PETS ARE A GIFT FROM HEAVEN

Recently, many of my friends have lost their pets. The photos of them and their little friends and the stories they have shared really touch my heart. I myself, have lost pets in past and I have experienced the deep sense of loss and sadness that comes with losing a precious gift from heaven. Always, after I have a pet die I swear I wont allow myself to go through that kinda pain again, then I promise myself not to ever own another pet but, some how I can't help myself and next thing you know I have a new buddy. So, I never thought in a million years that I would have two cats, two dogs, and two horses, a rabbit, a fish and two Alligator lizards. I guess that's what happens when you have children in the house. They all want a pet.
My first pets, before I had my children, were a kitten named Miss B's (we rescued from an abusive person) and another special kitty named Pantone who was found in the woods. We spent hours picking deer ticks off this precious little kitten and she didn't complain not once. We adored those cats and when they passed away we were devastated. I almost forgot about our Florida soft shell turtle named Cooter that my wife rescued from a stray cat. He was amazing, I would catch minnows and hand feed him. Cute as a button for sure. I let him go back into the wild where he belonged when he was ready. I don't think my wife has forgiven for that yet, she loved that little guy. Well, after we lost our two cats we didn't even consider getting another pet until years later we decided to get our daughter Sable a new kitten. We adopted a black and white kitten that resembled our cat Miss B's. My wife Jodi came up with name Echo as a homage to our Miss B's. Shortly after we brought this little kitten home it got very sick. We brought it to a veterinarian to see what we could do to save this little guy. He said," They never should have sold you this kitten, it is very sickly and it's probably going to die. You should take it back and get your money back." My wife said, "We can't, our daughter is in love with it, what can we do to save him?" Well, after sleepless nights and a whole lot of attention, Echo lived and still lives. He is definitely Sable's cats and has brought her a lot of joy and comfort to her life over the years. He's very old now and coming to the end of his life and I am not looking forward to the heart break my daughter is going to go through when he passes. Tig, the other cat in the house, is on loan from a friend who is serving our country over seas. My youngest daughter adores him and he has quickly become part of the household. He has the ability to go to the bathroom in the toilet, unfortunately, he doesn't flush.
Our two dogs are Toby and Indigo. Toby is the epitome of a dog that I have been drawing my entire life and somehow my wife found him. He is a terrier mix and is more of a little man than a dog. I love him dearly, my wife says that I love him more than her. She wins, but not by much. Every time I look into his big brown eyes my heart melts. It's a good thing because he prefers going to the bathroom in the house verses the yard. Our other dog Indigo, is 100% dog. She is a pure breed Blue Healer. She was originally adopted for our youngest daughter but she gravitated to my oldest daughter. Sable takes her to the ranch where she works. She's a good ranch dog she stays next to Sable's side just waiting for a command. When Sable takes her horse out for a trail ride she takes Indigo with her and sometimes she comes back with an exhausted dog ride on her horse with her. She will chase a ball for as long as you are willing to throw it and shows her love with big kisses and little nips. Our horses are Bullet and Bliss. We had three horses at one point, the third was Esperanza a black and white paint. She was a handful for sure. We rescued her, she was in terrible shape but after a lot of love and a ton of care she turned out to be a wonderful horse. She was getting injured to often as my daughter was using her for barrel racing so we decide to find her a new owner that would take care of her the way we did, lot's of love and attention and no more races for her. We found her a wonderful new home. Bullet is a grey quarter horse, originally purchased for me. We got him when he was just 2 years old and have trained him from the ground up. He is like a giant puppy. He is over sixteen hands now, he was never supposed to get that big. He was my buddy, and a great trail horse. I stop riding about the same time we sold Esperanza. Sable need a new barrel horse and so she adopted him as her new barrel horse. They bonded and are thick as thieves now. His mane and tail are braided now and his tack is a little more sparkly and shiny but I don't think he minds to much. Our other horse is Bliss, she's an older horse, she is a speckled Arabian. She and Bullet get along like brother and sister. She loves to compete. We got her for Eden, my middle daughter. When they ride together, it's just so wonderful to watch them flow through the poles in sink with each other, the way they sway back and forth with each other it's as though they are one.
The rabbit is another rescue, of course. It's name is Sushi, it's a lion mane, and it is down right adorable. He is a new addition to the house as is the fish, Kettle and the lizards Riddick and The Jackle . My daughters just love to watch them, the fish in his sparkly lit  tank and the lizards, in their terrarium.
Well that's all our pets. They are always there to greet us with exuberance and enthusiasm whether we've been gone for five minutes or five days when we get home. They comfort us when we need it and make us laugh. The endless love and joy we get from our animals is surely a gift from heaven.

 

Toby's on this page.

This was inspired by Pantone.

An old drawing of Jodi being comforted 

by Miss B's when she was sick.

"Miss B's"

"COOTER"

More Tobster!

"BULLET"

This is Esperanza when Sable drives onto the ranch
 and doesn't go to her immediately.

 

All Gov. Flanders drawings are inspired

 by our cat "ECHO"

 

 

I love goats, so I did some drawings of them.

NEW ILLUSTRATIONS!

 

 

This is a new illustration I did. It was a lighting nightmare. 

I also was experimenting with textures. I put my dog Toby 

on the ottoman to the left.

 

This is also a new illustration as well, but from a very old sketch.

 It is meant to be a two page spread illustration. I also was 

experimenting with how to handle a busy background.  

 

This is called "Sable's dream". This would be heaven for her.

Just in time for Halloween.

This is a illustration I did from a story I wrote called "Turcelroy"

Whatever happened to humility? 

"Remember to love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Whatever happened to humility? Being humble used to be a quality that people really admired. I don't think there is anything wrong with having high self-esteem. As a matter of fact, it's something I have ingrained into my children, but I also taught them humility. Humility is the understanding that even though you have strong self-worth you should always remember that you are part of society, which means not always putting your own self-importance above everyone else. Simply, try to remember that it's not always about you. 

My office mate and I have a name for those kinds of selfish, "me first" people, we call them Universers. They think that the universe revolves around them. They think that they shouldn't have to wait in line or sit in traffic. They're so self-absorbed that sometimes they're not even aware of their rude behaviors. Behaviors, such as; talking loudly with their cell phone on speaker mode, next to you, while in a restaurant. They are the people that skip the line in coffee shops, sandwich shops, and bathrooms. They pull into handicap spots even though they don't have a handicap placard. They drive up the medium or the curb to get around traffic. They step in front of you at the grocery store while you are shopping like you are invisible. I can keep on going and going because people are getting more and more selfish. At least in LA, it's getting out of control.

There are a few things that I believe contribute to this problem. First, poor parenting plays a huge role in this "me first" attitude. Parents are telling their kids how special they are and how unique they are and that's all good but they should follow up with, "Remember to love your neighbor as you love yourself". They give their children anything that they demand even placing them above the social surrounds at any given time. Example; A child screaming at the top of their lungs in a restaurant and the parents do nothing to correct the behavior. What has the child just been taught by its parents? I can spend much more time on poor parenting but let's move on. 

Next, is the problem of the lack of accountability. Making excuses for bad behavior or ignoring bad behavior does nothing to fix the problem of people doing bad things. Rude and selfish people are bullies and they work off of the idea that most people don't want to make a scene in a public place or that some people are just too cowardly to say anything at all. Many people are afraid of confrontation but that is part of being an adult. Bullies bank on you not confronting them, and so they skip lines, steal parking spots, and do what they want which is usually taking advantage of situations and people. Remember, self-centered individuals feel little to no conscience;  they don't care who they hurt or offend, it's all about what they want. Most of them will back down in an instant if you confront them, this is probably because they know that they are in the wrong and so they don't have a defense for their rude behavior. Rude people love, "Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't aware," defense or they will avoid eye contact all together so as not to give you a chance to say something. God has written on everyone's heart the ability to know the difference between right and wrong. They know exactly when and how they are doing something wrong, and if they can get away with it then so be it.

Now, moving on to the most influential problem of them all. The biggest maker of the, ME, ME, ME mentality. Social media! As far as I'm concerned it's also a constant reinforcement of the ME, ME, ME, I'm so important, attitude. It talks about people in entertainment (Singers, Movie and TV stars and Athletes) as though they are nobility. There are no kings and queens anymore, they are just people, people who are no better than you or I. Remember equality, all humans equal. We fought against monarchism hundreds of years ago but now we put people on pedestals and allow them to do and act as they like. What's worse is if someone gets enough views on Facebook or U-tube they become famous. Rich and poor people get reality shows because of their rude and appalling behavior. Rappers, Rich Housewives, Moonshiners, and Pregnant teens, get shows. There are shows like The Maury Povich Show, the Steve Wilkos Show, and The Jerry Springer Show that promote downright awful behavior. Regular people watch these shows and think, "This is how I should act and I'll be treated (like royalty) and rude and selfish behavior is how I can be distinguished from the rest of society." Unfortunately, many people are like puppets, they do what they see.

"BRAVE" 

This is a drawing of Fergus The King, done in blue 

color-erase pencil on vellum. I scanned it and

 tweaked it a bit in Photoshop.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

This was the latest film I was working on, it is 

currently on hold because of a major overhaul. 

There is a good chance it may never make it to 

the box office.

BEFORE I HAD PHOTOSHOP

Here is a very old marker comp. of the Everglades.

Back in the day of 2D films we didn't have computers.

  So, us layout guys had to do marker comps. on actual paper. 
We used Prisma-color marker, and then detailed them using 
Prisma-color pencils and whiteout pens and anything else
 that got the job done. 

This is a drawing done with a semi dry 

Sharpie marker, grey Prisma-Color marker

and a whiteout pen.

"TEMBO"

BEFORE AND AFTER

This a before and after. The drawing on top is a

quick Photoshop sketch.  I then used my new 

technique to clean it up and make it more graphic.

"MONKEYS OF MUMBAI"

This is the first panel from a sequence called

 "I AM HANUMAN". I had to sing my pitch to 
Bill Dameski, who I had never met till that 
morning. Talk about stress!

LEPRECHAUN

 

 I had a pencil sketch of this leprechaun in my sketchbook

 and every time I flipped past it I felt I should do something 

with it. So, I eventually scanned it into Photoshop and 

worked it into an illustration using my new technique.

 

DEER INSTEAD OF BEAR

This Drawing originally had a bear instead of a

deer, but I could never get the composition to work. 

Eventually, I abandoned the bear and tried this and 

low and behold it worked.