Spark

I've been pretty busy lately but I didn't want to ignore this blog too long without posting something else.  I know that you've got to try and keep things fresh so that you, my blogging audience, will stay in the habit of checking up on me.  We artist live for the attention of their adoring public.

Here's a quick one.  I drew this for a friend that is a children's pastor in Bend, OR.  She calls her ministry "Spark."  This doodle really didn't take me long.  Often, the good ones, don't require a lot of time.  Simplicity is often the best.

I never heard if she actually put the illustration to use.  I guess I'll have to ask her the next time I see her.

Dragon On

I hope that you're not getting bored with dragon updates.  At one point I thought that this was finished, but as I look at it this morning I think that I could fiddle with in a bit more.  The problem is that sometimes I fiddle with things too much and end up hurting the illustration more than helping it.  I think every artist faces that challenge.  Anyway, for you view pleasure, here is an update on my Dragon Encounter doodle.  This is a photograph so some of the details (especially one particular detail—you regulars to my blog know, perhaps, of whom I am referring) my be difficult to pick out.

AND... Just so I can throw something in a little different on this post—here is a photo of the youngest and I getting ready to go for a ride on the Harley.  It's also my current Facebook profile pic.  The weather looks good today.  I may have to break out the bike for a quick spin.

Dragon Doodle Update

I've had to lay this aside for the past few days, but not before I got some more doodle time in on this dragon encounter illustration.  The trick for me is to not make the background so busy that I end up losing the two characters.  Yet, I want the forrest and so forth to be busy enough to make it interesting.

So, what do you think?

Scroll down to March 12 to make the comparison from when I previously posted this illustration and!!  ...stay "tooned" for more.

Boatin' With the Grands

Stefani wrote me and said...
Hi, My name is Stefani and I have seen your work both on Because I Said So blog and a fellow twin mom friend here in San Diego, Tonya From a Day In My Life blog. I have been thinking about having a caricature done (and was just gonna contact Tonya for your name and info when I saw your contest post on Because blog tonight).
I love your work and was thinking it would make a great gift for my dad who has everything for his 68th birthday. I was thinking I would like it to include the whole family which is mom and dad, my husband and I plus 2 kids and twin babies and Brother, sister in law, young niece and new baby (due the end of march). Is this too many people? what would you charge for something like this? I look forward to hearing from you and discussing possible options. Thanks, Stefani

After sharing my (very reason- able) prices with Stefani she decided to go with a doodle of her parents with the six grandkids.  Together we came up with the idea of making it a boating scene.  


I had a lot of fun putting this together for her.  Large group illustrations can be a challenge to bring all the portraits together to make an interesting layout.  I'm happy with the way this one came together.


When I sent Stefani of photo of her piece she wrote back and said, Oh Rick, it's great.  So, love it, love it, love it.  Wow!  a three "love it" response.  That's pretty good.  

A Dragon Work In Progress

I started this little doodle during the recent mini-family reunion we had a few weeks ago.  I had forgotten about it, and then rediscovered it while flipping through my sketch pad.  All that I had done was a quick pencil sketch, but it still had an appeal to me.  I've drawn plenty of dragons before, and even posted some on this blog.  I liked how this one was turning out enough to make me want to develop the illustration further.  The scribbles you see on the illustration are the outlines of a forrest that I am setting the two characters in.

There's no real purpose for this illustration; other than my the entertainment factor for me.  I have a couple of other paying jobs I need to be working on, but once I get going on something like this it's hard for me to put it away.

Stay "tooned" for dragon updates.

New Blog Header

After three years of just using the standard blog header for this space on the internet I finally took some time to create a new customized header for myself.  I started on it early Monday morning and could hardly put the project down all day.  I'm happy with it—quite happy as a matter of fact.  I wanted something colorful, something fun, something doodly...  My one fear is that the title, "Organized Doodles," get's lost in the mix.  What do you think?

An Evil Dust Bunny Has Hit

I woke up yes- terday morning to find that there were 444 new com- ments on my blog!  "Wow!," I thought, "somebody out there really likes my work."  It didn't take long to find out that my blog had been "spammed."  Of course I don't know who the evil dust bunny is. All I know is that the culprit is Asian because the "comments" involved a loooong like list of links in some kind of Asian script.  It turned out that he/she left one of their annoying spam comments on EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY POST!!  Grrr.....!!!  I am guessing that they have some kind of program which seeks and finds blogs to target and then will automatically place the links there.

What likely took them seconds to do is taking me days to erase.  I have been slowly going through each of my post and permanently deleting the links.  I'm a little over half way through.

To delete one of the comments involves seven clicks with scrolls on my computer.  Do the math.  To rid my blog of this "dust" I have to click 3,108 times.  That doesn't include the "miss-clicks" and the times I click on the post again by mistake.  So now I've had to change my setting to give approval to a comment before it will be seen on my blog.  I don't like that.  When I visit a blog I just like seeing that my comment in place before I move on.

Any of you have your blog attack in the same way?  What steps did you take to prevent it?  I did follow the link on his name back to his "blog" and told him that he was a pain in the butt.  That probably didn't help me any.  Also, I reported it to Blogger.  Who knows if they'll do anything.

At least going back through each one of my post has been a trip down memory lane for me.  So many doodles, so many kind people making nice comments.  I've been at this blog thing for over three years now.  I guess I will keep on going—despite the evil dust bunnies that are lurking out there.

Copy & Share If You Dare

Your Name Here

This doodle may seem more appropriate for Halloween, but really all it is was an attempt to fill a tall slender piece of paper that I had laying around.  As with most of my doodles, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know, I've sketched out some kind of macabre graveyard scene.

Do you know where you'll find your final rest?  If not, then Copy & Share If You Dare, and prepare to met they Maker.  (No forwarding address will be necessary.)