Vanity, Vanity, All is Vanity.....

Leftover "turkey" the day BEFORE Thanksgiving!
Coincidence-- I was editing an old post to save time with "save as" and just noticed that I had used "vanity" (this week's Illustration Friday subject) in the description. Almost a year ago to the day: "I know it isn’t officially US Thanksgiving yet, but, with travel coming up etc. I thought I would go ahead and send pre-turkey day greetings. Watch out gobblers! Your tan-vanity may get ya cooked!"
Not sure if it applies at all to the Mark Twain quote I decided to use, but it might be worth exploring later on. "It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Mark Twain"

Layers upon Layers

Nowadays, with the digital medium being fairly de-facto in an artist's toolbox, I am not surprised that the actual first thing to come to mind for this week's Illustration Friday subject was something having to do with a multi layered illustration in Photoshop or Illustrator. Thank goodness that's not the avenue I pursued. Ahh, the delicate layers of a young vegetable. Sometimes so sensitive as to shed an equally delicate tear.
(And, of course, the young fruit, Tom Ato, is first to notice.)

Reversery

So in a hurry was I to get out this week's Illustration Friday entry, I combined my "line" layer in ps with my "sketch" layer. Ooops. I hope it's not noticeable in the final version. Don't think it tiz. Since I was almost two weeks behind (again,) I almost combined the one before (surrender) with this week's "reverse." But, somehow I cam up with a "push-me-pull-you" riding a skateboard. The second sketch
I worked on, I used the new Sharpie brand "liquid pencil." Not sure I like it that much so, far. It smeared the gunky stuff on my hands, and although, it erased even easier than a pencil from my paper, it wasn't so forgiving on my table and hand. Strange. Oh well, another in my huge pen collection.

Prehistoric

Is that a little man or a big phone? Illustration Friday this Friday -- or should that be last Friday? -- I'm still catching up -- theme is "Prehistoric." Maybe it's the fact that I just got a new mobile phone and am still learning the shortcuts to all the things I could do with my old phone before, much faster,
but the first thing to come to mind was a guy with the old, eighties style less-than-exactly-mobile-mobile phone. Won't be long before there'll be inner ear implants at this rate. "Hello? I'm sorry, no it's not the network, it's my inner ear congestion and post nasal drip that are effecting the call, try calling my other ear, I just took a decongestant. Funny, I just realized this kind of looks like my dad back in the day. I think he even had one of these chunky phones in his car, back when they were still called "car phones." To his credit, he would never be seen using something like that outside the car. I suppose if he ever broke down, he could use the phone as a "chock block" to keep his car from rolling down a hill.

Savour The Moment

"Savour," this week's Illustration Friday theme, made me think of a kid savoring an ice cream cone. Somehow,
it was a rough sketch of a boy, then a girl, then I noticed the shape of the cone could form a "V," so, I added type to what eventually became a little logo or label. Although, this is still a "rough," I would love to take it to a tighter, finished form. I think it could make a great ice cream flavor or brand. "Savour the Flavour!" Yum!, creative freedom!

Happy Turkey Day USA

I know it isn’t officially US Thanksgiving yet,
but, with travel coming up etc. I thought I would go ahead and send pre-turkey day greetings.
Watch out gobblers! Your tan-vanity may get ya cooked!

SSSSSneaky

Sneaky is this week’s Illustration Friday subject. Maybe this idea came to mind having seen countless Tom and Jerry cartoons growing up. I imagine the dog, a few seconds forward will be recoiling with a Homer Simpson sized double take. Dooooh! I’m sure dogs somewhere still eat those big calf bones too! Somewhere, but, not in gourmet dog food advert land.

Sneaky little devil

Better Nate Than Lever so to speak...

Only a week “late!” Did not get to last Friday’s Illustration Friday assignment until today, while working on this week’s “IF.” Sometimes watching my favorite college or pro football team really gets my blood boiling. I think that today, with all of the different camera angles and super super slow mo, it just seems like the viewer can see waaaay better than that elderly ref or official with coke bottle glasses and advanced macular degeneration. Anyways, I guess thats why this image came to mind under the premise of the given subject: “Burning.” Hang onto those peanuts!

Afterwards

Didn’t get around to the Illustration Friday till the day before the next Friday,
but, at least I got to it. The theme this week is “afterwards.” Something tells me that’s not water in that glass.

___Blank___Race ...

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "racing" suggested by Traci Maturo. Made me think of an illustration I created a while back for a conference in Baltimore. I guess they have pretty big warf rats in Baltimore, being a port town and all, so, I assume there was a logical tie-in. Anyway, the rat race is an old term, but, I guess we all get caught up in the “race” at some point or another, whether we realize it or not. This rat seems to be enjoying his race as he looks back over his shoulder. Who knows what awaits him ahead?