Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Eclectic or eccentric?


My feeling about the subject of Botox and recapturing one's youthful looks should be fairly obvious in the cartoon, so I'll talk about the art today.

For fun, I thought I'd play with the color on this one. First, I broke out three different brushes: watercolor, airbrush and oil paint. I use all three regularly in my work, but rarely all together in the same cartoon. Only with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop can oil, water & air propelled paints mix.

Second, is the color itself...and that requires some background.

My wife loves to watch the H&G network and specifically, its interior design shows. I've sat through enough of them, (as repayment for her willingness to watch Sportscenter with me), to spot a few trends.

The most amusing to me is the overuse of the word "eclectic". The designers like to strut around on screen and proclaim virtually every finished room or interior as being wonderfully eclectic. To me, this means that they just toss a bunch of colors or unrelated crap together and hope that it might work. Another word for such designs: hodgepodge.

So, in honor of this new style, I created a living room in Burr's house with my version of an eclectic color scheme. --Do you think it works?

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Calvinism revisited

One of my favorite comic strips lasted for only ten years, (1985-1995). "Calvin & Hobbes", a comic about a boisterous, imaginative eight year-old boy named Calvin and his stuffed companion, Hobbes. 

Its creator, Bill Watterson decided to retire and his decision is our loss. I got to wondering what Calvin would be up to today...especially if he were to age, as do the characters in strips like "For Better or for Worse" and "Gasoline Alley". I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty but it might well be interesting to watch...

Monday, July 17, 2006

What do you call that exercise?


Want some more gym terms? I know a guy who pulled a hammie doing hack squats. I also know someone who blew out his ACL while doing deadlifts. (An aptly named exercise in that case.) Rotator cuffs, (no starch needed on these, thank you), are a big problem for many athletes.

Fortunately, as a cartoonist, the worst injury I can claim is repetive stress syndrome with my drawing wrist...And even that hasn't occurred since I switched from brushes and india ink to a Wacom digital drawing tablet a few years ago.