If Toads Could Fly

art, photos, and inspiration. On Tumblr to encourage myself to draw more!

[epicsause-official]

"comparing apples and oranges" has always been funny to me as an expression because people's go to exampe of two things so radically different that they defy any useful comparison are apples. and oranges. like you would struggle to find a more comparable pair of objects than that. theyre literally sold right next to each other in most stores.

[epicsause-official]

wikipedia has a whole ass section dedicated to international variants of the idiom so let me quickly run through them

see this is even worse than oranges. pears and apples are like the most comparable things ever. france takes another L

ok so this is what i mean. these are measures of temperature and texture and are in fact not very comparable. молодцы ребята продолжаем в том же духе.

colombia wins most vivid image invoked hands down. would not want that to happen to me.

and i think we can all agree romania wins this hands down. everyone give a big round of applause to romania

[nevver]

Isolation

[aetherbox]

I am now imagining a trio of dysfunctional vampires or immortals or something. And 2-300 years later, one of them is still That Fucking Guy.

[wingedtoad]

Grumpy Flammie #flammie #greencheekedconure #conuresofinstagram #boomerang

[wingedtoad]

So this afternoon as we were walking home from lunch, we saw a whole flock of cedar waxwings sitting in a tree outside of our home. I rushed inside to get my camera, but by the time I went back outside, the flock had flown away. I didn't want to waste my effort setting up the camera, so I got some other bird shots instead. Here is a dark-eyed junco sitting on the pine cone bird feeder I made with my students before winter break started!

[wingedtoad]

Christmas nails! 🎄🎅⛄

[wingedtoad]

Flammie doing some meditating on top of the yoga ball. #flammie #greencheekedconure #yogaball

[wingedtoad]

We saw two coyote today! 🐾 (at Arastradero Preserve)

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 31 - Friends. Kiki hanging out in the bakery with her cat and a crow friend. On the last day of Inktober I finally used an official prompt 😆

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 30 - Landing Zebra. We are finally nearing the end of the month! I've been drawing so much this month that my hand hurts. I'll be relieved when Inktober ends! Sorry about the edges of the picture, I drew too close to the edge and I don't have a scanner. Reference from Pinterest #zebra #landing #Pegasus #fantasy #flyingzebra #panickedzebras

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 29 - Dumbo Octopus. Reference: https://youtu.be/pxuBwfNp2wk

[wingedtoad]

One of my favorite memories is walking through the Enchanted Forest at Walker Creek. The air was heavy with the scent of bay leaves. We could run our hands across the trunks of the bay trees, which were covered with a bright green soft moss. Primordial looking sword ferns surrounded us, and birds called to each other from the treetops as a fine misty rain fell on us all. #california #bayforest #nature (at Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School and Conference Center)

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 28 - Quokka. #quokka #marsupial #sketch

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 27 - Corn Hub. #cornhub #corny #corncob #cornhole #hominy #cornhuskdoll #popcorn #cornbread #babycorn #cornsnake #candycorn #cornflakes #🌽 #🍿

[wingedtoad]

We caught pond invertebrates today! Well, and there was one kid who had the craziest luck and caught seven tadpoles. It was really cool watching these water bugs swim around! (at Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School and Conference Center)

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 26 - Tonight, we went on a night hike with the kids. The naturalist who led our group told a story about how, a long time ago, a meteorite had struck near the ranch, and when they went to go find the meteorite, they discovered a glowing green rock. They gave the rock to their best chef, who turned it into candy. The candy looked normal, but those who knew its secret could unlock the meteorite power. She then handed out a piece of candy in the dark to every kid, and then she told them to chew it really hard with their mouths open while looking in other people's mouths. The kids were really excited to see that there were sparks in their mouths! The candy turned out to be just Lifesavers. Apparently chewing hard on them causes some sort of reaction that gives off light! Anyway, I was inspired by this image and drew, in layman's terms, a candy comet. To a scientist, it would be more accurately described as a maltose meteorite. #candycomet #maltosemeteorite #candy #sweets #walkercreekranch #campfirestories #talltales (at Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School and Conference Center)

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 25 - We make the rounds after lights out every night to make sure the kids are quiet and all lights are off. Tonight, we saw something move on the trail ahead of us as we were walking between cabins. Turns out it was a pair of deer silently making their way to the infirmary - maybe they had an allergic reaction? I took this opportunity to experiment with silhouettes! If I had watercolor paper and more paint, I would've tried out a wash for the background, but I don't, so I kept it relatively simple. Reference from PBase.com. #walkercreekranch #californiamuledeer #muledeer #deer #nighthike #silhouette #blackandwhite #watercolor #painting #art #walkercreek #California (at Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School and Conference Center)

[wingedtoad]

#inktober day 24 - it is the first night of our weeklong sleep-away camp. It's 10pm and outside is dark and rainy. There is nothing but woods and fields for miles around. I ask my coworker what to draw and she immediately suggests "Baby Clown." 🤡 #babyclown #clown #juggling #ballpoint (at Walker Creek Ranch Outdoor School and Conference Center)