happy birthday

My wife's birthday was two days ago, and I did a crappy job of addressing it. I was too wrapped up in my own affairs to pay it much attention. Not a good way to keep a healthy relationship!!

It is not that I didn't care, but I didn't take the active role in making it a special day for her. So, it ended up being just another day. Even after all these years, birthdays are special, and need to be treated as such. So, to those readers who are new to the business of relationships, remember to remember your better half's birthday, and do something special with him/her. It is now too late for me to make my better half's birthday special, but watch out for next year!!! and the year after!!!! and the year after that!!!

So, this little toon is simply posted to tell my honey that I really do love her, and once again wish her a happy birthday...even if I didn't do right.

downtown banners

All right Everybody!!! I get to honk my own

horn!!! This is a photo of banners I drew for the Bend Downtown Association. These are up all over downtown. Another company did the graphic layout, but the cartoons are MINE!!! It is always fun to fantasize, and think that maybe I am getting famous. Anyway, these toons show some fun whimsey, and I am always into fun whimsey! So, come to Bend and see my posters!

House in Miranda

Every once in a while, my drawings overlap with my
profession, designing houses.
This is a drawing from my sketchbook. I was at my sister-in-law's house up in the hills of Humbolt Co., and had some time to spare. So, I decided to sketch her house. It is a different looking house, obviously vintage 70's hippy-style. It is very cool, though, with a lot of beautiful redwood. Anyway, I think I caught the essence of the design well, and it reads very clearly also. It is fun to look through old sketchbooks and come across little gems like this.

good wolf vs bad wolf

This is a drawing I did for a book of fables that I helped
create for my tae kwon do instructor and the owner of the gym. I illustrated a whole compilation of stories. It was a lot of fun, and Master Graff has used the book a lot since, reading the fables to his students at the end of class. It is very rewarding to know he uses the book.
This fable is of a native american grandfather who is telling his grandson about two wolves, one very good wolf, and one evil wolf. The grandson asks, "Which wolf is stronger?" The grandfather replies, " Whichever wolf you feed more."

think about it....

My friend, Judy, asked for a couple of drawings that showed a person who is somewhat overweight, but not really fat to represent her marketing for a product called "Heavy Hands." That presented a challenge for me, because that meant that I had to accurately depict a character to fit a description!!! I have never been good at boundaries.

So, I worked it out with my middle aged character, Flora (see Bob and Flora post 11/30/2009). I think I captured her essence quite nicely. Her character is getting further developed. She is still cute, but certainly middle aged, overweight, and no sense of style. But you gotta like her. She just oozes, "Nice".

Then I added my new character, a young lady, again overweight, but not seriously. She is a pseudo-jock, and wants to work out. She is even using "heavy hands".

I drew these as pen and ink, then scanned them to color them in Photoshop. Again, I think it worked out quite nicely.

wrong turn

I don't know if I have already said this, but I drew toons for a running magazine published here locally. This is one of the toons, illustrating a story about a marathon runner who missed his turn and ended up somewhere out in the boondocks! He obviously ran more than the 26 mile marathon. I liked the composition with the high-tech (exhausted) runner, contrasting the relaxed, pipe-smoking hillbilly. Then, colored in photoshop created some fun depth. A short stint as a professional toonist!!

discovering gravity

Okay, it has been pointed out to me that I have already posted "Chemo-girl." So, I was just reviewing a little bit so you don't lose track of what I have done!

Now this toon was a special present for Joel on his 21st birthday. I researched and placed many quotes from his favorite philosophers. It is acutally kinda hard to read, but my goal was to use the written portion to create visual texture. I think I accomplished that, but this would be a good concept to try again sometime. I really like the character, walking along, pondering the cosmos, about to discover that gravity works (falling apple). He is rather R. Crumb-ish.

The concept is really quite simple, but one can spend a long time looking at it, trying to get the quotes. By the way, my favorite quote is by R. Crumb himself. Try to find it.