Flowers on Acid

Been a while. I got a new computer so I have been futzing with that in the evenings. But I had a little time last night to doodle, and then I spent a few minutes today messing around in Photoshop with the doodle. The original is a black and white drawing, but here is the Photoshopped version:

Windows Vista

I have no art today. I am at a conference and happen to be in front of a computer. This computer is running Windows Vista. It is cool, but I had more fun yesterday learning about Garage Band. Way cool.

Giving Everyone the Bird

I worked on a painting last night using friskets (look it up) to create a sort of stencilled look. The problem was that the bird was ugly and my craftmanship was sloppy. So today I made a bird in Illustrator so I can print it out on a frisket (in this case, it'll be four probably) and make a better painting. But in the meanwhile, I colored the line image in and here it is.

Creepy Baby Wants Banana Split

This creepy baby was derived from an illustration on some 1960s wrapping paper. Except that baby was creepier and had nothing near as exciting as a banana split to get worked up about. It was just floating in the air wearing a little pink dress. So my baby is completely different, because he is wearing green.

Merry Days, Indoors and Out

Ok, I have this idea that has me so excited I can hardly stand it. But since it'll be a while before I have anything to really show for it, I am just going to describe it. And include one draft idea. I want to make a comic version of the Bobbsey Twins books. I know what you're thinking, and it's just not true. I am NOT channeling the spirit of Laura Lee Hope. I just think it would quite a hoot to take these funny old children's books (I have this thing for early 20th century children's serial fiction) and make them into some kind of comic. I am struggling a bit with whether or not it is copyright kosher of me to do this, but many of the original versions are out of copyright, so as long as derive from that text, I should be fine. Anyway, I am working on my characters right now. So far, I have invested five minutes into Bert Bobbsey.

Tooth

This is about as good as my cartooning gets for the past few days. I had the second half of a root canal yesterday morning and still feel like I was hit in the face with a baseball bat. I guess. I have never actually been hit in the face with baseball bat, so I don't know what it feels like. But if I ever do, I'll be able to say "wow, that feels just like a root canal!"

Illustration Friday

Illustration Friday is a site where people submit illustrations that reflect a provided topic. The topic is posted on... you guessed it, Friday. I just popped in for the first time in ages and saw that the topic about to run out is "farm." So I dug out an old scan of a drawing I did years ago. I traded this drawing for babysitting. Given what babysitters cost these days, it was a good deal.

Go to Illustration Friday, and along the right side there are options to browse the current topic. I marked mine as Pen and Ink for medium and Cartoon for style. So browse away. It'll be gone on the 15th, so then you'll have to browse old entires to find it.

Maybe I should have submitted the singing chicken picture.

Prisonville #2

Any resemblance to actual persons or places is purely a coincidence. If this happens to resemble your high school, it is because all high schools are the same. Everywhere.

Mona

This is what the Mona Lisa would have looked like if DaVinci had an annoying job, a mortgage, two kids, and no chance in hell of ever making a living with his art.

But I think he would have enjoyed wearing Mona's shirt.

Chickens and Fireworks

Lately I have been watching Charmed in the evenings as I work on these drawings. I think it makes me want to incorporate talking animals into my drawings.

Sometimes it takes 3 months to prepare a post...

Oops. This is tiny. Click to see a slightly larger version.

This comic was created using copier paper, a black marker, Photoshop (paint bucket), and Illustrator (live trace and then text). It's part of a series I call "slapdash".

P.S. Some aspects of this comic have been exaggerated for comic effect and it is not intended to be autobigraphical. Really. I promise.

Obsessive Drawing

A recent exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum focused on obsessive drawing. Iwon't go into much more than that since others have covered it better (see the June 2006 issue of Art News, or the museums' exhibition site, for more info and some cool stuff). I am particularly taken with an artist by the name of Martin Thompson.

A is for Armadillo

For those of you who do not hail from the south/southwest, an Armadillo really looks like an armored rat with big ears. They are pretty cool, but dumb as rocks and jump in the air in front of cars. But a squished armadillo is not appropriate for an alphabet book.

First Comic

This is one panel from my first attempt at a comic, made about 5 years ago. It was also my most recent attempt. Sharpie marker, copier paper.

Altering existing blogger templates

...would be easier if I knew html. Although I found my change-the-code-and-preview approach to end up working quite well.