How does that saying go again? Early to rise, early demise? Yep, I am not a night owl. Until tomorrow. Good night.
Category: illustration
-
Obstacles
At times in my life it feels there are some pretty big obstacles to overcome. I’d like to say that my instinct is to ask for help, but most of the time I’m overanalyzing an approach to just ‘get over it’ by myself. This is rarely successful. After I fall flat on my face, I realize I can’t do it all myself.
-
King of Diamonds
The Kansas City Royals swept the Los Angeles Angels last night and went on to be crowned the champions of the ALDS. Moose and Hosmer’s homers, Gordon’s triple, Shields’ pitching and some incredible fielding by Lorenzo Cain easily trumped the Angels. On to the ALCS to meet the Orioles!
-
Citizens Band
Long before we had to worry about drivers texting, there were a few trading trucker slang via the ‘CB’. Growing up, we had an old Chevy Sheyenne equipped with this trendy technology but the novelty didn’t seem to last very long. Movies and shows like ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ and ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ made this way of being able to communicate while driving seem pretty cool to us kids and I remember begging our parents to turn it on. The only problem was we didn’t really have a need for one, so unless you wanted to eavesdrop, had an emergency or someone to actually talk to, it was simply just a prop to play with. Do you copy?
Over and out.
-
King for a Day
Right now I can’t think of another team that deserves to be in the postseason more than the Kansas City Royals. During Tuesday night’s wild card game, I tuned in at the end of six innings to see them trailing Oakland by four runs. I felt they had blown their chance and wrote them off before going to bed. The next morning I got the full game summary from my wife and son, because they stayed up to watch all twelve innings of an incredible game. Well, last night they pulled some more of that extra inning baseball magic against the Angels. Mike Moustakas’s homer in the 11th clinched a win for the Royals in game one of the AL Division Series. -
The Pen is Mightier
Artists, choose your weapon. Looking to fortify a position on D-Day plus one. Oh, and watch the bleeding – that is permanent ink.
-
Farewell Cruise
October means fall and postseason baseball. Although New York never had a shot at the pennant this season, one of their greatest players retired this week after twenty years as a Yankee. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I did happen to catch his last home game at bat and all I can say is ‘poetic’. I never did cheer for the Yanks, but after this week, it’s hard not to be a fan of Derek Jeter.
-
Inktober
I figured it was time to break out the Sharpies and get back to the drawing board. Thanks to Mr. Jake Parker and his InkTober drawing challenge, I’ll be inking for the next 30 days.
-
Drawing on Reading
Author Jim Karn and I visited with Northridge Elementary fourth graders today about the process of writing and illustrating books. I had the opportunity to illustrate Karn’s book, Little Jimmy’s Life on the Farm Stories, and lately he’s been very active about sharing and promoting it. I’ve been fortunate to attend a few readings with Jim and talk to audiences about the creative process I used to create the illustrations.Today’s visit was extra special, and really only happened because of a very insistent fourth grader – my youngest son, Chase. He’s been begging me to visit his class for months and has been boasting to all his friends about the work I do. Some days I really take for granted what I am blessed and able to do but on days like today I’m humbled at how proud he is of me. I thought it was fitting to show the students how proud I am of Chase and his love of reading by sharing prints of this illustration. Though I never once told the classes that the boy in the illustration was Chase, everyone assumed it was and he became quite the celebrity. Needless to say, it was quite the experience. I’m glad he encouraged me to do it.
-
Assembly Required
If I see another schematic on how to assemble something, it will be too soon. I spent most of today assembling patio furniture and installing new door knobs in the house. Most would assume that those projects wouldn’t take all day, but then they’ve never thoroughly consulted the manufacturer’s assembly instructions.
I think the individual designers responsible for drafting the illustrations for assembly instructions must have some sort of score to settle with mankind. The stuff may be manufactured cheaply in China, but some American is responsible for the design of it – why can’t the instructions be illustrated well enough to understand easily? I know a lot of guys refer to the ‘instructions’ as ‘suggestions’ and prefer to figure it out on their own, but I fall into the minority that does things to the letter. Yes, I am told quite often that I can make any simple project take more time. I guess I just have a gift.