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!

Storm Haven by Frank G. Slaughter

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The research author Frank Slaughter did to accomplish the ability to put the reader in the very throes of each scene must have been exhausting. This book is amazing in its narrative. Knowing quite a bit about Florida history, Slaughter went beyond even extensive knowledge of Florida in the 1860s. Today writers would be pulling internet sites to get the details he does. I’m guessing Slaughter got as close to the source of the time period. Writing this in the early 1950s, he likely went beyond books to people, grandchildren and the like, to get as close as he could to accuracy. It’s a truly amazing accomplishment.
One scene well describes the Devils Millhopper near Gainesville. The name is never mentioned, but if you know the area, you know the spot by his writing. You also know the crossing of South Florida to the Withlacoochee, the setting around the living areas in the Panhandle (Being cagey here so I don’t spoil the story) and the scenes along the Ocklawaha. His descriptions of the peripheral events around the battle at Olustee are enlightening for those of us who have read of the battle. This book puts you there in the surgery area and the effects of the battle on both sides. I could go on.
Now, I must write this is my first Slaughter book. I’m guessing he does this in all his books. I look forward to wading into more.

I also need to add that the actual story was a bit predictable by today’s standards .
I highly recommend this book

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Swampy’s Florida Prints – Picnic at Biscayne Bay.

Here’s the last of the nine watercolor paintings of Biscayne Bay beach set. This was the last one I needed to finish and I only found time today to do it. This wraps up the set and will show all nine when they are set for the gallery catalog they are going in.

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.

Spent the day filming a couple of videos at The Knowledge Exchange in Palm Bay,

The first was for a DVD currently being titled ‘Drawing for 8 and Under’. The photo below shows the drawing on the dry erase board that ends the video.

The second recorded is currently named ‘How-to-Cartoon for 8 and Over’. Above is the photo that wrapped that session. It’s a culmination of answers to questions I posed. The bear looking creature is supposed to be a koala bear, but I didn’t have a photo to work from. All to show the importance of reference.

Have been drawing at quite a few events in the past week including one fro Gasparilla. Here are some photos of folks with their drawings. The one above involves hiking in space and the one just below was great fun. It involved drawing a scene from ‘Wuthering Heights’. Then it’s a former engineer mapping out plans for travel and lastly a native Tampan bicycling the historic buildings in Ybor City.

Got a lot done in 3 hours at Chelsea Coffee shop. Pencils and prep for two caricature illustrations I’ll be watercoloring. Pencils for two advertising cartoons and inks for a gag cartoon. Now off to scan art and get approvals and plan when to break out the paints.

Doing the caricature thing in St. Petersburg last night!

Here’s Swampy, Rob and Marcia Gaedcke, President of the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce with a page of art for the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Titusville’.

Been penciling and inking and penciling and inking and… I guess ya get the idea…

Got lots done on the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Titusville’. Lots more to do. And that’s besides this Swampy book!

Here is a step by step of a watercolor caricature I painted on Halloween.Above is the pencil and preparation for watercolor.

Here I’ve added the watercolor.

Finally, I brush in the line work.