The Adventures of Art Lad

I drew another portrait, but this was of someone I never saw before. Dad said the police do this when bad guys get away and they have an artist draw the picture of bad guy just from what people say they saw. That would be a neat job.

The new portrait was of the Crazy Lady that came to our house. She came over when I was at school and Dad was at work so only Blazey was around to protect Mom and my sister. Then yesterday she drove her car at Mom and my sister and was going to get out and yell some more, but Blaze stopped her. He thinks my sister is his puppy! One time, when Dad was tickling my sister and she screamed, Blaze came over and bit my dad on the ear, so you know he likes her.

Anyway, even though she was in her car, my sister saw her and also sawthe whole thing last time. She told me what the lady looked like, so I drew a cartoon head of her.

This is the Crazy Lady:





"Does that look like her?" I asked my sister.

"Yes," she said. "Except for one thing. You forgot to make her mouth REALLY open, like Lucy in Charlie Brown."

This morning, the Crazy Lady did something else but Dad wants to tell about it. Mom is real upset about the Crazy Lady. Dad was mad at first, but now he has a smarty, sneaky look when I ask about her. When Dad gets the smarty sneaky look it means he has a trick or a surprise that he knows about that you don't. He has it on RIGHT NOW while he is helping me write this.

I wish I could draw it. It is a good look.

Bye!

Some people sent me emails saying they wanted more things here. But I have been really busy at school. I am reading A LOT now. I had homework this week where I had to read two books and talk about them. I picked a book about wild cats and a book about lizards.

I am doing pictures of people now--Dad says they are portraits--and it is even harder to draw people's faces than drawing the Roboraptor. Even when you tell people to sit still they are always moving in their face. So I am drawing them like comic strip people, like Mr. Feiffer does.

Here is one of my sister:






And here's what she really looks like with her bear.






Because it is a comic it does not really look like her, except maybe her hair. Dad said a lot of artists do these and other funny portraits of people in funny ways, but I forget what they're called [caricatures]. Our art teacher says it's good to want to draw like Mr. Feiffer, but Mr. Feiffer and all the others had to learn drawing rules first. Then you can do what you want, she said.

Dad said that's true, but I've been breaking the rules at home FOREVER so it's okay to break the rules when I draw. That made me happy. Rules make drawing hard and then it's no fun.

School is back and I am at a new table. I sit with Derek and Devin and Luis. No one talks to Luis because he doesn't speak like us. He speaks Spanish so all he can talk to is the teacher because she can speak Spanish. Also Luis poked somebody with a pencil and got in trouble at the beginning of the year.

Dad said HE would poke somebody too if no one could understand him when he talked (and he talks a lot). So I got an idea and started watched Dora the Explorer with my sister. Dora is loud and bossy like my sister and that's why she likes it. But Dora speaks Spanish sometimes and they do it on Sesame Street too.

Anyway, I learned how to say "Hi"--you say it "Hola!"--to Luis and told him my name. He got really excited and started talking fast to me. I will have to learn some more before we can have a real talk.

But Mrs. Dodd was really happy with me and now she has me sit with him. I hope he won't poke me with a pencil. We are amigos now, so that means friends.

We had art class and my teacher told me I was good at drawing pictures out of my head, but I should try something new. She gave me homework: I have to draw a picture by looking at something and then drawing what I see. It is easier when it is all in your head, but when you have to copy what you see it is tricky.

I did my Roboraptor.



Here's how he really looks.




Here's my drawing.





Dad thought I traced a picture of Roboraptor, but Mom watched me (she took the picture) and said no. Dad couldn't believe it! He says it is really good, but I wish I got the neck better.

My teacher really liked it too. She put it on the wall outside. Everyone else did pictures of their Mom or Dad or dog or a bowl of fruit. Mine is the only dinosaur.

Luis asked me what it was, and I said "Esto es El Roboraptor!" but I don't know how to say more in Spanish. I wanted to tell him all the tricks it can do.

I have a lot to learn this year.

Adios!

Thomas

Holy cow! I was so busy I didn't tell you what I did.

First: I GOT THE ROBORAPTOR!!





Santa left me a huge box and I KNEW it was the ROBORAPTOR!!

He is bigger than a cat! He is almost as big as my sister.

I also got a big pile of paper. I don't have to use scratch paper from Mom and Dad any more. It is all for me!

But I shared some with my sister. Two pieces.

I also got some games and stuff. My sister did too. And she got a cat she wanted. She also has her own Fairy Godmother. Remember the lady who sent me the markers so I can draw on glass? Well, she sent more stuff for my sister. She decorated the box and had glitter stars inside and my sister went crazy. She won't let Mom throw out the box because it is too cool (she DID do neat squiggles on the outside). Anyway, inside were TWO cute dogs (not alive ones) for each of us. Plus a book for me about drawing which is really good. I am already learning how to draw roads and things so they look like they go off in the distance. My sister got a book about brownies (that's her nickname!). Not the kind you eat, but these little fairy things. Dad went crazy! He likes comic books and studied them or something and said the man who made the brownies up is very famous in comic books.

Anyway, we are doing thank-you notes this week and my sister and I have to do something really special. She is the nicest person I don't know.

But that stuff came after Christmas and I didn't even finish about Christmas. I got some more modeling clay and some Play-Doh, which is good because I like making statues. But I couldn't stop playing with the raptor. He can be friendly and wag his tail or he can be mean and bite you. You can also put him in your room and make him a watchdog. He pretends he's asleep but if someone walks past him, he starts up YELLING AND BITING. You have seen Grandma when that happened.

Yeah, we went to my Grammy and Grandpa's house in Ohio. It is a long drive but I had Roboraptor with me. When I got there: MORE PRESENTS.

Aunt Allison, my favorite aunt, gave me a magic kit (they had a magic guy at a party once and he made cards and hats and things disappear and it was very interesting). My other favorite Aunt gave me a dinosaur sticker book, which I already finished.

But my favorite part was seeing Great-Grammy. She is the oldest one in our family and she was really sick in her breathing like my dad was, but she got better. She is nicer than Grammy and Grandpa and doesn't mind when I make a mess on the table. I did her a drawing and wrote her a get-well note (I am getting REALLY good at writing words). She is 86 which is almost 80 years older than me. That is a long time to be old. She has neat old pictures that she shows me. I like old pictures sometimes more than new ones. They call them black-and-white pictures but the ones Great-Grammy has are not. They look kind of brown and very neat. The people in them have strange faces but they look alive, like they might talk to you. I wish I could draw or even take pictures like that.

I saw all my cousins and we had fun, but everyone wanted to play with the Roboraptor and I had to share. There were two funny things: Roboraptor bit Grandpa in his pants when we got there. Then later, he bit Dad's finger and Dad pretended like he was being eaten! He rolled around hollering and yelling and everyone got mad because they said he'd scare my baby cousin Grace. But she is never scared of Dad. She laughs at everything he does. She calls him Unka Munka, which means Uncle Monkey Face for the face he does.

Now we are back home and I still love my Roboraptor. I took video of him dancing and eating one of the Wise Men from the Baby Jesus story. Dad says we will put a video up soon.

I am a little sad because I go back to school tomorrow. I like school, but I liked the vacation too. It snowed in Ohio where we went and I made a snowman.





I tried to make a snow snake, but it just looked like a snowman that fell over and died.

There are no colors on the trees now, just brown like in Great-Grammy's pictures. So I drew a spring picture to cheer myself up. Here it is:






I was going to make it a hidden-thing picture, with secret stuff inside it. I did put a few things hidden in there. There's a dinosaur footprint, a snake (not the one on the ground but another one with his mouth open) and a coyote. You can see them although I didn't really finish it. It is tough because I can see all the things and then don't know how to hide them.

When Grammy saw it, she said I was doing the Garden of Eating story, where Adam and his wife eat an apple and then have to get dressed and leave. We learned that once in church school. I didn't like the story because the snake is the bad guy and on Animal Planet they always say snakes are good and not to be scared. And anyway, how could he even talk? Snakes hiss and they don't have ears to hear with.

I had other questions about the story and Dad talked to me about them. But he said not to talk to Grammy about them. She goes to church almost every day.

So I told her it might be a Garden of Eating story.

But this is my secret: I just miss spring when it is sleeping and I wanted to draw a picture of it.

Wow! This is the longest one ever. Dad has been helping me write it for two days now.

Anyway, I have school tomorrow and need to go to bed. I had the BEST Christmas ever. Happy New Year!

Bye!
Thomas