Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tall Tuesday: Nutrition and Height



NPR gave me a freebie topic for this week. They had a Morning Edition story on Monday, Measuring A Country's Health By Its Height by Nancy Shute. It was essentially a rehash of what was written in "The Tall Book" about the U.S. losing it's status as having the tallest people in the world. The Dutch are now the leaders over the U.S. by about 2 inches on average. I posted about this earlier here.

The story leading into it dealt with trying to get kids to eat healthier, which in turn should improve their chances of reaching the maximum height potential rather than waistline potential.

About the art:
The Illustration Friday topic this week is racing. Below is the sketch done in pencil and colored in Photoshop. Above is the final done with a steel nib pen, ink and watercolor. My thought was that "real" food, fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. are in it for the long haul giving you benefits over a long period of time. Fast food, candy, cookies, pizza, pop, chips, and such give you short term energy with a big health price tag, but like a NASCAR they get all the marketing dollars from corporations. In the above drawing the car didn't quite make it.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tall Tuesday: Spooky Tricks for the Tall




Years ago I helped a good friend of mine with a haunted house held in the dressing rooms and halls of the old amphitheater in the Toledo Zoo. I was in the last room before the exit that had lots of old pipes and man-made fog. With my height, and dim lighting many people thought I was a prop. Adults and older kids were the most fun to scare. I took it easy with little ones. What are parents thinking taking 5 and 6 year olds to a haunted house?! I was hoarse with leg cramps by the end of the night but had a great time!

I suppose you don't have to be super tall for something like this and try to use a crate to stand on, but don't blame me if you fall!

For other tall costume ideas check out this post at The Tall Blog.

About the art:
Created in ArtRage. Here is a lunchtime sketch leading up to it.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tall Tuesday: The Tallest Man on Earth



No, I'm not talking about Leonid Stadnyk, Ajas Ahmed or Sultan Kösen. I'm talking about 5'6" Kristian Matsson, a folk singer from Sweden, who named himself, "The Tallest Man on Earth." I found him while looking up a story on NPR. You can listen to him on NPR here.

About the art:
Being behind at work and still working on an illustration job left even less time this week for a proper illustration. He is supposed to be standing on a musical notation. Not sure what the double one is with the bridge. I wiped out the extraneous junk around him in GIMP. Sometime I'll get back to making something decent to post!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Tall Tuesday: Giant Prehistoric Penguins


This article jumped out at me in the Yahoo! news headlines about giant prehistoric penguins. They were 5 feet tall, standing taller than the emperor penguins of today. It also goes into scientific detail about how they determined they had reddish-brown coloring rather than the classic black and white penguins of today. Here is my less scientific reason.

About the art:
It was created in ArtRage Studio Pro. I'm in the middle of another job and didn't put much time into it as I would have liked.

Back when I was trying to syndicate my "Arctic Circle" comic strip in 1999 and again in 2001 I had a penguin, who had strayed from the south pole, in it. Not to be confused with the Arctic Circle comic strip by Alex Hallatt, which was syndicated in 2005 and also has stray penguins in the Arctic. I tried submitting again in 2003, dropping the penguin to no avail. I enjoyed drawing the strips but struggled to come up with something remotely humorous to fill them.

Interesting side note, Hallatt's strip was originally named "Polar Circle" until someone at King Features thought of calling it "Arctic Circle". Coincidence?

Here is a strip from the 2001 submission.



For Illustration Friday posting of "beneath" - this gives a good sampling of sea life beneath the (rapidly melting) arctic ice.