Memories of San Diego

Heather is a friend of Teresa. Sometime back Teresa had me create a caricature of her husband and girls. Their husbands were a part of the same squadron. Apparently Heather liked the doodle I created for Teresa and asked me to create one for her too.

They live in Florida now but have found memories of their time in San Diego. She suggested that I put the San Diego Coronado Bridge in the illustration. She also wanted me to include a "KC130J" that her husband flies. I suggested that the plane could be towing him on a surf board since he is a surfer. She liked that idea.

I think that this might be the last of the Christmas gifts that I have to share from '08. I worked on this illustration a bit more after I had scanned it. So, you're not really seeing the finished product here. The main thing I did was to give the sky more color.

I remember getting a response from Heather about the illustration, but I seem to have lost it amongst all the stuff that I've collected on my computer. You'll just have to take my word for it that the she liked it.

Thanks again Heather. Hug those girls tightly. I made the mistake of letting mine grow up, and now a couple of them live too far away for me to do that very often.

Recently I received these photos from Diane of the unveiling of the birthday doodle that she asked me create for her husband of their whole family.

She wrote me and said, "Thanks again for the artwork! We have it prominently displayed in our home, and Kevin keeps an electronic print as his wallpaper in his electronic hand held thing-a-ma-jig. (He’s the technical one, as you can tell.) We will always enjoy this drawing!"

You might notice the envelope. I'm in the habit of putting a self portrait on the back before I mail the illustrations. Sometimes I get a lot of doodle time in while standing in line at the Post Office.

Thanks Diane. Great pics.
And "thing-a-ma-jig" is about as technical as I get too.

I need to create more doodles similar to my last post. I apparently struck a cord with a number of you because many were making a confession. I guess we need to get some kind of support group going here.

Thanks for all the fun comments. Now go get some help.

Family In Tandem

You know what "they" say: "The family that rides a tandem bike together stays together."

Isn't that what "they" say? Well, even if "they" don't, it's still true.

(Who are these "they" people that I hear about all the time.? "They" sure do get a lot of credit for saying a lot of stuff.)

Anyways...

Diane wanted to celebrate her hubby's B-day coming in October. Apparently, tandem bike riding is something that they do. So, she wanted me to create an illustration of the whole gang pushing the pedals together.

These type of illustrations are always a challenge because I'm not so great with mechanical drawings. Bicycles don't come easy for me, and drawing a five seater made it all that more difficult. Plus, you have to try to draw each family member to scale, at the correct position and height.

(Have I sufficiently communicated the idea that this was hard so that you are duly impressed with my drawing skills?)

Actually, the illustration went fairly well and I didn't have to do a lot of erasing and redrawing.

Since hubby's birthday is sometime next month he hasn't seen it yet, but Diane seemed to like it when she wrote...

How do I scream a happy scream in email? I don't know how to spell it, but I'm shouting for joy and excitement (good thing he's at work)! I love it, and not just because you made me skinny. &:-) Yes, it's a very happy drawing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! He'll love it. Thank you so much!

Oh - will you have it on your web site like I've seen others? I thought I could send the link to friends before his big day to give a subtle hint to send him a card!

Thank you, Rick!

(Now, THAT'S the kind of response I like to get when I finish one of those caricatures.)

You're welcome Diane. I'm glad you like your new girlish figure, and don't worry about the helmet laws. They don't apply in the blogging world. I'll look forward to hearing how the lead biker responds to his new doodle.

You know what "they" say? No? Too bad. I was hopping you would know, because right now I don't have a clue.

And oh! How could I forget? Hallie and her Sock Monkey are making a run for the White House. They held a campaign stop here in Oregon. My blog was featured on theirs. Voting for a monkey, much less one stuffed with fluff may not seem like all that much a change for some of you, but go and check out her blog anyways.