100 Themes: Break Away

Seriously, Barbie legs just don't bend like G.I. Joe legs did. Plus, I'm like twice as big as I was when I was playing with the G.I. Joes'.


The next theme is "Bliss". Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Seeking Wisdom

If you had told me twenty-years ago that I would rarely play video games when I grew up, I'd have called you a liar. The thing is, games have changed over the years. There's still a couple a year that I pick up and enjoy playing, but rarely with the rabid fervor that I did when I was a kid. I'm just not that into driving and shooting games.

The last 4 game systems that I actually bought though, were for "The Legend of Zelda". The classic tale of the young man, facing impossible odds to save the princess and the world? Who couldn't love that? I don't remember what the wise woman that lived beyond the lost woods had to say to young Link anymore, but I do remember being frustrated with learning the pattern to get through them.

Next up is "Break Away". Until then, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

100 Themes: Introduction

I've seen this meme floating around the interweb a bit lately, and it really caught my fancy. I know I've tried to do stuff like this before, with little success. 100 of anything just seems like such a commitment. I'm not setting a time line for this or a deadline, though. Maybe falling behind on the schedule in the past is what made me give up hope. We're just going to enjoy this, and see where it goes!

The first theme is "Introduction".

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life: Super Hero Edition

We've had super heroes on the brain here lately...Last week, Handmade Family set up our space in the Fusion Art Co-op in the mall (you can check out the post here). Amy's making capes, and has started finishing up the hero costumes with masks and cuffs to go along with them. Abby is super-cute. She tried on the mask for the first time last night, and was running around in her jammies, pointing up and declaring, "To the rescue!!!". It's funny watching her costume combinations, too. This afternoon, she'd added a Halloween pumpkin lantern, and tonite when we were getting ready for bed, she said she need super-hero pajamas...NOT, her dog pajamas. Okay, Superman it is. Ha-ha-ha!

So, where am I going with this? My plan is to do a cross-over between here and the Handmade Family blog with illustrations and photos and downloadable goodies that will be available on my website, chronicling our daily, handmade lives. Activities, books and movies, snack-time and of course Daily Life illustrations and comics. All of this will be compiled into a small, themed book. If all goes as planned (and to be honest, I'm nervous about that part), then I will be able to release my little 'zine every two months. The theme for issue one is Super-Heroes, and I hope that you all will join me for a little fun.

That's it for now. Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

And the Winner is....

First off, I'd like to thank all of you who left a comment. It's nice to know that somebody is actually reading. I've enjoyed making these calendars immensely, learned a lot about myself and my illustration process, and got to try out some new things. I can't wait for next years, and this time I'm going to get it done early enough that the January month will actually be useable, ha-ha-ha! Now, for the contest winner!
I managed to catch my lovely assistant before she headed off to bed. You can see our high-tech randomizing method there in front of her.
It took a try or two for her to get the concept of "pick just one and show it to me"... at least she's an enthusiastic helper, and it did help to further mix up the entries.
Finally, we got a single winner out of the bowl, and the winner is Laura! Congratulations!

Well, that's it for now folks. I have a new logo to show off soon and some new artwork, but the girls have been getting up early (for some reason) lately, and I need to get to bed so I don't fall asleep at church tomorrow. Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life Character Sketches and Calendar Contest!

I got a few copies of the calendar in the mail today, and they look great! I'm really so happy with the quality of the printing, and it's such a relief to finally see them in person. Today, I'd like to share a few of the watercolor character sketches I will be including in the deluxe package deal available over at bigcartel.com, and I think I'm going to have a contest too. Also, as of right now, if you order the deluxe package it will actually arrive to you quicker than from Lulu, because I have them in stock. But first, the pictures.
Crystal gets to go first, because she always gets such short shrift. It's nice to finally have a drawing of her that isn't grumpy. Ha-ha-ha!I guess Justin should be next so that they can stay together. Go Packers!
That kid loves to build towers and then show them off... She got monster slippers for Christmas this year.
I realized after the fact that I'd drawn both of the girls in overalls. It's not terribly far from the daily truth though, so I guess it's okay.
A trip to the library means a huge armload of books and movies. I think she's up to the task.
One of the problems with being a nerd who also gardens is that sometimes your wife catches you practicing bo-staff moves with a rake.
And finally the contest portion of this post. The prize? The deluxe 2011 Daily Life Calendar package pictured above. What do you have to do to win such a rad prize? All you have to do is leave a comment in the comments section of this post (not on facebook, not in my e-mail, but on this post) and on Saturday, January 29 I will randomly select the winner. Easy, right?

Okay, so that's it for now. I have a couple of new posts in the pipeline to shoot your way soon (including a review of Ben Hatke's "Zita the Spacegirl" graphic novel), so check back soon! Until next time then, take care and be good! (and don't forget to comment!)

Your friend,
Jeffrey

More Calendar Illustrations

A few weeks ago, I saw "500 Days of Summer" starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. I thought it was a great movie, and it gave me a lot to think about, regarding life paths, and how each of our choices effect each individual outcome. Anyway, the main character (Tom) wears sweater-vests throughout the film. I'd always associated the sweater-vest with things I think are lame (like Fred from "Scooby Doo"), and this was the first time I'd thought it was cool. So I made myself one out of an old sweater that the sleeves were falling apart on... Amy hates it.

In other news, I'm working this weekend on small buildings and figures similar to the one I made for Abby for Christmas. I'm working with my wife on our portfolio for the craft shows, and specifically for an artist co-op in the city. We're building our sales plan around items for the family, mostly toy's and games for the kids, as well as blankets and comfort items. Also, as I posted about yesterday, I've finished the Calendar, and it's up for sale both in my shop at lulu.com, as well as on bigcartel.com. Here's the rest of the illustrations from the calendar, and you can also get a preview of the whole calendar by clicking the preview link under the cover image on lulu.

Daily Life Calendar 2011!

I've finally managed to put together the 2011 Daily Life illustrated calendar. Thank-you all so much for your patience, and I hope you aren't too tired about hearing about this projects. Taking a cue from another artist and blogger, (Ben Hatke from "Art and Adventure" who I will be talking more about very soon.) I've decided to offer two slightly different purchasing options for this book:

OPTION ONE: “The Basic.”: You can buy a copy of the calendar from Lulu.com for $18.00 by clicking here. This is the option that will get that calendar to you the fastest.

OPTION TWO: “The Deluxe.” You can buy the delux version from my shop on big cartel for $35.00 by clicking here. The deluxe version will be signed with small doodle as well as a small water-colored character sketch of a random Daily Life cast member... but wait! That's not all! Also included in the deluxe version will be one of the original 12 black and white Ink line drawings used for the illustrations. I’m only offering 12 of the deluxe version calendars, because there are only 12 months, first come, first served so order sooner rather than later! This option will take longer since it has to ship twice.

Here are a few more pictures from the Calendar:

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life: Wrapping up the year, and ramping for 2011

Sorry for no post last week... I got sick on Thanksgiving and spent the day on the couch watching "Golden Girls". I don't know what it is about that show, maybe it's because it was what was on during the day when I was a kid, so that's just what I watched when I was sick as a kid. At any rate, I still watch it when I'm sick, and it helps me feel better. Then the weekend was just crazy...

So, you get a double batch of drawings this week! YAY! The final four pencil drawings (well okay, three pencils and one ink) for the Daily life Calendar.
September is one of the four months out of the year that it's truly comfortable hanging out in the garage. Crystal doesn't understand why Justin likes skull pipes so much. It's just because they're cool. I think this is not only a pretty accurate depiction of us hanging out in the garage, but also a fairly (at least to me) interesting study in our different emotional stances... I always feel like they are just so much more "with it" than I am. On the other hand... I can blow smoke rings, and Justin can't.

In October, we go to the pumpkin patch. A couple of things about this drawing. It is the first time I've used Abby's Nana in a Daily Life picture, and I was a little nervous about it... Don't know why. I'm not sure what to do with her left arm, it looks like she should be holding a cane, but that's just silly. I'll just move it down and have her holding her purse. Amy says that Olivia is too small. She is, but I think I'm going to leave her that way, because she's just so dang cute.

We bake, and bake, and bake... one of the nice things about being at home all the time, is that you start making things, and that just plain enriches life. Abby is a very enthusiastic helper, which sometimes necessitates reminding her that some things are just too dangerous for a two and a half year old. I realized while I was drawing this that I have never not had a tea kettle on the stove, and that led me to wonder how common that actually was. It seems like everybody should have one, though I'm sure they don't... also yes, I normally do kneel on the floor when I'm dealing with stuff in the oven. I just feel more stable that way.
The Christmas morning illustration. I've done a pretty good job (I think) of avoiding the holidays in these illustrations. Christmas morning however, is not only my fourth favorite morning of the year, but it's also one of the funniest, story-wise. Sorry, again I inked it before I scanned it.

So, I know I'm running further and further behind on these, and cutting it pretty close, but they will be done by this time next week, and then we can all breath a sigh of relief (or at least I can), take a sip of hot apple cider (or cocoa, or eggnog, or rum... whatever), and get to work on making the presents for the kids. I hope you all have a great week and are enjoying the cool late autumn weather and the Advent season as much as I am. Until next time, take care and be good.
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life: July and August

Another late post, but at least it's a post... right? At the end of the year we all just get soooo bogged down with family, and chores, and... stuff that we tend to forget what's really important. Blog posts. So, here's a commitment from me, and a request to you. Make sure to do all your blog posts and do them on time. Otherwise, I'll have nothing to distract me from actually getting some work done. Right? Ha-ha-ha! Seriously, though. Super busy here at the Red Herring labs, and it's going to be an interesting roller coaster ride to the end of the year.

Here's a couple of new pictures for the 2011 Daily Life Calendar, I hope you like 'em!

July is awesome because it's the month I was born in. Not, as my wife would have you believe, because of the Webster Groves 4th of July parade and fireworks extravaganza. I used some old "Calvin and Hobbes" illustrations as inspiration for the van, and am overall pretty happy with the way it came out. I give it an 8 on the experiment-o-meter, and think that I will continue trying out some of this more cartooney approach to objects.
I forgot to scan this one before I inked it... oops. So I left the pencil lines because I know how much you guys like seeing my sloppy drawing. Pretty happy with this one too. I hate August, and I hate being hot. My wife always makes fun of me, because I still will often wear jeans and long sleeve shirts. Thinking about it now I think I mostly buy clothes in the winter, because I like winter and winter clothes... Maybe I should start thinking about my summertime comfort a little more. Also, maybe there should be a few more toys on the floor in this drawing...
That's it for now! Until next time then, take care and be good!

Your friend,
Jeffrey

March and April Pencils for Daily Life Calendar

Here's the next couple of months worth of drawings for the upcoming Daily Life Calendar. I started writing in the (very rough) accompanying text in the sidebars of the drawings too. Sometimes it's hard to see where I'm going before I get there, Ha-ha-ha!
I don't know if I've mentioned here how much Abby loves "raking leaves". Every time we go outside lately, she wants to get her gloves and the trash barrel and rake leaves. She usually helps for a few minutes, and then decides she wants to sit in them and spread them around. The kid's probably around 40% help and 60% hindrance. She's so amazing though, that it's easy to forgive her.
My original idea on this one was to just have the baby popping out of the box. It's hard to really show though just what a gift Olivia has been to our family, and how much Abby adores her. I was glad that Amy "got it" that she was dressed up in a batman costume before she read the text. I was going for the Adam West version, and had hoped it wasn't too subtle. I'm thinking I'm going to add some actual package graphics to the gift-box, too.

That's it for this today. I've been scraping tiles up in my dining room, and my wrist is killing me, so I want to get a little drawing done before it's just too tired. Ugh, getting old isn't for sissies. Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life Calendar pages

Running a little behind on posts this week, apparently. So, here's the pencil drawings for January and February of the Daily Life calendar. I decided to go ahead and post the pencils, so that there wouldn't be any (more) gaps in the Daily Life schedule. I thought about going ahead and putting the story for each one with the images as well, but I think I'll wait on that until they're all done and the Calendar put together. I will go ahead and do some commentary on the drawings, though.
I have a very large backyard with a fire-pit on the edge of the property. Being a "Man of the North" as I am, this is pretty typical dress for me in January (Sweatshirt and scarf ensemble with jeans and a hat). Especially when I'm working a bonfire up to full-on AWESOME. The funny thing about this drawing, is that (With the exception of Abby and I) these are not people who would be at this particular event. I haven't spoken to Andrew "The Fat Kid" in a couple of years, and the woman is really just a representation of what girls look like to me in the winter. Maybe when it's all done, I'll add some peoples who might actually be there. Ha-ha-ha!

My friend Justin has two basic haircuts. This one and long hair. I prefer his hair short. I don't care if me having a preference of what my guy friends hair looks like says about me either. So there. I have noticed lately that Abby stands like this with her hands on her hips. That's also something I do, and I think of "Forest Gump" every time I do it. It's funny seeing bits of you in your children... I've never seen my wife run in her GIANT winter coat, but I imagine it would look something like this. She takes winter more seriously than I do, but notice that by the time February rolls around, I finally admit that maybe I do need to put a "real" coat on over my sweatshirt. There are a couple of things I need to edit in this picture, mainly that Justin's head is too big, and that his son looks a little too old... Also, I might move the window up a little bit.

Okay, then. That's all for now. I have a pretty awesome picture to show you on Monday, so be sure to check back in. Until then, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Daily Life... News

As I mentioned the other day. No day life today... sort of.

My friend Nance suggested that I make a Daily Life calendar for the new year. Not something I'd thought of before, but wow! Wat a great IDEA! (So great that I apparently forgot how to spell the word "What".) Super excited, I told my wife about it, and we spent the rest of our thirty minute car ride brainstorming ideas for the illustration to go with each month

Then I sat down with my little notebook and sketched out tiny drawings of my ideas.

Pencils come next. Here's January, its a little different from the original sketch, but I think it holds up pretty well.


As I work my way through the ideas, sometimes the original thumbnail doesn't work as well as I would like. Here's my second attempt at working out the logistics of the character placement for February. I did it in pen so that I could just work out the ideas quickly and not worry so much about whether it looked "right". Showed this one to Amy, and she laughed but said I should put her in it too, because that's part of the point of the joke... Every so often, she's right, that's why I show stuff to her while I work on it.

So that's my big personal project (besides the dining room floor and the kitchen, but that's another story alltogether). Be looking for it mid to late November. It's a pretty tight deadline, but I'm reasonably sure I can make it. As another aside, I think I'm going to try to post the pencils as I finish them along with their accompanying stories. Yes? No? Anybody...?

Until next week, take care and be good!
Your friend
Jeffrey

Daily Life 013: Gravel on Satin

This is the international sign for "Holy crap this hurts/something's wrong inside of me!". If some guy is making this gesture because he just got hit in the nuts by a rogue baseball, while watching a Little League game... funny. If it's your wife, and she's six months pregnant... not funny. Actually, it's a little more on the alarming side.

Last weekend, Amy called me upstairs, in too much pain to even talk. She insisted that we didn't need to go to the ER. LOL. "It's probably nothing, and they'll think I'm a baby." God love her, she does NOT want to be one of those pregnant women that calls the doctor for just anything... Long story short, after four hours(ish) in the ER, we find out what the deal is. Gall Stones.

The doctor described the gall bladder contracting to release bile into the stomach (triggered by fatty foods) as two satin sheets sliding past each other... Throw a handful of gravel in the bed though, and it's a little less... um... luxurious. If she wasn't pregnant, the solution would be simple. Instead, we're moving towards a low fat diet, and painkillers as needed. Which fortunately isn't often.

On the plus side, I got to watch the last half of the new (meaning not filmed in the 70's) "Freaky Friday" movie, and most of "George of the Jungle"... The good times just never end.

Some New Daily Life Characters

First off, I want to say that this image does not accurately reflect the personality or demeanor of Crystal. I'm doing a Newsletter/Brochure for the class I'm taking, (and actually, its going to be my freelance brochure) and needed a little artwork to showcase the Daily Life Series. Abby and Crystal already had usable pictures, so I only had to actually draw three... Sorry, just didn't have time at the moment to do a new one for the other two. At any rate, she is just a place holder for now, and I will go back and update this image in the next week or two.
So, new Character models. I'm really happy with how my wife came out, I have a lot of trouble drawing her, because I want her to look like her, but also to reflect how I see her. So I generally get all wound up about it, and she comes out looking horrible. Ha-ha-ha!
I hope you all are well, and I'll talk at you again soon!

Your friend
Jeffrey

DailyLife 007: Kicked Out

I got kicked out of the garage this weekend... After accidentally calling Theresa, Crystal. Twice.
Just to make sure that I understood just what was being asked of me, Crystal walked out to demonstrate EXACTLY how I should stand and also what expression I should carry. No standing meekly facing the corner for me.
No Sir!
Stand outside of the garage looking humbly in at the comfy chairs, the warm pipe and hot coffee. Listening to the laughter (product of stimulating and intelligent conversation) with out being able to join in. No Warioware on the Game Cube... Just tears and shame.
That's what I was supposed to do...