The Math Wizard

Back in 2008, Kim requested that I make a doodle of her daughter's entire school class to be auctioned off as a fund raiser.  Two years later she's back with another request to create an end-of-the-year gift for her daughter's math teach—Mr. Hill.  He's also a baseball coach.  Kim wanted an illustration that might incorporate both of those aspects of his life.  After thinking about it, I requested that I be able to focus on just one of them.  Kim allowed that and said the math part would be best.  I was happy for that because she described him as a "math wiz," and the idea of drawing a wizard intrigued me.

I downed loaded a few images of wizards from the net and went to town—actually I just went to my drawing table, but you know what I mean.  So, here is Mr. Hill the Math Wizard.  He hasn't actually seen this yet.  Chances are he doesn't visit my blog, but if you know Mr. Hill, don't tell him that I just posted his face on my blog.

What do you think?

Elementary My Dear Principle

Mr. Town is the principle of the Pinewood Community School. Kathy, the school's Instructional Assistant, contacted me about creating a caricature of him to be presented as an end of the school year gift.

She wrote me and said, "He does this funny thing on our morning televised news program where he is 'Mr. Town, Defective Detective'. He plays a kazoo and uses a magnifying glass (much like Sherlock Holmes-type guy)."

So, once again, I went to the internet for artistic direction. This time it was the hunt for images of Sherlock Holmes. (Elementary ain't it?)

Mr. Town, I learned was also a bee keeper, and a Minnesota Twins fan. Thus the bees and the baseball pennant.

This is the finished product. What do you think, my dear Watson?

School's out. I hadn't heard what Mr. Town's response was, but I figure this being summer and all, he's probably a happy little principle either way.

Update: I received an e-mail from Sherlock Mr. Town himself this morning. He said, "Hey Rick, Loved the picture. It will be hanging in a place of honor in my office. My wife thought it looked just like me. I do work in the best elementary in the world. If you are ever out here stop in. Have a great summer! Sincerely, Cris"

Thank you for those kind words Mr. Town. Maybe I should take this opportunity to go back to grade school and do a better job.

Bob the Principal

Here's the final results on the illustration of Bob the Principal that I've been giving you a sneak peek of.

(Take a look at some of the previous post to see this doodle in progress.)

Now you can also see Bob himself and make comparison to my version of the man. He looks to be a nice enough fellow. I think that I would trust him with my kids.

As I stated before, at one time Bob was going to retire this year, and this was going to be a retirement gift. But, apparently he's had a change of heart and decided to stick around a while.

I think that when it comes for my time to retire (when I can actually afford the life of luxury that I've now come to expect) I'll be happy to do so. How about you?

This doodle is now destined to be a birthday gift for Bob come May 26th. In the mean time you can check out some of Terri's excellent looking recipes on a blog that would make a man trying to lose weight cry. (snif, snif) She's a principal too, so no running in the hallways over there.

Thanks Terri for choosing (use to be) little 'o me to help celebrate your husband's (now not) retirement. I'll look forward to hearing about his response. Please send photos.

Sneak Peek 4

Here is a look at more of the color work that I've com- pleted on the illustra- tion of Bob the Principle. I've actually finished it, but I need to make a decent copy of the finished product to send to Terri for her approval. If you've followed the comments on the previous sneak peek post you've perhaps saw that Terri was pleased with what she's seen so far. That's good—really good.

I was surprised to learn that this is no longer a retirement gift. Apparently Bob has decided to not retire. So, I guess this is almost retirement gift.

Stay tooned for more.

Sneak Peek 3

I started on the coloring last night (Thurs- day night). I always have to start in the top left corner and work my way across and down. That way I don't smear the ink and pencil marks as I work on it.

The face, of course, is the most important part and takes the greatest amount of time. I think I've gotten better at these faces since I've really got into doing these caricatures these past two years. My opinion is that this one is coming out pretty good.

This is a photograph of the illustration and so, after fiddling with it in my computer, the colors are still not quite right. It will look better when I actually get a scan done.

Sneak Peek 2

Here's the pen work on the afore men- tioned retiring prin- ciple's illustra- tion. I need to do a little more work on it, but for the most part this stage of the drawing is done.

I always feel better when I get this part completed and I'm happy with it. The color makes it come to life, but if I think the caricature looks good at this point then I'm happy.

Of course the final test comes when I hear back from the client after they see the final product. I'm learning more and more that there are no guarantees in the world of cartooning.

Stay "tooned" for more.

A Sneak Peek

I decided to do some- thing different and give you a sneak peek of a carica- ture that I am working on. This is for Terri's husband Bob who will be retiring from being a school principle after 15 years of service.

We decided on a concept which depicts Bob as an old time principle sitting at a roll top desk. This is the pencil sketch. The next step is the pen work. After that the color pencil.

So stay "tooned" to see how it will turn out.

And here is a photo of my youngest laying on the couch while using her itouch to explore the internet. She's too cool for school. I just thought I would throw this in for fun.

The Sub

Did you ever have one of those substitute teachers that was as mean as a bear? I did. I think that they're worried that the class would try to take advantage of them since they didn't know anybody. And, of course, that was true. So the sub turns up the "mean factor" in the classroom to try and get the upper hand.

This above illustration addresses two questions: 1. What would the ultimate mean substitute look like? and 2. What would they eat? The answer to the first question is obvious - like a bear. The answer to the second question is merely suggested - perhaps, students?

Now, for those naturalist out there who might be wanting to say that bears aren't strictly "carnivores," but are "omnivores", (The kind of animal that eats either meat or plants) I say... A. Stop trying to show off! and B. If you were a 6ft., 400 lb. bear, that could talk, you probably would be strictly a carnivore.

You can't get in a position like that eating nuts and berries. You would have to be a meat eater!

What do YOU think?

P.S. Yes, the Egg-Man made it to class.