Congratulations Dr. S!!

This weekend it was my honor to attend my good friend's veterinary school graduation and hooding ceremony.  How else to to congratulate a newly minted veterinarian but with Snoopy and School House Rock (the four-legged zoo of course).  Congratulations Dr. S, you earned it!!   

                  Tombow Dual Brush markers on 140 lbs watercolor paper 6x8

Black and white version

                                                        Test Snoopy

I was not sure how the Tombow brush pens would react to the watercolor paper, so I needed to do a crash test Snoopy.  The "tie-dye" effect was kinda cool.

More Envelope Art with School House Rock

With the passing of Bob Dorough, the musical director of School House Rock, last week, several radio stations asked their listeners to describe their favorite song.  I did not remember "Unpack Your Adjectives" until I looked up video on youtube.  My favorite verse is:

We hiked along without care.

Then we ran into a bear.

He was a hairy bear,

He was a scary bear,

We beat a hasty retreat from his lair.

And described him with adjectives!

What is your favorite School House Rock song?

             Pen, brush & ink plus Tombow Dual Brush Markers on 80 lbs no 6 envelope

Ink only version

Is it Spring yet? Or are we going directly to Summer?

I sure hope we did not go from Winter directly to Summer, and skip Spring.  Was really hoping for a few days of warm, not hazy, hot, and humid weather.

So, I had the idea to do a series of Spring-esque version of my neighbor's tree.  Each to be done in watercolor with a different ink.  For this, the first series, I decided to use silver shimmering ink.  It is tough to see in the orange tree (and easiest to see in the purple tree), but each of the inks shimmer when hit with light. Originally, I was going to do these on 6x8 inch 140 lbs watercolor paper and fold them in half to make cards to give out.  Instead, I used the 4x6 and made post cards.  Will probably do a few more using watercolor and sheening inks.  What do you think cool or cheesy?

My neighbor's tree, now in technicolor!

                                      Watercolor and Diamine Citrus Ice ink

                                    Watercolor and Robert Oster Fizzy Lime ink

                                    Watercolor and Robert Oster Violet Clouds ink

More Blue Devil. . .and the coming of Shockwave!

If Amazo was a C-lister, than Shockwave is a Z-lister.  He first appeared in Blue Devil #2 (1984; I must have really liked the lovable loser characters back in the day).  At the time I was a big, big fan of the artist Paris Cullins (who launched both Blue Devil in 1984 and Blue Beetle in 1986).  I bought any book he was on and his art probably explains why all the Blue Devil love (did not know, but at that time he had recently graduated the DC comics "internship" program).

So, I found the other Blue Devil pages I mentioned previously. I must have been 17 or 18 when I drew the pages below.  There is noticable improvement in them compared to the page I did when I was 14 (for starters, there is an actual attempt to add background).  I do not know why I never finished inking, probably because I had no confidence in my ability to ink the buildings.  I am not sure if I will go back and trace/ink these three pages but T really liked "the robot" so I made her a "pin-up" of Shockwave.  We'll see if I ever finish these pages. It was fun to find these.   

Hey look, there is actual background!  Click to embiggen.

Blue Devil ain't doing so hot on this page, he better pick up his game.

There goes our hero!  He rallies back, but how does it end?!?