Lawn tractor

I keep trying to draw things that I think I might need for projects. Maybe for signs, or T-shirt designs, or business cards, anything. I didn't have but one lawn tractor on hand that I drew a couple years ago, so I went to doing another one. This time I added a driver. That there is Cleotis. He has been driving lawn tractors all his life, and has cut grass from here to five miles down the road. Looks like he enjoys his job, doesn't he.

Panda Bear...

 I needed a Panda Bear for something I was working on, so I drew one up. Worked perfectly! Actually dont think I have ever drew a Panda Bear before. Something new every day!

Sketch and finish...

This will give you an idea of what a finished drawing looks like before its done and vice versa.

The rough sketch is on the left ready to take into illustrator and digitize with the drawing tools. Sometimes I go ahead and ink with a pen, then scan and open in illustrator and use the trace feature, then do the cleanup. But more and more, I have been taking the drawing into illy and using the pen tool to draw over the sketch. The lines are super clean and tight, and when you are doing vector, the cleaner and tighter you can get is best. I think Ill hop into my little truck and drive on down the road now....

Shortbus

I actually did this drawing sometime back, but took it back into illustrator and did some adjusting and color changes, and moved a few things around. This is what we call a shortbus, used primarily for preschools and such. Always loved the shape of them and decided one day to draw one and hot rod it up a little. Sort of a go to school cool thing...:)

Gunslinging Cowboy...

This is one from the sketchbook that I decided to go ahead and do a finish on. An old moustached 25 gallon hat, gunslinging cowboy. Ready to jerk that hot iron, or spit tabaccy juice in your eye. I can just imagine him saying, "Pardner, you're a lookin' at me like you want trouble. I think maybe you ought to think twice about that."

 Or maybe he's not saying anything. Just lookin' right mean... Happy Trails!

Hello and Welcome!

Now that Ive posted a couple things, and got used to this blogging thing a little, I thought I might post a little more about me and what I do. For the last 30 years, I have been a cartoonist/signmaker/designer. I started out pursuing cartooning full time, and trying to get a strip syndicated ( more on that later). I also submitted single panel gag cartoons to magazines with some success. I was published in Boys Life, The Saturday Evening Post, The National Enquirer, Globe, Soldiers, and even in an English textbook in Germany. I also was a semi regular contributor to CARtoons magazine in california back in the eighties, until it folded in 91. That really spurned my love of drawing cars, which took some time to get to where I am comfortable drawing them now. Ill basically try to draw anything in a cartoon fashion, cars, trucks, equipment, planes, people, animals, and I also do caricatures of either people or cars or animals. I intend to post much of what I do here on a regular basis so people can see what I do and hire me to do work for them and pay me money.:) Im more than glad to give an estimate on any type of cartoon work and can provide any type computer file such as vector, png,cdr,psd,jpg,gif,pdf, etc.
Im a happy guy with an hb pencil and sketchpad and I love to draw. Come by and visit every now and then and see some of my stuff...

Heres piggy! This was done for a client who has a barbeque restaurant and wanted a pig for their their signs, etc. They wanted a specific look to their character, and also wanted a refection of their business building in the sunglasses. That was something different, especially working in vector format, but Im really pleased with the way it turned out, and was was the client. Now Im hungry....

GATOR Plumber

I created this Gator character for a client that liked the Gator idea for another business they had, but wanted something different than what they had been using. They also wanted the machine that was used in their business. I start with a pencil sketch which is okayed by the client, then into illustrator for digitizing and supplying vector files so they can be used in any type of print work. This one was fun.