deep dark dungeon dude... dang!

Question: How often do you get asked to draw a lawyer hanging upside down in a dungeon in a bigfoot comic strip style?

Answer: About once in your career.

I have been very busy lately doing sketches for a little teaching book. I was contacted by a local designer (who is an old friend) to do this B&W illo for him. I don't really have the extra time for another project. What to do? Well, you squeeze it in somehow. Actually, this was pretty painless. I dashed out a sketch, e-mailed it, heard back that the client liked it, and did the finish. I wish eveything was this easy. Unfortunately, a job like this is very rare. Usually there is much agony and gnashing of teeth on my part. I end up feeling like I would rather trade places with the guy in the dungeon than do the job... but not this time! Nope... this time it was a cakewalk... woo hooooo....

Sink o' de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody! :0)

PRIMITIVE

Recently, some new cave drawings were discovered in Lascaux, France. A PRIMITIVE Neanderthal sock monkey appears to be hunting prehistoric, freerange donuts. This is the earliest record of the existence of a sock monkey ever discovered. A nearby cave was found to be the ancient burial ground of the rare Jurassic Donut. Paleontologists are thrilled by their discoveries.

Game Time!

Here are a few of the little icons I made for Alamofire. They have a game on FACEBOOK called PackRat. It was fun to design the little icons. They appear about half this size in the game. I had to keep them as simple as I could so they would read OK at the small sizes. The game is played by finding and collecting icons that are in a set. One way to get the icons is to steal them from your friends... who then aren't your friends anymore,right? Anyhoo, looks like a lot of fun. Worth signing up on FACEBOOK just to play!

HOMAGE

SocMo likes to start off each day with a big bowl of HOMAGE!

OK... SocMo is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, isn't he? This idea popped into my head and I just went for it. Does it make any sense? Don't know. But I am back at Illustration Friday after a couple of weeks of missing out on the fun. Thanks for stopping by and looking :0)

pork chop

Rumors that I have dropped off the face of the Earth are NOT true! I tripped just as I got to the edge, and didn't go over.

I have been distracted by various things lately such as working on TAXES, ugh... and getting my mower in shape for spring. I sharpened the blade and then proceeded to cut my finger REALLY good while putting it back on the mower. Anyhoo... this is a little job I did recently. It's for a bad joke about a pig doing karate... a pork chop. I don't write these things... I just draw 'em. :0)

GARDEN

SocMo is hoping for a bumper crop from his GARDEN this year...


I am barely making the Illustration Friday again this week. I found a bit of time that I could dash something out. I have planted donuts in my garden before, but they never seem to grow. I must be planting them the wrong time of the year...

LEAP

After his LEAP, SocMo realized his bungee cord was too long!

DUCK!

Some people throw things when they are mad. Can you believe it? The challenge on this little spot illo was to put something that fits a horizontal format into a vertical one. The idea here was that the guy is mad and chucked the football at the other guy's head. As I look at it now... I''m not sure this reads like that. Looks more like the other guy is not ducking, but just surprised by the football. I hope it works better in context. Oh, well...

come and get it!

Here is something fresh off the drawing board... all digitized and with extra cheese. I think it turned out pretty decent so I am slapping up here for fun. I think this illustrates a parable. Can you guess which one?

THEORY

SocMo tests his THEORY that toast always lands jelly side down.


Well, I squeezed a bit of time out to do another Illustration Friday word. Or in my case it is Illustration Monday night. Good thing TV is a vast wasteland tonight. But then it is pretty much always a vast wasteland these days. I tried using Painter again on this one. Still don't have a clue what I'm doing. I used one brush to color several items and then discovered that the opacity was set on 5%. After changing it to 100% it was really different. I tried a watercolor brush for a while then a pastel brush on the floor, then an oil brush on the wall. Then just smeared the oil brush around here and there. I can see that if I really worked at this I could maybe come up with some intersting painterly textures. Maybe someday I'll do that... but right now it is off to bed I go... :0)

Choose SocMo!

If you want change... I'm talking BIG CHANGE... choose SocMo as the next president. Nothing would be a bigger change than putting a sock monkey in the White House! (we could do worse)

What's that you say? You haven't seen SocMo in any of the primaries? Well, SocMo has been traveling from primary to primary in his SocMo for President hot air balloon. Unfortunately, this has been a huge tactical error. He arrives in each state about 2 weeks late for the voting. He only has a few minutes to shake two or three hands, kiss a dog, and restock his supply of Fritos and Dr. Pepper for the next flight.

Keep your eyes peeled... he may be fllying over your state right now!

LEGEND

I recently got the complete DVD movie collection of Indiana Jones. Last night I was watching the bonus disc and thought... now there's a LEGEND. So I did a quick drawing for the Illustration Friday LEGEND theme.

I decided if I am ever going to learn anything about Painter, I need to start SOMEtime... so I picked a hard pastel brush and scribbled on some color. There are just so many brushes I don't know where to begin. It's overwhelming. Might as well pick something and try it out this week. I hope to use Painter more this year and try to figure it out some.

One thing I learned from the bonus disc was that George Lucas originally named his movie Indiana Smith. When he pitched the movie, they liked the whole thing... except the name. He said, OK... how about Jones? Jones was fine... of COURSE! :0)

I'm looking forward to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull coming out this year.... woo hoo!

hug

Help dry the dishes and you may get a hug!

PLAIN

Well, it finally got kinda cold here in Tennessee... but nothing like it was in Green Bay last night. My face hurt just watching the game on TV! If you want to get a feel for being cold... just add a scoop of ice cream to your head like SocMo. Of course... you would have to be PLAIN nuts to do that!

Stitch

Each year during the holidays, SocMo manages to pop a STITCH!
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I would NEVER be guilty of overeating... nope not me.... I have tons of self control!
(pass the chocolate cake and ladle a little gravy over it, please) ...and I won't even mention that box of Moon Pies I got for my birthday that I have been munching on....

I never seem to have much time to devote to these Illustration Friday things, but I like to participate if I can. So once again, I drew up something in my sketchbook and added a bit of colored pencil to it. Seems like the quickest way to get an image going. Well, now it is time to get back to those relentless deadlines...

spontaneous doodling

There was this page in my sketchbook that I really didn't like. There were some really bad drawings on it that I didn't want to keep. So I ripped it out... and then stared drawing on the back. Just random doodling ... whatever came out kind of stuff. No pressure to make a good drawing, cuz I'm tossing this stinkin' page in the trash any minute now.

But a funny thing happened... since I didn't care what happened, I relaxed and "let it fly" ...I loosened up. I liked what was coming out. After several loose drawings, I saw a British Bobby on TV. I drew a tall hat and a guy wearing it... I liked it so here it is...

I need to find that "what the heck, who cares" button again when I draw. It's like the Staples EASY button. Now where did I put it? ....

100%

SocMo is feeling a bit under the weather today. He is hoping to get back to 100% soon. I hope his supply of tissues holds out...

talking animals

I am readin’ through the Bible in 2008 with my One Year Bible. Genesis always gets me off to a good start. Lots of fun stuff happens there. Each time I have done this in the past, I have always ended up with lots of questions.

This time I was reading about the serpent talking Eve into eating that yummy fruit thing… whatever it was. Then it occurred to me that Eve did not find it unusual to be talking to a snake. She never said, “Hey… snakes can’t talk… shut yo' mouth and get outta here!” So I was thinking that maybe ALL the animals talked. That would explain why a talking snake was not unusual. So if all the animals were talking to each other, it was like the first Disneyland! Maybe this is where old Walt got his inspiration.

MONK

I don't have cable TV... but a while back I discovered that my local library has DVDs of some of the earlier seasons of MONK. I checked out a DVD, watched a few episodes, and became a fan! All of the characters on the show are so good. Last night as I was watching a show from season four I had my pencil and paper with me, so decided to try to draw my version of Mr. Monk. Annnnnnnd... here he is. Anybody else a MONK fan? Does this look like MR. MONK?

SOAR

What is this? Well... THIS is an original piece of art created by me and inspired by the Illustration Friday word SOAR. Other than that... I don't have a clue. I doodled something soaring and then deciced to render it the old fashioned way... with watercolor. It has been years since I actually colored something with my watercolors. I discovered that one of my greens is growing mold in my palette. I do believe that the green in my Photoshop palette has NEVER grown mold. Chalk one up for traditional media!

I like the texture that comes with using watercolor. That is something I miss when using Photoshop. On the other hand, when I scanned this piece of art, the blues didn't come up well. Probably need some new scanning skills. I tried to beef up the blue in PS but it didn't accomplish much. Oh well... Digital color is just like it appears on my screen... no surprises there. Chalk that one up for Photoshop.

If you are scoring at home, the score is now tied at one to one. Let's see now... Photoshop has NO clean up involved when I'm finished. uh...... WE HAVE A WINNER! :0)

It looks like this will be my final post for 2007. Thanks to all who stop by my little chunk of the intenets here. I appreciate your time and comments. Have a Happy New Year!

(Oh, if your eyesight is deteriorating... or you just want a cheap thrill... you can click on the image for a JUMBO view.
Don't worry... I won't tell anyone...)

Railroad song

Christmas was a bright, sunny day so my family and I took a walk. My son was riding his Rip Stick and my daughter was playing her Flea ukulele. I think we amused many people who were out doing the same thing as we walked and skated along to ukulele Christmas tunes. We passed through a tunnel that went under the railroad tracks and when I saw the sign posted there I said, "play I Been Working on the Railroad!"

This is what happened... it makes me laugh everytime I watch it. :0)

I hope it makes you laugh too.

Have a Merry One!

This is the Christmas card I made this year. I was laying in bed with my mind wandering when I thought of Rudolph's RED nose. Then, somehow, I thought of BLUEtooth... which is like a red nose... sort of... isn't it? I didn't know what to do with this weird idea for several days. I kept thinking about it and finally came up with an idea that worked... I think. Most of the time when I have an idea in the middle of the night, it is hilariously funny at the time. However, in the morning when I remember the idea, it is always REALLY bad. or dumb. or both.

Have a great Christmas!

Tuba Christmas Jingle Bells!

Each year I try to go listen to Tuba Christmas when it happens in Nashville. Tuba Christmas takes place in about 200 cities around the country. Nashville has over 100 tubas that show up and after a quick rehearsal, put on a concert. It's not only a cool concert... but a great massage too! Your chest actually vibrates the whole time the tubas are playing. The youngest player this year was 11 and the oldest was 92.

Tuba Christmas has taken place all over Nashville over the years. They performed in a couple of malls for a few years. One mall didn't welcome them back because people stopped to listen for about an hour and didn't go into stores to shop. Some Christmas spirit, eh? They played in the downtown library a time or two but it was hard to fit in all the spectators. Then they moved to a downtown Presbyterian church which was cool, but again packed the place out and the fire marshal freaked out. The last two years they found a home in the downtown First Baptist Church. This year they added a second performance which helped out a lot with parking and seating. We were not packed in like sardines this year.

I took along my camera and put it in the movie mode to record my favorite song... Jingle Bells. If you have 2 minutes to spare and want some Christmas spirit, give this a listen. For the full effect, you should apply a little vibrator to your chest.

Have a Merry Christmas!

BACKWARDS

Santa learned a BIG lesson about joining in Rudolph's "reindeer games." Now Santa is the biggest loser! :0)

Well, my opressive deadlines are gone! ...just in time to do some Christmas shopping and knock out an Illo Friday idea. I want to thank all who have stopped by here this year and taken a look or posted a comment. I do appreciate it. May you all have a joyful Holiday Season!

PEACE.

Little Things

One of SocMo's friends is a LITTLE THING who likes to hang around in the garden. He may be small, but if you click on the picture you can make him JUMBO sized.

EXCESS

Even in the midst of his demanding presidential campaign, SocMo has an EXCESS of holiday cheer!


My computer has been in the shop for a week waiting for a new power supply. I think I need a new power supply to! :0) After I got it home and all hooked up again, all was hunky-dory for a couple of hours till my internet connection disappeared. None of my usual tricks of unplugging and restarting would make the connection come back... so I went to bed. Today it's working again! (a Christmas miracle?) So I thought I would dash out an Illustration Friday post while everything is working. I'm crossing my fingers and holding my breath... hope this all works... :0)

how I illustrate a book

I have not been posting much lately because I have been busy illustrating a little educational book. Remember that little fairy drawing I posted a few weeks ago? Well this is the book she appears in. I have done several of these books in the past, so I now have my game plan down on them. To make up for a lack of posting recently, I thought I would take you through the steps I use in illustrating these books. Hang on... here we go!

The first thing I do is read through the book and make a little thumbnail diagram of it. These are just doodles where I try to get an idea of what characters are on a page and what they are doing. (click to enlarge)


I think I will focus on page 9 as an example of my process. Page 9 has a poodle with a bone in her mouth and a striped trombone in her dish. These were put there by the fairy. I played a trombone in high school so I know how to fake a trombone pretty well. I think I draw a trombone better than I could play one. :0) So... I set around with lots of laser paper and a mechanical pencil and try to draw all the characters in the book. This takes a while, and usually happens in the evening while I "watch" whatever is on TV. TV is actuall a radio to me... I am pretty good at ignoring the picture and just listening. After lots and lots of doodling, I sort through all the sketches, find the poodles, and do a small but accurate drawing of the page.


After I have worked out the drawings for all the pages, I then blow them all up to actual size. A few adjustments are made along the way, like I decided to turn the trombone around so the slide won't be covered up by a block of text that will appear in a box in the lower right corner. All the sketches are e-mailed as JPEGs and I wait for the inevitable corrections to come back. Usually they are not too bad and often are improvements to what I have done. On this page the suggestion was to make the bone and trombone larger. I erased (as you can see) the bone and made it bigger, but on the trombone I enlarged the sketch on my copy machine, cut out the larger version, and taped it down. (click to enlarge)


The drawing stage usually takes about a week for me to do. This is 14 pages. After approval of sketches I go to the second stage wich is inking, scanning and coloring. This part takes another week. For inking, I put a sheet of vellum over the sketch and make an inked drawing with a crow quill dip pen. Old school. :0)


After all sketches are inked, I scan them as line art and color them with Photoshop 7. I refuse to upgrade. :0) I know just enough about Photoshop to be able to add color and create a few special effects. Color adds SO much to a drawing! Well, that's it! One book down... two more are waiting for me to do. One is due before Christmas and the other is due in early January. If you would like to see a step by step tutorial of how I color using Photoshop, just click on the "Photoshop tutorial" link under LABELS on my side bar. Thanks for stoppin by!

Jeepers!

Jeepers! I have been busy with stuff and haven't posted anything lately. I thought I should put something new up just so you will know I am still alive and kickin'. I spotted this little doodle for a book I am working on and decided ... that's good enough for now. Hopefully something else will follow soon.

HATS

For Illustration Friday this week I came up with a little limerick that I liked. That's the good news. The bad news is... I don't have the time to do a decent illustration for it. After taking a look at what is now appearing on JONESAPALOOZA, I decided that everything was looking the same. SO... for a change of pace, I grabbed my Wacom tablet and tried to draw on it. I don't think I have ever set it up to draw on, and this is the first time I have tried this. I don't consider the results anything more than a doodle with color, but it is going to have to do for this week. Anyhoo, I think I found my loose side. :0)

fairy

Well, I am busy illustrating another little educational book. The finished art is due the middle of November. That's not far away. Christmas is just around the corner. AAAAAAAAAUGH!

The first step for this project is to design the main character which is a fairy. The fairy comes into town and makes a lot of changes. I was given no direction for designing the fairy, so I went to Google Images to see what fairies look like. I liked the pixie-like fairies with the little dresses that look like flower petals. After doodling a page or two of sketches I landed on the above sketch and sent it off for approval.

Now here is what seems to happen often in the wide world of freelance illustration. The client had no idea of what they wanted until they saw my sketch... THEN they know what they want, and this ain't it! NOW they give me some specific directions. Make the fairy older and hipper, with a beehive hairdo and a tiera, and go-go boots. OK... I can do that.

This really isn't a big problem... it is just that it would be much quicker if I knew what they were looking for before I began. Anyhoo, here is the revised fairy sketch. It was approved and I am working on the sketches for the book. Stay tuned!

GROW

Here is one of the animals that I did recently that has a GROW theme. Give it a chance... maybe it will GROW on you. :0)

I have been too busy with work in the last couple of weeks to do anything fresh for Illustration Friday. And this week I am attending a 3 day workshop, so I have even less time. Maybe things will get better in the near future.

apple bear

By request, here is the bear and the apple tree. Yep, bears just LOVE apples. Can't get enough of 'em! They are known to accost campers and break into their tents looking for a good Fuji. A good rule when suddenly encountering a bear is... drop your apples and run.

Thank you for visiting this edition of Wild Kingdom.

so... any more animals you are dying to see?

porcupine on a pumpkin

Porcupine on a pumpkin

Yep... it sure SOUNDS like diner talk, but it's NOT! If you happen to order a pig in a blanket and the waiter brings you a porcupine on a pumpkin... change restaurants.

Pig and blankets

I had a request to see the pig with the pancakes. "Pig in a blanket" is more "diner lingo" (see previous post) for a sausage link wrapped in a pancake. Good stuff! We had pancakes Sunday. I like to get a leftover pancake out of the fridge and put grape jelly on it for a snack. Or... two leftover pancakes with peanut butter & jelly is also reeeeeally good. Unfortunately there were no leftovers. As the pancakes sat out on the stove, I would pick one up and munch on it whenever I walked by... and soon there were no more pancakes.

Shuckydarn!

OPEN

When you are out campaigning for president... always watch out for OPEN manholes!

le Rat

Here he is, by popular demand.... the rat on a slide! Hmmm... that sounds a lot like DINER LINGO. I really like diner lingo. "Adam and Eve on a raft" is two poached eggs on toast. "Burn the British" is a toasted English muffin. I heard one recently on the radio that I liked. It was "whistleberries and dogs" that translates to "beans and franks" :o)

So... any other requests to see any of the other 100 animals? While you are thinking about it I'm going to have a Windmill Cocktail....

le COW

Well, well, well... it seems that some of my 8 visitors don't know what a cow looks like. Now THIS... is a COW. Or at least this is how MY cows look. They are always white with black splotches... and have hooves. Study this cow for the next week and then see if you can distinguish it from a sock monkey. End of lesson. I sure hope you were taking notes here... a pop quiz can happen at any time!

This cow was one of the 100 animals that I did recently for a job. If you poke around here, you can find sketches of all 100. If you happen to run across an animal that you would really really like to see the finished version of, just let me know and I will post it.

OK, class dismissed. Please, no running on the way to the lunch room.

Thankyouverymuch.

the BLUES

MiniMo helps SocMo raise some much needed campaign funds in his run for president.

SocMo's campaign for president is sputtering along. Sock monkeys don't get no respect and are discriminated against everywhere. He has never been invited to a debate with the other candidates. But the good news is... he has learned 3 chords now and if his campaign fails, he hopes to become a country music star.

National Chicken Month!

OOPS! September has almost slipped by and I have not posted this CHICKEN! This is from a calendar I did many months ago. It's not too late, though... take a chicken to lunch today! Or... have a chicken for lunch today... whatever. :o)

JUGGLE

SocMo uses his awesome JUGGLING skills to draw a crowd as he continues his run for president of the United States.

The SocMo for president campaign is now gaining momentum across the country. Ones of tens of people are deciding that SocMo is probably good enough for them. If you want to join them and support a candidate that has no spine and is made of socks, then join the SocMo for President campaign.

If you have absolutely nothing else to do, and you like to spend your valuable time poking around sites on your computer, then you may want to CLICK HERE and see SocMo in his SECOND appearance on Illustration Friday (October 2005)... AND he is Juggling! WOO HOO! Hey... I actually entertained myself, looking back at some of the old posts.

WEDDING

SocMo thinks a WEDDING is a great place to get in a little campaigning for his presidential run.... plus there is free cake!

SOCMO-mentum

SocMo's exploratory committee says that he now has the MOMENTUM for a presidential run. Yes, SocMo is making a run for the Whitehouse... or the outhouse... whichever is closer. If none of the other candidates inspire you, join the millions... uh... thousands... er... tens of people who have decided to GO SOCMO!

If you would like to join the SocMo bandwagon and a chart a new direction for our country, just head on over to the SocMo for Prez Store. You will be able to pick up a T-shirt, mug, calendar, or mini-poster of your fearless candidate. Wear a T-shirt to work or school and enjoy the blank stares and puzzled looks you get. Dribble coffee down your shirt from your I GO SOCMO mug. Count off the days till the whole campaign mess is over on your I GO SOCMO calendar. Carry your bowling ball around in the I GO SOCMO tote bag.

Act now! ... operators are standing by... help spread the word!

MOMENTUM

The disc chasing doggy is using his MOMENTUM to catch the frisbee which is using its MOMENTUM to sail away. This is something like the nature program where the lion is chasing the poor little antelope. But no one gets hurt in this version. I have been told by experts that plastic doesn't feel pain. So there. :o)

I got an e-mail asking about this painting I did a while back. Someone was interested in buying it or a print or something. They have a dog that they play frisbee with and they liked my image. So.... I went to Cafepress and applied the image to some items to see if that would work for them. If you are interested in a disc chasing dog on a T-shirt just check out the products at Jones*Mart. You can be the only one in your town... or state... or continent to have a Disc Doggy shirt. Be unique.

While I was messing around with this image, I realized it would work very well for the Illustration Friday word. It was painted in acrylic on a panel. Thanks for looking, folks!

line art

Being led to the furnace... can you say asbestos underwear?


Coming out of the furnace... it's party time!
So... I had to do some B&W images for them 3 guys being tossed into the fiery furnace. Now, what were their names? Moe, Larry, and Curly? Anyway, I was happy, but a wee bit surprised that my sketches were approved. I like to do little characters that are 2 heads tall. They are funny looking and very cartoony. But they got OK'd like this... so I inked them up.

In the old days I would just turn in the line art and that would be that. But now, since I send everything on a digital file, I had to convert this to something. I scanned at 600 dpi and saved them as bitmapped tiff images. I have been told that 600 dpi bitmapped tiffs are the way to go for line art. You get a nice crisp line in print this way.

The new thing for me on these is that I tried adding some halftone dots for just a bit of tone. I think it worked OK considering I was pretty much making it up as I went along. I am not a Pro with Photoshop. I sloooowly figure things out and this is my latest discovery.

But... I LIKE the dots. Three cheers for Photoshop!

ALPHABET

SocMo can belch the ALPHABET underwater!

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SocMo is back by popular demand! The word for this week's IF challenge did not inspire me at all on Friday. No ideas came on Saturday either. Sunday I had an idea dealing with alphabet soup. it was OK, but I wasn't really excited by it. It would do if nothing else came along. Monday I was looking at some IF entries and saw some alphabet letters that were very ROUND. Hmmm... round letters... like BUBBLES! Bubbles are underwater.... SocMo can be burping the alphabet UNDERWATER!

BINGO! Once I have an idea that I like, it is fun do draw it up.

One word of caution.... don't try this at home. SocMo is a professional, highly skilled underwater alphabet belcher.

You can click on the image to get up close and personal with it.