Silly Little Projects...
So many projects so little time?
I once said drawing/doodling was my way to keep myself out of the asylum. As an introvert drawing has been my way to socialize. For the most part my little doodles are just creatures that live in my head and pop out every once in a while. While I can draw reality, I tend to stay with the cartoons that I grew up admiring as a kid. Every once in a while people ask me to draw something for them, or I just do it.
I learned early on that when I would take on a project for pay, I would become miserable. This was my escape, getting paid to do something made it horrible. You see when I draw something and you don’t like it… oh well- that’s your opinion. If I’m drawing something and you are paying for it, you need to like it, and I need to meet your requirements… pressure, stress, anxiety… ugh. I once made little figurines out of plasticine clay and had to stop, because people would ask for commissions and I really didn’t want to do a dragon in whatever color they wanted with specific wings, and details. That wasn’t what was living in my imagination and it became work.
So sometimes I just create things, make a product and give it to someone. My Local Comic Shop and Local Pizza Place are places I recently have just done stuff for. My LCS I do charge them a fee for artwork they use, but it’s just so they don’t feel bad about using me. I’m drawing monkeys, something I can do in my sleep.
Monkeys & Dragons, Oh My!
When I was growing up I recall watching an interview with Charles Schulz creator of Peanuts. I knew the characters well and had even tried to draw them (which is a lot harder than you think, especially for a third grader). During the interview Sparky put pen to paper and before you could say “Linus” there was Linus on the paper- perfect. It takes years of drawing characters to get to the point where you can just plop one on paper that quickly. As I kid I was in awe, and decided that was something I wanted to do. Finally in high school I created a character - Wagner, a dragon, that I could draw consistently and quickly. Still not at Charles Schulz speed, but…
Then came Geocaching and the creation of Cecil-Evil GeoCaching Monkey. This also came with my being awarded a Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship and the start of the My Geek Odyssey comic strip. So I was drawing a monkey hundreds of times… After MINI Takes The States and the creation of Cecil’s MINIons I drew even more. Challenging myself to draw a monkey a day for an entire year. Ugh. but I was now gaining on the speed of Charles Schulz that I had dreamed of as a third grader.
Current Projects:
Comic Carnival in Indianapolis. My Local Comic Shop has been around for 50 years. I’ve been working on various projects over the past year and half the most recent was the t-shirt/logo celebrating their 50th Anniversary! Funny thing- I designed a few options but ended up going back to something I had put together in September. The Shirts will be one color screen printed, but the full design looks like this.
Graham’s Pizza in Indianapolis. During COVID I had the opportunity to do a mural in the game room of my local pizza place. It was a ginormous slice of pizza attacking a city being defended by people in balloons. The local water tower has been painted to resemble a balloon for decades now, hence balloons. I got a call from them about new pint glasses and using the pizza monster on them. Did I have the artwork? Could they use it? Sometimes it’s easier to just redraw something than try to find it in all the files on your computer. I added the pint glass. Now what happened was, I did it in full color (as requested) and they ended up using it for shirts in one color instead. It seems that full color designs on pint glasses would flake off in the washer after a time. I know this to be true. So I have a hoodie with the monster on it and made these stickers for them.
Old Projects:
Like I said, I do this to stay sane, and to escape the doomscrolling that we get caught up in. A lot of my designs that get made into things are just because I want to make something and I’m still amused when I see my artwork on something. Geocaching events and MINI Takes The States tend to be other things that inspire me to draw stuff. These are things I created since retiring in 2023, so not that old.
MINI Takes The States got me to draw hundreds of monkeys for personalized badges. Geocaching got me involved in Pathtags and designing those to drop off at events or into caches. The design at the top of this article is actually “Cecil Ookington-Smythe and his faithful steed Berniece” which was originally done in 2014 for a Steampunk Convention. With MidWest GeoBash embracing dinosaurs this year, I decided to dredge it up and make it a sticker.
My 40th high school reunion also got me thinking so I made stickers for them since I wasn’t going to attend. I’m not sure if anyone in attendance got them, but it’s the thought that counts- right?
Whimventuring® has also gotten a few designs with the latest being a pathtag, but first there was a sticker
I haven’t been committed, yet. So this must be working. Then again, if you think you are sane, maybe you aren’t.