Me #8 - Scribble Scribble

Pitt Brush Pen/Black Prismacolor on marker paper; blue textured wonderment added in Illustrator.

Me #7 - Chartreuse

Winsor & Newton Brilliant Watercolour (chartreuse); colored pencil on regular sketchpad paper.

Me #6 - Less Irritation, More Comfort

Black Prismacolor in 9x12 sketchbook; color & effects in Photoshop.

Me #5 - Lazervizion

Pastel on 12x18" black counstruction paper.
Saturation levels increased in Photoshop to bring out the purples and blues.

I guess I never explained what I'm doing here. In an attempt to improve my observational skills and artistic versatility, I have decided to draw a new self-portrait (cartoon, caricature, or whatever I feel like) each day for a full year. Don't ask me why I didn't start this on New Year's Day! Anyway, I will keep it going through February of '11! I mean it this time! It seems like I never get to draw "for fun" anymore, and I really want to make time for it now, even if it's just 15 minutes of sketchin' before bedtime.

The fun part about this daunting task is that I am not adhering to any rules. No deliberate attempts at "finding a style" either. Anything goes!

And there you have it. See you tomorrow. And the day after that. And, the day after that one! Even cooler? The day after that day too! Daily updates make me feel productive!

Me #4

Me #3

Me #2

Me #1 - Outdoor Running > Indoor Running

Skadi (fan art)

I thought I'd take a stab at drawing a Skadi. Inspired while eating Green Giant veggies (hence the greeny-ness).

Girl holding paper sack

I'm back! No more crappy stuff on here. Here's something I whipped up in Illustrator and Photoshop with a few finishing touches in Painter. I want to do more stuff like this. It's up to your imagination as to what is in the paper sack. I honestly had nothing in mind when I drew it.

Funny Thing I Saw Today #6

I took a 3-day break because of the Easter weekend. Anyway, I'm back! And still on a Cadbury Crème Egg high!

Springtime is finally here - the air is warmer and the sun shines bright. It turns our living room into an oven. And cats like lounging in it. Our couch sits beneath of our living room window. Einstein and Olive love sitting on the couch, peering through the blinds (and wrecking them in the process). I had the blinds open this afternoon, along with a fleece blanket draped over the couch. Combine this with the sunshine, and it became Einstein's version of heaven.

Now, Einstein is usually a big blob of black fur. When she sits, she resembles a sack of oranges - black and fuzzy, of course. Then I see her today - she's stretched out like taffy on a puller! She even crossed her paws! I had never seen her that relaxed before.

I was just going to post this as the black & white ink drawing, but I really wanted to take advantage of the tacky LENS FLARE filter in Photoshop to really emphasize the sunshine. So there we go. Just a speedy digital color job. I'll get back to some marker stuff again real soon!

Funny Thing I Saw Today #5

My wife and I went out for dinner tonight. Living in a small town, we don't have many choices when it comes to restaurants. But it was a must to hit up a place with a salad bar, so off to The Frying Pan we went! The Frying Pan is basically our town's version of Perkins or Denny's.

Upon entering, I was startled by what you see above. Granted, this rendering is based on what was seared into my memory mere hours ago. They had a chalkboard advertising a 'Seafood Special' for '1075' (which obviously means $1,075!), an evil Easter Bunny on a white scribbly hill (I guess because we still have lots of snow around here?), and a sun that looked like a chalk explosion. Too many levels of wackiness here - I'll let you absorb what the wife and I did shortly before enjoying salad bar and vegetable alfredo.

Funny Thing I Saw Today #4

I saw this guy not even half an hour ago, walking down main street with his arms out like that. Really, he was walking in a 'T' shape! He wore a weird black leather/puffy winter jacket, black jeans, and black shoes. His hair was jet black as well, and it was one weird hairdo. Let's not forget his huge schnoz.

Well, I'm 4 days in, and so far I've been posting people on the street. It isn't my intent to do only people - I hope to post a variety of funny items, living or not.

Cartoony Adam & Eve

I have this assignment where I'm supposed to draw an Adam & Eve. I tried Eve first - trying to get better with cartoon girls.
Of course, I don't think the Bible says anything about Eve wearing lipgloss and orange eye shadow, so I failed in that sense.

And here's Adam. Not as refined as Eve. But I based him off the Adam in the ol' Albrecht Dürer engraving.

Funny Thing I Saw Today #3

Well, I really didn't see anything funny out in public in the last 24 hours. But to keep the streak alive, I shall post my latest creation, which technically IS funny - hence, a funny thing I did indeed see today:
It's a new self-portrait (including my cat, Einstein). Probably the cartooniest drawing of myself yet! I decided to do this updated self-portrait since my older ones look like excrement. I see some improvement but I am still terrible with drawing full bodies AND digital coloring. Oh well!

Funny Thing I Saw Today #2

I made an ATM stop in Fargo this afternoon. I pulled in to a drive-up ATM, which is convenient... if you're driving up... in a car. Well, like anyone else, this young man had to make an ATM deposit. However, he was sans vehicle. Not that there's any problem with that. I've walked or bicycled up to an ATM many a time.

Alas, it was a busy midday in Fargo, and a line of cars had formed to make their transactions. Dude stood prominently (as a Fargo thug can) and confidently strutted forward as the line got shorter. And that's what made the whole situation funny - that Holmes stood in line with a bunch of automobiles, basically letting everyone know that he was "makin' a deposit, Muthaf***er!" And yes, his baggy jeans were terribly succumbing to gravity.

Funny Thing I Saw Today #1

I decided to force myself into drawing and posting on here EVERY DAY. For reals, this time. I need to up my cartooning skills about 10,000%!

So for the next 365 days, I will be posting a drawing of something funny that I saw during the day. That means ANYTHING - inside, outside, at home, in town... whatever! Anything that I deem funny - and believe me, the dumbest things amuse me. I could glance at a Starburst wrapper and it'd have me rolling on the floor.

I have a feeling my cats will be regular guests in these posts.

So I am cheating on this first one, which is actually something I saw two days ago (which inspired the idea in the first place!):

(click to enlarge)

I saw this [rather grumpy] man on Friday walking down main street, carefully holding two Subway beverages. He was following a teenage girl (hopefully his granddaughter, yeesh) who was just skipping along with a bag of Subway sandwiches. So she got the plastic bag, with handles, able to transport footlongs with ease. Gramps could barely walk, nearly stumbling over a curb. He may as well have been walking a tightrope balancing the sodas on a 10-foot pole. Perhaps he has a frowny demeanor, but c'mon, he was moving drinks like they were Fabergé eggs. WHICH I THOUGHT WAS FUNNY!

I don't remember if he was wearing an actual Cenex hat, but it was red and a trucker's hat. Carhartt jacket, Velcro shoes, and no gloves. I filled in some green to indicate grass, but I forgot to illustrate the fact that we got 24" of fresh snow last week, so it was anything but green out there.

Still trying to get better with markers, so this was a good exercise.

Editorial #1

My new foray into editorial cartooning started in yesterday's edition of the Wahpeton-Breckenridge Daily News. Lots of flooding going on lately! Hopefully it's on its way out, even though they're predicting another round of flooding with crests just as high as before.

Here's to many more published cartoons in the future! Although I've never seen myself as someone talented enough to metaphorically portray current events in cartoon form!

My caricature business logo

Business has been growing with my live event caricature agency, so it was about time I made an official logo. Very Art Deco-inspired, as I've been all about the Art Deco lately. It reminds me of the NIN logo - something I didn't realize until after the fact!

"So how long have you been doing this?"

Just a few caricatures from last night. It was a student event at MSUM. My drawing abilities must have stayed at home because I was frustrated with my work all evening. Anyway, I drew about 35 people, and these were the best out of the bunch. I need to get better at this, man!

These two friends were really nice. The one in the hat was an exchange student from Oxford, England. I was talking to her about bands from Oxford, like Radiohead and Supergrass (dang, I forgot to mention Ride!). She was going home again after the semester so they asked if I could draw TWO copies, so she could take one back to the UK. I usually don't do that, but it was early in the night and there wasn't a line, so what the heck. They really loved it.

Here's a couple I thought turned out well, but I could've pushed the guy's face a LOT more. He had MUCH bigger lips and teeth, and look at that straight-line, prominent brow! Something I didn't notice until afterward. Some friends were watching and kept cracking jokes at him, so both of them were all smiles the whole time (makes it much easier!).

Now this couple - easily my favorite out of the whole evening! Seriously, who WOULDN'T wanna take a crack at this dude? As soon as they sat down, I learned they were engaged. They said they wanted to use this in their wedding, so "no pressure" or anything! O-K! They were easy to draw - she had deep, dark eyes and his hairdo was the size of Spaceship Earth at Epcot! My biggest concern was to make sure I fit his hair on the paper - had the paper been larger I would've kept going! It's too bad I wasn't airbrushing last night - this one would've been so AWESOME in color!

I'm glad I took some photos - I usually forget to bring a camera with me when I'm drawing caricatures live. I need to keep one on me ALL the time. It really helps - I can now go back and figure out what I missed, where I can improve, and just keep a record of my progress.

Phone Doodleedoos

Whilst on the phone today with my bank. Pencil, green highlighter, red Sharpie, silver metallic pen thing.
I promise I'll put up some QUALITY crap next. Hey, it's snowing outside!

Zoo sketchin'

Fire Mario!

Screwin' around in the sketchbook. Colored with cheap-o generic markers (except the fleshtone, which was Prismacolor). Man, I still suck at markers.

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.

Ventriloquist Cat ringtone

One of my all-time favorite animated shorts is Tex Avery's Ventriloquist Cat (MGM - 1950). To me, the short is a quintessential cartoon: laugh-out-loud drawings, successive gags at a great pace, and a funny premise (black cat pisses off bulldog, bulldog chases cat, cat finds 'throw your voice' trick device, cat throws voice to confuse slow-witted bulldog, hilarity ensues).

(image courtesy of bcdb.com)

Many would probably agree with me, though, that the FUNNIEST aspect of this whole cartoon is the sound of the cat's ventriloquist voice! The duck-like "meow meow" is voiced by none other than Clarence Nash, best known as the original voice of Donald Duck Harry E. Lang! I've probably seen this cartoon a hundred times since childhood, and I still find myself laughing every time I hear that meow.

When I got a new cellphone last month, I discovered that I could copy my own sounds to it (thanks to this program)! So... what did I do? Yes, I did it. I recorded the "ventriloquist cat meow" and copied the sound file directly to my phone! Let me tell you, it sure makes getting a call a lot more fun. It's as if the cat is nearby, throwing his voice to my pocket. I admit a few people have given me strange looks - hmph, they just don't recognize a good cartoon sound effect when they hear it. Even IF it's audible from my pants.

Now I just gotta watch out for Spike, in case he tries to rip my clothes off! No worries, I'll just rip his hide off in return.

Here is the audio file in case you wanna try!

GIANT TIGER likes Preston Blair too?

My wife and I were up in Winnipeg for a few days this week, and while we were driving around on Friday, we drove past a strip mall and I noticed a familiar face in the form of a store logo. Some of you may recall my little exposé from last October, which I thought was the mother of all rip-offs. Then there was this one, and of course let's not forget all of the documented forms of related rip-offs compiled over at Cartoon Brew. Well, there's more swiping action going on out there, folks. See what you think - I was rather taken aback by this:

(click 'em to enlarge 'em)

Yes, the Canadian chain store known as GIANT TIGER (or Tigre Géant for the French-speaking folk!) seems to be using a logo that has a cartoon 'tiger' face resembling something out of the classic Preston Blair Animation book. I scanned a few of the Blair cat drawings out of the book:

Now, perhaps the designer of the Giant Tiger logo had only good intentions in making a logo that was legally distinct enough from Preston Blair's originals. Or maybe it's just guys like me who flip through Preston Blair books on a regular basis, hence every instructional drawing is burned into my memory, hence I tend to spot anything that even vaguely resembles Preston Blair cartoon figures. Regardless, this guy seems to resemble Blair's. And in the tried and true tradition of Preston Blair swipes, the appeal and solid form of the original was lost in the copying process.

I'm not familiar with Giant Tiger (we didn't go into the store either), but according to its Wikipedia entry, it was founded in 1961 and there are 171 stores nationwide in Canada. What I'm wondering is, how long has this logo been in use? If you're a Canadian reader please help me out. I tried Googling this logo, trying to see if there were any other web pages pointing out its Preston Blair similarities, but I couldn't find anything. Although, I don't know much about copyright law, so perhaps because it is a Canadian company, it's safe from any U.S. copyrights related to the book and its publisher, Walter Foster. Who knows?

I guess the real problem here though is the fact that once again, Preston Blair was ripped off and the artist created a knock-off meant for commercial use. Look above and you'll even see a little ® in the logo too. That just doesn't seem right.

New additions to the arsenal

Every year the local college in town has a silent auction for crap they don't need anymore. Most of the stuff is junk, like broken computers, broken ancient office furniture, broken sports equipment, broken ham sandwiches, etc.

However, I discovered a few gems amongst all the boxes of unidentifiable hardware and smelly old swivel chairs.

I put a bid in for a drafting table, similar to this one below:

A new one like this retails anywhere from $800-$1600!!! I got mine for twenty bucks! It's used, but in very good condition. The thing is built like a tank.

My other wins include TWO of these:

(my cat Einstein seems to like it)

It's a Panasonic video imager, or document camera. I have no idea what these things cost brand new, but they couldn't have been cheap. I'm planning on using them as pencil test stations - all I need to do is add a pegbar and capture the stills through the computer. The clarity is actually really good, for a standard video camera. I placed some drawings under it and they show up really well on the TV. Perhaps I'll try some stop-motion stuff too. I picked 'em both up for $25 each.

And finally, I bid on two 16mm film projectors - they're still at the college, but I got them for a dollar each! I don't know what brand they are, but they come in avocado green cases, and I'm sure they're 30+ years old. But they both work, and that's the main thing. I've always wanted my own 16mm projector, and now I have two!

So I got all that new stuff for under $80.00! Nee-hah! I know, this post probably wasn't as exciting as, say, NEW ARTWORK, but I've been too busy lately to post anything. I'm still planning on finishing my Popmart piece, and I've got a few new projects I gotta get done before the end of May. I'll try and post 'em here when I can!

If I were an M&M...

I guess I'd look like this:Yep, this is how I just wasted away 10 minutes of my life.

Rippin' off Redon

Trying out all the brushes on Painter with a Wacom - it's hard! You know, almost like REAL PAINTIN'! I think I overused the sponge tool. Well, it was fun anyway. And it was only like a 15-minute effort. Just thought I'd post something new!

Now that I look at it, that guy looks like a cross between Mike from Monsters, Inc. and Alfred E. Newman. Ohh well.

I basically imitated Symbolist painter Odilon Redon's "The Cyclops" (1914), as seen below. I wonder what kind of crazy stuff he'd come up with if he were alive today, using something digital like Painter?