All this talk of Yetis reminded me of this drawing I did 4 or 5 weeks ago to Justin's request.

Try to guess what's going on

my latest caricature of Justin. the piercing through both lips he doesn't particularly think is funny, but hey, it's a caricature!

Jakob Lodwick wrote the following article in September ’07, I think it’s a great idea. I also believe our generation is capable of creating the best entertainment in history. I hope it starts surfacing soon. Or are we doomed to more ATHF?

"We’re at a cultural standstill that started sometime in the late 1990s. The web has more potential than any other medium in human history, and here we are chuckling at ten second blurry videos of imbeciles getting smashed on the head with a cantaloupe. Television is the opposite of plumbing: a service that pumps shit into your house. The web is the ultimate timewaster. Nobody is asking for anything better, but in the back of our heads we all know we deserve better than these two systems.

To be specific, today’s problem is “user generated content”. Not because it is user-generated, but because it’s completely disorganized. In old media, you have editors who say, “This is good, people should see it.”. Now, we have “Most Viewed” pages. If you remove human intervention from focus group studies and market research, you get “Most Viewed” — a system where the lowest common denominator of human interests are celebrated automatically; where the aggregated whims of an uncoordinated mob dictate our cultural touchstones; where the mindlessness of strangers is re-branded as “collective intelligence. ”

It’s time to introduce a simple idea to the world: user generated editorial. Allow the people to organize the videos they create. This is so obviously necessary yet no one has done it — probably because the people who run web video companies are would-be opportunists who do not create videos and therefore don’t understand the needs of the creators — the people who we rely on to make the videos we watch.

Vimeo is the only exception and we release Channels early next week."

This is my caricature of Alex Studenroth from work. I call him Studenrock. I've spent the last 3 or 4 weeks trying to get him down. (especailly since he doesn't like me to draw him and I hafta sneak it). He's got a very complex profile. Lots of contrasting straights and rounds.

He's of Scandanavian and Native American descent, and boy it shows. I figgered if I could learn to draw him, I could draw anybody. Well... it was a great exercise for a beginning caricaturist. Which I hope Alex understands. Though I'm trying to not lean towards a flat style of drawing, his profile lends itself really well to it.

And his skin really is the same colour as his hair

podim

I think that means Merry Christmas in some language.

Thanks Ashley for the great instrument drawings!

What is Eagle vs. Shark?


is it like the Squid and the Whale?

Yeah, Helvetica is a great documentary film! I suggest anybody interested in design/art/imagery should see it. I didn’t realize just exactly how passionately I felt about typography/fonts until I watched the film and got so zealously into what everyone was saying.

It was great how they started out with the older people in the business and discussed the history (which I love), then got into the polar extreme opinions of the younger people, and ended it with a balanced view.


Mostly, I noticed how everybody (except maybe 2) seemed like genuinely very happy/well adjusted people. I guess typography has a very high contentment rate.


I didn’t realize how ubiquitous Helvetica was ‘till seeing this. Which makes sense ‘cause it’s so versatile, simplistic and universal.

Though, I think I’ll hafta side with the post-modernists on that it was great for the 60’s, but today at times it’s a little too stiff and anonymous and creepily corporate. I think my ideal font (for everyday use) would be Helvetica with a tiny bit more personality, particularly roundier rounds. I believe an everyday font shouldn’t distract from the message, but it also shouldn’t bore the reader. Since about ’95 I’ve used Verdana most the time. It seems to have a bit more personality in the spacing.

birthday cards by Chris Garrison

"It's like it's real and impossible at the same time. It's better than real." - John K. describing well-made cartoons

John drew this last night during lunch, amidst me & Justin's caricature drawing frenzy. The last couple weeks I've been trying to get down some good ones of me and the J's.

meesca moosca

I'm guessing this is either a dog or perhaps a mouse

I think she made her own business card

if you can't read that, it says, "American business girl at your service please"

and appearantly she has a character of her own

Poobee Doobee

whom also has a business card!

Last saturday when my niece & nephew were visiting, my niece helped me with my Bosko practices, and then I showed her how to draw some Disney characters. And appearantly after I left she drew all of these.


and here's her rendition of Spongebob that she drew when I was there. Pretty good from memory for a 7 year old.

My nephew brought guitar hero 3 with him, and they sang along to all the songs. My particular favourite was, "Here I am, walking on a hurricane!". My nephew thought he was all that 'till I beat 'Hit me with your best shot' behind my head.

vintage Russian and British christmas cards. They're all such great paintings






great balance of cold and warm in all these

I came across these handmade cats by edda-ruska on Flickr

One of Justin's friends

Alex and me at work

more influences on Rudy's design

Since my mid-teens I've been fascinated by the Icee bear. I even wanted a tattoo of him for a looong time. I can't really explain what it is about his design, but it really captivates me. And I've loved drawing characters with wool turtlenecks ever since.

I hope Jonathan still has my light-up Icee cup that I stole from the Gateway mall in the mid 90's.

I'm not sure where it came from, but I've always liked drawing oversized glasses.

perhaps Velmaor Chuckie

Melissa from Home movies was a huge and deliberate influence on Rudy. In fact it was Home movies that re-inspired me to get started on accomplishing my dream of making a cartoon.


I'm not exaclty sure where Rudy's hair came from. I do love drawing poofy hair, probably stemming from drawing the Bearded avenger so much (I've experimented back & forth a lot with spikey hair and rounded hair for Rudy) . And speaking of high school days, my friend Travis (of Marigold and the Days) drew people in wool turtlenecks and semi-baggy pants a lot too.

Also, bank robbers in cartoons made in the 40's-50's always wore olive-green turtlnecks, which has always cracked me up for some reason. So I just had to go with green for the sweater.


(this is a flat & bland drawing from a few months ago.)

And it was Justin that named him, and who will be doing his voice. So he will have a huge influence on his personality when he comes to life. (Little known fact: his entire first name is Rutabaga)

So, basically Rudy is a 5 year-old boy version of Melissa dressed as a 40's bank robber with big hair, a cape & glasses.

I think the cape is unique. (I wore one a lot as a kid.) But there is this comic by Matt Groening, which still makes me bust a gut to this day.

I've read it 2 or 3 times a year, and excitedely showed it to most of my friends, since I found it in '97. There are some other great WIll & Abe strips out there

Justin decided to draw everybodies favourite rock vocalist. It survived having water spilled on it, and getting misplaced twice.

Does anybody remember their last eye exam? I just had one and my eyes are so fatigued and sore, krikey!

Laura's request for me to draw "an accordion, an animal (raccoon or something fun), rollerskates, a slinky, a monster, a shadow, and something oregon-ish."



my brain replaced 'a slinky' with 'springs'


more of a concertina

all this talk of narwhals

inspired me to post some characters I made up when I was 18.
This is the Bearded Avenger and his pet duck Schroeder. the Bearded Avenger was loosely based on this kid at school that me and my friends loved to draw. Schroeder and the B.A. were the classic slow superhero/smart sidekick duo. My senior year I made a weekly comic starring these two. My gang of friends got a big kick out of it


One of the villains, Narwhal.

(note the turtleneck wool sweater)

Crazy Newt-man. An uzi sub-machine gun toting villian, with duck-feet for some reason. Maybe ‘cause his personality was similar to Daffy Duck’s. His plans were ‘crazy like a fox’ and usually almost actually worked.


Candy Cane. Was intended to have his own bad-guy main-character series, but I never ended up doing anything with him. I never really figured out a purpose for him to have. But I sure thought he was funny.

I can’t believe how incredibly flat I used to draw. Holy coo