Moleskine Madness...Look to the Stars!

Look to the stars!

The big gaseous ones, not the dancing ones.

Happy Thursday!

Moleskine Madness...The Skeleton Key!

Just a doodle with the morning coffee.

Have a great day all!

Animation Addiction...Watch Me Draw!

When I was in high school, one of the activities that we guys, that were cartoonists and artists would engage in on a regular basis was the 'Quickdraw' session. This was a bunch of us sitting in front of a sketch book or a large amount of paper and placing our pencils on top, so that each of us could see each others supplies. No cheating with hidden drawing implements is allowed in the Quickdraw!

I know. I laugh about that too!

Then someone would call out a subject. Could be any random person, place or thing. Or a combination of such. Then the clock would be checked and it would be 1-2-3 start! 

Grab that pencil  and draw that random subject!

Some guys could do it in 30 seconds and others would take a little longer but, it was always a fun drawing contest!

Quality was also a consideration of this artistic sport. Quick and dirty was never a good thing in the Quickdraw arena.

Anyway, I brought this up because I animated an illustration just to see what it would look like. I thought it turned out nice. It reminded me of those Quickdraw days!

Have a great day everyone!

iStock Illustrations...Ropin' Jackrabbits!

As a kid I heard many a tall tale from great uncles and aunts, great grandparents, and other members of our family and friends. Many of these stories had a western theme to them and this was due to the fact that these folks grew up on the ranches and farms that built this great state of California.

I heard a great deal of our California family history. 

My Dad and my Grandmother were very interested in this history and tried to pass it on to us kids. It was in this way that I became familiar with many of the cowboy artists. Fredrick Remington, Charles Russell, and our own Santa Barbaran Ed Borein. Even though I received a fairly truthful rendition of these times, there were those stories that seemed, well, a little far fetched.

Much like the old favorite that used to come out, eventually, at family holidays was the tale of Annual Jackrabbit Roping Contest. Where we kids were led to believe that honest and sober cowboys herded and roped a zillion jackrabbits to see who was the best! Or in one version, actually rode horse sized jackrabbits! Take your pick! It was like listening to Bret Harte and Mark Twain, with a dash of O. Henry thrown into the mixture.

I thought that would make a darn tootin' good illustration.

Have a great day all!

Monkee Business...The New Logo!

I designed a special logo for the site!

Gotta have some monkee love, baby!

The new "Chickpeas!" strip for this week is up on the oddbird arts site early to get a head start on the holiday weekend. Dare I say, it is a very cute one with the odd bird in his bird bath!

Have a great Fourth of July everyone!