American Pride

I have been a soccer fan for going on 16 years now. I (like many of my southern compatriots) didn't understand the sport and thought it was actually pretty slow and pointless. I mean come on, 0-0 is a FINAL score?!?! That can't possibly be right. But like most things in life, it becomes MUCH more interesting when you understand the rules and nuances of the sport. While in college I had the good fortune to be roommate's with a talented artist/musician/goalie who explained the rules of "the beautiful game" to me. Since then I have been a HUGE fan, particularly of the United States National Team.

However, this has not always been an easy job. While you consign yourself to the knowledge that soccer in the United States is an "up and coming" sport, you are always hoping for the team that breaks through the barrier. Well, this year's team could just be that team. Usually, the U.S. team plays well for part of a game or they play well for one game but not the next. Or they make their way into a tournament and just do horribly the entire tournament. But this team is different. They play like they know what they're doing. Every time. (Okay, they sometimes take a bit to warm up to the game but they get there.) I have not been disappointed in their play this World Cup. Not once.

Which brings us to Game 2 against Slovenia. Not enough that they finish up a masterful comeback from a 2-0 deficit. Not enough that they did not give up. They WON the game. On a brilliant cross from Landon Donovan, Maurice Edu jammed home the winning goal. Except they didn't.

Everyone who follows the game knows what happened (or more importantly, what DIDN'T happen). Here is my take on it...



Take what you will from this. Do I think that it was a referee who had placed a bet on the game AGAINST the U.S. taking a victory? Do I take it as a vast conspiracy of FIFA who dislike the idea of such a "non-futbol" country as the United States advancing in the tournament? Or do I take it as a simple mistake by a referee who might have been a little in over his head? (Okay, for the record I definitely do NOT take it to be the last one.)

I am so proud of our boys. If they were to be knocked out of the World Cup in the first round I will be just as proud of them. They have done everything in their power to win. And to them, I say "thank you" for helping to reignite the passions of a fan who sometimes has trouble keeping the fire going. But for everyone else in the world of soccer, I leave you with this message...

Watch out. Our boys are coming.

Iguanodon and Charlie Brown

Just a couple of new things this week. I've been working on my submission for Prehistoric Times magazine for the fall issue. I had done one previously but I was never EXACTLY happy with it. So I decided to give it another go with a different attitude about the composition. I went with less of a central motif and had the old girl wandering off into the background as well as added a little iguanodon for a little more of a family touch. I decided the foreground needed a little something so I put one of those giant dragonflies that were very prevalent at the time. I liked this composition MUCH better.



And I really wanted to submit one in color this time so after a few days of horrifying myself about the color, I grabbed the old watercolors again. And then I got THIS...



I'm still not happy with my watercoloring skills but I AM really just starting out with them so I can't beat myself up TOO much (even though I will).

So while I'm working, I take little breaks here and there and usually sit in the studio listening to my music and I do different little things to distract myself while something dries. I will sketch out a new drawing, play solitaire, or usually read something. I surround myself with a lot of different reading materials. Right now my main reading book is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay but I also have a collection of Peanuts cartoons I've been picking up periodically. The man was, in the simplest terms, a genius. He could encapsulate inspiration and a way to live in a few simple ink lines and fewer words.



(Now obviously in this case I mean the inspiration of Schroeder's words NOT Lucy's but she also has her moments.) There is no anniversary today, no reason to be appreciative of a genius who left us ten years ago...other than the reason to always look on work that touches us and appreciate it again. We miss you, Sparky.

Geckos!

So a couple of weeks ago, I was asked by the marketing department at work if I could do some drawings of geckos to turn into coloring sheets for he kiddies. No problem. But since I wasn't being paid I asked if I could put the address for this blog onto the drawings just for a little exposure. And they agreed so, if you're joining us from that advertisement, then welcome! I hope you enjoy looking around. But for those who don't manage to find their way to Fernbank museum this summer, here are the original drawings I did for the geckos coloring sheets. (I think the graphic design department added a border or something. Not really sure, I didn't get a good look at them and they never emailed me the finished copies.)

First up is this little fella...



Then there's this little guy...(I LOVE the jazz hands and how excited he is to be doing it.)



Then this one.



And finally this little critter.



I'm not sure if these are big enough for you to color if you print them out at home, but please feel free to try. (Just let me know how it turns out. I'd love the feedback.)

And if you get the chance come to Fernbank Museum this summer. These little guys are really a lot cuter than lizards have any right to be. They always look happy (even when they are most assuredly NOT happy) and it's really fun to find all of them in their enclosures.

As always, enjoy!

More Paleo Doodling

I was looking at the submission dates for Prehistoric Times magazine and I realized that I DID have time to attempt to get in a drawing for the next issue. The submission date is June 10th and I wanted to at least TRY to get one done. (And not feeling like painting him helped, too.) So I spent most of last night and today working on this...



I kind of liked the way his head is cocked to one side like an iguana staring at you. These were flying reptiles after all, NOT dinosaurs. So they would have been a little more lizard like. And he seems to be a happy pterosaur. Maybe he knows something about being accepted for print that I don't. Here's hoping.

Idea Gifts

Sometimes you just have an idea for a cartoon handed to you. Literally. I've been a little burned out on the cartoons lately but yesterday a co-worker stopped me on his way to the elevator and said "Hey, I've got an idea for a cartoon for you". And it was a GREAT idea. So I ran home, punched it out and here we go.



Many thanks to Mel Phistopholes for the toon inspiration!

Paleo-doodling

I am a huge reader of comics. I read them for a long time as a kid and then I went to college, got broke and took a twenty year hiatus. About 3 years ago, I started back. Some of my tastes have changed but some have not. I still read the Spidermans and the Batmans but I definitely find myself drawn to just good storytelling these days. One of the better companies for this is Dark Horse Comics. They have the beat em up and the supernatural stories (most notably Hellboy) but they also produce some definitely non-traditional comic fare. One of the ones I am just now discovering is a writer/artist by the name of Ricardo Delgado and his Age of Reptiles comics. They are wonderful stories with no words, only the action of dinosaurs being dinosaurs. For a guy who spends his day job working in a natural history museum it's kind of a natural fit.

So in the back of one of the issues of Mr. Delgado's comic is a letter where he discusses dinosaurs and he mentions a magazine called Prehistoric Times. Their website is a little under-developed but the magazine is pure joy for a dinosaur nerd like me. The magazine is devoted to dinosaur news and collectibles and model making. And the entire thing is illustrated by the readers. They don't pay for submissions but it's just fun to draw dinosaurs. And any exposure is good for you, right?

So that brings me to today's entry in the studio...IGUANODON!



The magazine generally has two main creatures a month and the deadlines for submissions are listed on the website. I used the watercolor pen and ink method because another dino artist that I think is great is William Stout and he uses that technique on a lot of his paleo art. So, in an homage to Mr. Stout, I submit my first dino painting!

Legends and Inspiration

The world lost a great artist today. Frank Frazetta passed away at the age of 82. I wrote about his wife Ellie last year when she passed away after a year long battle with cancer. They had the type of partnership that was much like Johnny and June Carter Cash. They worked well BECAUSE of each other. And unfortunately, the one would not last long without the other.

And apparently the children have been bickering over the estate, blahblahblah. I do not care about the children or their petty disputes and squabbles. They are not the ones who were an early inspiration to me. There is only Frank (and Ellie, even though for a long time I was not aware of her influence) as far as I am concerned.

I'll try not to bore you with a drawn out history of Frank (it's always "Frank" to us fans, although I'm sure had I ever met him it would have been a very reverential "Mr. Frazetta, sir"). There are many fine books on Frank, but I will let his work speak for him as he often did.



THIS is what most people think of when the name Frank Frazetta comes up. Even people who don't read science fiction and fantasy books were familiar on some level with his work. The above is one of his many "Death Dealer" series and was also used as a Molly Hatchet album cover.

This next one was used as a cover on one of the many Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. I'm pretty sure that Frank never read any of those books (at least not beforehand) because of all the ones I have read, I don't think the covers ever had ANYTHING to do with the story contained within. But here's the thing about it...those covers were so amazing, it didn't even matter! The art was THAT good!



He was not contained to just one genre either. He was equally fun at westerns as well. His treatment of horses was always oddly accurate to me. By that I mean, that even if he was exaggerating the figures it at least LOOKED as if it were in a plausible position.




Now let's look at another medium. Most of his commercial work was done in oils but his sketches and pencils are stunning. He was proficient in pencils, pen and ink, oils, watercolors, and probably whatever else he picked up.



And if there was another thing that Frank was known for at least as much as his barbarians and fantastic beasts, it was the women. Known simply as "Frazetta women", they were as much a part of his vision as any other. Voluptuous and usually as ready for violence as any other character inhabiting his paintings, Frazetta women were readily embraced by the community of fans. These were no scrawny supermodels. And for those of us who do not see the point of the emaciated forms of current "models", we always said a silent "thank you" to Frank.



And this pen and ink I have always adored not just for the fact that it's an attractive female, but for the sheer mastery of the art form. The textures and forms throughout this entire drawing are, to me, just awe inspiring.



But by and large, we know Frank for unbridled carnage.



And the unfiltered savagery of a warrior triumphant.



But he was also a hopelessly devoted romantic...


(His loving wife Ellie, as painted by Frank)

And most importantly, he was a man...



Thereby giving all of us who are just men something to strive for. Thank you Frank, for so many things. Thank you for serving as an artistic inspiration for so many. Thank you for pushing the boundaries of genres not normally associated with "fine art". And most importantly, thank you for opening up the imaginations of so many kids who wouldn't have had it any other way.