Fish Quartet

Fish on Friday. It's Lent don cha know

These four came out of the kiln this week along with some mugs, bowls, and little jars. The fish will go to good homes. The pottery work looks to be going on hiatus until I can work out some issues with the kiln and venting it more than I am right now. The doodling continues, showing up on scraps of notepaper. I plan to break trail on a new sketchbook in the next day or two.

Puppy Faces

The "dawgs" and me in 1998

     Greta and Zoe are 14 now. They seem to be in pretty good health and like the rest of us, age catches up. It's amazing how small these two were when they came to live with us. We got them at shy of six weeks and took them to the vet for their "well baby check up". Dr. Mickey told us these two needed to have stayed with their mom a few more weeks and that we'd need to work on socializing them to people and other animals. The people part was easy. To this day these two aren't exactly sociable (more like skittish) around other dogs. These two have personality plus and we've often said they are so entertaining, "who needs cable TV?"

Face Value

Dr. Sheldon Cooper has opinions about Canada's new currency policy

There are two interpretive keys to this doodle: First, Canada's new currency policy includes removing all pennies from circulation. The second key lies in a running gag from the TV show "The Big Bang Theory".

The whole idea for this toon came as I walked by the local credit union and read their clever sign, "Hasta la vista, Penny". The idea for Sheldon popped into my head immediately. I had fun doing that caricature and working out a few of the details. All in all, I'm happy with this one.

The best commentary on the penny came from Stephen Colbert who expressed alarm over Canada no longer using the penny. What is the US follows suit? Among other things, Colbert worries that now we'll say "a nickel for your thoughts....that means a five hundred percent increase in price for the same amount of thinking!".

I guess the 99 cent special will be a buck now....

Romantic Faces

My Valentine and me in 1994

   We had gone out on a special Valentine's Dinner date with friends to a fancy schmancy restaurant on the top floor of a sky scraper in Columbus, Ohio. "Wouldn't a picture be a nice keepsake for our wonderful dinner with our special friends and of our first Valentine's Day together", we thought. So... The cute one improvised a tripod and snapped a series of pictures using a camera equipped with a timer and loaded with film!
   Now, many sketch books later....another Valentines day and we remembered our first  Valentine's date and taking this picture. Neither of us can believe it was nineteen years ago already!
    The girl hasn't aged and she's cute as always. The guy has aged a little--and he's fortunate as always to have met and married his Valentine.

Making Google Eyes

Circa late 1970's

  My brother was at work clearing ice from a flat roof and took a shard in the eye. A trip to the doctor and a little pain medication and he came to our house to rest. Good old "Mr. Compassion" grabbed a sharpie and gave him a customized eye patch. Yeah, I'm a giver....
Thankfully my brother is pretty good natured much of the time. I wonder if I'm putting that to the test by posting this picture

Facing the bracing...cold

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: MANITOBA-Riding in cars without heated seats!

   Our intrepid hero, Sean, kindly offers to ride in the back seat when we're carpooling. It's a chilly day, but not insane cold as it has been, but still cold. And those seats in the back of the car--YEEESH!
   Sean says he'd like to "star" in one of my postings, and I'm enjoying the challenge of building a little story around our adventure. It's actually quite the ego fluffer to have someone say they'd like to be associated with this blog.
  Look below and right of the colored version, you'll see what I thought was the final draft. I worked to get the surroundings right, but the character seemed to fall flat. In the colorized version, I like the character a bit more and would like to do more with the setting. In a way, the cold seat is a character too.

Facing Facts

Anne of Green Gables is NOT blonde! Case Closed!

    You might have read about the unauthorized version of of Anne of Green Gables....the title character is now "updated"--and blonde. The update sounds like it's being done by singularly unimaginative people who are trying to turn a quick dollar. Bah! If you're gonna write a story, make up yer own!
    While not one for confrontation, I hope the Lucy Maud Montgomery estate, the whole province of PEI, and the Spirit of Anne herself resist the crass attempt to mess with a nice little story.

Nebbish Face

This started with me drawing around the base of one of my favorite coffee mugs ( It has a beagle on the handle and my friend Gary Rith made it....check out his blog and his awesome work). This guy in the doodle just sort of emerged from the semi circle. For some reason I've always liked drawing these kinda dumpy little guys...kind of weather worn. Even in junior high I liked creating the nebbish types even when other cartoonist friends were drawing super heroes or souped up cars.
    This guy just seems likable to me--I think maybe some would say he's a "mensch"...a good thing. I've decided that if I were to do lots of full scale cartooning I would want to practice with objects and backgrounds. I notice Gary Trudeau's detail and drawing is very clear and precise and his characters are more "loose" in the drawing.

The Facemat Challenge

No more double hot fudge sundaes and Hitchcock film festivals before bed for me

You might have read about the sumptuous supper my bride served a while back. A little jar with crayons and  a large placemat (the calendar page from the month just ended) were part of the supper and the challenge. I traced the outside of the various serving and dining dishes and relish jars and then filled in the traced outlines.

This challenge was for the end of December....the next facemat challenge is done and will be posted another time.

Phil wants to know why we keep waking him up to ask about things we could easily consult the internet or farmer's almanac about. P.S. if Ground Hog Day is such a big deal, why didn't anybody bake a cake?

Let Sleeping Groundhogs Lie

Making toward the weekend

A bonus for your Friday--two doodles! Oh the generosity:). I was going for both mood and motion with the drawings. The caption occurred once I had sketched this out.

Adding a bit of  "Red Bull' to the communion chalice works wonders

What was that old Jethro Tull lyric--'sitting on a pipe wrench"--.nah...what WAS it???

The caption on this one came about when a memory of the guitar riff at the beginning of the song popped into my head. True I can't remember the actual title, the album, or even the theme of the song...just those six "fuzzy"guitar note and the opening words.