IF: Wheel

Yeah... I dunno.  This week's IF theme was "Wheel".  I had a different idea before this one but it just wasn't "working" for me.  It felt like a forced joke.  This one (for whatever reason) seemed to come naturally.  I was debating on the design of the rickshaw, whether or not the top should be up, should the crocodile have a fan or umbrella, how should the rats' tails go, and other things when I just decided to give them blank stares on all their faces and try to drive home the point that "yes, this is just one of those odd things".

IF: Wings

Granted this is a cape and not actually wings but I took the advice of my own piece and didn't take it too seriously.  I was debating whether or not to put Robin in there as well but he always seemed to have this spirit anyway and I didn't think it would be as ironic. 

IF: Myth

So it's been a while since my last post (a really long while) so I decided to go ahead and sneak a Illustration Friday submission into my schedule.  A bit of an odd choice for my first post of the year, I know.  But the theme was "Myth" and there were plenty of pieces of Bigfoot, unicorns, Medusa and Lance Armstrong.  I saw "Rise of the Guardians" recently with my son.  And although I thought the design of the Tooth Fairy was original, I still think that anything that would buy a left over piece of your body for a quarter (or a dollar due to inflation) would look a little more creepy.  Like Peter Lorre with wings.

IF: Identical

So I wanted to do this once for last week's Illustration Friday theme which was "Tall" but I was busy trying to survive the week from hell.  But I guess this kind of fits in with this week's theme, "Identical", as well.  Kind of.  Whatever.  I know it's not the most original as I'm sure I've seen pictures of people with legs like trees many times before, but it was in my mind and I finally sat down and just did it late last night.  Not the best feet I ever drew, but they've always been a bit of a pain for me. Hands too.  And no, the man is not Amish.  I just didn't know what kind of hair to give him.  The hat seemed like a better idea at the time.

IF: Lonely

Holy smokes this one took me a while!  I decided to try something different for a change: my patience.  I typically don't like taking more than a day to work on any single piece.  I get too impatient and/or start second guessing myself.  This time I had an idea and stuck with it.  Even though my mind was telling me that it was stupid or that it wouldn't make sense or would be too hard to see.  I had also skipped the past couple IF themes so I thought I owed it to whoever to put more effort, or at least time, into this week's piece.  Even after I had finished all those freakin' lines I felt like there was still something missing.  I figured out at the last minute that I needed to put the cap for the marker ( that's what that little black blob is) on the window sill.  For whatever reason, that seemed to complete it for me.  I know there are bigger issues that I should have corrected like, "where's the glass for this window?" or "aren't the shutters supposed to open to the inside of the room?".  Oh, well.  At least I got the marker cap.

Illustration Friday: Suspend

Click to make bigger.  You can almost taste the energy.

Here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday theme: Suspend.  This was a fun memory from elementary school.  Every recess we would run out to the monkey bars and play the game of "chicken" until some kid lost an eye.  I remember the bars being red hot from the sun and that most of the time kids would give up from their hands burning before the kicking could even start.  One of the techniques we would use would be to get a fist full of sand and rub our hands together to really rough 'em up and give us extra grip on the bars.  Good times.  I bet more people would be involved in presidential debates if this is how they were handled.

Illustration Friday: Refresh

So here's my entry for this week's Illustration Friday theme: Refresh.  Etch-a-Sketch was the first thing that popped in my head.  I just got back into town from a frustrating, out-of-state business trip and I had a ton of gobbledeegoop swimming around in my head.  I just wished I could shake my head and make all the nonsense disappear.  But, drawing this seemed to work just as well.