More Travel Doodles!

Bits and pieces from my trip through the Pacific Northwest:

This one will be available as a postcard shortly.

One can see how Todd Akin gets confused with so many species' reproductive systems to keep track of:

Finally, where bagels come from:

I'm always a sucker for cute kids cuddling things:

Jen to the 17-year-old cashier who forced his phone number upon us:

And, while there are many vegans I sincerely love, strangers who judge my eating habits generally get this reaction:

Travel Doodles

This happens to me more than I like to think about:

(Baking) Adventure Time!

You guys are probably already aware but, I'll say it publicly: I totally swoon for Adventure Time - luckily, so does almost everyone else I know so, I'm in good company.

What you might not know is that when I'm not drawing, I sometimes like to bake gimmicky cup-cakes. On a recent AT episode, Finn and Jake are followed home by a forest bear who proceeds to devour all of Finn's treasured Finn-cakes.  Moments after viewing this episode, I was chowing down some pretzel nuggets and, mid-chew, pretzel dust drifting down from my stunned open mouth, I had an epiphany: I'd stumbled onto one of the greatest innovations in cupcakery, PRETZEL NUGGETS!  I could use pretzel nuggets to three-dimensionalize my cupcakes and make real life Finn-cakes!

SO, for my dear friend and fellow Adventure Time fan, Chandra Krinsky's birthday, I put my plan to the test and, BEHOLD!  IT WORKED!

So, lovely readers, if you dare, the following are my instructions...

You will need to procure:
-1 box cake mix (can be any kind)
-eggs
-vegetable oil
-water
-1 bag pretzel nuggets (any brand will do)
-1 tub white frosting
-1 tub pink frosting (I added two drops of yellow food coloring to mine to make peach)
-1 tube black icing
-1 tube red icing
-white pearl sprinkles
-cupcake baking cups

You'll follow the instructions on the back of your cake mix to bake your cupcakes. Once cupcakes are baked, allow them to cool completely.  They should be no warmer than room temperature when you start to decorate or everything will melt.

Once your cupcakes have cooled, give each one a good coating of plain white frosting.

Next, push two pretzel nuggets into each cupcake with about an inch in between them.  Push the nuggets in far enough that they're firmly rooted in the cake part of your cupcakes.

Using a knife, coat the pretzel nuggets with white frosting, blending the frosting at the base of the nuggets so that you have what appears to be one smooth, continuous shape.

With a separate knife, scoop a good sized glob of your pink frosting and carefully spread it in an oval on top of the white layer.  The thicker a layer of pink you use, the less you risk the white frosting mixing in from underneath.

Next, you'll use your tube of black frosting to carefully draw eyes and a mouth...

Lastly, you'll use the pearl sprinkles and the red icing as teeth and a tongue. PRESTO: A FINN-CAKE!

AN ARMY OF FINN-CAKES!

And that's how the magic happens - and how the magic can happen in your kitchen! Or, yet another example of me having WAY too much time on my hands.

Things to Consider

A recent conversation with my friend and amazing fellow cartoonist, Kane Lynch:

Adventures in Animation Continue!

Sorry for such a long hiatus - I've been busy busy busy with crime illustrations, freelance work AND, my animation class.

Here's some thumbnail sketches of a fairly ambitious flour sack and the animation that followed:

Experiments in Animation!

I started an animation class two weeks ago and I'm in love -- now I can not only doodle cute things, but I can doodle cute things in action!  Here are my first two experiments (the assignment was to draw a ball bounding on some kind of background, first once and then three times, I took some liberties).  I'll keep posting these as I do them - next week my elephant will have a tail!

Disney Drink and Draw: Session 2

This week's feature was Alice in Wonderland!  If you haven't seen this film lately, I highly recommend it.  I'm almost positive old Walt laced the water cooler in the art department with acid - if you ever wondered, "what would happen if a bicycle horn mated with a duck?" or "what if a dog had a broom for a face?", your questions will all be answered in this 1951 classic.  No matter how they did it, the character design is f'ing visionary and my sketches will never do it justice but, here's tryin':