Happy Leap Day!

Celebrate! It's February 29th!! Leap Day! Or Leap Year Day! Or something like that.

This is a little doodle that I've been hanging on to for some time now. I want to develope it into a "Blog Hopper" logo. Maybe something that I could have printed on t-shirts and sell.

Gail first suggested the idea to me (I'm happy to give her credit). She's the only one to have seen this thus far. My idea is to some how illustrate the frog leaping from one blog page to another. I ready like how the frog turned out. I just need to get clear in my head how to best illustrate the various connecting blogs sites that he/she is hopping around on. In addition I want to add some words like "Bonified Blog Hopper," or something like that, to the image.

Any ideas? Would you buy a t-shirt like that? Would you help put my daughter through college? (I might as well ask while I'm here asking.)

Brenda's Brave

Brenda, (Who seems to be in the habit of calling me "Ricky"), came to me with a request for an illustration of her husband, Chris.

She said that Chris is a big Iowa Hawkeyes fan, as well as a Kansas City, Chief's fan. I got to choose which team to use in the illustration and so I decided on the Chiefs. Some how it seemed like the logical choice to me - don't ask me why. As you can tell from their photo, Brenda and Chris are a good looking couple, and you know how I hate to illustrate good looking people. But I suffered through and we "got ur done."

The addition of their Pomeranian pup was Brenda's idea. I thought it added a lot of fun to the drawing.

Brenda is planning ahead because she said that this drawing is intended to be a Father's Day gift. (Which, if you're thinking about an illustration for Father's Day, I highly recommend because I fear that I could be getting really busy around then. So, get your orders in early boys and girls.)

Brenda said that she is not letting Chris see my blog. So it was safe to post this illustration. I don't know how I should feel about that. I mean, denying him the joy of taking in all the fine, high art on my blog? I guess that it's ok. After all, we're talking about an expression of her love here. (Oh gawsh!)

Thank you Brenda for allowing me to create this gift for you. I appreciate all your comments on the old blog, and you're welcomed to call me "Ricky" anytime. After all, it's what my mother first called, and she's a pretty terrific lady.

And if you haven't gotten the hint yet, go check out Brenda's blog NOW!!!

Barb is Back

Previously Barb asked me to do an illustration for her blog. She came back to me with a request for doodling something for her web page: Barb's Create a Book. This is the design I drew without the text that she asked me to add. I had quite a time getting that part just right for her.

I had an evern more difficult time getting the designed e-mailed to her. Part of my problem, I think, was that I added the text in another program that I am comfortable using, and some how that program turned the whole design into a file that was too large to send by the usual methods.

You need to go to her web page to see the completed illustration. For some reason, when I tried to post that version here it appeared as a negative, reversing the colors. I tried it three different times with the same results. I don't understand why.

So, Barb, the "demons" in this drawing are still there. I can't explain it. It's the drawing that has fought us all the way.

More Meeting Doodles

Another meeting - more doodles. I had to steal borrow a couple of pieces of paper off a friends yellow pad so that I could get some doodle time in.


Sorry - these are egg-less doodles. I guess I just lost my focus.

One for the Renaissance Crowd

This is an illustra- tion that I drew a couple of years back. I was trying to create an illustration for the Renaissance Festival crowd - hoping that I could sell a few copies. An interesting group of people, the Renaissance lot. Walking around in colored leotards, holding wooden swords, eating pygmy chicken with their fingers, and saying things like, "A Pox on thee. Thou art a scurvy knave!" (or "navel" - I forget)

As I have said before, everybody has to have their "thing." I guess that some guys just like having the wind blow up their suede tunics.

I've not posted this cartoon sooner because it's a photo that I took of it and I wasn't too happy with the way the picture came out. On top of that, I've just about edited the living daylights out of the thing; trying to make it look right.

But, here it is. What do you think?

And, for you egg hunters out there... He's in there - somewhere. Eggy is a bit hard to find in this one, but I did some editing on him in particular to make it a little easier to locate the critter.

Family Practice - Not Mother's Day 2

This is the follow up strip to yesterday's cartoon.

So, where were you anyway? You're late! Go back and read that post first, and then you'll have to try and find some time to catch up with the rest of the class.

Honestly, the kind of behavior that I have to put up with...

Family Practice - Not Mother's Day 1

In honor of my mother, because it is her birthday today, here is another installment of my Family Practice cartoon strip. (Click on the image for the full size view.)

AND! here's Mom and Dad. (a.k.a. Bob and Jo)

Photo taken by my talented niece, Sarah Jo.

One Big Circus Act!

This project had my attention for some time.

Kim, a friend from several years back, saw my blog and contacted me about drawing an illustration of her daughter's school class. This drawing is suppose to be auctioned off as a fund raiser or something for the school.

When I told her how much I would have to charge to draw it (even with the long-time-friends discount), I actually thought she would decide not to go through with it - which, honestly, was fine with me because I knew it would take me a while to get it done. But, lo and behold, Kim talked it over with some of the parents and they decided that they wanted me to make it happen. So, I was committed.

Again, this one took some time! 23 little faces and the teacher to boot - lots of time staring at all those faces. The circus theme was my idea. I thought it gave me a chance for some fun creativity. I also spent some time looking at photos of circus acts on the web - trying to come up with ideas to draw each little clown student doing something different. Just fitting them all in was a real task. I had to draw this project at a larger size than I normally do - 14x17. This is actually a photo that I took of the drawing. It was too large to fit onto the face of my scanner.

I would post the class photo that Kim sent me, but that probably wouldn't be appreciated by the parents, especially since the photo includes their last names and stuff. (What a shame that we have to worry about such things for our children - don't you agree?) I wish you could see the photo so that you could compare the faces with the illustration.

Children are so much harder than adults for me to illustrate. Their faces are too smooth and stuff. Adults often have an ugliness that easy to capture in a caricature. Give me an ugly face to draw and I'm happy.

BTW:If you're someone that I've already drawn, I'll leave it to your imagination as to whether or not your face made me happy. In all fairness, my face would be a project that would normally make me giddy - if it weren't for the fact that it's my eye-balls that are looking at it when I pass by a mirror.

Thanks Kim for making contact again, and for choosing me. I hope that it raises a lot of money for the school.

A Friendly Little Game

My middle daughter, Andrea, is a senior at my wife's and my alma-mater. She is a member of the student executive council. She is, what you might call, the student chaplain on the campus. She has a more official title, but you get the idea. ( Check out my November 14, 2007 post for further information about her).

One of her duties is to provide a t-shirt for the members of her council. When it comes to needing any illustration I am her "go to guy." So, while she was home for Christmas we came up with the idea of taking noted Christian figures and depicting them together having a friendly game of poker. This is what I came up with. See if you can figure out who is who. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

In the mean time, and in a further effort to embarrass my daughter, I wanted to share a story about her that I posted on Kelly Jean's blog (See the bottom of my Feb. 8th post) for an interesting little contest that she held. (Kelly used a bird, of all things, to pick the winner of her contest. I didn't win and I'm calling for a re-beak!!) Some of you have read this story there already, so I've included this photo of Andrea from the approximate age of when the "event" occurred - for your entertainment pleasure.

A Brief Moment On an Arizona Freeway

Some years ago, when our children were little we were making our way on an Inter-state through down town Phoenix, when my wife and I heard the familiar cry of, "I need to go to the bathroom!," coming from our middle daughter, then probably four - now 21. (She's going to hate me for telling this.)

ALL the girls in our family were given a pea size bladder (from their mother) and I've been trained learned to be as agreeable as I can be when it comes to their bathroom issues on our trips.

BUT, there was NO bathroom in sight. Not a tree, not a bush anywhere - nothing but flat concrete and asphalt.

She was DESPERATE!!!

The ONLY place I could find to pull over was the triangle of pavement between the lanes of the Inter-state and a large entrance ramp. My wife said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'll just hold her up (as I have many times before) and let her go pee.

So, I stop our mini-van, ran over to the side door, cradled my daughter like a swing between my legs and told her to GO!!!

THEN she said, "I've got to poop!" "What?" "I've got to poop Daddy!"

What was I going to do? She's there, she's loaded and she's ready, and boy was she ready. I told her to hurry up and go!!

I'm telling you that child must have evacuated her entire intestinal system with one push! I couldn't believe (and I'll spare you the details) the THING that came out of my child.

The girl looked like she had one loooong brown tail hanging from her backside. (Oops - sorry, I gave some details) The people passing by must have said, "What's that guy doing with that monkey dangling between his legs?"

That's all it took. One push and she was DONE! I threw her back in the van, turned and ran to my seat, and drove off - leaving the evidence of our moment on an Arizona freeway behind us.

A few years later we drove by that very same spot and saw a very healthy tree growing out of the asphalt. Who would have thought? There's a silver lining to every poo story.

That's just one of the family tales (pun intended) that gets retold by us when we start talking about the good-o-days.

The End (another pun that is intended)

Have a Healthy Heart

It's sad when a heart gets old. Don't let this happen to you. Take it out and run it through some romance.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!!

Also: Good things come in pairs. Shellie, over at Little But Loud , gave me an award, (My second one of late.) Once again, I feel honored to be so honored.

I always wonder who's the guy/gal that first started passing any of these little awards around. For all I know, it could have been some over-weight, middle-aged, unshaved guy, sitting at a computer, in his yellowed underwear, scratching his back-side that started it. I guess it's a good thing that I don't know who started this one, because, if I did, I might not feel so honored.

Thanks Shellie for giving me this award. By the name of your blog I'm figuring that it is safe to assume that you're not akin the afore mentioned gentleman. Let us not ask how close I came to describing the author of this blog.

P.S. Feel free to copy and share my little Valentine with your loved ones. I'm sure that they'll appreciate your sentiment.

Making Hubby Happy

This is another request that came from "Down Under." Rosey put in an order for an illustration of her "DH". (I see those initials a lot on various blogs. It either stands for "Dear Husband", or "Dumb Hunk" - I'm not sure)

This is their family photo. Quite a crew! There's something to admire about a guy that has the courage to wear a "Mile High Club" t-shirt in a formal family photo. From the looks of things it would appear that they've been racking up several flight miles.

Rosey said that DH's dream car is a Porsche 930 and she wanted me to draw a caricature of him with one. There was some discussion as to whether or not it could be a convertible - as it would be easier for me to draw him IN it if the Porsche didn't have a top. She said that his favorite color is orange. I don't know if I've ever seen an orange Porsche, and that happens to be my LEAST favorite color, but (once again) I aim to please.

I thought the illustration warranted the inclusion of some "hot beach babe" waving at the Mile High Hunk while he drove by. So, I threw in a caricature of Rosey for free.

She said that this a Christmas gift! Talk about getting your shopping done early!! (How many shopping days are left before Christmas?) Actually, I had not realized that I was on such an broad timeline with this drawing or I might have pushed it back on my growing list of request. But hey!, it's done and she says that she's happy. I guess we'll have to wait a while before we find out if he likes it or not. I hope he doesn't get contacts, or join a cult and shave his head in the meantime.

Check out the family action at Roseys Madhouse, and cheer her on as she has begun a weight loss program.

Thanks for using me Rosey, and Merry Christmas to DH (Whatever that stands for.)

Running Doodle

Just another doodle that came out of the afore mentioned "serious" meeting.

I was trying to be creative. Eggy has made an appearance in this doodle. Sorry, if you looked for him in the last one. I left him out.

Check out Enzie's World Market Portraits blog for a chance to win a beautiful piece of artwork. (And a chance to see her nice smile)

Cherokee's People

I fear that the time between someone placing an order and me getting it done is getting a bit longer. It took me longer than I like to get to Cherokee's request for an illustration of her, her husband Michael, and their pets. When she first made the request, I down loaded the photos from her MySpace page and put them in a file. By the time I got back to her name on my list I had forgotten that she wanted me to include their dogs and cats as well. I didn't realize my mistake until after I had gotten this illustration inked in.

That was the night that I decided to put the pencil away and lay out my drawings on my living room floor. (Check out my "A Growing Portfolio"post on January 31st.)

So, My mistake is their gain. I ended up sending them TWO illustrations. The black and white one above, and then the full color one which does include the entire zoo - they've got a lot of pets!!!


Check out the photos on Cherokee's World Photography Blog.


Also: While Aileen was musing over at her blog she sent me a "You Make My Day Award."


I've seen a number of these "awards" being passed around from blog to blog. This is the first time I've had one bestowed upon me. I am honored, Aileen, that you would choose me, and thrilled that ANYONE would say that I make their day. I can barely make toast - much less someone's day!!!

Like being tagged, I fear that I am not very good at these things, and so I'm not passing it forward. But, I will say that if you want to read something "unusal" try reading Kelly Jean's February 8th post. It's a... umm... "classic".

Serious Meeting Doodle

I've been posting so many caricatures lately. Here's something a little different. I drew this while I was in a meeting last week.

Image that scenario: I'm in a meeting with a group of us sitting around a table having a serious discussion. There's me in the middle, with my copy of the meeting's agenda flipped over, pen in hand, doodling away on the back.

I'm just not the serious meeting type.

There's no real explanation for this illustration. I just started doodling and this is what came out.

What do ya think?

Sandy's Wedding March

There's no end to the variety of request that I get for these illustrations.

Sandy wrote me wanting something to commemorate her 45th wedding anniversary with her husband, Glen. (She said that they were married during a blizzard and it was 19 degree below. I didn't ask, but figured that we're talking about Nome, Alaska here.) She asked me about the possibility of me depicting their marriage at three different stages in their lives:

Newly Weds

Some Where - About Midway

Today

So, I decided to illustrate them as a cake topper, with the two of them cutting the cake, while witnessing the event as a painting on the wall.

I think it turned out fairly well, if I do say so myself - which I am generally inclined to do. Sandy liked it. At least that's what she told me, and she has the apperance of being an honest person to me. What say you?

Blessings on you Sandy and Glen. It was an honored to help you celebrate your long and lasting marriage.

Also: I'm creating a list of people that have used my art in the headers of their blogs and/or web sites - on the right side of the page. If your name is not there and you think it should be then drop me a note and I'll see if you qualify.

Hayley Down Under

This is a post is one that has been in the works for some time. Hayley, all the way from Australia, contacted me about an illustration of her family.

Her request were: 1. The one son needed to have a superman t-shirt on. Must be HIS "thing." (check) 2. A blue tongued lizard, representative of one of the boy's pets (check) 3. A white owl, because they have one that visits them on ocassion -- are you thinking Harry Potter like me? (check) 4. The whole lot of them under a shady tree (check). You put all that together, plus these friendly faces and what do you get?...




This is what you get.

I think this illustration is now the one that has travel the furthest or any of my drawings. I'm just getting started on another Australia illustrations. I have several other illustrations waiting to be posted. My whittle fingers are wearing out. Don't you feel sorry for me?

BTW - wish me a happy birthday. 51 today - and proud of it.