Did this in car line at my daughter’s school today. Thought I’d share. Just playing around with some ideas, and trying out my brush pen.

Since it’s Sunday, I figure I’ll stay on the cool cartoon Bible theme. Quite a few years ago, I stumbled across this kids’ Bible with really great illustrations. The artist’s name was Dennis Jones. I could tell he probably had some caricature experience, just from the expressions he was able to give all of his people’s faces. A few years later, I emailed him, and sure enough, he had drawn caricatures back in the 80s at Opryland themepark in Nashville. He was amazed I could tell, just by looking at his art.

I also particularly love Dennis’ animals, and the cover of this next Bible he did, a “wordless” bible, told just in pictures, showcases them well. This one came awhile after the first one, so the art is a good bit different, showing a lot of computer use versus traditional media. But it’s just as amazing in it’s own right.
Finally, in looking on the net for pix to accompany this post, I came across THIS book he did. I DON’T have it yet! Oh well…looks like Amazon will be getting some more of my money soon….
If you’re into cool cartoony illustrations (no matter your religion), you owe it to yourself to pick these up! Visit Dennis Jones’ website, too, to look at more of his great work! (I think it’s in my Links on the sidebar of this blog.)

I’ve always loved “The Message Bible” translation by Eugene Peterson. A bit simplistic at times, perhaps, but it really makes reading the Bible easy, as it puts it into modern language. I read it as a supplement to other translations, usually, so I get a fuller picture, though.

Besides spiritual studies, my other love is, of course, cartooning. I’ve been a big fan of Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley’s work at Funny Pages Productions for quite awhile. Every since Tom was with the animated Veggie Tales toons. He later did Opposite Forces”, a self-published comic book that I read. Back then, he lived here in Orlando, Florida (we met for lunch one time, and geeked out on art and comic stuff conversation). Great guy, fantastic artist.

Well, now, my two chief interests are combined! Yep, Tom and Rob have just finished the mammoth task of providing illustrations for “My First MESSAGE”, a devotional bible for kids.
The illustrations are great….run out and get one today!

A cute girl I sketched in my sketchbook this summer while on a vacation. Yes, all little girls I draw are based on my oldest daughter, Brady, who will soon be nine. I love the look of the gray markers on this. It’s a combo I use in my sketchbook and on live gigs.
A skatepunk drawn the same day. I put him on a digital background later.

Another thing that happened last week, was that we had a huge, all nighter poker tourney over here. Dion Socia, caricature manager from Busch Gardens, and long time friend, even came up for it. Some of you may know Dion’s work (and if you don’t, look him up!)- he’s an incredible artist. He does all of his studio pieces in Corel’s Painter, a program I’ve never tried very much. But, talking to him about it the other night made me want to try it. So, last night, I finally did. I really like the brushes in this program…”straight out of the box”, they work much better than Photoshop’s, it seems. Can’t imagine what a custom made one would be able to do. The lines here look WAY more like the lines I really do, when I’m on paper, than the lines I’m able to get with Photoshop. This pic took about three minutes. Just a quick sketch before dinner.

Hmmm…maybe I need to keep playing with this program.

Last week, we were slammed with caricature gigs. Most nights I was out working. Wednesday night we had 21 artists out , between two gigs. And that’s ON TOP of the 13 retail locations we had to have running. Yikes. So, needless to say, we had to bring in some outside help. It helps that I’m good friends with a lot of the “friendly competition” in the area. We had artists from Sea World and Busch Gardens helping us out. As well as one of my best buds, Joe Bluhm, who flew in from NYC to work a few gigs with me. This was from the big gig at MGM that night, where we had 15 of us drawing:We were all set up in a huge semi-circle. Yeah, that one guy in the plaid is a guest, not an artist. He was joking with his artist, Maria “Hurricane” Bolton, that he should draw her after she finished drawing him. So, she let him. That just HAPPENED to be when I shot this pic.

Afterwards, we all converged on the unsuspecting Orlando Ale House for some food and fellowship. It’s always a blast when you get to work with your friends.

On the inside cover of my copy of REJECTS, Joe Bluhm was kind enough to do this drawing of my girls, Brady and Kaley. I ordered an advance copy, so he did this for me. I love it, so I just thought I’d share it with you.

Joe Bluhm , I’m proud to say, is a great friend of mine, and one of the most amazing caricaturists and artists I have ever known and had the privilege to work with. In his new book, “Rejects, the Extreme art of Retail Caricature”, Joe shows some of the incredible artwork that has made him a legend among theme park caricaturists. He’s since left retail caricaturing, and gone on to greener, more lucrative pastures in illustration for magazines and animation character designer. But this book is a great snapshot of the brilliance he gave themepark customers each and every time they sat down for him to draw. Sometimes grotesque, occasionally cruel, but always incredible, each piece in this book is a work of true caricature art.

For anyone interested in caricature, who wants to see the extremes that a talented purveyor of the art form can go to in rendering a person’s face, go to http://www.rejectsthebook.com and buy a copy of this book. Or even two. Or three. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

HEEEERRREEEE’SSSS Stonehenge! Seeing this place in person was amazing. Yeah, I REALLLYY believe some neolithic people spent centuries bringing these stones up here by rolling them on logs. And they JUST happen to be measured by the same “divine measure” (yes, they call it that) that the temple fo Jerusalem was, the Egyptian pyramids are, and the Central American pyramids are. Hmmm…methinks they’re on the wrong trail here…
Next we went to the amazing town of Bath. Originally built by the Romans, the British rebuilt it centuries later.
It’s in the middle of nowhere, in the English countryside. Too cool.

Well, that’s it for now, gang. Thanks for reading, if you have been. We’re flying out of here tomorrow, and will be home in sunny Florida by bedtime. We’ve had a great time on Jeremy and Shalisa’s anniversary trip. It’s a bit early still, but this was kind of an early anniversary trip for us as well (November 27th will be 14 happy years).

Signing out for now….

Today’s been another great day in London (we love this city), as Steve and Wendy Hearn came over for the day and have been hanging with us. Here’s us and the James’ at Westminster Abby.
Next, me and Barbie beside one of the Beefeaters on horseback outside Buckingham Palace.
We couldn’t get a time when no one else was taking photos, so we had to have the kid in the orange jacket back there in it with us. Sorry. We tried running him off, but it didn’t work.
Here’s all of us outside the Palace gates. I guess the Queen didn’t get the message that it was us, or she would’ve had them let us in.
Finally, me next to favorite word lately.

To be continued….