This is the inked version of a gag cartoon I’m working on at the moment. My approach is a lot looser than I normally ink. I know that the color needs to tell part of the story, so I backed off tighter inking. The cartoon is due this week and I still have to format in a panel template and then color. I have a set of cartoons to color and plan to color them all at the same time.

Was in Gainesville this evening drawing for a wedding. Above was the matriarch of one of the families. Though in a wheel chair these days she still tends her garden and works through books of word searches. Seems to me an answer to longevity – Goals made and maintained.

Below are more from the event.

Didn’t get much artwork done today. Started painting this illustration. Got the hard part out of the way, but had to move on due to an important National Cartoonists Society meeting this weekend.

The last few days have had me sidelined involving a couple of charitable groups I’m with from Orlando Remembered to the National Cartoonists Society. That time invested has really cut time from getting artwork done. A bunch of the charitable work is to slide me a bit further from it so I can concentrate on work more. So, I’m not getting as much art done as I need to. Posting artwork everyday has brought that to my attention loud and clear this week.

This couple from South Carolina have requested a larger illustration than I usually do. 16″ x 20″. They provided a good list of activities they are or will be involved in. I added the majority in to the drawing.

I’ve prepped the art and it’s ready for watercolor. I’ll get to painting it soon and post it here.

This is art I was working on today for a small animated personal piece I’m doing for Thursday. More about that in a couple days.

I’m just creating a few drawings for the very short piece. I’ll add color and piece it together in Photoshop.

This time at a private event in Central Florida. This young lady wants to travel and visit places with black and white animals, like zebras, pandas, etc. First place she wants to visit: Galápagos Islands, not known for their zebras.

A few days ago I posted the setup for this watercolor painting. Here’s the finished artwork. It’s for a show of Florida artists at the Pine Castle Women’s Club in south Orange County starting June 1st. This will also be available as a Swampy’s Florida print (#38) soon.

The Pine Castle Women’s Club art show is comprised of Florida artists presenting Florida history in various mediums.

Here are the pencils for two people who volunteered at Silver Springs State Park to clean up the Silver River and area around it. it’s figured they’ve raised some $3,000 in cans collected.

This is the pencil version that I’m sending in for approval. After approval, I have another step for prep and then adding watercolor. I’m sure to post the finished artwork in the next couple days.

I have a painting to also paint and plan to do both at the same time.

Announcing a Swampy’s Florida Kickstarter program to get five Swampy’s Florida books produced! In the past three years I’ve produced 14 Swampy books, 37 prints, 2 DVDs and seven cards. There’s lots more to come! However, I’ve poured a ton of time in all of this and have more than run out of resources to produce more without backing. Funding will ensure more educational and activity books available to help young people know more about the great state of Florida.

Click here to head over to Kickstarter!

There’s a goal to get five funded by June 21st! Lots of goodies! I’ll even try to hand deliver the goodies if the donor falls within my travels this Fall.

The five books are:
–  Historical Women of Florida
– Florida History Puzzles and Games
– A Short History of  trains in Florida
– Birds of Florida
– Fish and Aquatic Life in Florida

All five will be coloring and travel guide books and able to be used in home schooling or just for fun!

There will be constant updates here as I build all five books.

But wait! There’s more!
There are four other books involved that are left over prior to the new arrangement with The Knowledge Exchange. These four will also be completed at the same time:
– Polk County- Titusville
– Dunnellon
– Marion County ABC
The funding will also loosen my time to wrap up these four books.

All will be available by Fall.

I hope you will help me in getting these books out and to beter help educate our young people of Florida’s incredible history, heritage and culture.

Thank you to The Knowledge Exchange, for so much help, and Dave Stewart, who produced the video on the site and gave sage advice, for all their help putting this together. I’ll have to share the video here as the next month goes along.

Thank you to all that donate to this project!
I’ll be posting updates here as this Kickstarter program continues!

Here is the colored version of artwork for the Stick Marsh Veterans Bass Challenge being put on by the Veterans Resource Committee of the Melbourne Regional Chamber of East Central Florida. HEre’s the post with the black and white artwork –  https://robsmithjr.com/blog/?p=7260

This’ll be a watercolor painting of early Florida orange pickers. This is the first step for me. Getting the general feel of the art in the image area. After this I’ll further prep the paper and then add watercolor.

I had to digitally darken the pencil art so you all could see it. The actual pencils are far lighter. The background, for instance, will be erased of pencil line and replaced with just watercolor. My add some defining lines, That will depend