Ball Point Pen and other Life-Altering Developments on the Vacation Front

I have a love-hate relationship ball point pen drawing. On one hand, you can’t hide anything, so you instantly look like a lot worse drawer-girl than you do with an eraser.  On the other, you can’t erase so you end up focusing on the fruit on the table or the life-altering firsts in front of you.

Monday was full of firsts.  First plane ride for T1 and T2.  First tornado warning of the season.  And first shave for Thing1, just a few days shy of his fifteenth birthday.  I managed not to get the sketchbook too soaked.

Dispatches from the Vacation Front

Cartoons are on a hiatus for a week or so.  We set out for Lake Michigan points on Friday and Saturday, with plans to visit points further west on Monday.  

I brought watercolors and the full bag of art supplies for our few days of rest in Michigan, and Sunday was a day of rest and looking at the lake.  It was almost hypnotic, and I only managed a few doodles of things on the breakfast table and, of course, the lake.

 Sunday night was marked by a violent storm that came over the lake with a tornado warning to wake us from any reveries we might have slipped into too early in our vacation. I knew upcoming plane travel combined with my commitment to carry-ons only would necessitate stripping down the art supplies to the bare essentials, but I think my little Pentalic and my ball-point pen will be ample for 10 days.

In the meantime, there’s nothing like traveling with two kids, including an eight-year-old with penchant for schtick to generate plenty of cartoon material by the time we get home.