Really Black Sheep

I've been at my second children's camp this summer for the past week. I love working with the kids but the four hour drive back from camp with a van full of junior boys just about did me in. I may be getting too old for this sort of thing.

I tried to post this doodle before I left but couldn't get it done. I am headed to a family reunion in Yellowstone Park tomorrow morning, so I am squeezing in the time to get this post up before I leave.

This doodle is for one John, who contacted me about creating this drawing for a group of men at his church. He wrote, "Hi Rick, My church (ufpc.org) has a loosely organized men's group called the Black Sheep Boys (in contrast to the women's group "the Buffalo Gals" that my wife says was co-opted from a song...). I'm wondering what you would charge for an appropriately tranquil (ha!) caricature for us?"

It turns out that he wasn't particularly looking for a caricature, but more of some kind of fun logo for their group. I think that perhaps John saw some of my other black sheep illustrations on this blog. He was happy with my creation. Next, maybe the Buffalo Gals will come a calling.

I'm looking forward to sharing the doodle I made while at camp, but it will have to wait.

Space Nerd

This is just a little doodle that I put together while I was working at the kid's camp a couple of weeks ago. I'm calling it Space Nerd, for what I think are obvious reasons. There are a few details in the drawing you might enjoy upon closer examination.

In fact, for a mere $35 (plus $3 S&H) this original bit of artwork could be yours for the taking. Just e-mail me at the provide address on the right and we'll set things into motion.

Details: The original art is a pen and ink illustration drawn on an 11x14 piece of card stock. Contact me and this doodle (Eggy included) will be yours.

Baby Burrito Bro's B-Day

Heather needed a gift for her brother's, Cisco, 30th birthday. She wrote me and said, "Dear Rick, I'm a daily follower of your blog and laugh silently to myself at your Facebook posts. Anyways, I'm inquiring as to the price and time needed for a drawing? My 'kid' brother is turning 30 this year and needs something extra special. I know you're a VERY popular guy these days, and your artwork is in high demand."

(I just had to include that part about me being very popular. My tender ego thrives on comments like that.)

There were two things that caught my attention when Heather wrote about her brother to me. 1. He is a Mt. Bike rider that enjoys making his own trails down the mountains, and 2. He drove a burrito delivery truck.

( I would LOVE to have a burrito delivery truck cruising my neighborhood, so much better than an ice cream truck.)

So, I went to work on Heather's brother and this is what I came up with. I was a bit worried that Heather might not like having her brother depicted riding over a cliff, but unlike some previous customers of mine, Heather apparently has a sense of humor.

She was kind enough to send me this pics of the unveiling. The smile on Baby Brother's face says it all to me. (And doesn't he have a nice smile at that.)

Bird On Duty Continued

I'm still working on finishing up the request for an image to be used on a coin for the Pelican Bay Correctional Officers (Prison Guards). You can check out an earlier version on my May 12th post. This is like the third rendition. I am hoping that their happy with this one. I haven't heard back from my friend, the guard, yet. So, well see.

Tomorrow I'm headed out on my annual three day motorcycle ride. This is a photo from last year's ride.

I'm looking forward to stopping in at the De Poe Bay Candy Shop to collect my "payment" for the Bee Spit Candy drawing that I did. I don't have to even ask what my wife wants. Anything with chocolate and nuts is always top on her list.

There are 10 riders and two young men going with us. Pray that we will have a safe journey.

Bee Spit Candy

I was away from my com- puter for a few days, helping out at a child- ren's camp. While there I reacquainted myself with the owner of a candy shop in De Poe Bay, Oregon—Teri Ann. She told me about a time when a customer was agitate about a bee that was hanging around the caramel corn in her shop. The customer seemed disturbed that she was not as concerned as he was about the bee's presence in her shop. She told him that it was no big deal, after all, she said, we eat their spit. (aka: Honey)

I said she should call her candy shop, Bee Spit Candy, and of course, I got an idea for a doodle and had to put it on paper.

Teri Ann was very excited when I showed her what I was drawing. When I was done she said that she was going to use it to start a whole line of candy made from honey. I told her that I was going to be going through De Poe Bay next Wednesday and asked her if the drawing was worth some free candy to her. She said, "Of course." So, next week I'm going on my annual three day motorcycle ride, and I'm going to make 10 guys on their bikes stop while I settle up with her for some free candy. I asked her if she had anything with chocolate and nuts. She recited off a long list of items I could choose from. I hope she REALLY appreciates the drawing.

She didn't see the color version of this drawing. I colored in my computer after I got home.

Life is Intense

It's easy to get out of rhythm with this blog thing. I didn't realize until yesterday that I should have put a 4th of July doodle together. I tried to put something together quickly, scanned it, but I don't know what happened to it.

Anyways, Happy 4th people.

I did do this little doodle while I was sitting at the table with my wife and daughter the other day. I thought you might like to see it. Copy & Share If You Dare.

Polly's Pal, Pup & Pachyderm.

Polly wanted an illustration of her husband.  He is an avid Alabama fan—the Crimson Tide.  I suggested an illustration of him enjoying a game with a Crimson Tide elephant.  (Someone please tell what a Crimson Tide has to do with elephants.)  She requested that their pup, Brinkley be included in the drawing.  "No problem," I says.  And away I went.

I think this was the longest time I've been away from my blog without a traveling excuse. The loss of my computer really threw me off my game. I will be getting back into regular posting. I will HAVE TO because I have a number of request pending that I need to get done.

I appreciate your patience and the visits to this bit of insanity on the internet.

God speed.

New Computer Arrived

Sorry that I have been absent from this blog for the past several days. My new laptop arrived in the mail yesterday. (yippie!!) I'm going to get some of the files transferred off the old hard drive onto the new comptuer today. I'll be VERY glad when that finally happens. It's been a long time in coming and there's some stuff on there that I've been needing very badly. I'm falling behind on my caricature requests. I'm going to have to remember to backup my files more frequently.

In the meantime, this is an update on my attempt at creating a children's book for publication. The pen work on Sully the skunk and on the background for page one is done. My plan is to do the color work on the computer. My daughter's boyfriend gave me a few tips on Photoshop while he was here. One click of the mouse openned up a whole new world in Photoshop for me.

Thanks for sticking with me during what turned out to be Black June for me. Computers!! Alas!! You can't live with them and you can't live with them. (Is that how that saying goes?)

Elementary My Dear Principle

Mr. Town is the principle of the Pinewood Community School. Kathy, the school's Instructional Assistant, contacted me about creating a caricature of him to be presented as an end of the school year gift.

She wrote me and said, "He does this funny thing on our morning televised news program where he is 'Mr. Town, Defective Detective'. He plays a kazoo and uses a magnifying glass (much like Sherlock Holmes-type guy)."

So, once again, I went to the internet for artistic direction. This time it was the hunt for images of Sherlock Holmes. (Elementary ain't it?)

Mr. Town, I learned was also a bee keeper, and a Minnesota Twins fan. Thus the bees and the baseball pennant.

This is the finished product. What do you think, my dear Watson?

School's out. I hadn't heard what Mr. Town's response was, but I figure this being summer and all, he's probably a happy little principle either way.

Update: I received an e-mail from Sherlock Mr. Town himself this morning. He said, "Hey Rick, Loved the picture. It will be hanging in a place of honor in my office. My wife thought it looked just like me. I do work in the best elementary in the world. If you are ever out here stop in. Have a great summer! Sincerely, Cris"

Thank you for those kind words Mr. Town. Maybe I should take this opportunity to go back to grade school and do a better job.

Outside The Box

Some- times an idea comes to mind and I just have to stop and drawing it—no matter how busy I am.

We've been getting ready for the reception of our daughter's high school graduation today. We were up late getting a display of photos and memorabilia together. Then the other two daughters arrived, plus SIL, PLUS boyfriend! (What can I say?) The commencement is tomorrow. There will probably be photos.

I had a ton of stuff to get done, but this doodle came to mind and I just had to doodle it. It's what I do.

Have you been thinking outside the box lately? Then clean up the mess you left behind and then Copy & Share If You Dare.

Dog Fight

Candi contacted me about creating an illustration of her husband for their 34th wedding anniversary on May 31st.


She wrote me and said... "I would like you to do a drawing for me if possible. I know you hate drawing machines, but this one would have to have an airplane in it—a 45 year old Beechcraft Bonanza P-35."

Well, yes, I don't like drawing machines, but I like helping a couple of love birds celebrate their special day. I suggested the idea of sitting her hubby up in a desperate dog fight with the infamous Red Baron. I had fun searching the internet for images of the plane of the famed Germany pilot. There were even a few Snoopy pics that came up in the search.

I found this illustration of a dog fight and I really liked the clouds, so I decided to try and mimic them in my illustration.

Here's what I put together. Candi liked it. She said, " I received the drawing today and it’s perfect. My daughters also think it’s great (I emailed them the copy you sent me), and I’m sure my husband will love it. I’m going to try to get it framed before Sunday, but if I don’t, I’ll give it to him as is and frame it later. You really did a fantastic job. Thank you so much."

That's the kind of report I love to read! Reading things like "Perfect", "fantastic job" help this poor tender ego of mine. Mark Twain once said, "I can live for two months on a good compliment." Unfortunately for me I can only make it to the next day on a good one. I'm constantly needing image support.

Thank you Candi for your kind words, and for trusting me to help celebrate your anniversary. Congratulations on 34 years of marriage. Call me again when you make 68, and in the mean time, keep an eye on the sky!

Pomp and Circumstance

This doodle is probably a little late for many of you that might have wanted to use it. I've seen a number of post which included photos and stories about graduating relatives.

We have one tossing the tassel very soon. Our youngest is graduating high school in a couple of weeks.

This is Miss Pomp & Circumstance modeling her prom dress. Ain't she purtty? She plans to head off to college in the fall.

So, maybe you're finally walking across the stage, or someone you love has has completed their egg-u-ca-sun. If so, go ahead and Copy & Share If You Dare.

Sully

I finally did some work the other day on the first page of the children's book that I have a dream of someday publishing.

I may be getting the "cart before the horse." Perhaps I should write the story before illustrating it, but I've actually told the story so many times to groups of children that I have it pretty well figured out in my head.

The story is about Sully, a skunk, that is not happy being a skunk (Would you be?). Instead, Sully wants to be a rabbit, and the rabbits help him do it.

I've drawn this little fellow a hundred different ways. I am pretty pleased with this version. What do you think?

(Not a Copy & Share illustration)

We Have Lift Off!!

This is the follow-up attempt at creating a caricature for Katrina's parents. I am pleased to report that this version met with their approval.

Please scroll down to May 8th to make a comparison between the two caricatures. I think that you can see that I took a more "comedic" approach with this one. I feel much better knowing that Mom was pleased with the results.

Each doodle ends up being just a bit different. I never know how they will turn out. I think I like my sunset better in this one.

I really don't know if this is suppose to be a surprise gift for Dad, or if they just wanted a doodle. Either way, I can now rest easy knowing that I have another happy customer.

I'm trying really hard to keep my reputation in tack. (No comments please about the possibility of that happening.)

I'm now on to yet another doodle. Stay "tooned" to see what these little fingers of mine conjure up.

Bird On Duty

This request was for something different. The California Pelican Bay State prison is not far from where I live. So, I know a number of the people that work there. One of the guards asked me about helping creating an image for them to be used on a commemorative coin that they wanted to create—something they could use to award personnel for a job well done.

(Considering my proximity to the prison, I am hoping that includes keeping the residents within their facilities.)

This is the first version. They liked it, but made a few request for changes. Hopefully I can make the changes and get paid.

This is the Photoshopped colored version of the artwork. Stay tooned for an update.

I Still Choose You

Happy Mother's Day to you all.

This is a little doodle I threw together the other night while watching a little bit of television. I kind of like how it turned out.

I'm dedicating this to the mother of my girls—my wife, Marylynn. After almost 30 years of marriage (June 9th) I would still choose her, if I had to do it all over again.

So, perhaps this little gentleman is me in another 30 years or so. I'll be saying the same thing, I choose you; plus... "Have you seen my hearing aids?"

Copy & Share If You Dare.

(My Mother's Day doodle is posted below on May 4th.)

Another Reject

It is very important to me that my customers are satisfied with the art that I create for them. I want them to be able to look at it and enjoy their doodle always.

As I have shared in the past, occasionally I do get a less than favorable response regarding a piece. Here is another example of that.

Earlier I created a cari- cature of Katrina and her husband. That one "passed the mustard." After showing this attempt to Katrina and her mom, this one "died in the ketchup."

The concept is a road trip with their camper trailer to Hawaii—a fairly impossible scenario that Katrina's parents would love to play out.

I am now working on a second attempt. I have prior approval on the pen work from mom and daughter. So, stay "tooned" to see how I redeem myself and pull this one off.

Bob the Principal

Here's the final results on the illustration of Bob the Principal that I've been giving you a sneak peek of.

(Take a look at some of the previous post to see this doodle in progress.)

Now you can also see Bob himself and make comparison to my version of the man. He looks to be a nice enough fellow. I think that I would trust him with my kids.

As I stated before, at one time Bob was going to retire this year, and this was going to be a retirement gift. But, apparently he's had a change of heart and decided to stick around a while.

I think that when it comes for my time to retire (when I can actually afford the life of luxury that I've now come to expect) I'll be happy to do so. How about you?

This doodle is now destined to be a birthday gift for Bob come May 26th. In the mean time you can check out some of Terri's excellent looking recipes on a blog that would make a man trying to lose weight cry. (snif, snif) She's a principal too, so no running in the hallways over there.

Thanks Terri for choosing (use to be) little 'o me to help celebrate your husband's (now not) retirement. I'll look forward to hearing about his response. Please send photos.

Happy Mother's Day

I'm still waiting for approval on the Sneak Peek illustra- tion that I've been posting. I'll post the final version after I receive payment.

In the mean time, here is a doodle that some of you might want to Copy & Share If You Dare. I wanted to get it out early enough because I know that some of you like to plan ahead.

God bless you mothers. My Mom and Dad brought six of us into the world. While I thought that perhaps they should have stopped at three (my sister reads this blog), I never felt ignored or unloved. So this little doodle is dedicated to my mom.

I love you Mom, and... um... sorry about that window.

Sneak Peek 4

Here is a look at more of the color work that I've com- pleted on the illustra- tion of Bob the Principle. I've actually finished it, but I need to make a decent copy of the finished product to send to Terri for her approval. If you've followed the comments on the previous sneak peek post you've perhaps saw that Terri was pleased with what she's seen so far. That's good—really good.

I was surprised to learn that this is no longer a retirement gift. Apparently Bob has decided to not retire. So, I guess this is almost retirement gift.

Stay tooned for more.

Sneak Peek 3

I started on the coloring last night (Thurs- day night). I always have to start in the top left corner and work my way across and down. That way I don't smear the ink and pencil marks as I work on it.

The face, of course, is the most important part and takes the greatest amount of time. I think I've gotten better at these faces since I've really got into doing these caricatures these past two years. My opinion is that this one is coming out pretty good.

This is a photograph of the illustration and so, after fiddling with it in my computer, the colors are still not quite right. It will look better when I actually get a scan done.

Sneak Peek 2

Here's the pen work on the afore men- tioned retiring prin- ciple's illustra- tion. I need to do a little more work on it, but for the most part this stage of the drawing is done.

I always feel better when I get this part completed and I'm happy with it. The color makes it come to life, but if I think the caricature looks good at this point then I'm happy.

Of course the final test comes when I hear back from the client after they see the final product. I'm learning more and more that there are no guarantees in the world of cartooning.

Stay "tooned" for more.

A Sneak Peek

I decided to do some- thing different and give you a sneak peek of a carica- ture that I am working on. This is for Terri's husband Bob who will be retiring from being a school principle after 15 years of service.

We decided on a concept which depicts Bob as an old time principle sitting at a roll top desk. This is the pencil sketch. The next step is the pen work. After that the color pencil.

So stay "tooned" to see how it will turn out.

And here is a photo of my youngest laying on the couch while using her itouch to explore the internet. She's too cool for school. I just thought I would throw this in for fun.

Snail Mail

I was in yet another meeting last Friday (a meeting I just as soon forget about - but that's another story) and so I was presented with yet another opportunity to get some doodling done.

Sometime during the meeting somebody said something about "snail mail" and I figured I would put it done in pen. Yesterday I "Googled" "snail mail" and saw I wasn't the first person to illustrate the concept, but of all the illustrations I saw I was the only one who ended up creating a sad looking character. All the other ideas were ones of happy little snails, gladly carrying out their postal duty. I think they got it all wrong. The problem with snail mail is that it moves at a snail's pace.

This guy is probably carrying that check you've been expecting to get in the mail. Isn't that the way it always goes? The bills come at lightning speed. Whereas checks take an eeeeeteeeerniiityyyy to arrive!!!!

Copy & Share If You Dare, but get it done quickly. These kinds of opportunities don't come around very often you know.

Blue Sky

I've been in Portland for the last few days for a meeting. I dug back into an old file to find this little doodle that I drew for our local paper a few years ago.

If you've ever lived in the NW you can appreciate this one. I have seen it rain for two weeks straight here before. That's the price you pay for all the lush, green views that surround us. I just keep telling myself that if it didn't rain, and was always sunny, we would look like the California desert - UGLY!!

Maybe you've had a string of bad weather lately and the sun has finally broken through. If so, break out the sun glasses and... Copy & Share If You Dare.

Do You Believe In Magic

This is a doodle that I'm not too proud of. I drew it sometime ago and have been hanging on to it. I'm running low on material to post at the moment and so I found myself forced to post this one. I call it "Magic." The little fire ball is suppose to represent magic of some sort. Got it?

To tell you the truth, I don't even know if Eggy made it into this illustration. So maybe you want to save yourself the trouble of looking.

One of the reasons I'm short on doodles is that I had another rejection on a caricature. I almost posted the rejected drawing with the idea of doing a follow up on my second attempt. But I decided that I would wait.

Also...

I got this photo from Andi the other day. It is of her daughter, Arielle, holding her copy of Doodlenormous. Doesn't she look happy? Andi said that she "loved seeing the Doodle of Eggy's," but they could only find 7 of the 13 hidden in the illustration. So, I sent her a cheat sheet to help.

If you've considered purchasing a copy of Doodlenormous now is the time to buy, because, well, my youngest is graduating from High School soon and I'm trying to save up to purchase her a laptop as a gift. Isn't that reason enough?

The instructions are on the right side bar. Go ahead. Make my day.