A underground exploration as illustrated for the word ‘Subterranean’ for Illustration Friday.

Here’s my newest Genuine Florida painting that I made while filming on UStream. Prints are available and please contact me to get yours.

Click below to see the UStream video.

Click here to see me make the next one tomorrow, February 23rd.

Sorry to post this so late! I’ll just dash off the goings  on:

Took off to join fellow cartoonists to entertain soldiers in San Antonio, Texas, on January 20th. One picture above is a sketch I drew of a lady on the plane.

I met with my cousin Jan and she took me and her children to The Bharmacy. Pharmacy and soda fountain at night. Bar at night.

The USO picked us up at the hotel early the next morning and got us to the Center for the Intrepid and the Brook Army Medical Center. The artists included Jeff Bacon, Jeff Keane, Milburn Taylor, David Mowder, Rick Kirkman, Rob Harrell, Bill Hinds and me. Above are photos of some of our great soldiers that were drawn by me.  All 8 of us artists also signed large cards to be presented later. Above are photos of the artists drawing away. We wrapped up with dinner.

The next morning, Jan picked me up and I got to tour the architecture of Downtown San Antonio. Above are photos of that.

The Illustration Friday word is clumsy. As I drew this live on UStream last night, two viewers, Coffeeness & HotPopcornWater, suggested the critters. I then cobbled together the drawing. You can see the film by clicking here. It’s the last ten minutes.

Being the Florida Chapter Chairman of the National Cartoonists Society meant putting on the annual meeting. It started on September 11th with a reception at the Hilton in Ocala. The next morning there was breakfast and the business meeting.

We had a terrific room for a business meeting, thanks to Debbie Fulgoni and the folks at the Hilton. Our usual 20 minute business meeting turned into a 2 hour workshop. In the photo from the lower left & around the table is Jose Delbo, Linda Gialnella, Ann Sabo, George Peiper, Bruce Beattie, Eddie Pittman, Tom Armstrong and Dana Sumemrs.

Afterward we moved on The Appleton Art Museum for the opening of ‘Florida Inkslinger- Cartoonists of the Sunshine State’. I assisted the opening by giving a short talk and draw on creativity.

I left the Appleton and stopped at nearby coffee shop, Chelsea Coffee, to slow down a minute and join Sandra, Ann Sabo and Dick Daniels.

I was very fortunate to have former Tribune Media Services cartoon editor, Mark Mathes, come and speak to us about the future of our business.

Mark’s daughter came also and asked cartoonists for an autograph. Dana Summers, editorial cartoonist of the Orlando Sentinel and the comic strip ‘Bound and Gagged’ obliges.

After dinner gag cartoonist George Peiper speaks to cartoonist/illustrator and gag writer, Mike Osbun, and his wife, Jackie.

Comic book artist Jose Delbo and his wife Maybelle take a peek through Mark Mathe’s dauhgter, Rachel’s book of collected art.

Mark Mathes listens as Tom Armstrong talks shop. Tom’s wife, Glenda, is behind him.

One of the big surprises coming from the Appleton event was the appearance of Earl Engleman, one of the most prolific gag cartoonists in the past few decades. Earl and his wife, Shirley, just came out to see the exhibit and stayed for dinner. It was great to uncover another professional cartoonist in Florida!

A couple weeks after the kidney stone affair and a trip the the doctors office to have a stint removed I attended with Sandra the annual Florida Outdoor Writers Association meeting. I picked up the pen for the first time since the medical mess and tried drawing. I had a heck of a time with focus and depth perception. A doctor there said I was still suffering from a form of disorientation from the anesthesia. As I drew I was able to better focus, but the whole thing was very disturbing to me. After 30 years of drawing I hadn’t felt like that before.

Above Sandra adds to her multi-numerous awards! Here presenter Ralph Allen congratulates her.

Here’s FOWA members Sandra, Pat Pochurek, Charlene Johnson and Doug Kelly.

Late Thursday I had been drawing caricatures. To the left is one of the drawings I had done. A few hours later I was awakened by extreme pain and rushed to the hospital by my dear friends the Singers.

The folks at Sandlake hospital did a great job getting me through emergency room and into a hospital bed. The pain was as you may have either felt or heard of. Just horrible.

The next day emergency surgery was done to blast away a 7 millimeter stone that was blocking my kidney. Just before I was put under I asked for a piece of paper and pen to sketch something to put in the sketchbook. To the right is a quick sketch I drew of the anesthesiologist.

I woke in a hospital bed with all sorts of tubes connected to me. I learned from the urologist, Dr. Hilwa that there had been complications and the normal 45 min. work went on for 3 hours. I had pain return that was as bad as when I had entered the hospital. I was released the next day. My friend Ann Alexander at the hospital was great to visit and bring flowers and a balloon. The balloon helped me with concentration to get around the pain. Below is a photo of me by Sandra just before leaving the hospital.

Sandra and I made our way through Palm Beach County to visit a few parks in the area. We started off at Serenoa Glade Park. The posey below is from there.

From there we visited Sugar Sand Park. The sketch to the right is of a very rare plant sprouting from a sabal palm. We also stopped at Blazing Star Preserve.

The film above was shot at Grassy Water Preserve. Below is the sketch I made.

On the way home we saw this was the weather we encountered.

I attended the Friday luncheon of the Florida Press Association at historic The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. During the luncheon the Florida Press Association presented awards to those of the daily papers. Also given were awards from The First Amendment Foundation. The Pete Weitzel/Friends of the First Amendment Award was given to Pat Gleason, who is an assistant to Governor Charlie Crist on many things including open government. She is a great lady. She assisted Sandra and I when visiting the Governors Library & Sandra donated many of her books. Governor Crist was at the luncheon to present the award. Below is a fuzzy photo of Pat Gleason speaking, to the right of the photo.

I was honored to receive the Sunshine Award for my editorial cartoons on the subject of Sunshine Week. Below the photo are the two Sunshine Week cartoons. My time at Orlando City Hall greatly helped my constructing these two cartoons. Director  Barbara Peterson was a big help!

To the right is a colored sketch of drapery in The Breakers.

While at the Florida Press luncheon I met Mark Mathes who once editted a ton of cartoonists when he was with Tribune Media Services. Amongst those is cartoonist and editor, Dick Kulpa. Dick was one time editor of the infamous Weekly World News.  I once penciled a week of comics strips for Dick’s comic strip ‘Ghost Story Club’ many years ago.

Anyway, Mark invited Dick over and we went to dinner. Dick and I drew each other and a photo of such is below.

Wednesday morning I drew our friend Stuart. Above is a short film of some of the drawing. The battery died in the camera as it filmed. Below is Stuart and the finished art.

Sandra and I took one of the last tours, touring the architecture of Charleston. Below is the “Four Corners of Law”: Federal, Municipal, County and God’s Law. Each building holds one of the four divisions.

Here are some sketches I made as we made our way through the tour.

I’m spending a lot of time putting these together and need to cut it a bit. So please excuse me for just placing the following photos in without comment from the architectural tour in Charleston.

The next day (the 9th) I slipped over to the 1713 Powder Magazine. Please click on the links to lean more of each location.

The first tour for Tuesday was to Patriot Point. Photos below. Patriot Point is home to the U.S.S. Yorktown naval ship which is so large that inside is a naval air museum full of airplanes.

The locations honors our Medal of Honor recipients. Below is a photo of the wall of those who earned the honor.

Below our exemplary guide, Ken Goodman, helps writer Stuart Newman locate a school buddy of his who posthumously received the first Medal of Honor during WWII. The terminals are set up to look up all those honored with the Medal of Honor.

From Patriot Point we made our way to Fort Moultrie. The fort is where Seminole leader Osceola was imprisoned and then killed. More about that soon at our Genuine Florida site.

Our next tour was a movie set tour. Amongst the places we stopped is the current working set for Lifetime network’s ‘Army Wives’. Below are sketches from around the sets we visited. We got to get a very private tour just for our group that included watching scenes being shot.

Below are photos from the costuming area. Buckets of military boots and racks of military shirts.

Later that evening we were driven out to Middleton Place and had a farewell dinner with some fine entertainment from this bluegrass band. Middleton Place is a fantastic site of gardens and history.