Category Archives: Comics

Cartoon Craziness Challenge – Build a Burger?

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Well, hell, I thought. That’s a tough one. Invent my own hamburger with anything on it? Sheeeeeit.

Once again, Mental Mama and The Indecicisive Eejit have given me food for thought and inspired a titch of creativity. I think this is their last cartoon challenge, however, and for that I’m a bit sad.

Back to Build a Burger. It seemed a difficult concept at first – but my Imagination Goop flowed rather quickly and gave me an Idea. Making the Idea into a work of art was harder. There’s a story, of course!

I recently have had an album on nearly constant rotation on the car CD player. It is by a little-known indie/grunge band called Sugartooth. They only released two albums, and I only have the first one. Back in 1997 a guy at work (who was quite married and practically begged me to let him into my pants – I did say no) gave me a copy. I forget his name (but not his face) and I will be forever in his debt for introducing me to Sugartooth’s music. One of my favourite lyrics inspired my crappy drawing – from a song called Black Queen, “I was hungry, so I ate all the words I could swallow.” Poetry does still show up in rock music. Yes, Sled – I know it isn’t your cuppa whiskey, but you might be surprised. Raucous, yes – but also emotional. I need emotion in my music.

On to the cartoon.

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I knew I could only fit a few words into my sandwich, so I picked four of my favourites. I love them for the way they sound, or they way they feel in my mouth, or the memories I have when I learned the word. ‘Vegetables’ is straight up juicy – it makes me salivate when I say it. ‘Ubiquitous’ is a memory of my father naming annoying children at the next table “ubiquitous” – with a long suffering sigh – and me loving the word but not having a clue what it meant. ‘Serendipity’ – you just have to love it. Luck. I think I read a book when I was a wee child and a dragon-ish Thing was called Serendipity. Also, it is something I’m short on and would gladly eat more of… Sanguine because it is a slippery word in my mind and also is important to me for a bit of fiction I was/am writing.

Hope you bothered to read all this, it was equally fun to do and significant for me to share.

Cat inna Hat Challenge!

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Ah, I don’t normally do these, but I felt the immediate need to draw a cat in a hat when I saw The Indecisive Eejit’s challenge.

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Yah, it’s rubbish but I enjoyed the 10 minutes it took to do it – I use the Brushes app and it is ‘fingerpainting’ on an iPad. I can do much better work, I promise – my favourite being Ivy and Stewie. Please, have a look – I promise I’m not usually so… quick?

Artist’s Elevator? What?

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Okay, the comments on my last post concerning me taking a free booth at an open fair have me a little freaked out. I think that I have some ‘splainin to do about my art!

I have NO art training. Unless you want to count art class in elementary school; I don’t.

I’ve drawn all my life, but I did more in my first 15 years than I did in the next 25.

August of this year, my husband gave me an iPad. It had an app called Brushes on it. I had never done a digital drawing before. Unless you want to count goofing around with MS Paint when work was slow; I don’t.

The portrait I did of Socks, on this blog, was the first one I ever did. That was Oct 8th. I did it for her, so I could give her something artsy that I made, because she gives me so much.

The entire history of me playing with Brushes is on this blog. I was doing the portraits for fun, and loving it. I drew my friends, and then a picture for a blogger I didn’t know in my offline life. Others saw and asked for their kitties to be drawn. It was so easy and fun! I’ve done more art in the last month than in the last ten years, or longer.

Then someone asked me to draw her cats for her and said ‘how much.” I was floored. This had never occurred to me, not once. She was the spark that lit the fire – the one with the big fireworks that spelled out ‘you can do this.’

I’m not an expert; I’m so new at this that it is funny. Scary, too! I’m a little, more than a little, intimidated when professional artists give advice. I barely know what you are talking about.

Now, can I use any of that to sell myself, or do I need to make something up? 😀

Lovebird has been Brushed!

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When I was at the pet shop yesterday I took pics of the birds. I wanted to try my hand at drawing them so I have something else for my portfolio. Well, here it is. And I discovered I really dislike drawing bird feet. I hate these! I could barely see them in the crappy pic I took, so they are way too cartoon-like for the rest of the picture. Learning curve…

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Sure hope the goldfish will be easier 🙂

Grey horse

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I promised Usyaka’s ‘mom’ Alexandra that I’d draw a horse for her today. Here he is! Looks a bit cranky, but if you know horses, you know they get that way sometimes.

He is 100% out of my head, like Purple Cat yesterday. I really like him and think he looks a bit like a woodcut, even though I didn’t realise I was doing it at the time.

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I think I’m going to do something big, for me, and I have all of you lovely people to thank. There’s an opportunity for me to have a free booth next month at an Irish Open Fair where I can set up and maybe sell a few portraits, perhaps take a freelance logo or illustration job, or even offer my copy editing services. I never would have considered this without the support I’ve found here. Thank you all, a thousand times. The confidence you’ve given me is worth more than gold can buy (even at these crazy rates)!

Purple cat

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I’m bored. Here’s a purple cat. Time I started actually drawing out of my head from the start… I got the feeling I wasn’t very interested in realisim tonight, when I wanted to draw a cat with only a few lines and make it purple…

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Jimmie Chew, Fin and Darnell have been Brushed!

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A lovely young cat visited my blog and liked my finger paintings enough to request a portrait. How could I ever say no?
This is Jimmie Chew, he has a photo-diary blog of his own where you can follow his busy day, from nap to car trip to glamour modelling.

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Jimmie is the star and narrator of his blog, but he has two feline ‘brothers.’ I didn’t want them to feel missed out, so here is Fin, a lovely grey gentleman:

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And this is Darnell. He is all black and seriously challenged my abilities. I need to figure out how to paint in reverse.

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As always, I am happy to have handsome, willing models to draw. I learn more with every picture. Thank you, boys!

Usyaka has been Brushed!

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Please meet Usyaka! She is a three-year-old Oriental Shorthair, sharing her home with people who think that she is as beautiful as I do. Even more, as there is a blog of gorgeous photographs devoted to this feline beauty. I’m pleased to have found it, and even happier to have been permitted to ‘Brush’ Usyaka.

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Thank you!