Je Suis Charlie!

These are caricatures I did of the 5 cartoonists killed by terrorists at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris last Wednesday, January 7, 2015. There were 12 people murdered there that day, but these five individuals were the cartoonists and I felt most strongly connected to them because of that. Also, I wasn't sure that caricatures of the others would be particularly appropriate, but that the cartoonists themselves might approve.

The "Je Suis Charlie" statement, which means "I am Charlie", has become a symbolic statement in support of not only the people killed, but for free speech and freedom of the press! I was very upset by this crime because I despise religious extremists of any persuasion and the fact that they murdered people for publishing cartoons is truly obscene. Perhaps the cartoons printed by this publication and drawn by these men were in poor taste or even "offensive", whatever that means; but their right to criticize or even satirize the hypocrisies and psychotic dogmatic bullshit of any political and/or religious entity should be absolute! Censorship in any form is bad--at gunpoint, it is fascist and can NOT be tolerated! Period.

Anyway, here are the individual pieces as well.

RIP gentlemen. This may not be the most fitting tribute that will be offered to you, but it's the best I have to give.

2014 Christmas Present Drawings...

So this year there were a few drawings I needed to get done as Christmas presents for people. First were a few commissions I did for Bel's best friend from high school. She now has three daughters and each one of them has a specific handsome celebrity-type who has caught their fancy: Doctors 10 & 11 and Harry from One Direction. So she commissioned me to do portraits similar to ones she has seen me produce in the past. (They all picked guys with MASSIVE hair.) And here's how they came out:

The other three were my bright idea for presents for three of my nephews. I thought they might enjoy being featured as the cover drawing on real comic books. I've done some sketches on blank variant covers and have gathered an assortment of them for this purpose. I've even done quicky portraits of people on sketch covers before at conventions. But this time I wanted to take some time and try to make the portraits really tight so that they would really feel like it IS them on the covers of these real books!

I tried to portray each of them as characters they like, but I couldn't find a Flash sketch cover, so Jacob had to be Ironman instead. (Of course, with his new beard that he's very proud of, that worked out well.) Justin has always been a Spidey fan, so that was an easy one to figure. But I'm afraid poor Brandon though felt a bit cheated that he had to be a villain instead of the hero. Still, I knew he was a big fan of the Joker, so I thought it would be OK. The only Batman cover I could get was a Li'l Gotham book, which I felt was most appropriate anyway, since he's the youngest of my nephews. Of course, without color and without distorting his face with an insane smile, it's a bit hard to tell that's who he's supposed to be. Turns out, it would have been better if I could have drawn him as Finn from Adventure Time. He's become a big fan of that series recently, but I'm a bit out of the loop and didn't know.

ANYWAY, here are the results:

Happy Holidays, to all and to all a good night!

Excelsior! Merry X-Mas 2014!!

This is my annual themed Holiday card! This year's theme, obviously, is "The Big Bang Theory"--chosen because the show has become such a large presence in our household. It literally plays constantly somewhere in our house. Yes, LITERALLY. Every item on the card is related to the show in some way.

I had a lot of fun deciding how to dress the pets. We mere humans were easy to portray--I just used the three main characters. I am Leonard, and therefore get to fly the classic Time Machine--or as it was called in the show, "something Elton John would drive through the Everglades"; Bel is Penny, although wearing Amy's tiara, as Amy is actually her favorite character; and Edmund gets to be Sheldon! My favorite is poor ol' Gandalf who is dressed in Raj's Aquaman costume. Rounding out the "cast" are Gallifrey, who I made Zack (because he's pretty but not phenomenally smart) dressed as Superman, Merlyn dressed as Howard's "tiny Dark Knight" and Lily dressed as Bernadette in her Cinderella make-over costume. Our newest puppy makes a good Bernadette because she combines cuteness and bitchiness in the same way Bernie's portrayed on the show!

Anyway, if you are familiar with the show, please enjoy picking out the various references. If you are not, well, obviously you need to start renting them immediately! ^0^

Happy Saturnalia!
Fa la la la la, la la la laaa!

INKTOBER 2014!

I participated in the phenomenon of "Inktober", where one does an ink drawing every day of the month. I pretty much did the entire month too, for a change. I confess that I missed two days toward the end. But Still, doing 29 drawings over the course of the month isn't too bad. Mind you, some of the drawings were much better than others. Anyway--Here is a smattering of Inktober drawings. I'll post more later!

Zombies of Normandy Park!

Last Saturday, I was asked by my friend and fellow Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians member, Mark Monlux, if I wanted to go to a small Zombiefest event taking place in the parking lot of a shopping center in Normandy Park (a small city here in Washington.) I could set up a little table under his portable tent next to his table where he'd be selling his merch and I could sell stuff or do sketches for people. So I said, "Sounds great!" The next day I would be attending the last day of RainFurrest, so I was hoping to raise a bit of cash to pay for my one day membership, an artist's alley table and maybe even parking.

Zombiefest took place between 4:00pm and 8:00pm, so I did all my little errands and got my art bag together during the morning and at 2:00 Mark was at my door to pick me up for the 50 minute trip from Tacoma to Normandy Park. We got there and set up his portable tent and got our items out on display--I only brought a few of my little Brillustrator Sketchbooks and two little zombie drawings done on matte board tiles with ink and a bit of color pencil for high-lights. I put them on an easel and started making a sign announcing that I would do monster sketches for $10. I brought a bunch of 5'x7' card stock pieces of different colors on which to do the little ink and pencil drawings, similar to the zombie drawings I had on display. I figured I would get a few takers.

Before I had finished my sign, I had two teens who wanted sketches of themselves as zombies, and I thought, "Oh good--that cover's my artist's alley table at RF!" So I worked on getting those drawings done making good use of my beloved Pentel brush pen. By the time I got done with the first one, I had a line! And it NEVER let up! For the next four and a half hours, I did 16 zombiefied portraits of the good citizens of Normandy Park, about half were kids. The more messed up I made them, the better they liked it. I never took a bathroom break, or even stood up from my chair until Monlux was ready to pack up the tent around me! At about 7:00 it started getting dark, so that the last 4 or 5 drawings were done in progressively deepening gloom--to the point where it became hard to see what I was doing!

Even though he didn't ask for it, I was able to cover half of the booth cost and a little of the gas expense. Plus I had money for my fees at RF the next day AND money to put in the bank! All in all, it turned out to be an amazing event! ANYWAY, here are some pics I took of some of the happy recipients with their twisted little portraits! (The big round single zombie eye turned out to be universally desired by the models. Go figure.)

The next day I went to RainFurrest, and had a good time and did some more art--although not at the insane pace of Zombiefest! But that's a different story...

Wet Paint: Do Not Touch

Last night I finally got around to painting my new thrift store "up-cycle" monster painting. The original seems to have been painted in 1927 and was in really bad shape! In fact I spent more time repairing things and Bob Rossing the hell out of it trying to make it presentable than I did painting in the sasquatchian "guest star"!

It was supposed to go with my Godzilla piece and all the thrift store monster art created by members of my cartoonist's group The C.L.A.W. to be hanged in a showing at the Old Tacoma Post Office building as part of some sort of art appreciation celebration. Now, here's where the story takes a sad turn. I goofed!!

Because of the surface and all the damage, I decided I needed to paint it using an old set of water soluble oils I had lying around. I haven't actually touched them since I used them to paint a Magic: The Gathering card several years ago. ("Agonizing Demise"--the only card I did in oils.) I thought that since they were water soluble that they would dry quickly, like acrylics. maybe not as fast, but at least much faster than traditional oils. But BOY was I wrong. they dry like oils. S-l-o-w-l-y. So "Bigfoot in the Park" will not be joining the others at the art show because it is still wet.

On the brighter side--an interesting thing about this painting is that it has an entirely different painting on the reverse side. Now I will have time to paint monsters on that side too!

Birthday Drawings!

Just a quick post of a few birthday drawings done for July--and actually, there's still another one or two to go! A LOT of birthdays in July...

First is a sketch for a friend of mine. I'm working on a short "Super Mouse" comic with him (which is WAY over due, of course) and I thought he'd enjoy a sketch of the mouse in question wishing him a happy natal day!

My nephew's birthday is today, actually. For his brother I had drawn Mario playing football against Bowser, but since Brandon likes Batman I decided to do Bats and the Joker playing soccer. I didn't want to do football twice. Happy Birthday, kiddo!

My niece turns 20 this year and is venturing out into the world. She likes penguins and I thought a cute little fluffy penguin, longing to "fly away" would be a neat little drawing for her. Of course penguins can't fly, but they swim as if they were flying, so much like we humans, they adapt their dreams to suit their abilities. I think though, unlike the penguin, she WILL fly!

Finally, here's one I did for my nephew Max. He likes Doctor Who--my fault! I got him started. Mwa ha haaaa! I thought he'd enjoy a little TARDIS joy ride on his birthday! Since I can't give him a REAL one, unfortunately, this will have to do. I should have drawn a fez on him, but I forgot. :P