Illustration Friday: Monster

People call Lawrence a wicked monster...
He hasn't hands, rather claws like a lobster.
People are hurtful: they choose not to see
That he has feelings deep like you and me.

He'll crouch in the dark, all hollow inside,
Trying to hide from the taunts and the chides.
Bit of a beast in each of us, it's true,
So when Lawrence weeps, it's for me and you.

Our world cries for compassion. Peace to us all.

Illustration Friday: Feet

Okay, so it's not really a pic of feet... but it's an illustration of something important to my feet... my shoes. Oh, and my smelly socks. I try to run four to five times a week. I'll go stretches of months at a time when I'm very good about it. Then there are weeks at a time when the shoes don't see the light of day. Ran the Big Sur Marathon when I turned 40, but since then I've only had the gumption to train for half-marathons; the Humboldt through the Avenue of the Giants being that run of choice.

I've included the progression of the drawing... first one being the inked sketch, next one with flat areas of color added in Photoshop, third working on shading, and last one with the inked layer made visible again. Looking at it, I'm sorta partial to the illustration without the inked lines, the third one. Any feelings one way or 'tother?

Peace to all.

Illustration Friday: Tattoo

Yes, tattoos may be alright for some folks,
But don't stick my flesh with those inky pokes.
Won't sport skin art of 'Mom' or 'Dubya Bush'
On my upper arm, left ankle, or tush;
No tasteful rose, no swaying hula girl...
Don't ever intend to give it a whirl.
'Tis true in whatever form, art is art,
But I've no canvas on my fleshy part.
Not worried 'bout contracting a disease;
Just don't stick me with any needles, please.
--------
Been busy... not complaining... a good sort of busy... fun, but time-consuming, projects at work... family things and such. Tried several times to come up with something for the topic... false starts, all. But I'm determined to put a post up on every topic.

It really is true... tattoos do nothing for me. I don't know. They just don't excite me. Not that I object to others doing what they want to their bodies. Enough of this. Peace, everyone.

Illustration Friday: Insect

Statistics from the World Health Organization:

Malaria is responsible for as many as half the deaths of African children under the age of five. The disease kills more than one million children - 2,800 per day - each year in Africa alone. In regions of intense transmission, 40% of toddlers
may die of acute malaria.

About 40% of the world's population - about two billion people - are at risk in about 90 countries and territories. 80 to 90% of malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa where 90% of the infected people live.

Illustration Friday: Tea

Another week; another flimsy excuse. Busy on deadline stuff for brochures and print jobs and such. So... not a lot of time for new creations. This dude to the left was drawn a few years ago, based on someone I saw at a coffee bar earlier in the day.

I was looking for some inspiration for the 'tea' topic and ran across a quote from C.S.Lewis about there being no such thing as a cup of tea too big or a book too long. That reminded me of this guy. I found him, added a little tea string/tab thingie, and there you have it.

I apologize that I haven't gotten around to visiting the blogs of folks I try to check in on weekly. I'm getting to it, albeit slowly.

Peace to everyone. Take it easy on the caffiene intake.

Illustration Friday: Song

Maybe I wanted to finally be one of the first 100 folks to post for a topic. Maybe it's because I've got to devote this entire weekend to figuring out my taxes. Whatever the reason, I've taken an old photo-illustration I did of my son playing his guitar; when I was checking out various filter/layering/hue-saturation combos.

Anyway, song is very important in this household. Thanks to my wife's musical genes, our son and daughter are extremely talented musically. It's a blessing to be in the room when they're together playing a song. I gotta stop now, before I get all misty-eyed.

Peace to everyone. Put a song in your heart.

Illustration Friday: Simple

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
O, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!

Look to the blowing Rose about us—'Lo,
Laughing,' she says, 'into the world I blow,
At once the silken tassel of my Purse
Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw.'

And those who husbanded the Golden grain
And those who flung it to the winds like Rain
Alike to no such aureate Earth are turn'd
As, buried once, Men want dug up again.

-Omar Khayyam (translated by E. Fitzgerald)


Okay, there's my simple Valentine's Day sentiment. Before I went Googling for the exact poem, all I knew was the 'jug of wine, loaf of bread, and thou' business; which I thought was a pretty simple set of needs. I had done most of the work on the illustration already when I looked up the actual words, so I didn't bother to go back and set it 'underneath the Bough,' or amidst 'the blowing Rose.'

You folks more knowledgable than I may have known the whole poem (which goes on quite a ways from where I left off) and the fact that Omar was a Persian poet who lived during the 11th century. Mr. Fitzgerald translated some of his works in the 1800s, and he enjoyed a fair share of posthumous fame. ...Well, maybe you can't actually posthumously enjoy something... but, anyway his poetry was being recited again.

Be nice to your Valentine on Tuesday. If you don't have one, please spread some good will to someone else. Peace to all of you

postscript: Whoa. Just posted to IF, and I see that there are already over 300 entries on the topic... and it's only Sunday morning (in this part of the world). So much art, and so little time to view it all.

Illustration Friday: Chair

Yeah, Blackie the Mutt was more than a little peeved at me for all the coverage the cats got a couple of weeks ago; and nothing more than a mere mention of his doggie door. So a couple of days ago I told him that he would be worked into the next Illustration Friday thing, no matter what the topic was. Silly of me to be promising things to a dog, you think? Especially silly when you realize that he couldn't hear a word I said. He's 12 years old and stone-deaf.
He's been a good pooch all these years. We got him at the SPCA when he was just a few months old. He was a street pup, wandering when they netted him, I guess.

When I read the topic yesterday, I tried to break the news to him... "You're out of luck, unless you can think of an interesting way to include your hairy self in a picture with a chair." He snorted and slumped off to the other room, only to reappear minutes later, bringing my great-grandfather's chair in much the same manner you see here. Well, maybe not exactly... he can't really stand on only one leg... At least not long enough for me to sketch him.

Oh, and the chair... It belonged to my great-grandfather, Claus, who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 1870s, sailing aroung the horn of South America with four brothers. They landed in San Francisco and settled first in Half Moon Bay, where there was a small enclave of German immigrants. They eventually made their way south, to the Salinas Valley and beyond.

I don't think the chair came with Claus from Germany, but it is a cherished possession, nonetheless.

Anyway, I've included photos of the chair, and, of course, of the black and tan dog. Peace to everyone.

Illustration Friday: Glamour

Glamour is boring

A couple of news stories griped and gripped me today. One points out that the gap between rich and poor in the U.S. is growing alarmingly larger. We are the richest country in the world and yet have the greatest percentage of children living in poverty of all wealthy nations, nearly 22%.* Another article highlighted one of our celebrities, one of our glamorous, who declared bankruptcy a few years back, yet still owns three houses; one in Vegas and two in California.

The original sketch

* Berliner, David. "Fixing Schools Isn't Everything." NEAToday. February 2006: Pps. 38-39

Illustration Friday: Cat

Tiger sometimes thinks he's a hood ornament. Here he is on a '58 Edsel.

We share space with two cats, one indoor only and one outdoor only (though he has access to the garage through Blackie the mutt's doggie door). The indoor cat is a diminutive, albeit full-grown, gray and black female named Skweex. The outdoor cat is named Tiger, and he must remain outside because, even though he's neutered, he has chosen a corner of the living room in which to urinate. This is a non-negotiable offense with me; he only comes indoors under constant observation. He prefers the outdoors at this point, anyway, because the much younger and smaller Skweex pesters him.

When we come home from work or the store or a small trip, Tiger is at the end of the driveway to meet us, trusting our driving skills (and our brakes) implicitly. I have warned my daughter and my wife that the noble feline will surely end up as driveway pizza someday, no matter how careful we are. He disappears under the front of the vehicle, and we must creep forward at tortoise pace, praying that he is moving ahead in front of the wheels.

One of his favorite cat things to do is to warm his rump on the heated hood of the car. See below...

The real Tiger on my actual mode of transportation

Tiger will often be perched on one of the vehicles when we are ready to use it ourselves. He will stay there until we have backed out of the driveway, only jumping off when the auto starts moving forward, at which point the driver is forced to crane head and neck to determine that he has retreated back to the yard. Fortunately for
Tiger, we live at the end of a cul-de-sac, and there is not much traffic. Also, he is a homebody, and never ventures more than a couple of doors in either direction.

For those of you who are wondering why I've placed the cat on an Edsel in the illustration, you'll have to go to my Illustration Friday post on 'E is for...' I made a promise that I'd include an Edsel in the illustration for the next topic. So, true to my word there's the rough rendering of the elusive Edsel. I've been a bit rushed this week, and the illustration shows it.

Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy (or at least complacent and contemplative). Peace to us all.

Illustration Friday: E is for...

Elephant in the living room...
Gotta say I wasn't elated when I read this week's topic. I mean it didn't evoke any real emotion in me. I earnestly tried to ignore the first thought that entered my mind... an elegant elephant eating eggplant in an Edsel. So I started thinking about people with E as one of the intials in their names. Einstein, Eminem, or ... say, how about Edgar Allen Poe? An eclectic mix of personalities, I know. As a matter of fact, I endeavored to render a likeness of that great American poet and originator of the detective story...

... but my initial attempt didn't excite me all that much. May eventually finish it and post it to the other blog.

So. I thought and thought, and all sanity eluded me. That damned elephant came trumpeting back into my train of thought, blasting my eardrums. "Egads!" I exclaimed, exhausted. "Enough! Let me extricate the beast from my brain!" So 'ere you go. Entertain yourself in his living room.

Peace, everyone.

Illustration Friday: Sea

So Jonah went to sea in the belly of a 'fish' of some sort. Whether you take the story as literal fact or as allegory, his sea cruise had to be a little uncomfortable. And the fish... or whale... or whatever... having a hooman bean stuck in his craw. That had to hurt. No wonder he belched the reluctant prophet up on the beach.

Think I went a little overboard myself, with all the layering done here. One of those instances where you don't know where to stop. Same goes with this wordy text entry. Stop me, please.

Peace, everyone.

Illustration Friday: Flavor

"There's nothing like unrequited love to take all the flavor out of a peanut butter sandwich."
-Charles Schulz

This 'flavor' subject has so many possibilities, it was hard for me to narrow the choices down: summertime strawberries from the Salinas Valley, a good glass of pinot noir, any of the famous 31 ice cream flavors. When I have trouble choosing just one, I start searching the quotation sites. Found some good quotes, but this one from a Peanuts strip especially touched me. Not that I'm suffering from unrequited love... at least I don't think so... we'd have to ask my wife. No, I'm particularly fond of peanut butter. I could probably live off the stuff. I can't imagine it losing its flavor. Life would be hard.

Illustration Friday: Holiday

Maybe I won't even begin to try to explain how my thinking ended up here when coming up with this little Christmas Eve game. I just know that when I saw the topic for this week, I decided I wasn't gonna risk Pat Robertson's wrath by doing some politically correct version of Merry Christmas. So, I went totally some other way. I don't know why.

I was just gonna put 'Happy...' above the two caricatures, but then I realized that neither Doc Holiday or Billie Holiday had particularly happy lives. Doc died of TB when he was 35. (Side note: do we all agree that Val Kilmer has done the best Hollywood version of this western legend?) Billie died when she was 44. She enjoyed success as a singer, but she went through some very rough times: raped at a young age, discrimination, and substance abuse.

Anyway, may everyone have a truly wonderful week, whatever belief (or non-) that you have. Go to my other blog for a more conventional seasonal greeting.

Illustration Friday: Imagine

I have a friend I've never seen.
He hides his head inside a dream.
Someone should call him and see
If he can come out.
Try to lose the down that he's found.

-Neil Young, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," 1970

Early Friday morning I checked Illustration Friday and found that "Imagine" was the topic for the week. I had a five-hour drive ahead of me, and I loaded up a bunch of CDs for the road trip to pick up my son at college. During the drive I would dwell now and then on the topic and how to visualize it. Nothing good was coming to mind.

But it was shortly after I popped in Neil Young's After the Gold Rush (during the third song, actually), that one of his lyrics painted a picture for me. I departed from the lost love aspect of the words and started thinking about this friend hidden in a dream; an allegory for one's imagination. Something that has to break free from what is and become what might be.

I think Illustration Friday is a wonderful outlet for 400-500 folks and their imaginings every week. It's a great place to share and be inspired by others.

What I imagined the illustration would shape itself into -- for the piece itself takes over sometime during creation, and the artist just hangs on for the ride -- was slightly different from what ended up here, but I'll go with it. May we all nourish our imaginations. Peace to everyone.

Illustration Friday: Surprise

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie was considered a delicacy at one time, I guess... just not baked live, as in the nursery rhyme. It would be a surprise I'd just as soon not experience. As a little boy in the 1910s, however, my father would provide his great-grandmother blackbirds for pies. Don't mean to upset anyone; it's just a fact that people used to eat that stuff. Maybe they still do somewhere. Hope I haven't offended anyone who's including this in their menu tonight.

Illustration Friday: Blue

Sat and thought about the topic 'blue' for quite awhile. It was my wife who suggested that I do a take on the Blues. "But," she said, "that's plural; not singular 'blue.'" I disregarded her objection and went with it. So here's my humble tribute to legendary Bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins (1912-1982). Thanks for the music and the sincerity, Lightnin'.

Photo Friday: Experimental

Whenever I want to get experimental, I head to the kitchen. Some great (and not-so-great) concoctions have come out of those times.

Illustration Friday: Small

I don't know what the heck that little guy is riding that ladybug... some sort of cross betwixt an elf and a fairy, I guess. I just know he's a little guy; has to be to be able to put a bit in a ladybug's mouth. Apologies to those bug experts who know better... I didn't have any source reference for the bug... Know she/he's probably all anatomically incorrect. Oh, well.

Photo Friday: Yellow