Here's a piece i did on actual paper with actual ink and actual gouache. it actually got my fingers a little dirty which kind of freaked me out because it's been a while but i think i'm ok now. It's for a charity auction for the Drawing Dreams Foundation and will be auctioned to off to the highest (or any) bidder on December 7th at the Society of Illustrator's space in New York. If it looks familiar it's because it's yet another depiction of that, my favorite mythological creature "The Yirdswine" who is known for rooting around in graveyards and eating corpses, but this one is kind of cute.

I really like Moomintroll.

I really saw this yesterday, I'm hoping because it's Halloween.

my newest passion: illustrating spam emails.

for all you other old parents out there.

After i heard this story i went home and fact checked it. The only part that wasn't true is that it was the men's room instead.

I had to make a late night run to Home Depot the other night. Everybody there, like the guy in front of me buying a hatchet, seemed like they were up to no good. Then i realized I was buying 5 rolls of plastic sheeting and some duct tape.

"JERK EAGLE"

This weekend we were at the Santa Barbara Zoo where something hysterical happened. Some Jerk Eagle was flying around and spotted the zoo and thought "buffet". He was camped out in a tree all day enjoying his Federally Protected Status, while leisurely deciding which exotic delicacy to eat first. The zoo animals and staff were palpably nervous and the zoo even sent out two volunteer ladies in folding chairs to sit by the flamingos and otters and "keep an eye on them". I'm not sure how it turned out but he was still up there when we left and probably wasn't getting any less hungry as time went on.

I saw the Smurf movie last night, it was very inspiring. The best joke in it was when the Smurfs, while trapped in New York City, were talking about the Smurfs they missed back home. "I miss Carpenter Smurf and Mailman Smurf etc." Then Smurfette said "You know who I don't miss?... Passive/Aggressive Smurf. You always feel bad after he leaves." So genius. This of course led to a long discussion about all the shitty Smurfs you've never heard of before of which this is my favorite.

a little down time today. a worm lives in his nose.

And now back to Bleak House. Another of my favorite characters, the overly dramatic, manipulative and somewhat flamboyant Old Mr. Turveydrop. Proprietor of the local dance school who can be seen here (starting at 4:10) in all his glory rebuking his son's announcement of engagement. In 30 seconds he covers the entire range of human emotion from outraged betrayal to selfless resignation. Disgustingly played by Matthew Kelly... bravo!!

Mia... is getting pretty good at climbing.

Here's another one from Bleak House. The crazy old bird lady Miss Flite (get it?) who's obsessed with Judgement Day and has a million birds named things like "Misery, Greed, Avarice and Death." She reminds me of Mrs. Garret from Facts of Life.

Here are some of my favorite characters from Bleak House. This one is Mr. Skimpole. Dickens is such a master of onomatopoeia character names. Even if the name isn't literally what the person is (like Mr. Krook to follow shortly) you know exactly how to feel about the character by the taste left in your mouth after saying their name. Mr. Skimpole... pole. rod... shaft. this guy is a total tool. The 19th century equivalent of "Mr. Douchebag".

Speaking of his "half dozen or so children" Mr. Skimpole says "Care for them? How could I? I have no aptitude for work of any kind." When asked "How then do they live?" He replies, "Why... I've no idea. But live they do."

Ordinarily i like to read the character description from the book and draw that, but the casting and acting in this movie is such perfection I cant imagine them as anyone other than who played the parts, in this case Nathaniel Parker. Well Done sir.

We've been obsessed with British costume dramas for the last couple of months, we've probably wacthed 15 or 20 of them. So many fantastic costumes, sets, compositions, lighting, really beautiful movies. And the sideburns... Good God the sideburns. Here's the first of a series of 5 minute sketches I'd like to do from some of my favorite parts. This one is from Bleak House.

I saw this guy on a documentary and liked the cut of his sail.

Here's a piece I did for an upcoming show at Q Pop. The theme is "The Hamburger Lifestyle"

I saw a great interview by this author Gabor Mate about his book "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts". It's about addiciton, behavior, childhood development, politics, a lot of stuff. He says the title comes from a Buddhist concept of different realms of being, one of which is the "Hungry Ghost Realm".
In the interview he says "people in it are depicted with large empty bellies, small mouths and scrawny thin necks, they can never get enough satisfaction, they can never fill their bellies, they're always hungry, always empty. Always seeking it from the outside" Kind of a haunting image i felt compelled to draw.

Mia at 1.

Mia engaged in her favorite activity. Pulling all the books off the shelves and standing on a pile of them "reading".