Krampus Ornament

Last but not least, a papercraft Krampus ornament that I also made for sale at our Etsy store.

I believe there are only two of them left, so get one while they last. They are great to have lurking in the back of your Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

80s Monster Tiki Ornaments

Lately I have been turning my 80s and 90s tiki monster designs into little papercraft ornaments.

We currently have these for sale at our Etsy store – ChuckleTree. They can also be purchased through our Facebook web-site.

For anyone living in the Boise, Idaho area we also have them for sale at the Miss Courageous studio on the corner of Irving and Orchard. Just look for the bright pink sign. I recommend checking out the store. It just opened this month, and has a lot of fun pop-culture gifts.

Abraham Lincoln Cut-Out Portrait

I really enjoyed working on the Grim Raven in black and white, so I decided to give the style another try. This is made out of pieces of paper that were individually cut and shaded with charcoal and black pastel. It's always a bit of a guessing game how it is going to turn out, so they are quite fun to assemble.

Grim Raven (Mark 2)

I didn't like some aspects of my first Grim Raven attempt, so I decided to give it another attempt. I fixed the angle on the head, and added some more texture to the wings, which I quite like.

This piece, as well as a lot of other cut-outs and prints, are for sale in my wife and I's Etsy store - ChuckleTree.

Etsy Shop

Anna and I have recently opened our own Etsy shop. It's called ChuckleTree, and we will be selling papercraft items, and our own art and illustrations. The first item we have for sale is some skull bat magnets. They are handmade from cardstock, they have been covered with two layers of protective polycrylic, and they have a magnet attached the the back.

If you are interested, follow the LINK!

And as an added bonus, here is the new Chuckletree Logo that Anna has been working on for the store.

Thorin Oakenshield Portrait

A quick portrait of Thorin Oakenshield from The Hobbit. 

I drew this out of spite after watching the new Hobbit movie by Peter Jackson, but didn't get around to coloring it until today (after watching the trailer for the new movie and getting angry again). I really dislike the designs in the new Peter Jackson movies, and Thorin is one of the worst of the bunch (aside from the shit covered Radagast). He looks like an Aragorn clone that was removed from the incubation chamber before he was fully cooked.

With great trepidation I Googled the Beorn design from The Hobbit 2. What the hell is the deal with the skunk mullet?

Fall Leaves

Happy Autumn!

John Boehner - Jackass O' Lantern

Now that I've been furloughed I have some extra time to draw. What better way to spend my unpaid, unnecessary, unwanted vacation than to draw unflattering portraits of the idiots responsible?

Considering the proximity of Halloween, and Boehner's orange hue, I figured it would be appropriate to draw him as a weepy Jack O' Lantern.

English Breakfast

This is a project that my wife (The Amazing Anna) and I started clear back in August and finished about a week ago. I only got around to photographing it today.

I  came up with the concept and the original sketch. Anna did the the lines, colors, printing, cutting and gluing. I'll take most of the credit for it though. 

Haunted Halloween Tree

Another spooky Halloween related illustration to add to my seasonal collection.

Yay! It's my favorite time of year!

Senator Ted Cruz

Considering the ocean of shit on capital hill nowadays, and Senator Ted Cruz's very large role in it, I couldn't help but draw this quick caricature last night.

To say I am angry at Cruz is a bit of an understatement. I was so pissed last night, this was the most eloquent caricature that I could think of. All of the brinksmanship with the US budget is borderline blackmail and bullying. This treat of a government shut-down will accomplish nothing except harm the US economy and impact a lot of hard working federal employees. For anyone who thinks that federal employees are lazy, I invite you to talk to one of the people who actually work on the ground. Most of them work their asses off. And they are the exact people who would be impacted by the partial shut-down. Not the politicians who waste millions of dollars a year posturing and grandstanding.

Fuck you Ted Cruz! (That has a nice chanty ring to it. haha)

Grim Raven

Pastel on cardstock.

I have hereby started my yearly barrage of Halloween art.

For this one I was trying to do something different with my cut-out style, using pastels to shade the individual parts, and give it more of a traditional feel.

I attempted this using a few different media, including soft pencils and India ink. The ink was a miserable failure, and I threw away the pieces after only putting together one of the wings. I was relatively pleased with how the pencils turned out though. It didn't have quite enough contrast, but I thought it still looked interesting. I will definitely be trying something else with pencil in the future.

What do you all think?

Rough draft. Pencil on watercolor paper.

Presidential Portraits

Done!

Here they all are collected in one large poster for easy reference.

This project has been long and trying, but I am feeling really proud of myself for finishing it.

As an added bonus, there will be no more presidential portraits for at least another two years (I hope!!).

Please click on the image for a larger version.

#44 Barack Obama (2008-2016)

The 44th president of the United States - Barack Obama.

Barack was the third president to win a Nobel Peace Prize while in office. He also won a Grammy. I wonder which he is more proud of?

Obama was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was also the first black president of something else...

#43 George W. Bush (2001-2009)

The 43rd president of the United States - George W. Bush Jr.

The first president to be appointed by the Supreme Court.

George W. Bush took more vacation days than any other president in history: over 900 days in eight years.

#42 Bill Clinton (1993-2001)

The 42nd president of the United States - Bill Clinton. 

During Clinton's run at the presidency the United States experienced its greatest period of peace and prosperity.

The US experienced its lowest levels of unemployment in modern times, the lowest inflation in three decades, the highest home ownership, dropping crime rates, and reductions in welfare collection.

Unfortunately he will only be remembered for one thing though...

... wailing on the sax.

#41 George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)

The 41st president of the United States - George H.W. Bush Sr.

Prior to becoming vice president under Reagan, George was a congressman, the representative to the United Nations and China, and the director of the CIA. His father was also a congressman from Connecticut. Apparently the Bush family just gets more and more powerful with each subsequent generation. I guess it's inevitable that the Bush twins will be empresses of the Milky Way.

You heard it first here folks.

#40 Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)

The 40th president of the United States - Ronald Reagan.

An actor.

He was also the man who thought that trees pollute more than cars.

#39 Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)

The 39th president of the United States - James Carter.

Jimmy Carter's presidency was quite the quagmire, and he lost his re-election bid due to the poor economy and the Iran hostage crisis.

Carter created the Department of Energy and had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were quickly removed by Reagan when he took office.

#38 Gerald Ford (1974-1977)

The 38th president of the United States - Gerald Ford.

The first man to fill the role of a resigning president.

He also modeled to pay his way through law school, and was on the cover of Cosmopolitan. I kid you not.

#37 Richard Nixon (1969-1974)

The 37th president of the United States - Richard Nixon.

The crook.

...Who also proposed the EPA. I'm so conflicted.

#36 Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)

The 36th president of the United States - Lyndon Baines Johnson.

I admire Johnson. He grew up in poverty, went to college to become a teacher, then eventually became a politician with the goal of helping the American people.

In the course of his political career Lyndon Johnson served as a representative, senator, vice-president and president. Had be been appointed as a supreme court justice he would have ascended to the next plane of existence and become a being of pure light.

Judging by his appearance, he was also, presumably, a big fan of Walter Matthau. I was going to do a caricature of Matthau the other day after watching "The Odd Couple", but after drawing Johnson, what's the point?

#35 John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

The 35th president of the United States - John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Kennedy was the youngest (43), and the first Roman Catholic president.

His debates with Nixon were also the first televised presidential debates. That definitely wasn't a boon for Nixon.

#34 Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)

The 34th president of the United States - Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Ike was one of only five army generals who held five stars (one of only nine men in all of the United States armed forces).

And who can forget that prophetic quote about the military-industrial complex:

"The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist."

#33 Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)

The 33rd president of the United States - Harry S. Truman.

Atomic bombs, Korean war, The UN. I do not envy this man.

#32 Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)

The 32nd president of the United States - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

FDR was president during two of the greatest struggles in American history - The great depression, and the beginning of the second world war. He is the only president to serve more than two terms, and died shortly after being elected for a fourth term.

#31 Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)

The 31st president of the United States - Herbert Hoover.

An Oregonian and an orphan.

He also had a massively wide slab of concrete named after him at the border of Nevada and Arizona.

#30 Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)

The 30th president of the United States - Calvin Coolidge.

Calvin Coolidge had one of the strangest White House pets, a Raccoon named Rebecca.

He also supported the interests of big business over those of the working class. The great depression started soon after he left office. Sounds familiar...

Batmobile White Out

The other day I was walking through the parking lot, passed a large white splatter on the pavement, and this image popped into my head.

Poor Batman. I bet this kind of crap doesn't happen to Superman.

#29 Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

The 29th president of the United States - Warren G. Harding.

Eyebrows!!

#28 Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)

The 28th president of the United States - Woodrow Wilson.

During all of the aggressions in Europe during the 1910s Wilson's campaign slogan for his re-election campaign was "he kept us out of the war". Upon re-election he promptly declared war on Germany.

Wilson is also the only president with a Ph.D.

#27 William H. Taft (1909-1913)

The 27th president of the United States - William Howard Taft.

The only man to have served as president, and chief justice of the United States. Apparently he preferred the latter.

It seems crazy to me to label either Taft or Roosevelt as republicans. Their more progressive politics don't even have a passing resemblance to the current GOP. If you look at the electoral maps between 1908 and 2008 they are almost completely reversed.

Stylized Animal Challenges: Parrotfish and Wildebeest

For the last entry in my posting spree here are two animal drawings that I did for the monthly Stylized Animal group challenge on devaintArt. The parrotfish challenge has already come and gone, but the wildebeest is still open (until the first week of September).

For the parrotfish challenge I drew a humphead parrotfish. Between their massive overbite, malformed noggin, and the name 'humphead' I couldn't resist drawing it as a backwater hillbilly. Plus I was reading a lot of The Goon at the time.

For the wildebeest I just did a simple faux cut-out caricature. I rather enjoy how this one turned out. There is something almost tiki-esque about the face. 

Pacific Northwest Chorus

Another quicky drawing I completed in my sporadic free time.

I wanted to try a different take on Bigfoot, and was thinking of him as a hair panchoed simpleton.

Hopefully I don't offend anyone with Bigfoot bloodlines.

Snowy Owl

Between work, overtime at work, and applying for more work (and trying, in vain, to work on my journal manuscript) I haven't had a lot of time for art. I have taken a few hours here and there to work on small projects though. 

Anna bought a Cameo Silhouette about a month ago, and to test it out I made this snowy owl cut-out. It was all cut out of a single piece of watercolor paper, and each piece was individually painted.

Lately I have been getting into birding and started keeping a life list. Counting my time in New Zealand and South America, and the lists I kept while in those countries, my count is already up to 245. Expect more birds in the future!

#26 Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

The 26th president of the United States - "Teddy" Roosevelt.

Despite recent attacks from intellectual Lilliputians such as Glenn Beck, Teddy Roosevelt is considered one of the greatest presidents in American history.

Thanks to the conservation ethic of Roosevelt many of our most treasured national parks and monuments have been protected from development and degradation.

Plus, any president who delivers a 90 minute speech after being shot in the chest is cool by me!

#25 William McKinley (1897-1901)

The 25th president of the United States - William McKinley.

McKinley was the last president who served in the Civil War. Unfortunately his second term in office was abruptly nixed by an anarchist.

I'm relatively certain that Sam Eagle from The Muppets was based off of McKinley. He's a dead ringer.

PS. I highly recommend Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowel, who makes a lot of really interesting observations about historic presidential assassinations.

#23 Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)

The 23rd president of the United States - Benjamin Harrison.

Harrison was the only grandchild of a president to be elected president. That is, until Jenna and Barbara Bush decide to collectively run for the office.

#22 & #24 Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897)

The twenty second, and twenty fourth president  of the United States - Grover Cleveland.

Grover Cleveland was the only American president elected for two non-consecutive terms. He was also the first Democrat elected after the civil war.

#21 Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)

The twenty first president of the United States - Chester A. Arthur.

Chester A. Arthur basically seems like the presidential equivalent of white bread. He legitimately seemed to do what he felt was right, but lacked energy. When he died the New York World wrote, "No duty was neglected in his administration, and no adventurous project alarmed the nation."