I had the opportunity to meet Bill at an event near Spring hill & Weeki Wachee, Florida on Sunday. I met him as he played Stardust and a medley from The Phantom of the Opera. He complained that he missed notes. Sounded great to me. Especially for a fellow of 94 years. Bill drove a tractor trailer most of his career in Canada after his family moved him from England as a teen.

Here’s the watercolor illustration i did of 80 year young Nancy, the birthday girl, who was being honored at the party.

A few images of the life coaching caricatures I did at an event Saturday night in Tampa, Florida.

Back in February I figured I’d been posting too many of these event photos and figured I should hold off a bit before posting more. Well, a good 15 events later, here are some more.

The first photo is of Rhoda, who is 3 generations Native Floridian from Tampa in one side of family and 5 generations Native Floridian from around Monticello on the other side. I’m going to help her plan a family reunion near Orlando to see Orange County history and not have folks running off to the kiddie amusement parks.

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A bunch of old cartoonist pals, and a bunch of other cartoonists, got together today to draw for children at Florida Hospital Orlando. Here’s Noreen & George Pieper, me, Dana Summers and Mark Simon.

Thanks to Mark Simon and Heather Worley (Thank you, Heather, for this photo!) for putting this together as part of the Florida Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. Also, thanks, Mark, for getting the chapter restarted again!

Day 3 cartooning people’s lives. This time in Tallahassee. Sun got the best of me. That and maybe a few hundred miles of driving over past 48 hours.

So, tomorrow: Time for some Florida exploring and hiking.

Oh, and great to hear from my pal Jackie Mia Joyner today! Glad to get a Lala update!

Something else my Swampy’s Florida does is provide artwork for Florida based businesses. This is a sketch for a large project I’m working on. I look forward to showing more of this project very soon.

Finished one painting, to be completely revealed later, and a great start on two more in just a few hours! Finished watercolor preparation and started painting a group illustration that features caricatures of a family involved in a football game. Another was penciling, preping and adding watercolor to a caricature of a child with their pet dog and video games and psychiatry! The third has to remain a mystery illustration including a caricature of a friend

Now on to home!

Been doin’ that interactive illustrative life coaching thing this evening! A return visit for this family event. Great folks that included fellow civil servants, educators and an opportunity to get some nifty photos of a really cool historic home, now hair salon, I’ve wanted to get closeup photos of in St. Cloud!

An update to the video earlier today! Here’s what the two former white boards look like now… Lots to do, but got lots done this evening!

Had a blast today “signing” (drawing in) Swampy’s Florida books during the Florida SpringsFest. Here are a few photos. The stories behind most of the photos can be found on the Swampy’s Florida page.

Interesting what a father sets aside. Found a few decades of my artwork in a box of his. Newspaper art, comics strips, advertising pieces, comic books and personal artwork.

Spent weekend moving my father’s things to my house. Great thanks to brother Jeff Smith, his friend Steve and old pal James Goddard for the enormous amount of help! James even found a 40th birthday comic book I had done for him and his twin brother.