I was commissioned to do this window painting for a Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership (KARL) fundraising auction. I decided to go with a Kansas wheat field and a windmill, both things that come to mind when I think about Kansas agriculture. I love driving by the fields and watching the rows appear and disappear as I line up with them.

I wasn't sure how the rows would turn out, but I sketched out the drawing with a China marker on the glass, and then painted over it. I like how the fields turned out, though it's tricky to plan ahead when the first thing you paint is going to be on the top "layer" and anything you add later will appear to be behind it.

I debated painting the sky blue behind the clouds, but I really like the 3D effect of the floating clouds, so I suggest painting your wall blue (or some other color of sky) behind the painting for the best effect.

I've wanted to try painting on glass for a while, and when we did our house renovations and replaced a bunch of windows, I saved the windows for that very purpose. But then all my art supplies were packed away and we were busy getting everything finished, so I never got around to it.

Nothing like impending visitors to get you motivated, though—since my family is coming this week, we've been scrambling to get various things finished up, and I decided it would be a good time to give it a shot. I took one of the old windows, cleaned off the dust and gave the frame a fresh coat of paint, and then painted a simple little scene on the back.

I really like how it turned out, and I planned for it to be hung on this blue wall in the guest room. I'm hoping to do more of these as time allows and inspiration strikes.

"That's no temari..."

This temari was made as a project for Geek Dad book 2, modeled on the Death Star. Completed August 2010.

Another version of the Sunflower temari, with a slightly different color scheme. This one was made for the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, as an item for their auction. Completed June 2010. (Compare to my earlier sunflower temari.)

I made a permanent version of the GeekDad logo during Maker Faire. It doesn't have as many details as the rough sketch I made a couple months ago but I tried to be a little more precise. Eventually this will be behind GeekDad editor Ken Denmead during our biweekly podcast.

GeekDad has a good relationship with ThinkGeek, purveyor of all sorts of interesting geeky stuff (including the official GeekDad T-shirt). When I was looking for something to draw for a permanent Etch-a-Sketch, one of the other GeekDads suggested I make a drawing of Timmy The ThinkGeek Monkey, so here he is.

My drawing is now at ThinkGeek headquarters, where you can see it on the TimmyCam. (The screen capture below was taken on Towel Day.)

Quick sketch of Buzz Lightyear from the cover of Wired Magazine, done during Maker Faire.

Robot quick sketch from Maker Faire.

Quick sketch of a LEGO brick at Maker Faire.

This past weekend I attended the Bay Area Maker Faire with GeekDad. It was my first time at a Maker Faire, though GeekDad has had a presence there for the past few years, and it was a lot of fun. The atmosphere reminded me a little of the Last Thursday Artwalks on Alberta, with a lot of people doing crazy things with bikes and fire. (Apparently there's a pretty big Burning Man contingent to Maker Faire.) But there's also a lot of gadgets, tinkerers, robots, and things that aren't usually seen at a Portland Artwalk.

I had a lot of fun and spent a lot of time at the GeekDad booth, doing quick Etch-a-Sketches and a couple permanent ones. I'll post a few of the sketches I did; please excuse the image quality, since space and lighting wasn't ideal for getting the best pics.

Also, if you're interested, you can listen to the GeekDad podcast from last night, where we talk a lot about Maker Faire and some of the other GeekDads brag about my Etch-a-Sketching. I also wrote about making the Timmy Etch-a-Sketch for GeekDad.

This is a smaller version of the Emperor temari I made last fall; the alternating colors gives it a different feel. I was going for something that looks like a fireball; the result I think is something fire-y and somewhat autumnal.

Completed April 2010 for Justin and Keren and Ariel.

This temari uses the Guardian Star and Bellflower patterns from Barbara Suess' book. It was made for our friends Roger and Michelle and their five kids: I asked what their favorite colors were, and incorporated them into the two large stars on the poles and the five starburst patterns on the sides. Completed April 2010.

For those of you who are interested, I've put my "Guardian Star" temari for sale on eBay to raise money for our local movie theater. Please take a look at the auction, which ends next Sunday, April 18, and read the story about our theater.

Check out the auction here.

This quick sketch was created for the first annual GeekDad Awards, based on the banner logo. The idea came up during one of the podcasts; while I didn't have time to make permanent Etch-a-Sketches to send to each of the winners, I thought I could at least do a temporary sketch for the website.

The Rose Garden pattern from Barbara Suess's Japanese Temari book. Completed May 2008 for Lynn.