King Ghidorah

This three headed "space dragon," the arch nemesis of Godzilla, is definitely not one of my better efforts.  How could one go wrong while drawing a three headed dragon?  I guess with enough sleep deprivation, it is possible.

Mothra and Godzilla

When I decided to draw these two last night, I was just trying to knock out a napkin quickly without paying too much attention.  My husband and I were watching "Gravity." which unlike much of the "adult" programming that plays on our TV after the kids' bedtime, actually required watching rather than just  occasional listening.  (My spouse is partial to Discovery and Velocity channel fare like "Fast N' Loud," and "American Pickers" which do not generally distract me from the packing of lunch or the drawing on napkins)

I think I might have seen one movie featuring Mothra when I was a child.  I now discover that Mothra has appeared in something like a dozen Godzilla movies and starred in several of its own.  As recently as 1993, "Godzilla vs. Mothra" was a huge hit in Japan.  It was released in the United States also.  Somehow, I missed it. 

Mechagodzilla

If Godzilla is appealing, then can Mechagodzilla be far behind?  I will readily admit to being a bit fuzzy on the Godzilla cohorts beyond Mothra and Gamera.  But I can see that I may have to up my game on this particular topic.

This specific iteration of Mechgodzilla is courtesy of a lovely photo by "Mikallica"  of a toy. 

I had to add the laser shot from the eyes, as our sons are big believers in the real world efficacy of laser weapons.

Titanfall Style Mech with Canine Pilot

A "Mature" rated game featuring giant mech suits that costs $60 and has not even been released yet: What could possibly be more compelling for 11 and 7 year old boys? (Titanfall link)

My rendition of the mech is approximate at best, as drawing this sort of thing is harder than rendering Hero Factory LEGO creations even.  I replaced the human pilot with a dog as a small concession to the younger child.

Godzilla and Predator Birthday Cake

A birthday cake for an 11 year old and the last of my frosting squirting duties for 2014.

The original request was Godzilla, the Alien, the Predator and Steve from Minecraft. But the line had to be drawn somewhere.  

Rocket Raccoon From "Guardians of the Galaxy"

As soon as Rocket the Raccoon appeared in the trailer for "Guardians of the Galaxy" Ansel said solemnly, "I have to see this movie."

Sometimes I do pause to consider why mainstream movies that are ostensibly made to appeal to adults seem so perfectly and wholeheartedly targeted at my seven year old son.

Not only does the preview for this movie feature a gun wielding raccoon, there is also the comic (but tastefully obscured) middle finger gesture, tagline of "What a bunch of a-holes" (swearing, but not real swearing!)  and prominent use of the pop confection "Hooked on a Feeling" (what small boy does not like to chant "Oogachaka"?) just to name a few items.

There must be movies for adults out there... it's probably just as well that I don't even have the opportunity to formulate a desire to see them.  This would only lead to frustration.

2014 Olympics' End: Hamster Luge

The closing ceremonies aren't until the weekend, but I thought some lunchtime acknowledgement of the Olympic games was in order before the end.  The kids are not all that interested in the watching most of the event, but they have watched their father watch.

Ansel had asked for Godzilla on the luge a while back, but I could not sort out the spines and the spandex, and Fluffy seemed a more plausible candidate.

I considered dressing the class rodent in the actual 2014 team USA uniform, but was unable to resist the previous flame design.

Arthas from World of Warcraft with Giant Hamster

Video games that they are too young to play continue to entice our kids.  More specifically, our almost 11 year old does the research and then reports the highlights of the weapons, armor, powers (and occasionally the plot points) to our 7 year old, so they can crash around the living room in the guise of various characters.

Lately there has been some sort of a Skyrim/ World of Warcraft mash-up going on while they are destroying our furniture.  I've only been able to catch the mentions of "Arthas," the "Dragon Born" and much shouting of "Fus Ro Dah."  Not really knowing what they were playing, I paired Arthas with a giant version of Fluffy the class hamster in place of a dragon or monster sidekick. 

Ansel seemed satisfied with the drawing this morning.  It has armor and skulls and that is probably good enough.

Abe and George on Rockets for Presidents Day

Abraham Lincoln's "rocket chair" was  definitely one of the many high points of the LEGO Movie according to our kids.

I thought perhaps in honor of the holiday, another cliche art-historical representation of a president could benefit from a rocket powered addition.

(For the original Daniel Chester French Lincoln Memorial, the precursor  of the LEGO chair, click this link.  For  Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" click this link.)

The kids are out of school thanks to Presidents Day, so we are enjoying our extra day at home, bickering about the doing and the not doing of homework. This napkin is for the stack of "back-up" napkins that sit on top of the microwave, ready to be rejected again some morning when the most recent napkin proves to be too disappointing to be taken to school.  

Napkins in "Axe Cop Gets Married"

We are honored to have some napkins in the pin-up section of the latest Axe Cop release.

You can see these and the other Axe Cop napkins at this link.

Robocops Observe Valentines Day

One last ridiculous Valentines offering:

The kids have been asking to see the Robocop remake. Their father and I offered somewhat facetiously that maybe they should see the 1987 version first.  They rejected this idea....because we suggested it, no doubt.

I suspect that both movies are basically inappropriate for middle and lower school boys...  But the previews are filled with many enticing explosions and gunfire...and a guy wearing a suit with most of his face covered, which is somehow an endlessly compelling feature for our sons.

I'm not sure really why a combination of Robocops 1987 and 2014 seemed appropriate to me for Valentines day.  It was probably just perversity born of staying home for most of the week with a whining, feverish seven year old boy.

I did think it was best to leave it ambiguous as to whether it is a hand-off, a confrontation  or a burgeoning cyborg romance.  The kids, needless to say, were unimpressed.

Godzilla with Sweetheart Teeth for Valentines Day

Godzilla wishes you a Valentines Day that is so sweet that your teeth hurt.

As you can see by the kids' card for school, the Sweetheart candies were a theme.
Not that anyone actually ate any of them.

Godzilla Figure Skating in Central Park

I heard there was some discussion in Ansel's first grade classroom that there should be some 2014 Olympics themed napkins featuring Fluffy the hamster.  Ansel claims to be over and done with the Fluffy business and asked for Godzilla on ice skates instead.

Somehow I could not work out the Olympics angle, so I put the giant lizard on Wollman rink in New York instead.

Ansel is home with a fever again today, so while he did not take this one to school, he was able to tell me that what he really had wanted was Godzilla on a luge.

Godzilla Visits the Playground

We are not done with Godzilla it seems.

Today a purple version surveys the playground located on the school roof.  

He's just looking in the most friendly way possible, I'm sure.

Godzilla Walks by School

School Cancelled Due to Giant Lizard.

Ansel unsurprisingly suggested that it would be more funny if Godzilla were pictured smashing the school building, but I somehow doubted that his teachers would agree.

Of course, the school is on a dead end street, so Godzilla is going to have to turn around... and there is that tail to consider.

Fluffy Shares Strawberries with Cyclops

Ansel was very impressed with George O'Connor's interpretation of the Cyclopes.  (And here we are talking about the sons of Uranus and Gaia, the brothers of the Titans, and not Polyphemus, the sort of one eyed guy who appears in recent and not so recent movies.  And the plural of Cyclops is Cyclopes...just don't want you to think that I can't use Wikipedia)

Based on my five minute perusal of the Google image results for "cyclops," I can observe that it seems to have always been a challenge to figure out how to locate that one eye in the context of the human face.  It definitely does not work well with a nose or eyebrows.  I think Mr. O'Connor's solution of turning the whole head into an eye- and removing the neck as well- is a very elegant answer to the age old Cyclops design problem.

...And they have claws, and what 7 year old boy does not love a thing with claws?  There were strawberries packed in the lunch, so I thought perhaps we should put the claws to good use.

I included Fluffy because it seems that no napkin is not improved by the addition of a hamster. 

Fluffy the Hamster with Zeus

Fluffy, first grade hamster wears her welding goggles while watching Zeus demonstrate his skill with lightning.

Having finished reading George O'Connor's "Poseidon: Earth Shaker," we moved on to his "Zeus: King of the Gods."

The aftermath of the infestation of our kids' hair a couple of days ago has been extremely time consuming...the laundry alone has been monumental... so this was another very quick sketch.

Fluffy Visits Poseidon

We've been reading "Poseidon: Earth Shaker" by George O'Connor.  While we have been through most of the Greek myths before, Ansel was very interested this time around...particular the bit about how the Minotaur was conceived.  I am really hoping that he is not regaling the other first graders at lunch today with tales of beastiality.

Ansel asked for a George O'Connor style god of the sea today, minus the facial hair, which seemed to trouble him.

I added Fluffy to make the image a little less...sexy....

Fluffy the Hamster with Godzilla

There has been some renewed interest at our house in the idea of Godzilla and the upcoming movie.

I included Fluffy the class hamster despite the fact that she presented a scale problem in relation to a Kaiju of ever increasing size.  I was originally thinking that the hamster would be perched on the tip of one of the stainless steel eagles on the Chrysler Building.  Fluffy is so small, however, that I could not get enough eagle on the napkin for it to read as anything more than some mysterious blobs.

I discovered our younger son's hair was infested last night, so with all of the combing of children's hair and washing of 20 loads of laundry, drawing time was quite limited and I could not fix the blob problem.

Minecraft Creeper with Creeper Birthday Cake

For the official school observance of his birthday today, Ansel specifically requested a Creeper with a Creeper cake, making this an all-Creeper birthday.

Minecraft Creeper Cupcakes

The school birthday snack cupcakes for the newly minted 7 year old.

As the child in question would say: "not some of my best work" in frosting.  (Perhaps I peaked in the decoration of ridiculous cupcakes last year)

But they will have to do.

Hourly Comic 2014 (Not on Napkins)

February 1st was "Hourly Comics Day" where professionals and amateurs draw a panel or image for every hour that they are awake as a journal of the day.  Despite drawing only on napkins recently, and definitely being a pathetic amateur when it comes to the comics endeavor, I gave this one a shot.  February 1st is my younger son's birthday, so the following images are mostly a catalog of my poor parenting.... (too much screen time! no home cooked meals! and bratty behavior!)  As for the bad drawing, I can only offer that I was too busy catering to the whims of irrational small people to spend much time actually drawing anything.  Below are a couple of links to comics by those who have some experience at this sort of thing... (people who can draw actual rectangular boxes at the very least?)

hourly comic forum

hourly comics on Forbidden Planet Blog

I tried a similar project of depicting a routine weekday day in early February 2013, but spread it over many months because I could not actually draw a day's worth of pictures in one day  (The Not for a Lunchbox/ 24 Hour Series).  I did require over a year  to draw a 24 hour period... and sadly enough, I haven't managed to finish it.  But I have not given up yet.

Click on the images below if you think they might be improved by enlargement.
My older son read through these yesterday, and the only part he disputed was that it was a MacBook Air, not a Pro that "Google/Goggle" had offered him.

Minecraft Creeper Birthday Cake

The kids at Ansel's birthday party did not seem troubled by the vaguely repellent color scheme of the frosting.