Car wash

The local elementary school was having a car wash fund-raiser. My car was the last one they let in (whew!). All the kids were swarming around it trying to get it done so they could go home. Of course a water fight broke out when they were done, with much screaming and giggling. My car hadn't been washed since the Big Sur campout nearly two months ago! A well needed cleaning. They worked so fast I hardly had time to sketch them.

Buddha 6

Flat on my back

My back went out Saturday (ouch!), and is only slowly getting better. Luckily the work deadline was met, but now I'm on my back in bed for the second day in a row. I think I'm driving my wife crazy, not being able to do my usual chores though. This sketch was funny - a drawing within a drawing within a drawing... ha.

Buddha 5

This one sits on top of the roll-top desk. You'll notice the Halloween decorations - getting to be that time of year. I'm working from home today (still in deadline mode), took a 15 minute break for lunch and sketched a Buddha!

Pause to eat

Work has been intense this week with a big deadline, so I've been doing close to no sketching. I just went across the street to get some take-out lunch and sketched this gentleman while I waited for them to bring me the food. Seems like most of the time I'll bring the sketchbook and not use it; I'm trying to break that habit and force myself to draw even if I don't feel like it.

Joan with champagne

Buddha 4

Buddha 3

This one is tiny and sitting atop a painting I made for Joan a few Christmases back.

Buddha 2

This one is plastic with a magnified digital clock in his belly. He resides with Joan's collection of CDs.

Stephen Wiltshire video

I've read about it, I've blogged about it, but a friend sent me this video earlier today and I have to say it's amazing to actually see Mr. Wiltshire in action. All I can do is shake my head in silent amazement.

Buddha 1

I've been playing with the idea of doing a series of sketches, "Buddhas Of Our Home". I looked up one day and realized we have something like eight or ten of them of various sizes and poses -- usually placed in a way that you find yourself "discovering" them in a nook or cranny. I asked Joan, why so many? "He's always so happy." Makes perfect sense.

Drawing with Lily

Joan and the kids were watching a movie the other night that was too scary for Lily (8), so she asked me to draw pictures with her in the dining room instead. She chose, as our subject, to draw some of the many "bobble-head" toys she's got. She handed me mine to draw while she drew hers. This was way more entertaining than watching a movie!

Doctor visit

I had a short, uneventful doctor appointment today. Still, it's funny how long they keep you in those little rooms. The experience would have been quite a bit more challenging if it weren't for the handy sketchbook. At one point I was hoping the doctor would delay coming in so I could finish the sketch - ha.

Labor day hike

We took a hike along with three other families yesterday to Switzer Falls. It was great, probably 10 kids in all, hiking along the creek and up over a 100 foot ridge (a little scary). At the end of the trail is a small waterfall that empties into a pool. We had lunch and a little swim. I did some hasty sketching.

There was a big, fallen tree leaning against the rock wall near the falls. The highlight of the hike came during the walk back. There was a three-foot rattlesnake that slithered off the path and into the stream! I've never actually seen one outside of the zoo.

Wally Wood's cheat sheet

My work schedule in the last couple days has precluded too much sketching, so I'm sharing this little gold nugget instead. Wally Wood was a legendary comic book illustrator from the 1950s through the 1970s and a huge influence on me as a teenager. He put together a collection of "22 panels that always work" for times when he needed a quick jolt of compositional inspiration while he was laying out a comic page. Joel Johnson has made this wonderful collection, previously passed down from artist to artist only by photostat then shabby xeroxes, now beautifully scanned and available - free - for all of us. This is a must for storyboard artists, illustrators and anyone interested in a peek into the mind of one of the late, great geniuses of American graphic storytelling.