Here’s a caricature I’m working on. I worked from a few photographs of each person. It’s penciled and prepped for watercolor, which I’ll add tomorrow. I should be posting the finished artwork tomorrow.

Here’s a flock of artwork done at Chelsea Coffee this evening. Three caricatures, a Swampy cartoon and roughs for some proposed Swampy clothing.

After a power packed four days of conventions, I attended the 4th annual Growing Up in Orlando Before Disney event at Loch Haven Neighborhood Center in Orlando.

I was exhausted beyond normal. When signing up I offered to draw some free caricatures at the event realizing how this would be a great crowd for me to draw considering our longevity in Orlando and my love of our local history. Just didn’t know how wiped out I would feel. Above is one of the caricatures I drew of Tom Fenn, who sings in a church choir and fishes off Cocoa Beach. It’s the only photo I took of the caricatures.

The event was packed with people. Fellow long time residents made up the members of bands playing mostly music from the 1960s. Many danced the night away. There were a few tables with some memorabilia of the area. The bar b q wax provided by a restaurant from Oviedo, Florida, in a neighboring county.

It was quite something considering the event was entirely an outgrowth of a Facebook community. It was as well attended as a similar venture a couple years ago to gather up those of us who had worked at the Florida attraction, Circus World, All showing the power of the Facebook communities.

Drew a whole bunch of caricatures yesterday in Okeechobee, Florida. Here are a few!

Here are caricatures drawn today during an event in Moss Park in south Orange County, Florida.

Drew caricatures at an event in Orlando this evening. Here are a few.

Here are a bunch of photos from an event I drew in Boynton Beach a couple weeks ago. Below is a photo of a lady who likes fantsy stories and is a manager ay a Publix. So, here she defends her employees in the cereal aisle against an approaching dragon!

Still navigating through sickness. Much better than last week. One way I could tell is by the most recent caricatures I drew at recent events. Above is last Saturday. Below is the Wednesday a week before, where i felt just rotten. I was not up to par on that Wednesday.

The toughest part drawing with a nasty fever was trying to get my brain to grasp proportion and depth. I couldn’t get my head to agree with my hands. I also knocked out a quick set of illustrations during this time and the result was lousy as I couldn’t get the foreground to work with the background. Now feeling better I didn’t have that problem this past weekend.

The next two are also from Saturday near Lake Mary.

The next three are from this past Sunday in Sarasota.

This fellow was great to talk to. He’s 90 and spent World War II in the western Pacific as a signal corp man for the Army. He told me he wished people today showed the courage and commitment that they did back then. I feel the same way and included it in the drawing and asked others in the family to make copies of it to spread around to the youngsters so that they might get his important message, too.

Yesterday myself and nine other cartoonists of the National Cartoonists Society were brought in from around the country by the USO to give something back to our great military service men and women and, hopefully, put some smiles on some faces.

We were taken to draw at Brooke Army Medical Center, the Center for the Intrepid and USO welcome areas. The cartoonists on the trip were Debbie Schafer, Bill Hinds, John Read, Bruce Higdon, Todd Clark, T. Lewis, Glenn McCoy, Paul Combs and Rob Harrell.

On the trips we all tend to have an occasion when something really special happens. That happened to me as Bill Hinds and I drew a Vietnam veteran named Greg who was in a wheelchair in the hallway of the V.A. hospital. Greg had a face that told of a long, tough life. His hair, at his advanced age, flowed down to his shoulders. His mustache and beard were as long.

Bill was the one really connecting with Greg as he drew a caricature. They both like hard rock music and sports. But it was me he said he had something for. I handed him the drawing and Greg asked me to follow him to his room. One he had gotten himself wheeled into the room, he carefully got down his baseball cap and proceeded to take something off it. I had to help him as he explained how his hands don’t work as well as they once did. What he insisted I have was his metal Marines emblem. He explained it was attached to his uniform while in the war from 1967 to 1971. I insisted that he pass it on to family, when it occurred to me he might not have any.

He told me to attach it to the USO baseball cap I was wearing through one of the holes at the top like he had done. I told him I would and wouldn’t remove it. I vigorously shook his hand and told him how honored I was to be selected to have the piece.

It really staggered me to receive the Marine pin. It will stay on the hat and go with me on all other USO events I am fortunate to be chosen for. A photo of the pin is below.

There are ten cartoonists with the National Cartoonists Society here in San Antonio for the USO drawing our service men and women at Brooke Army Medical Center, Center for the Intrepid, Audie Murphy V.A. Hospital and the USO family facilities.

Here are a few of the drawings I did today.

Been drawing caricatures today to help raise funds for Hospice of Marion County, Florida. Here are a few I drew today.

Afterwards, I took a quick stroll over to The Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway for a three mile hike. Trying to get a little exercise before a trip to San Antonio, Texas, next week.