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/

Good sledding hill.

This week's cartoon is from an idea son, Sam, had.  It's a bit of a nod to Calvin and Hobbes but admittedly without its illustrative genius.  It's part of our Like Father Like Son informal weekly comic at http://likefatherlikesoncomics.wordpress.com/

Death Takes a Holiday

This comes from a cartoon I created many years ago but never colored.  I tried to get a comic strip syndicate interested in a daily strip using this cartoon (one of many) but it didn't happen.  One syndicate was very interested but I didn't know (nor did my agent know) I'd need to submit dozens of ideas before they'd sign me up.  I had maybe a couple dozen.  I read that you need around 120 daily strips ready to submit.  Anyway, still one of my favorites.  And now in living color.

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"A Bridge to Fur" puppet show

My puppet show, "A Bridge to Fur", was born in a writing workshop with Muppet head writer, Jerry Juhl.  I wrote the show to combine two of my loves: history and being completely silly.  The silliness is built on a foundation of real historic research of the 1700's French voyageurs who traveled the upper Midwest.  There are three main characters- Jacques, Gaspar and the Beaver.  Gaspar is a rod puppet.  The other two are hand puppets in the Henson Muppet style.  I made all of the puppets, props and stage.  Anything that looks professionally sewn was done by my wife, Nancy.  I've performed this show all over the world... if your world is limited to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri.  I do the show solo and the audio live so I can interact with the audience.  Below are some photos of some of the show's characters and a performance at the 2010 Children's Festival in West Liberty Iowa.

Hoppy beer

This one popped (hopped) into my head after a discussion of local breweries with a few friends.  I like the contrast of color and characters in this one.  It might have also worked with just the rabbit saying the punchline to another rabbit, but I enjoyed have the setting of this innocent little bunny saying it in this unquestionably seedy bar.

Zebras dine out.

Another "Like Father, Like Son" cartoon.  This one started as an idea from Sam about the unfortunate state of a striped zebra sticking out among other more camouflaged prey.  I couldn't get a clear image in my head how to draw it at this format size so I re-worked it into this.
I sketched it using a pen tool in Corel Painter 11.  (Normally I start with a pencil sketch and re-trace with a pen or marker.)  I've really enjoyed the sketchy freedom of these cartoons.
As you can gather, this was all done digitally.  Since using Painter I haven't used a real pencil, pen, brush or ink for little over a year now.

Super Bowl (Bear) Sunday

Another joint effort between father and son.

Groundhog Day 2012

My son, Sam, sent this idea to me yesterday and I put it to "paper" last night.  (Actually this was made entirely on my Wacom Cintiq monitor using Corel Painter 11.)

A Night at the Opera: Werther

I attended a dress rehearsal of the Minnesota Opera's production of Werther.  It was open to a small group of comic artist to sketch the opera as it happened.  This required a sketch pad, a clip-on reading light and trying to draw moving figures on a stage about 50 yards away.  The remarkable thing is that I never ever attended a opera.  I've avoided them because of the singing always seemed too loud, too dramatic and too long.  But generalizing anything is a bad idea so I gave it a go. This French Opera was quite good.  Great voices and music.  Lively direction and a fascinating set design.  The direction was so lively it was difficult to draw any pose.  The actors were in near constant motion making loose gestural sketches the only option.
Below are several pages from my sketchbook.  I tried coloring some of them after the fact but I think they are best left as they are.  The first act I drew in pencil, which coincidentally fit the light and breezy storytelling.  The second and final act I used a increasingly blunter marker nib pen, which also related well with the story's darker tragic half. 
Most of the written words with the drawings are quotes from the translated lyrics.

Some sketches were more successful than others.  And I wish I'd figured a way to add Batman into my drawings like my fellow sketcher, Tom Boguszewski, did.  Well, there's always next time.

A sample of my illustration.

And so it begins...

Welcome to my blog.  I think it's one of the few blogs on the internet so it shouldn't be hard to find again in the future.  No, wait, I've just been told that there are 3 quadzillion blogs online.  So I guess you won't be back for sometime.  But wait again, I hope to fill this blog with lots of images of both my illustration and puppets.  Yes, some words too, but hopefully not so much with the words.  Even though I've failed at that goal already.  Anyway, I still have a website for my illustration that you can find at: stevemark.com.  And you can see some of my puppetry at Jacques LaFloque's Facebook page.  But here is where you'll come to see both in more depth. Lucky you.