Kat Care

How do you suppose a Kat would spend it's birthday had it a choice?

Well this Kat wasn't as free to chose his ideal birthday as was commented below by his friends. None the less he had a good day.
I hope all of yours was as good.

Pigeon Politics

Went to Santa Monica this weekend and had fun
drawing people & pigeons. I found this kind of drawing
from life more helpful & challenging to me than sitting
in a room with a bunch of others drawing a model. This
"pissed pigeon" was obviously not one of the pigeons in
the ocean breeze. When I have a fair amount of the
others I'll post them here.
Pissed Pigeon was created with pencil and digital.

Alvin

My latest creation.

I just watched an amazing film, Il Divo.
In many respects the film sheds light
on Italian history in the most recent
decades.

Tessa

Wishing everyone a happy autumn &
Halloween.

Why make a bed if it's only going to get
messed up again?
Don't you have more important things
to think about?

Darebear Revisited

A warm welcome to our newest friends of "Allen's Zoo".
Friends is on the right just under the zookeepers photo.

Darebear Revisited was created with pencil & digital.

Catalona

Just some Feline Fun.

I couldn't help but smile upon reading
something writer Charles Bukowski wrote.
I'd like to share with you. "Don't Try"
'Somebody at one of these places ... asked me:
"What do you do? How do you write, create?"
You don't, I told them. You don't try.
That's very important: not to try, either for
Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait,
and if nothing happens, you wait some more.
It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for
it to come to you. When it gets close enough
you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you
like its looks you make a pet out of it.'

I liked the looks of it.

Nostalgia

This aged photo brings me back to one of my, and
daughters favorite places.

My friend Kim asked if I would expand on the photo,
so here goes...the location is "El Matador". The girl in
the photo is my daughter Kelsey age nine which makes
it photographed nearly a decade ago. I first happened
upon this place not long after arriving in California a
few years before it was taken. El Matador is located
just off the Pacific Coast Highway north of Malibu.

When a friend asked me of romantic places in this
area this was the first place that came to mind.
Having a majestic look, it made other things
insignificant. I like that aspect in nature. When
first seeing the location it occurred to me, from
certain rock formations not included in the
photo to the left, it was one of the locations
for filming of the first "Planet of the Apes" .

Thinking Process

Initially I wondered if I should show the "thinking process", how I go about working out my designs on paper. I've shown this on earlier posts and although I enjoy seeing other artist's visualization, at times I wonder if others do. As is often the case I asked my daughter's opinion to which she replied "yes". Hope you appreciate seeing the thinking process as well.
Some may have noticed my character design size have progressively downsized from a few posts earlier. This is just coincidence. In any case I felt the snail deserved it's own space, regardless how small.

Fresh from the Sketchbook

Above is some of my more recent character
design ideation.

Funny, I never knew there was a real Pika
(a cousin of the rabbit) till I saw it on a
nature show. By the way my favorite nature
shows are hosted by David Attenborough.
Someone previously pointed out on an
earlier comment as their favorite too.
Jeeez! Takes me nearly a day to proof my
writing!

Guess you could say I'm a bit of a nerd.
I think this an artist trait.
Nerd (pronounced /ˈnɜrd/) is a term often
bearing a derogatory connotation or
stereotype, that refers to a person who
passionately pursues intellectual activities,
esoteric knowledge, or other obscure
interests rather than engaging in more
social or popular activities. Therefore a
nerd is often excluded from physical
activity and considered a loner by peers
or will tend to associate with like-
minded people.
ref. Wikipedia

Dare Bear

I would like to dedicate this post to my daughter whom
I'm very proud.
Dare Bear was created with pencil and digital.

I've been a Coen Brothers fan since seeing "Raising
Arizona" many years ago. Recently I watched "No
Country for Old Men" again after initially seeing when
first released on DVD. Javier Bardem's portrayal of
the psychopathic antagonist is so convincing and
memorable it's grim. No film for children. Since I'm
on the subject of film, has anyone heard of a film
"The Men Who Stare At Goats"? Although not
released yet it looks like fun.

Also I'd like to welcome our newest friends of
"Allen's Zoo". Friends is on the right just under
the zookeepers photo.

August 29th..I look out my back window towards the
San Gabriel Mountains on fire maybe 4 km away. The
entire length I can see is engulfed in a rolling plume
of purplish yellow smoke that turns to white. Must be
10 km high..growing higher. It's moving to watch.
I can't believe people are fighting in that.

Has anyone heard about Japan's election? I just
reviewed recent photos. My initial reaction is the
winner has a much cooler wavy haircut and is much
more youthful in appearance than the loser.

Animal Sketches