IF: Tarot

I made this comic at least 15 years ago. For many years I did caricatures at events where I was often placed next to the tarot card reader. It was fun to hear the repetitive hogwash.

Forgive the poor photo quality. I couldn't track down the original file so I stole this one from my Facebook.

Subtract.

Sometime last year Illustration Friday's theme was subtract. I submitted the image below but I found it confused people more than made them laugh. I eventually removed it. I didn't want anyone to think I was being gross. I just thought it was a funny thought that the Love is couple were Ziggy's parents since they don't wear pants. That was IT. Honest, you sickos. Perhaps I was just missing my older target audience who actually remembered the comic strip, Love is?

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is to show you the sketches below. I'm currently building my new website and I stumbled on them while looking for some files. I thought they were pretty funny and I may do more.

IF: Safari

I made this Hidden Picture some 10 years ago for Highlights for Children, I think. I figured it suited Illustration Friday's theme this week. 

Find the following: rhino head, kite, flashlight, cowboy boot, whale, balloon, slice of pie, bird, tea cup, compass, ice cream cone, magnifying glass, and a banana.

I drew this in my sketchbook for Illustration Friday's surrender theme but it's too late now.

IF: Star Gazing

Earlier this summer my dog and I were treated to a light show each night. Honestly it was hard to tell the difference between the star and the fireflies some nights. It was truly magnificent. I'm not much of a poet but sometimes a drawing needs more than words to explain what I may have been feeling at the time.

Illustration Friday: Trail

In 2002 I hiked alone in Yellowstone National Park which was not recommended in every book I read on the subject. The impression I had going into the park was that at every corner I was going to be beaten by a bear or eaten by a bear. Since I took a lot of precautions I found it to be quite safe. I made this little comic in my sketchbook journal to poke fun at my fear. Sorry about the quality of the scans, I don't have time to rescan the originals.

The following sketches were done while on the trail in Wyoming, Arizona, and Utah. Descriptions are below each sketch.

Taking a nap at the Weaver's Needle. Superstition Mountains, AZ.

Picacho Peak, AZ.

Devil's Tower, WY. The local Indians tie colored ribbons to the trees around Devil's Tower. They also leave unlit cigarettes as offerings (I guess).

Devil's Tower, WY.

Old twisted tree I saw at the base of Devil's Tower.

Grand Tetons, WY.

Bryce Canyon, UT.

Grand Tetons, WY.

Bryce Canyon, UT.

Illustration Friday: Equipment.

I like to hike. I like to hike with my bike.

I drew this back in 2003 when I hiked alone in Yellowstone for 2 weeks. In hindsight I probably should have rode the bike.

Illustration Friday: Fearless

Christmas Card 2009.

I am submitting this for Illustration Friday: Trail. Forgive me if I have submitted this for another theme, I honestly can't remember if I did or not.

For the past few years I have incorporated Ranger Kent and Cowgirl Pearl (two characters my wife and I portrayed for our church's annual Vacation Bible School) into our Christmas card. This year, with the birth of our daughter Virginia, I wanted to put her in as well our dog, Charlotte. The problem I ran into was that Kent and Pearl were never married so I would have a lot of explaining to do if they showed up on the card with a baby, right? I decided to go with it anyway and added this little note on the back of the card:

Last year sometime Ranger Kent and Cowgirl Pearl got hitched and had a baby some 10 months later. Oh, and they also adopted a dog, apparently.

________

I hope that straightens things out kids!

As a little side note, if you go back and look at some of the illustrations I have done for Highlights this year, you can see Kent or some kind of cowboy in the illustration.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. God Bless you and your family and best wishes for a successful and healthy new year.

- Chuck, Daisy, and Virginia.

Ilustration Friday: Fast

In the little river town of Delanco, New Jersey (where I had the pleasure of living for 8 years) is the Holiday Skating Rink. Older costumed roller skaters come from miles around one Tuesday night a month to roller skate to the organist's music (yes, they still have an organist- one of the few in the country to still have one). One night I accompanied a friend and was amazed to see just how good these folks were. I was simply shocked at how fast they were roller skating all the while doing their fancy dance moves. It was captivating to watch, especially when the couples would "roller dance." They would move in flawless unison to the music. One woman tried to teach me but I was hopeless. I met with a few of them and sat back and sketched them as they whizzed by me.

Illustration Friday: Pattern

I hope this fits into this weeks IF theme. Ever since they asked that we strictly follow the rules (something I am all for) I have second guessed every submission. My point is that I'm not too sure if this one fits, but it does have a good amount of pattern to it. I know we may be looking for something deeper but this is all I've got.

I did this back in 1993 for one of my Junior classes at Hussian. We had to design a Marathon poster for the city of our choosing. Since Jerusalem is home to our world's three major religions I thought I'd incorporate them in as the pattern.

Illustration Friday: Welcome

I did this colored pencil piece back in 1993 for our Media Techniques class taught by the great Jim Souder.

My thoughts behind this were that while it is truly wonderful to be outside playing in the snow all day, there is also nothing quite like returning to the warmth of your home where Mom was usually making tomato soup and grilled cheese.

I remember at the time of making this illustration that I was experimenting with the coloring pencil technique of self taught illustrator and Caldecott Winner, Stephen Gammell.

Illustration Friday: Idle

The rest of my blog can be read here.

Illustration Friday: Tango

In 2001 the Philadelphia Zoo held a Bachelor Auction for the benefit of the Zoo's conservation program, One with Nature. I was asked to draw tasteful caricatures of every bachelor (20 or so) holding a rose for the interior of the booklet as well as an illustration for the cover and the back cover (the illustrations above).

I did the entire booklet for free in exchange for some free advertising. Well, wouldn't you know it, when I received the booklet the only ad that they had "problems" printing was mine, so my phone number and contact information was rendered completely illegible. I still to this day don't fully understand what happened since I had submitted the file with plenty of resolution, proper formatting, and I even went so far as to outline the text to prevent any font issues. Good grief. To top it all off, I was also asked to sit and draw caricatures at the event (quite a tempting offer for a young single bachelor like myself- ahem) prior to the bachelor cat walk. I sat for 1 hour and didn't draw a single caricature. The only women to approach me were two seventy year old women to kindly ask me what I was doing. I left feeling quite humiliated. I don't think I'll ever recover.

Anyway, it was a beautifully designed book and I had heard it won an award or two. I can't remember who was responsible for the deign or I would give them credit.

Illustration Friday: Hollow

I did this piece as a student at Hussian back in 1993 for my junior year Children's Book class. Each semester we had to pick an existing children's story and make it into a working dummy and complete the cover and a few of the illustrations. That year I choose the Grimm Brother's The Six Swans. I won't go into too much detail about the story but what you need to know for this illustration is that a girl's older brothers were all turned into swans and in order to turn them back she had to remain in silent seclusion in the hollow of a tree and sew shirts made of star flowers. This is why she has moss growing all over her clothes and her hair is a bit of a nest. Amazingly though, she always manages to have nice gigantic pink eyelashes. I made that last part up.

This piece was done on stretched 2 ply cold press Arches Watercolor paper with gouache, Doc Marten's Dyes and colored pencil.

Illustration Friday: Drifting

I illustrated this in 2005 for the Philadelphia Zoo. It is now in the Zoo's Treehouse covering an pretty large old leaky Aquarium. I still have yet to see it up. It measures 6 x 3 feet. Done in pen and ink with Digital coloring.

I miss doing work for the zoo. It was a lot of fun to research and learn about all of God's amazing creations.

The rest of my blog can be read by clicking on the masthead above.

Illustration Friday: Adapt

I'll let the theme of this comic speak for itself.

The Inside Dirt was a weekly comic strip I made for the Philadelphia Daily News from 1992-1995. It followed the exploits of a typical Philadelphian teenager named Bucky in his struggle through high school. Father Judge alumni will recognize the teacher as Mr. McKee, one of my favorite teachers and whose classes I throughly enjoyed. This particular comic strip has always been one of my favorites and I thought it might fit nicely into the Illustration Friday theme of Adapt.

Illustration Friday: Cracked

This one needs some explanation but I'll keep it simple. When I was 4 years old I was hit by a car. I still have a large scar and crack in my forehead. The following two panels are from a story I am putting together about just not only the crack in my forehead but my theory on why I continue to hit my head...

If you'd like to follow my cracked head exploits feel free to stop by my "Head Injury" log on facebook. Here's a photo of the scar on my head (please note that the tiny cut pictured was recently acquired when I hit my head on my desk, the scar is below). Don't laugh, it's not funny.

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy

I am the youngest of four which is why I am freakishly tolerant of physical pain.

Illustration Friday: Talisman

I honestly thought I wouldn't have anything for this one but then I remembered drawing this back in 1994 for my children's book class at Hussian. Each semester we were given the option of re visioning a classic so I choose The Rainbabies by Laura Krauss Melmed and Jim Lamarche, a very strange book.

The one below was the cover.