Adulting is really hard sometimes. There can be those crucial moments in life when you wish you could have a do-over – to go back a day, a week, a month, even eleven months, and redo things with the knowledge you have now.
Sometimes you even long to go back to the simpler days of your childhood when you could just disappear for the day down by the ol’ lake with your faithful dog to sit in the shade and fish the day away without a care in the world. Aaah. Nice, isn’t it?
Then you remember, as I did, that you never lived near a lake, nor did you ever own a dog.
Oh well.
This wistful interlude is brought to you by genuine ink!
I came across this piece in my digital files this past weekend and thought I’d share it with you. It has a little bit of sweetness to it, and a lot of sentiment, because I created it for my parents nine years ago for their 40th wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that next July will be their 50th, should God allow them to make it to that milestone. Time and health are not always kind to those we love.
I admire my folks for the love and faithfulness they’ve shown each other over the years, and only hope that one day I could be so blessed to have such a relationship.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogantor rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – I Corinthians 13:4-7
Beware the fire “breathing” dragon that is dangerous both as he comes and as he goes, so to speak.
If that was the bluebird of happiness, we’re in trouble.
And thus concludes Monster Month for 2017. Twenty-two beasties from my drafting table to your eyes. I hope you enjoyed them once again. These are always fun for me to draw, and almost all were drawn just for fun.
As always, I am available to be hired should you have a project requiring my abilities, whether it is a monster or something else. There is plenty of variety of subject matter on my blog, and also over on Instagram where I post regularly, too! I’m chadfrye_illustrationguy over there.
I can be reached at chad@chadfrye.com with serious inquiries. I have illustrated children’s books, magazine articles, and regularly work in animation as a character designer and storyboard artist.
You’ve seen several Monster Month posts this year of sketches and drawings I did while nestled in the cold cockles of the heart of a Russian winter last January. I got to thinking that none of those monsters seemed particularly Russian in their design. So, I grabbed my trusty brush pen and white paint (with some red accents), and created this Russian Rascal on some Canson paper for the eve of Halloween!
Truly, the only real monster here is the cruelty of a Russian winter.
Come back tomorrow to see the grand conclusion of this year’s MONSTER MONTH!!
Okay, I realize that TECHNICALLY, this lady does not look like a monster. However, the whole scene gives me a bit of the creeps, so it is being included in this creepfest I call Monster Month.
This started as a sketch of a gnarled old tree in my sketchbook drawn lightly with a blue pencil. As it started to take shape, the birds seemed like a natural addition. Then, of course, an old woman needed to be added, who is likely the birds’ mistress, or perhaps she is not. That is the beauty and mystery that a single drawing can do to the viewer. It makes one ask questions. Who is this woman? Why are those birds there? What do the birds and the woman have to do with each other? Why doesn’t this artist seem to know the answers to these questions?
Well, maybe I do have these answers, or maybe I don’t. That is the beauty and the mystery that an artist can wield with his ink brush pen…
This past weekend I attended the birthday party of a friend. A few weeks before, she had told me a story of how a few years back she was on a quest to get a pink Eeyore doll that The Disney Store had produced. She had told several friends about it, and then within a day, she was given multiple copies of the pink plush. D’oh!
As her birthday approached, this story had stuck in my head, so I went ahead and made Lauren a picture of more of the gang in this off-model color. Well, all were off except, of course, little Piglet who felt right at home in the color.
Someone must have washed them together with a red shirt.
While the above piece is a traditional watercolor and colored pencil painting, just for kicks for those of you who enjoy seeing more of the process, I’m including the original rough sketch that I did in Photoshop. I cleaned things up when I traced this rough onto the final watercolor paper.
Pink Pooh. Sounds like a medical problem, doesn’t it?
Sometimes I really don’t know why certain ideas pop into my head. It can be completely empty one minute, then BAM! A completely random thought quickly inspires a completely silly drawing. Thus was the case this past weekend.
Without provocation, somehow my mind zeroed in on Charles Lindbergh’s historic first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, then in an instant, I wondered what an old man might feel about this event today had he been a child at the time. Then this drawing came to mind. Really, these thoughts all took place in a matter of seconds not having seen anything about Lindbergh. It was totally random.
Of course, if one were to do the math, this guy would be REALLY old. Lindbergh’s flight was in 1927, so if this guy was alive and remembered it – let’s say he was five years old back then. That would make this chair jumper 95 today. More power to him.
Anyway, I grabbed my trusty tan paper sketchbook, and this scene came forth.
I woke up this morning oblivious to the fact that today is a milestone in the life of cartoonist Sergio Aragonès. Today is his 80th birthday!!! I read about it online. The reason for not realizing that today Sergio is 80 is because he seems like a man twenty years younger creating wonderful whimsical drawings more common for a man fifty years younger!!!!
Sergio is a cartoonists cartoonist. He’s the guy we all would like to be professionally speaking – prolific and hilarious. I also like to think of him as the Hemingway of cartoonists. He is a man who has lived a life of adventure around the world. He has the BEST stories of where he has been, and what has happened in those locales. They are absolutely amazing (and have cropped up in his comics from time to time). “The world’s most interesting man” is an amateur compared to Sergio.
I first met Sergio at a National Cartoonists Society gathering in New York City in 1996. The next year I moved to California where seeing Sergio became a regular thing, and a friendship ensued. I became involved with a Los Angeles based professional cartoonist organization called the Comic Art Professional Society, otherwise known as CAPS. Sergio was one of its co-founders and biggest cheerleader.
Ten years ago, CAPS established The Sergio Award, unbeknownst to Sergio himself. The first recipient at a banquet was Sergio’s fellow MAD Magazine artist Jack Davis. After Jack was given an award, CAPS gave one to Sergio as well. All the artists in the room were aware there would be two awards that night except for Sergio. We all had drawn tribute art to Sergio that was published in a second secret program book that was handed out when the award was being presented. Below is the piece I did for Sergio featuring his popular comic book characters Groo the Wanderer and his dog Rufferto.
I drew this at the time I was working on the show “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
The very next year after that banquet, it was the 25th anniversary of the Groo the Wanderer comic book. While drawn by Sergio, it is written by one of CAPS’ other co-founders Mark Evanier. The gang at CAPS each drew their own version of Groo which was put together in a big jam drawing and was published in the pages of San Diego Comic Con’s program book that year. Some of the folks who contributed their own version of Groo included illustrator William Stout, Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker, Momma comic strip artist Mell Lazarus, current MAD Magazine editor Bill Morrison, Mulan director Tony Bancroft, children’s book illustrator Mark Fearing, Usagi Yojimbo comic book artist Stan Sakai, and comic book legend Dan Spiegle to name a few.
A gaggle of Groos created for San Diego Comic Con’s program book in 2007.
Of course, I contributed one to the above composition. Can you find it in the crowd?
This is my take on Sergio’s Groo for CAPS.
Well, all this was written just to honor the man of the hour by saying a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sergio!
