Pirates of the Spanish Main by Hamilton Cochran
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this book that covers many aspects of the industry known as piracy. It views them from both the good and bad and does a great job mapping out motivation, action and results. I also like the follow through as to the closing of the careers of these mostly bad guys. The interesting focus near the end of two of the best known of pirates and another about a few female peers were excellent in closing out the volume. The illustrations are outstanding and further underline the world in which the pirate world lived. In that it is an overview, it does what it should in enticing a reader to want to learn much more. So I shall.

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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.

Pirates and Buried Treasure on Florida Islands by Jack Beater

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very good collection of supposedly true pirate stories that took place along the Florida coast. Jack Beater is a good writer who helps make the stories seem true, though there may be more legend than accurate history in the tales. He bases much on the legend of Jose Gaspar and tethers further tales to the legend. There are no footnotes, which doesn’t help the question of what is real and not. Much is based on hear say. Not that I think Beater is trying to pull the wool over one’s eyes. I believe he truly believed the stories he penned. It’s just that over time, many pirate tales have come into question. One assurance is that he does know the geography of Florida and accurately describes the various locations mentioned, thus if the stories may be suspect, locating where the nefarious pirates may have plundered and lived can easily be understood.

You can purchase a copy of this book by clicking here or below.

Just chug-a-lugged out eleven pencil drawings of a series of beach scenes I’ll be doing later in February.

Stopped for dinner at Ashley’s Restaurant in Rockledge, Florida, for dinner and to get a little work done. Ate a fine prime rib and got the 11 drawings done in two hours and a half!

More to come as I work on each. Suffice it to write that I’ll be using lots of yellow ochre and cerulean blue!

The Toff and the Deadly Parson by John Creasey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Am excellent mystery that will keep you guessing throughout. The writing is good, but for a contemporary American crowd, probably over their heads. Also, the contemporary American crowd are used to having a book written with someone connected to a church being the natural bad guy which will throw them as the book weaves around so many curves. Creasey crafted this well and it’s smartly written for an audience who is willing to pay attention to all that goes on. Too bad writers like Patterson can’t reach these heights.

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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!

Got the prep work done a couple days ago. Added watercolor while painting live during the Art Walk in Mt Dora at Julianne’s Coastal Cottage. I still need to work on details in the illustrations to get it to pop out more.

Penciled this during a meeting tonight as I prep for a series of watercolor paintings I need to get done. It’s part of a Swampy’s Florida series that will soon be available to interior designers through a Miami company. There will be two series. One much like this of Florida locations and Florida critters. The other series is of beach scenes around the state.

This is just the pencils of the artwork. Next I prep the art to be watercolored. I’ll be painting the art  this Friday during the Art Walk in Downtown Mt. Dora, Florida, at Julianne’s Coastal Cottage store. I’ll be doing it live. If you’re in the area, please come by and say ‘Hello!’.

I did the penciling during a meeting of the Springs Alliance which I’m involved with. Certainly an appropriate time to be working on artwork about the Rainbow River.

This is from a photo taken by a friend of a half fallen cypress tree on the Rainbow River in Marion County, Florida

Hell Road by Ray Hogan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ray Hogan sure knows how to fill a few pages. Not with the ability of his colleague Louis L’Amour, but still done with great skill. This story today would have been split into a 4 part series of 500 pages each. Hogan accomplishes the same feat in 126 pages. Sure it could all be better flushed out. Hogan assembles a great western novel better without the excess.

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