IF Pretend

When I was a kid I used to pretend to be Han Solo...

IF Wise

For the Illustration Friday theme 'wise' I immediately thought of a wise old owl. Then I remembered that I used to eat Wise potato chips when I spent summers with my grandparents in upstate New York. Wise potato chips must be an east coast thing as I've never seen them here in the midwest.

Here is my attempt at the old Wise Potato Chips logo. Overtime the logo evolved into just the owl's eye. I remember sort of being creeped out by that eye as a kid.

IF Vacant

For the Illustration Friday theme 'vacant' I thought of someone having a vacant expression on their face. I tried a few attempts at faces but wasn't happy with what I came up with. Then I realized that just a single eye could be used to represent the topic.

I've been delinquent on the last few Illustration Friday topics so I'm going to post them all in quick succession once I get my ideas down on paper.

IF Repair

The global economy is in need of repair. Unfortunately the $700B bailout by the US government doesn't seem to be stemming the tide.

IF Late / IF String

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Late", which is ironic since I was late submitting for last week's topic "String". Above is a drawing of a string of insults. If I have time this week I will add another drawing for "Late".

Spider-Ham

My daughter Abby is a huge Spider-Man fan. She's been Spider-Man for the last four halloweens. (though she did alter the pattern slightly last year when she was black Spider-Man instead of traditional red&blue Spidey) After pulling the box of costumes out of the basement last weekend, it looks like she's going to be the black Spider-Man again this year. As my wife likes to say, "She is definitely your daughter."

Somehow that got me thinking about how back in the 80's (yes, I'm old) Marvel released a parody of Spider-Man called Spider-Ham. It was a short lived comic book series with animal versions of various Marvel heroes and villains. (Deer-Devil, Captain Americat, Ducktor Doom)

Kung Fu Panda

My daughter Abby loves Kung Fu Panda so I drew this for her this summer from a Kung Fu Panda poster. Due to crazy schedules this summer I'm just getting around to posting it. With the kids back in school, and colder weather approaching, I'll be stuck inside drawing more. So hopefully I'll be posting more frequently over the next few months.

IF: Sugary

This week's Illustration Friday topic is 'Sugary' and what is more sugary than kids cereal?

As Halloween approaches the General Mills "Monster Cereals" (Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry) will make their returns to a store near you. I did the drawings above last year with my ideas of four new "Monster Cereals". From top-to-bottom they are: Creature from the Froot Lagoon, Giant Ape Grape, Nosferatutti Frutti, and Raisin the Dead.

Goal Line Blitz Logos

I'm involved in another online game called Goal Line Blitz. These are some logos I snagged off the web and photoshopped for a team named after Al Bundy's high school team: Polk High Panthers.

IF: Forgotten

I had this idea for a cartoon almost as soon as I heard the subject for this week's Illustration Friday was "Forgotten". However, I didn't find enough time to get the idea beyond more than the rough draft stage. I figured it would be better to post this preliminary sketch than to miss another IF topic completely. I will update this post when I get time to clean up the drawing.

IF: Baby

The Illustration Friday topic this week is Baby. Being lazy, I'm reusing my Baby New Year drawing from earlier this year. If I have time this weekend I'll update this post with an image of what this guy looks like now that we're half way through 2008.

Update: We're half way through 2008 so the picture below shows the middle aged Baby New Year. With wars, earthquakes, cyclones, rising food and fuel costs, let's just say the year has not been kind to him.

Happy Paper Anniversary!

My blog turns 1 year old on Friday. According to tradition (or at least wikipedia) the first anniversary is the paper anniversary. Since I still haven't had time to draw I thought I'd google 'paper' and see what images popped up.

Somehow the David Hasselhoff paper doll image above was on the first page of Google images. At first I thought, "there's got to be a better image than this out there" but after looking through 5 more pages of images I can honestly say there isn't.

I figure there must have been some sort of monetary exchange to get this image display so prominently in a search, and who am I to fight the free market system?

The Hoff and I say, "Happy anniversary!!!"

Yet More Bloodbowl Logos

Still working on projects around the house with no time to draw, so here are yet more Bloodbowl logos I've created. From top to bottom: Lincoln Lumberjacks, Kashyyyk Parcel Service (KPS), Jolly Green Midgets, Hobbiton Horde, Gauche Nanus

Even More Bloodbowl Logos

Spring time means home improvement projects....and still no time to draw. So here is another batch of Bloodbowl logos. From top to bottom: Rejected Dwarfs, Dixie Rednecks, Deep Sixes, Blood Sox, Bizmark Polar Bears.

More Blood Bowl Logos

Not enough time to draw lately so here are some more Blood Bowl logos I created. From top to bottom: Cursing Mummies, Anvilforge Arsenal, Amish Maulers, Alluvian Kennel Club

Blood Bowl Logos

I thought I'd share more BloodBowl "fluff" since creating it satisfies my creative urges. These images are logos I created for another player with an Amazon team called "6 Inch Heels". Again these are not drawn by me, just creative uses of Photoshop and images found on the web.

Creating these logos made me rethink my feelings on rappers who sample other musicians songs. I never considered sampling very artistic and I still believe it takes less skill than creating something from scratch. However, it does still take some talent to be able to figure out what to sample and how to re-use it in an interesting new way.

By the way, the second logo was the one that ended up being used.

BloodBowl Stuff

I play a game online called BloodBowl. (http://www.fumbbl.com) I like to create "fluff" for my teams which is geek speak for things like logos, helmets, etc. that make the teams seem more "real". The images above are team sponsors I created for my Khemri team, made up of mummies and skeletons, called Cursing Mummies.

I didn't draw any of the images above. They're mainly just Photoshopped versions of existing logos and/or made from fonts I downloaded from the web. However, the Bloodweiser image is from Wacky Packages.

Those of a certain age may remember Wacky Packages as the collectible stickers that were parodies of real life products. They had many imitators but the one that came closest in popularity was probably Garbage Pail Kids.

If you want to relive your youth you can find Wacky Packages info at http://www.wackypackages.org/ and Garbage Pail Kids info at http://www.garbagepailkidsworld.com/

IF Homage

I spent many Saturdays in my youth watching hours of Hanna Barbera cartoons. Here is my homage using the various logos they had through the years.

Actually, I don't know if this is an homage, a collage, or a montage, but it's definitely some sort of age.

Star Wars: Clown Wars

George Lucas has announced there will be an animated Star Wars movie released into theaters in August, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars". The movie will actually be a prelude to a new TV series, of the same name, that starts in the fall.

I thought if someone was not paying attention they might hear "Star Wars: The Clown Wars". Who better to play the role of a Sith Lord than Krusty the Clown?

I have some ideas for his Jedi counterpart but that will have to wait for a future post.

IF Pet Peeves

I tend to like puns and plays on words. So when I heard the Illustration Friday theme of "Pet Peeves" I immediately thought "What would peeve a pet?" This parrot is what I came up with.

10,000 B.H.

The new movie 10,000 B.C. got me thinking about the movie One Million Years B.C. which in turn got me thinking about Raquel Welch in a fur bikini.

Logically my next thought would be of cavewoman Marge in a fur bikini. I call it "10,000 Years Before Homer".

New movies seem to be sparking my imagination so you can look forward to, or dread, a few more posts like this over the next week or so.

ABA Patrick

Seeing the trailer for the new Will Ferrell movie "Semi-Pro" got me thinking about the old Amercian Basketball Association. All I remember about the league came from the backs of old comic books: guys with big afros making a sales pitch for the red, white, and blue ball.

This of course started me thinking about what cartoon character would look funny with an afro. Thus Patrick Starfish with a big 'fro.
(what can I say, my brain works in strange ways)

Sherpa Mario

Thinking of Yeti Kong's nemesis from an earlier post inspired me. So here is my drawing of Sherpa Mario.

Even now the Super Mario theme is playing in my head.

Kewpie

Here is the drawing I was originally going to post on Valentine's Day. I was wondering what Cupid does when his arrows don't seem to be having the appropriate effect. My answer, he calls in his pet elephant Kewpie to trample the lovers into submission.

What could be more romantic on Valentine's Day than being trampled by a pink elephant?

NIU Shooting

It's not much, and I didn't draw it, but I felt the need to post something as both my wife and I graduated from Northern Illinois University. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families in the aftermath of this senseless tragedy.