Falcons

My daughter and I found a cool picture of a falcon so we both did a sketch of it. She is quite good don't you think?

Illustration Friday: Tranquility

Tranquility? Tranquility? What the heck is that? It is not something I am all that familiar with in my life. I mean, I have four kids. Need I say more ? For the sake of this blog I will. As I was thinking about the topic of tranquility I really had to think about my life. It is quite hectic sometimes. I don't seem to have very many quiet, peaceful times or what you would call tranquility. With all of the pressures of life, the deadlines, paying the bills, oh and the kids. It's hard enough to find sanity, let alone tranquility.

What kind of things give me those hard to find tranquil moments? Clean sheets on a newly made bed. Oh man, I love that. I can slide into bed and feel real peace for a few moments. Ahhhhhhhh. Or what about homemade raspberry jam? Oh baby, don't get me started. You can block out the world for a short time when you eat a piece of toast covered in homemade raspberry jam just like Mom used to make. Mmmmm mmmm mmm. And the best is that moment when the unharnessed atomic power contained in a two year old kid comes to an abrupt halt and he falls asleep. Behind the couch, on the stairs, in a plate of spagetti-o's. It can happen anywhere, any place and when it does--oh the tranquility. The only problem is that it never happens when you want it to. If you could make it happen when you want...if you could find that off switch and use it whenever you wanted...the power you would have! You would be the envy of parents everywhere.

That brings me to tranquilizer guns. I think it would work. When you become a parent the government should just issue you one. Think of the possibilities.

Illustration Friday: Karma (and old men)

Crotchety old men make me laugh. I once saw an old guy parking at the grocery store. He got out of his old pick-up truck and started walking towards the store. He then stopped, turned around and started walking back. I was totally shocked as I watched this old guy reach into his pocket, take out his keys and scratch, or more appropriately gouge, a big grove down the side of a BMW that was parked accross two spaces. From the headlight to the tail light. I couldn't believe my eyes. I waited around and told the BMW guy what happened. He freaked out. Later the cops told me that the guy was 91 years old. What!!?!? I could picture some punk teenager doing something like that but a creaky old man? I even had to go to court to testify against the guy. I guess you never know. He must have had some bad karma.

Bunny

Tiny quick sketch. I might be doing a bunny illo. job so I guess I have bunnies on my mind. Enjoy.

Edit:
After posting this cute little bunny I began to have a few worries. What will people think? Has Guy gone soft? Will he only draw cute widdle bunnies that live cute widdle lives, eating nummy widdle carrots? It is true that I can draw this sort of cute stuff but, one can only draw so much cute. As with this bunny, I normally only draw the nice part of the story. The part people want to see. The part that makes people say "awwwww, wook at the cute widdle bunny". But, to balance the cuteness of it all I need to picture in my mind the not-so-cute part of the story.
I'm sure most would look at this and think that the little bunny will soon have a little carrot nibble followed by a pleasant romp in the garden under a smiling sun. For the sake of the viewer I thought I would pull from my mind what I think really happened.

Illustration Friday: Metropolitan

This is my first post for Illustration Friday. I always thought it would be fun to do but I have never taken the time to do it. I also have this new blog thing so I thought I'd give it a shot. My son wanted me to draw him a robot and this is what happened. It has buildings so I figured it fit the topic. Hope you like it.

Sketchin'

Here is a little sketch I did this morning as a warm-up. I have a whole bunch of small scraps of nice Arches watercolor paper sitting around. It is great stuff to draw on-- wonderful texture. It's not my normal way of sketching. I normally draw on some heavy, very white, 8.5x11 copy paper (cougar opaque). It is also great paper. I like to use the copy paper instead of a sketchbook because there is no stupid spine to get in the way and If I do a crappy sketch, which I do quite often, I don't have the feeling that I ruined a whole book. Then at the end of the year I take my stack of drawings down to Kinko's and have them bound together. See, I still end up with a sketchbook, I just don't have as much crap filling it's pages. So, the cougar opaque is the only stuff I use--except for the little scraps. I'm a sort of paper snob. I think I got way off track here. My point is that while I'm working on paintings I'm not sitting next to my copy paper so when I am bored or have the urge to sketch, I reach for the little scraps. And, because I'm sitting at my drawing table next to my paints, It's easy to do little color studies. It is a really refreshing break and sometimes it gives me just enough of a boost to make my normal work tolerable. These sketches are usually quick. anywhere from 5-20 minutes from start to finish. That way I don't feel like I'm wasting too much time. That is until I waste a hour trying to put it in a blog that was only meant to be a couple pictures and a quick comment. Oh well..

Work or cowboy?

I was sitting there looking at the painting I should be working on and thought I'd rather draw a cowboy. So, here it is. Enjoy.

Here is a little work update. I'm currently working on a new picture book called "Dance by the Light of the Moon". Here is a link to one of the paintings. Preview If this works it is the top two images. The goose and the pig. It is keeping me busy and the deadline is coming up quick. I think I only have ten more paintings left to paint. The painting I'm doing now is frustrating me so I find it easy to be distracted-- that's where the cowboy came from. I'm having a hard time making the picture in my head match the one on the drawing board. I gotta just keep plugging away I guess. Who knows, maybe another cowboy will happen.