My Papa

So I've written about my mom before, plenty of times. But I don't really feel like my dad gets enough attention. And that's really too bad because he's the one that religiously checks my blog for new posts.

I've not mentioned that the day I drove home from Rathdrum in Death Fog my dad waited up for me to make sure I got home safe. He misses me when I'm away at school, although to the untrained eye it just looks like he gives me endless crap. I've been told that I look a lot like him, we have similar smiles because our teeth are shaped the same way. I'm the only kid that got that. I'm also the only kid that got his hair. Really fine strands of hair and even though it doesn't look that way, it's really thick.

He taught me to love traveling. He taught me how to drive (even though I drive like my mother). He taught me how to fish and how to shoot a gun. He taught me that its not okay to lie and my relationship with him is an honest one.

He's my daddy and he will always be my daddy even though whenever I come home he picks on me and teases me about DP loving him better because at least she hasn't left him like her older sister did. :)

So yesterday I decided to draw with charcoal pencils instead of charcoal sticks. I wanted to work on contrasting dark with light and drawing the human figure. I came up with the idea of actually putting my charcoal pencils to good use while I was still in my drawing two class and I immediately knew which picture I wanted to use.

Unfortunately I still had another three hour class before I could go and attempt my new project, but when I finally got home I was on a one track mind. And this is what I came up with:

Now to be perfectly honest, I don't really like it all the much. Mostly because I hate how the tree bark looks and the placement of the objects in the background. I love, love, love the figure of my dad though. I think I did a good job on that.

Being a lover and hater of all things facebook, I promptly took a picture of said drawing and uploaded it for all to see. What surprised me was the awesome response I get from my friends and family.

Mostly my dear oma. She is my father's mother. She said she printed it out and is going to frame it. She also linked to it on her facebook page. My mother has already claimed the original, and I don't even know for sure if my dad has seen it yet or not. But I know he'll love it for the plain and simple reason that I did it.

And he loves me.

This is the original picture. I snapped it on his DSLR when we were camping. It just goes to show that even though he may look intimidating occasionally and some people think he looks like Hulk Hogan (it's really only the mustache though), he's still just a big kid at heart.