Here are sketches for Sketch-A-Day March of an upcoming real life character in my Swampy’s Florida comic strip: Don Price of Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando. Below is a recording of Rob sketching Don.

An amalgam of the input of Jared Sloger (Kangaroo, rabbit) and Dick Daniels (Zombie) during my UStream drawing session today. I am one of many cartoonists doing this for Cedric Hohnstadt’s ‘March is Sketchbook Month’. This is a little more than a sketch, but the subject seemed to beg for a gag…. that, and I don’t like to draw creatures that are falling apart.

You can see the recording of it below.

Here’s today’s sketch! Coming from combined sources of Ann E. Sabo (cat meowing), Dick Daniels (strawberry shake) and Kat, the waitress at Steak ‘n Shake (crow)!

My Sketch-A-Day contribution for today is from a UStream broadcast I did today. I had a call out for sketch ideas and got two. So I did two. The first, above, was suggested by Terisa Glover of Lakeland. Her dog, Sparky (named after “Sparky” Schulz), is nearly an institution herself in Downtown Lakeland and can be found at Terisa’s very fun store in Downtown Lakeland, The General Store. Sparky also stars in the first coloring book in a series of my Swampy’s Florida which features Lakeland. The little alligator in Sparky’s arms is in the Swampy’s Florida comic strip I’ve been doing. That strip, by the way, returns in full force beginning in April.

The other request came from Amy in Wisconsin. She had seen a painting I had done and asked if I would redraw it. Above is what I fished out of my memory.

Here’s my Sketch A Day sketch for Cedric Hohnstadt’s March challenge. It was suggested by my friend Dan Singer to sketch his son firing gun.

I was a guest speaker at fellow cartoonist George Pieper’s cartooning class. The day earlier I learned about Cedric Hohnstadt’s March Sketch A Day and decided to stress the class to sketch by everyone participating in creating the sketch I was going to do for the day. So above is the marriage of suggestions cats, Australia and gold.

I introduced friend & fellow cartoonist, George Pieper to Florida great outdoors at the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Landbridge trail section of the Florida Trail. Above and below are sketches down there.

I joined a group to hike part of the Cross Florida Greenway on the 5th and got this sketch out before the hike and the rain that came along for the hike. Had to turn back during the hike to get into town and mail a package before the post office closed. So I rushed back by myself as fast as I could through the rain trying to keep the camera, sketch pad and the portable ‘Swampy’ dry. I had a vest on that help shield the items.

I got to the post office just in time and made a quick round of the area before heading to the trailhead where the group was suppose to end at. I got there and didn’t see anyone and thought if I missed them, I’ll pull the ol’ sketchbook out and do some sketchin’ since the drizzle had slid away.

It was then I realized my sketchbook was gone.

I started going through the car and couldn’t find it. Where could it be? On the rain soaked trail? I jumped in the car and sped the 6 odd miles to the trailhead I had started at. I started rewalking the trail. Along he way I came across the post to sign-in (for users to let the park know it’s being used) and left my phone number and a note that I had lost a sketchpad. I noticed that 5 others had signed in since I had been through. I made my way about a mile or so in to a point that I remembered having the pad with me. I headed back to the car and started thinking of other locations I might have lost it.

Getting to my car I got a phone call from a lady named Jan who had found my pad and saw the phone number written in the sign-in sheet. She had found the pad just sitting in the very wet trail. It was a short wait for the 5 hikers to make it to the parking lot. Jan’s husband had been thoughtful enough to place the pad in his backpack so that it avoided any more moisture. A hearty thanks to them!

Below are some photos I took during the hike:

This post is getting a bit long. In a separate post, I’ll include an interesting encounter I had with this mass of birds as they proceeded in an odd ballet routine in flight.

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I headed over to Bushnell, Florida, for the 31st annual re-enactment of Dade’s Battle at the Dade Battlefield. I pulled out the sketchbook and here are some sketches.

To learn the history of Dade’s Battle click here.

Here is a “slain” soldier lying in the scrub.