If the queen had wheels, she'd be a truck

This drawing illustrates the expression If the queen had wheels, she'd be a truck. My college pal Delia used this expression; she learned it from her little brother William, who lived in Jamaica, Queens at the time.

Just in case you are dying to use this expression in every day speech, here are some examples of correct usage.

Remark: If only I had invested in real estate 10 years ago. I'd be a rich woman today. Response: If the queen had wheels, she'd be a truck.

Remark: If only Al Gore had won Florida in 2000. We wouldn't be in the mess we are in today. Response: If the queen had wheels, she'd be a truck.

Remark: Why did I ever let myself gain 20 pounds? Weight is so hard to loose. If only I had said no to all those snacks. Response: If the queen had wheels, she'd be a truck.

Actually, I've never heard anyone use this expression other than Delia and William. But I have always liked it. It says "face reality, dude" in an attention-getting way. Have you ever heard this expression?

On another note, giving an inanimate object human qualities is hard. After drawing this picture, I have a new respect for the illustrators of Thomas the Tank Engine, Disney's Beauty and The Beast (all of those dancing household objects!), and The Brave Little Toaster movies.

EDM #169 - Draw a Piece of Cake

This is my first oil painting, apart from one I did in an oil painting class earlier in the year. Last Sunday, my 8 year-old son Christopher and I oil painted together. He painted a dragon's foot, and I painted this piece of cake (fruit tart, to be more specific). We had fun together.

Here is Christopher's dragon's foot. It is the foot of Shen-Lung, the Chinese spiritual dragon who is responsible for making weather. He wants me to tell everyone he didn't use pencil. He didn't draw before he painted.

EDM #170 - Draw a Zipper

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, to my mom in New York and to all moms everywhere.

This is a copy of the Mary Cassatt painting Sleepy Baby (1910), shown below. The original painting is in pastel; my copy is in watercolor. I thoroughly enjoyed painting this and learned a lot also.

• I love Cassatt's use of color. Look at the bright yellow in the baby's neck and hair, and the bright orange in the baby's hair and bottom. Where mother and child touch (cheek-to-cheek and hand-to-bottom), the colors are warm red-oranges, suggesting the love of a mother for her child. These colors probably were not present in reality. Rather, Cassatt added color to convey her interpretation of reality.
• Even though the colors in the mother and child are all light, there are still distinct value changes. For example, to clearly separate the child's arms from the mother's skin, the values of the child's arms need to be different from the values of the mother's chest and arm.
• Many of the cooler shadows are blue, which gave me a little trouble. I was using Yellow Ochre and Blue Cerulean, which mix to green (e.g., the baby' chest). A moldy baby is not good! I need to research how to use blue and yellow in watercolor without getting green.

I am going to do more master copies ... it is fun and educational.

Drawings Revealed

I try to draw at least 15 minutes a day, no matter how little time I have or how tired I am. Last week, I was really, really tired, so all I could manage was doodles. In these drawings, I made random marks on the paper until a drawing revealed itself to me. I pretended I was a seer reading tea leaves. If a picture did not immediately reveal itself, I would worry I was loosing the gift of sight. But the worry was for naught. A picture always emerges.

Illustration Friday - Seed

The first thing that popped into my head for this prompt was Seeds of Change. A person can be a seed of a change. As I was painting Barack Obama, the 1963 Bob Dylan song The Times They Are A-Changin' ran through my head:

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Illustration Friday - Wrinkles

These two sequences were inspired by the prompt wrinkles.