Illustration Friday: Gravity

Why, oh why, can penguins not fly?
They've got feathers and wings, it's not right.
Is it too much to ask
Is it too big a task
To grant fat little sea birdies flight?

Walrus Detail

I don't usually do this, but here's a detail of my entry for this week's Toon Club. I've got a long way to got until it's finished, especially since I haven't even drawn the carpenter to go with this walrus, but I was pretty happy with how this design came out, so I thought I'd post it here.

Incidentally, my good ol' pal, Shane "S.T." Lewis has a great, rambling tutorial of the whole pseudo-paint process he uses to color his incredible artwork. It's basically the same method I use, just with Shane's great art instead of my, er... art. If you're a cartoonist who likes to paint digitally, it's worth a look!

Have a great one!
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Fat Squirrel

Why should bats be the only overweight rodents on my blog?
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Jabba the Hutt

One of my favorite cartoons of the 21st Century so far has been Genndy Tartokovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars. The style's so slick, and the character designs are just spot on, especially Yoda. If you've never seen Clone Wars, I suggest you check it out. Both volumes are on DVD, and volume to ends at exactly the beginning of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. You'll see some really cool anime influenced design, staging, and storytelling.

While I don't claim my Jabba's as cool or well designed as Genndy's stuff, I had fun caricature this very bombastic and iconic Hutt.
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U. Otter

Otters are cool. They slide in the mud on their bellies, and don't subscribe to the heinous work ethic of their beaver cousins. This fella to the left is named Ulysses Otter, or U for short.

As in...

U. Otter... check out Toon Club's Star Wars entries!

U. Otter... make your way over to Avalanche Software's art blog! (I love those guys!)

U. Otter... watch the first episode of my friend Will's online TV show! He's so cool, even for an old guy!
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Fat Bat

I would assume that most bats are not obese, but when I started sketching out this fella, I realized that his sonar-equipped ears were so large that he was probably really good at catching his prey. How many moths does a typical bat have to eat each day to pack on the extra pounds? Don't ask me... I draw cartoons.
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Outfoxing the Weasel

Foxes and weasels, two mammals who share a common bond. Their names are sullied every time we humans claim someone is "crazy like a fox" or "weaseling their way out of something." Who do we think we are, applying less than glowing traits to some of nature's most noble and intelligent creatures? Poor fox has enough trouble on his hands explaining to people that he's in the dog, not the cat, family. And weasel... Well, let's not even get into the slander lawsuits he's got pending over at Disney.

Instead, I suggest we leave poor fox and weasel alone and focus our attention on more important matters. While we've been busy piling our contempt on these beautiful mammals, the reptiles have slowly been infiltrating our blogs. They've been very sneaky about it, too. At first, they sent in their spies to assimilate into large groups. Then, they began their "accidental" attacks on mammalian kind, just to keep us in check. And finally, they've started to appear out in the open, even on blogs that are named after primates. Can you believe the audacity? Can you?

It's time we stop this madness and send those cold blooded cretins running! We have to stop belittling other members of Class Mammalia and face the task at hand... Saving our blogs!

After all, are we men or are we mice?
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I Am the Terror That Flaps in the Night!

My favorite Disney cartoon of the early '90's was Darkwing Duck. The basic premise of Darkwing was a spoof on Batman and other superhero franchises. D.W., along with his sidekick Launchpad McQuack, spoofed everything from "Justice League" to "Twin Peaks".

It was a crazy ride, there was even some movie talks happening during the Disneytoon Studios days. Sadly, nothing further ever gelled, and I had to wait until last year to get my Darkwing fix. (I won a trivia contest on animated-news.com for the first season boxed set.)

Here's my tribute to Darkwing Duck, and all the cool Disney toons of my youth that helped keep my imagination bubbling long enough to pursue my career!
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Illustration Friday: The 80's

The '80's?

Hmmm....

How 'bout....

"Miami Ice"
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Fat Dogs are Fun!

Aren't fat dogs great? They're all lazy and happy, and it seems like they never gain any of the weight in their legs.

I drew this happy chappy for Toon Club's "Man's Best Friend" topic, and thought I'd post him here as well, as I haven't had an entry in a bit.

To be fair, I'm really more of a cat person, as you can probably guess from my past entries. But I don't have anything against dogs... I just seem to have an aversion to slobber, which pooches have in abundance.
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