[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXXI].

There are 31 days in the month of January. I have posted at least one picture in each of those days this year.

To all who have visited this blog after seeing my tweet, HEY! Thanks for taking the time to do that. I don't mind if you don't want to read everything all the time, but have a scroll around and see my other entries this month. It's been a pretty nice month.

For today:

A few of these flowers surround my drawing table. They're really nice. My mum made hundreds of them for our wedding. Hundreds. My wifey's bouquet was made of them, each of the five groomsmen and myself had one on our tuxedos, they were on the edges of the aisles and they were made as hair pins and given out as favours to all the lady guests. Hundreds.

A rough picture for one of the two characters I'm wanting to draw. I was reading 2 Samuel 23 today and I want to draw loads of characters based on the chapter.

Here it is (starting at verse 8 and going to verse 23):

" ⁸These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite who sat in the chief seat among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite. He lifted up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time. ⁹And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together for battle, and the men of Israel had gone away. ¹⁰He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand cleaved unto the sword; and the LORD wrought a great victory that day, and the people returned after him only to despoil. ¹¹And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. ¹²But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines; and the LORD wrought a great victory. ¹³And three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines pitched camp in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴And David was then in a stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. ¹⁵And David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" ¹⁶And the three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David; nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD. ¹⁷And he said, "Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this. Is not this the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men. ¹⁸And Abishai the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred and slew them, and had the name among three. ¹⁹Was he not most honorable of three? Therefore he was their captain; however he attained not unto the first three. ²⁰And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab. He went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow. ²¹And he slew an Egyptian, a goodly man; and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a staff and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear. ²²These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and had the name among three mighty men. ²³He was more honorable than the thirty, but he attained not to the first three. And David set him over his guard."

It's a fair bit to read, but it's pretty inspiring. Makes me want to buy a sword. The drawing is going to be one of the two lionlike men of Moab (in verse 20). I had a good time just alternating between the brush and the eraser in photoshop to get a basic doodle. Still not as satisfying as working in pen on paper, but a start nonetheless.

Arkansas are playing Vanderbilt at the moment. It's 71-60 Arkansas and I can't see them falling behind at all. 16-0 for the Hogs!

Drawing time.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXX].

Interstate 30 goes between Texas and Arkansas. Route 30 goes between Oregon and New Jersey. That's the best I can do for today.

Talking about today:

I'm in a sewing funk. This is my effort to get out of it. It's for a good friend back home and I'm excited to send it out.

I like the fact that these images take a very short amount of time to load. The photos take a while. This is a Big Sword. Looking back at the other weapons I've drawn, I can see that the Longsword is bigger, so I'm just going to have to draw a Bigger Sword tomorrow.

So the flat rate boxes here have upped in price... In one sense, it's not really flat rate, but then again it's still going to be the same price for wherever we send it. Sort of. And obvious triple-the-price rule applies to overseas, so that's nice.

Also, I got a letter from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service telling me that I have given my biometrics in and that they are now going to resume processing my application. Although it is very good news, it shouldn't have been news at all and I have found this aspect of the government(!) to be disgustingly slow and frustratingly inept. Thanks, USCIS. I've only been waiting for permission to work for FOUR MONTHS. I'm required to stay in the country for six months while my Green Card application goes through, yet the government, in their wisdom, see it fit to have me wait four months before letting me work to support my wifey and I.

I just don't have the time to tell you how frustrated I am and how inadequate I've found these guys to be.

But saying, that. My God provides. He provides big time. We're still more than comfortable, despite having no income whatsoever and having spent all we had on my Green Card. We have an amazing family round us; both Melissa's folks and the guys at church. They're supporting us hugely and it is so, so appreciated. We're going to be fine. 'tis but a season.

I'm off to make more dolls :D

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXIX].

29 is the atomic number of copper. I have been looking for a 1943 steel penny for a while, now. I found out yesterday that there were 40 pennies in 1943 were struck in copper. In 1943, copper was put towards the war effort, so pennies were struck in steel with a zinc coating. I think - as opposed to the copper/nickel alloy that the normal penny is made from.

It's been a great day. Church this morning was fantastic - Rob Ketterling was a guest speaker and talked about money. I like it when churches talk about money; especially when they're doing it right. We learnt some good, practical tips, too.

After that, we took my wifey's bestie to the airport. We decided we wanted to cut it fine, so we took a 20 minute detour to Oklahoma. :s

Then we made it back in time to be at the first College and Career Remix Group. We grabbed some of the food there and chatted with new people. The talk was interactive, which was a really good idea to take it. Lots of people got involved and made it a great night.

For today:

On the way back from the airport, I was peeling a little orange for my wifey while she was driving. I went to take the horrible stringy bit out - you know the bit down the centre? And as I pulled it away, it popped off pretty easily. Little biddy orange, innit? That there dime is the same size as a five pence piece, for my English homies.

Buh. A better cowboy yesterday. All pencil, this one. Pretty happy with it. I'll throw it into photoshop and put some darker lines on it; maybe some colour. Could look good.

I grabbed the laptop from my wifey so I could upload these on time. I'm off again for now.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXVIII].

I takes Saturn approximately 28 years to circle the Sun.

Getting up a bit later than we expected, we headed into town and had lunch at Calico County. An amazing little place that serves incredible food. We ate until we were only able to walk slowly to the car. After that, we went to Van

Buren and had frozen yoghurt.

After that, we went to downtown Van Buren and found a lovely little shop that sells soaps and other natural, homemade lotions and skincare things.

For today:

A quick shot of the room we were in at the restaurant. I love places with stuff all over the walls. This in one such place.

My wifey's bestie ordered the most Southern thing I've ever seen. Deep Fried Corn. I didn't even know it was on the menu!

The girlies getting their hand treatment. The lady on the right was the owner of the store and maker of everything in it! It was a great smelling store. I can't remember the name of it at the moment, but I know we have a receipt somewhere with the name on it. I'll post the tomorrow.

Hats are a problem for me. They shouldn't be, but they are. Drawing every day has put me in a welcome position. Normally I wouldn't have drawn anything for a few days. I go through cycles - as every artist does - where it seems that none of my lines are doing anything I want them to do. Today is such a day and so were the last two days. But I think that forcing myself to draw is pushing me through it. For my drawings, I've got a few ideas for the weeks and months to come:

A different media each day for a week.

A different surface each day for a week.

A themed week.

Animal week.

A fanart week.

Once I get out of this drawing funk and start making things look something like I'm wanting, I'll decide which one to do first.

For now - it's time to relax with a bowl of Capt'n Crunch. Because I'm in America and that's all we eat here.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXVII].

There are 27 book in the New Testament.

Today has been great. We went to downtown Fort Smith and learnt a lot about the history of the city. Pretty great stuff. After watching True Grit the other day, it was nice to learn more about that film and also about the city that's really just down the road.

For today:

In the can. The Can? You'll see.

Yea - the biggest beer can in the world. It's huge and it's amazing.

We went to Miss Laura's - the last remaining House of Ill Repute in the area. Non-functioning. Prostitution was outlawed in 1924, I think. In the 80s, this place was a restaurant. Now it's open to the public as a tour place thing. The other 6 houses in the area have since upped and left.

The Gallows. This bad boy can hang 12 people at once. Pretty gnarly. That's right. Gnarly. Although only 6 were hanged at once at most, it's still got the ability to hold twice that. Had to use the Wide-angle lens, too.

The Disputed Line. In 1825, the Indian Territory (Oklahoma from 1909) was ruled as starting from the point 100 paces East of the Fort (Smith) and continuing due South. In 1857, a survey found that the Native Americans had originally miscalculated and that their line favoured South-west. Instead of increasing the Indian Territory by a small strip on Arkansas' side of the Arkansas River, the Native Americans were given just over $68,000 for the correctly-calculated land. I think.

A solitary heron. I got a few photos of it, but this one is my favourite.

"Oh, swans," I thought. I focused the camera. "Ah, there's one more to the lefWHAT? PELICANS?! SWEET!" I wasn't expecting that.

A mother sparrow pretends not to notice me as I snap a picture of her and her nest. I was chasing a cardinal round for a while, but didn't get a good shot. I'm happy with this, though :)

Drawing, you say? Here's one.

Oh, you want another one? Well I guess there's this one.

Not much drawing got done today on account of us being outside all day and learning a lot of new things. It's a fair trade. I really want to just sit down and draw western things, though. I got a photo of a section of the list of the names of people hanged in Fort Smith, so I'm wanting to think of a story behind either their reason for being there or their capture. Whichever is more exciting.

I'm updating my Facebook profile. Need to stay hip.

Word.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXVI].

Apparently, a Rubik's Cube can always be solved in 26 moves or less. 26 is also the only number that sits between a square number and a cube number.

It's been a really nice, chilled out day. My wifey's not working today - myself and her best friend set up a huge surprise in which her best friend flew down from Ohio last night. At 22:15, we set off to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport to pick her friend up.

My wifey asked pretty early on if I wanted her blindfolded - thinking we weren't going to be driving for too long... She was blindfolded for about an hour and a half.

We got there on time, so all was good. I guided my wifey out of the car and stood her in front of her friend. After taking the blindfold off and waiting for that split second, my wifey jumped on her best friend, screaming and giggling. It was great!

We've spent the day chilling out and showing my wifey's friend around the town. A tour that lasted a long time because we walked.

For today:

My wifey and her bestie. Doing their nails and watching a movie. We watched True Grit. A much better film than I was expecting. And I was expecting it to be great!

A bloodied longsword. Yea, I'd already drawn it, but today I drew some blood on it.

If that's not good enough, here's a halberd. My wifey helped me with this one.

And if that's not good enough, here's a quarterstaff that I did myself.

I'm off to bed.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [XXV].

25 days is the approximate rotation time of the sun.

Also, I'm 25. It's a good number at the moment.

I'm posting early today - earlier than ever (so far on this project). My wifey and I are going to be out tonight and as she's working tomorrow, we're needing to get to bed as soon as we get in, so I'm being all responsible like.

For today:

It's been raining all night. Before we went to bed we knew that we were in a flood warning zone (or something) for the next 36 hours. Our house is actually raised a bit, compared to the other plots on the street.

It doesn't mean the garden is completely dry, but we're only half covered.

As for the neighbours, yea. They're completely covered. Apparently, it's been bad enough before for them to be able to row a little inflatable boat around. Pretty sweet. Almost.

I'm working on drawing things that aren't violent or weapony. Here's a thing.

Here's my inspirational picture. In two days - the 27th of January - it will be the first anniversary of the death of this artist. His gallery is incredible - his artwork is phenomenal. He is missed loads and will continue to be missed. As uplifting and happy as discovering his work was, it was pretty devastating to find out he passed away after being ill for a while. There are a hundred pages of comments since his death, a testament to how loved he was and still is.

Stop on by and check his gallery out - http://clementsauve.deviantart.com/gallery/

I'm going to sit on the rainy porch with my wifey and read the Bible for a bit. The two loves of my life right there.

Peace.

To add a bit today:

I did origami! I made an elephant the other day and it took me a long, long time. And I got in a funk because it was really tricky and I wasn't expecting it to be. I had a look for another design before and found this one for a butterfly. Now I know it! My tips will be the best tips.

Peace.