"Disheartened That I Sketched A Used Muffin Liner"

 

A kid's hand grenade!

Good "Gateway to the West" Friday Morning, y'all.

Trying to decide what we want to do today, I decided to post a sketch I did about a week or so ago. Therese decided to try her hand at the sketching the magnolia cone that I brought to the Giddy Up sketch get together and did an admirable job. She hasn't signed it, so I figure it's not finished.

Therese's unfinished symphony!

A few days later, the red green cone turned brown, opened up its pod leaves and started spitting out bright red seeds. I figured that I'd better sketch the cone before the entire pod explodes.

Talk about explosions, I told the friend who gave me the spikey projectile how, as kids, we use the cone as hand grenades. At one time, we had a large magnolia in the front yard that would drop lots of cones around the early fall. The stem of the cone was the pin that one would pull on a real grenade before throwing it. Kid's imagination, ya know.

Phil told me that he gave me the cone to use as subject matter since he read that another friend of mine found it rather disheartening that I sketched a used muffin liner on a saucer.

So, I present for one's perusal and approval my exploded magnolia tree cone and my wife's unfinished symphony!

First Starbucks cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

Every Now And Then, I Gotta "Ride, Ride, Ride The Wild Surf"

 

Good "Muffin'" Monday Morning, all bodies.

We should be getting an appreciable amount of rain today from that storm headed for Florida. Even the badass azaleas are feeling the heat.

Well, Adam and Eve might have been satisfied with an apple for breakfast, but feeling a twinge of deprivation and knowing I shouldn't, I bought myself a "Morning Glory Muffin" at the coffeehouse.

It is not gluten free!

But, every now and then, I gotta "Ride, Ride, Ride The Wild Surf" ya know? It was delicious and to celebrate the event I decided to sketch what was left of the temptation. I think it turned out quite nicely.

First very early home brewed cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

"I'll Take The Plane With The Teeth!"

Beechcraft Model 18

 Good "kinda freaked out" Friday Morning, y'all.

I received a call about a month or so from a woman representing the Sonoma Valley Airport looking to use one of my Beechcraft on-site drawings from the Van Nuys Days circa 1986. It threw me for a loop.

The Vintage Aircraft Company has recently completed a rebuild of a 1946 Beechcraft Model 18 with plans to roll it out at the airport's Chili Cookout Car and Aircraft Show in mid-October. They wanted permission to use one of my drawings for a tee-shirt fundraiser. But, just yesterday morning, I told Therese that I didn't think it whole idea was gonna happen since I called many times attempting to negotiate terms and never got a return call.

A bit disappointed, I decided to forget about the whole thing.

While sitting at a local Wendy's still trying to decide what Wendy's Frosty flavor I was gonna get while Therese went shopping, I got a call from Sheryl.

After apologizing for responding, we talked about the project, the fundraiser and the price for the usage of my illustration. When she mentioned a possible ride in a WWII Warhawk or Mustang, I got the feeling the museum board didn't wanna pay what I was asking for the design.

So funny. When I mentioned to my wife about the option to fly in a WWII fighter, she was, amazingly, all for it. I mean, SAY WHAT? My demure, shy, Miss Prim and Proper companion of 51 years wants to go air combat over the skies of Sonoma!

"I'll take the plane with the teeth," she said.

"Whoa!"

BTW, the check's in the mail!

First cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

" Procrastination Has Its Cost"...

Cool...

 Good "frosty" Friday Morning, all bodies!

Oh, about a year ago, something in the studio smelled musty and kinda mildewed. After a month or so of investigating every corner of the place, I surmised it wasn't the window AC. I believe it was a throw rug near the back door. Problem was I practically took apart the window unit to check it out and never reassembled the damn thing because I just don't bend and twist like I did when I bought and placed it in the window years ago.

Well, in late summer of last year, some industrious wasps decided since I wasn't using the damn thing that THEY would. I wrongly assumed that the buzzing sound the bugs were making

were nothing but another flying insect desperately trying to extricate itself from a spider web.

Good riddance, I'd say.

But it kept getting louder and louder and more frequent. I decided it was time to create my own "RAID riddance" on the gang, and put back the air conditioner into service . I actually thought about calling a repairman to put the unit back together again, but figured having one come out to "service it" would probably cost as much as the unit did years ago.

Well, you know procrastination has its cost. it took me the entire year to think about it, until yesterday! Ah yes. The added expense to our electric bill never sounded so sweet as when I plugged in that beauty.

First Giddy Up cup, y'all.

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

"I Never Look A Gift Chicken In The Beak!"

It didn't turn out like I planned.
My approach was rather vague to begin with.

 Well, good "Mayhem Monday Morning," y'all...

It's Back To School Monday. Back to dodging school buses, sitting in 3pm traffic, and school zone tickets. Gotta leave yourself plenty of time to get anywhere on time!

Yesterday, I mellowed outside on the patio deck at Giddy Up to finish a value sketch of more broken down fences from the back paddock. Later, as the morning got a bit more uncomfortable, I left the markers behind and did a few touchups indoors with a second cup.

Paula Alario came by to drop off a dozen or more fresh eggs. She apologized for the size of the eggs blaming it on the recent heat wave. I thanked her and told her that I never look a gift chicken in the mouth... I mean, beak!

First cup... at home!

Copyright 2023/ Ben Bensen III

"The Insurance Company Never Admitted That It Was A Tornado!"

 Good "a bit sketchie" Sunday Morning, y'all.

Decided to spend some time sketching today. Too hot to do much more than that. So, while Tee took off, in the cool of the early morning for her Jazzercise class, I decided to take the lawn tractor, a cup of coffee and my sketchbook over to the running shed in the back paddock to sit and render the destruction.

The insurance company never admitted that it was a tornado that, three years ago, skipped across the back paddock, but they found enough damage to our roof to replace it. I also got reimbursed to fix the shed, but life got in the way. So, the next best thing to do is to sketch it...

First cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

"A Marker Sketch.. On site!"

Not as plentiful as when I started!

 Good "no news is good news!" Saturday Morning, all bodies.

But then, there's no such thing, right?

Spent a good portion of the afternoon, yesterday, at the service dept of Honda in Slidell. It's so bad they lent me an Accord for five days, and after 2.5 hours waiting at a local restaurant, I found that as I was calling them in the traditional way... by phone, they were trying to get a hold of me with the prognosis through text messaging.

Oh bruther... The onion rings were good but not as plentiful as when I started sketching them... Ha!

Second cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben BensenIII