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.

Here are a few of the folks at the Suncoast Inkslingers Holiday wing-ding: Kurt Wright, John Stevens, Jim Fern and Ann E. Sabo. It was held at The Captain’s Italian Restaurant in Safety Harbor. Below is Dan Smith, caricaturist extraordinaire.

Here’s a snippet from the annual Christmas card now late in production.

Just found this Tuesday amongst stuf f – I shouldn’t probably say I’m proud of this ribbon, but I am. It was some nearly 30 years ago I got this at a Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour at the University Square Mall in Tampa, Florida. The franchise moved out of Floria in the mid-’80s.  The ribbon was given out for eating an enormous amount of ice cream. That was back when I could do it and not gain a single pound.

Artwork from a couple years ago.

Today is Jacob’s 15th birthday. Amazing but true, for those who know what this is about. I had lunch with my father at Steak and Shake. The sketch (First I’d done in the sketchbook for almost 2 months) is of gumball machines at the restaurant. Later I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend some time and talk Orlando history with my 101 year old friend, Lucile Fair. Later Met with Tex Ann and Bob Buck to work on Orlando Remembered display. Still later met up with ol’ Ken Culotta and worked on gags at a Denny’s. Below is a photo from that meeting.

Here’s a sorta fuzzy fellow with his equally fuzzy caricatue.

Later met with Ken Culotta and Marsh Moreno.

Another caricature! I hadn’t done a triple in many, many years!

Later I met with ol’ Ken Culotta workin’ on some political gags. Below is part of the work space. The pad has a sketch Ken made for Tuesday editorial cartoon that I was sorry to set aside at the last minute.

I met with author John Scolaro, who passed on to me his new book that I illustrated. Above John stands holding the books in front of a major character in the book, The Waffle House.

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.

Just finished most recent commission for client. Teddy bears and lollipops!

Contact me for your own piece of art: rob@robsmithjr.com
My personal commissioned pieces are inexpensive compared to commercial pieces.