YIPPY! WE WON AN “IPPY!”

The Children’s Book I illustrated last year, “The Lonely Parrot,” just won a 2012 Independent Publishers Association Bronze for best children’s illustrated e-book! Yippy! Congrats to author, Lisa Kelley!

http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1486&urltitle=Book%20Awards

http://www.thelonelyparrot.net In itunes, search “The Lonely Parrot." For celebratory reference,
see animated jumping kitty in my last post below. Boing! Yay! Boing! Yay! Boing! Yay! Boing!

JUMP little kitty!

Jump! for Illustration Friday. I couldn't resist. My first little “animated” Illustration Friday entry. I read this week's subject: “Jump,” and immediately thought of an experiment in “squash and stretch” bouncing motion in the “Animation HD” app on my ipad. Weeeeeee!
Yahoooooo! Just insert your own “boing!” sound effect. Enjoy. (And I guess he lost his tail whilst doing all that jumping!)

Heights

Heights for this week's Illustration Friday. As usual, or maybe to say, as more often than not, the best way for me to dive right in is just go with what first comes to mind.
This week was no exception. I'm not even quite sure exactly what the big eared critter in the balloon is, maybe a little aussie blue pup, just with a lighter coat. Could be the beginning of a fun little story. Created again, mostly, in Procreate app.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bu-bba! Bu-bba! Bu-bba!

A quick Bubba caricature from my iPad

WAY TO GO BUBBA! Congrats to Bubba Watson on his 2012 Masters victory. My younger brother was lucky enough to get a last minute call to join some friends with passes for the final round on Sunday. We were all excited for him because he's a huge UGA (U of Georgia) fan and graduate and knew he would be cheering on Bubba. (Who played his college golf at UGA.) Much to our delight, Bubba wins the whole enchilada! I got to see his final approach shot to the last playoff green just as I walked in the door from being back in Atl. for Easter. Wow! What a shot! That shot deserved to win him the tournament, and fortunately, he did. Anyway, I haven't posted a caricature in a while, and thought this would make the perfect time.This ones for YOU Dave! Here's a great link to "9 Things You Never Knew About Bubba Watson." Inspiring, funny stuff:
http://www.businessinsider.com/bubba-watson-facts-2012-4

Vocal

“Vocal” for this week’s Illustration Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I like to yell a bit at my spectator sporting events of choice, however, some sports just don’t seem to lend themselves to loud outbursts, in my humble opinion. Take for instance golf. Now, although, I or one of my golfing buddies may scream bloody murder at a missed (or made) shot while on the local public course, I find it a bit odd that certain spectators at professional events like to yell after (and sometimes during) the swing of every player that passes thru.
(Or that they choose to “stalk” thru the round.) Note to screamers: If a professional golfer is on the PGA tour, they already KNOW they’re the “man.”
BTW. Congrats to an amazing victory at The Masters this week for regional area favorite, Bubba Watson. Hmmm. I should do a caricature of him. It's been a while since I posted one.

Return

Not sure where this idea came from. Turned out a bit more “editorial,” than intended. Matter of fact, I hadn't intended it to be editorial at all. I actually gave momma bird-of-prey a bit of a tiny smile, albeit, smirk, because she looked too off-put with the original downturn of the corner of her beak-mouth. Looked way too gloomy. Like I said, I don't know from whence this idea cometh, because I maybe eat at said represented gastro-establishment once a year, max, if that. Anyway, interpret to your hearts content! Let me know what you think. Onward and upwards, french fry eatin' birds o' prey!

Flood-ed, or, er, swamped

A little revenge for the ducks I guess. This is the first thing that came to mind for “Flood-ed, or, er, swamped” for my Illustration Friday entry this week. Not sure where it comes from as usual, but, I think that’s a good thing. The subconscious is much more interesting and possibly revealing than the expected, or obvious, first conscious, literal idea. One of my biggest motivations for keeping a blog, as a professional illustrator and designer, is that I always have an outlet for pure creative freedom. I created this fairly quickly on my iPad 2 using Adobe Ideas (the latest version with the eyedropper tool, yay! finally!) then, took into Photoshop on my mac for quick finishing.

Shade(s) for Illustration Friday

We're all God's chillun, all the same shades of a different hue-- or is that same hue with different shades....on.

Yield

What is it with Elephants and me? Looking back, looks like I've done quite a few. ANyways. Not much to say, just glad I finished this to get posted. Hope you like it.

Excuses, Excuses...

This was one of the many reasons I was busy busy this year-end.
Created the week before Christmas, it was a fun job, but crazy quick deadline. In the end, though, I think it turned out great. It's a company-wide notice for Archers Daniels Midland to send to all of their 40 thousand employees. I did the design, character design and illustration, illustration, and animation.

A very capable Banjo-Pig-Ant

Wow! Time's fun when you're havin' flies! It's been too too long since my last post! Father forgive me... it's been month's since my last post... “Forty Lashes!!!”...... Nooooo! I digress. The Holidays were crazy busy. Then I moved my studio December 31st. So, I think I am just about settled fully back in. I think Illustration Friday decided I no longer existed, because I stopped getting their e-mails. Oh well, I deserved it. I digress yet again.
Anyway.. The Illustration Friday topic this week is “Capable,” and I immediately thought of a lowly ant, powerful enough to lift 50 times his own weight with his mandible alone. Thats some pure Jaw Power! Well, my ant in my illustration does not really even use his powerful mandible, and yet he lifts a banjo playing pig with relative ease. Whilst playing the ole banjo himself! I submitted this one to Guy Francis and Stacy Curtis' “Banjo Pig Blog” site. so, we'll see if he qualifies. http://banjopigs.blogspot.com/
Time will tell. Speaking of time, I promise I won't wait sooo long to post next time!

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"

Mark(S)Zuckerberg

I've had the thought lately to get more weekly practice with my caricatures, so, I've trying to begin integrating more into my "Illustration Friday" posts and elsewhere. This is a bit late, seeing that it's almost Thanksgiving, rather than Halloween, but, I did create it back before All Hallows, so anyways. I think there was a magazine with Mark Zuckerberg on the cover as I was sketching on my iPad. Didn't put alot of thought into what Halloween character he would be, but, it could be apropos depending on who you ask.

Silent...

But deadly funny. If you haven't seen any Charlie Chaplin lately, give yourself a quiet, but, silently loud kick in the pants and give 'em a watch. Illustration Friday.

Stripes

Another Illustration Friday. A young(er) Bill Murray, back in the day, in the movie by the theme's name: ”Stripes.” I wanted this to be much more conceptual, but, alas, had to just do what I could while on deadlines with work stuff. I have, however, wanted to start doing regular caricatures to post, so, maybe this could be the first. What do you think? Anyone interested in seeing some of my closet caricature skills?