Boo Boo Markeroo

Just thought I'd throw something up since I SAID I'd try and post more. Seriously, I'll start posting more stuff soon - it's just been very busy around here.

I started experimenting with markers. I've never really played around with 'em before. So I drew up a little Boo Boo, as seen from the cover of this Yogi comic book I posted last year.


Colors are kinda weird, and I used a brown pencil to add some shading/texture. I could've worked at it some more. His hand looks kinda wacky too. Kinda crappy, but oh well.

I'm really liking markers though! I like how they glide on the marker paper. Now I just gotta stop smudging stuff around, being left-handed and all.

Collegiate sports art - Part IV

OK, so this past Saturday was the local college Homecoming game (I think they lost 21-20... oh well!). Our community has a big Homecoming parade every year, which travels down the main street between the twin towns (Breckenridge, MN/Wahpeton, ND). Our parades are actually pretty plain - I mean, we really don't have any true floats. They're just decorated trailers being pulled by pickups. The small town version of a float, I guess.

Jef and I met up Saturday morning to watch the parade. It was unseasonably WARM and HUMID for an October morn. Oh well, at least it wasn't raining. I remember homecoming parades from my childhood, riding on a float and being drenched with buckets of icy rain (and getting no candy since I wasn't WATCHING the parade instead).

ANYWAY, the parade was interesting. There was the occasional float that made use of the homecoming logo we made for this year (check out my post about it here). One float had wooden cutouts of the chaparral head, which looked pretty good. To refresh your memory, here's the logo:
Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera along, so I wasn't able to take any pictures of the floats. There was this particular float that had giant versions of the heads from the logo - when Jef and I saw it we were equally stunned and amused! Now, I know, I'm just a guy living in a small town, making artwork for a relatively small educational institution. I don't claim myself to be some big-time successful artist at this point in my life. But, there is nothing more flattering to me than seeing my own artwork innocently copied and reproduced (albeit crudely) by others. I'm the faceless artist who drew this thing, and it suddenly becomes something bigger than the logo itself. These parade participants aren't deliberately ripping me off. All of these people put in their own work, whether it was 2 minutes or 2 days, trying to create something fun for the parade. They probably felt a sense of accomplishment when they were all done; much like I felt when I inked the final line in the drawing and took a step back to take it all in. But, let's face it - some of us aren't natural-born artists!

Oh yeah, that float. Lucky for me, I almost died the next day when I noticed a picture of this float appearing on the front page of our local Sunday newspaper!!! And now I will share it with you:
So, there you have it. The NDSCS Electrical Club made it, I guess. Not bad. The best part is the white negative space and big black teeth! I just think this whole thing is really funny. Thank you, Daily News, for putting this photo in the paper.

Here's to many more swipes of my homecoming artwork in the future. The entertainment value is guaranteed to be through the roof!

Here's an idea...

Why don't I start POSTING my artwork on here? Wouldn't that be somethin'?

So, I think I'm gonna start doing that. Cartoons and things. Not random artwork. CARTOONY-TYPE THINGS!

That is all.

R.I.P. Mike Wieringo

Mike Wieringo
1963-2007(image courtesy of Action Planet Comics)

Collegiate sports art - Part III

Here's the finished piece for this fall's NDSCS Homecoming football game:

This will go on the front of t-shirts and in various promotional materials this coming October. It's quite a different logo compared to the other two Jef and I have done. Part of the problem was coming up with a proper 'theme' for this year. First of all - the opponents are the CHAPARRALS. What the heck sounds catchy when placed with a word like chaparrals? 'Whip The Wolves' was easy last year... almost TOO easy. We literally had zero good ideas this time around.

The other side of the story involved Jef's idea of placing the heads of Willie Wildcat and a chaparral (better known as a road runner) facing off on the plastic cups and little footballs they hand out every year. The footballs otherwise have plain text on them. So when we couldn't think of any themes, we started on this first - at least to figure out how they were going to look cartoon-wise.

It took about a dozen sketches of Willie designs before I came up with this one. Same thing for the chaparral - I looked at some pictures of the Looney Tunes Road Runner, but come on - a REAL road runner is HILARIOUS!!! Look:

Which would YOU choose?

So I tried basing the chaparral drawing off actual road runner photos. As we progressed, we decided on abandoning the whole theme thing altogether, and just used these heads. Towards the end we also abandoned the usual color schemes - making Willie solid red and the chaparral solid green. The main reason being we didn't want the screen printers to screw up on ink choices. Last year, they made the brown WAY too dark (and halftoned lots of stuff... but that's a story for another day!). Jef then applied some distressed texturing - something we thought would look neat considering the tee market has been all about the worn (or "grunge") look for the past couple years.

If all goes as planned, this will be printed on the front of heather grey t-shirts. I can't wait to see the finished product!

I really like how this turned out - it essentially took out all the 'busyness' that the previous Homecoming logos had. We stripped it all down and got a bold graphic in the end. So in a way, it's almost a good thing we didn't go with any sort of theme.

"Their floors are sticky-Mart!"

This news is just too awesome - over the weekend, various 7-Eleven convenience stores across the country were transformed into real-life Kwik-E-Marts! This promotion is in conjunction with The Simpsons Movie release at the end of the month.

Here's a blog with plenty of pictures from a Seattle Kwik-E-Mart.

And here's a flickr set with loads of pics from the Burbank Kwik-E-Mart!

They really did this promotion right. Any Simpsons fan should be proud. 7-Eleven didn't just half-ass it either. I mean, look! The 7-Eleven sign is COMPLETELY covered by a Kwik-E-Mart logo:


These Kwik-E-Marts, along with the rest of the 7-Elevens nationwide, will also be selling Simpsons-themed products - such as Buzz Cola and KrustyO's! The signature 7-Eleven Slurpee is now a Squishee, and look at those donuts:

Straight outta the Simpsons universe - pink AND with sprinkles!

Unfortunately, 7-Elevens are extinct in my neck of the woods, so I can't partake in some authentic Simpsons-themed junk food. eBay, maybe? Fargo used to have a couple 7-Elevens (my friend Jef & I enjoyed our weekly Slurpee tradition back in high school days), but have since turned into Kum & Go stores (yes, haha, giggle, snicker, chortle). They still have the slushy drink machines though, but call them 'Koolees.'

I think I have to go out of the country to visit my nearest 7-Eleven - in Winnipeg! They still have 'em everywhere up there. Lucky Manitobans. Otherwise the only 7-Eleven I'm familiar with is the one off I-70 outside of Indianapolis - I try to stop there every time my wife and I drive out to Ohio to visit the in-laws. Nothing like a late-night Slurpee surge for that final stretch of road to Dayton!

Speaking of Slurpees, it looks like specially-marked Slurpee/Squishee cups are giving one lucky winner the opportunity to be drawn into a future Simpsons episode. Wondering what you might look like as an animated Springfieldian? Head on over to The Simpsons Movie site to create your very own Simpsons Avatar!

It's me, I guess...

Collegiate sports art - Part II

Here's something I just got done inking the other night - a preview to this year's NDSCS Homecoming logo. Sorry it's a blurry phone pic - we just moved this month and I haven't hooked up my scanner yet:


I also made a post last July with previous years' artwork here.