We headed south to Clyde Butcher’s LooseScrew Swamp for the annual labor day weekend ‘Muck-A-Bout’ (http://www.clydebutcher.com)  .We spent four days of leading swamp walks, drawing caricatures of folks visiting (for donations only to ‘Friends of Big Cypress’) and fellowship. Before beginning our swamp walking treks the State Park Service gave a talk. To the right is a distant sketch I drew of Sandra at the meeting. Above is a scene drawn as I walked through the swamp.

Later all us voulnteer types had a potluck meal. To the left is a drawing of Elam Stoltzfus. Elam produces and films documentaries. He collaborated with Clyde and their ‘Living Waters’ is now available. Check out that and other snippets of his filming ability and the wonders of natural Florida:
http://www.liveoakproductiongroup.com/

 

 

 

Central Florida Inkslinger Alex Ray became an Eagle Scout, Sunday, August 27th. The event was held at the 1st Presbyterian Church in Orlando. I was honored to be asked to be a speaker.

My intention was to go up and give a prepared short speech. At the podium I wanted to quickly draw the crouwd in my sketchbook. At the end of the speech I also wanted to point out that it was Alex that got me drawing in a sketchbook again. He had been bringing in sketchbooks he had been filling while travelling with his family to different locations in and out of the U.S. As much as he came to Inkslinger meetings to be inspired, he had inspired us also.

The result of drawing the crowd was disappointing. When I draw caricatures I ask a lot of questions. I’m used to drawing and talking. This was different. I was trying to remember a speech, draw pews in a church, remember a speech, draw people in the pews, etc. It was a very interesting exercise and the result is here.

Thinking to redeem myself, from my seat in the pew I thought I would draw Alex, who was seated up on the stage. That one didn’t work so well either. Drawing in my lap, I got the proportions off. That’s why I have a sketch pad, to make mistakes. Here’s the drawing.

A surprise!
I was given an Eagle Scout Mentor pin. I show it here and it goes in a very special place and will be worn often. The pin brought it all together.

Saturday I participated in the Sally Baptiste for Orange County Mayor Campaign at the Central Florida Gun Show. It was lots of smiles, handing out literature and educating the public about the candidates. Sally was there along with Michael Domanico, who I drew on the right. We were outside at a great location to meet and greet those attending. The only other candidate to attend was Katherine Harris, who spent her time inside the show.

I went into the Gun Show to circulate my Sally Baptiste t-shirt and to look around at my fist gun show. Sparked by needing to artistically record my travels and the need to learn how to better draw guns, I sketched several guns while I was there. Below is one. The owner called it a SKS, a Russian-made gun used after WWII. At another time I’ll have to go to a gun show just to draw guns.

I attended a meeting for the Springs Festival which will be at Silver River State Park September 16th and 17th.

This is a sketch of Vince, who has a lot of hair for his age. The lower image is of the fellow who was heading the meeting.

On Wednesday, August 23rd, I attended a candidate forum for those rumming for Orange County Commission seats. Trying to keep to the purpose of this blog-thing, I did some sketches. Sitting in the front row, I got a pretty good view of things.

The 2nd sketch (Around 25 seconds each) is of Orange County Commission District 2 candidates Fred Brummer, George Collins and Lawrence Kolin. I hadn’t seen George Collins for a long time. He and I were both with the Orange County Republican Executive Committee for many years.

The 3rd sketch is of Tiffany Moore who is running in the District 6 Commission race. She proved her coolness when the hearing aid battery of my friend, Miriam Lancaster sitting beside me, went off making quite a piercing sound. Miriam, who is in her 90s (I can’t give a girl’s real age, now can I?), just couldn’t stop the shrill noise. She handed the hearing aid over to me and I ran off and figured out how to stop the sound. Tiaffany Moore didn’t miss a beat during the whistling noise.

There are pages of more sketches, but I’ll edit myself!

Jim Ivey was at a comic convention I was at in Tampa this past Sunday, August 20th. I hadn’t seen him in about a year.

Jim had a place called the Cartoon Museum on S. Semoran Boulevard in Orange County, Florida back in the ’70s and ’80s. This was after his stint as editorial cartoonist for the St. Petersburg Times and The Orlando Sentinal Star. He had artwork and comics at his establishment. His place was the precursor to the diract comic book stores that started popping open in the early ’80s.

Jim also taught how-to-cartoon classes there. My elementary art school teacher, Nancy Ingle, paid for me to go to those classes. Also teaching was the great Dick Hodgins. Hodgins had been working at the Sentinel, amongst many other cartoon jobs. I got quite a bit out of those classes.

My mother and sister and I would take a bus out to the cartoon museum and we would go through the different comics and talk to Jim as he puffed on his regulatory cee-gar. Jim was and is a very generous person and would always give us something. Being as poor as we were we appreciated being given things.

AS I got older and got into the caricature and freelance business, I returned and bought comics and original artwork from Jim. Also at that time the poker sessions were happening. The young artist John Beatty and Craig Zablo would hang out there.

Recently I reacquainted myself with John through his new and great ‘Sketch Society’ in Daytona Beach. See moe here: http://www.sketchsociety.blogspot.com/. Over the years I’ve kept in contact with Craig in one for or another. Mostly through contributing Sylvester Stallone caricatures to his fantastic StalloneZone website. http://www.stallonezone.com/ . Both John and Craig were there in Tampa with Jim Ivey. It was like a trip to the past!

Jim is in full retirement mode and he’ll take the time out and attend an occasional con. I just hope young people will take the time to learn much from this very knowledgable and artistic fellow!!!

Save

Rob Smith, Jr., here, with further endeavors into the internet world. This time an even more interactive one. As Sandra and I travel our great State of Florida, I’ve been drawing quite a few sketches. It was thought that the doodles should be somewhere, some place, somehow. Here they be.

The latest trip was Sunday, August 20th to the Tampa Theatre to catch the my favorite film on the big screen. ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ with Cary Grant was quite an experience. I love the great story, the hilarious acting of Grant, John Alexander as “Teddy Roosevelt”, James Gleason, Jack Carson and Edward Everett Horton. Better to hear so many literally howling with laughter over something so much better than the “comedies’ of today.

 

 

 

 

The Tampa Theatre has been an icon of Downtown Tampa since it opened during the real estate boom years of the 1920s. This year, celebrating 80 years of entertaining, the grand old dame of Florida theatre stills puts people in awe of it’s wonderful architecture and beautiful ornamentation. Learn more here: http://www.tampatheatre.org/ and sometime please visit  The Tampa Theatre.

Here are two sketches I drew at the Tampa Theatre. One of the Mighty Wurlitzer that comes out of the stage floor as the fellow plays it and sinks back in during the film. This took a few minutes.

The other photo is of a cherub fountain on the second floor lobby.