I was recently going through some of my older illustrations, and came across this one I did for the May 2009 In Touch magazine. The article was written by a woman who had struggled with anorexia since she was a child, and how God brought her through it. It’s in a different style than most of my stuff, but I was pretty happy with the final result.

Illustration © In Touch magazine.

As my friends know, I DESPISE squirrels.

Well, as if my feelings towards these nasty little vermin needed any prodding, I stumbled upon a video of a squirrel dropping the false pretense of “cute little acorn eater” and going full-blown, Wild Kingdom carnivore on a blue jay. (Due to the nature of the video and some language therein I won’t post a link, but it isn’t that hard to find the video in question on YouTube.)

Now, before anybody starts yacking about “he was only defending his nest”….nope, that argument doesn’t work. To kill the blue jay as an act of self-preservation is one thing, but the bushy-tailed rat EATS the blue jay! There’s even a follow-up video that shows what was left of the bird when ol’ Squirrelly McNutjob got finished chowing down.

So think about that the next time you’re tossing crackers to a squirrel in the park. He may be nibbling away on that saltine, but the whole time he’s doing that, he’s also scoping you out and thinking, “Mmmm-mmmm….fresh meat!”

C’mon! I mean, the man flies around the world at light speed being pulled by reindeer! And without the benefit of so much as a seat belt! Do you honestly think job safety is a high priority for Santa Claus???

This is the illustration for the poster advertising my town’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting. Still can’t seem to get drunken Santa approved.

Maybe next year…

Here’s my latest piece for In Touch magazine. The article is about turning times you stumble as a parent into opportunities to grow closer to your child. Thought I’d give you a condensed version of how I did it.

Step 1: As you can see, I don’t believe in submitting tight roughs for concept approval. If you get too detailed, you risk losing some creative flexibility in the final execution.

Step 2: Final line art done in ballpoint pen (I’m starting to really like using them for my illustrations, and not just my doodling).

Step 3: I convert the line art to a “multiply” layer in Photoshop, and create a second layer underneath it. On this new layer I then paint in solid areas of color.

Step 4: Finally, I go in and do some color modeling to give the image more depth.

And there you have it… one extremely truncated explanation of the steps I use to create a finished illustration.

We were developing some cartoon characters at work, and one of the characters my friend Jennifer came up with was this little slug guy in his underwear. Her concept for him was great, and all I really had to do was flesh him out a bit, as you can see here.

However, my brain is wired in such a way that I have to flush out any competing variations of a character before I can really get moving on the final, approved version. So, flush away I did…all over an unsuspecting piece of paper in a meeting.

Where the toothy robot and flaming pear bomb thingy came from, I have NO earthly idea. I guess the current from the “slug flushing” was just too strong and they got pulled in by the rip tide.

My most recent piece for In Touch magazine (the as-yet-unpublished January ‘10 issue). It’s for an article about dealing with a moody teenage child.

All images are copyrighted by In Touch Ministries.

My seven-year-old son and I are reading (or re-reading, in my case) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. We are nearing the end of the Mirkwood Forest stage of the journey, and will soon be to the part where they first encounter Smaug, the fearsome dragon. Ethan has gotten really excited about the book, and is chomping at the bit for Smaug to make an appearance.

As we’ve been reading, I couldn’t help but remember how disappointed I was in the way Rankin-Bass envisioned Smaug in their 1980 version of The Hobbit. A little too cat-like for my tastes. And a furry back??? What the heck was that about?

I’d always imagined Smaug as more of a cross between the dragons the great Ray Harryhausen did, and the dragon that appeared in the 1981 film Dragonslayer. Instead they give me one that’s only slightly more menacing in appearance than the Luck Dragon from Neverending Story!

All that being said, I found myself doodling a dragon recently in a meeting, and the first thing that popped into my head was, “Now that’s my Smaug!” Unfortunately, where I started my doodle on the paper will not allow me to finish a full body sketch of him, but I hope you’ll enjoy the small part I was able to do.

Of course Edwina looks grumpy and tired.

You’d be worn out, too, if you had to struggle as hard as she does to rein in the sexy. If she were to let up for even the briefest moment and a mere fragment of her raw animal magnetism were unleashed, civilization as we know it would be in danger of collapse.

]]> http://jaggedsmile.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/mister-happy-has-a-secret/feed/ 2 jaggedsmile Mister Happy http://jaggedsmile.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/wizard-ethan-and-his-magic-bamboo/ http://jaggedsmile.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/wizard-ethan-and-his-magic-bamboo/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:58:46 +0000 jaggedsmile http://jaggedsmile.wordpress.com/?p=452 ]]>

One twisted dad, one crazy galoot son, one silly monkey girl daughter, one video camera, one copy of Flash CS3, and twenty minutes of spare time.

Stir ‘em all together and what do you get?