Mermaid Monster

Greetings, Boys and Girls!  I’ve got something of a new look going.  I’ve combined handdrawn cartoons (colored with copic markers) and photoshop for texts and some clean up work.  Hope you like it.

It’s Home Movie Time!

I’m planning several cartoons on my relationship with water and pools and swimming.  To wet your appetite, I bring you a very short video starring myself as The Vamp, my brother, Brian as The Handsome Hero and my sister, LauraBeth as Vengeful Woman.  This was filmed originally in Aurora, Colorado at the King’s Inn Motel on Colfax in the mid 60s.  We didn’t stay at the motel, but we spent our summers in the pool in the back (as well as the public pool at Delmar Park).  Watching this, I am amazed at how I remembered this pool to be much larger!  But then, I was much smaller.

 

Just So You Know, I LOVED the J Peterman Catalog!

 

Knowing Your Significant Other. Or Not.

Buying clothes for your significant other is perilous at best.  Especially when you really are still in that getting-to-know-you phase.  Even though we had known each other for over two years, I obviously did not know Steve as well as I thought.  There is one more BIG reason this shirt pictured below was not such a big hit.  This will be made clear in the continuation!

This episode From the Sketchbook was inspired by a conversation on Facebook that initially started with me trying to decide what I wanted for my birthday.  I decided to go with this instead of the saga of my cat, Jake.  I will get to that, though, at some point!

For those of you not familiar with the J Peterman catalog, all of the clothes had these short
“stories” that bordered on the ridiculous.  So ridiculous, it was parodied on some hysterical “Seinfeld” episodes, featuring the “Urban Sombrero” amongst other things.

Hope you enjoy this snapshot into my life.

An Interesting Commission

A fellow asked for a painting of his family.  As cats.  Eating breakfast.

Speaking of cats, I’m planning the next Sketchbook entry to include the saga of our cat, Jake and his two recent surgeries.  Possible titles: The Good, The Bad and The Coned;Beneath the Planet of The Coned; How to Drive A Cat To the Animal Emergency Hospital While Somewhat Hammered.

See you then!

 

Newly Rediscovered Ancient Cartoon Of Mine

My last post was about an incident in Jr. High Choir.  After I posted I was digging through old stuff for cartoon fodder, I came across a series of “misery is…” and “happiness is…” cartoons (which I’m pretty sure I stole from somewhere) that I think I just did for fun and for a friend.  Thankfully, my style has changed a bit.  Also, in this version, done far closer in time to the actual incident, I am in the front row as opposed to the back!  I remember it now rather differently.  It’s odd how the memory works.

Speaking of cats, mine is having a small surgery tomorrow therefore I’ll be obsessing over his recovery and might not be doing a new ‘toon.  And by obsessing, I mean staring at him, following him around, wringing my hands (a la my favorite Muppet Beaker) and trying not to call the vet every ten minutes.

Can You Spot The Ramone?

When I was interviewed via Skype by Tremendous Tom Racine, (note to self for next time: closer, better lighting, don’t look down so much! and try to relax…) I had this painting in the background.  Or, rather, part of it.  Here it is in it’s entirety.  Almost. (note to self: find professional art photographer.)  Steve posed for some of the characters, including the two on the couch and the lady with the wild pink hair.  The gal in the yellow pants is loosely based on my gorgeous sister and the dude next to her comes from a project I did waaaay back at the Seattle Art Institute.  The banjo player is based on a very dear friend.  The fellow staring at the viewer on the right became the inspiration for Tim The Ghoul in Our Local Ghouls.  A few of these characters show up in other paintings.  My idea was to build an odd sort of repertory company of players that would become familiar to viewers.  Oh, and the Ramone is Dee Dee, peering in the window.  I’ve included a detail below the main painting.  Also, you can better see the Orion constellation, which is why I titled the painting “Orion”.

What I call my “narrative” paintings are scenes where the viewer can come to any conclusion they like regarding what is going on.

I thought most of this turned out well, but I was never happy with the rather drunken-looking curly haired gal on the bottom left.  I just didn’t like the blue bit below her mouth.  Are artists EVER satisfied??

Have a stupendous week, everyone!  I hope your Autumn is starting off just the way you want.

From The Sketchbook: It’s Pantyhose Time!

Seventh grade really should have been called the Seventh Circle Of Hell.  Seventh graders (when it was called “Junior High” and not Middle School) were at the bottom of the food chain and were lorded over by the ninth graders.  I enjoyed choir, though.  Mostly.  After the ‘toon, I’ve included a photo of myself around this age.  I’m sporting the growing out of a “shag” haircut, courtesy of my mom.  One of the songs we sang for this performance was “Sweet Betsy From Pike”.  An interesting tale, that was sanitized for our delicate age.  Her “lover” Ike was made into her husband.  And I’m not sure how many verses we sang – from what I’ve seen it was a long tale.  Sweet Betsy held off “Injuns”, nearly died in the desert, was eyed by Brigham Young in Utah and Ike ended up divorcing her for dancing with a miner.   Another I recall was “I’ve Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle” about a roaming cowboy who romanced tons of women, but left them because, I guess, he preferred his jangling spurs.

Also, many of you may experience the wonderment of wordpress amping up the colors for whatever reason…

Is Lack of A Sense of Style A Sort of Style?

My anxiety over shopping and clothes and fashion and style no doubt started as soon as I became aware that people often looked at other people.  I longed to be the type that could toss on anything and look brilliantly put together.  But I imagine even those people stared into their closets for extended periods of time.  My mom also hated shopping which explains why she preferred to drop me off at the mall.  These days I am thrilled to be able to do most shopping online, though I do venture into a mall on occasion.  Generally, I wander about, feeling more and more morose, until I shuffle out to head home hoping for a nap.  The “rust” corduroys featured below, which I bought in 1980ish, I kept for 25 years hoping orange, pleated pants that were tight around the ankles would come back into style.

And below the toon, a bonus photo of Fabulous Dan and myself playing around with the Halloween wigs for sale in the shop which sold theatrical supplies.  He was a hoot!

Cathy Rigby, Eat Your Heart Out! From the Sketchbook.

Be sure to click on the image to get a sharper…image.  And if anyone can enlighten me as to how to make the image sharper without having to click on it, feel free!