Hilary's Holiday Hoorah

Sometime last year I was contacted by Hilary from way over in England.  She found a doodle of mine that I created for a children's camp here in Oregon.  Hilary wanted to use it as a logo for "Holiday Bible Club" they conduct each year.  (Over here in America we call them Vacation Bible Schools.)  I like kids and I sure want to do want ever I could to promote their Bible education, so I gave her my "blessing", of course.  The one condition would be the payment of photos from the event sent to me.  I've been saving these photos for some time, waiting for the chance to share them with you...

Included in the photos that she sent me was a picture of a "sculpture" they created based upon my doodle.  That was a first for me.  To my knowledge, no one has ever turned my art into a 3D image.  Pretty cool, huh!?!

This year, Hilary contacted me again about creating a brand new image for her.  I told her that I would have to charge her this time, but (I modestly add) it wasn't much—certainly not in today's Pounds to Dollars exchange rate.  Hilary wanted an image of a child, that could be seen as either male or female, riding a flying bike.  If you've been around my blog you know that I don't like to draw mechanical items, but for the kids I was going to give it the "Organized Doodles try."  

After playing with the colors to suit her taste, this is what I sent Hilary.  I hope to get some photos, yet again, of this year's event.
What do you think?

Update:  This note from Hilary...
Hi Rick,

Many thanks for that.  I thought your page was very interesting.  I’m so glad you liked our 3D model, it did cause quite a stir.  We are hoping to make a model of this year’s logo as well, but I haven’t mentioned that to our designer yet …

Thanks and God Bless,

Hilary

Dampening Your Christmas Spirit

Somebody please tell the artist that just because he can imagine it, that doesn't mean that it had to be drawn.

Here I go again, taking a cynical look at Christmas. What is it with me and this holiday season? I really do like Christmas. I promise! I'm just trying to be funny. Which is something that usually gets me into trouble.

I hope that my mom doesn't see this one. Becky, Jan (my sisters) don't tell her either. She might call me up and use my full name and talk to me with her mommy voice. You know the one?

Anyway, I hope that I have not dampened your Christmas spirit.

And yes, this IS a Copy & Share If Your Dare (seriously - if you dare) doodle. Let your conscience be your guide. That is, if you've still got one.

Now Other Stuff: Kelly Jean, the Coffee Bean, posted this photo of her little blogging corner in her mocha flavored world. This is where she types out her wisdom to the world. Note that there are three of my doodles, all nice and framed, hanging above there.

Thanks for sharing Bean-O. My ittle bitty ego thrives on the attention. Is there any other reason to do all this?

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.