Surprise Kelly!

I know that you told me the other day that you decided to not have me do another illustration for you (so many other needs that have demands on your finances at the moment), but I decided to go ahead and draw this little doodle for your blog anyway.

This is just my way of saying, "Sorry about all the 'lousy' (I guess that I could call them) things going on in your life. You are not forgotten, and you are loved by me and the Heavenly Father."

(Crazy that a doodle could say all that.)

I know it's not exactly the illustration that you originally wanted, but I like it. I hope that you do too.

Now to all my other kind blog readers out there... Obviously I didn't tell Kelly that I went ahead and drew this little doodle for her. In fact, unless you see some evidence that tells you she has seen it (a comment perhaps?) you're seeing it before she has.

It's not my place to share all that Kelly, and her family, have been going through of late. Some of it she has written about on her blog. But I felt a little sad when she wrote me and told me that this was not the best time to invest in an illustration. So, I went ahead and drew something up just so I would send a little doodle love her way.

This is actually the second time that I've drawn a caricature of Kelly. I created one for an earlier blog which she felt that she need to delete. But since she is a blog-aholic, and because she loves us so much, she just couldn't stay away and create The Righteous Buzz. Go and check her out.

Now one of you, I guess, very well might jump over to her blog and tell her that there's something over here she might want to see. That's fine with me. I'm just trying to imagine what her reaction will be when she sees it. I hope it's a pleasant surprise.

Now back to Kelly... Also, you said that you wanted to use the face off your illustration as a profile photo. I thought that perhaps you might like to use this little doodle for that. I don't know - I thought that maybe you would find it kind of crazy - kind of fun.

My apologies for the quality of these images. They are merely photos of them that I took this morning in the early light. The originals are clearer, and brighter. And, if I do say so myself, I especially like how the first illustration turned out. I tried to keep within the color scheme of your blog.

So, if you like what you see, drop me a note and I'll get them in the mail to you.

God bless you, and God bless America!!!

(Perhaps that last line was a little over the top, but it felt good to write it.)

Walking Kelly

This is Kelly and her dog Benny. When Kelly contacted me about doing an illustration for her blog she presented an interesting challenge for me.

She wrote, "What I would like is a caricature of me trying to walk my dog, Benny, while trying to hold my shirt down over the back of my pants, and drink a Starbucks at the same time... with it spilled on the front of my shirt (because I am always spilling stuff on my shirt). Benny is our 11 month old Golden Retriever and he is a MESS!!! He has the straightest, whitest teeth we have ever seen on a dog. They are hilarious. I also have very straight , white teeth which makes it funny to some of our friends."

At first I wasn't sure how all those instructions were going to fit together, but, as I've said before, I aim to please. So here is what I came up with. I've got to admit, they both do have a nice set of chompers. Must come from good dental hygiene habits.
The bit about the shirt being held over the back of her pants comes from an interesting story from the first post on her blog. You can check that out and how she put my illustration to work over at Laughing Always Helps.

When you get there, you'll see that her blog guru added a house to the illustration. Normally we artist are kind of touchy about people adding to our work, but hey, it's just a cartoon - not the Monna Lisa. I actually think that the house adds to the drawing.

Also, you'll discover that Kelly and family are going through some difficult times. If you're a praying person, as I am, then offer up a prayer on their behalf and drop Kelly an encouraging bit of blog love.