The Desperado

The urban desperado- complete with glitzy vest.

A giant of a day

What did the villagers in fairy tales ever do with the giants they killed? I can't imagine how long it would take to de-compose- and are giants good eating??

Crazy bagpiper

Not to say that I've ever played the bagpipes nor do I even comprehend how they're played but I've heard them nearly all of my life and have always had an odd fascination with them.

Sketchbook barrage

Here's a smattering of what's been going on in my latest sketchbook. Recently the school bookstore had a huge sale on sketchbooks and I couldn't pass up the deal. Needless to say I bought a huge amount of them and I now feel the need to complete them with whatever quirky idea jumps out of my head and onto the page. Enjoy.

Skull Island art

For about the last six, maybe seven years I get asked to do a menu design for friends who throw one crazed Super Bowl party. This year's no different as they chose the classic King Kong/ Skull Island theme for me to illustrate. They're always fun to draw as there's also a story that goes with each image and a special drink or two for the evening inside the menu.

Only in my homeland.

A few days ago right before Christmas I was over in Ontario running some errands. Now I know my adored homeland of Canada has some pretty amazing quirks and cultural oddities, but this one stuck. It was snowing lightly and most folks out that day were bundled up in their jackets. This gentleman was out shopping in full holiday regalia. I couldn't help but admire his Santa Claus beard but was more intrigued with his fur lined red cowboy hat, bright red muscle tee, and snappy red leather belt to hold the entire ensemble together. It took some serious swagger and some thick skin to walk around a balmy Canadian day that afternoon!

No Apocalypse... phew

A few days after the Mayan prediction that said we were all doomed and we're still here. Personally I'm just thankful that I still have sketchbooks in hand with lots of blank pages.

Bigfoot peeking in.

Me and my innate fear of Sasquatch coming out in my sketches. There's just something amazingly scary about an unknown critter outside a window peeking in on me.

Nearly Halloween!

It's October already? Did I blink and just kiss the summer good bye already?

Needless to say it was due time for a Frankenstein monster sketch any way. He's always been a favorite to draw just because he's just a compilation of parts, parts and more parts. How the good doctor put him together has always intrigued me to no end.

Zombie Beth on the rampage.

For what I believe is my fourth season of being a panelist on the University of Detroit-Mercy's Ask The Professor radio trivia program, we've been asked to bring in a "guest professor" every week to liven things up. Needless to say my suggestion is to have our resident zombie, "Zombie Beth" Oljar (who got her name from grading a mountains of philosophy papers last year) go out on a rampage and just bring us the bright people on campus. Lord knows we need help with the questions week after week!

Better yet, if you've got questions and want to take a shot at stumping the astute panel, feel free to send in questions via the Ask the Professor website: http://www.udmercy.edu/atp/

Bring on the cooler weather!

It's been a hideously long hot summer. I'm looking forward to the nicer cooler weather this Fall and maybe a nice winter where I can go outside and really enjoy it more.

Easy as pie? Hardly!

Is drawing as easy as pie? To the untrained eye, maybe. But it occurred to me recently that because I can crank out a quick drawing somewhat quickly- I might make it seem as though drawing comes easy. I guess it does but then one also needs to look at the amount of paper & pixels I've gone through in my life to make it look easy. Sure, Michael Jordan can make a free throw but then someone also needs to point out how many countless baskets he shot in the gym training for that moment.

The same can be said for making art. It looks easy (and fun) to some but it's also taken a lot of work to achieve some level of competency. While it might look effortless, it has taken us a lifetime of observation, practice, practice and much much more practice than we care to talk about. For those of us who do it professionally, all of that practice also has to have a resolution and we have to be good enough to get paid for our skills too.

So next time you think some things come pretty easy to people, ask them how many countless hours they've spent practicing their craft.

History of the hula girl

Some of you might know that I collect a few oddball items from time to time. Well, recently a local ad agency called me up to borrow a part of my hula girl collection for an OnStar video. Here she is in her video debut:

Fantastical creatures

It's not like I've ever really been called to design weird oddball fascinating creatures but I figured I'd do one for the heck of it. It's a total mishmash of all sorts of critters and there would be no way it'd even fit into any form of biological genus. For those talented folks that do it regularly and with a goal in mind, I applaud them for the study and diligence it takes to come up with something that might even have a chance to be real.

No fear of sketching

Earlier this week I had an order of the new Sharpie Brush markers delivered to me and like with any new art widget, I had to give it a test drive. While it definitely behaves a little differently than some of my traditional sketching tools, it has its perks and a few drawbacks. But the one thing that I walk away from with experimenting with this new tool is that I wasn't afraid to try it. I wasn't afraid to royally mess up or make a lousy drawing with it.

If there's one thing that I would love to impart to my students is to always try something new. Sketch, draw, doodle, do what you may- but don't ever stop sketching. No one has to ever see it and there could always be a gem in that drawing. Lord knows I look at what I drew and could nit pick it to death and point out where I didn't like it- but I took the chance. I wasn't afraid to mess up even on a nice crisp fresh page in my sketchbook. It's a sketchbook- not a finished art book.

So take a chance! You've got nothing to lose in the attempt and everything to gain.