A very busy day of trying to move websites, visits with accountants about accounting things in life, a sudden need to visit a car fix-it shop, etc, kept me from being able to do a more involved sketch. Here I ‘m working on a police character that visits a couple of upcoming Swampy’s Florida comic strips. In another endeavor I patterned a police office after my father. So, I ‘m doing it again here.

This the March 29th sketch for Cedric Hohnstadt’s ‘March is Sketch Book Month’. Fellow artist William Palacio contributed the subjects of hound dog and jump rope. Thanks, William!

This Friday, April, 1st, is the debut of the new Swampy’s Florida: Lakeland coloring book at The General Store as part of Downtown Lakeland’s First Friday event.

The coloring book has lots to color and learn about Lakeland’s history and great places to visit. I was able to price the coloring book at $3. If you’re in the area come by and say HI! and get a free drawing between 6 to 9pm.

All of this happening at a store that I think every town should have, The General Store. You can’t miss the rocking chairs outside! Also, if you haven’t met Downtown Lakeland’s infamous Sparky at The General Store, now’s your chance! By the way, that’s Sparky in the middle on the cover.

Here’s today’s sketch: The Duke (as suggested by Dick Daniels) takes out a couple folks that were discussed during the UStream broadcast and too hard to explain here even briefly. Watching is a baby alligator (Suggested by Terisa Glover). I drew this without reference for John Wayne, so please excuse the likeness.

Saturday was ‘Take a Hike, Florida’ day! I joined in at the Grand Opening of the Charles Bronson State Forest in east Orange County near Christmas, Florida. There was a great turnout for the hike and the trail is EXCELLENT! It was great to run into a number of Florida Trail Association friends. As I hiked, I sketched. Above is one where I kept walking and sketching.

Here are some photos!:

While on UStream today had a number of visitors and we got talking about music. I made some mention of attendee Terisa Glover’s dog, Sparky, providing banjo music at her store and the sketch above came to mind.

This came to mind also after learning that Cedric Hohnstadt is showing various drawings from his ‘Dueling Pigs’ site. I contributed one back in October.

Here’s today’s sketch. Thanks to Charlene Johnson, Deborah Wilson and Jared Sloger for contributing the subject matter. The Sketch-A-Day is part of a large group of cartoonists who are all exercising their sketching arms and contributing to Cedric Hohnstadt’s ‘March is Sketchbook Month’. I’m making it a bit more fun by taking suggestions and sketching those. I’ve been trying to do all of them using UStream and drawing them live.

Here’s the recording of the drawing:

Here’s my Sketch-A-Day: March for today. Elements supplied by Andrea Schell! Thanks, Andrea!

Here’s the recording of this sketch:

I started talking about MArty Allen’s 89th birthday today when I realized folks wouldn’t know what I was talking about, so I did a quick sketch of him off the top of my head.
Here it is:

While at a Steak ‘n Shake in Lake Mary, Florida, after a gig tonight I asked the waiter, Steve, to name something he likes. His answer: Camera. I stirred with Swampy, the Swamp Ape, and that I was near the brick lined streets of Downtown Sanford and sketched the above. Below is a recording I made live while at Steak ‘n Shake:

I’ve been going through my legion of comic books as I prepare many to be jettisoned and it has been enjoyable finding titles like the one above.

Here are sketches for Sketch-A-Day March of an upcoming real life character in my Swampy’s Florida comic strip: Don Price of Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando. Below is a recording of Rob sketching Don.