RAotW #36

Hiya, bloggers! It’s been a week since our last edition of Reader Art of the Week. If I’m doing the math correctly (am I?), that means it’s time for a new edition of Reader Art of the Week! Three cheers fot that.

This week’s art comes to us courtesy of blog reader Penelope. Check out her illustration, created on a Bamboo digital drawing tablet:

Cool, huh? For a digital creation, this drawing has a lot of texture and a very “tactile” feel. It’s a sketch, but the use of different shades (particularly on the dress portion of the drawing) really help with this effect.

Also, on a related note, just this week I was talking “Alex and Charlie” illustrator Claude Bordeleau. He told me he uses a digital drawing tablet to create the entire comic. Looks like great minds think alike, huh, Penelope? (By the way: thanks for sending in your drawing!)

That’s it for me, all. As of 5:00 PM I’m off for the long weekend, but I’ll check back in tomorrow with my thoughts on the new movie, African Cats. Talk to you then!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

RAotW #35: Poem in Your Pocket Day Edition

Hey all. Guess what? Tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket Day. So, that said, happy early Poem in Your Pocket Day, everyone!

As far as I can tell there’s no paragraph on the Poem in Your Pocket website describing what the day is “about,” so allow me to make one up for them (dear Poets.org, feel free to use this on your website!):

Poem in Your Pocket Day is about sharing not only poetry but also a love of poetry with friends and family.

Good, right? Informative! I should be in marketing and/or public relations!

Anyway, what better way to prep you for the big day than by passing along a perfectly pocket-sized poem edition of Reader Art of the Week? The poem below comes to us courtesy of blog reader Hannah. Check it out:

Untitled
if it’s blue
i will make it true
if it’s red
i will make thread
if it’s black
i will make a jack

Nice! Hannah informs me she composed the above by “playing around with the words,” which is an awesome way to get your feet wet writing poetry. The poem also has an empowering message — the speaker of the poem is ready and willing to work with anything that comes her way. In other words… bring it on!

Many thanks to Hannah for sending in her poem. If you want to see your poems, stories, drawings, or photos on the blog, email me at owlblog@owlkids.com.

Also, finally, what do you think, blog readers: will you put a poem in your pocket tomorrow? Let me know in the comments below!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

RAotW #34

Hi! Welcome one and all to another incredible (and incredibly tardy!) edition of Reader Art of the Week.

This week’s art comes to us in the form of photography (first photo in a long while!), and it comes to us courtesy of blog reader Madeleine. Check it out:

I really like how this picture has a sense of drama: the setting is tropical, but the clouds are a little foreboding, you know?

It tells a bit of a story, too: my eyes immediately went to the lone person on the left-hand side of the shot. What’s he up to? Is he a golfer? Groundskeeper? Time traveler?! We may never know, but it sure is fun to guess!

Many thanks to Madeleine for heeding the RAotW call and sending in her photo. If YOU want to be like Madeleine (be like Madeleine! It’s cool!), send me YOUR photos, poems, stories, or drawings at owlblog@owlkids.com.

Talk to you soon, bloggers.

Craig, owblog@owlkids.com

RAotW #33

Happy Monday, OWL bloggers! What do you say we get this week off to a good FANTASTIC start with some Reader Art of the Week? What say we do!

This week’s art comes to us from blog reader Nicole, and it comes to us in the form of fiction. Nicole is working on a novel, entitled Witchcraft, and she’s sent us the first chapter for our reading pleasure. Check it out:

Witchcraft (Chapter 1)

I was raised by a witch. At least that’s what my foster mom, Hagathia, told me. I guess it isn’t really her fault, though. I mean, you can’t help it if you’re a witch. So I guess there’s only my real parents left to blame, and since I don’t know them at all, I guess there’s no one left to blame. And if there’s no one to blame, that’s a problem. Because when you’re a person like me, who’s been locked inside a house for 10 years, then you need someone to blame. Let me introduce myself. My name’s Leila Hepburn. Hagathia says it means “beautiful one.” I think whoever chose my name was a fool. I’m not at all pretty. In fact, I’m the exact opposite. Hagathia says that makes me look like a real witch. I think it makes me look like something the cat dragged in. Now, before you go thinking this is going to turn into one of those romantic novels, let me tell you one thing: it’s not. I don’t eat a poison apple and I don’t have evil stepsisters. In fact, I have no siblings. I guess that’s sort of what you’d expect if you lived in a haunted castle in the middle of nowhere. But that’s not the point. In fact, none of this is the point. Except the witch part. Because that’s kind of what the whole story is about.

Cool! There’s a lot here to whet the appetite for more of this story, but my fave thing about it is definitely the “voice” Nicole has created for our narrator, Leila. She’s honest and funny with an extremely dry sense of humour. I could definitely read a lot more from her!

Many thanks to Nicole for sending in her story. Now I need the rest of you to send in something so we can do this again next week. Drawings, photos, poems, stories, videos: it’s all good! If you created it and want to show it off to your fellow blog readers, just email it to me at owlblog@owlkids.com.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com

RAotW #32

Hi all. We got off to such a good start with Reader Art of the Week in 2011 (three weeks out of four to start the year! Not bad!), but, sadly, I missed out on posting any new art the last couple of weeks. Sorry about that!

Anyway, let’s make up for lost time, huh? This week’s art comes to us from blog reader Tia, who is pretty much the OWL blog’s resident photographer (you can see her photos here, here, here, here, and here). This time, however, Tia sent in some fiction. Check it out:

The Creation of Stars

A long, long time ago, there was a trivial village surrounded by trees and lakes. All of the people in the village were fearful of night because it was so dark that they couldn’t see. One spirit had given them the Moon, but it was hard to see through the thick trees, so the people continued to pray to the spirits for more light.

One night, a Sky Spirit saw how worried the people were. The next morning, she gazed down on Earth and tried to think of how she could help. She sat down and saw a young boy shooting stones with a slingshot. She watched as one stone flew across the road and hit a paper lantern. That gave the Sky Spirit an idea.

She put a charm on the slingshot so that anything that was flung from it would become a paper lantern. When the boy went to shoot a stone, he was surprised to see that just before it hit a tree, it turned into a paper lantern. He kept trying to hit the tree, but had no luck. He must have tried a million times before finally giving up and going home. When the boy left, all of the lanterns floated into the sky, where the Sky Spirit was waiting.

That night, before the villagers went to sleep, the Sky Spirit lit all the lanterns. The sky illuminated, and she was very pleased with her work. The Sky Spirit thought they were so pretty that she decided to keep them in the sky for eternity. The people were so grateful that they threw a festival for the spirit and named the lights, “stars.”

Awesome!

Tia tells me she wrote this story for a writing contest at her school. The contest challenged kids to write a story or legend based on a First Nations theme, and Tia’s story was selected as the winner for her grade. Congrats, Tia! Thanks for sending in your art.

Now, to the rest of you blog readers: if you want to see YOUR art on the OWL blog, just email it to me at owlblog@owlkids.com, and I’ll try to post it up on the blog ASAP. I’m looking for drawings, photos, stories, poems, or anything else you can think up.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com