Back o' my neck gettin' dirty an' gritt-ay

To me, nothing says "Summer in the City" like bad traffic and kids playing in a cracked fire hydrant.  And billboard trucks.

Goofy Faces, 5-21-09

I love caricaturing adolescents of all sorts!  It seems nobody loves a picture of him or herself so much as a teenager.

Zoo Animals

All from life except for the fish!  Sadly.  I'd have liked to watch the marlin do a tap dance number for me.

Childhood Drawings

Britt Spencer posted something on his blog a few weeks ago showcasing some works from his "early period," which I just thought was bundles of fun.  Since I apparently think I have time to spend on this kind of thing, I thought I'd do something similar.

It should probably come as no surprise to anyone that, much like any boy growing up in the late 80s and early 90s, I was pretty obsessed with the Ninja Turtles.  About half the drawings I found from when I was 5 or younger feature the Toitles in some way (or at least amorphous green shapes with colored stripes along their various extremities).

For those of you who shared my childhood love of the ninja turtles, I encourage you to never ever ever ever ever re-watch any episodes of the old television show.  Seeing them as an adult will break your heart and ruin your childhood.  Or maybe that was just me.

Around the age of 3 I was doing a lot of this kind of stuff.  Horrible giant monsters with gigantic mouths and various other sharp bits.  I can only assume that this was somehow dinosaur related.

Here's a more positive message.  Apparently the youthful Isaac Klunk felt that the best imagery to illustrate a message of world peace would be the characters from Street Fighter 2, a video game in which various characters fly around the globe in order to beat the living daylights out of one another.

I feel fortunate that I was exposed to digital art programs from an extremely young age.

This one is included sheerly because of how bizarre it is.  I'm not sure why the 2nd-grade me felt it was important to celebrate our former president's birthday.  Around that age my favorite place to celebrate special occasions was a local video arcade, and apparently it stood to reason that Mr. Clinton would have similar inclinations.  Note the nice set of heels that the former leader of the free world has had selected for him.

Interesting trivia:  Bill Clinton's birthday falls on the same day (and year) as my father.  In some ways I think this makes the above image even more incomprehensible.

More Street Fighter 2 stuff.  I really, really liked Street Fighter as a kid.  I still really like Street Fighter.  Mortal Kombat can go shove off.

I actually did a lot of observational drawing (that may be a generous use of words) back in the day.  Though I don't really have any idea where this location is, I kind of like the drawing.

My poor, long-suffering mother.  Birthed, fed, and clothed me and this is how I repaid her.