NEW SERIES – Gabe Leonard

Gabe Leonard style…

I can’t seem to quit this. I’m 191-ish images into this series. Honestly, that number might be off by one or two… my filing system in the beginning wasn’t as consistent as it is now. Still love it…because it makes me work. It makes me learn. I’m a little bit better every time I finish a series.  That’s what it’s ultimately about.

For the next series, I’m rendering my family in the style of contemporary painter Gabe Leonard.  His is not a name that is top of mind, but his work is first rate. Expressive isn’t a good enough description. He manipulates the figure as much as he does the paint medium. His figures are distorted, but somehow even more alive because of that distortion. This should be a challenging series to complete… and by “challenging” I mean, “Holy hell, why did I pick Gabe Leonard to paint in the style of? What were you thinking?! Make sure that Apple Pencil is sharp, dude… you have seven more to do!”

Something like that.

 

A tail of a milestone comic strip squirrel

6,000 squirrels

I suppose today is a milestone comic strip.

Today, March 4, 2020 marks the appearance of the 6,000th Bob the Squirrel comic strip. No bells or whistles… in fact I only started really keeping track of the number after I hit 5,000 a few years back.

But, using modern technology (and my obsessive compulsive nature of keeping good dated backup files) I’ve dug up every previous milestone comic strip.


Strip #5,000 – June 8, 2017

Not much to say about this one… I did put together a giant GREATEST Hits show for this one. Took a lot of tape and Funtac to put that show together.


Strip #4,000 – September 12, 2014

Our wedding was in October of that year and I was keeping our plans and anxiety alive and well in the strip… and pretty much in real time. It all worked out to be an amazing day…


Strip #3,000 – December 11, 2011

I was closing in on ten years of Bob the Squirrel at this point… and I questioned if I should continue doing the strip.  I had a small, loyal fan base, but the likelihood of the strip being my only job was looking like a longer and longer long-shot. Should I quit and try something else that maybe would benefit me financially? Or did the squirrel talk me out of it?


Strip #2,000 – March 22, 2009

We were in our new house just under a year when I drew this. This was also when I was really into the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream pints. Lucy’s favorite was Pistachio Pistachio … I would get a spoon and feed it to her right out of the container. I tell Lez that she should have known what type of guy I was by witnessing that act. She had every opportunity to grab Lauren and run… 🙂


Strip #1,000 – June 20, 2006

I wasn’t sure if I should include this one… despite it being the 1,000th strip. This may sound horrible… well, it DOES sound horrible.  I sometimes forget that I was married once before… and that I had a whole other life in a whole other city. But, I did… and I have the strips to prove it.  And really, aside from a few bits of clothes and my drawing board, the strips are the ONLY things I kept from that life.

So, that’s the strip… thousand by thousand. Hope we’re all around for the 7,000th – which, barring any life complications, should be appearing November 29, 2022.

27 years of self-portraits 1992-2019

That’s a LOT of Franks.

It’s that time of year again… self portrait time.  The last few years I’ve tended to draw the yearly portrait in January. I suppose it could be the “BEFORE” picture of what the year does to me.  It can also represent what the previous year already did to me.  My job is to create. Your job (if you choose to accept it) is to interpret. Click or tap on the image to get a bigger version.