Firelight

I could tell something was on fire yesterday morning. The faint orange of the sunlight tipped me off. It was in Santa Barbara then, way north of Los Angles.
Now there's a bunch of fires in Southern California.
They're far from my place (or my parent's place), but direct sunlight is amber. The wall above is a cool white on a normal day.
.
I hear fire is threatening Anaheim Hills. I lived there as a teen. One summer a wildfire took out blocks of houses and got close to mine. It was up against the wilderness would be the first on the block to go if said wilderness burned. My family sold the house over twenty years ago. Still, I wonder if it will be lucky this time?

Dream Girl 2

Here's another goofy character that popped into my head while I was falling asleep.
I bet it was subconsciously inspired by Sally Cruikshank's character, Anita.

Dream Girl and Writer's Block

Ever see anything weird when you're falling asleep? I sometimes do. I've seen patterns, fractal-like structures and, occasionally, very silly things, like the picture above.
It's odd. In they daytime I'm racking my brains trying to come up with a good premise for a short cartoon (and drawing blanks), yet when I tune out and fall asleep I get a sideshow of possibilities.
Too bad I forget most of these "visions."
I'd like my cartoon to take place somewhere unusual- an island, planet, alternate universe etc..
I haven't come up with a good plot yet, but at least I have one inhabitant.

The Enchanted Overpass

Click picture for larger image.

When I was little I lead a double life: real life and fantasy life. I knew the later was pretend, but reality fueled it. A playground became a magic forest or strange planet. Mean teachers and bullies became villains. I was a socially inept klutz with plenty of solo time. Imagination time. As I got older I drew, then wrote stories about what I dreamed up.
I still "see" the fantasy world. I walk the drafty, pink walled path to my home and think This could be a cave in a story! With mother-of-pearl walls. And there's a secret passage [my front door] that leads to the character's hideout. It's full of treasure [My stuff] that's guarded by an iron beaked dragon[my cockatiel]...
The this could be a... ! notion pops up all the time. The sewage treatment plant could be an alien village. The power plant could be a castle. The nodding oil pump could be a robot mule who's secretly contemplating escaping his pen. The freeway overpass could be a.... ....well I'm not sure. What do you think it is?

Dragon Detail

Here's a detail from a picture I'm working on. Said picture has something to do with the freeway overpass I photographed...

I Voted, Part II

Here's the completed picture from the last post.

I Voted

This picture would have been more complete if I didn't have to park in the next time zone to cast my vote. Shesh. I spent half my morning finding a spot and walking to the poling place.
I took my camera, snapping textures and reference images.
Of course, most people don't take snapshots of walls, cracked asphalt and the underside of Interstate 10.
I wonder anyone noticed.
They'd think What's that lunatic doing? People like that really should be locked up... ...she's wearing an "I voted" sticker!? We're doomed.


p.s. I'll add a completed picture when I get more time.

Riff Raff Halloween Candy.

The day after Halloween was great when I was a kid. My trick or treat bag was loaded with goods. There was always one or two houses that gave full sized candy bars. Those floated like treasures in a pile of Milky Ways, Snickers, Hershey Bars, Reese Peanut Butter cups, Starbursts, Skittles, Butterfingers, and Nestle Crunches and Peppermint Patties.
The chocolates would be gone within a week. The real chocolates, not those quasi-chocolates like Tootsie Rolls or Milk Duds. Next to go was the it's not my favorite but it's still free candy treats. Twizlers, Red Hots, Good 'n' Plentys, Dots, Tootsie Pops and the like.
By mid November, only the Riff Raff candy remained:
Mini TootsieRolls, candy corn, Bottle Caps, SweetTarts, Lemon Heads, Smarties ( it was fun to pretend they were pills), Circus Peanuts, stale hard candy, and the dreaded Neapolitan Coconut Sundae Squares. The latter might last through Easter.

Crack the Vote!

The search for the elusive Cracks-On-The-Wall cartoon from Sesame Street has gone cold.
A fellow searcher dug this from CTW vaults, so we know Crack Monster's birthday is Feb 10, 1977. Still, we don't know who created him or where he can be seen today.
In protest, I'm hijacking the character until someone claims him and releases his video. Stay tuned for future crackulosity!

Crack Monster, where ARE you?

Beaks 'n' Cheeks

Anthropomorphizing birds is tricky.
A bird face looks very different than a human one. Our eyes are right next to each other. Many birds have eyes on opposite sides of their heads. Think about it. A then there's the beak- sharp and stiff. A human face is flexible. A bird face is masklike. They can't smile, frown, sneer, etc... Maybe that's why people like them. They're so pretty, yet so weird... so unlike us.

I probably learned how to draw cartoon birds from the Preston Blair books.
To cartoonize a bird, the eyes get bigger, the face gets squishier and the bird gets eyebrows and cheeks- both vital to facial expressions.
Here's two ways to do the cheeks:

You can implant the cheek in the bird's bill. I call this the "beak cheek".
It's the more birdlike of the two.


The second method gives the bird the cheek that a cartoon rabbit, mouse or chipmunk has. I call it the "chip cheek." It's less realistic, but more versatile.
Now that I've written this I'm thinking three drawings about bird cheeks? Who the hell wants to read about bird cheeks!?

San Diego Comic Con

"This week's topic is Comic Con Geeks," our drawing board leader said. "I'll be expecting lots of self portraits."
The San Diego C0mic con is a big time comics/animation/sci-fi/fantasy convention*. Thus, many drawing board folks attend.
Some fans dress up as their favorite characters. One friend goes there to photograph all the crazy costumes. Superheros/villains are particularly popular. This year, they tell me, the place was awash with Jokers.
I've never been. Geek among Geeks. I'm hoping to go next year.

*where else would someone find Bob Clampett and Grim Natwick under the same roof as Ray Bradbury , Matt Groening and Douglass Adams? It happened in 1983!

Second Aniversery

Wow, it's been two years since my first post on Tail o' the Rat!

Come Together

The Beatles' Come Together came on the radio so I sketched this.
The song had a cold abandoned warehouse feel. You know broken windows and scorched walls are nearby. And a lonely, angry kid scrawls nonsense on the walls...

Creepy Ironic Trivia: The "Shhh-" drowned out by the base in the song is John Lennon saying "shoot me."

Chicken of the Sea

"Chicken of the Sea" is this week's drawing board topic.
Below is the rough version (posted earlier). I wanted to add a ring buoy to the deck rails that said "R.M.S. McNugget" but I ran out of time.

The Stir Fried Cricket Switcharoo

There's three kinds of people who eat bugs.

1. People who actually like them.
2. Snobs who want to look open minded and sophisticated.
3. Curious screwballs (like myself ) who want to see what the big deal is.

Some friends roped me into to lunch at Wazooo, a trendy eatery that serves beef, chicken, pork, fish, tofu... ...and bugs. I'd never been there before.
"If I order the stir fried crickets," said Joe, "will anyone try 'em?"
"Sure," I said. "I'll taste a cricket."
How bad could it be? I thought. Was a bug that different than a shrimp or a crayfish? And even if it tastes bad, I'll have a funny story to tell.
Joe ordered. The waiter talked him out of the crickets and into Fried Sea Worms.
This was too far down the food chain.
My old job at the tropical fish shop had introduced me to many kinds of worms. These weren't things you wanted anywhere near your mouth.

"Whoa wait," I said. "I said I'd taste a cricket. I never said anything about worms!"
"Aw," said Joe. "You said!"
"I said I'd try bugs. Not worms."
"But they're on the insect menu! The waiter says they're real good."
"Okay," I grumbled.
The worms arrived wrapped in lettuce leaves. They looked like canned fried onions. At least they're tiny I thought, extracting one.
"Hey you can't eat 'em like that, Everyone gets their own wrap!" Somebody plopped one on my plate.
I looked closely. They weren't worms! They were thin, tiny fish. Tropical fish stores sell frozen and freeze dried ones as pet food. (They also sell crickets. Does the chef swings by Petco each morning for "groceries?" A bait shop?)
I bit into my wrap. The "worms" had a fried onion texture. A salty fishy taste. Not horrible, not delicious. Memories of the fish shop ruined them: You feed this to fish! You feed this to fish!

Chicken Sketches

These are some practice sketches I did for an upcoming Drawing Board post. The theme will be "Chicken of the Sea."
I do most of my concept sketches on cheap lined notebook paper. I think the gee, I could post these on my blog factor made these a bit stiff. Still, I had fun making them.

The Golden Age of Cartoons

"Golden Age of Cartoons" is the next Drawing Board topic.
I relied heavily on the Preston Blair book(s) to get the look.
A few years ago I was delighted to read that, according to someone who knows animation well, that any chump could become a good artist/animator if they drew and redrew the drawings from Blair's books to the point where they could reproduce them spot on*.
Hot dog! I thought. I can learn to really draw! I can be a real animator!
Then he threw in a warning that the advice was meant for people under 24. After that you'd be wasting your time, you'd be "creatively crippled", it was too late to train your brain, he'd seen it over and over.
Nuts, I thought. I'm in my mid thirties.
Is he right? Am I doomed?

*more specifically, reproducing the work correctly would help one absorb important animation and character design concepts, organic forms, solid construction, perspective, etc...

The Scary Puppets

The puppets at my preschool didn't terrifyme, but I didn't trust them. I'd pass their rack the way a kid passes a spooky dilapidated house, nervously, stepping faster.
No teacher or kid played with them. Most were ratty hand me downs that nobody wanted to stick their hand in. They guarded a doorway, hanging inert, like bodies on a gibbet.
The white one freaked me the most. He was a crude home-made thing with a flat, spoon shaped head and a crooked red smile. He'd stare at me with tiny eyes. I could see part of the back of his head- he had blue green fabric for hair. That creeped me too. No one, I thought No puppet or person should have hair like that.
I wonder who made the thing? Who was it supposed to be? Did it have a name? Did any kid ever like it as much as I hated it?

Weird coincidence : decades later I ended up working at the same preschool. The puppet rack (and many of the toys, and one teacher) was still there, but the scary puppets were gone.

Appaloosa in the Sky with Diamonds

Click picture for larger image.

This week's Drawing Board topic is "Unicorns in Space".
Type "unicorn" into Google Image Search and you'll get white Arabians. I considered making mine a Clydesdale but settled for an Appaloosa. I thought I was clever. Later I typed "Unicorn Appaloosa" into Google. Someone beat me to it.
Speaking of lack of originality, my setting was ripped off inspired by panels from this Little Nemo
in Slumberland comic.
Can you believe this beauty is 103 years old?*
(click image for larger view)


*This was the first Little Nemo comic. I don't know if these were the actual colors used when it appeared in the paper, but I like how space is tinted green, red and blue.

Surly Martian

Here's an experimental head turning animation. It was done using shape tweens (four or five per shape). Each "part" (pupil, eye outline etc) originally had its own layer.
Below is an older version, before I tweaked the timing, removed extra lines and added color. Those touches were done frame by frame and took much longer than the animation.
The gradient fills are like ceiling glitter. Cool? Tacky? It's a matter of opinion.

The Big Snooze

I'd hoped to have some post-worthy flashwork to show, but computer glitches, time stealers, and lackluster results are slowing me down. So here's someone else's work:
I'm no 'toon expert, but I do know that a lot them directed by Bob Clampet go off the rails with manic craziness. I love the surrealistic silliness.
I especially like the coy look on Elmer's face when he's doing the Russian dance.

So Ye Think Ye Can Dance?

"So you think you can dance?" is this week's Drawing Board topic.
He's supposed to be a slug. People familiar with kiltware may notice I left out the sporran (purse thingy). I ran out of time.

Silly Walk with Four Legs

Here's a four legged version of a silly walk I did earlier.

Inside Out of this World, Part III

I did my original inside out page as a goof, but it's strangely popular.
Here's some more :

Traffic Signs:







Logos and Icons:

The Crack Monster!

A Sesame Street cartoon terrified me when I was small:
A girl stares around her room. "The cracks on the wall started looking like a camel..." a voiceover sings. The cracks morph into "Crack Camel." He gives her a ride. She meets Crack Monkey, Crack Chicken... ...then Crack Monster! He threatens them.
The heros fight back. He crumbles, leaving his outline and "beams of wood."
Crack Monster scared me for years. I was sure he'd appear on my bedroom wall at night. Even regular cracks made me nervous.
Recently I Googled the cartoon that had scared me so long ago. I couldn't find it. I did find others who were had been freaked out by the the cartoon when they were young.
They too, were seeking the old cartoon. Nobody's found it.
I wonder where it went. I wonder if I'll ever see it again.
Come to think of it, I wonder how the kid explained the broken plaster to her parents...


*there is a parody of sorts on You-Tube. Made me laugh.

Polly

This is Polly. She's a Spotted Western Orb Weaving Spider. She spins her web near the back door at work. She has black eyes, almost petable fur, and an Easter Egg butt. She makes her web with robotic precision, plunking each line in place with her back foot. When she nets a bug she wraps it like a burrito.
Each time I pass I stop to look at her. People think I'm nuts.

"T" Animal

Click for bigger picture

Another piece from my preschool days.
There's kid logic for you. Put four legs, a tail and a head on something and you have an animal.
I wonder if this was based on something I saw on Sesame Street?

Prinsessen! Prinsessen!

The upcoming Drawing Board subject is "Princess Princess."
Huh? Who or what is a "Princess Princess?"
I considered a tribute to the opera Salome. It's enchanting, dreamy, weird and disturbing.
Simplified Plot:

1. Princess Salome wants to kiss Jochanaan.
2. Jochanaan tells her to scram.
3. Salome demands (and gets) Jochanaan's head on a platter.
4. She kisses it. The king freaks out. He has her executed then and there. The end.

Then I googled "Princess Princess" and found it was a Japanese cartoon. There's a blonde, a redhead and a bluehead. No chickens (or severed heads), it seems.

Fish Expiriment

Here's an experimental fish animation I've been playing with. Both are nested loops. The big one swims a straight line, and the little one has a motion guide steering him around.

You will Go to the Moon!

"Futuristic Promises Not Kept" is this week's Drawing Board theme.
When I was little I had a book called You will go to the moon. I believed it. I never believed in Santa or the Easter Bunny, but I was sure I'd visit the moon. I had a few ideas for the title of the book should have said: You will go Nowhere, You will go to the Starbucks , etc..

I almost skipped this one. I've left comments at another blog where an artist completed a project with a similar theme. Anyone reading that blog who wanders here may think Hey! She mooched his idea. In my defense, "Futuristic Promises Not Kept" was another Drawing Board member's idea, not mine. And I think my cartoon is different enough to stand on its own.

p.s. to Sally C. and Linda,
I hope it's clear that I'm referring to those silly viral videos with dancing hamsters, dramatic prairie dogs, pratfalls and assorted weirdos. Your animation videos are delights. Nothing inane about them.

Cabaret Birds (early 80s)

click for larger image

Detail from a picture I drew after seeing the movie Cabaret. I was thirteen.
I still like that movie, especially how it juxtaposes onstage silliness with real life horrors.

Bird Comics (circa 1984)

Click image for a bigger one.

I drew these when I was fifteen. Watercolor pencils, I believe.
The faded letters in the lower left corner say "Punk Parrot."
He had a safety pin in his beak and an electric banjo.

1973 Duck

I was somewhere between 3 and 4 when I drew this.
He had to wait thirty five years to move.
I have several duck pictures from when I was little. I liked to feed them at the park. I had a plush one instead of a teddy bear.
His name was Ducky Lucky.
I remember wanting to take him with me into the supermarket (Market Basket,) and my mom saying I'd lose him if I did.
My preschool brain thought that was ridiculous. He was my favorite toy. How could I loose him? I took him with me.
Guess who lost her duck that day?