#PicturePoetryPrompt: Gun Control

From North of the border,
I watch my American friends
suffer time and again.
A vicious cycle repeating.

Bullets fired from GUNS
are worth more than
LIVES
I hear again and again.

And yet there’s a growing chorus
Of voices.
Young
Old
Female
Male
Gay
Straight
Black
White.

They scream for CONTROL
United against a bigger threat.
They don’t want to hide
Afraid and alone
from angry people who take their rage
like tidal waves
and crash into innocents.

They want change.
Not to take all the GUNS away
But to restrict the types
Create stiffer rules.
What threat is this
to your freedoms,
My GUN owning friends?

They should be free
to feel SAFE
In a Grocery store
In a School
At a Concert
At a Hospital
At a Synagogue
At a Church

ANYWHERE.

But the NRA has friends
who view CONTROL
as an evil worse than plague
WHICH IT’S NOT.
When did your fellow Americans’ LIVES
come to mean so little?

I see this on my screens
In our papers.
As a Canadian,
I’m thankful for our GUN CONTROL.
I feel SAFE.
If only the change Americans need
would come on swift wings.
I wish you all could feel SAFE
On every day’s journeys.

You see,
I think no man, woman or child
should be afraid to leave their home
for fear of flying bullets
shot from vicious GUNS
hunting them down.

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A Sad Face Pt. 2

I managed to finish off that face I started days (week?) ago, and I am… alright with the end result.

Sad.face.Finished.jpg

I added that second eye and eyebrow. Added a bit more definition, and voila! A piece I am keeping for learner’s sake only.

My art teachers in high school absolutely hated it when we smudged. It is messy, and where I made the most mistakes, too.

Smudging is essentially using the natural oils your hands secretes to blur or rub the pencil around. (It works best with the B series of pencils, I have found).

However it means the pencil grays your hand, and when you touch the piece, you must be careful. Otherwise, you end up with errors like the smudge in the hair, or on the neck. It is also difficult to erase. All of which I remember from high school art class, and chose to do anyway, because I got impatient.

May have to pick up some of those ‘Teach Yourself’ books to get a better grip on shading outside of smudging.

I do love smudging. It will always have its place, but I definitely need to get away from it.

Also need to practice proportions and placement. My eyebrows definitely don’t line up, and I am unsure if my eyes do, because of placement.

At least I tried, right?

P.S. I welcome ANY tips, or practical videos on the subject. As much as I try to overcome my perfectionist side of myself, it does win on occasion.