I could not get online yesterday but now things are back up and running. This is a post for yesterday. Santa was to be our Christmas card but we never sent any because we didn't finish making them. We have a pile of Santa pictures and other card parts that we have not glued together yet. The other is for a friend of ours to give to her husband for Christmas; the gift is a tattoo. Merry Christmas!

Still No Snow

Another Merry Christmas

More Random Sketches

Merry Non-white Christmas

One of my favorite movies is White Christmas (with Bing Crosby) and so far this Christmas season it reminds me of that movie: the part where the guys go to Vermont chasing the gals, run into their old general from the war who is running a ski lodge. The problem is that there is no snow and the lodge might have to close. The guys just happen to be famous performers so they ...go watch the movie!

This is also the first (and only) drawing that I have completed that is entirely stipling. Stipling is what most of us would call pointalism but I read in some snobby art book that pointalism refers to making dots with paint and stipling is for pen and pencil. It doesn't matter. I really like the way it turned out. I would do more but they take a lot of time and patience. I have an F in both.

Cupid

Shane and Rachel

Shane and Rachel are newly engaged. Shane is a superfan of George W. Bush and the proposal went a little something like this: "Will you be my Laura to George Bush?" She said yes despite her utter distaste for the president. This is their congratulations card.

BDay Cards for Steph's Peeps

Steph works with Christina and she is married to Justin. Justin's Birthday party was a pig roast, hence the pig on the front.
PIgs are fun to draw. You should try it today.

From a day at work

I drew this between phone calls at work. This is just a ballpoint pen.

Me and Steph

I really enjoy whenever my wife and I get to work on something together, even if it is something as little as this. She actually did most of the work here, I just penciled it on the way to school. This is another one of the cartoons that gets wierd. If you click on the picture you can see what it is supposed to really look like.

Another DoggyDude

This is another of the ten drawings done for the book called Doggy Dudes.

Chet Caricature

Dave's Birthday

This is a card for a guy in our Wednesday night small group.

Latest Editorial Cartoon

This is the last cartoon that will be publisehd this year in Messiah College's Swing Bridge (the school newspaper). You can see others at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists website: http://editorialcartoonists.com/

As you may know, the newly elected congress ran on some hot topics such as the war in Iraq and have promised a quick withdrawal. I think this is obvously wrong, hence the white flag and the play on Betsy Ross.

The litttle guy to the right is a character from a fellow student's comic strip called Pea Soup. The cartoonists name is Micah Young and in his last cartoon this character didn't like my cartoon. (His strip is actually very good). Anyway, I put this guy in and he has finally seen the light.

Toast

Nathean was a little disturbed about how large he was in his Congrats card so here is another shot at him. My wife told me that he sort of likes soccer a little bit so I made him thinner and gave him a soccer get up. You can only lie to yourself Nathean and the first step to slimming down is admitting there is a problem.

Tonight, at small group the head honcho was away so the guys hung out and the girls hung out so I did a lot of sketching (for me). Don't worry Chet, I will work on yours soon.

The Great Countdown

Finals are a short two weeks away. This only serves to remind me of how little I remember from this last semester. I hope that my head does not explode.

Random

It was a cold morning waiting in line on Black-Friday at 4:30am. Good deals though, especially if you don't care about sleep. Nathean (my brother-in-law) and I hit Staples up for some decent trash that makes us pretty darn cool.

Great Teacher

This is a poor caricature of Dr. Vader who is one of the engineering professors at Messiah College. He is an excellent teacher which I would define as one who is there to teach, committed to students learning real and usable information, and does not play games.

Sleep

Last night was a long night of staring at text books and getting ready for Thanksgiving to begin. Yay for thanking! I will be very thankful when I get some sleep. I was asked to draw a series pictures for a book about an animal band for someone that works at Messiah College. This might be the only one that like of the ten.

Lazy Sunday I

There was a great message at church today but the doodle I had from it was horrendous. That is why I have posted the two crosses. These took me a long time today but I think that they were well worth it. The origonal is about 12 inches high and 9 inches wide; it took about 10 hours. Steph (my wife) and I framed it and gave it to our friends Paul and Lesha when they bought their first home.

Steph inverted it to get the darker version which I think is pretty awesome looking. I think that it is amazing that we look at a cross as a thing of great beauty despite the misery that was Christ's suffering for us-not to mention thousands of others who suffered to a lesser degree. There is some lesson in that, God really does take the ugly and make it beautiful.

The third is a photoshoped sketch of the same pastor that spoke today but this doodle is from a while back. His name is Jason Mitchell.

The holidays are a great time for baking or at least thinking about baking. The former is much easier anyway.

The House That FoxBuilt

I spent some time today helping build a small roof on a house that FoxBuilt is building.

Rainy Thursday

South Central Pa. had a doosey of a rainshower today. Our car was parked in a nearly flooded parking lot and I got to wade in up to achilles tendon to drive the thing out. I was soaked but whatever takes my mind off of the pain of today's test.

Why I Sit In the Second Row

There are three great reasons to sit in the second row during class:
1. Sometimes teachers spit while they lecture but very few spit far enough to hit the second row
2. The second row is still close enough to see everything that is going on
3. It is easier to hide the pictures you draw on your notes

This is picture of Dr. Van Dyke, the toughest teacher I have ever had. Extremely challenging. Ouch.

Wednesday Night

My wife and I go to a small group every Wednesday night and I was able to finish this random feller during a short movie. The movie was about the Metro ministry of the Navigators (http://www.navigators.org/us/). Our fearless leader, Jay and his wife have recently joined the Navigators and will be ministering throughout south-central Pa.

Anniversaries

My older sister wrote today after seeing this blog and reminded me of a card that I had drawn for her to give to her husband's parent's 50th wedding anniversary. That is a fairly bad rendition of them dancing. The other is a card I gave to my hot wife on our second anniversary and it is supposed to be me except that my ears are bigger in real life. This year's card (our third) is pretty aweful so I doubt I will be slapping that one up here.

Liam Plays Badminton

I have four classes and all of them are with this guy who is on the tennis team at Messiah College. He is a good chap and a good sport over this caricature I drew of him while waiting for our second to last lab to begin. I have three tests this week alone which is fairly awful. This Friday will be a good one.

I have found that long waits in the airport are always a good time to break out a sketchbook and draw as many people as possible. Here are a couple from one of our trips this last summer.

This is actually another one from church; the sermon was about not drowning. This is Pastor Keith Walker.

Another Angel

I have a few of these angels that are good for drawing when I cannot think of anything else.

I really like to draw at church (Lancaster County Bible Church: http://www.lcbcchurch.com/) and somehow incorporate the sermon- it is like notetaking without writing. This does not seem to work at school though. Anyway, we had great seats this morning and we could practically look up the pastors nose. Usually I have to draw from a screen. Anyway, I got started but didn't have time to finish...

My wife usually drives us to school so I often spend that time drawing during those 25 minutes in Pennsylvania traffic drawing or sketching. I am a bit slow with it and this one took a couple of trips.

New Horizons Aviation

This is a caricature for a company that gives flying lessons near Goshen, Indiana. This image and another with a ladies head pasted over the guys were for t-shirts that students received after there first solo flight. This was a great project: the folks that I worked with at New Horizons Aviation were very easy to work with, and I thought that it was a lot of fun to caricature an airplane.

Marine Corps. Birthday and Veteran's Day Observed

This is an editorial cartoon that I have submitted to the school's paper. Semper Fi.

First post

This was for a Birthday Card. It is supposed to be Jack Bauer from 24. I have yet to see the show though I hear great things. I wish the drawing was great but the fact that I felt the need to post who it was supposed to be indicates that it might not be the best thing in the solar system.