Helmets on the Subway

What if we could all wear our favorite helmets on the train?

Everyone is absorbed in their phone on the subway- a sort of digital, mental helmet.

But wouldn’t it be more fun to wear a Fortnite or Halo helmet? And you could worry less about other people sneezing and coughing on you.

I started thinking about this after watching our younger son wear a cardboard helmet on the way home from camp.

I seem compelled to draw things on the subway, though the environment is clearly way too complicated for my skill set (and maybe the napkin genre) 

Just struggling to put one thing in front of another lends a weird outsidery art quality to the endeavor. And as a teacher at an institution that grants MFAs, I am afraid that my outsider privileges have been permanently revoked. Hashtag “notoutsiderartjustawkwarddrawing”

And despite the crowded train scene, I only managed to include 7 helmets, just the tip of the desirable helmet iceberg around here.

Shark vs. Knight

Left Shark vs Daedric Knight:

The kids have been playing Garry’s Mod. They are mostly interested in repeatedly blowing one another up with ridiculous weapons.

I thought their avatars could be interesting to draw in unweaponized acrobatic combat.

I might be alone in that interest.

...and while the Left Shark was not all that challenging, the Skyrim armor was clearly a bit more complicated than I needed. 

Helmeted Knight with Background Dragon

Our younger son is working on a video at camp that features a knight and a dragon. We spent the Fourth of July making the knight’s helmet pictured here out of cardboard.

Fashioning compound curves out of corrugated materials proved way more challenging than I anticipated. I vaguely remember knocking out a cardboard “Captain Rex” Star Wars clone trooper helmet in an evening with time left over to draw the rest of the costume in Sharpie on white pajamas many years ago... So many years ago that my older son was young enough to develop a life threatening need for a clone trooper costume the night before Halloween...and apparently I was young and foolish enough to make him one. 

I don’t remember that helmet being so challenging, but perhaps I was just not sleeping enough at the time to form accurate long term memories.

Or maybe this loss of helmet building skill is a symptom of progressive cognitive decline: losing one’s keys, poor word retrieval, and the “inability to fashion helmets out of flat materials”

In fact, I am a little sleep deprived right now. Can you tell?

My son is now telling me that we need to remake the helmet over the weekend as he has decided that it requires a more complicated design.

At least the dragon is two dimensional.

Here’s the previous helmet from way back in 2009
Maybe it was more impressive in my memory...

Tie Wearing Knight Guy

My totally unsuccessful drawing of a character designed by my younger son. 

I told him he should draw it himself for greater accuracy. 

It’s my favorite parenting strategy lately: inspiring my kids’ accomplishment through my own incompetence.

Artorias and Sif from Dark Souls 3

Hungry Like the Wolf for Dark Souls:

Our older son continues to obsess about playing Dark Souls. And he continues to need to tell the rest of the family chapter and verse about the game. Trying to redirect the conversation to what might have happened IRL (In Real Life) is rarely fruitful. With characteristic massive understatement, he said at dinner last night, "I'm starting to get the impression that the rest of the family is not as fascinated with Dark Souls as I am."

(Our younger son likes the Duran Duran song, but is not all that interested in the game.)

This faceless guy on the napkin is a boss in the game, and apparently one of our son's favorites. And he hangs out with a wolf.  That is all I can report. I do try to listen to my son's monologues on the various bosses of the game, and I did take a brief look at the game's Wiki... but I can't really relate any meaningful information.  For instance, a selection from Artorias's page on the Wiki:

"Sir Artorias the Abysswalker was one of the Four Knights of Lord Gwyn. He only makes an appearance in the past, as he is deceased by the time the Chosen Undead escapes the Undead Asylum."

So there.

I was not able to get a good look at this guy's armor, or his wolf, so this is not particularly accurate. My apologies to all who are invested enough in the game to be able to glean some useful information from the above paragraph.

Dark Souls Avatar with Flaming Hand

"Mom! My hand's on fire! Mom! my hand's on fire! Mom!...."

Setting one's avatar's hand on fire and making him run in circles exclaiming about the flaming hand seems to be something one can do to pass the time until the next iteration of the Dark Souls game is released. 

While I don't particularly appreciate this activity, I do always enjoy drawing flames.

Dark Souls Avatar Again

My son has a new upgraded avatar in the Dark Souls game....
and no, it is no longer this guy.  In the time that it took me to draw this one, he had moved on to a man with a head that appears to be on fire.

He told me that he liked this one because it resembled the Solaire character. (That's the buckethead doing the sun salutation from a couple of days ago)

And he is holding the very important spear of someone very important. The details have escaped me it seems.

Even worse, I now have to go remove the kid from the Xbox....(or is it remove the Xbox "from his cold dead hands?" as he would say) and force him to do his homework.  If only I had an important spear to help with this task.

Solaire from Dark Souls

A "grossly incandescent" lunch napkin:

Solaire is "knight of the sun" who, according to the Dark Souls wiki, "does not let the crumbling world affect his mood." He is mostly helpful to the player, and offers some peculiar dialogue along the lines of, "The sun is a wondrous body./ Like a magnificent father!/ If only I could be so grossly incandescent!"

Our older son took a packed lunch to school for a field trip today, and specifically requested an image of this knight.

While he cannot play "Dark Souls" every available waking moment that he is not in school.... I suspect that he is always thinking about it. Of course, I feel that he spends way too much time playing this game...and of course, he feels the exact opposite.

The constant wrangling over screen time makes me feel incredibly tired. As I have mentioned before, I suspect that I was born without the video game gene. Despite the impressive and immersive visuals now available on the Xbox... well, I would rather just go do something else (like drawing ridiculous things, for instance). But I try to pay attention to what is going on in my son's games and try to learn why they are so remarkably compelling to him. When he tells me that homework is getting in the way of the really important stuff than he needs to do, the disapproving adult in me wants to summarily dismiss him as an immature person with an addictive habit. While I do compel him to finish his homework and do all that other stuff AFK or IRL ("away from keyboard" or "in real life") I also try to appreciate what he ( and millions of other people) find so compelling about games like Dark Souls.

I don't think this issue will go away until after he no longer lives with me, or until my dementia increases to the point where I no longer care....

Whichever comes first.

Sonic from "Sonic and the Black Knight"

Archer requested that I copy the image off of the Wii game box, so I take no credit for Sonic's manly pose or charming weapon.

Sonic the Hedgehog, with his strangely naked noodle arms, Mickey Mouse gloves and 80's footwear, is a character that I have trouble appreciating, but Archer is always happy to discuss his merits at length.

I think we bought this game because four people could play at once, promising fewer WHOSE-TURN-IS-IT-REALLY? altercations at play dates...

Or at least that would be the case if we could ever find all four Wii controllers at one time.

Aetherium Armor from Skyrim

Archer has great affection for Skyrim despite not yet having played it.

Eenies at War Guy on a Cyborg Dinosaur

Archer requested another "Eenies at War" character for today.  He told me I could feel free to draw the Tyrannosaur in a more realistic way, but should not mess with the guy or the tail catapult.

Archer says he likes this guy almost as much as he does the one riding on the sheep with an AK47. (see June 19th)

Hamster in "Mouse Guard" Style

Ansel's love of things rodent related made me think that perhaps it was time to reread David Petersen's "Mouse Guard" graphic novels about warrior "swordsmice" in a medieval world.

Ten pages in, Ansel announced that we would be reading the entire series immediately.  He requested that Fluffy should be done up Guard style.  I had to sheath the sword for Quaker lunch.

Infinity Blade's Siris with Connor From Assassin's Creed III

The anachronistic knight and assassin discuss the impact of impaired vision while battling the enemy.

Archer did  not give me a request last night, but these two guys are always good.

Skylanders' Ignitor Toasts a Marshmallow

Ignitor toasting a marshmallow over his own head:

We endured a particularly intense resurgence of Skylanders last week thanks to a newly arrived sticker book. Ignitor is our older son's new favorite.

Captain Drake and Dessa from "Three Thieves"

 

We are reading the "Three Thieves" 3 book series by Scott Chantler again after just having finished it. Ansel likes it so much that he is able to overlook the fact that the lead protagonist is a girl.

Dark Knight, Tier 2, for Archer

Archer is still working on Monster Wars, moving up to the Dead Knight, tier 2, and presenting me with additional drawing challenges. Tiers 3 and 4, don't look a lot easier, either.

Dead Knight from Monster Wars for Archer

Archer is really enjoying Monster Wars, a variation on one of his previous favorites, Legendary Wars.  He has been interested in monsters in general recently: particularly if they are cute, with names like "skully."

Infinity Blade Knight for Archer

Archer upgraded to Infinity Blade II, still coveting the $600,000 something ultimate blade. 

Only $575,000 left to earn.

Wind-up Knight with Green Bean for Archer

Archer requested Wind-up Knight for his napkin again, despite being stuck in the game, and unable to afford the special armor.  There were green beans in the lunch box.

Wind-up and Black Knight for Archer