Here’s one of the Valentine’s Day cards I produced today. This is for her skin diving husband who looks for sea life of the octopus variety when he isn’t otherwise collecting guns. Nothing worse to encounter undersea than a well armed octopus. Should have had him say, “You kids keep off my lawn!”

I spent a few hours this evening inking a stack of pages involving a number of projects. I’m back in a local coffee shop. Second time this week with major accomplishments as a result. Been reading books of favorite writers, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley & others of the Round Table and their need for a place to hole away and get work done. Realized I need to do the same again.

It’s been exactly a year since I stopped going to my old coffee shop haunt due to political reasons. Since then have bounced around at chain spots and other places. Seems I have found a new spot- or as pals Craig Zablo & John Beatty call my “office” – to hunker down and really get work done

Here’s Molly and Ainsley with Julie of Julianne’s Coastal Cottage and their hand painted cards!

After knocking out hand-made, watercolored Christmas ornaments this past Christmas, Julie Pointer,of Julianne’s Coastal Cottage in Mount Dora, brought up the idea of me creating similar Valentine’s Day cards. We set a date and that was this past weekend. It was supposed to be three hours on Friday and three hours on Saturday. Turned out to be Friday through Sunday and I turned out to be exhausted.

Love drawing trains and this one covers all the items this fellow mentioned. I didn’t get his name, but will tomorrow when he and his wife come back to have me paint a few more cards for them.

My main goal was to harken back to the days when we, as young folks, exchanged well illustrated Valentine’s Day cards with punny sayings.

Most of the overtime was catching up with requests. Some that even came through Facebook.

All were inked and watercolored while folks watched. I used a Koi portable watercolor set to add color.

The photos are all requests for the various names noted on the cards.

I was doing the caricature thing Saturday night at a wedding in Tavares, Florida, and here are a couple of photos…

This was a commissioned project of the publisher of the Orlando Sentinel and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. The request was of a caricature of the publisher and of his travels back and forth between cities. Request was to include plane and car he traveled in. Also, to include Marriott he stayed in Orlando. I asked for more likes of the publisher to fill out for space – and make it more fun for me. I added the city scapes. On teh Fort Lauderdale side I included the Sun Sentinel building, a few other well known structures and the founding structure in the area, the historic Stranahan House. On the Orlando side, the Sentinel buidling, otehr structures and the Lake Eola fountain. My knowing both cities was a big help getting this done.
This is a 16″x20″ watercolor painting on Arches watercolor board.

Here’s the inked art for #Inktober today!

Here’s the Swampy’s Florida post: http://wp.me/p46j33-2Xk

Here’s the inked art for #Inktober today!

Here’s part of the Swampy’s Florida post:
Swampy says Happy World Octopus Day!
More about the legend of the St Augustine Monster:  http://swampysflorida.com/?p=11318

Drew for a number of hours for my friend Lisa Saupp’s family event along Lake Weir in Ocklawaha, Florida. An unusual event for me to do these days since I pretty much don’t draw at events with young people. I made an exception in that Lisa is a great friend and a HUGE help recently for my Swampy’s Florida and helping me do more in protecting Florida’s natural areas and saving taxpayer money.

(Gonna try to get back to more regular postings of art, if I can not have weeks like the past one! 🙂 )

I was part of the symposium about our Florida springs Tuesday night, named ‘Sacred Springs’. I was setup in the front of the auditorium and illustrated each speaker as they did their presentations to the audience. There were nine speakers this time and I couldn’t finish them all at the event. In the next couple weeks I’ll share some of the watercolor paintings I worked on. I didn’t get to finish as many as in other symposiums due to the limited time and the amount of speakers. I’ll be going back to finish the paintings.

‘Sacred Springs’ was a gathering of experts of our Florida springs. Speakers included Johm Moran, Dr. Robert Knight, of the Springs Institute; Guy Warwick, the Felburn Foundation; Jim Stevenson, Wakulla Springs Alliance; Doug Ray, Ocala Star-Banner & Gainesville Sun; Ryan Smart, Florida Conservation Coalition; Karen Ahlers, Florida Defenders of the Environment and Whitey Markle, Suwanee-St. Johns Sierra Club & Florida troubadour.

A surprise audience member was former Governor Buddy MacKay.

In the past week I’ve been illustrating the celebratory days of the week. For example Tuesday is ‘Work Like a Dog Day’. My art for that is on the upper left. Click here to learn what that is about.

Swing over to the Swampy’s Florida website and watch the rest of the artwork turn into color. Return each day so you can know what to celebrate each day on the Swampy’s Florida website or the Swampy’s Florida Facebook page.