I’ve had this on my white board for about a week now. Mason’s school is doing a Halloween play next week and one of the props needed is a life-size paper cut out of a skeleton. (In fact, it’s the main prop; I think the entire play is about finding a skeleton’s bones and assembling them.) Walk through any public school in America and if you remotely look like you are willing to volunteer for a job, they will give you one. Mason’s music teacher (Mrs. Baker) asked if Susan and I could help and we said sure. Then Susan went out of town.
Mrs. Baker gave us photocopied sheets of a skeleton and said she needed that, only bigger. I had originally planned to scan in the sheets and then trace them using my projector, but since I reloaded my computer I can’t find the install CD for my scanner and I would have to unmount my projector from the wall and blah blah blah … I decided to freehand it.
Now, I’m no artist, but I can look at one thing and reproduce it. Once you see the size relationships in something, it’s easy to copy. This bone is a little bigger than the other one. This one is round. This one goes this way. I took a few artistic liberties, mostly in removing a few details that would most likely get torn off when being handled by second graders. The whole thing took about an hour and a half to draw, and another hour and a half (in between watching late night television) to cut out. They provided the poster board. Other than the time, all I’m out are two Sharpie markers.
The only minor problem is that most of the bones are not symmetrical. (Something especially funky happened with the ribs.) I’m hoping that, when arranged as such, it won’t be too noticeable. In retrospect I’m not sure why they didn’t want to use a pre-bought paper skeleton — they’re like five bucks at Walmart — but I think this one will work for their play.
All kidding aside, the next time you are in your kid’s school, you should ask your child’s teacher if there’s anything you can help with. You would be surprised at what a difference can be made by donating some classroom supplies or simply an hour of your time.
Nice one Rob! (other than the already mentions ribs) Harvey’s Montessori day care does not hesitate to ask for volunteers, so I’ve already done a few logos and flyers for them, but that’s mostly been for fundraisers. A prop for a play would be cool though, or anything actually enjoyed by the kids. Hope the play is fun!
I think it looks great! Congrats, pop! I’m that lazy parent that buys whatever they say they need on their wishlist so that I don’t have to actually DO anything that requires time. Sigh. My husband, on the other hand, is a past PTA President. Trust me, we served our time, dammit!
@Candy, I’m sure the teachers appreciate that too. Our school got to the point where teachers were buying their own copy paper for a while. Anything helps.
@Le Geek: I realized that the right side was almost exactly one rib lower than the left. I trimmed off the bottom right rib, and the sides are even. As long as no one is bored enough to count the ribs, I’m great.
You sooooooo should have put the Misfits skull on it for the head instead of that generic one.
I can’t believe you freehanded that! You coulda left the extra rib and called him Adam! is that my bathing suit laying next to him???