Sunday, February 17, 2019

A Cartoon Winter




I grew up with comic books.  The proper position for reading them was to lay on one’s stomach head-to-head with a friend.  The storylines might have been simplistic, but they were rife with humor appreciated by children and teenagers.  We came to know the facial expressions of our favorite characters and absorbed the lessons of life through the thoughts of dogs, the adventures of ducks, the antics of teens, and the heroics of heroes. 


If any kid wished to emulate the comic book artists, there were books showing one how to draw in the style with either pencil or ink.  Although I was attracted to those how-to drawing books, I never seemed to have the patience to complete many pictures.  The detail of the tree in the photo above would have been much too trying for me.

Hence, my delight upon noticing an editing option in my newest phone for turning photos into a cartoon format. 



I’ve not found much of a humorous nature in the winter landscape.  One of my better offers is the above scene that I shall title “Winter Classroom.”  In the last many years, outdoor schools for children have started up in the most unlikely of climates.  Rainy Seattle hosts a number of them.  In my neighborhood, children would get to sit in a soft but wet seat and write in snow.  Silly, right?



The humor in this photo of an icicle and its drip is how many snapshots I took before catching the perfect drip.  My dog was by my side and kept insisting that we were done and ready to go inside.  I said to her, “This is the last batch.”  Then I would laugh and say, “One more batch.”  Laugh.  “And, one more batch.” 



I do love this new phone option.  The photos are beautiful.  This one is of the lane outside of my house.



I might just have managed to draw this last photo.  The cat of the yellow paws on the top of the print is Chives.  The humor is that not once in her nineteen years did she ever successfully catch a bird.  She is exactly like Charlie Brown – never getting the red-haired girl.