Today, an Abe Lincoln-themed comic for you!
Written by Dan Duncan & Erika Schnatz. Illustrated by Erika Schnatz.
Let’s see if I can get another Lincoln post ready for tomorrow!
Week of Lincoln: Day Two
Personal Projects
Week of Lincoln: Day One
This week is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
He is my favorite president ever, and sometimes I get bored and draw pictures of him.
I will attempt to post something Lincoln-related every day this week, because he was the man.
Lincoln is a total BAMF. Absolute fact.
I will never draw Lincoln without his stovepipe hat. It is the best type of hat.
Friday Afternoon Comics: AmeriComics
Welcome to the first installment of something that will hopefully become a permanent fixture of my sketch blog: Friday Afternoon Comics!
I created the comics below as a response to some personal reflection questions in my AmeriCorps mid-year report. For those of you unaware of AmeriCorps, it’s like the Peace Corps, but within the United States. There are AmeriCorps programs all over the place focusing on different themes and missions, this year I am working in a program called Oregon Campus Compact at Portland State University. Our focus is on student retention through mentoring programs. I’ve gained a lot of great knowledge and experience serving so far.
You don’t really need to know any of that to read these, but they probably make a bit more sense if you do.
AmeriComic 1:
AmeriComic 2:
Materials: a pen!
I am pretty good at writing in ALL CAPS.
A Week of Gnomes: Day Eight
Day Eight: Turn an old book into something new
I am always on the lookout for old books that I can mess around with, so I had lots of choices for this one. I thought it would be fun to make the gnome visit a Mayan pyramid, so I got out my Exacto knife again and cut up an image to make it a pop up picture.
I believe this is a Reader’s Digest book about World Mysteries (or something of that nature). I bought it at Goodwill for a dollar.
I cut around different parts of the image and folded them up to make it pop up – there are four different levels to this picture.
You may also notice the tiny gnome I made on the right hand side of the picture, approaching the pyramid. Not correctly proportioned, but if I made it the “right” size he’d be practically invisible.
An additional view.
Materials: Book, Exacto knife, paper, pen, and markers (to make the tiny gnome), tape
This took very little time and turned out way better than I anticipated. Fun times!
A Week of Gnomes: Day Seven
Day Seven: Make something with your breakfast
My normal breakfast consists of a Nutrigrain bar and some yogurt, not terribly exciting or inspiring, so I waited until the weekend for this one. My wonderful boyfriend made the pancakes and I decorated. The first one turned out to be the perfect shape for a gnome’s head.
My workstation (the kitchen counter)
I added some powdered sugar to create some sideburns of some sort. It may have made him more Santa Claus-esque.
Ready to eat!
It was one of the tastiest pancakes I have ever eaten. It took me about two minutes to scarf down. Then I had some non-gnome pancakes that were also very delicious.
Materials: Pancakes, Reddi-Whip, strawberry topping, chocolate chips, powdered sugar
Tomorrow: fun with books!
A Week of Gnomes: Day Six
Day Six: Make something using a stencil.
My initial thought was to make something sort of like a chalk outline of a body, like what you might find at a crime scene, but I went with something a bit lighter. Gnome crossing sign!
First I had to use my Exacto knife skills on a piece of Bristol board.
Here’s the finished product! Stencil, cut out, and sign.
Another view.
Make way for gnomes!!
Materials used: Bristol board, acrylic paint, artists tape (to create lines around edge and underneath gnome), cardboard (for backing)
I kind of want to make a bunch of these and hang them up in parks at a kid’s eye level. Make a little mischief and spread some fun.
However, due to the Portland weather it’s going to be a few months before the sun comes back out. For now I’ll just hang it up in my room.
Tomorrow: gnome + food (again!)
A Week of Gnomes: Day Five
Day Five: Make something using fruits or vegetables.
This worked out well because I had some fruit that was about to spoil. I turned it into a little gnome sculpture before putting it in the compost bin.
Materials: apple (for body), orange (for head, beard, and eyebrows), raisins (for eyes), scrapbook paper (for hat and shoes), Sharpie marker (to draw on a little smile), hot glue gun (to put it all together)
It was fun setting up a photo shoot for him on my desk. Very happy I didn’t injure myself with the hot glue gun (I have burnt myself badly in the past, glad that didn’t happen this time!)
Tomorrow: another gnome, in a different form
A Week of Gnomes: Day Four
Day Four: Work with a collection (I skipped over the challenge for Day Four, but I will come back to it! This is technically the challenge from Day Five. Forgive me)
Since I am a gnome aficionado, I obviously have amassed a few:
The gnome in the Hawaiian shirt has come with me on a number of trips and vacations.
$3 gnome from Goodwill. I had to buy it. I keep meaning to give him a Portland makeover, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe I’ll be able to do that in a future challenge.
A page of gnome doodles. Some of these are super weird.
Materials: Nikon SLR camera, pen
Tune in next week for some more gnome-y goodness.
A Week of Gnomes: Day Three
Day three: Make something with paper, but don’t draw, cut, or paste anything.
I am not an origami expert at all, because I have a really hard time figuring out the folds based on written instructions. I first tried following the instructions here, but I had a tough time and gave up on that.
Thankfully I found this video on YouTube, and did a pretty good job of following the instructions:
The resulting origami gnome bookmark. It sorta looks gnomish.
Once it’s placed in a book, it does look sort of like you’re smooshing a gnome within the pages.
Here is a way cooler gnome, designed by Eric Joisel:
Materials used: scrapbook paper
One more gnome post tomorrow to round out the week!
Erika Schnatz 