Flyin' High Crash!

Who needs a rocket pack...

Three Little Piggies

Another assignment from my students. Boy they're tough! Last time it was the Big Bad Wolf. This time it's the Three Little Pigs. From class this evening...

Lady Liberty

I had an idea and spent the evening drawing it out with my students in class. A new concept for Lady Liberty which is an iconic symbol in the US. I thought I'd make her look like an angelic African American lady draped in the flag. A former slave whose chains morphed into flowers which she used to bless the land with forgiveness and love. A different take on a classic American theme. Maybe in this time of turmoil in our country and the world this can help with a positive message as modest as it is.

Big Bad Wolf too - line

Got out a ball point black line pen and put a finishing touch on BBW2. See previous post for the blue line rough.

Big Bad Wolf too

Something fun. Here's another version of the BBW in a different direction. The blue pencil demo from class this week. Will add black line.

ArtShark sez have a "Happy Autumn!"

It's the first day of Fall in the northern hemisphere and I thought I'd celebrate by posting a picture of my school's mascot enjoying the time of year. This is something I did a couple years ago and never got around to using it so I dug up ArtShark and placed him in an autumn setting. Used the image to say hello to the Academy's followers on Facebook. Why not post it here for the wonderful people that visit my blog. Hope you have a very pleasant season.

Big Bad Wolf

Yippee! Finally got a chance to draw a character! I've been caught up in many distractions and issues and what have you. I'm happy to say that at least for now I'm able to do something creative. Last couple of evenings at my school my students gave me an assignment. I was directed to design my version of the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs story. These sketches are my first pass on the character. Normally in a professional situation I'd come up with lots of different variations. In class I used the opportunity to provide a demonstration for my fantastic students. Blue pencil and ball point pen. Hope everyone is doing well and as always thanks for checking in.

The Burbank Fire - September 1 - 3 2017

Hello there friends and followers and all you great people! It's been a while since I posted. Not because my blog has been out of mind but for the same reasons I've stated before only even more so. Very busy with my school and just trying to deal with all the incoming stuff every day. At times it's relentless. Doing my best to balance it all out. Unfortunately it comes at the expense of my personal creativity. But I have been doing some things and will follow up in the near future with what I've been up to. 

This was the Labor Day weekend in the US which is our last holiday of the summer season. This past week we've had a heat wave in Burbank that culminated in a massive fire in the foothills. It started in a canyon beyond the ridge on Friday Sept 1. At around 4 pm I saw it as and breached the ridge and headed towards the town. Went to the roof of the building where my school is at and took some pictures.  Here's what it looked like at that time...

Here's a tighter picture. It was an aggressive raging inferno that would soon be threatening homes...

Around midnight I went to the rooftop again to see how bad it was. The fire became very widespread. Way beyond what you're seeing here. This was the area that was directly threatening Burbank. At this point is was bearing down on the hillside homes. 

Sorry about the poor image quality of the picture below. My phone camera wasn't made for zooming in on wildfires at night. At this point the fire line was approaching houses. I thought there was no chance of saving them. The spots of lights you see at the bottom right and along the lower parts of the picture are neighborhoods. 

Check out this amazing and dramatic photo. I don't know who took it. A friend sent it to me that night. They got it from someone else. This is downtown Burbank California in the area of Cartoon Network.

As it turned out the firefighters did an outstanding job. Helicopters dumping water and flame retardant all weekend saved just about all the homes and property and there was no loss of life. A big thanks also to Providence for keeping the winds low and for the rain that fell in our area on Sunday Sept 3 which helped to kill the blaze. In all my years living in this area I can't remember a time when we got rain in early September. But we did! Miracles never cease. Burbank is a very special place and God protects this wonderful city. At least that's how I feel about. Anyway here's what the smoldering fires looked like late Sunday afternoon Sept 3 around 48 hours after they started.

    

I shot some video too which I'll add to this post later on. Even when disaster strikes remember that life is good and precious and it's beautiful. Count our blessings every day. Peace love and happiness to you!