Christmas Projects

The time of Christmas gift giving has come and gone, but not before I could snap a couple of pictures of some projects that Melissa and I gave away. We were feeling especially crafty this year so we made a bunch of our gifts. It really was a lot of fun and gave me an excuse to do a little bit of wood working. Melissa came up with a great idea to make a recipe box for her sister. So I built the box and she painted it. Melissa wrapped it up before I could get a picture of it with the paint on it, which is unfortunate because it looked really awesome with her added genius.

And for Melissa's dad, I made a pipe. He's a woodworker himself, so there was some added pressure to make something extra cool. He had given me a few small boards of dark walnut from a tree in his back yard and I had to do something with 'em.

There were a few other fun projects that I didn't get a chance to photograph. Anyway, happy new years everybody!

Watercolor Caricatures

Here's a gift caricature I just finished up. I was pretty happy with the watercolors. I think I made some good strides... maybe. Unless you don't think so. Then its a piece of crap.

Not Army Strong... Perry Strong

Marc And Bobby's Dissent

My former editor Bobby and I have been talking about starting a political satire website for almost nine months. During that time we did a lot of brainstorming, pointless yammering, and procrastinating. Well, we finally put a blog together. I don't know if it will stay in the blog format (we've come up with some crazy ideas) but until we get something concrete and finalized, you can expect to see a few funny posts a week over at marcandbobby.blogspot.com/ Both Bobby and I will be contributing written editorials while I'll also post topical cartoons as well as some spot illustrations. As if that weren't enough for you to be giddy with excitement, my good pal and brilliant writer Kyle Constalie will be a regular contributor as well. So go check out what all the dissent is about!

WIP Holiday Card

Here's a mostly finished drawing I did for Melissa an my Christma-Hanu-Kwanza card. I've still got a little bit of touching up to do. Anyway, happy holidays everyone.

Ed Hochuli: Layin' Down The Law

Another watercolor in the bag. I thought I would do something just in black and white and focus more on mark making technique and what not.

Pizza, Pizza!

Here's another watercolor I finished up today. The lovely and cuddly Herman Cain is one of those characters who's campaign is going to gradually fall apart. Being the front runner is hard of course. And how you deal with the bumps along the way is just as important as your talking points during debates/speeches or whatever else. I never liked Cain, and I like him even less after this past week. He clearly doesn't know how to come out and tell the truth about some settlement that happened in the 90s. Hell, he can't even keep his story strait over the course of a couple days. Presidential quality? Perhaps not.

Christmas With The Boys

I just finished this watercolor up today. I alluded to my painting frustrations of last week in my previous post, and this here be the culprit. Despite all the problems the painting provided, I was happy with how the caricatures turned out.

Watercolor Warm Up

Well it's been a while since I've posted here, and I wish I had a good excuse. I guess I've just been slacking. Anyway, all last week I was working on a watercolor painting, and though it had been a while since I used watercolors, the thing was a pain in the ass the whole way though. So the only logical thing for me to do was buy some new watercolors and try them out. Oddly enough, I like them better than the brand I had previously been using and will subsequently revisit last weeks painting and post it here as soon as its done.

Above was a quick caricature of Melissa Mantzke

New Website!

Well, I finally did it. The website is up. I still have to go through and fix up a few typos and flaws. Overall I think I'm happy with it, but if anyone sees something that they don't like, let me know. Here's a link http://www.marcandersonillustration.com/.

Scott Walker's Castle

Wisconsin state Legislature is going to grant Gov. Walker the power to ratchet up the rules on state recalls. Since Walker's one year of immunity is nearing its end, I'd imagine he will go quite out of his way to save his rear end and avoid a recall at all costs. But with the partisan atmosphere in Wisconsin, I don't really know that his actions will have much effect one way or the other.

Congressional Reruns

What can I say about Congress that isn't already communicated with a 12 percent (for the moment) approval rating?

On another note, I thought I would loosely base the guy in the chair off my dad. I haven't ever drawn anyone I knew into an illustration or a cartoon before, so I thought it would be fun. Plus my dad has some intense eyebrows so when he gets upset, you can tell.

Solar-darity

It's sad to say, but there is a good chance that Solyndra's bankruptcy will affect the momentum of green energy and technology. With the 2012 election campaigns coming into full swing, where to allocate our limited federal resources will become a hot issue for candidates. Unfortunately I think Obama and renewable energy will take a big hit on this one.

That Rascally DMV

There's always somebody trying to sell you something.

Okay, More With the Valleyfair Junk

Well, I thought I would post these and promise to never post anything from ValleyFair again... again. The top two are coworkers out at the park.

Cartooning At Last!

With the Wisconsin special recall elections out of the way (minus two Democrat senators on the chopping block next week), it might serve Democrats well to reflect on the results. Only two districts were able to replace their former Republican lawmakers, one short of the three required to make a Democrat majority. This is not surprising as Democrats in this country have developed an innate ability to fail at everything.

There has been a bit of speculation whether the results of the elections are an indication of a nation wide sentiment: public sector unions are destroying the country. At the moment, many American's are popping Dramamine to assist in the tumultuous voyage that has been the economy. A pertinent distraction to be sure. Of course America's nausea may persist, but at the Wisconsinites' Pharmacy(liquor store) there's a more appropriate remedy. Part of me doubts that the elections will phase anyone outside of the Cheesehead state. However, the rigid, partisan divide in Wisconsin is completely in line with the rest of the nation. That, I do believe, will foreshadow the 2012 election season. As per usual, the Republicans' inane rhetoric will trump thoughtful, deliberate, debate just as "Wisconsin Pharmacies" will trump Dramamine, Aspirin, or even mild opiates.

ValleyFair Nonsense

Okay, I think this will be my last ValleyFair post for a while. I've realized that I have become wildly unproductive in things not relating to theme park caricature and this makes me sad. So, God willing, my next post will be something really cool!

Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!

Today's Jacked Up Faces

I did this drawing right at the end of the day. It's rare for me to have a drawing that I really like at the end of the day, so I thought better of letting this one go to waste.

Mighty Stock CD Jacket

My older brother and his brother-in-law cohort are coming out with a second album and again asked me to do the artwork for the cd jacket. The last time around I did a bit of a photo collage with some manipulating in photoshop. It wasn't all that exciting, so I wanted to do some actual painting for this one.

Today's Jacked Up Faces

More ValleyFair Fun

I haven't been keeping up with any other projects the last week or so, so in lieu of a wonderful, poignant editorial cartoon a laboriously painted watercolor, I've got a couple more drawings from Valleyfair.

Old Hat

All six actual democrats won in the primaries yesterday. Even though the Wisconsin republicans' fake democrats were a bust, I'm sure they have more dishonest plots in the works before the general elections in August.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/125464393.html

More ValleyFair Fun

Here are two more pics I took out at the park. I did up a "Governator" sample the other day. The gag was kind of a last minute thing, but I think it turned out pretty swell.

ValleyFair Caricatures

Here are a few pictures I snapped yesterday out at ValleyFair.





I was bored today so I drew up an Anthony Weiner sample. I don't think I'll be hanging it up on the wall, but it was fun to draw and color.

Hamid Karzai Double Take

Exemption for Romney?

I haven't gotten around to coloring this one yet, but his day is coming.

New Website In Progress

I've had the goal of updating my website for quite some time now, but alas, I actually have gotten some work done on it now. Below are the home page and a basic template for the cartoons page. I think for the illustration and sketchbook pages I'll end up having thumbnails on the left and the larger image on the right. We'll see.

Budget Slashing

The FEMA budget should be one of the safest allotments in the federal budget. It should be. The Obama budget plan does put some cuts in FEMA during a year that has seen numerous calamities, natural disasters, and the like. However, any conservative that blasts this "irresponsible" plan must do one of three things:

1) admit that global warming is in some way affecting the frequency of strong weather occurrences and subsequently depleting FEMA's resources.
2) take a look at the other socially irresponsible budget cuts that they so adamantly cling to.
3) pull their heads out of their asses.

Tijuana Donkey Show

In recent weeks, the political landscape has been strewn with scandals involving lawmakers, a governor, even the French philanderer, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. While many of the acts of inappropriate behavior shouldn’t be advocated, one must wonder if it is at all appropriate for the matters to be discussed on a national level in a manner akin to one of those “donkey shows” in Tijuana that I keep hearing about. It is true that lewd behavior on the part of any politician reflects directly on his or her (but not really her) character. At the same time, however, the thought that our elected and appointed officials should be infallible is one of ignorance and naivety.

But why do they warrant so much of our attention? Former senator Larry Craig had us tapping our feet all the way to hysteria. We impeached Bill Clinton because of a blowjob. Sometimes I really wish these political leaders were afforded the same privacy that us regular folks hold so dear.

Planet of the Blagojevich

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich took the stand in his retrial this week. How is that clown's trial still going on nearly 3 years after his offenses took place?

Corn-acopia

I wonder how often people really question why Iowa's primaries are held before all other states and how the ramifications affect the subsequent elections.

A Dog About Town

Moammar Gadhafi and Michele Bachmann sketches




Illustrator and Caricaturist extraordinaire Antwan and I engaged in another of our drawing challenges. Antwan came up with the stipulations of illustrating a dog in a cityscape. Above is my submission.

Wrong Shade?

Window Shopping

NY Times: Audit of Pentagon Spending Finds $70 Billion in Waste


USA Today: House passes $690 billion defense bill