Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Annie's Art Initiative

I've decided I need a hobby. I found that after I had cleaned everything that needed to be cleaned and put the baby in her crib to nap, I didn't know what to do with myself. This resulted in my getting way too many naps, since taking a nap was far more attractive than doing more chores during my free time. Feeling slightly guilty for spending so much time unconscious, I knew I had to find something (productive, if possible) to fill my time. Something even more seductive than an afternoon cat nap.

I spent some time brainstorming new hobby ideas. I also searched the internet. Here is what I came up with. (I blame the stupid ones on the internet):

  • Breeding guinea pigs - Then I thought about what that would entail...and I realized I wouldn't even know where to start. Literally. No idea where--on the guinea pig, I mean.
  • Participating in Viking and/or Saxon historical reenactments - Pillaging and plundering aside, I dig the sailing aspect of this potential hobby. Unfortunately after putting some feelers out in the apartment complex, there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for historical reenactments, at least not Viking or Saxon. And I couldn't manage a Knarr (that's the Norse term for a ship built for Atlantic voyage) on my own. Maybe a Karve (that's a smaller ship, similar to the Knarr), but definitely not a Knarr.
  • Watching endoscopic surgeries online - I decided I don't want to know what I look like on the inside. I don't think whoever's colon that was would want me knowing how they looked in there either.
  • Learning songs backwards - Then I thought, what is the point of this?
  • Wittling sticks - Too hard.
  • Wittling soap - Too hard.
  • Wittling crayons - Too easy. Also, they break like twigs. And your options are pretty narrow as far as your end result goes. You can carve a tree branch, a person's leg (foot not included), or a straight snake. Boring.
  • Scrapbooking - I'm better at wittling crayons.
  • Taphophilia - A Taphophile is someone who takes an interest in tombstones. They look at them and do rubbings of the engravings and, I think, generally just hang around in graveyards as a hobby. So, that actually sounds pretty interesting to me. But did the term 'Taphophilia' make you a little nervous? Me too. Realizing that part of becoming a tombstone enthusiast would require me being known as a Taphophile pretty much killed (pun intended!) this hobby for me.
  • Napping - Based on what I'd come up with so far, this one was looking pretty good again.
  • Playing Guitar - That's really only good if you're trying to impress high school girls, which I am not.
  • Sports - I know what you're thinking: it would be pretty unfair of me to make all my teammates and coaches and stuff look so bad at sports when compared to me. Agreed. I should probably never play sports. Ever.
So I settled on the old classic, Drawing. I love art (wittling excluded) and did some drawing in my younger years, so I pulled out my old sketchbook and now try to work on my drawings as much as I can. This is what I've done so far:

Lips



Spheres


A well-known Taphophile

11 comments:

Lizzie Jones said...

One of the best blog posts I've read in many many moons. You crack me up. I have more suggestions:

-professional whistling
-cereal box author
-parasol saleswoman
-arborist (a.k.a. tree surgeon)
-fortune cookie writer
-princess hand-pose inventor
-ring tone composer
-waterfighter (opposite of firefighter- you’d fight floods with a blow torch of sorts)

Let me know what works.

Lynn said...

What a great collection of potential hobbies! I am especially in favor of the drawing, but the reenactments could be a fun family hobby...can't you just see Esmé in a little Viking hat with horns...

Rosanne said...

Those are all great ideas. I think they should be used as backups in case drawing doesn't pan out.

i've been looking for hobbies recently myself, maybe i'll take up one of those instead of "reading" or whatever that idea was.

Grannie G said...

I can see you're getting lots of ideas and encouragement Annie. Let me suggest just a couple. Lawn-chair sitting (that would be grandpa's favorite) Mine is cloud watching. Not very active hobbies but very soothing. Love your sketches. I think that will be most rewarding.

Troy and Nancee Tegeder said...

I had no idea you were such an artist! Those are really good sketches. Have you considered getting into CG? You already have photoshop, a wacom tablet, and art skills. Now all you need is to learn Blender (free download) and you can start making 3D animated characters!

Troy and Nancee Tegeder said...

Nancee: That was Troy's comment (obviously). I was going to say that your proposed crayon whittling options are too narrow. You forgot to include, worms, caterpillars, centipedes, pencils, cinnamon sticks, regular sticks, cheese sticks, etc. The possibilities are endless. You should really fix your attitude about this hobby.

Jessie said...

Seeing those sketches makes me remember the little people you used to draw when we were kids. I forgot that you were such a good artist. I hope we will get to see more of your sketches.

Deja said...

Heyyyyyy, you're pretty darn good. I think you picked the right hobby.

Still, when it comes to the world of art, I'm partial to Roo's dolphin ... I'll never get over that dolphin.

Katie E. said...

Brilliant post! Might I suggest reading as a possible hobby? Your drawing's quite accomplished. (I think I may need to cut back on period pieces . . .)

WhitParks said...

Get out Annie! You can draw! Brent and I saw that and were crazy impressed. Not to mention the whole post was just funny. Love it. Love you!!

Dangcutekids said...

Annie you an awesome taphophile and artist. I had no idea you could draw like that. I think the shading on that upper lip probably took like three hours. Seriously it's amazing. You are hilarious.