Almost Kinda Back To School, and Stepping Up My Art: ODO 190

Published by Odd Dad Out on August 5, 2020August 5, 2020

Our boys have one week left before school starts back up, sort of. And I took a step forward in my “art” by buying a digital drawing tablet. Plus a reminder not to hide your drugs in clearly marked bags, and a rundown of the upcoming August 2020 Sunshine Summit.

Kinda Back To School Time

Next week the boys go “back to school.” In reality they are going back to distance learning, at least for the first month of school. Whenever they finally do go back to on campus classes, they will likely be doing the “hybrid” model where they go part in person and part at home. The big difference this time though is that, instead of having a list of lessons to do at their own pace, they will have a full schedule of live lessons to fill their entire school day. All four boys will be at their desks for nearly 8 hours a day with me supervising.

So, you know how I mentioned that when they go back to campus it will only be half time? Their school supply list doesn’t exactly reflect that. It’s just as obnoxious as always with mountains of crayons, paper, markers, tissues, Clorox wipes, and every other possible thing you may ever think about needing in a classroom. The thing is, that we were told that they would be keeping each student’s supplies separate. So, your kid’s crayons are your kid’s crayons. Why then do I need to send enough crayons for everyone in the class? And supposedly every other student is also bringing in the same number of crayons. If they’re only going to be there half the time, (and doing most lessons digitally still) why do we still need to send so many supplies? I’m seriously calling shenanigans on the school supplies this time. I mean it! I’m putting my foot down! Now excuse me. I need to go hunt down fifteen tubs of Clorox wipes…

Doing More “Art”

“Eruption”
Definitely got some “red blood cell” vibes going on

Although I don’t consider myself to be very good at most creative things, in a general sense, I am actually moderately adequate at many an artistic skill. I can play a number of instruments passably, I’ve written music, song lyrics, poetry, short stories, I’ve painted (probably my weakest point), and I draw. And lately I’ve taken more of an interest in digital art. I’ve even turned some of my designs into merchandise and made prints available for sale in the Odd Dad Out Shop.

But this week, I decided to step up my art game and buy a digital drawing tablet. If you’re not familiar, it’s basically a thing that lets you use a pen/stylus to draw on a computer. I got a super cheap no-frills tablet that cost me, at most, $40. I wasn’t about to shell out big money for a fancy Wacom tablet that could animate for Dreamworks when I just doodle around in Sketchbook. But I already created something new (above) and have uploaded it to the shop.

This design does look pretty nice on a mask, if I do say so myself…

In uploading my latest design, I also discovered that Threadless, where I produce my merch, now offers face masks. This lead my wife to the idea that we create custom masks for each of the boys for when they finally do go back to school on campus. So now, I’m teaching them how to draw their own mask designs using my tablet and Sketchbook. It’s definitely been fun helping them learn to draw on a computer, but my wife is already over all of the talk of radial fills and glow brushes.