One of my favorite things to do is to go play golf. But just so that I don’t get tired of it, I only do it once, maybe twice a year. I played a few weeks ago with fellow animation buddy Drew Graybeal, and it was just a great five hours of my Saturday. Yeah, five hours. You golfers know that’s a looooong game. It was a crowded course unfortunately, and you had to wait on every hole.
They actually paired us up with another guy of whom I requested, “Please be patient with me. I only get out a couple of times a year, so I’m likely to be rusty.” He proceeded to interpret that as “this guy is a beginner.” He kept giving me golf tips on every hole, and trying to encourage me. Granted, I was hitting 8s and 9s for about the first third of the game, but I was just getting warmed up.
When I started hitting 5s and 6s, his comments changed to be like “yeah, you’re starting to get it!” Then I hit a few pars, almost got a birdie, and sunk a 20 foot putt. The rest of the game he kept saying incredulously “You are NOT a beginner.” I never did say I was a beginner, but it was at that moment that I regretted not being a betting man. I could have made some coin off that game! I ended with a 113 which isn’t great, but it’s not bad for only playing golf about twice a year.
So, anyway, I say all that to accompany this digital painting I did this week just for fun of a senior golfer. I think any serious golfer must play with a crazy pair of pants. Tragically, my own wardrobe lacks a pair like that. If not anything else, they serve as a distraction to your opponents. Just wear them within sight of your pals as they are driving.
It’s always amazing to watch the old guys on the course limp up to the ball, then smack it straight and true with no hesitation.
I’m really starting to enjoy doodling on Canson paper. If you regularly follow my blog, you have occasionally seen drawings on this kind of paper during the Monster Month posts. I recently went out and bought a bunch more Canson paper with various shades of gray, brown and color. It’s fun because you can start with the mid tone, then put in your darks and lights. So, you may start seeing more and more drawings here on the blog that employ these kinds of techniques.
Today I thought I’d share with you a little friendly February monster drawn with ink, orange colored pencil, and white paint. Enjoy!
Don’t invite this guy over. He’ll leave orange hair all over your carpets.
Happy Valentine’s Day! With everyone’s thoughts on love today (except for those forgetful fellas who will have a rude awakening when they get home tonight), I thought I’d post a little sketch celebrating the occasion!
I know that they say “opposites attract,” but I feel that there really needs to be a lot in common for it to really work well. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly, but there must be something in common with these two. Whatever it is, they figured it out.
Ever wonder what an evil pirate bunny would look like? I hadn’t given it much thought either until I started doodling this rough and tough hare in my sketchbook. Thought maybe you all would like to see how he recently randomly spilled from my pen.
“Rabbits of the Carrotbbean” has an interesting ring to it, doesn’t it?
Back in December I had to go to the post office during Christmas week. Oog, what a nightmare. I was there at 8:30am when they opened, and got in line behind about 25 people as only two postal employees worked the counter. So, this gave me time to watch the people around me.
This one guy standing about 8 people in front of me was the most peculiar. He wore a full length black trench coat, had kind of his own version of a porkpie hat, round so-dark-I-couldn’t-see-his-eyes sunglasses, hair that just spilled out from under the hat, a very unkempt mustache with a beard to match that had a couple of braided strands, and a black dapper cane with an ornate silver handle. He made such an impression, that I did this drawing of him not back in December, but only just this past weekend.
And yes, I was too afraid to ask what he was there to pick up. Some answers are better left unsaid.
Looking kind of like he was into goth and the wild west, this fellow postal patron was certainly very mysterious.
Welcome to the new year! It has been almost a month since I last posted anything. Since then, I did a little traveling for the holidays, and upon my return to Los Angeles, reacclimated myself to the daily responsibilities of drawing at my job.
I assume that many of you also travelled for the holidays. Perhaps you traveled by plane, train, or automobile? I generally go by plane when it is across the country, which always means sitting in airports. I like to find a seat that faces the main walkway where I peoplewatch. Airports are the great cross-section of society. Once in awhile, someone finds their way into my sketchbook. Here are just a few…
As you are able to settle down and lay aside the worries and angst of your daily lives, take a moment to pause and reflect on the truly wondrous thought that during this season we are celebrating a holy God’s willingness to have once walked among us for a brief 33 years, then voluntarily suffer through the human experience of pain and humiliation of false accusation, torture, and death so that we don’t have to face even worse in eternity if we put our trust and faith in Him. Merry Christmas my friends. Merry Christmas indeed.
On November 8, 2011, a great cartoonist and a greater man quietly slipped away. Every day over the past 51 years, Bil Keane’s comic strip The Family Circus made us laugh, smile, and feel good inside whether we read it in a newspaper or from the side of a refrigerator where many were displayed. His influence on society was duly noted when word of his passing was mentioned in televised reports on national news broadcasts, on countless websites, and in many tweets and Facebook comments. It was so nice to see this outpouring of affection from many strangers for a man I was privileged to count as a dear friend.
The master in his Arizona studio taken by photographer Greg Preston for his wonderful book “The Artist Within” that shows many top cartoonists in their work space. Used with permission from the photographer. (Click on image to see it larger.)
This past weekend, Bil’s life was celebrated. I made the trip to the Phoenix area to attend the funeral where many tears and many laughs were shared. The memories came flooding back. Like many of you, I grew up reading The Family Circus in the newspaper and always got that warm and fuzzy feeling. Later, as a professional, I began to understand the fine artistic qualities of the artwork. Then what had become a professional admiration for Bil Keane eventually grew to a personal appreciation.
When first entering the professional world of cartooning, Bil Keane was one of the first cartoonists to whom I wrote. That initial correspondence in 1994 was simply a young rookie writing a fan letter to one of his heroes. Bil sent a reply that included a wonderful pencil sketch of the entire cast of his strip that has remained on my wall ever since.
This 1994 sketch hangs proudly on my wall as a daily reminder of Bil Keane.
Two years later, in 1996, I attended my first Reuben Awards that the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) hosts each year. It was held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City. I was a young illustrator living and working in South Carolina who, for the first time, was being exposed to a room full of professional cartoonists. It was a memorable evening for many reasons – in a glance around the room one could see Charles Schulz, Garry Trudeau with wife Jane Pauley, Archie artist Dan DeCarlo, MAD Magazine‘s Mort Drucker and Sergio Aragonès, Al Hirschfeld and so on. Even the mayor, Rudolph Giuliani was there. Best of all, Bil Keane was the Master of Ceremonies.
Based on the content of his comic strip, one’s impression of Bil Keane would be that he was a quiet, gentle, mild-mannered man. When he stepped up to the microphone that evening, all bets were off. Bil had a wicked sense of humor that had the whole room in stitches with great one-liners and his deft use of double-talk. We were there to celebrate the best of the cartooning business, but in between acceptance speeches, nobody was safe from Bil’s sharp and hilarious tongue. The one comment he made that night that I remember to this day was when he was introducing one of our larger colleagues. Bil said, “And now, here’s a cartoonist whose shadow weighs more than he does….” This was a room of longtime friends truly full of personal and professional admiration.
Taken in 1997 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, Bil Keane, a young Chad Frye, Johnny Hart (B.C. comic strip), and Brant Parker (Wizard of ID comic strip). This was my first photo with any of these gentlemen.
It turns out that along with that sharp wit, Bil also really was the gentle, mild-mannered man one might expect. When you met him, he’d have an impish grin, a twinkle in his eye, and a handshake so firm that you’d have to learn to draw with your left hand. Over the years I just came to appreciate him more and more, now and then chatting on the phone, and visiting with him in Arizona when in town to see relatives.
In 2008 I was involved with a committee planning a banquet in Bil’s honor for the Comic Art Professional Society (CAPS). CAPS had created an award called The Sergio named after CAPS co-founder Sergio Aragonès who also designed the trophy. The Sergio is given once each year to a cartoonist in appreciation for their lifetime of work in our profession. Bil’s beloved wife Thel had passed away earlier that year, and we decided it was time to give some very deserving love to Bil. Gary Owens (Rowen & Martin’s Laugh-In) emceed, and guest speakers included Greg Evans (Luann comic strip), Mell Lazarus (Momma comic strip), Cathy Guisewite (Cathy comic strip), son Jeff Keane (who had now taken over all duties on Family Circus and continues to do so today), and son Glen Keane (Disney animator). When Bil came to the mic to accept his award, true to form, he had us all holding our aching sides with his speech.
Bil Keane holding his Sergio Award from CAPS in 2008 while sitting next to the actual Sergio Aragonès at Maggiano’s restaurant in Woodland Hills, CA.
Just about one year ago was the last time I saw Bil. I was in town with my folks for my father’s 50th high school reunion, and one afternoon my mother and I paid Bil a visit. He had taken a fall a few months earlier that had weakened him and required some special rehabilitation measures. Despite the discomfort he was experiencing, he greeted us with that familiar twinkle in his eye, the impish grin, and a handshake so firm that I can still feel it. We talked about how his faithful dog had saved his life the day of his fall. He recalled days when the famous and not so famous came by the house, and of vacationing with Ozzie and Harriet who owned a vacation home next to Bil’s vacation home back in the day. We talked about life, and of cartooning, and about his family of whom he was so very proud. That was a very special afternoon.
Chad Frye with Bil Keane in October, 2010. Sadly, Bil’s beloved dog who remained by his side during our visit passed away only six months ago.
So, while the news stories heralded the passing of this great cartoonist two weeks ago, there was so much more to the man that I wish everyone could have known. Perhaps Bil’s ever cheerful outlook on life came from something he once wrote in The Family Circus, “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a GIFT. That’s why it’s called the present.” I’m truly grateful for the many gift-wrapped “todays” with Bil.
Taken last Saturday, Bil Keane’s studio where thousands of circular pearls of wit and wisdom were birthed before being released to the world. Thank you for everything, Bil.
