A Full Roster

This was a BIG project. When Larry, my good friend from school days, sent me an e-mail asking about an illustration of his ENTIRE family I thought, "This will never happen." Even with the friends and relatives discount I thought the number of caricatures would make the project too costly for him to actually commission me to draw. I guess Larry has got his wife, Lisa, working pretty hard because he went ahead and placed the order.

What he wanted was their family illustrated as the WHOLE, ding dong, Chicago Cubs Baseball team! The family makes up a full roster, and then some. That's Larry on the mound. He's a pastor and he's getting ready to make his pitch. (Knowing Larry it will probably be a sinker.) This is a gift for "Pappa Bear" (aka - Harry Carey on the mic), and "Momma Bear" on the organ. Note that even the opposing team members are Chicago Cubs - just wearing the blue uniforms.


This particular drawing took a lot of my Christmas illustrating time. I spent a lot of time studying each one of their faces. I had to do it on a larger than normal size of paper. It is so big that I couldn't do the usual scanning of the art on my personal scanner. It was even too big for the place where I normally get my color copies done. So, this is a photograph that I took - my only personal record of the piece.

I was very glad when I finished drawing it, but more than that I was very happy to hear that the drawing made it on time. It arrived there on Christmas Eve - just in time. Larry said he thought that it was "outstanding." I trust that the rest of the team liked it as well.

REALLY BIG GIVE-AWAY BEGINS TOMORROW!: Don't forget to drop by January 1,2,3 or 4 to post a comment. I am giving away two prizes to celebrate my one year anniversary of blogging. The rules are spelled out on my Dec. 27 post. I will be announcing the winners on January 5. It is my way of saying thank you to all you bloggers out there that have made this year the fun run that it has been.

Be kind and tell your friends and neighbors about the give-away. I know that it decreases your chances of winning, but wouldn't it be nice to spread the love around.

I must add one more rule: My family members are excluded from the contest. Sorry, but I must avoid the "appearance of evil."

Nicole's Network

How does one illustrate a large family where each member has their own special interest? Simple, you draw each family member doing their own thing.


That's the idea that Nicole came up with when she contacted me about creating an illustration of her family. She sent me oodles of pictures of her family and then described to me what each family enjoyed doing best. Dad, the musician in the middle, Nicole scrap booking (there are so many of you "scrappers" out there), daughter that is a ballerina, a karate freak, and an American Idol wanna be. Then there is one son that is obsessed with video games (according to Mom), the 2 year old that is into everything, and then the oldest son (photo not shown) apparently has something on his mind - and it ain't collecting baseball cards (also according to Mom).



The thing that strikes me about Nicole's network are the EYES!! Big blue eyes everywhere you go in that family. How is that possible? In my family all three of the girls have different eye color - blue, green, and brown. (Mine are red at the moment.)

This drawing was yet another Christmas gift for an unsuspecting husband. Nicole said, "He stared at the drawing for like 15 minutes, just going over and over it. He was kind of laughing the whole time. Then he asked me if I drew it? Duh!!!! He really liked it"!

Check out the whole Christmas scene at Nicole's house by going to My Three Brats. With a name like that the blog has got to be interesting.

ALSO!!!

Big, Big Give-Away:Don't forget to log in on either Jan. 1,2,3 or 4 and post a comment. I am celebrating my first anniversary of blogging and I am giving away two prizes. Check out my post on Dec. 27 for more details.

Kristy's Crew

Kristy and family are serving our country over in Germany at the moment. Technically her husband is the one that is serving, but I know the rest of the family is making sacrifices as well.

She wanted an illustration of the whole family as a gift for her husband, and requested a patriotic theme. I suggested that maybe I could try to depict her family at the flag raising on Iwo Jima. But I think she preferred that I tone it down a bit and asked me to draw a draped American flag over the front of the illustration.



Again, I am here to please and this is what I came up with. Cute kids - don't you think?




The F-16 flying over head was something she thought her husband would really like. Below is a photo from Christmas Day. It looks like the baby is thrilled by my talent.




I'm proud to have one of my drawings sitting in Germany. Including Gail's caricature that I mailed to England, (Nov. 24 post) this drawing has traveling further than any of my caricatures so far. I am doing one for a family in Australia soon. Maybe, if I end up doing one for a family of penguins in the Antarctic, that would travel further yet.

Check out Kristy's blog and express your thanks to her and the whole family for helping to secure our freedom.

Thank you Kristy and family for serving our country and for using me for your cartoon needs.


Anniversary Give-Away: Be sure to read about my anniversary give away. I will be selecting two lucky winners on January 5th. Check out the previous post for details.

Jennifer's Full House

Jennifer wrote me and asked me to do an illustration of her children. It was to be a surprize gift for her husband. She said, "My husband's answer to anyone when they ask if/when we're having more kids is, 'We have a full house. 2 girls/3 boys.'"











So the challenge she put before me was to draw her children as a full house of cards. Below are the results.

I spent a lot of time on this one looking at a deck of cards that I had and trying very hard to capture their child-like features.

What do you think?

The next time someone ask her husband whether or not they're going to have more children all he'll have to do is point at the cartoon. Then tell them to mind their own business.



Anniversary Give-Away: On yesterday's post I announced an anniversary give-away that I am conducting to celebrate one year of blogging. Here is a little more clarification of the rules...

All you have to do is post a comment at least once on January 1,2,3 or 4 of 2008. You don't have to do anything else. Just post a comment, but posting more than once won't increase your chances of winning.

There will be two prizes given away.

One prize will be a print of any of the cartoons that I have published on this blog - signed by your's truly. (What does that mean anyway - "Your's Truly"?) The selection of cartoons would NOT include any of the caricatures that I've drawn for other people - who would want someone else's drawing anyway. But it does include any cartoon, color or black & white, that I've put on my blog this past year. The winner will get to choose.

The second prize will be the chance to have me do a caricature for them for free, or of someone else for free. This means the face of ONE person only. Sorry, no piling on family groups - I know how some of you think.

On January 5th, two of my daughters will pick one name each out of a hat and then I will announce the winners that day.

Providing contact information will be important. The usual link to your blog will do nicely. Just some method of contact is all that I need.

That's it! I just want to thank everyone for the fun ride that I've had past year, and this is my little way of doing that.

Laura's Joy Rides

Let the Christmas posting begin.

Laura (aka:"Peach") was the last person to place a Christmas order with me. Since she was willing to pay the extra postage I put her on my list, just hoping that I would be able to get her request completed on time. I've had several people order illustrations from me, and I was a bit worried that I could get all the drawings shipped before Christmas. She sent word yesterday that the the package had arrived. I thought, "Ahhh!! Mission complete!"

Laura requested two illustrations. One of herself with her daughter, who is apparently just now entering into the driver's license age, and a second drawing of her son.

Below is the first drawing. Now if this illustration was of me and one of MY daughters the expressions would be reserved. My daughter would be the one with the carefree, joyful expression, and I would have the look of dire panic. (There are stories that I could tell.) But this is the way Laura wanted it, and I am here to please.

One of the challenges of this particular illustratiion is the change of expression on "Baby Peach's" face. Most often, when I get a photo, the expression you send me is pretty much the expression you get on your drawing. Here, I had to create the look of panic on her face. I think it turned out fairly well.

And now the caricature is of Laura's son - a member of the law enforcement community in town.

I think that I almost got carried away on this particular illustration. I kept adding stuff to it, but I really liked how it turned out. When I showed it to co-worker she remarked with surprise that I had drawn a police office shooting a gun out a car window. I pointed out to her it was just a cartoon, and was never meant to be a reflection of reality. Besides, the guy has crashed through two barriers while jumping over a fallen bridge - hardly normal police behavior. Someone suggested that the two drawings together created a chase scene. I had not thought of that.

Here is a photo that Laura sent me showing the happy results on Christmas morning. She wrote me this morning and said, "Well they LOVE them, they were very surprised."

Check out the action on her blog.

Thanks Laura for using me for your cartoon needs. Drive safely and keep the rubber side down - as they say.

More Christmas caricatures to come.

Merry Christmas Eve

Let us pause, and take a moment, to think about Jolly Old Saint Nick as he has a long tough night ahead of him.

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends.

Dad On A Trike

Candace wanted me to draw her Dad on his '90 Honda Gold Wing trike. If you've read much of my blog, you have discovered that I am a Harley man (guy, boy, male - you choose). Some of the two wheel riders don't have a whole lot of nice things to say about trikes. Not me! One look at this photo and you can tell that this machine is a beast.

Candace says, "He just bought this bike about a month ago and it's his baby!" Some baby! I figured that it came out of the womb roaring. Actually, those Gold Wings are very quiet machines. They'll sneak up on you - if you let them. In this caricature the law is not letting him get by. I hope that Dad has a good lawyer.

I "cheated" on this illustration a bit. Previously, I have drawn bikes freehand. Doing it that way usually involves a lot of time lightly sketching the machine before I get it right. But this trike is so complicated looking that I had to purchase some carbon paper to tracing it out before I set it down in pen. (If you don't know what carbon paper is then you're too young to be up this late reading this blog. Go to bed.) The carbon paper worked like a charm and saved me tons of time.


Candace says that she is going to post this drawing on her blog after Christmas. She doesn't want to risk him seeing the drawing before hand. So you get to see it here first. But go ahead and visit her blog now - she a crafty lady and I'm sure you'll enjoy some of her creations.

And oh! There is no truth to the rumor that the pig in the illustration is symbolic of the Harley, Hog Riding, crowd. My fellow HD riders would never forgive me if that were true. "Wink, Wink"

Update: Candace wrote and said, "Just wanted to drop you a note to say that Daddy loved his drawing! Thank you! I added it to my blog!" Go check it out.

Beaver Trap

Becky commissioned me to create a Christmas gift for her husband Ron (a.k.a. Ronnie). Ron is a trapper and together, Becky and I came up with this particular scenario for his caricature.

I've stated before that I like cartoons where nature gets even. You need to know that I hunt, I fish, I make my dog take baths, so it's not like I'm an animal activist. I just find situations where nature has the upper hand great material for illustrating.

Becky wanted to make sure that I drew a hole in Ron's wadders. Reportedly, he owns (has owned) such a pair. One is tempted to try and ask him, "what good are wadders with a hole?" I guess that is just one of those burning questions that will only be answered in the "Here-After." (Or maybe he'll write me after Christmas - whichever comes first.)

Here is one of the photos Becky sent of their family for me to use while trying to capture the essence of Ron. GOOD LOOKING family! Don't you think? I love the dreamy look of the young one.

Merry Christmas Ronnie. Take care of that beautiful family of yours. It takes a special MAN to be the father of girls. To this fact I can attest.

Something Different

I have shared a few of my photos on this blog before. Here is a link to four photo albums that I have posted on Webshots. If you are interested, I recommend that you look at the Oregon South Coast album.

People are kind and have asked me how I take such great photos. I have to be honest and say that having a digital camera has greatly improved my photography skills. When a person lives in such a beautiful part of the world, and they can take 100, or 200 pictures in a setting, then one or two of them is bound to turn out OK.

There are quite a few photos there, so I don't recommend you trying to looking at them all unless you have a little time on your hands. Here are a few to whet your appetite.






Need a new wallpaper for your computer? Be my guest. Click on any of the above photos for a full size view.

Happy Birthday Jan!!!

She can have her cake, but she can't eat it too.
Today is my sister Jan's birthday. How old is she? Well, I can tell you that she's not five! Really I don't know, and I don't care to know. All I know is that she was born on Friday the 13th and that's when the tradition of it being an unlucky day started.

Actually, Jan knows that I love her, despite her deficiencies. She is the last of six children born into the home of Bob & Jo Green. Of the six, she is the only one born in Texas. The rest of us being Okies, have yet to forgive her for that.

(I'm the one with the cheesy grin down front on the left. Jan is in her mother's arms - the big baby.)

I'm hoping that after reading this post YOU, my blogging friends, will leave a birthday greeting to my baby sister. I will be happy to make sure that she sees it.

Happy birthday Jan!! And forget what I said about running home after school the day Mom and Dad brought you home from the hospital - not a bit of truth to that. (Y.A.T-H.).

P.S. Feel free to pass this little drawing on to your birthday-having friends.

The Many Sides of Doug

Kris asked me to create a Christmas gift for her husband Doug. Apparently Doug is not a blogger because she said that I could go ahead and post his illustration whenever I wanted to.

Here it (or rather "HE") is.

Below is the photographic evidence that I capture a facsimile of Doug's face. I hate to toot my own horn (actually I don't mind tooting it) but I think this caricature turned out fairly well.


Doug is apparently a complex guy. He likes electronic gadgets, barbecuing, works around the house, is an Oakland Raider fan, AND holds season ticket to the Oakland A's. Oh yes, least I forget, Doug is also a connoisseur of fine beer - or rather a consumer of beer. Me? Eeeh - not so much.

Doug, you and I can be friends, but I have to be up front with you - I am a Denver Broncos fan and it pained me to draw out the Raider logo for you. (And I resisted all temptations to put the patch over the wrong eye.)

A link to Kris' blog: brain-bubbles


I have a few illustrations that I am waiting until after Christmas to post because the clients don't want to chance someone seeing their caricature before the big day. I hope to get a number of e-mails after Christmas from the people that have placed orders with me - to tell me what the reaction of their loved one was.

Airplane Art - Sneaky

If you're looking for an explanation or deeper meaning to this illustration, there is none. I was just trying to fill time and paper while traveling on a plane.


I do wonder what the strangers on either side of me thought about this while I sat there and drew it before them.

P.S. I was tagged back in Nov. by KellyJean. Though I've never met KellyJean I feel honored to have been tagged by her. But, alas, I've already been tagged and once is enough for me. I did promise to put a link to her blog on mine. So, go take a peek at her site. She seems like a nice person. She's got to be, after all, she picked me!

Click here to check it out: laughing always helps

Facing Down Death

This illustration arises out of my wife's cancer treatment days. It deals with a little more serious subject matter than I am normally illustrate, but my cartoons were my personal therapy during those difficult days. This is one example of some of some of the art that came out of that time.

You may have picked up from some of my earilier posts that I am a person of faith. During a particuarly dark moment, after my wife and I had a visit with her Oncologist, I was feeling particularly discouraged. He had given us some satistics regarding her cancer that were not encouraging. I was fearful about what might happen to her. It was during a troubled moment that I sensed the Lord telling me that I should stop putting my trust in the doctors and put it in Him instead.

It has often been said that doctor only "practice" medicine. I realized that if I was putting my trust in them, then I had every reason to be discouraged. But if I was putting my trust in God -- I always had hope.

Feel free to pass this little cartoon along to anyone that might need some hope.

Thank God for hope.

P.S. I couldn't be completely serious. Eggy is a little hard to find, but he is there.

Airplane Art - Losing the Christmas Spirit?

Have you lost your Christmas spirit yet?
This is another bit of airplane art - one that I have been saving to post in the middle of the Christmas rush. Feel free to pass it along to your friends that are in a "Bah, Humbug" mood at the moment.

P.S. Did you know that there is a Humbug Mt. on the Oregon Coast. I've wonder if Ebenezer Scrooge lives at the top. I guess that I'll never find out - it's a three mile hike to the top.

Here's a photo that I took of the base of the mountain. I live about an hour south of there.

Barb On The Fence

Say hello to Barb. She contacted me a little while ago and asked me to create a caricature for her. She said that she would like me to draw her standing by (not on) a picket fence. She also request that I add Daylilies to her drawing. It's interesting to see all the different scenarios that people come up with for their illustration.

I had fun looking up photographs of Daylilies on the web to help me know how to draw them. After she saw the caricature, Barb said that I sure knew my Daylilies well. The truth is that I think I created some new breeds of flowers here. The same goes for the butterflies.

You can find Barb's blog here. She says that she is having it redesigned so that she can include this illustration, and that to happen in the near future.

One thing I learned while working with Barb: When people send you a head shot, don't turn around and ask for a full body photograph. People tend to balk at that kind of request.

My apologies Barb, and thank you for using me for your cartoon needs.

Airplane Art - 50 Gal. Hat

This is another bit of my airplane art.

Just in case you're new to my blog, I have a habit of taking an art pad and doodling when I travel by air. There are a number of previous examples of my airplane art that I've posted on this blog. It's not that I travel a lot - it's just that I draw really, really fast.

I have, on ocassion, given away some of my doodles to people who express an interest in what I am drawing. On one flight, I gave a Flight Attendant one of my sketches and she, in turn, offered me a drink. I took her up on it - a Dr. Pepper, of course.

If you happend to be flying somewhere and you end up sitting next to some guy that is drawing silly cartoons, go ahead and say hello... because it probably won't be me.

Family Practice - Battle Bob

My wife and I spent most of the day yesterday Christmas shopping. Only for us, a trip to the mall involves a 2 1/2 hours driving one way. It's an all day affair.

Yet again, I followed my wife around as we picked out various gift items for our girls. Alas, it's always the same thing. We rushed by all the COOL STUFF to get to the girlie items: shirts, beauty products, pants, coats, and a few ladies' unmentionables, etc. etc.

Since I am the father of three girls (And yes, I under biologically that I am responsible for that.) I NEVER got the chance, on Christmas morning, to sit on the floor with some boys while they try out their manly (huff, grunt, growl) toys.

This is the inspiration behind this particular cartoon panel.

Click on Image for a larger size

I wish my girls would hurry up and give me a grandson to play with on Christmas morning. WHAT AM I SAYING!?! You take your time girls. I can wait.

P.S. For the record: I love my girls dearly and I wouldn't trade them for any boy in the world!!!

Aileen in Color

The internet and this blog have really increased my accessibility to others. Right now I am working my way down through a list of request for illustrations from a number of different people that have placed orders with me. I enjoy getting to know each person just a bit, to learn about their interest, and to work with them in creating a humorous scenario for their illustration.

This is Aileen (pronounced A-leen), and she recently ordered a caricature from me.

Among the things that she wanted for her illustration was color. So color she got!

I like this drawing, if I do say so myself. Previously I have tried to draw this concept of paint flowing out of a brush. I gave up on that earlier attempt because I didn't like how it was turning out. This one turned out much better.

At the last minute I decided to follow the flow of colors on the color wheel when I filled in the stream of paint - rather than drawing in random colors. Doing that, I think, added to the appeal of the illustration. Maybe I should have used more green. I like green. (A reference of my last name for you uninformed readers out there.) Overall I am very please with the way Aileen's caricature turned out. And yes, Eggy is there.

Aileen was also interested in having her house included into the illustration. One look at the photo and you can tell that she is a unique individual, and I say that as complement. If you visit her blog , and take a look at some of her unique art, I think you will come to the same conclusion.

Aileen says that she is redesigning her blog so that she can use her new illustration there - to be posted there in the near future I am told.

Update: Aileen's illustration now sits on the header of her blog. I am really impressed with the way she has it incorporated into the scheme of her web page. Go take a peek and leave a nice comment.

Airplane Art - Let It Shine

Someone asked me what was the connection between these four individuals. The answer is... None. I was just tryng to fill space on a page.

Airplane Art - Zoom!

This is more airplane art from the trip to Oklahoma earlier this month. I wasn't really all that excited about the drawing but I warmed up to it when I went back and added the lettering. I've never filled in letters like that before and I kind of like it.

What do you think?

Family Practice - Packing Skills

The Season of Shopping Has Begun!

Click on the image to see the full size.

This is another cartoon strip left from my attempt at having a syndicated cartoon and another example of me creating an idea from real life situation. The conversation in this piece pretty much follows one that I had with my wife on a Christmas shopping adventure - only I think that my mother-in-law thought, not said, the last line.

Gail - A Proper Writer

The internet and this blog have given me the chance to meet so many interesting people that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet. This post certainly is an example of that.

This is Gail and she is from jolly old England. Gail requested an illustration from me and said that her thing was pens - she likes pens. (We've all got to have something I guess.) She wanted a pen included in her caricature. That was a challenge for me because drawing a ball point isn't very visually stimulating. So I came up with the concept of using a quill. She liked that. It was her idea to have all the crumple paper laying at her feet, and I like that.

The dogs are her Norwegian Elkhounds (Funny, they don't look Scandinavian to me.) which she was happy to have included in the illustration.

Gail said the the drawing made her look like a "proper writer." I just love the way the British talk - don't you. I don't know about it making her look proper, but I think the illustration turned out well.

You can visit her blog by going to squaredoff.blogspot.com
and see how she used her drawing at her own site. (Please do, you know how we bloggers love the traffic.)

Thanks Gail for choosing me for your cartoon needs. Please stay in touch.