Dusty

When things get dusty, SOMEone needs to get to work.

Chicken!

The word for Illustration Friday this week is CHICKEN. I kept thinking that I would do something special for this, but here it is... Thursday night and I've got nothing but excuses. Good excuses, mind you. But excuses.

So... I am dusting off and sprucing up an image from a calendar I did a while back. And here is a short story for an added bonus.

A few years ago when I saw that Facebook was open to us regular folks and not just college students, I decided to sign up and see what it was all about. As I jumped through all the hoops to get myself signed up, I came to the point where I could upload an image. I had nothing immediately available. I took a quick look on my desktop and found some artwork I had done for a calendar. It happened to have a National Chicken Day on it so it had a great big chicken with baby chicks, feathers and such for the days of the month. I liked the chicken so I cropped off the head and uploaded it as my avatar.

I never got around to changing the image... I'm lazy. Then later I signed up for Twitter and used the chicken again. Did I mention that I'm lazy? So then I was getting used to seeing the chicken around and decided to use it as my blog avatar. So gradually, without planning I have become a chicken. At least on line I'm a chicken. In real life I am an aardvark. But that is another story.

you've got MAIL!

You've got mail! A Christmas greeting from me to you. I gave the postman the day off and sent this out over the internets. I wish all a very merry Christmas and a new year full of possibilities. As Pedro says, "may your wildest dreams come true."

feed the dog

I have been too busy lately to feed the dog. Wait, I don't have a dog. But if I did, he would be wearing his bowl on his head and kicking my door like Snoopy.

First our gas range died. We have been cooking with an electric skillet. Our refrigerator is half dead. The freezer doesn't freeze anymore. Then our central heat and air unit died. I think it is a conspiracy. The HVAC was confusing. Too many choices and opinions about brands and sizes paralyzed us for a while. We finally decided on one. I am so thankful to have heat right now.

After the HVAC was taken care of, we then focused on replacing the stove and fridge. The day before they were to be delivered, the water heater in the garage sprung a leak and died. I tell you, it's a conspiracy. So we got the plumber who installed the new water heater to connect the gas stove while he was here. Now we have a stove to cook on, a fridge with a freezer, hot water, and heat in the house. Yay! I have learned to appreciate things I have been taking for granted for so long... like hot water.

Then yesterday, the phone quit working.

Murphey's Law is alive and well.

afterward

The word for Illustration Friday last week was "afterward." I was thinking of the Dueling Banjo Pigs site and thought I would show what happens AFTER a pig plays a banjo. Unfortunately, I only got this quick sketch done and then was distracted by other things and never got around to making a better image, or posting it on IF. Life happens. Anyhoo, I missed the IF deadline but decided to post this guy anyway.

Halloween countdown 7

Halloween. It's GRRRRRRRRRRRRReat!

Halloween countdown 6

Holy Halloween... it's Batkid! Quick, throw some Bat-treats into the Bat-bag, and fire up the Bat-scooter, Alfred!

Halloween countdown 5

My Spidey Sense is tingling... there must be treats in the area!

racing

A racing wiener dog. This is a painting I did a while back. I like to simplify animals into geometric shapes.

To see my Halloween countdown CLICK HERE

Halloween countdown 4

Halloween can be a MOO-ving experience... or an udder failure.

Halloween countdown 3

Need a quick costume? Just grab a couple of Honey Buns, stick 'em on your ears and you are Princess Leia!

Halloween countdown 2

Count your fingers after you give this little guy a treat...

Halloween countdown 1

I'm counting down to Halloween with a costume or two each day. First up is the classic Chicken costume. This may get the wearer some stale PEEPS leftover from Easter.

Southern Festival of Books

Last weekend was the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville. Saturday morning I listened to Jon Scieszka (rhymes with Fresca) tell about his journey to become a writer. I didn't know anything about him. He was hilarious.

He grew up with 5 brothers and no sisters. At one point he was studying to become a doctor, but realized that although he liked the science part of medicine, he found that sick people "weirded" him out.

He got a masters degree in fiction writing which, he said, qualified him to paint apartments in New York. After a few years of painting apartments he decided that there had to be something better.

He found a teaching job in an elementary school in NYC and taught second grade along with some other grades for eight years. He decided to write for children and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs was the first book he got published. After many publishers told him it was "too dark, too sophisticated, and don't come back" he finally found a publisher that liked it. It has now sold over 13 million copies.

Jon was so entertaining and fun to listen to. He is the kind of guy you want to have as a buddy and hang out with. I really enjoyed him.

Right after Jon was a talk by Mo Willems. Mo read/performed his new Knuffle Bunny book. He is another crazy person. He and Jon were neighbors in Brooklyn for a few years.

I think that is the problem with my career. I have never lived in Brooklyn. It seems everyone I like has lived there.

I also got to watch a screening of the new documentary "Library of the Early Mind" Click on the link above to see the trailer.

beneath

(pencil and Photoshop - click to enlarge)

If you are an opossum, it's not beneath you to eat garbage.

I only had time to quickly pencil out something and throw on a little Photoshop color. But I did have fun playing with the brushes and layers in Photoshop. Wish I had more time for a little better finish to this picture. Oh, well... Maybe next week I can get something done before Thursday.

Yeah, right.

I did catch a possum in a live trap recently in my yard. I had some leftovers in it as bait. I thought I was going to catch yet another skunk, which are digging up my yard. My count to date is 7 skunks caught and one possum. I let the critter go and he scampered off to find some nice gar-BAHzh at someone else's house.

ABC book cover

Old-Fashioned ABC book. Click to enlarge.

Last weekend I attended the Mid South SCBWI conference. There was a contest that attending illustrators could enter. It got down to the week of the conference before I finally got a little time to put together this book cover. One of the options for the contest was to create a 10x10 cover with the letters ABC as part of the art.

I thought it would be fun to try something a bit different, so I cut all of the shapes for the illustration out of black paper.

I scanned the black shapes, and then assembled and colored them in Photoshop. I liked the results. A square cover is a very boring shape. I ran a little strip down the left side that made the white space a bit less square. I also repeated the vertical strip with the vertical animals and letters. Lots of fun to do.

I seem to gravitate toward making things simple and fun. But alas, simple and fun does not win against incredibly well rendered illustrations. The winning pieces were really nice. Congrats to all.

Now, where did I leave that box of Kleenex?

Old Fashioned

Gather around children, and let me tell you of the days before everyone walked around with a phone in his pocket. When I was little I read a comic strip in the newspaper (do you remember newspapers?) called Dick Tracy. Dick Tracy would talk on his 2-Way Wrist Radio. You knew it was a 2-Way Wrist Radio because there was a little arrow pointing to it telling you. This was the stuff of science fiction. To think you could communicate with someone with a watch like radio. No way.

Later there was Maxwell Smart. The spy from Control who talked into his shoe phone. A bit awkward for sure, but nevertheless a portable phone. He did have to dial it... but still... this was technology only a spy could have.

Today everyone takes phones for granted. Leave home without your phone and you feel nekkid!

Except for me. I still use tin cans with string.

Just call me old fashioned.

acrobat

Wow, I have almost missed Illustration Friday again! Tomorrow is Friday and a NEW word will be announced. But just under the wire, here are a couple of acrobats. These were part of a collection of images I created for the Facebook game PackRat. I will have to try to be more timely in posting things in the future. Or... I could just go back in time and post this earlier, if my time machine was not in the shop. Those pesky flux capacitors keep going out on me...

dude

Today's warm up doodle. Micron on copy paper.

Fantasy Football

As the proverb says: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

This week marked the first step in the Fantasy Football league I have joined. Before you stop reading... let me tell you about our league. It is AWFFL, which stands for Another Worthless Fantasy Football League. And it IS awful... awful fun! It is a family affair. All the other league members are related to me. There are brothers, nephews, kids... and the wife of a nephew. We run the gamut from those who have followed the NFL for decades... to those who have never watched a game.

Our league has two Divisions. The Bipolar Division and the Dementia Division. I am glad I was assigned to one of the Divisions, because I could have never chosen between the two.

The teams include such fearsome names as the High Plains Drifters, the Wild Weasels, the Phlegm, the Chinese Bandits... and my team... the Poodle Walkin' Sissies. If perchance the planets all align one week, and my hapless team actually wins a game, I want the looser to have to tell their friends that they lost to the Poodle Walkin' Sissies.

AHhhh...THAT will be so GOOOD! Highly unlikely... but it would be so GOOOD!

The first game is now in the record books. The POODLES limped to their locker room with their tails between their legs after a bitter loss. After a round of Purina Poodle Chow, some Perrier water and some hot tubbin', the Poodles are ready for week two.

Next week we meet the PHLEGM. Hope we don't get slimed.

Stay tuned.