And so we conclude another month and another month-long art challenge. Sure was fun while it lasted.
Journey may be known best for their song "Don't Stop Believin'," but I'm partial to their second-most-famous song. If I had to pick a song to summarize my couples, particularly Mason Wiles and Cecily Byrnes, this would be their song all over.
Holy cow, we've reached the next-to-last entry already. Time really does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it?
It was a little hard to pick a Josh Groban song, but I'm quite happy with my final choice. Picture looks pretty good, too.
Not my finest work, but it meets the quota.
And, as everybody knows, love isn't just sunshine and rainbows and fluttering hearts. More often than not, it's pure, unadulterated pain.
I have a quote in one of my stories that says, roughly, "Amazing how the very thing that holds the power to make you feel so good holds the same power to make you feel so bad."
I really like the group ABBA. They have many famous, fantastic songs, but I decided to do one of their slightly lesser-known songs for this challenge.
While I believe in trusting teenagers to choose for themselves, I also believe in certain rules for their own good. And I'm a big believer in not letting a young girl go out by herself with an older boy, and vice versa.
At least in this song, the "older boy" appears to show some respect for the little girl fawning over him, because he tells her, "You're only a child," as well as "take it easy" and "better slow down." And, of course, there's the question that makes up the very title.
In this case, the mother most definitely knows now. You are so grounded, little lady.
(All images property of their respective owners.)
I had to do at least one Weird Al song, and this is how I personally feel about TV nowadays.
Whenever I want to watch something, I usually pop in a DVD or resort to YouTube or Amazon Prime. Pretty much the only thing I'll watch on the TV itself is the news.
I came upon this song a few years ago, almost by accident. I first heard it in an impressive fan-made video of Ariel and Eric from Disney's The Little Mermaid, and I liked the song so much that I just had to buy a digital copy.
Don't worry, the girl will survive. But I'm sure you've all experienced some form of hyperventilation or total blockage of air, that brief but intense moment of sheer terror of not being able to breathe in or out. I sure have.
Don't worry, they're still alive, even if they're both frozen solid. Just another little literal gag I went along with.
"I Want to Know What Love Is" may be my top favorite Foreigner song, but "Cold as Ice" is a pretty close number two. Fits several of my own characters to a tee.
All kitty cuteness aside, this is a pretty sobering song about the dangers of prioritizing your job over your children.
Oh, sure, jobs are important, you need to provide for your family, but you must also keep in mind what will matter most many years down the road. Will your promotion or your salary really matter by that time, as opposed to how often you played with your kids, hugged them, and told them you loved them out loud?
While we're on the subject of children, please pray and think good thoughts for the people of Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen elementary-school children and two schoolteachers lost their lives to a gun-wielding maniac today. It reminds me of that awful Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, and this is even worse. As much as I hate to think it, I'm inclined to believe today's maniac was "inspired" by the maniac of the previous decade.
And so another vicious cycle makes another vicious round...
One of the very few Paul McCartney songs I like, and it's always fun to do a literal interpretation.
My parents used to think for the longest time that this was "Man on the Run," which is a little funny because my mom's always been a huge Beatles fan.
There's nothing wrong with McCartney or the Beatles by any means; I just feel they're way too repetitive. I can't stand "Hey Jude" because they drag on that "na-na-na-na" part for far too long. Granted, that was the style back then; Mom told me people paid a lot more attention to the beat than to the actual words.
Still, I often quip, "I can write one lyric over and over and over, too! Why am I not rolling in fame and fortune?"
The yellow color is back, and it sure makes a difference in this very simple drawing.
This was another song that you couldn't escape from if you tried, and no doubt Smash Mouth will forevermore be remembered for this song more than any other. At least it's one of the good ones!
When I was a kid, I had a cassette tape of Christina Aguilera that I played quite often, and I owned this really cool pink C-Watch where it played tiny animated snippets of "Genie in a Bottle."
My sister had a blue C-Watch that played *NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" and I'd always wished that one was mine instead. Oh, well, you took what you could get.
Holy smokes, this song was EVERYWHERE when it first came out; I remember kids in junior high and high school positively belting it out at dances. Even to this day, that chant is almost impossible to get out of your head.
Of course, it took me many years to realize they weren't singing about real dogs. Still, how could I resist drawing such adorable pups frolicking about?
I always wished I had a dog (I'm a dog and cat person) but both my parents always said one cat at a time was plenty. Not that I can complain about the little Pipsqueak I've got right now; she's an absolute doll.
I can see why her former owners hated to part with her. The only reason they did so was because her first owner sadly died, and the owner's brother and his wife already had two other cats with whom Pippi didn't get along so well. (She was declawed and they were not.) So, they thought of us and asked us if we'd like to have her.
This was barely two months after Butterscotch was put to sleep and I was afraid it was too soon...but now I love Pippin to pieces. Her name was my idea and I wouldn't trade her for any dog, though I still like to picture myself with a cute little canine to call my own one of these days. If I could, I'd love a collie, or Golden Retriever, or German Shepherd, or possibly a Dalmatian.
You'll find plenty of dogs in Terence and Reid's stories. Terence has a collie named Duke underfoot, and Reid has a huge (but harmless) dog named Thatch. Ann never liked dogs (never was fond of animals in general) but Thatch ultimately grows on her.
Kyla always had a dog or two on her farm, and she was allowed to bring her current dog with her when she moved into the castle after her grandmother's death.
Even Mason has a dog. I've yet to draw him but his name is Zephyr; Mason's parents never liked him but he was always good company for the children and very gentle with them. He sires a few pups, so the canine and human generations keep growing side by side.
I decided to do a much peppier song today, and you don't get much peppier than this. One of the most mandatory "dance and sing along" songs in all of music history.
I always liked Kelly Clarkson, and this song, as you may have guessed, ranks among my top favorites in spite of the heartbreaking premise.
There's nothing worse than leading someone to believe you actually care about them and then leaving them in the cold. I find this lyric particularly haunting: "I told you everything, opened up and let you in. You made me feel all right for once in my life."
Strongly implying that the protagonist has already had trust issues, and now such issues are further complicated due to the person using their trust like a toy. That's a serious kick to the gut.
This song is one of my favorites; I think it's very applicable to many of my characters. I'm sure you know which characters I'm talking about.
Every year, my family participates in the SNAP program and I try to attend at least one of the two performances. This year, I was able to ...
