the bird on fire

The Bird is the Word: Sophisticated Schoolyard Shenanigans

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How to Draw an Alien

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By Chelsea Xu PROFESSIONAL AP ART STUDENT EXTRAORDINAIRE

Editor Doreen says, “Blog something Far Away!” So, Chelsea instructs us in drawing our “far-away” neighbors.

Hello, everyone!! Today I’m going to teach you guys how to draw my version of an alien. Everybody has their own alien in their imagination, so feel free to add your own features on your alien if you like.

Let’s get it started!!

Step #1 Draw a circle on the upper hand of the paper.

Step #2 Draw two lines alongside the circle.

Step #3

Now, since I am drawing the face a bit sideways, the centerline of the face should be a little left or right to the side. As well as the jaw, if your line is on the left, extend the right jawline a little further, and if your line is on the right, then do the exact opposite.

Step #4

Add the eyes!! Note that the eyes are not totally symmetrical to each other because the head is tilting to the side. 

Step #5 

Add shadow in the eyes!

Step #6

It’s time to add the nose! This is a unique pointy nose, but honestly, you can draw the nose however you like! They are aliens after all.

Step #7

Even though you cannot see the mouth clearly, I did draw the mouth. It is below the nose of course, and, again, you can do any shape of the mouth you like.

Step #8

Horns!! I added some pretty unique horns to my fellow alien; adding some extra features on your aliens will make them extra special!!

Step #9

It’s neck time! Since the head turned to the right for a little bit, the neck needs to be in a different direction as well. The left line connects the edge of the jawline while the right line connects to the left jaw.

Step #10

Add the beginning of the shoulder blades at the endpoint of the neck. Note that is a downward slope, not a straight line.

Step #12

Erase the helping lines gently, and add a bit of shadow under the neck.

And ta-da!! You are finished!! Here is the result of our lesson!

Awesome job, everyone! I hope you guys like and learned something in this tutorial. I ́ll see you all next time!!

                                                                                                  “Far Away” Editor: Doreen Yuan

Let’s See Them Aliens

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Editor Doreen tasked the Blog Team with addressing the theme of “Far Away.” This is Luke’s response.


By Luke Langlois, Buzz Lightyear’s friend

We are all-too-often defined by our differences in life, but, at the end of the day, we have many universal similarities. We all (hopefully) speak the universal language of laughter and smiles. I also have a side theory that dogs are constantly trying to replicate our smiles, but that’s not the point of this post. I am here to discuss the one universal quandary that everyone has considered at one point or another in their lives–where are the aliens?

Unless you’ve been living under a metaphorical rock, you heard about the Area 51 Raid that took place on September 20th, 2019. The “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” event started out as a Facebook event. As the event gained internet fame, people began to think that this was a great idea! The military isn’t just going to take down millions of citizens. Although, the Air Force did say that they would do whatever needed to defend the United States and its assets. Anyway, two million people on Facebook alone marked themselves as “attending,” and an additional one million said they were “interested.” This doesn’t even take into account the additional millions of people who don’t have Facebook that heard about it through other sources of media like Twitter, Instagram, or the mainstream news networks. We may seem globally divided all the time, but that hasn’t stopped us from putting millions of heads together for a “joke.” Doesn’t that give you some faith in humanity? 

The actual impact of the raid breached the physical world as well as the digital world. Lincoln County, a county neighboring Area 51, drafted an emergency declaration to prepare for a (predicted) 40,000 raiders. The town of Rachel, Nevada, had similar fears. They hypothesized that raiders and their cars from more temperate climates would not be able to handle the heat, causing emergency services and general stores to be overwhelmed. Luckily, their worries did not materialize. Only 150 people actually showed up around Area 51, and only two people were arrested. To my disappointment, nobody tried to raid Area 51. 

We were not able to rescue the extraterrestrials from Area 51, so our alien brethren will remain a mystery. Everyone has a different opinion on extraterrestrial life, but if I had to generalize, people tend to believe that aliens are far, far away. I don’t think so. We’re not quite sure just how expansive the universe is, but we do know that Earth is a tiny dot in the grand context of space. I also subscribe to the multiverse theory. According to my limited understanding of this concept, there’s a universe where Palm Valley’s primary uniform color is teal. Yes, teal. Given this, are we expected to believe that nothing else in our universe, let alone any parallel universe, has stumbled upon Earth? The chances of that are slim, especially when you also consider our Earth’s long history. I’ll leave you with this thought: there already are extraterrestrial species on this planet. They landed long before humans could understand matters like these. Armadillos are weird. Cats have bumps on their tongues. That’s not normal. Trust me, near or far, our intergalactic neighbors are watching. 

Editor: Doreen Yuan