surfing in the 70's

Here's another from deeeeeep within the archives. In the late 60's and early 70's, I was getting very into surfing. At that time, Rick Griffin was a pretty regular contributing cartoonist for Surfer Magazine. He had developed the famous surfing character, "Murphy".


Well, about this time, his "cartoons" became real pieces of art. You can Google the guy and see a lot of his posters of the 60's and 70's, as well as posters from today. Somewhere within this span of time, he found God, but that's another blog...

His art is unbelievably wonderful though, so I spent some time trying to create that graphic presentation. So, this example is an attempt using just the old colored felt tip pens and regular notebook paper. I am sure I did this during one of my really boring classes in high school. You can see that the paper has started to decay as you can see the brown area in the upper lefthand corner. This is only one of many pages, which I will post sometime soon.

Surfing and cartoons....another wonderful combination!!

bungee jumping

This is a fun toon from one of my earlier calendars. Bungee jumping has always struck me as a little bit suicidal. Basically, I think it is nucking futs!! But there is also a part of me that thinks, "Wow, that would be a rush!!"

So, I think this character's face really captures that sense of terror, with a bit of exhillaration. And everyone in the background is having a good laugh at his expense.

I also like the perspective of this composition. The guys on the bridge are an integral part of the total composition, but are way in the background. So, we have a pretty long depth-of-field to this one. It is also an inaccurate perspective in order to get the pieces to all work together. In other words, while the guy jumping is directly above you, the bridge in the background had to be off to the side so you could see the people standing there watching. But, with cartoons, you can bend the rules...

I really like drawing toons...

various sketches

This entry represents something that I REALLY need to do more of...simply going out and sketching people, things, whatever!!

When Chris had her store, I used to be able to go with her to different markets, and while she was busy in the various convention centers buying children's clothing, I would be wandering about aimlessly with my sketchbook. It can be a bit frustrating, but sometimes very rewarding. The frustration comes when either what you draw doesn't look anything like what you are observing, or you create a wonderful sketch, and your subject leaves just before you finish it. To eliminate this second form of frustration, I got pretty good at "fast sketching", a process of getting the gist of the subject on paper as fast as possible, then filling in the details at my leisure.

You can see from these sketches that the subject that is the most developed is the architectural post. You might think that is because I have a background in architectural forms and features. You would be wrong! That capital is well-developed because it couldn't leave before I was done sketching it!! Yep...inanimate objects can be very rewarding as well!

Here's another from my whitewater calendar of 1994. I believe this one was also published in Paddler Magazine, which was then called River Runner. Anyway, I later experienced some rough sea kayaking at Wilapa Bay, and I had about as much fun as the guy in the back seat in this toon. Not much!!! The only difference was that Chris, who was in the front seat was having WWAAAAAY less fun than the guy in this toon. Sea kayaking in rough conditions just isn't that much fun!! It is a lot of work!

it is easier than it looks

I kinda hate to post this one, cuz now the secret is out...the guy in the stern really doesn't work very hard. I am sure we are important, as the cartoon states, we have all the control of the boat from back there. But we certainly don't work very hard!! This toon obviously has some self portrait similarities, only this one includes my honey, who has faithfully paddled the front position for years. By God!! She sure keeps my boat moving forward!!

sketchbook revisited

Again, one of the fun things about sketch books is that you can draw anything...even photos out of magazines. So, I found this photo of Jenny McCarthy in People magazine and gave it a shot. She looks a little creepy here, but there are some aspects of this drawing that do capture her....oh, like the big mouth...Then of course I have to include a "Mr. Snoid"-like character to make comment, or, in this case, a bug. That bug, by the way, is the same bug that became the logo for Gyminy Crickets, my wife's baby movement class she ran in here a gizillion years ago. That character always comes in handy.

Register to Vote

Another toon from the archives...about 1975...

I think we all know who this character is....

This reaches back to my "activist" days at Berkeley. I tell you, I will use any excuse to draw another toon!! This is certainly one of my best charicatures. Nixon was an easy mark, though, and I think I caught his essence pretty well. Caricatures are definitely NOT my forte. I have tried to draw them a few times, with very limited success. The key is to find the character's most prominent attributes, and exaggerate them. I should try Obama's attributes. He has a lot of very distinctive facial details that would be fun to exaggerate. I will keep you posted.