line “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough” it makes the

In America-a Watercolor-Digital Hybrid

Here are two new pieces I just finished for a project.  I mixed up the watercolor and digital paints, and it was so much fun. The Process: First, with a pencil, I sketched everything on a regular sketch pad. Then, I redrew everything in pen. Then, with a pen again, I traced everything onto hot

If

Several months ago, I started listening to archive episodes of the RadioLab podcast. If you don’t listen to RadioLab, you should listen to RadioLab. These guys take interviews from scientists and historians and do this public radio mashup kind of thing. Every time I listen I learn something new, have a story to share at

Serendipity

Do you ever do something on accident and then wish you knew how you had done it? I drew this tree in pen and scanned it.  I had plans to color it with a digital watercolor sort of flair, but I did something wrong, and this is what happened. So, then I had to figure

The Fireman Says Hi

This is the world debut of the first mini-book written by my 6-year-old and illustrated by me. I like drawing hippos.  And I didn’t know how until this one showed up. So grateful for his imagination.

The Turtle Club

This is a little turtle friend I drew, inspired by our newest pet, Godzilla.