newspapers

Q. What is black and white and red(read) all over?
A. A newspaper.

I remember first hearing this joke as a little kid. It rocked my small mind when I realized that the word I thought was red was actually read. The old switcheroo. This was probably the first joke I had heard that worked like this.

I have illustrated this joke several times for joke pages in kid magazines over the years... and the answer is never "a newspaper" anymore. It is always something like "an embarrassed zebra"... "a penguin holding its breath"... "a sunburned polar bear" or such. I had been thinking that since EVERYONE knows the old newspaper joke, this is just another switcheroo! You think the answer is "a newspaper" but then they trick you by saying it's something else.

But now I am not so sure.

Newspapers are disappearing off the American landscape like the mighty buffalo did many years ago. Now there are even more newspapers in financial trouble. Do kids even see a newspaper these days? Probably not. Maybe they wouldn't understand the original joke. "A newspaper? ...what's that?" Maybe the joke has to be retooled just so kids can understand it now.

I wonder how many newspapers will bite the dust in 2009? And just WHO will do the investigative reporting like Woodward and Bernstein then? Some news blogger sitting at his laptop in his pajamas?

I think not.

Merry Christmas!

...and the VOICES said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men"...

Wow... long time since the last post! I have been really busy for the last few weeks. After I got my deadlines met, I jumped into Christmas card mode and made this. Then, we all jumped into the car and drove to Missouri for an early family Christmas. Now I am back and regretting all the snacks I consumed during the last three days. (burp)

So... I would like to wish everyone who has stumbled by JONESAPALOOZA this year the best of the Holiday Season and a great new year in 2009!

SIMILAR

I think Socmo has some friends who are kiddos. So for all the kids out there, here is a puzzle for you. All of the SocMos here are identical to each other except for one. One SocMo is only SIMILAR to all the rest. Can you find it?

As you are looking you might sing to yourself... "One of these things is not like the others"... I watched way TOO much Sesame Street years ago...

*Remember... You can click on the image to see it in JUMBO size*

Balloon

I have been busy busy lately and didn't think I would get anything done for Ilustration Friday again this week. But I managed to come up with a drawing at the end of the day yesterday thanks to TV reruns.

In 1982 Larry Walters tied 42 helium weather balloons to his lawn chair and took a trip. He wanted to go up a bit and hover over his neighborhood for a while. Instead he shot up to 16,000 feet (three miles) ... where it is pretty cold. A couple of airline pilots reported seeing a man in a lawn chair holding a gun as they flew by him. He had planned on shooting out some balloons to come back down. When he did descend, he tangled in some power lines and blacked out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. The stunt got him a $1,500 fine from the FAA, and appearances on the Tonight Show and David Letterman.

Pixar's next movie is UP and looks like it may have been inspired by Larry. CLICK HERE to see the trailer. I can't wait!

PRETEND

When I was a wee lad, I had a stick horse that I rode all the time. I probably put thousands of miles on it. He was a broomstick with a head made out of a sock. This stick horse is well known among my family members because I named it after my most favorite thing in the world... Gravy. Yes, my stick horse was named Gravy. Gravy and I covered a lot of ground in the backyard. He was reliable transportation, and a good companion. I wonder if any one rides stick horses anymore. My guess is that kids today are all plugged into computers or playing electronic games. Too bad.

Jiffy Lube

So... I had a little time to kill at the dentist office and did this sketch of the Jiffy Lube across the street. I don't do this very often so I am a bit rusty. There is a new sketch blog that is very interesting... take a look at it here.

WISE

He who holds his tongue is WISE. ~Proverbs 10:19 NIV

OBUMMER!

The SocMo for President Campaign headquarters are now VACANT... but for one poor soul...

VACANT

I have been very busy lately, totally focused on meeting deadlines. This weekend was so beautiful, that I spent a lot of time outside. So... once again I have a week of deadlines facing me and no time for Illustration Friday... but I did manage to scratch out a quickie last night before bed.

REPAIR

SocMo has a plan to REPAIR our country. It is the only plan that will really FIX IT! But first you have to elect him president. So when you go to the polls, remember to write in SocMo! That Tiger Woods guy and Yosemite Sam both have plans, but they won't FIX IT like SocMo's plan will FIX IT. SocMo's plan will FIX IT and FIX IT good! And it will stay FIXED! So vote for the FIX IT guy... vote SocMo!

Must see TV!

Here is a sketch I made while watching the final presidential debate last night. I think it could be a new TV series... what do you think?

STRING

During a campaign speech, SocMo noticed a loose STRING... pulled it... and his tail fell off.
________________________
My personal challenge is to take the Illustration Friday word, combine it with SocMo, throw in his presidential campaign and see if I can squeeze an idea out of it. Sometimes it is easy... but usually it isn't. When I am having trouble coming up with an idea, I have to remind myself of the advice that Charles Schulz would give. He said after all, cartooning is just drawing funny pictures. So I defaulted back to just drawing a funny picture... and got my idea.

doodle 12

It's Funny Fishy Friday! This is another very old sketch from way back. This reminds me, there was a time when frozen fish sticks were a staple in my diet. Those days are long gone now. No more frozen Burritos either. But I do pop in a frozen DiGiorno pizza once in a while....ummmm good!

Star Wars

I know what you are thinking. What is Star Wars all about? I need help understanding it all. Well, here is help. Star Wars explained by a 3 year old. Watch this... it will be the best one and a half minutes you spend today!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

Sugary/Packed

Running a presidential campaign requires a lot of energy. That is why front runner SocMo starts each day with a great big SUGARY bowl of Sugar Frosted Chocolate Coated Wing Nuts. His bag is PACKED, and he is confident that the American people will be sending him to the White House very soon. I mean... just look at the other two candidates... this is NO contest!
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Since I missed last week on Illustration Friday, I combined the word for last week with this week. A two for one deal!

This month JONESAPALOOZA is THREE years old! In October 2005 I found Illustration Friday and wanted to play along. I created this blog as a place to put my entries. If you would like to see my very first entry just CLICK HERE. I needed a character to use for the word FLOAT, so I used a character based on an old sock monkey I had when I was small. SocMo's looks have changed some since then, but he has appeared in a lot of IF challenges and is now running for President of the U.S. of A.! WOo.

The quality of my Illustration Friday entries is all over the board. Some were well thought out and carefully executed, while others were dashed out in minutes. I have also learned a lot about Photoshop over the last 3 years here. This is where I do some experimenting with Photoshop to see what happens if I do THIS. Some expeirments work out OK, others don't... but I post them all. Even this week I was trying to figure out how to add the letters behind SocMo as an add on after I had finished the illustration. A good little challenge, but I did it!

As a special bonus for SocMo fans, I have now painstakingly gone through 3 years of posts and added some labels. If you go to the side bar and look under LABELS, you will find ALL SocMo postings grouped by years. Click on a year and take a walk down memory lane. Please... SOMEbody do it... or else I have just wasted my entire Sunday afternoon.

doodle 11

It's a secret agent kind of guy. I think he can listen in on other people's conversations with his special iPod. It is special because it has that little antenna, see? There are little marks coming from the antenna that indicate he is listening to classified government secrets... or MIchael Buble...

doodle 10

Here is a very old sketch from the bottom of a pile. I think the final version of this probably appeared as an Illustration Friday post. I was hoping meat loafers would catch on. If you get hungry you can eat a shoe... and later have the other one for lunch. But then you have to walk home barefoot. Oh, well.... back to the drawing board...

doodle 9

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the Bush"

I had to illustrate a few proverbs and wise sayings recently. While I was sketching on this one, I thought of this twist on the saying. It has probably been done before... by someone else... but I thought of it all by myself. So there. The sketch was such a mess that I decided to clean it up a bit and add some color. This could be our whole problem... too many birds in the Bush.

doodle 8

A sly wink of the eye causes grief. (Proverbs 10:10)

doodle 7

Another day... another doodle. Do all bakers wear checked pants?

doodle 6

What's black and white and red all over? This is a pencil sketch on tracing paper. After it was scanned, I did a little Colorize trick with Photoshop... just to make it a bit more snazzy. Have a snazzy weekend!

doodle 5

It's old Nebuchadnezzer or Neb as his buddies call him. And he seems upset at something doesn't he? Must be cuz I put a silly hat on him.

doodle 4

A pig doing Karate... nothing unusual about that! I think this was done for a joke whos punchline was... "pork chop"

CLIQUE

As SocMo's presidential campaign travels around the country, he is often mobbed by autograph seekers. SocMo is happy to to sign autographs using his fancy French ball-point pen which makes a nice "CLIQUE" when he pushes the button.... which he does a lot... maybe too much...

NOTE: I have started posting a small doodle each day now. If you have missed out, just CLICK HERE to catch up.

doodle 3

It's Monday... and we continue on our quest to post a doodle a day. Here is Mr. Laptop... man of the year.

doodle 2

I draw a lot of kids. Here is a very loose girl... er make that a loose SKETCH of a girl... who is 2 heads tall. I like the way figures look when they are 2 heads tall. This was drawn with a Col-Erase Carmine Red pencil.

Doodle two sounds like toodle loo...

doodle

I'm not one of those people who can draw something the first time. I'm more the one who draws something the fiftieth time. Which means a lot of doodles happen between my initial sketch and what I am eventually satisfied with. And more often than not, I like the loose doodles more than the finished piece.

For example... I went to Google Images and found pictures of the Fantasy Island guys. (see post under this one) After many attempts, I wasn't really getting anywhere with my idea of doing a funny drawing of the characters. I went on to other things. I did some more drawings from the photos later. Still nothing. Then, while I was working on something else, I picked up a Micron pen and down in the extreme corner of my page dashed off this little doodle. I liked it! It resembled the guys but in the cartoony way that I was after. Everything perking in my noggin, came together and flowed out my pen. This doodle became the basis for my Fantasy Island drawing.

So here is what I am thinking. I have lots of random little doodles laying around, and lots of Blogger space to fill. I think I will start posting doodles between the other things here. Let me know what you think of them. Now you have a reason to come back and see what's NEW here!

Enjoy, as they say... :0)

ISLAND

My friends, welcome... to FANTASY ISLAND!

Way back in the late 70's and early 80's Fantasy Island was broadcast by ABC. Each week several people would arrive by plane to experience their ultimate fantasy. They had paid $50,000 for the experience. Each episode began with Mr. Roarke and his diminutive sidekick, Tattoo waiting for the guests to arrive. Tattoo would announce "Da Plane! Da Plane!" The plane would land and the guest stars of the week would be revealed. The highlight of the program for me was hearing Tattoo shout "Da Plane! Da Plane!" TV was kinder and gentler back then.

CLUTTER

After you sort through all the visual CLUTTER, your choice for president will be crystal clear.

SocMo amazed America last week when he announced his running mate. Well, actually he announced that he does not NEED a running mate. Sock monkeys never die, they just get repaired. Sew on an arm... attach a new eye... add a bit of stuffing. You're good to go! If only it were that simple for us!

As SocMo campaigns across the country on his tour bus (a converted garbage truck, but tricked out really nice) he is often asked what party he belongs to. He always answers... "the Pizza Party, who's buying?" This has provided many meals for him and is what keeps his fledgling campaign afloat.

His campaign has suffered a few setbacks in recent weeks. Last month his finance manager disappeared along with all of the profits from the sales of "I GO SOCMO" items. He just took that bag of nickels and vanished! SocMo learned a valuable lesson from this... you just can't trust relatives.

Where is Ed McMahon?

I had an entry for the game over on Gurney Journey the other day. The challenge was to draw the owners of a business by looking at their buisness card. This is what I did.

Did I win? Did I win? I am still waiting to hear. I am hoping to see Ed McMahon at my door and a large Brinks truck pull up in my driveway to unload my newly won riches.

MEMORIES

Click to enlarge... you know you want to...

So... all weekend I had this word in the back of my mind, but had no ideas for it. Nothing. Sunday a supply line to the kitchen sink burst. Water was shooting out from under the sink like Old Faithful. I got soaked trying to find the cut off valve in the torrent. There went my Sunday afternoon. It is now fixed, with a shiny new faucet to boot! And I only ONCE, muttered one of the special words that I use for plumbing or car repair in the process. :0)

I finally got an Idea for the Illustration Friday word, and decided to try out some new materials with it. I had bought a pad of bristol board on a clearance sale... it had MANGA things on the cover so it HAD to be good stuff, right? Then I read about a cartoonist praising his pen point. So I just HAD to try one. The pen was totally out of my control. Huge blobs of ink globbed out as I was drawing with it. I was trying for a more scratchy irregular line... but the pen had a mind of its own. I decided that I don't like the paper OR the pen.

Oh, well... I added a bit of color to the drawing and it's good enough for this blog. We have very low standards here.

ROUTINE

You know the ROUTINE when you get a new electronic gadget.

> You take it out of the box and punch the buttons, hoping you are as intuitive as the gadget is. When that fails...

> You look at the Quick Start Guide. When that fails...

> You read the big manual. When that fails...

> You ask any 12 year old for help... which is what you should have done in the first place.

DETACH

SocMo gets peeved when he has to DETACH all those cards from his magazines.

Usually, if I don't get something made for Illustration Friday over the weekend it never happens. Sunday night I had an idea that was simple enough that I could scratch it out really fast and get it posted. Whew... a low quality... quick drawing... but I goterdone!

SAIL

SocMo never could spell very well...

The SocMo for President campaign is now kicking into high gear! Yes, SocMo is THE alternative to those other other two guys running. The big buzz around campaign headquarters right now is the search for the right Vice Presidential running mate. At this moment, SocMo's people are in tight negotiations with Paris Hilton's people. A SocMo/Paris combination would be unbeatable at the polls in November. Unfortunately, the talks have hit a snag. Paris' little doggy chewed off SocMo's left arm.

If you would like to help SopcMo's campaign out, just click on the button on the right and buy 1.3 billion buttons and pass them out to all of China. Oh, buy one for yourself too... and wear it proudly!

SocMo thanks you for your support.

I am Doug Jones and I approve this message cuz SocMo is totally HOT!

ABC

Each day I look forward to seeing what James Gurney has posted on his blog, Gurney Journey. He touches on a lot of subjects I am interested in. I like dinosaurs... he paints dinosaurs for National Geographic. I try to paint plein air... his paintings look like they were cut out of the landscape and pasted on his canvas. I doodle little objects... he makes little models of fantastic machines and paints them for his Dinotopia books. He is an encyclopedia of knowledge on drawing and painting. I always learn something from reading his blog each week.

One thing he has been doing is something he calls Art By Committee (ABC). The origin is that he had some fragments clipped from old science fiction manuscripts and was setting around with friends in a coffee shop (if I remember correctly). They all took turns contributing to a drawing in his sketchbook inspired by the fragment.

Now, each Wednesday he posts a fragment and anyone can play along by doing a drawing inspired by it. He posts all the entries on the following Wednesday.

So... this is my entry for the game this week. The phrase I had to work with was, "their voices were high-pitched, piercing... but human."

POOF!

click on image to enlarge... I dare you...
I think I hurt myself on this one... :0)

SHARKweek day 6ix

Q. What is a shark's favorite food?
A. Peanut butter and Jelly fish sandwich

Muh ha ha ha haaaaa....

I thought I would end up SHARKweek 2008 with a little spot illo I did for a joke page a few years ago. Well, I have enjoyed coming up with these Shark images. I'll have to try something like this again sometime... right after I go take a loooong nap...

SHARKweek day 5ive

Well, I have enough shark ideas to go for another week... or more. But a lot of ideas are diamonds in the rough, and need a lot of polishing to make them really sparkle and shine.

For example. I really like Goldfish crackers. With a glass of milk, I can eat a bag of them with no problem. So I was thinking... what if it was SHARK crackers instead of goldfish. There's an idea. I had this scribbled down on my page of random shark ideas and selected it for today. But I didn't really give much thought to how I was going to use the idea... how I would present it... or draw it. I just did the obvious, have a hand going into the bag with a shark cracker biting the finger.

So when I finished the drawing, I looked at it and it was kind of so, so. Not bad... not great... just there. It is what it is... as they say. So today's lesson, kiddies, is that you can HAVE an idea... but it is what you DO with the idea that will make it either great or a dud.

I think I will end up SHARKweek with a little humor tomorrow. Stay tuned.

SHARKweek day 4our

click on image to enlarge
SocMo loves to go motoring in his classic 1932 Sharkly-Benz… and offer people a taste of his Grey Poupon.

SHARKweek day 3hree

So... last night I had a dream. In the dream I was told to make a drawing of a SHARK eating a SNAKE with a FORK in a fine dining establishment that had a ROSE on the table. Well... you just can't argue with a cryptic dream, so here it is.

This is very similar to another dream that you can see HERE. I'm just glad I only have to do ONE drawing... unlike that poor soul who has over 400 more paintings to go...

SHARKweek day 2wo

Faster than Montezuma's Revenge... more powerful than a bottle of Windex... able to swim over tall buildings....

"LOOK... down in the ocean... it's a FISH, it's a SUB... NO, it's SHARKman... with his faithful sidekick GuppyBoy!"

Yep, day 2 of SHARKweek is in gear! And what could be better than a SuperHero? Sharkman is an awesome crime fighter. He was bitten by a radioactive shark while visiting an aquarium, and developed his Sharky sense. When he finds bad guys in the act, he CHOMPS them... eats them right up. This saves taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees and court costs in prosecuting criminals. Lawyers hate Sharkman.

SHARK week!

It's Shark Week here on JONESAPALOOZA! I thought I would follow the lead of Discovery Channel and do something sharky each day this week.

I have not seen the new Batman movie yet, but I can't avoid those creepy images of the Joker. Woo... that is one scary dude! So what would be even SCARIER? Well.... how about a Joker SHARK... of course! This shark is so unfunny that he has to use CANNED laughter after he tells a joke.

Jackalope

When I was small, I used to entertain myself by lying in the floor and drawing. I would draw for hours. All kinds of things came out of my pencil. Cartoon characters, dinosaurs, inventions... random stuff.

It seems that now, most of my drawing is for assignments. And I am drawing lots of things that are not very interesting to me. And I am trying to draw them in the style the client is expecting... not much fun.

But the other day I sat down and tried to draw for fun again. After a few doodles that went nowhere, I did this little Jackalope that I liked... so here it is!

ENOUGH

Well, I got another Illustration Friday picture scratched out during Masterpiece Theater last night. I wish I had time to look at all the other entries and post comments, but this is going to be a busy week. I've had ENOUGH busy weeks. I haven't even put up my hammock this summer! ENOUGH!

Oil Change

The "Service Engine Soon" light has been on in my vehicle for a couple of weeks now and it was getting on my nerves. All 5,473 of my nerves. I also had some sketches that were past due to a client in downtown Nashville. I decided I could do both of these things in one fell swoop and feel good about myself for being somewhat efficient. So I drove downtown, dropped off my sketches and took my vehicle in with my oil-change/tire-rotation-money-saving coupon in my hand. I thought I might do some preliminary doodling on a job while I was waiting for the oil change. BUT, as I walked out the door, I saw the skyline of Nashville spread out before me. So I hopped up on a little wall and started sketching it.
Click on image to Supersize

On the extreme left is the Tennessee state capitol. The next building to the right became my measuring rod. Everything from that point on was compared to that first tall building to try to keep everything in proportion. "Is this building half as tall as the first building.... and is it wider than the first building?" This kept me pretty much on track, but I seemed to get larger as I went across the page. The last building on the right is what we refer to around here as the Batman building. The coolist building in town. It took about 30 minutes to draw across the skyline and I then decided it was time to check on the status of my vehicle.

Of course it wasn't ready yet, so I sat down in the waiting room. And there... about 6 feet away... and not noticing me... was this girl with a really great profile! I couldn't resist! She was listening to an earphone and watching the TV as she waited. I secretly drew and drew and pretended to be staring off into space (which I am VERY good at) if anyone looked at me. So I finished the girl and then drew a few cartoony cows for good measure. Then they called my name, I paid, got in, drove home, and lived happily ever after.

the end.

FOGGY

SocMo is a bit FOGGY in the morning until he has had his first cup of coffee.

OOPS!

Have a safe 4th everybody...