Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the scraps...

Here's hoping we've all hung onto enough to enjoy the holidays!

Gobble, gobble.

-Ed

Last minute syndicate toon

It never fails. Whenever I eat salmon the night before, I always wake up with an idea for a cartoon. No exception this morning, so I scribbled this down for my last pre-Thanksgiving toon. No more drawing for a week now. It's gonna be tough, but I'm gonna try. -Ed

BTW - I know that his name is actually Levi "Johnston." I'm hoping that won't effect the impact of the toon.

Happy Weekend! -Ed

One more syndicate cartoon for the week

I'm rapidly approaching my goal of NO cartooning over the Thanksgiving holiday! 2 more to go! Stay tooned.

-Ed

A nice little write up from a collector

http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2009/11/15/jessica-resting-on-couch-2009-by-ed-hall/

This guy bought the drawing of Jessica shown here last week in one of my Ebay auctions, and posted a nice little blurb about me. He's got some great original artwork on his blog. Check it out.

Another syndicate toon

I pieced this cartoon together from three different sketches on three different pages in three different sketchbooks. Sometimes it just works out that way. I also used my handy digital duoshade (which I haven't broken out in a while) for the shading on Obama and the elephants. I've still got a few more cartoons left to do for the week, so I can be work-free over Thanksgiving. Stay tooned.

-Ed

An after Thanksgiving cartoon - a week early

I've decided that I'm not going to work the week of Thanksgiving this year. So that means I have to get everything done this week to allow ample time for consumption of massive quantities of football and tryptophan. Here's one that will run on the day after Thanksgiving. The idea came to me like a shot in my sleep last night. I scribbled something down in the dark, and managed to decipher it this morning. I like the way this cartoon combines an after Thanksgiving theme with the current job loss situation across the country. It passed the smell test with the missus, so I'm good to go. Now just 4 more cartoons by Friday and I can start gorging myself.

Gobble, gobble...

-Ed

Lovin' me some Pronto Plate

I've never done any lithography before. Mostly because the thought of lugging around a fifty pound block didn't appeal to me. But a couple of weeks ago, my printmaking buddy extraordinaire, Vinnie started bugging me (hounding me actually) to try a product called Pronto Plate. I picked some up at our local art supply store, and it looked just like vellum to me. Well, it doesn't print like vellum. I couldn't be happier with these results, and I can't wait to try this again. I may even experiment a bit with it in-house with a few of my previous drawings. We'll see. In the meantime, I've got a limited run of 10 up on Ebay, and the bidding on the fifth one ends on Sunday, so get in early. Click here for the auction. After I sell the 10 prints, that's it. No more. Look for more drawings from last night and a cartoon later today.

Cheers,

Ed

A local cartoon

Lots of cartoons this week, huh? I really enjoyed inking this one. One of my cartooning brothers told me once that when I'm designing cartoons with mechanical elements, I look like a duck in water. I'd agree with that. Off to figure drawing class. Stay tooned.

-Ed

A lost Jessica drawing

Don't know how I forgot to post this one, but I did. This is from two Sunday's ago. Found it buried under a pile of other sketches, and liked it so much I decided to post it.

We've got Tuesday night sketch class tonight, so look for some new stuff tomorrow. Also, my buddy "Vinnie D" has informed me that my pronto plate lithos from this past Sunday printed well, so I can't wait to see those tonight! Stay tooned.

-E

First syndicate toon of the week

I had originally gone with something much more complicated for this cartoon. I'm glad I did this one instead.

Picked up by The Star

It's always pretty cool when a major metropolitan newspaper picks up one of my cartoons. It's even cooler when it's an international paper. Just found out that The Toronto Star ran my LBJ cartoon today. See two posts ago (below).

New local cartoon

If there's one thing we should have learned by now in NE Florida, it's that people cannot be trusted to dump their trash responsibly. Installing a video camera (which will have to be monitored BTW) at a dump facility in the middle of nowhere, and removing the on site maintenance guy feels like a mistake to me.

Sunday sketch results - minus one

We had our weekly figure sketch class yesterday. I decided to try out a new material called Pronto Plate. It's really just a polyester/vinyl-type paper (like vellum - only more expensive) used in the printmaking realm. You draw on it with a cheap Bic pen and (hopefully) the end result looks like a lithograph. Not sure of the specifics on how it works exactly. Not showing that drawing here because I left it with my buddy Vinnie, to see how a run of prints will come out. Stay tooned for that. I also did a couple of traditional drawings, one of which I went back into with Photoshop this morning. I'll post the original drawing and the Photoshop enhanced version. Also a few gestures done with watercolor pencils. Had some success with my Ebay auctions this weekend. Sold 2 out of 3 drawings, so I was pretty happy with that. Have a great week, and let me hear from you.

Cheers,

Ed

Last cartoon of the week

Here's my last syndicate cartoon for the week. We've got our regular drawing class on Sunday so look for all new figure studies next week. Also, as a reminder, there are (3) Ebay auctions of my original drawings set to finish up on Sunday, so get your bids in now! See the widget in the right hand column of this blog for details.

Thanks, and happy weekend!

-Ed

One down, one to go...

Look for my second syndicate toon sometime later today or first thing in the morning.

-Ed

More Squirrels!

Here's a couple more sketches of my new BFF. I've got some work to do on my computer tomorrow (replacing a power supply - ouch), so I may be down for the day - and with two more cartoon deadlines looming...uh oh... Wish me luck!

-Ed

Code Red! New Life for Diversions!

Just in time for the holidays, Amazon.com has decided to start ordering additional copies of my old books. Three years out from the last anthology of cartoons, and they are ordering more. I think that's great. I don't understand it, but I also ain't complaining. For those of you who don't know, there are two collections of my editorial cartoons: Code Red published in 2003 covers post 9-11, and the lead up to the election of George W. Bush. Diversions published in 2006, follows most of the Bush administration, the Iraq war, and Hurricane Katrina. Both are still available through Amazon. Click here and here.

Thanks in advance if you decide to pick one up!

-Ed

New local cartoon

Here's a cartoon that was inspired by an article in last week's paper. A disgruntled father allegedly kicked his 3 year old son down a hallway, and the kid's daycare subsequently reported it to DCF. The 20 bruises counted on the boy's body were determined to be child abuse, and the child is now in protective custody. The father is sitting in jail. It's a sad story, and it got me to thinking about the stresses brought on by the recession, job losses, and shrinking incomes. Hit a wall if you have to. Hit a heavy bag. Just stay away from the kids when the stresses get to be too much.

My Sunday best

Here's the last drawing I did yesterday. I won't bore (or disgust) you with the others. Suffice it to say, it took me all class to get warmed up, and here's what resulted from the one hour pose. If you like this drawing, look for it on Ebay later in the week. I'll be sure to post a reminder as the weekend gets closer, and I'll also list it in my Ebay auction widget (right-hand side column of this blog).

Thanks & Cheers,

Ed

My new best friend

The grey squirrels have been out early this year, foraging and fattening up, which can only mean one thing - a long cold winter (relatively speaking for North Florida). This little guy has been camping out right outside the sun room window, so I decided to sketch him up. He doesn't seem to be too scared of me either. He just sits and eats, grooms for a while and then goes to look for another acorn. Then the process starts all over again. I like the body shape of the squirrel. I'm trying to imagine what his little skeleton looks like as I'm drawing these. Kinda interesting. Look for a drawing from yesterday's class to be posted shortly. It took me all class to finally get a drawing that I liked. It was a strange Sunday. I didn't feel "locked in" until the end of class, which is weird for me. But I liked the last drawing so much I think I'm going to put it up on Ebay for another auction. Stay tooned, and let me hear from you.

-E

Digital dump

Here's a bunch of digital, cartoon and traditional scribbles from my junk file and sketchbook. These are just an assortment I've neglected to post over the past few months. Hope you find them interesting.

-Ed

For The Boys

For this manga-type illo, I wanted to do something like the old WWII pin up girls. The idea was actually inspired by my buddy Dat over coffee on Wednesday. I was just starting the pencils when he mentioned that he might like her skirt to be camo. That led to the idea for the finished piece, so I paid homage to him by tattooing his name on her left cheek. Thanks Dat! We've got drawing class over the weekend with another of my favorite models, so look for all new figure sketches on Monday.

Cheers, and Happy Weekend!

-Ed

One more to round out the week

When I heard that the police were beating female protesters on the streets of Tehran (again), I had to say something about that (again).

I'm done for the week, but we've got figure drawing class on Sunday, so stay tooned for that.

Have a happy weekend!

-Ed

New syndicate cartoon

I probably won't gain fans in either camp with this cartoon, but I can't help but think that Obama's taking too much time making decisions these days. I can appreciate wanting to weigh all sides, and getting a good measure of everything that might be affected, but I also think there has to be a balance between making decisions too quickly (the 'ol Bush knee-jerk) and dragging things out too long. Otherwise it starts to look like spin.

Another manga illo

Here's another recently completed manga study. I wanted to play around more with stylizing the face, body and breasts, while maintaining the dynamic quality of the pose. I also Google image searched volleyball teams for the color. Never knew I liked the sport so much. :-)

Cheers,

Ed

Cartoons - oh yeah those...

Seems like quite a while since I posted an editorial cartoon, so here's the first of the week. I'm happy that this one can also be used for my syndicate. I've got a couple of ideas for another Karzai/Afghanistan cartoon, so look for that one later in the week.

Best,

Ed

PS - I decided against the Tuesday night drawing class tonight, so no figure sketches until next Monday. I've got some other Manga stuff I'm working though, so stay tooned for that.

Sunday Sketch

We had our weekly figure sketch get-together yesterday. Here are the results (a little late - we've had overcast skies again today). I used marker for my gesture drawings this time around. Don't know why, just wanted to try something different. I started with an burnt umber colored marker, and finished them off with a black sharpie.

I also took one of the quick drawings (10 minutes) and turned it into a Manga sketch.

I like the pose so much, I'll probably work this up into something a little more finished - maybe a Manga super heroine or something - stay tooned. I'll post those together so you can see where I changed the position of the head.

This drawing is probably my favorite from the day. I like the pensive quality of the model with her head resting on her knee. I've been reading in my new figure drawing book about how you should try to realize the "story" of each drawing. The model had commented how she had been moving to a new house for the last couple of days and was tired. I didn't really have to work too hard to make her look tired and tell that story. She was tired - you could tell by her body language. Here's another "sleepy time" sketch.

For the last pose I wanted to try something really different for POV so I stood at the top of a ladder and drew as I looked pretty much straight down on the figure. It's interesting how this POV makes the model feel much more vulnerable vs. when I draw her while seated on the floor where she looks very triumphant and powerful. Let me hear from you!

Cheers,

Ed