Darkness All Around...except in my yard

I think Radish has been lost in his tunnel for a while...perhaps that's where he has been? It is my goal to get a set of Radishes done and scheduled to post while I am away. But we all know how I am with goals. And here's a bit of why I have been drawing less:

This is only a sample of my cherry trees' bounty this year. Snack time! My yard has been taking up my free time. Getting all the little loose ends tied before my trip has been taking the rest of my time. So excited! Sono molto contenta!

Also--there's a link in the sidebar for my Twitter page. I'll be twittering from Europe.

Drifting

What is the intent of this spacecraft that is drifting so serenely above Planet X? Approach peacefully? Domination? Scan with curiosity? Siteseeing? Or drifting in need of fuel? Still have spaceships on the brain. Is there an antidote?

I toyed with the idea of attempting this with watercolors. Chickened out.

Yard Update

My honeysuckle is spectacular this year, and I'm surprised it isn't swarming with hummingbirds. One will do just fine, though.

Mock Orange!! ------------->

Spot can't help but fall asleep watching me putter in the yard.

Two weeks until I leave for Europe with my niece!

Unfold

Still in my science fiction head space. And liking colored pencils even though they don't scan well. I forgot how much I used to like to use colored pencils. So here's my Illustration Friday for this week, an unfolding flower...? One of my many favorite Genesis songs is Ripples from Trick of the Tail, where the lyrics say "Bluegirls come in every size." I think of that song every spring when my bluebells bloom. This kind of combines the song and the flower. Hmm. Rambling much?

Three and a half days of school: Eternity.

My Pretty Peony

This is my first peony bloom ever. It's also the only bud on the peony this year. I am very excited. Also, my mock orange is finally going to bloom this year, too. Been waiting!

And this is my new favorite afternoon hangout. I moved some of my outdoor furniture around and this is a perfect spot for my table and chairs. Wish I'd thought of this a couple of years ago!
Ideally I'd rather have hardscape under the arrangement, but that is a project for later. (That's the mock orange farthest to the left by the fence.)

An Easier Way...?

Is Fred really dead? Will Radish's interception of the radio call work? Good thing he was taking a break from digging the escape tunnel!

Craving

This robot craves the weightlessness and color of a butterfly. He spends hours craving the ability to flit and float happily along rather than having to clunk and thump monochromatically through life. How will he ever satisfy his craving?

Sticking with the SciFi genre again this week for my Illustration Friday entry. And I managed to finish it before Thursday this time!

Stir Crazy

Hmm. Perhaps there's a less strenuous--and messy--way out?

Adapt...and Failure to Adapt

So, it's the end of the school year, and we are reading Science Fiction in my classes (so I can conveniently end the year showing vintage B SciFi flicks for the last week). Naturally, I have aliens on the mind. This alien ship is attempting to adapt to its surroundings, mutating into the semblance of the first life form it meets.

This was drawn over two days and painstakingly colored with what few unbroken colored pencils are left in my classroom. I wish my scanner did the colors justice without having to up the dpi to un-uploadable mass, because this came out totally awesome. I have several layers of rich color in the sky and ground as well as shading for the alien ship. Sigh.

I have been trying to get this on paper all week, and meant to bring it home and finish/post it last night. But the heat has eaten my working brain cells. My classroom faces south. Our building has great 8-foot tall single pane windows. And the heat on warmer sunny days is.... We have had a bit of a heatwave here, and I just spent 7 hours in an 85-degree room and 2 more hours at an 82-degree (worthless) workshop. I'm wiped out. Plus I slept fitfully, waking up everytime Mr. Feline Furry Furnace snuggled up to me. Don't cats feel heat? Doesn't all that fur make them feel hot? No?