Taking note

A page of notes from a meeting at work: June 22, I believe. A dull conference call with a frustrating client. I find it interesting how a page of doodles from a staff meeting differs so much from a page of my sketch book. I tend to fill in the page fairly evenly, without much concern of composition or scale. Very uniform. Familiar regurgitated doodles and characters always spring up. But once in a while something novel will spring forth, often because of something somebody has said or mentioned. Not much of that on this page, unfortunately. Though I suppose the birdlike creature with the fresh kill is a fun moment.

Eyeball Genie

Dune Bug

A bug on the prowl for some desert honey and sultry sweets.

Angry Rabbit

Healthy Heart choices

Newsday, a New York daily, features a great section called Kidsday— proudly subtitled "for kids, by kids, mostly." I was immediately taken by this amazing illustration by 11-year-old Brittany Haller of Huntington for an article about obese kids and a school cafeteria solution that offers Heart Healthy food. I don't think I could've put forth a better effort myself. I snipped it from the newspaper over a year ago (April 11, 2005 issue), and I keep it tacked to the bulletin board above my drawing table for inspiration. I have to assume that Newsday had publication rights for at least a year, so I believe it's safe for me to publish here at Drip!.

Disgruntled farmhand

BLOWR! BLOWR! BLOWR!

I tend to have my sketchbook and iPod in hand when I'm doing laundry. On this occasion, I happened to be listening to Animal Collective's Grass when the chorus of "blowrs" blasted my ears. I was inspired to create this tormented creature.

Swan Cleaners

I pass the Swan Cleaners on Washington St. in Brighton everytime I bring my clothes to Step Up Laundry. I get a kick out of all the signage they use, but in particular, how many different swan logos they have.


I did a quick Google search and was a bit disappointed to find that there are swan-themed dry cleaners all over the place, including a similar looking chain in Ohio. Loren has brought our dry cleaning there on a number of occasions. The guy that runs the place is more of your typical motorcycle dude—large stature, complete with tattoos. She says he's nice, and my suit always comes back nicely pressed.

When did swans become synonymous with dry cleaning?

Hop on over

Ever since I started drawing birdhouses, I inevitably ended up drawing a lot of birds. Which I find I really enjoy. I usually draw them petite (sparrow size), so i went out on a limb and drew this fella. As soon as I draw a character, a little story starts to work its way into my head. Due to nothing short of shear laziness, I never seem to get the stories out. One of these days all these characters will manifest into a comic or story of some sort.

Blood tea

I think I heard somewhere that drinking tea is supposed to reduce blood pressure.

Tuned out or tuned in?

Which are you?

Dry to the bone

Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting recent doodles from my sketchbook.

Paper bag puppet

We have a free give-away every month at FableVision, so for the month of June, I dreamed up this little activity. All the fun you could ever want with a brown paper lunch bag! Download the kit here.

Don't lose your lunch

Looking for a fun project to kill time in a slow summer month of 2001, I found this tin lunch box, and thought it would be fun to paint something special for my girlfriend, Loren. At the time I was really into carnival themes, which peaked when I created Jinx the Monkey. It was also about the time when I was embracing cartoons again, after having it beaten out of me in art school. The lighting is really yellow, so the colors are super saturated in this photo. Below is a shot of the back side:


Kind of funny how there is a monkey here as well. An earlier Jinx, perhaps? It's crazy to think this dates almost 5 years now.

Starved

I doodled this creature in my sketchbook awhile back and later fleshed out this hideous illustration. It may develop into a series of images with mutants and nuclear wastelands. Gotta love the flies and stink lines...