Pet Hospital

A Building

Laird View

The Corner of Laird and Wicksteed  in Toronto, Canada.

Big Plans

Car

Truck and Wall

Brentcliffe View

Toronto Scene No. 5

Toronto Scene No. 4

Toronto Scene No. 3

Friday

I won't beg!  But won't you please come back and visit my blog next week?

Queens Of Country

When I was working on the 'Bronco Teddy' cartoon (please see the last two posts) naturally I wanted to listen to country music a lot, to get in the mood. The only country music CD I had in my apartment was a Lee Ann Womack CD, so I listened to that over and over again. (Here is a sketch of Lee Ann Womack.)


I liked listening to the Lee Ann Womack CD, but it did have one side effect, it made me cry a lot. Even after work, when I was walking around in a supermarket or wherever, I would start crying. I was afraid people would think I was mentally unbalanced!


I don't know much about country music, but I thought some of the Lee Ann Womack tunes had a sort of 'retro' country sound – they reminded me a bit of Tammy Wynette records from the '70s. [I've illustrated Tammy Wynette here.] I like the old Tammy Wynette records – most of the song ideas were goofy, and the recordings were really great.


Another country star I like a lot (just to name a few here) is Kitty Wells – I think she might have been the original Queen of Country? She sang songs like "A Heartache For A Keepsake" and "I Gave My Wedding Dress Away". I'd like to buy copies of ALL of her recordings, once I get my financial situation sorted out.


Another great country singer I like is Emmylou Harris – actually, Emmylou Harris is more of a country/folk singer/musician/songwriter ETC.!


I've had a bit of a crush on Emmylou Harris for the past twenty-seven years, but it's not likely I'll ever meet her. Because I'm a cartoon animator, living in Toronto, and I'm unemployed most of the time, and a bus ticket to Nashville would probably be really expensive, and a couple of guys would probably beat me up when I got off the bus in Nashville, and take the rest of my money –well, my prospects don't look . . . BUT WAIT! – I've got AN IDEA!


Okay, I've created a new cartoon character, so maybe I could ask Emmylou Harris to do some voice recording for my cartoon character, and maybe that way I could meet Emmylou Harris! It could work! Hmm, just let me run through the phone conversation in my mind . . .

"Hello?"

"OH! Hello? Is this Emmylou Harris?"

"Yes, this is Emmylou. Who's this? Hello?"

"OH! Uh, my name is, uh - uh - uh - Graham? and I live in Toronto? and that's in Canada? and I'm a successful, professional cartoon animator, and I've just created a new cartoon character, and now the character needs a voice, and I heard some recordings of YOUR voice, and I thought your voice sounded pretty good – quite, quite good, actually – SO – I was wondering if you might think of, considering the possibility of doing some voice recording for my new cartoon character, Emmylou The Shrew."

"Emmylou the shrew?"

"Yes! That's it!"

CLICK.

Even in my fantasy life I seem to end up being a loser. But, maybe I just have to think of a cuter animal to make into a cartoon character? The way I look at it, we can't all be geniuses, but the important thing is to KEEP TRYING.

Seven Suitors

For the 'Bronco Teddy' cartoon (please see yesterday's post) one of the characters Jim Woodring created was a sexy salamander lady who worked at the local saloon. I thought probably a lot of guys would be asking the salamander lady out for a date, so I sketched these seven frog suitors. . . .







Do you think any of these guys will get a date?

Some Old Chars.

Here are some cartoon animation design sketches I made a couple of years ago for Greg Bailey at 'Cookie Jar Entertainment'. These are supposed to be animals from the wild west days. The show was called 'Bronco Teddy' and was based on a comic book story by Jim Woodring – I was mostly making sketches of the incidental characters.





Hey, ho! Oops, I mean – hee-haw!

Rendezvous

Not Available in Stores!

Richard Basehart Collector's Plate!

Saturday Star Sketch

Coleen Gray

Vintage Chalk

Vintage Chalkware dog NoBody Loves Me

Toronto Sketch No. 2

Nazi Loot?

A group of valuable 19th century art drawings (seen below) were recently discovered in an abandoned copper mine in Germany. After being shown briefly at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, these drawings will be returned to the Louvre, where - - - oh, I give up! . . .





. . . although it is still April Fools MONTH – I fear that you can no longer be fooled!!

Office Supplies Roundup

For today's Office Supplies Roundup I decided to visit 'Staples', mainly because 'Staples' seems to be the only office supplies store I can FIND anymore – am I going NUTS?


First on my list, I thought I might buy some Post-its . . . but because I only wanted to buy about twenty Post-its, not 14,000 Post-its, I decided to leave the Post-its for another time.


Good news! Staples has finally started selling clamp binders as an alternative to fussy three-ring binders! I like clamp binders! Bravo Staples! Bravissimo! Hurrah! Staples is my friend!


BAD news! Staples has STOPPED selling the PMOP porous-tip pen, heretofore used by famous cartoon animators and designers [link]. Staples, you suck! Staples is dirty and stinks! If anyone knows where PMOP pens can still be purchased, please contact me!


Finally, I broke down and bought a pair of Panasonic headphones with posh shiny white parts (also available in black). I have only seen these headphones at Staples, and they cost about fifty dollars. PRODUCT REVIEW: These headphones are pretty good although sometimes they make my ears sweat. So if you like music, and if you think 'Sweaty Ears' might be a cool nickname, these are the headphones for you!
"Hey, are we going to pick up Sweaty Ears on the way to the party?"
"Yesss!! Sweaty Ears is awesome!!!"

Toronto Scene

Here is my first sketch of Toronto. I hope to be bringing you many more sketches of this quite well-known, and fairly large, ontarian city.

Sunday Funny