MONSTER

SocMo was overwhelmed as blast after blast of forms spewed out of the unrelenting tax MONSTER that has been chasing him since the first of the year.
(click to enlarge)
You will never guess what I have been doing this weekend.

BONUS MONSTERS!
I illustrated a book for Scholastic not long ago that was full of monsters... suitable for first graders... here are some samples.

FEET

SocMo was SO excited! He has always wanted to have FEET... just like everyone else. On eBay he found some hobbit feet left over from the Lord of the Rings movies, and bought a pair for himself and MiniMo. Sweeeet!

TATTOO

SocMo likes to pretend he is Groucho and sing "Lydia the TATTOOed Lady" from the old Marx brothers "At the Circus" movie.

LYRICS:

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia The Tattooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so,
and a torso even more so.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia.
Oh Lydia The Queen of Tattoo.
On her back is The Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it, The Wreck of the Hesperus too.
And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue.
You can learn a lot from Lydia!

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

When her robe is unfurled she will show you the world,
if you step up and tell her where.
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paree,
or Washington crossing The Delaware.

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia The Tattooed Lady.
When her muscles start relaxin',
up the hill comes Andrew Jackson.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia.
Oh Lydia The Queen of them all.
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz,
with a view of Niagara that nobody has.
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia!

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Come along and see Buffalo Bill with his lasso.
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso.
Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon.
Here's Godiva, but with her pajamas on.

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Here is Grover Whelan unveilin' The Trilon.
Over on the west coast we have Treasure Isle-on.
Here's Nijinsky a-doin' the rhumba.
Here's her social security numba.

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia.
Oh Lydia The Champ of them all.
She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet.
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,
for he went and married Lydia!

I said Lydia...
(He said Lydia...)
They said Lydia...
We said Lydia, la, la!

INSECT

SocMo stopped at a diner for lunch. The cook set a plate of INSECTS in front of him and asked one question...

Mr. Obvious saves a drawing

Hi Ho... Mr. Obvious here. It has been a while since my last art tip. No? Well, Mr. Obvious has been a busy little bee lately.
Today's tip is how to save that "special" drawing. Sometimes Mr. Obvious makes a drawing that just DEMANDS to be put in a special place. When this happens, I carefully remove the drawing from my sketchbook.

Next, Mr. Obvious has a very special fold he uses on the page. This is a very complicated, intricate fold that is very hard to explain. However, Mr. Obvious has had a lot of practice making this unique fold and can do it rather rapidly. Rather Rapidly... I LIKE how that rolls off the tongue! Anyway, I have a name for this fold... I call it a "wad" fold.

Next, Mr. Obvious carefully places the specially folded art into the designated, upright, special art containment device. I keep this storage container very handy because Mr. Obvious makes a LOT of these special drawings that need to be filed like this. I hope this will be helpful to you as you make your own special drawings.
Till next time... this is Mr. Obvious signing off.