"Three is the Magic Number" -Joy

Yes it is, it's the magic number...

"A man and a woman had a little baby.
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family.
That's a magic number."

Who didn't LOVE Schoolhouse Rock?! That's how I did most of my learnin'. Just brilliant and a fun way to educate. To this day, there's nothing like it.

I picked "Three is the Magic Number" because my husband and I added a little baby to our family this year, and of course this was the first Schoolhouse Rock song that came to mind :o).

Check out the rest of the words to the song here.

The YouTube video is here

Do you have a favorite song from Schoolhouse Rock?

Thanks for stopping by!
-Joy

Kelly unpacks her adjectives...

A child of the seventies. She was very Peppermint Patty, that camper-girl. Tom boyish.  Now she's a Mom, with three little not so happy campers of her own. She escapes online and looks up her old pals and unpacks her adjectives once again.


I really wanted to sing this song- and post it up- I know it by heart. That's the thing about Schoolhouse Rock! - the genius. They taught us thru song. They found a way to make it fun and it stuck! 35 years later- I can sing every song. And I still love them.

Watch the video HERE

Got home from camping last spring...

"A Shot Heard Round the World" - Michelle Henninger sees the whites of their eyes...

As a former New Hampshirite, (I lived in New Hampshire for almost 10 years, right on the border of Massachusetts) and as a total history nut, New England was the perfect locale for me!!  I had access to all that Revolutionary War history, and you better believe I ate it up!  Whenever we had company in town, we always made a point to visit the Old North Bridge and Concord and Lexington.  AND then when we got home from the day's outing ... we'd pop in the ole SchoolHouse Rock DVD and we'd watch "A Shot Heard Round the World" and as soon as they got to the Old North Bridge part, we'd all say "We were there, we were there!!"  Ahhh, yup.  Those sure were some good times!!

http://www.michellehenninger.com/
http://www.michellehenninger.blogspot.com/

A BIG SKETCHABLES! Thanks to Michelle for Subbing in for Heather today! She rocked the Schoolhouse Rock!

Diandra-Conjunction Junction

"Conjunction Junction, what's your function?

Hooking up two boxcars and making 'em run right.

Milk and honey, bread and butter, peas and rice.

Hey that's nice!"

This song has been a favorite of mine for a long time.  I used it when I was teaching grammar units. I even taught my seventh grades students to diagram conjunctions by boxing them in.  Of course, several of them would go the extra step and add wheels. ;)


Perhaps my favorite part of sharing these songs with my students was seeing 12 year old's forget that they were trying so hard to impress each other and sing these songs.

Priscilla ~ School House Rock! Week

Now everybody try to find a good hiding place. This ol' tree is gonna be the base. I'm gonna close my eyes and hide my face and count to a hundred by fives.

Ready? Go!

This week we are going to have some School House Rock fun!  
My pick from the song list is "Ready or Not, Here I Come!" (click to read the whole song!)


It is going to be a GREAT week! October is almost here!! 

Teacher's Pet- Joy

Here is my quick sketch for "Teacher's Pet". It's the typical cliche, but I wanted to focus on expressions. I left the sketch real messy, too. The pop of a color object is something I've been playing with lately as well. Just tried to have fun with this one in the limited time I had to work on it (notice the Photoshop paste job on some things I didn't want to take time to draw, heh). If I took this farther, I'd add some details like backpacks and the like.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks!
Joy

"Teacher Pet" - Kelly

 I took the " 'S " out. From teacher's Pet- to - Teacher Pet, and played fast and loose with this week's theme. I had the same idea as D, a teacher who was a monster... with normal kid. I spent 4 days this past week cleaning out my studio. I found a lot of old sketches - this being one of them. I went back into it a bit to come up with this idea.

When eighth graders in MR. Hopper's biology class are faced with dissecting frogs, vegetarian Harper Brody is a conscientious objector.  Mr. Hopper, a man of science, threatens to fail her. Lucky for her, her science partner, Matt Fulford (who is crushing on her) is the son of the wealthiest man in town who owns the Pharmaceutical company at the top of the hill. Matt will use any diabolical means necessary to get Harper to go to the eighth grade dance with him. Taking the class on a tour of the lab - He merges their science teacher with a frog.

Mr. Hopper never saw them coming.

Chaos, adventure,weird science, animal rights and young, crazy love ....   sounds like a good book, huh?

Diandra- Teacher's Pet

No matter how hard he tried, Simon just did not understand how things worked at his new school.

Priscilla ~ It's Teacher's Pet Week!

Fall is coming!

I love Fall, especially after a particularly HOT Summer. It's just a beautiful time of year. I can't wait to share my son's first Fall with him. We read "I am a Bunny" illustrated by Richard Scarry. Harrison loves looking and grabbing at the leaves on the page where Nicholas says, "In the fall, I like to watch the leaves falling from the trees." All of the lovely fall colors...

Plus, I just look better in my fall wardrobe, hehe. No shorts for these white legs!

Do you have distinct seasons where you live?

Thanks for visiting us!

-Joy

Fall is for Squirrels - Kelly

Fall is for squirrels. The joyous abundance of nuts falling off the trees.. makes them want to dance. You've seen them move- with the ease and lightness of Astaire. Their swooping tails like the chiffon of Ginger's dress...  strike up the band with some sweeping melody and watch the show. It's pretty colorful! I love Autumn.

You can see the squirrels dance more over on my BLOG

Diandra - Fall

Hide and Seek is a big deal in our house. It's so funny to watch a four year old and one year old play. They hide right out in the open, but the other one won't see them! ;)

Priscilla ~ Hello there, Fall!

A good time to grab and enjoy all the possibilities this season has for us to find, learn and enjoy, don't you think?  

Joy- Tools of the trade for me

Here's what I work with now-a-days: Sketchbook, mechanical pencil with 0.7 2B lead and my finished, painted work is done in Photoshop on my iMac.

This fabulous group of ladies here on The Sketchables have really helped me to use my sketchbook more. In my sketchbook, I've been doing more exploring with composition, character designs and just ideas in general. I still draw directly in Photoshop most times, but I can do the studies and research in my sketchbook first.

What's your medium of choice?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Joy

I'm an art supply adultress (Kelly)

Oh, Prismacolor Col-Erase 20044, you and I have had a good run.  Your long blue point and scratchy pull on curves have held me in your spell for 23 years.

 

But Col.. I've met someone else.

It's Palomino 602 - and well - we've been seeing each other, everyday.

I couldn't help myself.  I'm one in a long line to fall under Palomino's spell. Just knowing the hands that have held that hematite toned length gives me goosebumps. Chuck Jones had a long love affair himself.

"Half the pressure- Twice the speed" ....

It taunts me with promises of an experience like no other.
You know I like a sharp, sharp point. It can hold the point for a really long time.

The erasers - come out. They flip. They are replaceable too. Palomino is flexible.



I'm sorry to hurt you Col-Erase. But it's better that you know.


If you'd like to find out for yourself.. Palomino's available. Contact @ Pencils.com   but please, be gentle.

Back to School Supplies

As a kid back to school meant one thing -

new art supplies!!!

Now, as a working mom it means 8 hours of quiet to get things done, finally!

I just moved to Michigan and have the watercolors out and ready for action.  

My favorite set is this Van Gogh travel watercolor collection.  

As you can see it's well loved.

If you could splurge on one new supply this week to celebrate back to school what would you get?  

I would like a nice juicy collection of thick Arches watercolor paper - so buttery and yummy.

Priscilla ~ Back To School Something New

New school shoes were definitely one of my most favorite things about going back to school!
Other favorites ~ the fragrance of crayola crayons and pink pearl erasers.  The inside smell of a brand new lunch pail was pretty neat, too.

Cheers to all who have little ones starting off to school this fall!

Time for some schoolin'!

I've wanted to do another alphabet series and figured I'd start them off for this week's back to school topic. Hopefully I'll get to actually work on more of these sometime. These were pretty fun!

Thanks and have a great weekend!
-Joy

Back To School and back to the Sketchables!

We're back sketching here on The Sketchables!!

We have all enjoyed our summers and our time off. Some of us got to see each other out in Los Angeles at the SCBWI Summer conference. Priscilla, Diandre and I (Kelly) took in a huge amount of inspiration. Joy and Heather have been spending quality family time- Joy with her new baby and Heather - moving to her beloved home state of Michigan.

So- without further ado....

It's Back to School!

 

 

When Dante was writing his Inferno... with those nine circles of Hell -

he forgot one - Middle School.

Maybe he didn't forget.

Maybe he just couldn't bring himself to revisit it.

The lock. The locker. The class changing.

The pimples. The puberty.

The crushes. The heart break.

The bad hair.

The growing pains.

The friendship hop scotch.

The Gym classes.

The way your parents become idiots over night. 

(Or at least "weirdos")

The intensity of feeling that we experienced in middle school- just never happens again. EVERYTHING is the most important thing ever.

They'll get thru it. They'll run that 3 year gauntlet- and cross the finish line.

The prize on the other side- a firmer grasp on knowing who you are- and who you can be.

But - Oh boy, I don't envy them at all.