Blue Moon Blog

I was walking down the street the other day
Who did I meet
I met a friend of mine and he did say
Man I can smell your breath a mile away
Smile away, smile away, smile away, yeah smile away

Paul McCartney

Sketching is thinking is writing is ruminating is creating is challenging is cathartic. So let’s get out there and think, write, draw, create!

I watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist the other night. Liked it. It’s basically a teen flick, but it handles the characters in thoughtful and subtle ways. Most of the weight it may have is driven by the performances of the two leads, Michael Cera (who’s great in everything in which I’ve ever seen him) and Kat Dennings, with whom I was unfamiliar. I was quite taken with her, so that explains this sketch. She’s got a nice quality.

I also appreciate the nod in the title to the names another famous screen duo, from another time.

Back to sketching old ladies again today, and threw some color on one version.

From the archives, a few gesture sketches of women, a little younger than yesterday’s sketch.

Not a warm-up sketch this time, but and end-of-work-day sketch, after a long day of storyboards and illustration work.

I present here another old man, and gave him three different treatments, just for grins and tickles.

Another political cartoon. Love her or not, she’s having an effect on the public debate, probably even more so than when in office, bypassing traditional media.

Some data and a similar take at the link at techpresident.com.

For the “grumpy old man” sketch in my post yesterday, I borrowed the title from a cartoon I recall from my childhood. Here Comes the Grump! I liked the show, but remember pretty much only the rhythmic theme song and the Grump bumping forward when his dragon screeched to a halt. Watch and listen in this Grump intro sequence:

Upon viewing now years later, it evident that The Grump was an awful, crappy, rotten show, an obvious knock-off of Yosemite Sam, both created by Friz Freleng, who had previously done some superb work at Warner Brothers. This later show was cheaply produced, and ran in 1969-1970 for 17 episodes, when I was 6-7 years old. There’s no accounting for the taste of a kid!

Though watching this intro and snippets of episodes reminded me of details and specifics, in some ways I wish I’d never seen it again: it played much better in my head, better left as a memory.

Aw, now I’m a little grumpy myself.

Still, I’m cheered a bit by repeating the chorus chant “Here Comes the Grump! Here Comes the Grump!”