A quartet came to the James A. Haley V.A. Hospital in Tampa. Cartoonist, Tom Armstrong, his wife, Glenda, mayself and my brother, Jeff, all came to bring a bit of cheer to our greatest American heroes. Tom, who draws the comic strip Marvin, and I were guided though the many cooridors by the V.A.’s Steve Wilson, who is very good at keeping the area he’s in very bright with his sense of humor.

We saw many service folks and their families. Tom drew Marvin and characters along with a hilarious Elvis for a ’50s music fan. I drew caricatures. We had a great time.

The photo is of Tom, V.A. volunteer, Helen, and myself and the drawings she received. Helen is about to celebrate 35,000 hours of volunteerism. That’s over 21 years of work. Wow! I urged her to make it to 100,000 hours!

Another dental visit for a teeth cleaning.

The ol’ car konked out Saturday morning. A trip to the repair shop happened this morning. The car is in the process of having it’s first major repair since I bought it a few years ago. The drawing is of one of the repair people at the car shop repairing someone else’s car.

Thanks to Rachel Pan for the photo!

I gave a ‘How-To-Cartoon’ talk and class at the Orlando Public Library Wednesday. I did a very different event, actually producing a short comic story with my drawing and the audience coming up with the story. The crowd was mostly made up of teens who were interested in manga (Asian influenced or produced cartoon material), comic books and animation. So, I crafted the talk to cover visual storytelling: How to create a character, a story and think it out in graphic form. It was a bit tough. I was to keep it at an hour and added an extra half hour to it.

The drawing is of an audience member, whose name I didn’t get. Though I recall him being a huge fan of Warner Brothers cartoons.

I thought folks here might be interested in the story that I drew in front of the audience based on ideas coming from audience members. The idea of a wolf came up along with the wolf having two children. It was decided the wolf was an artist. The asked the folks there what story we could create. Ideas bopped back and forth to finally and with the children going shopping for shoes. The conflict, or gag, was that in the end each child ended up with the wrong shoes. It was a great session with an enthusiastic audience.

 I’m interested in any and all comments if we, and particularly if I, succeeded in creating a coherent story.

Made my first trip to an eye doctor today. My eyeballs are apparently in fine shape. I just might need the $12 pharmacy glasses I picked up in Georgia during our trip three weeks ago.

Here’s a drawing of part of the eyeball equipment that I drew before being moved from the room the office had me in.

The fine folks at the ‘Ernie Kovacs Blog’ were kind enough to mention my Ernie Kovacs drawing of a few months ago, so I thought I would point you all in their direction! Kovacs is like  medicine. The more you take the more you need.

Click here to learn more of the great Mr. Kovacs at their terrific tribute to him.

Click here for the Ernie Kovacs blog.

Within 18 hours of being home from our trip we were at an Ocala

City Council meeting involving the rezoning of some 40 acres of land adjacent property to ours. I won’t bore folks with all of the issues involving our neighborhood and developers looking to create a mixed-use development. We did have a bit of a victory as a result of both Sandra and I speaking there. The only other person from our neighborhood to show up was our neighbor, Doug, across the street. Thankfully, our small showing still had an effect.

The drawing about is of a City councilman. The two below are citizens attening the meeting, which ran more than three hours.

I took my father to Linda’s La Cantina in Orlando. The sketch is of a chadelier at the restaurant. They still have my favorite steak. That’s even after spending quite a bit for a New York Strip at the Biltmore in Coral Gables.

Below is the card I painted for him of the Mill Street Bridge area where he grew up in New Jersey.

I attended ‘The Black Jack Palace’ Sunday afternoon. The show was a showcase of students from Nancy Stewart’s Dance Teacher classes. Friends Rob and Manfred played a warped version of Siegfried and Roy. The theme was of Las Vegas. The show was great and fun and I forgot how exciting it is to watch a live performance.

 

I drew a couple pages of sketches of dancers. Below is the art I created for the cover of the program of Miss Nancy and her husband Dave.

Got home early morning from the Tallahassee trip, syole a couple hours sleep and I was back on the road again by 5am to donate time as I annually do in Lakeland for Lakeland’s SPCA Walk-A-Thon around Lake Hollingsworth.I drew caricatures there until around noon.

After that I headed over to Jimbo’s Bar-B-Q, also in Lakeland, to enjoy great ribs with longtime friends, Susie and Russell Noel. I met Susie and Russell back when I drew caricatures at Stars Hall of Fame in the early ’80s. It sure seems to me that they haven’t changed a bit since then and I’m extremely envious of that! Me – since the ’80s – have added a beard and about 80 pounds! AND grey hair!!!!!

With Susie and Russell was their daughter, Crystal, and her boyfriend. The drawing is of one of the sliced pickles that are at each table to nibble on along with hot cherry peppers.

Sandra and I attended the 60th annual Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce Banquet. The Governor was suppose to attend, but cancelled at the last minute due to Legislature issues. It was a great event and it was terrific to hear an area of Florida trying to preserve the reason people have always come to Florida for.

Part of the entertainment included music by Sammy Teder and the drawing is of him performing. Click here to learn of Teder’s unique style of verrrryyyy calming flute music.

The other drawings are of Cahmber President and Vice-President. The fellow on the left is the husbanjd of the events coordinator, Marty Vickery.