I.F. SNOW

If you decide to mess with Morgan The Snow Princess of the Highlands, well, you'll be messing with her posse.

Created for my gift of the heart to my niece Morgan.

I.F. EXPLORE

To explore or not to explore? That is the question.

I visited an elementary school last week and talked art with some 5th graders. One of the kids gave me this drawing after class. I wanted to include it in my painting for Illustration Friday's word of the week "explore."

I.F. STRETCH

He's known as "The Tongue." He was licked by a radioactive chameleon when just a boy. He can stretch his tongue 1 1/2 times his body length. Too bad he uses his mutant super power to steal designer purses.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "stretch."

I.F. Whiskers

I know a guy (let's call him "Wayne" for the sake of the story) who is sort of an artist when it comes to his hair. For instance one time he might shave only half of his whiskers. Then another time, when it feels right, he might give himself a Monk cut. Yep he's always trying something different than the next guy. So if you run into a guy named "Wayne" that is sporting a curious hairdo, say hi... he may just become your best friend.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "whiskers."

I.F. zoom

Chad Hall is quite the photographer. He uses a moose suit and a ZOOM lens to get ridiculously close to wildlife.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "Zoom."

Hi Chad.

I.F. SHY

Would Chuck Norris be shy without his toupee? Why don't a you ask him and then let me know how that roundhouse kick to the face felt?

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "shy."

I'm a little late getting this done but vacations from my problems at lake Winnipesaukee can get in the way of a blog.

I.F HAUNT

I've seen scary trick or treaters but none could compare to little Belle Bumgardner. Yep the image of that goat's head tied to hers will pretty much haunt me forever.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week"haunt."

I.F. SKY

Get a magic broom in your hands and the sky's the limit.

Created for illustration Friday's word of the week "SKY."

And happy halloween.

I.F. Water

They could sense danger all around but when harvester elves need water, well, they need water.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "water."

I.F. MIRROR

He promises a mirror finish no matter the shoe. His buffing skills are out of this world.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "mirror."

I.F. CROOKED

104 years later the braces came off.

Crooked teeth are of no use to a vampire prodigy.

By the way he endorses Doc. Gifford, the best kid dentist around.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "crooked."

I.F. BURST

For no Rhyme or a reason a Hyena will just burst out laughing... or at least that's what my Uncle Nico Pelser told me and he loves wild dogs.

Painted for Illustration Friday's word of the week "BURST."

I.F. IMAGINATION

Not in my wildest imagination are Chuck Darwin and the monkey related.

CREATED for Illustration Friday's word of the week "Imagination."

I.F. identical

He thought they were identical. The other one thought nothing at all.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "Identical."

I.F. TALL

A tall hair fad would be lame.

Created for Illustration Friday's work of the week "tall."

I.F. Teacher

"Roads... not good for antler growth," said the Teacher.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week: Teacher.

I.F. Freeze

The crystal ball's answer seemed so simple... FREEZE it off.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "freeze."

I.F. LONELY

The golden arches was always the best place to meet chicks.  Curse the extinction! He is lonely.

CREATED for Illustration Friday's word of the week "lonely."

I.F. CARRY

Don't judge a kid by his leg size. Little Henry Honeycutt can carry an insane amount of preparedness.

Created for this Illustration Friday's topic of the week "carry."

LOST number 2

"I don't care if you're LOST! We LOST the pennant by inches! And your antiperspirant ain't makin it! And your red SOX are ridiculous!"

I had two ideas for Illustration Friday's word of the week "LOST." This was the second.

I've been to New York one time. It was humid, smokey and smelly except for Central Park which was awesome. As refreshing as the park was I did see one of the strangest creatures ever... it was a human, but barely.

I.F. LOST

"Oh, it's so cute!" "Do you think it's lost?"

"Maybe we should find its mother."

Painted today for Illustration friday's word O the week "lost."

I.F. SUSPEND

His final act would be to suspend an upside down elephant using no ropes or cables, only magic. His metal ring would be proof. It worked great until the halfway point. It was his final act.

Created for Illustration Friday's word of the week "suspend."

I.F. REFRESH

Sporting new tattoos of solidarity, the newly founded biker trio named "STAY FRESH- REFRESH " hit the streets with a singular goal... be wicked fresh.

Painted for illustration Friday's word of the week "refresh."

I.F. SPACE

He coaxed the signal into SPACE. What was the message? "This day, fire danger extremely high".

This morning I watched a billowing cloud of smoke rise into space from a neighboring city. I had this image run through my head and painted it for Illustration friday. Thoughts and prayers go out my friends in Saratoga Springs.

I.F. SECRET

A revealed secret had led them to a secret passageway which led them to two of the biggest creatures they had ever seen.

A good friend of mine reminded me that I have no female representation in any of my Illustration Friday paintings and challenged me to man up. I have an issue with backing down from a challenge so here you go Shar.

I.F. SHINY

Elves are pretty gifted at making toys but their true expertise lies in making things shiny.

Created this week for Illustration Friday's topic "SHINY".

I.F. Hurry Painted

There's a time to leave slime trails and there's a time to hurry! 

Tried a little different approach to painting this one. Little dabs of angular color give it that non 70's airbrushed hippie van look.

illustration friday; hurry!!

There's a time to leave slime trails and there's a time to hurry! 

I was on a harley ride and saw a giant man with a weed whacker.  I wondered how many bugs "buy it" during a lawn trimming... You have time to think while riding a motorcycle.

I 'm heading on vacation with my wonderful wife and kids, i didn't have time to paint this but sketches are sometimes cool, right?

fore!

My Bro in law Jeff Bolton is the C.E.O. of Square it up, a seriously cool branding and marketing company for the golf industry.

He asked me to illustrate the word Fore! to be used as a promotional item on his website. This is what I came up with. No offense Tiger...www.squareitup.com

I.F. FADED

The stripes were a mainstay but the innocence faded. Bummer.

I.F. SIGHT (2)

I had 2 ideas for this topic. Here's the second.

Hind sight isn't always 20/20.

I.F. SIGHT

The design was complete, he could see anything at anytime... his sight was perfect. Question; Would his neck bear the weight? Answer: Not without going to the gym.

DO GOOD ART

My good friend Maryn Roos shared this video with me yesterday. It's sticking to me like peanut butter on the brain. If you like creating things you will love this...  http://vimeo.com/42372767

I.F. Kernel

It fell from the sky. It was huge. They didn't know what it was but the others didn't have one. They began to worship it. Weird.

JACK

He FELL. He SPLAT. He would no longer HUNT the boy named Jack.

COWARD no longer, WEAK IN THE KNEES no more.

Jack the killer of giants ate beans cuz they are DELICIOUS... duh.

Last week I asked some friends for a few words to illustrate while waiting for the Illustration Friday word of the week. The words in blue are the words I used for the illustration. Thanks friends.

I.F. HITCHED

Little did he know that he, Henry Hatch, had just HITCHED his final ride.

I.F. JUMP

Former ballerino turned bull fighter, Jorge Bolivar, always entered the colosseum with a mighty JUMP.

goat tuff

Mountain Goats are about the coolest animals out there, they dare each other to climb the creepiest cliffs in the canyons... and they do.

I.F. Heights

With the advent of better hairsprays and trustworthy bobby pins, Gy Hamlet was able to take Hairstyles to HEIGHTS never before seen.

My good friend Guy Francis and his friend Stacy Curtis started a great blog called Dueling Banjo Pigs. If you haven't seen it check it out at http://banjopigs.blogspot.com .

This is one of my entries to the blog, I was thinking that the pigs from Africa needed some attention as well.

Puzzled

I painted this Yesterday for Illustration Friday's word of the week"puzzled." I'm mainly puzzled by E's hair.

Illustration Friday- Vocal

This week's word for Illustration Friday is "vocal". When the theme was announced  immediately thought of bull elk bugling in September, it's one of the great vocalizations ever created. One of the resurrected trends for hunters is to wear a decoy hat made to look like their quarry. Last year I saw a personalized license plate that read "BUGLEMAN".  Here is my rendition of "Bugleman" in his costume. I created it this week for I.F.

I.F. Separate

"Separate" was an Illustration Friday word from a few months ago. I like the story of Moses separating the red sea, so I painted it. There's also a great documentary about this incident by Cecil B Demille... I think it's called The Ten Commandments or something...

I.F.'s word for this week is "Return". 

So there once was a carrier pigeon named "Cher Ami" that saved the lives of nearly 200 U.S. soldiers in WW1 before losing his leg and an eye in his final return to the base. The army docs saved his life and fashioned a little wooden leg for him. I fashioned some goggles and a bullet proof vest for him. It's okay if a tear has come to your eye.

Illustration Friday illustrations

swamp

grounded

capable

forward

intention

prepare

capable

shades

shades

twirl

yield

suspence




My son Easton has an art class at Provo high. One of his assignments was to contribute an illustration for Illustration Friday, a blog that throws out a new word to illustrate every week. He asked if I wanted to join with him and well, I did. The following are a few of my illustrations from this experiment.


The topics from top to bottom were; Swamp, Return, Grounded, Capable, Forward, Intention, Prepare,
Capable2, Shades1 and 2, Twirl, Yield and Suspence.