Recent Weather Journal Pages

I have been keeping a weather journal since last September. Here are a few semi-recent pages. Just click on the pictures to enlarge them.

I decided to draw all five days that we were up in Maine as a television weather report. Pretty scary weather girl, eh?

A REAL Chair!

I now have a sleek, comfortable, professional drawing chair thanks to an anonymous contributor. This was totally unexpected and made my day. I was told about it on Monday and today when I arrived home from work it was waiting in my porch for me. I was using a hard, uncomfortable short back stool that we had picked up at IKEA.

This is the photo of the new chair from the catalogue it was ordered from.

This is it after I assembled it. It only took about 10 minutes to put it together.

Thank you very much Mr. Anonymous! Now I no longer have to be crippled after an hour at the drawing table.

If you want one for yourself I would highly recommend ordering it from here.

http://www.artstuff.net/monarch_high_back_chairs.htm

Still Pressed For Time

I'm still very busy with work and home so I haven't had much drawing time. These are a few I have managed to eek out.

I have started to read this book.

A Sad Day At David Wasting Paper

Jewel

1995-2009

Jewel's six month fight with lymphoma ended last night. She was a great kitty and she will be greatly missed!

Where The Hell Have I Been?

Wow, where has the time gone? I can't remember doing much of anything, yet almost two months have gone by.

Last week I was at a store with my wife and we came across this book.

It is kind of geared to children but I've had a lot of fun doodling around with it. I sure wish I had it when I was a kid. Below are a few of them I tried.

The Cat Whisperer

The Resophonics

Many of you know that I have been playing the guitar since I was 10. I think that if you play an instrument you have a greater appreciation of more diverse music genres. I enjoy rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, jazz and country (from the 50’s and 60’s, not the new crap they try to tell you is country). One band that I have seen at least 4 times is The Resophonics. They are a bluegrass/folk band that really rocks. They have so much energy on the stage and they always have one or two hilarious stories to tell. The first time I saw them only three members of the band performed, Paul Kochanski on bass, Sean Staples on guitar and Eric Royer on banjo. I drew caricatures of them of them minus Sean’s beard, which he no longer has. You can check out there site here http://www.resophonics.com/, although the link to purchase their CD’s no longer works.

Paul Kochanski

Sean Staples

Eric Royer

Put On Your PJ's and Pour a Bowl of Captain Crunch

Flash back to 1969 any Saturday morning. A small boy of 7 years wearing cowboy pajamas settles in front of the TV with a heaping bowl of Captain Crunch cereal. He is glued to the television for hours watching cartoons. This leads to a lifetime love of all things cartoons. Flash forward to May 26, 2009. A not so small man of 46 wearing jeans, t-shirt and swilling from a heaping glass of Guinness is glued to the TV watching cartoons. Coming in exactly two weeks is the DVD release of Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 1. If you are my age this is a no-brainer purchase.

Below are pictures from all the cartoons that will be on this awesome DVD. See how many you remember.

Ricochet Rabbit
Punkin Puss
Magilla Gorilla
The Impossibles
The Jetsons
Frankenstein Jr.
The Herculoids
Dino Boy
Space Ghost
Marine Boy (the only one I don't remember)

The Flintstones

Augie Dogie
Snooper and Blabber
Quick Draw McGraw & Baba Looey
The Porky Pig Show
Winsome Witch
Squiddley Diddly
Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey
Breezly and Sneezly
Peter Potamus and So-So
Hillbilly Bears
Precious Pupp
Atom Ant
Top Cat

How to Draw Stupid

I was recently talking to Bill White who was one of the instructors for the cartooning class I took. He highly recommended, "How to Draw Stupid" by Kyle Baker. Of course I had to have it. After reading it twice I decided to take some notes. What follows is the list of the best bits I gleaned from it.

You have to ACTually draw something, even if it is bad.

Doing stuff wrong is how you learn to do it right.

Cartoons are all about using exaggeration in the service of communication.

It’s the characters personalities that people respond to.

The body is composed of three basic sections, head, rib-cage and pelvis. You should have all the sections oppose each other.

Two priorities in cartoon design: emotion and clarity.

In cartoons the eyes are where the characters live.

A good cartoon character should be easy for everyone to draw (i.e., Peanuts, Sponge Bob).

Simplify by eliminating details and also by exaggerating contrasts.

Leave nothing in the art that is not story information.

Streamline designs for clarity and easy repetition.

Every element of the cartoon should communicate.

Not using reference pictures is lazy.

Characters are defined by what they do.

People respond to characters not dialogue.

The purpose of entertainment is to manipulate emotions.

Antics are the moves that precede and anticipate a bigger move that follows. Antic is short for anticipation.

Avoid the “Hand of Death.” Most people don’t stand around talking with their hand just held out or floating in space. Have the characters hand doing something.

Stupid people are safe to ridicule, because they always think you are talking about someone else.

The eyes show what a character is thinking.

If you are drawing a strip with a stupid character, show the character thinking before doing something stupid. It makes them seem even more stupider.

Try to generate at least two conflicting emotions. Funny with a sad ending-romance with comedy-excitement with fear-depression with uplift.

Have your characters display a specific emotion state that’s specific to the situation and is played in character.

"How to Draw Stupid" is a great book packed with helpful tips for the cartoonist. If you are interested in drawing comics or cartoons you should definitely pick it up.

Kyle has a blog you should checkout, http://thebakersanimationcartoons.blogspot.com/ .

In addition to Kyle's blog, you must stop by Bill's, http://bwhitecartoons.blogspot.com/ . He updates it quite frequently.

Drawing Monsters

Frankie was done with pen and colored pencil while sitting in my truck at lunch on a rainy day.

Check out this new book by Randy Martinez, "Creature Features." It is chock full of how to instructions on drawing monsters of all shapes and sizes including the Classics.

BLAM

I worked through exercises from some cartooning books today.

More Lunch-Time Drawings

Haven't done much since my class stopped, but here are a few I did at lunchtime.

Assignment For The Last Class

Unfortunately tomorrow night is the last of the cartooning classes I have been taking. I have enjoyed it immensely. Mat http://www.matbrown.net/ is really a great teacher and he makes the class fun. I would highly recommend him, and I hope he will offer more classes.

Now without further ado here is my comic strip. You kind of had to see Goodfellas to get it.

Right Click and "Open Link in New Window."

This Week's Cartooning Class Assignment

This week for my cartooning class we were assigned the task of coming up with single panel cartoons. Here are the ones I came up with...and no groaning. In order to read them just right click and "Open Link in New Window."

Play Me Some Art Supplies

A few months ago my brother-in-law, Jay showed interest in picking up the guitar again. I lent him my Fender acoustic so he could get his licks back while saving up for a guitar of his own. Last week he had enough cash to get one so we drove down to Guitar Center. We played many guitars and he finally settled on this Epiphone.

This Saturday I received a Fed-Ex envelope from Dick Blick art supplies. I hadn't ordered anything so I couldn't figure out what it was. Upon opening it I was surprised to find it was a gift certificate. It was from Jay with a note thanking me for lending him my guitar and helping him pick out one of his own. I was like a kid in a candy store and set myself up with some drawing supplies for cartooning that should last me quite some time.

I ordered a mess of Faber Castell Pitt artist pens with various nib sizes.

I also ordered a bunch of non-photo blue pencils. These are great because when you photocopy your inked drawing, the pencil lines don't show up which saves you from having to erase all of your sketching.


I ordered this neat spinney thing to hold all of the pens and pencils.



Thank you very much Jay and practice those chords!



Speaking of cartooning, here are a couple of more drawings I've done for my class. This one I did of my instructor giving us some advice.

This one is an exercise showing motion. Not sure what he is running to or from, but whatever it is, he's in a hurry.

Cartooning Class Sketchbook

This week's assignment for the cartooning class I'm taking is to draw different types of bodies and people. Here are a few of my first attempts. The first one is done with a brush which gives it a different look than the ones done with felt tip pens.

Franken-Kitty and the Expressions

That would be a good name for a band.

Here is the first assignment from my cartooning class. We had to draw the same face with 10 different expressions. I found it quite challenging since I've never really had to do that many expressions with one face, and the mustache made it harder.

....and now Franken-Kitty. Our oldest cat Jewel had a lump on her neck that needed to be removed. It was pretty scary since she is an older cat and we sweated the whole anesthesia thing. She made it through fine, however she looks like Dr. Frankenstein got a hold of her. Poor Jewel!

Been Awhile

Sorry it has been quite some time since I have posted. I've been very busy at work which infects me with "Sleepy Guy Syndrome". By the time I get home and we eat supper I find myself semi-coherent in the recliner. Not to mention the fact that the dreaded Zuni Fetish doll has somehow returned...

I had my first Cartooning class the other night and it was informative and well presented. I am looking forward to the remaining classes. It is being taught by Mat Brown http://www.matbrown.net/. After reading books and dreaming of doing something in the cartooning world it is nice to finally find a class that is taught by someone who not only does it for a living, but also has years of teaching under his belt.

Speaking of reading books and dreaming about being a cartoonist, here is something from R. Crumb that puts it into perspective..."Wishing won't make it happen!"

Geekified Plain Wooden Pencil Boxes

I signed up for a six week cartooning class at one of our local art associations. I start on the 27th of this month and I really can't wait. So...since I am such a Geek, I decided to customize a couple of wooden pencil boxes to hold my pens and brushes for the class. The materials I used were the boxes I purchased at A.C. Moore for a buck a piece, a couple of older comics from the dollar rack and some clear decoupage with throw-away foam brush. I just started tearing up interesting pictures from the comics and put about 5-6 coats of the goop on them, waiting 15-20 minutes between coats.

Here are the before pictures;

These are during;

...and these are the completed boxes.

The bottoms.


The ends.

The sides.

...and filled with cartooning supplies.

Frankenstein Jr.

When I was a kid I loved the cartoon Frankenstein Jr. I had the coloring book and the Big Little book of the show. I received this bank for Christmas which is totally awesome!

This is a drawing from the model sheet that they used as a guide for the animators.

Here is my rendition from my journal pages.

Recent Photos Of My "Work" Area

These are the most recent photos of my "work" area. The bookcase is new, so I finally have the piles of books that were strewn all over the house in one place.

I hope that everyone out there has a wonderful Christmas!

Icy Morning

More Journal Pages

We received a foot of snow from Friday afternoon through Saturday night. It still hasn't stopped snowing and we have received and additional couple of inches. It will make for an interesting Football game today between the Pats and the Cardinals at Foxboro.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

I haven't had much time to draw except in my journal, so here is one I did just around this time last year. It was done with a Faber Castell Pitt pen and my cheap Winsor Newton watercolors. It is framed and hangs behind my drawing table.

More Schulz Journal Pages

A couple more of recent journal pages.

Pig-Pen's Snowman

I have always been a Peanuts fan. Yesterday's snow inspired me to try my hand at one of my favorite Schulz characters, Pig-Pen.

Christmas Lights Journal Page

I've been keeping a weather/sketching journal for the last couple of months. It forces me to draw everyday even if it is only the sun and clouds. This is the entry from yesterday. It was fun putting up the lights for Patti's step mom, but boy there were a lot of lights. I felt like Clark Griswold from "Christmas Vacation."

Oldie But Goodie

A couple of years ago we found this stray kitten under my truck in the driveway. Since we already had two cats I was reluctant to bring it in. My wife won out and we adopted it. Because she had been living outside and eating God knows what for so long she had some...um...intestinal troubles. By that I mean (sorry to be so frank) the worst gas I have ever encountered in my entire life. Not only was it frequent, it was also well beyond foul smelling. Luckily she is now healthy as a horse and no longer has any of her earlier tummy troubles.

We adopted her (and named her Pieces, since her mother's name was Reese's) in August and my wife's birthday is September 2nd, so this is the birthday card I came up with that year. You'll note that one of the cats (Badger) isn't quite as bright as the other (Jewel) so when he has the light bulb idea symbol over his head it is only 65 watts. If you right click and "Open Link in New Window" it will be easier to see.

Tagged?

Today I was tagged by Freebird over at http://freebirddrawing.blogspot.com/ . Due to the fact that this whole blogging thing is quite new to me, I had no idea what being tagged meant. For those of you who also don't know what "tagging" is, here are the rules;

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here we go:

I have been playing the guitar for most of my life. I have never played in a band, however a couple of my buddies and I sometimes get together on Friday nights and jam. We can sound pretty good...after a couple of adult beverages. If we ever do become a band I'd like to call ourselves, "Shoes on the Highway." I always see lone shoes on the highway and wonder about the story of how they got there.

I am infatuated with old black and white Sci-Fi and Monster movies from the 30's through the 50's.

I will be married for 12 years on December 14th of this year and I couldn't be happier.

The first car that I ever owned was in 1978 and it was my grandfather's 1974 powder blue with black vinyl roof Dodge Dart. It was a four door and was quite the party mobile...sorry Grandpa.

I really miss going to Drive-in-Movies.

Hockey is and has always been my favorite sport. At one time I was a pretty good goalie. Alas, two years ago in a pickup game on one of the local ponds I busted up my shoulder pretty bad and my skates have been permanently retired to the back of the garage.

These are the six people that I in turn tagged. Sorry folks if you aren't into doing this but you were on my list.

1. Zeke at http://zekeedm.blogspot.com/
2. Stephanie at http://deliberatelycreative.blogspot.com/
3. Sharon at http://kunstrxns.blogspot.com/
4. Starr at http://wistex1129.blogspot.com/
5. Brenda at http://amberridgedesert.blogspot.com/
6. Plo at http://forcryeye.blogspot.com/

Fish and Fowl

A couple of quick ones done at lunch.