Captain

I drew the first captain that came to mind. Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

"Love, exciting and new. Come Aboard. We're expecting you..." So goes the theme song for that famous TV show, The Love Boat. And here is none other than Captain Merril Stubing to greet his guests as they board his ship. Handsome, charming, debonair, single-dad -- Captain Stubing was a good catch, but his buddy Doc seemed to take all the ladies. On the last show of the series, the good Captain finally married a woman played by Marion Ross (Richie's mom from Happy Days).

Anyway, more fun facts about the show can be found here.

On a related note, I've been on two separate cruise vacations to the Mediterranean and (if you don't get seasick), cruising is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to travel. All you can eat buffet, gi-normous moving vehicle, people to wait on you hand and foot. (Sigh) I want to go on vacation now.

Expedia has a handy guide that explains all about cruises. Check it out!

Emergency

In case of CHOCOLATE Emergency, break glass! Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

I'm a certified chocolate FIEND! hehehe. Here's my top 10 (ok, 12) favorite all-time chocolate experiences:

12. Starbucks Chantico. Billed as a chocolate dessert, it was so rich, you could go into chocolate shock if you drank 4 or 5. Find out why they pulled it from their menu here.

11. Trader Joe’s Chocolate Truffle Brownie Mix. Read a review of this DECADENT product.

10. Chocolate covered fresh strawberries. Isn't this health food? =)

9. Although this is a non-food item, Ben and Jerry's sells the cutest Chocolate Fudge Brownie lip balm.

8. Try this: Buy a box of chocolate covered oreos (yes, chocolate-covered), store in the freezer, and in a few hours, enjoy a fabulous treat!

7. The Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity3 in New York City. Maybe it tasted so good because we had to wait 3 hours to get seated during the holiday season?

6. Amalfi, Italy - a little shop called Sapori d' Amalfi sells the most delicious lemon/white chocolate candy bars.

5. Fields, Oregon is a tiny town consisting of a few buildings, but they serve the most incredible, world-famous chocolate milkshakes!

4. See’s Candy chocolates and confections.

3. Umm… I haven’t experienced this YET, but on my next trip to Switzerland, I’m going to take the Cheese and Chocolate Train.

2. The Toblerone bar.

1. Can I just say, I LOVE Joseph Schmidt Chocolates! Works of art, and the most delicious chocolates ever.

If you have any of your own favorites, feel free to tell me about them!

Missing

Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

I actually saw a poster for a missing llama named Dolly while on my trip. I forgot a few of the details (I faked some of the info on this poster), but it was indeed true that a pony last accompanied the poor animal on a walk before it turned up missing. I do hope they find poor Dolly.

I believe llamas are considered livestock rather than actual pets in the traditional sense. You would need lots of room for this beautiful creature. As I was looking around the web for interesting info, I discovered a page devoted to sounds that llamas make when they're uncomfortable, alarmed, flirting, or aroused. Check out the following link and listen for yourself: Llama Sounds
You have to listen to their humming -- it sounds just like a person!

Moon

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the MOON...

Pastel and Digital, combined in Photoshop. Yet another one inspired by, or in this case partly drawn during my vacation in Oregon. I had done a pastel of a strawberry-roan cow we encountered during the trip, scanned the pic and pasted it over a digitally drawn moon. With some tweaking in Photoshop, I tried to make the cow look like it was leaping.

Wikipedia has some interesting takes on what the "Hey Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme meant. Some think it was about Queen Elizabeth I. Others say it was Richard III. Still others theorize the rhyme has to do with astronomy, explaining that nearly all "characters" are constellations. Cat (Leo – the Lion), Fiddle (Lyra – the Lyre), the Cow (Taurus – the Bull) jumped over the Moon (the Moon); the Little Dog (Canis Minor – the Lesser Dog), the Dish (Crater – a dish shaped constellation), the Spoon (Ursa Major – the Big Dipper).

You can see the theories here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Diddle_Diddle
Details about the Queen Elizabeth I connection can be found here: http://childrens-verse.suite101.com/article.cfm/hey_diddle_diddle

Poem

Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

This is a reproduction of the artwork on the Emily Dickinson stamp issued in 1971, which I found at an antique/junque shop in Oregon last week. I incorporated her poem "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" into the illustration. Her poems are beautiful, though some quite sad, but I love her use of similes and metaphors.

Another well-known poem of hers that I like is this:

I'm nobody, who are you?
Are you nobody too?
There's a pair of us, don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog,
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

More of her poetry can be found here: http://www.bartleby.com/113/
Her life and story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson

Discovery

Christopher Columbus shows off his Discovery. Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop.

Whew! I barely made it for this week. I just got back from vacation in Oregon, and the only inspiration I could get was from the horses I saw during my trip.

Anyway, on Chris Columbus' second journey to the Americas in 1493, he brought with him 17 ships, 1200 men, and some livestock. The purpose of the voyage was to return to La Navidad in Hispaniola to relieve the men left behind from the first voyage, settle more colonists on the islands, and explore and claim other islands.
It is said that one type of horse breed brought over was the Andalusian. I can just picture Columbus riding on this very beautiful horse, looking very pompous and feeling rather important. Little did he know what he would *discover* in La Navidad.

Click here to find out what happened.

Geeky

May the Star Wars geek be with you...

Pencil sketch, colored in Photoshop. Since this year is the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, I thought I'd draw a group of fans with homemade costumes at a movie screening. I myself, admittedly, am a star wars geek.

There's an interesting article on CNet.com about this geeky, but still cool, culture phenomenon that endures today.

A bunch of parodies have also been made of the films, such as "Hardware Wars" and "Thumb Wars". Both can be seen on YouTube (I liked Hardware Wars). Anyway, hope all fellow SW geeks enjoy and have fun this year!