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Weekly Words

Weekly Words  is my blog where I post small illustrations as often as I can.  Since I draw inspiration from reading and am writing fiction of my own, I include a quote with each illustration from either an already loved and published author, or if I dare, a piece of my own writing...

To follow my Words series and stay informed on exclusive content and goodies be sure to sign up for my Patron's List e-newsletter!

Outside the Law

11/24/2018

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A suave feline perches on the edge of danger in this Stephen King inspired Weekly Words illustration Outside the Law.
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Cat's were the gangsters of the animal world, living outside the law and often dying there.  There were a great many of them who never grew old by the fire. 

-Stephen King, Pet Sematary

When I read this quote it really struck me.  I read it again as soon as I finished, and then read it several more times before understanding why.  It's a potent string of words.  Like any great writing, it says so much in the shortest way using the best words.

I've been teaching myself to write creatively for quite a few years, picking up everything I can to hone my grasp on the craft, often from reading.  Many successful authors will say reading is essential to learning to write. If you're not sure what I mean about great writing, let me show you a terrible way to write the same thing.  Maybe you'll gain a better appreciation:

"Cat's are like gangsters because many of them die in gruesome ways instead of from old age in the safety of a house under the care of their owner."

First, that was a mouthful if you tried to read it out loud.  Second, it's just bad.  You don't have to know why to not enjoy reading it.

Stating what you know just tells the reader what to think instead of piquing the reader's curiosity enough to think with the author and arrive at the same conclusion.  I can't imagine anyone would be successful in creating an engaging novel writing statements like that.

The original quote lures you in with an unlikely comparison and makes you think about cats in a new way.  It's a strong couple sentences.  I get really excited about words sometimes, you'll have to excuse me. 

In the case you don't care as much about books, well, I'm probably no further ahead than Remy trying to convince his family that food has flavor:
 

That's okay ;)
Also, Synesthesia is fascinating.

At first I wanted to draw the cat in a hoodie... but then I figured that's probably not the style of gangster Stephen King had in mind.  I couldn't be sure but I decided a fedora was the better choice.  I used Al Capone's for reference.
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The hat I ended up drawing changed a lot, regrettably more than I intended.  But the scale was so small and there were tall pointy ears to accommodate, and I was in such a rush...
The quote for this Weekly Words illustration was chosen by one of my Patron's List e-newsletter and Patreon subscribers, which makes it special.  This was the first time I illustrated a quote chosen by one of you.  It was great fun and got me thinking in a way I normally wouldn't have had I chosen a quote myself. 

I definitely want my fans and followers to join in selecting quotes for future WW illustrations.  If you aren't already, be sure to sign up for my e-newsletter (Patron's List) or follow me on Patreon, Facebook or DeviantArt to participate!

***

About the Author

"King was born September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. His father, Donald Edwin King, was a merchant seaman. Donald was born under the surname Pollock, but as an adult, used the surname King. King's mother was Nellie Ruth (née Pillsbury).
When Stephen King was two years old, his father left the family under the pretense of "going to buy a pack of cigarettes," leaving his mother to raise Stephen and his older brother, David, by herself, sometimes under great financial strain. The family moved to De Pere, Wisconsin, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Stratford, Connecticut. When King was 11, his family returned to Durham, Maine, where his mother cared for her parents until their deaths. She then became a caregiver in a local residential facility for the mentally challenged. King was raised Methodist but lost his belief in organised religion while in high school. While no longer religious, King chooses to believe in the existence of a God.
As a child, King apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train, though he has no memory of the event. His family told him that after leaving home to play with the boy, King returned, speechless and seemingly in shock. Only later did the family learn of the friend's death. Some commentators have suggested that this event may have psychologically inspired some of King's darker works, but King makes no mention of it in his memoir On Writing (2000).
King related in detail his primary inspiration for writing horror fiction in his non-fiction Danse Macabre (1981), in a chapter titled "An Annoying Autobiographical Pause." King compares his uncle's dowsing for water using the bough of an apple branch with the sudden realization of what he wanted to do for a living. That inspiration occurred while browsing through an attic with his elder brother, when King uncovered a paperback version of an H. P. Lovecraft collection of short stories he remembers as The Lurker in the Shadows, that had belonged to his father. King told Barnes & Noble Studios during a 2009 interview, "I knew that I'd found home when I read that book."
King attended Durham Elementary School and graduated from Lisbon Falls High School, in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He displayed an early interest in horror as an avid reader of EC's horror comics, including Tales from the Crypt (he later paid tribute to the comics in his screenplay for Creepshow). He began writing for fun while still in school, contributing articles to Dave's Rag, the newspaper his brother published with a mimeograph machine, and later began selling to his friends stories based on movies he had seen (though when discovered by his teachers, he was forced to return the profits). The first of his stories to be independently published was "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber"; it was serialized over four issues (three published and one unpublished) of a fanzine, Comics Review, in 1965. That story was published the following year in a revised form as "In a Half-World of Terror" in another fanzine, Stories of Suspense, edited by Marv Wolfman. As a teen, King also won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award.
From 1966, King studied at the University of Maine, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. That year, his daughter Naomi Rachel was born. He wrote a column, Steve King's Garbage Truck, for the student newspaper, The Maine Campus and participated in a writing workshop organized by Burton Hatlen. King held a variety of jobs to pay for his studies, including janitor, gas pump attendant, and worker at an industrial laundry."


I read about this author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King
You can find the author's website here: https://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html
This illustration has not yet been digitized and the displayed image does not accurately reflect the quality and coloration of my giclée prints.
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Up to No Good

11/7/2017

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"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
-J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter (Book #3)

EDIT:  Zoom feature no longer viable, I had to remove it. 

First, I'm excited to point out that you can now click my blog images which will allow you to zoom in on all that meticulous work I did!  Go ahead, try it out :)  Granted, this isn't a professionally digitized version of the illustration, only a cell phone photo taken by yours truly.

Second, well, I guess that would be my explanation for this illustration.  When I started this drawing back in January- 

*Glances at calendar and raises eyebrow*

Wow, that's two months shy of a year ago now... anyway, with my then current circumstances I didn't expect to be making any large or consistent strides with the progress of my projects, and with the move, perpetually limited resources, and less than encouraging improvement with my unresolved pain/chronic exhaustion (it's been nearly 13 years since my earliest symptoms) I wanted to create a Weekly Words illustration to communicate that I'm "here to stay" so to speak... err, type.  I have not given up on my art, and even though my creations may take more time than some other artist's, they will be completed.

For this Weekly Words drawing the quote chose me.  What I mean by that is, I didn't have a well-formed theme or image that I wanted to go by, I just read through a lot of quotes until this one tapped on my heart and said, "I bet I can sum up what it is that you want to say."  I would describe my creative process and artwork as both a lot of fun and fraught with solemnity.  Kind of like my personality... no wonder I feel so awkward.


So, in this drawing there's a dragon crawling out of the canvas.  That's just the kind of thing that happens when you create with too much "FEAR Inside" a very potent brand of emotion-medium.  I spilled the entire contents and didn't realize until it was too late.  The other cans contain the elements you need to create any good dragon, like "Fire" and "Beast Magic".

The artist is me, although my real nose isn't that flat.  The hair is pretty accurate though.


A total list of the names on the cans (and tube) (italics being brand names) include: "Fire" "Strength" "Freedom" "Beast Magic" "Wrath" "Fear Inside" and of course, a big 'ol reliable can of "Umm".  I think artists paint and draw, ect. with "Umm" more often than anyone realizes, or admits.  But that's a post for another time.

Also, can you find the nightmare owl hidden in this drawing?  They've been hanging around like ghosts hang around in people's photos ever since I met them in the sakura pearl bubbletree forest.

***
"Joanne Rowling, best known as J.K. Rowling, was born on July 31, 1965, in Yate, England. She adopted her pen name, J.K., incorporating her grandmother's name, Kathleen, for the latter initial (Rowling does not have a middle name)."

"Born in Yate, England, on July 31, 1965, J.K. Rowling came from humble economic means before writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a children's fantasy novel. The work was an international hit and Rowling wrote six more books in the series, which sold hundreds of millions of copies and was adapted into a blockbuster film franchise."

I read about and watched a video on this author here: www.biography.com/people/jk-rowling-40998#!
This illustration has not yet been digitized and the displayed image does not accurately reflect the quality and coloration of my giclée prints.
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To the Sunshine

12/2/2016

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"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." -Helen Keller

A more complete version of this quote is:  "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.  It's what sunflowers do."

Alas, I made this image before choosing a quote this week, and since I didn't position the sunflower facing the sun I didn't think it quite matched.  I was disappointed.  The chances of the quote also relating to a sunflower... it would've been perfect!  However, that pensive little blackbird is most definitely keeping its face to the sunshine.

I started this drawing with the intention of relating it to the end of autumn and the beginning of winter.  This time of year feels like the end of something and the beginning at the same time.  Maybe that's because I still think of the school year as a new start versus the first of January.  My in-progress fantasy novel begins in the fall season for my main character too.  It has just kind of stuck with me as the season that starts the year new, and I tend to feel rejuvenated for creative projects at this time especially. 

In relation to this week's quote, it really resonated with the attitude I've been consciously trying to keep.  I know what it's like trying to live while facing all kinds of shadows.  Nothing stunts your growth like meditating on what's wrong.  Like a sunflower starved of daylight, we wilt in the shade of overwhelming circumstance, problems or negativity.  Sometimes we do this out of a sense of responsibility;  we spend so much energy on fixing whatever isn't right with us or around us but at the same time forget to acknowledge the things that are right.  The shadows are the what-if's, I'm not's, I can't's and anything negative outside our control.  Instead of becoming paralyzed in the shadow, take action from a place of confidence.  Feel rooted in your accomplishments, and let your strengths, passions and joy face you in right the direction.
***
Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American author, political activist and campaigner for deaf and blind charities. Helen became deaf and blind as a young child and had to struggle to overcome her dual disability. However, she became the first deaf-blind person to attain a bachelors degree and became an influential campaigner for social, political and disability issues. Her public profile helped de-stigmatise blindness and deafness, and she was seen as a powerful example of someone overcoming difficult circumstances.
***
I read about this author here:  http://www.biographyonline.net/women/helen-keller.html


This illustration has not yet been digitized and the displayed image does not accurately reflect the quality and coloration of my giclée prints.
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So Just Be

11/15/2016

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"A penguin cannot become a giraffe so just be the best penguin you can be."
-Gary Vaynerchuk


This quote jumped out at me this week because I've always struggled with fitting into the frame work the world has crafted for me and doing what I'm "supposed" to.  I'm finding more and more people who feel the same way for greatly varying reasons.

One of the biggest things for me has been people telling me I should "step out of my comfort zone".  Perfectly fine advice, right?  What harm could there be in pushing yourself to do things that expand you beyond your normal range?  What skills you'll learn, what confidence you'll gain!  It's true.  To a point.  A really short point if you're someone like me.  When I put my writing down and back away from my artwork, when I step into public, that's it.  I'm out of my comfort zone.  Chances are you can't suggest I step out of my comfort zone without me already being outside of it.

I'm not saying you should only do what suits you ALL the time, but maybe most of the time.  Stepping out to experience new things is a really good idea, but if you do it just for the sake of saying you did it or because someone else is saying it's what you should do and not because some part of  you really wants to, you will  probably get burnt out from all the stress and embarrassment you will experience versus any sense of success or self-esteem.

Metaphorically speaking, people will have you put a giraffe hat on and suggest you do like them because that's what giraffes in a giraffe world do.  We are not all giraffes.  Some of us may be penguins, or something else.   You won't thrive in one envoirnment if your naturally equipped for different one, and a hat won't make much difference. 
***
Gary Vaynerchuk is the 35-year-old New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Associated Press Best-Selling author of Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion and The Thank You Economy. A self-trained social media trailblazer and expert, Gary has close to one million Twitter followers and was included in BusinessWeek’s list of the top 20 people every entrepreneur should follow. Gary and his brother AJ founded VaynerMedia, a new breed of agency that helps Fortune 500 companies like Campbell Soup Company, PepsiCo, Green Mountain Coffee, the NY Jets, the NHL, and the NJ Nets find their social media voices and build their digital brands.
Although his various businesses obviously play an enormous role in his life, he always puts his family first.

I read about this author and watched a video of him here.
He has a website here: garyvaynerchuk.com
This illustration has not yet been digitized and the displayed image does not accurately reflect the quality and coloration of my giclée prints.
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Never The Same

10/25/2016

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"There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

So this week's post might take a little bit of an explanation since the image has a more personal meaning to me than my usual drawings.  I chose this quote and image on the 14th of this month (October) in memory of my brother on what would've been his 29th birthday.  He passed away just before he was 25, and I know that changed things for me and for a lot of other people. 

I generally want my weekly drawings to be uplifting for someone to come across because we are bombarded by bad news so often.  I figured we could use something a little more useful.  I hope I can use my individual talents to bring the people I come in contact with something inspiring instead of despairing.  So why do I find this potentially melancholy love quote inspiring?

It embodied something I never thought to put into words, or knew how to.

My family is my treasure.  So are my friends and a great deal of acquaintances (and my pets for sure).  In this drawing I depicted three hearts representing people I love.  They are worn like a necklace, like three precious jewels close to my heart. This necklace continues to bear more hearts the longer I live my life.

This quote inspires me to keep loving.  I believe no matter what we lose there is something, though different, as beautiful to gain again.


To me this drawing is about new chances, new friends, new family and beginnings.  This image represents all the potential the future holds, while honoring the past.  It hurts when we lose who we love.  I would even say it can damage us in a way that can never really heal.  So we remember.  Sometimes we remember often, or we may tuck a memory further away, but we don't forget. 

To further emphasize the hope I found in these words, I happened to run across a Yahoo Answers comment while researching this quote which I thought summed it up quite perfectly.
"[This quote] is not against second chances, just identical chances.." - Dianne Wallace link.

***
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American writer of novels and short stories, whose works have been seen as evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he himself allegedly coined. He is regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century writers. Fitzgerald was of the self-styled "Lost Generation," Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age. He was married to Zelda Fitzgerald.  [Goodreads]
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In This Garden

8/5/2016

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“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us - like electricity and horses and steam.”

“Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people.  So it must be all around us.  In this garden—in all the places.”

― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Two quotes this week! Both from the same source.  I just couldn't decide which I liked better, and maybe it makes up for my absence a little.  Plus, I spent extra time on this one. I'm adding this author to my to read list. Enjoy.

'"Frances Eliza Hodgson was the daughter of ironmonger Edwin Hodgson, who died three years after her birth, and his wife Eliza Boond. She was educated at The Select Seminary for Young Ladies and Gentleman until the age of fifteen, at which point the family ironmongery, then being run by her mother, failed, and the family emigrated to Knoxville, Tennessee. Here Hodgson began to write, in order to supplement the family income, assuming full responsibility for the family upon the death of her mother, in 1870. In 1872 she married Dr. Swan Burnett, with whom she had two sons, Lionel and Vivian. The marriage was dissolved in 1898. In 1900 Burnett married actor Stephen Townsend until 1902 when they got divorced. Following her great success as a novelist, playwright, and children's author, Burnett maintained homes in both England and America, traveling back and forth quite frequently. She died in her Long Island, New York home, in 1924.
Primarily remembered today for her trio of classic children's novels - Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911) - Burnett was also a popular adult novelist, in her own day, publishing romantic stories such as The Making of a Marchioness (1901) for older readers."'


I read about this author here: www.goodreads.com/…/sh&#…
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Lest He Become a Monster

8/5/2016

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Part of my Weekly Words series featuring an author's quote and illustration by me.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he become a monster... If you gaze for long into an abyss, it gazes also into you."
Fridrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil


This is a simpler version of an illustration I've been wanting to draw. I don't know if I will get to it anytime soon or at all. So here it is, sort of.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher. I had a hard time researching this quote, I am not 100% sure it is from that particular book. Someone correct me if they know. There was even several different versions of the quote, and I can't translate the original German text myself of course, so I took a bit from each of those versions and arranged it in a way I thought flowed the best.

Enjoy.

I read about this author here:  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/biography/friedrich_nietzsche_biography


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Sometimes I do

8/5/2016

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“They say to never look back.  But sometimes I do.  It’s gratifying to see how far I’ve come.”
-Richelle E. Goodrich,
Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year


Enjoy!

'Richelle is a native of Washington State, graduated from Eastern Washington University with bachelor's degrees in Liberal Studies and Math/Science Education. Her quotes have been published in a number of books including the Oxford "Philosophy Being Human" Course Book, "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas in Canada", and in a Revlon magazine ad campaign. She has a strong love of the arts―drama, choir, sketching, painting, literature. This author writes whenever and wherever opportunity presents itself. She describes herself beautifully in the following quote:
"I like bubbles in everything. I respect the power of silence. In cold or warm weather I favor a mug of hot cocoa. I admire cats―their autonomy, grace, and mystery. I awe at the fiery colors in a sunset. I believe in deity. I hear most often with my eyes, and I will trust a facial expression before any accompanying comment. I invent rules, words, adventures, and imaginary friends. I pretend something wonderful every day. I will never quit pretending."
~ Richelle E. Goodrich
Richelle writes young adult books―fantasies, adventures, and some realities, always with a touch of romance. "'

I read about this author here: www.goodreads.com/…/show…

Author's website: www.richellegoodrich.com/

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Life Gives You Melons

8/5/2016

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EDIT UPDATE:

I recently contacted the author of this quote to ask her permission to use it only to find out she doesn't own the quote after all!  Since I haven't read "Where the Road Takes me" I'm unsure if she meant the quote wasn't in the book at all, or just that she wasn't the original author of the quote.  Apparently, it is a popular string of words found on T-shirts, ect. but the source is so far a mystery.  If anyone knows more about the origins of this funny little quote, let me know so I can give proper credit.
***

“When life gives you melons, you might be dyslexic”
― Jay McLean, Where the Road Takes Me

A fun one this week. I haven't read this author before, but she sounds like a good writer... I saw this quote floating around the web and lo and behold it's from an author.
***
"Jay McLean is an international best-selling author and full-time reader, writer of New Adult Romance, and most of all, procrastinator. When she’s not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, playing house and binge watching Netflix.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her hurt and make her feel.
Jay lives in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in a forever half-done home where music is loud and laughter is louder."

I read about this author here:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4724550.Jay_McLean

http://www.jaymcleanauthor.com/

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Call of My Heart

8/5/2016

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“I have not always chosen the safest path. I've made my mistakes, plenty of them. I sometimes jump too soon and fail to appreciate the consequences. But I've learned something important along the way: I've learned to heed the call of my heart. I've learned that the safest path is not always the best path and I've learned that the voice of fear is not always to be trusted.”
― Steve Goodier


I promise myself every week, just a quick sketch... just a quick sketch. These are not quick sketches. I can't help myself, once I get drawing something and I begin to see what it is, because I do not always start with an intention, I have a difficult time letting it be anything less than what I see it turning into. I could do more with this, but I will stop myself here.
This time I started the drawing first and then found a quote that I felt matched it's meaning.
Anyway, this is a quote by Steve Goodier. I read about him here: abettermemagazine.com/author/s…

"Steve Goodier holds a B.A. and M.Div., is an ordained minister and author of several books. He writes a blog at stevegoodier.blogspot.com, publishes a weekly newsletter at www.lifesupportsystem.com, writes a syndicated newspaper column and is featured regularly in the magazine "Change Your Attitude...Change Your Life." He teaches, speaks and writes about personal development, motivation, inspiration, and making needed life changes. Together with his wife (and best friend) Bev, a professional counselor and small group leader, he has led numerous workshops on relational, spiritual and inter-personal growth topics."

Enjoy.

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