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.

TEA

SocMo enjoys going to High TEA with his friends, but he must always remember to take along his clip on pinkie.

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Speaking of TEA... scroll on down to the next post and see my receipe for ICE TEA.

SocMo tea

Every morning I start the day with 32 oz of tea in my indestructible nalgene bottle. Usually by noon it is all gone. Here is how I make my tea each day.. arrived at by trial and error over the years. Pay attention... there may be a pop quiz later.



First I microwave 2 cups (16 oz) of water in the microwave in my pyrex measuring cup. This is a fairly new measuring cup because recently I microwaved my water... and forgot to put water IN the cup first. I had to go to Wally World and buy myself a new one. So... before heating the water, always make sure there IS water in there. Next I put two (2) FAMILY sized tea bags in and steep for 7-8 minutes. I have to use a timer because after about one (1) minute I am into something else and have completely forgotten that I am making tea. I must have a short attention span. Wanna go play kickball?

When the loud, annoying beeps remind me that I am making tea, I rush back and pull out the tea bags. Then I add 1/3 cup of sugar. I like sweetened tea... but not syrupy sweet. And I get concerned about how much sugar I am consuming, so 1/3 cup seems to be the happy medium for me.

I add a couple of handfulls of ice to my pitcher and pour the hot sweetened tea in on top of it. As the hot tea melts the ice it cools it all down and I start adding water from the faucet.









TA-DAAAAA! Now it is ready for drinking... fill up that bottle and get to work! ... or go back to that kickball game.

SONG

SocMo sang his favorite SONG for the American Idol judges... "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" and accompanied himself on his ukulele. He did NOT get a ticket to Hollywood! SocMo kept saying "In-con-ceeevable!" He believes he has the best voice since William Hung. As SocMo left, he was heard saying... "Those judges don't know real talent when they hear it! I'm going to make my CD and when it comes out and sells 3 Brazilion copies, they will be sorry they didn't choose me!"

SIMPLE

What is more SIMPLE than a smiley face? Who is more SIMPLE than SocMo? Together they form the ultimate SIMPLE. I rest my case.
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Once again I have no time for any kind of elaborate drawing this week... so I was really happy to come up with a SIMPLE solution to this week's word.

CHAIR

SocMo likes to sit in his favorite CHAIR and pretend he is on the Bridge of the Enterprise... seeking out new civilizations... going where no sockmonkey has gone before... and annoying the bajeebers out of first mate SpockMo.

GLAMOUR

SocMo keeps up with all the Hollywood GLAMOUR at the grocery store check out line.

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I will be crazy busy with work this week, so I think the best I can do is put up this pencil drawing. BUT it is baked fresh just for you! NOT one of those frozen artworks that others pull out of their freezer, defrost, and post. Nope this is made with the freshest, natural, organic materials and delivered right to you. enjoy!

CATS

SocMo happened upon three CATS eating pie on his walk today. After joining them in some wonderful blueberry pie, he entertained them with his hobby of cat juggling!

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I won't have much time to do anything elaborate this week... so I am going to knock out a quick drawing of the first idea that comes to mind.

eyeball elephant

Everybody... and I DO mean EVERYBODY over at Illustration Friday is having a blast drawing eyeballs and elephants this week. I find it amusing that a majority of the herd seems to have the same idea each week. Anyhoo... I don't want to miss out on any of the fun, so here is my eyeball and elephant... combo style... hold the pickle. I have been test driving a purple col-erase pencil this week and alas, this is the last drawing I think I can squeeze out of it. I think I like it though... now I have a trip to the art store in my future.

E is for...

E is for ENTERTAINMENT! SocMo is receiving his third "Entertainer of the Year" Golden Banana Award this year. The award was presented to him by the lovely and talented Miss Nana White.

sketches

Here are a couple of sketches from two little phonics books I am working on. These are really fun to draw... but very rare for me. Most of the time I am drawing craft sticks, pipe cleaners, and paper folding diagrams. (sigh) The phrase I keep hearing these days is "flying under the radar." I think I have mastered that technique with my art career. But I'm not complaining... nope... not me...

SEA

SocMo likes to jump into the SEA and pretend that he is SpongeSocMo SquarePants.

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Well, the new year is underway! I discovered Illustration Friday at the end of last year, which led me into the wonderful world of BLOGGING. I have found SO many blogs by SO many extremely talented folks... and I keep finding more and more. All of this has inspired me to draw for FUN again, which is something I had just about quit doing. Most of the drawing I have done the last few years was just completing rather dull assignments... which have lots of restrictions and usually NO room for anything fun or creative. It pays the bills, though... and I DO like to eat. :o)

As usual, when I first saw the new I.F. word, SEA, I went... DUHhh... But after it perked a while in the back of my mind, I got an idea. Once I get the idea... I just CAN'T WAIT to get started on it! I can usually find some time over the weekend to do the drawing. Sunday afternoon was the best time to get to work on my idea... but I got distracted reading BLOGS! AAUGH! Some really interesting stuff! I had thought about putting up a little step-by-step on how I do these using photoshop, but since I spent most of my time reading blogs, I ran out of time. Maybe next time.

Thanks to everyone for visiting JONESAPALOOZA and for all the comments. I hope to get something posted each week this year. We will see how it goes. Keep those pencils sharp!

FLAVOR

SocMo's favorite FLAVOR of ice cream is... tuna!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
My good friend, illustrator, writer, and mapmaker Bron Smith has just joined Illustration Friday! Click on this link and give him a big welcome!

blue runner

6"x8" acrylic

HOLIDAY!

There just aren't enough holidays for SocMo, so he has created his own HOLIDAY. It is called SOCMOS.

The rules and regulations governing SOCMOS rival the U.S. tax code in sheer volume. However, it basically works like this. Pick any day AFTER Christmas but BEFORE New Years and declare it SOCMOS.

On that day, when you get up (sleeping in is highly encouraged) the first thing you do is eat a banana and yell, "Merry Socmos!" From that point on, you are to do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING YOU WANT FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!

If you want to go to the mall and shop the after Christmas sales... so be it! If you want to lay on the couch, watch TV, and eat leftovers till you puke... so be it! If you want to vacuum the house.... STOP! That is NOT allowed! Nothing resembling work is tolerated on this day. However, if you want to vacuum nekkid, wearing only a big red nose and antlers, this IS permitted. This is one of the loopholes covered in the SOCMOS rules and regulations volume 17 section 42.

Merrrry SOCMOS!.... enjoy!

IMAGINE

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After watching King Kong, SocMo could only IMAGINE what it would be like to be 25 feet tall. I IMAGINE you will understand SocMo's gesture better after you have seen the movie... which is incredible.