Portrait of a Chipmuck Arm Akimbo

I recently saw the Rembrandt exhibit at the Minneapolis Art Institute.  It largely contained paintings of his students which he could legally sign as his own.  I found myself studying his style and tried to replicate it here.  Rembrandt apparently had a sly sense of humor, so I'd like to think he'd be amused with this even though it's a parody.  What surprised me the most was that many of the paintings had only small areas of great detail and the rest of the figure was not fully realized.  The backgrounds tended to be simple gradients of dark to light as though photographed in a studio with only one key spot light.  This was done in Corel Painter 11.

This was a true collaboration with Sam.  He came up with the Olympic description seen on the right and I added the cartoon visual idea.  Did everyone "get" the visual joke?  I'm never always sure how much I need to say for a joke to work.  People's comedic sophistication continues to evolve but not always evenly.  Sam's generation will understand a joke with less information than maybe my mother-in-law's.  On the other hand, I do this largely to amuse myself, so what do I care.  Well, I do care as it's no fun if nobody gets your joke.

Frank x 3

An idea from son, Sam, that I liked a lot.  Simple playful word play.  I drew a few versions before I went with a visual equally as simple.  ("Simple" as in straightforward and efficient, not "simple" as in dumb.) Sometimes you don't have to make it complicated, especially when you don't have the time.

Gallup

Another old idea of mine, that had only been a rough b/w sketch, re-imagined in living color.  (Used as part of trying to sell a syndicated comic strip that had strong interest initially but never got off the ground.)  Now proudly part of the Like Father Like Son web comic.  And George Gallup looks very much like the guy on stage.

Squeak

Sam's original idea included text in each panel.  But as I completed the last panel, it seemed to work fine with just text at the end.  Sam agreed and so we went with this.  I Googled Batman/Dark Knight images to inspire me and generate ideas for the puppy's dark side.  Batman always seems to be around lightning strikes. And I can't look at that 3rd panel without hearing a crack of thunder in my head.  I love how a silent wordless image can do that.

Alone and isolated.

This one from http://likefatherlikesoncomics.wordpress.com/  and my Facebook cover page came from an idea from Sam.  In the end it was a full collaboration.  He had the funny idea of using the "hit in the head" twice, which I liked.  If it's funny once, it's funnier the second time, but probably not a third time.  This one stumped me for a few days of how to pull it together and make it work best.  Sam had the basic idea and many of its parts but it needed some editing and tightening up.  I nearly gave up on it but finally it came together nicely, I think.  Sometimes if you don't think about it too much or have no distractions you can get through to a solution.  Though its coloring clearly shows my search for a funky looseness, it comes across as just kind of messy.  Oh well.  Give me points for another experiment.

Final Episode

Mime Tarzan came from an idea I thought up probably 10 years ago or so.  Never fleshed it out in color until now.  I'm pleased with its rich color and simple design... and of course its ridiculous premise.  I have nothing against mimes.  Just an idea that popped into my mind long ago that finally found a home at http://likefatherlikesoncomics.wordpress.com/