Toon Club 3000 A.D.

In the year 3000 we'll be invaded by aliens-- but nobody will be aware of it because of the ingenious disquises they use to hide their true identity.

This man will run for, and get, the U. S. Presidency.

Toon Club: Frog Prince

Inspired by the works of Bryan Beach (who is also a member of Toon Club) whose amazing illustrations are created in a program known (oddly enough) as Illustrator, I decided to do a little experiment (something I'm utterly opposed to doing normally). The topic at Toon Club is Frog Prince, and I figured I'd take a stab at creating a frog in Illustrator. This is the result.

I confess I've had enough experience using the program not to hurt myself in the attempt, but not enough to make a living at it. I've got a long way to go before I'm 'good' at it, but I thought the only way to get better is to try. So here's my attempt. Enjoy!

Toon Club: 80's Video Games

As a kid one of my favorite arcade games was Joust. I spent way too many quaters in that game and got pretty good at it. I never quite got the score that's illustrated, but I was better than most of my friends.

Somehow flying around on an ostrich jousting with guys riding vultures seemed cool-- probably since ostrich's are flightless. Go figure.

Toon Club: Imaginary Friend

Over at Toon Club, the topic this past week was Imaginary Friend. I admit I didn't have an imaginary friend growing up, but always drew funny critters and characters that I though would make good friends if they took on a life of their own. Confronted with the topic I though what my Imaginary Friend would look like if I'd had one. After a few sketches Stillson emerged. He gets startled easily, one of his defining and endearing qualities.

Mr. Prickles was one of the "imaginary" sketches I drew prior to Stillson. I liked the head & mouth shape, and went another direction with the body-- and put clothes on him. Cheryl Spears (from my high school days) would be proud of me. She was always telling me to put clothes on my characters. Nobody tells me to do that anymore. What does that say about our society? Probably nothing... just posing the question.

Cordelia's Corner

On Friday Cordelia's Corner will be featured at the WTHRA toy trade show. The trade show will be held March 10-13 at the Fairplex in Pomona, California. The hope is that this will give them lots of opportunities to show off their line of products and make contacts. As part of their advertising campaign they've hired me to make a logo and clean up some photographs of girls wearing their dresses. Below is a sampling of what I've been doing for them. In each of these images, I had to do some serious work in Photoshop to get them where they are. Some of the many things I've been doing to these photos includes tearing up sidewalks and planting sod, planting and watering flowers to brighten up the photos, and tearing out the sides of houses and putting up brick where windows used to be. It's hard work being an artist. I should have been a doctor like my mother wanted.

My wife, Deborah, and her sister Rebecca Blake are in the business of designing and making dress up clothes for young girls ages 4-8. The idea to make dress ups originated when the two sisters would get dress up clothes for their girls only to have the dress-ups fall apart in the washing machine after only a few uses. Cordelia's Corner dress ups are mostly machine washable, and are durable enough that most of the dress ups will be worn by their sisters, or cousins after they're through with them. This is why the companies slogan is "Quality products for enthusiastic play". The fact that they're gorgeous, and that the girls love dressing up in them is just a perk.

For more information you can look them up at their website at www.cordeliascorner.com.

Cordelia's Corner. (Click on "Cordelia's Corner" to go to their website and see their amazing line of girls dress-ups.)

Good luck in California ladies. Wow 'em!