Shadow 243

Okay. This is the last pet pic. I swear. I don't even like the little fleabags, anyway.

Bat 250

I'd be remiss in not giving Bat equal air time to her brother Wolf.

Wolf 258

Photography's not my gig, but sometimes a shot spurs a thought that won't let go until I do something to air it out.

Dammit

I toyed with the idea of calling this one 'Bad Timing', but ended up being a bit more blunt about an artist's predicament when bereft of their muse.

Battle of Wits

Any artist who's faced off against a blank piece of paper with no clue about what to draw should identify with this sketch. Ironically, lacking any drawing concept for a particular project spurred my imagination to create this image in vivid detail one night as I slept. When I woke up the next day, I simply transferred it to paper. Imagination beats rock, scissors or blank paper every time.

Butt Can

This started out as a quick sketch to thank my sister for emptying out the coffee can I use as an ashtray in the backyard, a task that could easily qualify for that TV show 'Dirty Jobs'. However, I've found that if I spend more than three minutes working on a cartoon or a sketch, I become inexorably drawn into fleshing it out to create a full fledged drawing, slipping into my own little world as I osbessively attempt to mirror the image in my mind with the lines and color on the paper. Maybe there's a pill I can take to avoid the compulsion, but if there were, would I really want to take it?

ER Sketches

I ran across these sketches I did in the ER and figured I'd toss them into the internet rather than the trash, although sometimes I'm not really clear on the distinction between the two. I was in severe pain when I did the first one of a nurse's little girl from a pic on her cell and rather comfortably medicated when I drew the private eye guy. Bat said she liked the one of the little girl better and that I do better work when I'm in agony. I slapped her.

Studies in Pain

This is an obviously unfinished drawing I did in the hospital after being continually annoyed by the beeping of my IV pump. Those of you unfortunate enough to be familiar with these artificial appendages know how fussy they are about your movements and how irritating their persistent beeps can be as they escalate in volume until a nurse arrives to silence them. My concept here was to depict an ailing assassin who's been betrayed by the unpredicatable and grating beeps of his IV and killed by his victim's bodyguards before he can complete his mission.
I'd still like to complete this at some point, but I thought I'd post it as is for the moment.

Nurses are Handy

I was a bit surprised when a nurse looking through my drawings mentioned that she felt many of my representations of nurses were not terribly flattering. I suspect she was referring to ones like that of a nurse as a vampire ready to draw blood, but I decided to rectify the artistic record to reflect my continual amazement and gratitude at the efficiency, patience and compassion of these caregivers who rarely receive much in the way of thanks other than someone barking at them because they are in pain.
If I could actually give them the extra hands I gave to the one in this drawing I would, although I've seen them do quite well with the two they already have.

Bad Pipe Dream

As a smoker, I think I've limited my artistic observations on the idiocy of this habit quite a bit, but every now and then when confronted with my own insanity in continuing this previously fashionable form of suicide I feel compelled to do a drawing about it. I can't say I was surprised when my doctor, a cardiologist, glanced at this one and asked for a copy.

Kitty Consultation

This sketch almost drew itself one morning after I stumbled downstairs half alseep for that first cigarette of the day and was waylaid by cats screaming for food. Nothing gets between me and that first cancer stick, so I dropped an unopened can of food into one of their dishes and went outside for my smoke before returning to feed the little buggers, reflecting on the humorous if not sadistic nature of what I'd just done.

Famous Last Words

This was one of those kodak moments in my head one morning as I was waking up with a cigarette. I have no clue where it came from, but it made me laugh so I decided to pass it on.
Incidentally, I frequently have images and concepts pop into my mind and usually test their merit out on the cats, passing birds, a tree, etc. so most of them get some sort of critique before I actually judge them worthy for public consumption.

Backseat Driver

There seemed to be some sort of cosmic synchronicity between finding our newest household member, Shadow, and the approach of Halloween. I never look a little black gift cat in the mouth though, so I proceeded to utilize him for numerous holiday drawings.
I refuse to divulge the identity of the person I based the witch on in this sketch out of self-preservation.

Training Frankenkitty

Given the personalities of my cats, I easily envisioned this scenario while in the hospital last Halloween. I pictured the new kitten, Shadow as a somewhat innocent and inept Frankenstein's monster being trained with sinister intent by Bat, being assisted by her brother Wolf, my siamese cats.

Super Chef

I encountered a nurse who was taking a creative writing course that encouraged the students to submit graphics to illustrate their work and since her story was about a chef, I created this character for her to include with her text. I also offered her an odd plot for her story about a romance between two chefs that worked together, but could only create masterpieces in the kitchen if they were at each other's throats, but my guess is she just ran with the sketch, leaving the strange literary idea for someone writing an Italian soap opera.

When Holidays Collide

Another Halloween in the hospital made me start to feel as if all my holidays were starting to get merged into one strange medical festival, so what began as a drawing celebrating pumpkins and black cats morphed into a pub drinker weilding a Shillelagh. Of course, the pain meds might have had something to do with this transformation as well.

The new Kitten

In July of last year we took in a black kitten that had been left abandoned in a gopher hole next to our house. Actually, I'm not entirely certain he was abandoned and not placed for adoption with us by his mother, who hung around long enough to look us over as prospective parents and see that we were feeding him and playing with him before heading off to fill the world with more of her offspring.
This drawing illustrates just how difficult Shadow's integration with our two siamese has been, but he's intelligent, persistent and insufferably cute so I know he'll win them over in the end.

Bar Buddies

The evolution of a drawing is often as random as drops of rain and this one is no different. I'd originally started a pen and ink drawing of this burly, pointy eared fellow and put it aside after being distracted by something else, only to return to it much later on with a the sudden impression that he seemed to be arguing a point in a tavern. I thought the doily argument contrasted nicely with his harsh demeanor and then added the cat to keep him out of trouble should violence erupt from any inebriated debate. In short, I chose to make it a thing of odd contradictions.
Those who play Morrowind will undoubtedly realize Francis is a dark elf which makes his fascination with doilies, a subject far afield from sorcery or swordplay even more bizarre.

Birthday Candles

Another birthday drawing for my sister. Those of you who've run into me in chat over the years may have noticed my penchant for setting things on fire, and here was a perfect opportunity to exercise that odd behavior artistically. At some point, I should probably consult a shrink about my pyromania, but for now I think art therapy is more economical.

Cat Fight

I tend to do quite a few quick sketches in the emergency room and what drifts out of the pain medicated recesses of my mind to the paper amidst the hustle of nurses, techs and doctors attending to patients is often unpredictable, to say the least. Many of my drawings are spurred by what fellow patients or nurses are dealing with and those I pass on to them in the hopes of eliciting a smile or a chuckle, but ones like this I just quietly slip into my portfolio so one day they can make the brows of viewers like you furrow in confusion.

Cardio Climber

A long delayed drawing for my doctor, a cardiologist. I'd actually envisioned him climbing a heart as massive as Everest and planting a caduceus triumphantly at its peak, but such a scale would have made it impossible convey any likeness of him so I reduced the heart to the size of a hill.
Incidentally one might deem it foolish for a patient with pancreatitus to choose a cardiologist as his doctor, but apart from the fact that he's one of the sharpest doctors I've ever met, there's a rather depressing chart on the wall of his office showing the likelihood of someone developing heart disease as they get older and the way I see it, he'll be able to practice his specialty on me soon enough when my ticker starts to go.