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Well, this one didn’t turn exactly the way I planned it, and he’s not shirtless (sorry ladies), but this is my attempt at a Georgian casanova.

The DAP has been a little sparse this week, mostly due to the side project Chas and I have been working on. The good news is that it’s going very well, and the bad news is that it’s turning Chas and I into total nerds.

Well, I already was one, so sorry for dragging you down, Chas…

Drew

Drew

Here’s Saturday’s DAP image:

Saturn (Latin: Saturnus) was a major Roman god of agriculture and harvest. In medieval times he was known as the Roman god of agriculture, justice and strength; he held a sickle and a bundle of wheat. His mother’s name was Helen, or Hel. He was identified in classical antiquity with the Greek deity Cronus, and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed. Saturn’s wife was Ops (the Roman equivalent of Rhea). Saturn was the father of Ceres, Jupiter, Veritas, Pluto, and Neptune, among others. Saturn had a temple on the Forum Romanum which contained the Royal Treasury. Saturn is the namesake of both Saturn, the planet, and Saturday (dies Saturni).

Drew

Wiki Info:

Frigg (sometimes anglicized as Frigga) is a major goddess in Norse paganism, a subset of Germanic paganism. She is said to be the wife of Odin, and is the “foremost among the goddesses” and the queen of Asgard. Frigg appears primarily in Norse mythological stories as a wife and a mother. She is also described as having the power of prophecy yet she does not reveal what she knows^. Frigg is described as the only one other than Odin who is permitted to sit on his high seat Hlidskjalf and look out over the universe. The English term Friday derives from the Anglo-Saxon name for Frigg, Frigga.

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On a side note, I finally learned to build a totally awesome fire.  The key, apparently, is to have a friggin hot bed of coals under the main logs.  Kind of like you’re grilling the firewood over the hot coals.  This cro-magnon discovery on my part comes just in time for the KILLER BLIZZARD OF 2009.  Check out the picture of fire.

Drew

Since some people are enjoying my “shirtless gods” series, I’ve cranked out another muscle bound immortal. I couldn’t go with the Roman god on this one either. For some reason the germanic/norse/anglo-saxon gods are more interesting to me. Thor was always a bit of a drama queen…

From the Wiki:
Thor owns a short-handled hammer, Mjöllnir, which, when thrown at a target, returns magically to the owner. His Mjöllnir also has the power to disburse lightning bolts. To wield Mjöllnir, Thor wears the belt Megingjord, which boosts the wearer’s strength and a pair of special iron gloves, Járngreipr, to lift the hammer. Mjöllnir is also his main weapon when fighting giants. The uniquely shaped symbol subsequently became a very popular ornament during the Viking Age and has since become an iconic symbol of Germanic paganism.

Drew

I went with a western version of the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, leader of the Wild Hunt – a phantasmal group of huntsmen with horses, hounds, etc., in mad pursuit across the skies.  Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. Mortals getting in the path of or following the Hunt could be kidnapped and brought to the land of the dead.

Drew

Today I chose a few oldies but goodies for drawing music:  Several songs from Dirt, by Alice in Chains.  One or two tasty Audioslave ditties, and then Vitamin from Incubus’s Science album.    I figured war-like music would facilitate a drawing of Mars.

Listening to Vitamin  always gave me mental images of a steampunk dude with big round goggles and a skull handkerchief covering his face running through a giant battlefield of crusty, spiky warrior robots, stylishly dispatching them with his trusty, giant sledge hammer and 1911 Colt 45.

Now that I’ve written that out, my image of Mars up above seems a tad tame… oh well.  Maybe I’ll attempt an image of the character I just described.

Drew

Here’s a late post for the goddess Monday is named for, Luna AKA Selene.  In many other languages, their word for Monday still has Luna’s name included.

Ever since the music DAP week I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to music while drawing. I thought this one should be old looking, a little eerie, a tad odd, and a bit moody so I pulled out Bridges and Balloons, by Joanna Newsome and a few tracks by Neil Young including Heart of Gold, Old Man, and Harvest Moon.

Drew

Just a few more hours and the Third Annual Foreman-Raiford Thanksgiving bonanza begins!  Wooo hooo!

Drew

Before we headed to South Africa, Cristin and I stocked up on books figuring that we could crank through a few during the flying and the waiting around to fly.  I picked up the next book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

In the previous book the hero Harry Dresden sparked off a war between the White Council of wizards and the Red Court vampires.  From what I’ve heard, the war serves as the overarching plot for the rest of the series.  Summer Knight involves a strugglebetween the Winter and Summer Fairy courts and their manipulation of mortals and especially Harry.  The story culminates in an interesting battle over Lake Michigan just by Chicago.

Summer Knight read like it was a little rushed to me.  Maybe this was when Butcher started working on his second series, The Codex Alera.  I really don’t know.  But, the plot in this book, although creatively twisty and quite interesting, came across a little like gumbo.  Lots of spices, and a great taste, but ultimately it really just contains everything but the kitchen sink.  Too many characters and too many random, one off storyline elements caused the book to lack a real cohesion.  I still appreciate Butcher’s plots and enjoyable characters, but this one just wasn’t quite as strong as the previous installment.

In spite of my lackluster impression of the plot in Summer Knight, I have already purchased not only the next Dresden book, but also the second book of the Codex Alera.  Although his writing is not truly mature just yet, Butcher does write a mean page turner.

Drew