This is the bookmark my daughter made for me this evening as she was reading about The Epic of Gilgamesh. It’s a Mesopotamian poem found written on tablets and is considered one of the earliest forms of literature found in the world.

I haven’t read it but this is her depiction of the creatures that inhabit the underworld as described in the poem. At one point Enkidu, Gilgamesh’s friend, has a nightmare about paying [a price] for helping slay a bull:

The heavens roared, and earth rumbled back an answer; between them stood I before an awful being, the somber-faced man-bird; he had directed on me his purpose. His was a vampire face, his foot was a lion’s foot, his hand was an eagle’s talon. he fell on me and his claws were in my hair, he held me fast and I smothered; then he transformed me so that my arms became wings covered with feathers….

He goes on to describe the people that inhabit the underworld:

There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness.

It’s the second day of the new school year and have high hopes that I at least get more cool bookmarks out of her World Literature class.

Two years ago I was stuck in a rut of working on stuff and not getting much in the way of drawings and doodles done. My son brought home a pencil rooster (or rooster of pencils?) that knocked my socks off and he let me post it here on the blog. By the way, I think it makes an awesome rooster t-shirt as well.

Now it’s my daughter’s turn to rescue me with the same assignment from art class. She put together this elephant of pencils that you really have to click through to see the details because it’s a nice big piece. I love the fluidity of the pencils and especially the way she worked the erasers into the feet and top of the head, and of course, the end of the trunk.

I think it would make a cool album cover.

Conference call playground nightmare. The daughter came home from school and added the swingset to the head and the frightened little girl. The rest was from a conference call this afternoon

Spent one afternoon doodling and sketching while on vacation by a pond in Cape Cod. Imagined this guy coming up out of the plake (it’s called a pond but it’s like a lake — a word coined by the daughter).

Was scribbling this along last week and didn’t know what it was until someone said it looked like a parrot scissor hands kind of creature. The daughter just watched Edward Scissorhands for the first time and has renewed her love and commitment to all-things Johnny Depp.

While I didn’t get to watch it with her, it must be in my head. Here’s a neat little Edward Scissorhands claymation clip.

My daughter made this for me several (or more) years ago. I’ve always loved dioramas ever since my father and I made my first one in a wine box in elementary school. It was a an oil field in a Texas landscape. I built the required oil rigs out of — yeah, that’s right — popsicle sticks. There was a Matchbox Jeep and sand glued to the ground.

Later, in junior high, I built one depicting a scene from my then favorite book, Logan’s Run. It was the flameout scene where people get lasered for entertainment when they turn 30.

I’ve had the daughter’s robot hanging on my bulletin board above my desk since I don’t have a place for it to be displayed properly anywhere else due to my horrible office clutter.

In the next couple of days I’ll post one of her latest creations she brought home from art class the other day. But in the meantime, I share my friendly robot buddy with you.

gave this to my daughter this morning and she said that it wasn’t that ‘cute’.

Was reading Eleanor Estes‘ The Moffat Museum tonight to the daughter. A scene where the Moffat children are in search of a meteor for their museum described the over-turned beetles where the meteor once sat.

So I had a few minutes sitting with the Mrs. to scratch this out with the Bic. (As I was sketching a ladybug dropped from above onto my shoulder, perhaps for a looksee?)

Daughter steps up to the plate tonight to help out the old man who’s busy resting up for RAD (request-a-doodle friday tomorrow). I asked her to render me a superhero — she chose a superspy with jet pack.

Now I just need to get the boy to start contributing with some of his tricked out street machines.