CLEAN

Q. Why did the robber take a bath?
A. He wanted to make a CLEAN get away...

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...

devil/angel

Flee Flea!

So... the dad was telling his son about God warning Lot that he was going to destroy Sodom. He told Lot to take his wife and flee. Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. The kid asks... "What happened to the flea?"

FAT

On his last physical exam, the FAT scan found that the only FAT on SocMo's body was located between his ears.

Under the Sea

SocMo was at his favorite dairy bar quaffing chocolate milk when someone slipped something into his drink. When he awoke, he found he had been shanghaied! After traveling 20,000 leagues UNDER THE SEA, SocMo looked out the window and saw that his problems had just begun...

When I first saw Disney's version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I thought the Nautilus was awesome. I still think it is one cool ship design. I started out just trying to draw the Nautilus. Then I thought I could have SocMo looking out of the window. Later I remembered the great fight scene with the giant squid... and that was added to the picture. Then it was time to make up some plausible story to explain it all.

ROBOT

SocMo quickly lost control of his giant ROBOT, due to his lack of fingers... or thumbs!

SPOTTED

SocMo enjoys putting on his SPOTTED shirt and playing poker with the clueless Far Side cows.

SPEED

As SocMo picked up more and more SPEED, he suddenly realized that he had no idea how to stop on his new inline skates!

Not much time this week, but managed to whip out this episode with SocMo in peril. Thanks for stoppin' by!

SPRING

SocMo heard that he needed to SPRING ahead this weekend... but he keeps asking, "Spring ahead of WHAT?"

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Last week Illustration Friday topped 1000 entries! When I first posted, there were around 400. I sure hope there is some relief in sight with a new revised site design. I would like to thank everybody who drops by for taking the time and effort to find SocMo and say hi.

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.