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.

Had our monthly Socrates Cafe meeting tonight and, for the first time in about a year, I broke out the sketchpad during it. Part of the reason is that I’ve been lax posting art here and knew this would give me something to place here artwork-wise.
Our discussion started with the question as to how much we carry our family history throughout life. Brought up was the ability to pick and choose our traits. Next came a discussion about a story heard on the radio about a child being left out of a game with other children and what should a person’s reaction to that be. Discussion went from cooties to hammering morality.  Last discussion involved whether we should all just have a revolution and get it all over with. This led one of the group, Robin, to declare that she is willing to take the world over, be queen, sell books and become a church onto herself for the well being of all.

Tropical Heat by John Lutz
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It’s been about ten years since I read my first John Lutz and decided I wouldn’t read another Lutz book. Years have passed, some perspective has changed, reading habits altered. I thought I’d give another one a try.

Oops! This book reminded me of my reasoning years ago. Though there is a good mystery stuck in the 246 pages, it’s a bit tough to get to with all else it’s sunk into. This complaint isn’t along the lines of my standard complaint of over writing that is common more today than when this was published in 1986. The extraneous story is fine, actually, and fits in the plot. It’s just that, plainly, the writing stinks.

But, wait, there’s more! Far more of a complaint is that Lutz set the story in an area he has little to no knowledge of. I remember this with the last book I read that was set in Florida. Years have gone by and I know my state far, far better now. His attempt to depict Florida is horrendous. Throughout the book most everything about the state, no matter where the plot wanders, has some mention of Disney World. That is a place he apparently knows about, though no part of the book actually is set there, nor could it, knowing how the Disney complex would put a cease and desist involving such an effort.

To get around not knowing about Florida, Lutz makes up cities and then drapes around a lot of typical stereotypes that most Snowbirds would know is ludicrous. There are constant drives from a coast in Florida to Orlando that make it appear as if the trip is only twenty minutes long and no traffic issues. Even in ’86 there were traffic issues getting from any east coast beach area to Orlando and back again. Then a “relatively short trip” to the University of Florida in Gainesville. that’s easily a two hour trip and, even then navigating through the U of F campus is not easy. Not that Lutz had to get into those details, but to shrug it off as a “short trip” is silly.

There are lots and lots of examples of ignorance of Florida. The worse may be his understanding of airboats. Airboats are very, very loud. Lutz obviously doesn’t know that and it really screws up reading a pivotal part of the book.

Even a few phone calls, consulting a map, a peek into an encyclopedia about locations could have solved the mess of location depiction. With this lack of knowledge of location, the descriptions of settings are limited and feel empty.

There is a good mystery here. It’s just not well written and not a book I can recommend.

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Here’s my newest watercolor painting! This one is of Six Gun Territory. The scene is lifted from a postcard and the humans are replaced with frogs. This is the Father’s Day card I gave to my father this past week.

Meant to post this weeks ago. Here’s the finished watercolor painting that I had posted a photo of the pencils of a while back.
This is a commissioned piece of a family’s chickens and their self made chicken coop.

Here’s the pencil drawing:

Got to meet up with old pal Jeff Parker this evening in Tallahassee during a brief stop there. It’s the first time I’ve seen Jeff in two years. Great catching up and we exchanged some goodies. Hope to see Jeff again before two years.

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

Finished this back on Friday during the Florida Parent Educators Association conference. It’ll be available during an auction to raise money for the American crocodile on June 29th at Reptile World Serpentarium near St. Cloud, Florida. This painting will also be available as a print soom. The setting is Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge south of Miami.

Got together with friends this evening at Stardust Video & Coffee. It was great fellowship with Neal Davies, Robert Baurle, Rich Scott and Cindy Mackey. Lots of drawing, talking about cookies, world events and Florida memories.

Before we gathered, I got a bunch of cartooning and illustration artwork done. Will post a composite soon.

Got together with my friends during our Orlando Remembered meeting at the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando this morning. Here’s a few of the attendees. First row: Ann Bennett, Shirley Cannon, Joy Wallace Dickinson and Tana Porter. it’s me and Grace Chewning in the back.

Had a great meeting with lots of plans to preseve Orlando history!

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