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This is our first Halloween in a house together, and we're also in a neighbourhood with lots of kids. They are always running around in front of our house and we can hear some of the funny things they yell out. So we're looking forward to giving out candy.

A week ago we bought a couple of tiny pumpkins on the way home and I drew spiders on them. This was to indicate to the neighbourhood kids that we would be participating in Halloween and we would have candy. The boy next door saw them when he came home and he yelled out to his dad - "they have pumpkins with spiders on them and on the back it says happy halloween!!" So now the kids know that even though we just moved in we understand the Halloween system.

So last night Bradley carved our big pumpkin after sketching out a few faces. We both agreed the pirate was the best. Scary but lovable. So here he is, ready to have a candle lit inside him tonight. As you can see he's lost a tooth - eeww! - and it's hard to see from the picture but he has scars all down the left side of his face. Perfect.

Nothing to wear for Halloween yet? No worries, your Halloween masks are here!
Pick your choice (these are downloadable PDF’s):

Halloween Pumpkin
Cat
Cantinflas, the Charles Chaplin of Mexico.
Werewolf, although a rather nerdy one
Teen Zombie
Little Witch
The Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera
Calaverita or sugar skull
Olmec head, Cabeza Olmeca, pre-Hispanic head sculpture

Happy Halloween y'all!

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"SKETCH-asaurus!" is a new blog I created specifically for the artwork created by the kids in my life...daughter, nephews, stepson, friends...I wanted to give them a place to post their artwork for Illustration Friday and just showcase their work.

The first entry is my stepson's drawing for Illustration Friday "Halloween".

In the words of the immortal Ms. Spears, howdy y’all. I know it’s been a while since I last posted. My family has been wading through a sea of bad luck lately (including a death in the family an honest-to-goodness tree falling on my garage). I thought it was way past time I poked my head out of my shell and post something, so here’s one of my Halloween pumpkins for this year. Hopefully it won't take anywhere near this long to post again.

Mark

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And this will be my trick or treat doodles for this Halloween!

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not counting on my horticultural skills to feed my family. I was busy pulling vines from my backyard today when lo and behold, I found a watermelon...



Yes, that is a watermelon. As you can see, it is a sorry excuse for a watermelon...unless you are a Liliputian. It wasn't much bigger than a lime. Nature's goodness, my ass. But it was showing signs of ripemess so I took it inside and cut it up.



Mmmmm....watermelony goodness! Here's one bite...



It tasted good, but this is sad, sad, sad. In other news, my pumpkin is still green and I have suspicions that the squirrels of mice or chipmunks or some other form of vermin is still nibbling at it despite my efforts to cage it. I'd better find some other line of work. Maybe writing...

I have two friends who online call themselves Christiaan Huygens and the Bean (not to be confused with Mr. Bean). Christiaan and the Bean have been trying to have a baby for nine years. We're talking in-vitro, adoption, the whole nine yards. Much of this is chronicled in Christiaan's podcast over the past year or so.

Just a month or so ago they announced that they have miraculously conceived. This is without science or chemicals or the State of New York or anything. It just happened the old-fashioned way after they had resigned themselves to remaining childless.

I am so happy for them because I know they will be very good parents and because they have been wanting it for so long and because they are great people and because they love Disney. What kid wouldn't consider him/herself lucky to end up with parents like that?

Anyhow, I can't pretend to know the joy they must be feeling, but I can say that I have tasted a bit of it. I was wading through my garden just this morning, pulling aside all the fruitless pumpkin and watermelon vines, getting ready to make room for more pachysandra when what did I find?



A pumpkin!!!

The little bugger is about 4 inches long and I have an appointment at the obstetrician next week. For those of you who are interested, I'll be registering at Home Depot for my pumpkin baby registry.

Now comes the next chapter of my life: Protecting the Pumpkin

I hope this guy does not live in my neighborhood:



Oh, the humanity!

by Margaret McNamara illustrated by G. Brian Karas S&W / Random House 2007 This book screams out "teacher book" and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Charlie's the smallest boy in Mr. Tiffen's class. Whenever they line up tallest to smallest he's always at the end. Today when they came to class Mr. Tiffen had three pumpkins on a table at the front of the room. He asked his students to