Beaked Beastie

This nasty little beastie emerged from my sketchbook and pecked a hole in my desk before I could corral him and herd him into my blog where he can do no harm, except to entertain the viewers, though he doesn't look to be in a very entertaining mood at the moment. 


Look at his eyes. He seems to be rather wary of you. You may not want to leave this image on your screen and exit the room for any length of time. You wouldn't want him to peck his way out of your computer screen and get loose in your office.

Book Illustration

This is an illustration that I did for a book called Explorers of the New World Timeline. I've illustrated so many books for this publisher that I've lost count...maybe 40 books. I illustrate 2 or 3 titles for them most every year, some realistic illustration like the above, but most in my zany humorous style.

Swamp Vagabonds

Here's another pair of little beasties to add to the growing menagerie. My drawing materials are simple: an HB or 2B pencil, a section of newspaper, a q-tip, and a kneaded eraser. The most important aspect of creating a tight pencil rendering is how the pencil is held. That makes a huge difference.

My greatest pencil rendering influence is Midge Quenell, the graphite rendering instructor at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where I attended art school.

Many of you have never seen my syndicated comic panel, Health Capsules. It's syndicated by Universal UClick syndicate. I thought I would show you a sample of the artwork that I create for the panels. I just drew these this past weekend. I recently passed the 3000 mark...3000 Health Capsule panels that I have written and illustrated for the daily feature, over the past nine years.

This is the process that I go through every weekend, year in, year out. First I write six day's worth of panels. Then I create the artwork (above) that goes into the panels. These six drawings will be placed in the panels that contain the text that I have written, one for each day of the week, Monday through Saturday.

 I try to write Health Caps on Friday and draw them on Saturday. If we have plans and go out of town for the weekend, I bring Health Caps with me and work on them in a coffee shop during the course of the weekend. It seems that when you're self-employed, you're always on duty.

It was my childhood dream to have my own syndicated comic strip someday, so I never take this privilege of having my own syndicated feature for granted. I never dread working on my Health Caps...I always look forward to it. My syndicate once told me that they receive up to 7000 submissions per year from people who want to have their own comic strip...and they sign one or two individuals. I'm so happy that I kept trying for many years to break in, and finally beat those long odds.

To see my feature in its finished form, click here.

Airborne Beasties

Yet another little beastie crawled out of my sketchbook this morning and quickly took flight. It's more than a bit unnerving to try to concentrate on my work while a little pterocroctyle creature and his bug-eyed, bulb-nosed hairy companion are darting about my studio. I tried opening a window, but they don't seem to want to leave. Perhaps I'll just have to learn to live with them.

Eye to Eye

Here's another little beastie that appeared on my sketchpad yesterday. He goes by the name Hornball. He calls his little friend Eyefly. I do all my sketches with a regular Micron mechanical pencil. 

What's for lunch?

Here's another Little Monster sketch in what might become a series of drawings that could turn into a book...we'll see where it goes.