Yawnful Halloween

If tonight is like every other Halloween in recent history, the local youngfolk will be avoiding our street and trick-or-treating instead at places where the houses are a little closer together (and closer to the sidewalk). This is kind of sad.

But last week, I attended Spike and Christi's Halloween costume-making party, and I drew (and wrote) about it for Ohio Authority. You can check it out (and see the mask I made) right here.

I like it!

After weeks of labor (you have no idea), here's the big reveal on my caricature of Kat -- Beatles lover and fellow George Harrison preferer (a mark of intellect).

We had the crit on this last week. Teeech seemed underwhelmed. I made a few improvements, and though he might still be underwhelmed, I myself am whelmed. I think Kat likes it, too.

Usually I don't post photos of what I draw, but I thought you might enjoy seeing what Kat really looked like, as well as what I did to make her more caricature-able.

Side note: I realized tonight, with some shame, that I am nicer to the print-center guy at a certain office-supply retailer because he reminds me distantly of Viggo Mortensen.

I think icon, I think icon ...

We had a fun little project a few weeks back to design icons for a computer desktop. Pick a theme, any theme.
I've long been entranced by Alaskan iconography, and I despair that the actual Inuit would shudder at the cliche of all that I find charming.

I went "charming" anyway. These are done in Illustrator -- that Adobe program I have to re-teach myself every now and then. It's fun, once you get the hang of it. That is, once you stop swearing at it.

Incidentally, if you want to see some lovely children's-book illustrations on the topic of Arctic wonderfulness, stop in here and see Mama Do You Love Me?, a book that came out when my now-18-year-old daughter was a wee thing. Barbara Joose is the author; Barbara Lavallee is the illustrator.

A Peek at "Zombies!"

Greetings, Earthlings -
I had a request to share some illustrations from "Zombies! Evacuate the School!", the new poetry book for kids by the excellent writer Sara Holbrook.

You would've had to be living under a rock -- or at least not paying attention to all my social media -- to have missed the fact that I drew the little guys for the book. Which is out now. And theoretically available at your local bookstore and online. (Boyds Mills Press is the publisher.)

I Think This One Speaks ...

...for itself.

Owls Make Me Think

We were talking about hunting on the drive out to the raptor center today. Katy, her friend Taylor and me.
Taylor thought I'd be a knee-jerk anti-hunting person.
Here's my thought about that.

It's not that I think all wild animals live great lives. I see the exponential growth of the deer population in my urban/suburban neighborhood and I know these guys can't be living well.
It might be better for everyone if there were fewer of them, and if those destined to starve to death could meet a quick end instead.

What I don't understand is the human eagerness to kill something wild and alive. I'm suspicious of the urge to hunt when one's food needs are already taken care of. What makes a man -- or Sarah Palin -- want to grab a gun and end the life of something beautiful and free?

I don't know what that force is, but I tend to believe it should be resisted.

Checkmate

I had a lovely time last week visiting Cleveland Public Library's Special Collections department, which contains odd and interesting objects. Among them: chess sets, which have always fascinated me as objets d'art. I wrote and drew about it for Ohio Authority, and I insist -- absolutely insist -- that you visit that online magazine now. If you don't like Sketchbook Cleveland, you can always read about mixed drinks.

What more can we ask?