Soooo. Would someone please tell me how we are already into the second week of May?!! The Kiddo's will be out of school at the end of the month and in the mean time, every teacher is cramming in as many possible end of the year activities as they can come up with in 5 days a week.
One of those end of the year activities is for the Youngest Kiddo's class. They will be spending the night in the Pit (assembly area of the main school building) later this week while watching the live cam of the watering hole, Pete's Pond., in Botswana.
Unfortunately, it is also the rainy season this time of year in Botswana, so the teacher is a bit afraid that there may be NOTHING to see that night. She has planned some games and other activities to occupy the kids. One of her ideas was to have a safari photo prop. She found a the "perfect" photo prop board that fit the fun safari theme she has planned.
$99. $99 dollars for a photo prop that is probably made out of cardboard. Seriously?!! Who the heck would pay $99 for a cartoon style photo prop?!
So, Mrs. L. asked me if I could draw and paint a similar style of photo prop. Looking at the picture, I thought to myself "piece of cake. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours."
Want to know why people pay $99 for a photo prop?! HAHA!
Actually, it really didn't take me too terribly long to draw up and paint the photo prop. I wasted more time trying to take the "easy" way out and use a terribly cheap light bulb projector to "trace" the picture idea. I finally admitted defeat and just got out the picture, pencil and a large eraser and drew out a sketch myself.
Mrs. L. had originally planned on using a single piece of large cardboard that she had ordered from the local paper company. Life got in the way and she was not able to pick up the board. Plan B: duct tape two project boards ($1 each, by the way!) together. Worked for me!
After drawing and tracing with a black Sharpie, I got out my cheapo acrylic paints, a little tub of water and painted in a very loose, cartoonish (is that even a word?!) fashion.
Want to hear something funny? There is a teeny tiny little blip of brown paint that I smudged on the board that just bugged the beejeebees out of me until I had Youngest Kiddo pose behind the prop.
THEN I had the the very disproportional left shoulder bug the major beejeebees out of me.
And the fact that this guys thighs must be three feet long and his calves about 6 inches.
I keep telling myself that this is a cartoon drawing. I keep saying it really doesn't matter that the shoulders look like someone stuck a 9 foot pole in the shirt for shoulder pads and that the body is totally out of proportion. I'm saving the classroom $99 that they don't have to spend on such a silly photo prop. Right?
The shoulders are bugging the beejeebees out of me. The legs are now bugging the beejeebees out of me.
And as I keep staring at this, the feet are too little too. I needed to make the jacket shorter in length. That would have helped considerably.
Sigh.
It's a CARTOON. I am willing to bet that not ONE kid will notice these silly mistakes. This is one of those projects that I just need to take a deep breath and say, "it is what it is. Let it go."
So, 'till next time. Remember, they can't all be zingers! HA!
