Merry Chrismas and.....

The barn's on fire!




This is a marker cartoon that I drew for my friend Dave for a Christmas card. It's based on a running joke about us old guys.

I guess you would have had to have been there.........

Another christmas post

This was actually a birthday card I gave to my brother in law, but it ties in with the Christmas theme. Done with cheap magic markers.
Also, here is my favorite Christmas hymn. I liked this version.

Christmas for the Independent

This is a sketch I did today at Independent Living Resources here in Portland. An organization dedicated to help disabled folks.

These guys. (as well as the lady in the last post), are visually impaired. The man on top mostly just stood and listened to everyone talking, occasionally smiling and joining in. The man in the middle was very talkative, speaking about his experiences in Alaska. While the man on the bottom waited patiently on his ride.

It was ILR's anual Christmas party. I was there with my wife who came to pass out the Christmas boxes at the party.

She has been gathering these boxes for weeks from friends and strangers who wanted to help to make Christmas a little better for these people. In retrospect it was pretty amazing how it all went together.

Sketch of the day

I loaded my camera into my computer today. There were still pictures on there from Halloween. I am not really into Halloween that much, but costumes are so interesting.

This is a sketch of one of the pictures I liked. I just used cheap markers on Strathmore #400-3 paper. The scanner washed out the colors a bit though. I added the wall coloring with Gimp, a free program that is like photoshop.

Pastel Cat Portrait

This is a portrait that was done from four photos. So, I do not have a picture to show for comparison, but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.
I really wanted to try to get this cats characture.

A Couple of Sketches

So here are a couple of panels I did a while back. I could not decide on the captions. Originally they were going to be political, but lately I am thinking about the holidays and the temptations of all the socializing.
The first panel would be like have another beer? Or piece of cake? The second panel would be a polite refusal, but firm. Like no thanks, I am driving or something like that.........

Maybe I should call this doodle blog!

I saw a picture of this dog and decided it would be a funnier cartoon than a picture.
Anyway, I am still hanging around.



Here are a couple more. I am changing sketchbooks, so here are a few stupid ideas that I had.

A watercolor sketch of a dog

Just practicing here. I might be doing a commission of a boxer, so I thought I would get ahead of the game by doing this sketch. The photo is a bit fuzzy and shiny, but everyone should be able to get the idea.

A Halloween Cartoon

Here's one of my son, Chumley.
He was just talking the other day about Rob Zombie, so I linked to the song. It really does seem like a good Halloween song.





Today is Halloween, Friday the 31st. I thought I would add this cartoon to this post. It is one of my favorites. And the music is by one my favorite bands. Squirrel Nut Zippers. Enjoy.

Lon Chaney

I have been looking at Tod Brownings work as a movie director of the 1920's and 1930's and ran across this video of Lon Chaney on You Tube. It is fascinating.
I remember Lon Chaney Jr as a kid, but Lon Chaney was before my time I guess. From what I see he was a true artist in every sense of the word.

Here is a quick sketch I did of him. I accidently stuck a black marker up his nose, but how interesting to draw. I colored it with Gimp, a free program that is like Photoshop.

Practice Sketch for Today

Here is quick sketch I did today. I really like the way her hair looked and the texture of it. I was listening to music while sketching, so that was extra fun for me.

I was using a Pentel gel pen.
Jake

A Cartoon About us

Thirty fours years and I still get a thrill from my wifey.

Disabilities and Attitudes

I saw this girl yesterday in Portland. On the back of her motorized chair there was a sticker that said "It's All Good".

A poslitive statement from her and an uplifting message for everyone else.

Happy Birthday, Tamera. From Sketch Island!

AAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday, to my sister.
Me and the other pirates here are hoping you have a fine birthday.
Here's us and here is a Pirate's song or two to bring you up.









Or if you prefer:

Just adding some sketches and ideas.

It occurred to me that I haven't posted anything for a while. So, here are a few ideas I had. My cat who died. My sister in law, Judi, on a post it done with a red Bic ball point pen. And, of course a funny dragon.

Maybe you could tell that I am just a bit down today, but should improve as I go through the day.











And of course the most famous Woody Guthrie song. We used to sing this in school.

Freaks

The other day I was talking with a friend about movies and the movie "Freaks" came up. I haven't thought about this movie for years. It's a good movie from 1932.

Written by Todd Robbins, produced and directed by Tod Browning, this is a movie that lovingly portrays circus freaks. It shows them as decent, kind, and accepting people. It also portrays two of the so called normal people to be the truly ugly ones.

Anyway, I sketched these two sketches from a YouTube clip I found of the movie. They are just pretty quick sketches on cheap paper with mechanical pencil, but fun to do never the less. I am also adding the clip from YouTube. Not just for comparison, but to give an idea of the movie. Included in the clip is the famous chant.

"Gooble gobble, gooble gobble,
we accept her, we accept her,
one of us, one of us,
you are now one of us."

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Happy Birthday to my sister! Thirty nine again........
I thought I would draw a picture for you and what better than a monkey? Anyway happy birthday from all of us out here on the left coast!

I tried to find the best birthday song I could, I must have listened to one hundred of them, but this is the only one I liked, (except for The Beatles "Birthday" of course).

Just substitute your name, and no I don't expect you to listen to the whole thing.

Just thinking out loud.

I have not been watching American Idol this year, so I don't have a clue what is going on there. But it's always fun to think about what would have happened if some truly great artists, who did not fit the American Idol mold, would have tried out.

Pete Seger, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and a whole host of great others.
The guy on the top is the great Woody Guthrie and the guy on the bottom is supposed to be Frankenstein Simon Cowell.

Woody!

Frankenstein Simon Cowell

Here's a couple of songs from Woody. Lessons learned and I think, at least partly forgotten.





And of course "This Land is Your Land". We used to sing this one in school.

About journaling and other thoughts.

Now that I am getting older and my mobility is limited I find myself sketching when I go out. I have been looking a lot at peoples sketches on the net and I am finding the most attractive ones have some order to them. Like panels and personal notes. Below is one I did from Saturdays fly fishing expo in Albany, Oregon. I think it looks better this way and certainly better for others to look at. I added a bit of ink when I got home. I still have some things to learn, but this is, I think heading in the right direction.




I also adding a warm up doodle that I did on Saturday. I wish I would have put it in my sketchbook and not on the program. And another doodle that was an idea that I had. I was thinking of a bunch of chimps hanging out around a fly tyer and smoking drinking coffee and telling stories. I don't know if I will work on this or not it is just an idea at this point, but everyone who has seen this has had something to say about it. I think everyone must like monkeys!






The last item I wanted to share today is a song from The Dave Clark Five. I heard yesterday their lead singer died. They were a great group from the "English invasion", a musical movement that was in the early 1960's.

A Card

It's my broter in law's retirement party tonight, so I made him this card. I drew it on a cheap notepad with felt tip pens and then had to try to fix it with photoshop. The paper wrinkled from the felt pens and then there were all these lines from the paper.

I think it looks all right. By the way, that is not my sister-in-law that he has his arm around in the photo!

A few sketches and a movie recommendation

A sketch of a picture I saw.


My youngest son. He was trying on hats.


Playing with markers, (brush pens). I am just starting to do this.


Here are a few of my sketches this week. I have been able to move around this week and actually get a few things done. I don't have too much to say about these sketches.

The next thing I want to do is a movie review. It's funny I would do this, but I liked this movie and because the critics panned it, I thought I would bring it up.

This movie is "The Martian Child". The critics said it was too sentimental and too predictable.
I rented it anyway because I like John Cusak. In fact I like the whole cast.

I was not disapointed and found the story very touching. It was was well paced and interesting. And I though the boy, Bobby Coleman was great. He gave a very strong preformance. Cusak was cool as usual and Amanda Peet was beautiful.

If I were going to grade this, I would probably give it a solid B, but that is just my opinion and you are welcome to it.

Here is a link to a song from the movie, which a heard and looked up. I have been listening to it for a few days. It's from a band named Guster.

The Real Me?

My arthritis has been bothering me lately, but I did do this sketch this afternoon.


My wife said I should do one of her with a lot of eyes. I thought that was a good idea! Very funny!

As I mentioned before, I have been looking at a lot of cartoons and graphic novels lately. I read Art Spiegelman's "Maus: A Survivor's Tale". Spiegelman's father was a survivor of the holocaust. I thought it was really well done. I kept putting myself in their place.

I have also been looking at Australian artist Norman Lindsay's "The Magic Pudding" This is a children's book, but the art is very good.

That's all for now, Jake.

Graphic Storytelling

I mentioned before that I have lately been interest with cartoons. Particularly pen and ink ones. Political cartons and such.

One of my sons goes to Portland State University and he is taking a course on short stories. The text book is "The Sory and it's Writer", by Ann Charter. In this book, toward the end is a chapter on Graphic Storytelling.

In this, she mentions a few artist and so I thought I would share them and some of their work:
Scott McCloud-"Understanding Comics"
Will Eisner-"Comics and Sequential Art"
Art Spiegelman-"Maus; A Survivors Tale"
Gilbert Hernandez-"Heartbreak Soup"
Keiji Nakazawa-"Barefoot Gen: A Story of Hiroshima"
Jiro Taniguchi-"The Walking Man"
Marjane Satrapi-"Persepolis"
R. Crumb's take on Kafka's "A Hunger Artist"

Marjane Satrapi was here in Portland last week, so I checked out her two books, "Persepolis" and "Persepolis 2" from the library. They were quite easy to read and frankly I don't think there is any other venue that a person like me, A 57 year old American would be able to consider the thoughts of an Iranian woman. That is to say that i found them interesting.

Here is a link to a radio interview done on comunity radio (KBOO) here in Portland.

Persepolis director Marjane Satrapi interview on KBOO, 1/22/2008.

VW Vans

This is a sketch that started off as a doodle and I just kept on drawing it.

When I was about 20 there were a group of 4 or 5 of us that all got Volkswagen Vans. I used to throw my surfboard in and go to the beach as much as possible. On any given weekend you could go to where the waves were the best and find 2, 3 or 4 VW vans parked. Or at the jetty park at night. It was free back then.

So, now with my arthritis and stuff I can only look at it and say, "Those were the days my friend. We thought they'd never end."

So even thought it would be impossible for me now, the memories are stored to conjure up and enjoy from time to time.

Saturday Part Four

Here is another song. I am posting it just because it is the song I am listening to the most right now. Just click on the play button.

It's Colin Meloy is the lead singer for The Decemberists, a group from here in Portland, Oregon.

Saturday Part Three

Persons of integrity. Some people are able to stand up and make a difference. Here is to good people of conscience everywhere!





Martin Luther King Jr.
On a small sketch pad. 4 1/2"x5"

Saturday Part Two

Here is the other thing I have been interest in lately... Cartoons. I have been looking at a lot lately and thought I would sketch out a few and see what they might look like. I don't consider myself to be that politcal, but it seemed like a good place to start.


This is supposed to be John McCain. I was really disapointed in him when he made that joke.



Baracks people called me twice this week asking for money. I told them I was broke the first time and so I asked them not to call me again. I don't know who I will be voting for this time.

Saturday January 26, 2008

Good Saturday morning! Well a few thing have been going on with my artwork and so I thought I would share them with you.

The first being that I found is a gel pen that I have been enjoying quite a bit. I found it by searching the journalist blogs while looking for a lightfast ball point pen. I found that when I doodle or sketch the first thing I look for is a ball point pen. I don't know why this is, but I have natural preference for ballpoints. The pen I found is a Uniball 207.

Pretty good for sketching I think and here is the link for the pen:
Uniball 207

Politicians

There were several pictures of politicians in the paper this week. I thought these were the most expressive of the poses.
The teacher.
The nurturer.
The crowd pleaser.
I guess we all pose when we have our pictures taken, but these people are very good at it.