Here’s a page from the upcoming ‘Swampy’s Florida: Melbourne’. Swampy and friends off to construct everything in sight as so many did around Melbourne in the 1950s. The book should be available in two months through The Knowledge Exchange.

Caricatures galore for Everest University tonight!

Above is the prepped version  in the process getting the watercolor painting below finished. Above I’ve penciled the caricature incorporating the image of the person’s head and a large amount of information about her to assemble a really personal drawing of who she is.
Adding the ink that won’t run with the watercolor, I prep the art and then add the watercolor.
This artwork was done from start to finish with the client at Beefy king in Orlando, Florida

I attended a Silver Springs park update on Wednesday and learned more about the merging of the iconic Florida attraction, Silver Springs, into the state park system. The grand reopening will be October 1st and the park’s whole name will be Silver River State Park. The cost to get into the two merged sites: $8. Wild Waters will still be a separate area from the overall park. Drainage is changing significantly and that might be most noticeable in the massive changes in the parking lot. By the way, parking returns to the early days of Silver Springs by being free.

Drew caricatures tonight for a corporate event at the Peabody hotel south of Orlando in Orange County. The event’s attendees were all involved with containing digital information or servicing those who do.

My friend, Ann Archer, turns 90 and a big party is planned today. Here’s the birthday card I painted for this very patriotic woman. She has served in various political posts for decades in Dade and Marion Counties here in Florida. She still is active today despite mobility issues. She’s a great lady with a great sense of humor, something that seems to maintain a long life. Another friend, Lucile Fair, is 105 1/2 and loves to laugh and see the fun in life. We probably all need to smile more in life and Ann and Lucile are examples of that.

This watercolor painting I finished last night will be in the silent auction at the Marion County Springs Festival tomorrow, Saturday the 24th, at Rainbow Springs State Park. The educational and music filled event runs from 10am to 4pm. Come on out and maybe you can nab this for 20 bucks!

‘Funny Folks Behind the Serious Business of Cartoons’ is the name of a fun panel of Florida cartoonists and author Tim Hollis this Saturday at the Orange County Regional History Center.

Tim Hollis starts off the event at 12:30 with a talk about the history of cartooning and tourism. He will also be introducing his new book, ‘Part of a Good Breakfast’ about cereal premiums for the Baby Boomer set. Tim will be available to sign books after his talk.

The cartoonist panel starts at 1pm with cartoonists Bruce Beattie, Allen Bellman, Mike Osbun, Jeff Parker, Mark Simon, and me. Each will talk about the cartoon work they do.  Then the floor will open to questions from the audience.

Afterward be sure to take a stroll trough the Peanuts exhibit of comic strips reflecting outdoor issues.

I organized the cartoonist panel and dove tailed it with our annual Florida Chapter meeting of the National Cartoonists Society, which I am also Florida Chapter Chairman of. I’m also involved with the History Center.

Charles Lee is the director of Advocacy at Audubon of Florida and came to speak at our event at Silver River State Park June 23rd. He spoke about how water is used. About 50% of our water resources in Florida are used to water grass.  As Charles points out, grass is just for decoration and yet swallows up so much of our water. Something to add is that the decorative grass is also responsible for the poisons of fertilizer and bug killer being added to the soil that filters it’s way into our Florida water supply. His talk is below and was recorded by Live Oak Production Group.

This is another in a series of five watercolor paintings of speakers from a conference I was involved with this past June 23rd.

On July 28th I introduced the new Florida History text book at The Knowledge Exchange. I conducted to talks. One about cartooning and the other about Florida history. Above are some from the Florida history class.

During the cartooning class I got the attendees to contribute various ideas and we all came up with this scene.

Here’s a close up of the artwork.

Was in JPnte Vedra, near Jacksonville, drawing golf enthusiasts at the Players Club at Sawgrass Country Club. GREAT crowd! They each had so much to say about themselves and I got to really work out my creative juices in the storytelling of most of the drawings. Here are some photos!