PHOENIX

As the Phoenix bird rose from the flames, it had the horrible feeling that this time something had gone wrong...

MASK

Sometimes Santa puts on a MASK just to shake things up in the workshop.

MIGHT

INVENTION

SocMo's newest INVENTION is meat loafers. Shoes that you can wear around and when you get hungry... you can eat them!

CLEAR

SocMo knew he had goofed up when the hot chocolate he made turned out CLEAR.

SMOKE

SocMo always enjoys SMOKING a fine cigar...

GHOST

Who you gonna call?
After missing the last two Illo Fridays, I am back in the game this week. Woo hoo! I had other things going on the last two weekends, and never had the time to draw up something. This week I am grabbing the first fun idea that comes along and doing it. I was trying to stick to an orange/black Halloween scheme here.... sorta.

QUIET

SocMo makes his latte money by doing a QUIET mime routine...
I thought I would play around with the Photoshop halftone filter on this one. I still don't know how to use the thing. I applied it at different settings and at different resolutions... trying to get something that I liked. After an hour or so... this was the best I could do. Oh... and I was very QUIET while I did this. yeah... right!

PHOBIA

So... I got this idea in the shower... at the YMCA... is that too much information? :o) I was thinking of the word PHOBIA and other words that sound the same. Faux worked for the first part of the word. Ita helps toa have a fakea Italian accenta fora the lasta part... beea. The more I thought of it, the better I liked the idea. I couldn't wait to get started.

I usually draw everything in place when I do an illustration, but I found myself drawing various parts of this. I scanned the parts into Photoshop and then arranged them so they looked like what I had in mind. Add some color and it's done! Lotsa funa for mea!

CHANGE

It always takes SocMo 30 minutes to order an ice cream cone because he keeps CHANGing his mind.

It looks like I will not have much time for IlloFriday this week, so I whipped out this idea. Part of it was done while talking on the phone... a bit of multitasking

FARM

SocMo enjoys visiting the FARM... but the animals are always glad to see him leave. Click on picture to ENLARGE... you'll be glad you did!
Illustration Friday is where I tend to experiment with stuff. This week I rediscovered my old, long forgotten Rapidograph pen, and used it on the line work. Then I played around with digital watercolor for the first time. Fun stuff... but I have a LOT to learn here.

SAFE

When SocMo eats spaghetti... nobody is SAFE!

RUN

SocMo RUNs his best with the right motivation

MATCH

SocMo easily won his tennis MATCH thanks to his prehensile tail.

PLAY

SocMo was banned from the PLAYground after he was accused of using jump-rope enhancing drugs...

CAPTURE

How does SocMo CAPTURE an elephant? He looks at him through the wrong end of his binoculars, then picks him up with tweezers and puts him in a jar!

RAIN

SocMo loves to pretend he is Gene Kelly, and reinact the famous "Singing in the RAIN" scene.

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I am bummed! After having done a great job coloring this in Photoshop, I was messing with filters to get a cool rain effect... and Photoshop crashed! A VERY rare occurance for me. Lost everything. I decided to rescan the line art and post that anyway. If I come up with some time I may try to add color again... who knows. Alas... these are the perils of working digitally. (sigh) Gotta remember to save early and save often. :o)

Singing in the Rain is one of our most favorite movies of all time. If you have never seen it... or it has been a while since you have seen it... go get it and watch it. The best musical ever! Really! Donald O'Connor doing the "Make 'em Laugh" number is a great bit of fun cinema. He looks a lot like SocMo!

DANCE

Inspired by the classic Calvin and Hobbes.

PORTRAIT

SocMona Lisa... a little Photoshop fun...

SORRY

SocMo is going on vacation for a few days, so he won't be around to entertain you... SORRY.
He did see the new movie "Over the Hedge" and really liked it. I think the adults laughed more during the movie than the kids did. It is very entertaining and fun. SocMo would give it two thumbs up... if he had thumbs... and knew which way was up...