I remember the first time I saw a Von Dutch baseball cap and was surprised how that name had became a brand.

On Ebay the fantastic Von Dutch's, [originator of hot rod pinstripping], paint box just sold for a whopping $270 000 .00
I wonder if Paris Hilton bought and is going to use it as a purse.

The description



Von Dutch - The Personal Paint and Pin Striping Box


Without question, the all original Paint Box we have the pleasure of offering here is one of the most important personal pieces of Von Dutch memorabilia ever offered for sale to date. This is the actual paint box carried by both Von Dutch and most impressively, his father throughout both their legendary careers. The story begins in the 1930s with Walker Howard, father of Kenneth Howard aka Von Dutch, who was one of the most respected sign painters in all of Los Angeles. The young Kenneth Howard was said to accompany his father on many of his jobs, and legend now relates that Howard could paint and letter at a professional level at the age of 10. Though the paint box first belonged to Wally Howard, it was passed on to his son, Kenneth Howard now known as Von Dutch, who continued to use and treasure his paint box and family heirloom for the rest of his painting career and life.

so heres some pics from Costa Rica
The volcano crater had erupted the week before and when were up there Alison [my wife] was interviewed by a newpaper about why would we come up here if it was still dangerous. We had no idea it still was. It was funny seeing her picture
on front page of the paper the next day tho. Thats her ziplining too which was a blast.
and feeding the white throated capucin monkey the fruit of the cashew nut tree.

So Heres some sketches from a recent trip to Costa Rica.
I loved it, went horseback riding up the hills and zip lining down waterfalls, fed Capucin monkeys in the wild and
saw a volcano that had erupted the previous week.
sadly none of my sketches capture that excitement, mostly these were done lounging around the pool with drink or on the way to somewhere, like the bus taking up us to the volcano.
I'll post some pics of monkeys in a bit.

I had started this originally for the IF topic Spring, but never had the time to finish it .

over at the ward-o-matic (links) Mr. Jenkins posted a little piece about collecting,
Below is a quick stickie sketch based on his post. I didn't go get referance so I'm not promising accuracy
and below that a stickie sketch nothing
do with first

I did this affer dinner while watching the hockey game. A finished version of a sketchbook drawing from a previous
post

I had to whip this one out fast and tho sometimes I like a quickie , in this case speed is definitely not an asset

Finally saw Walk the Line [not that this sketch has anything to do with that directly] Very much enjoyed it. Reese Witherspoon
was terrific.





and since I put the cove of my old sketchbook
I thought I'd post the back of which there was a story inside
of the wacky shenanigans of Thugge



and a nother sketchbook drawing

I notice theres a Betty Page movie coming out soon that I'm looking forward to seeing. Saw this pic in a vogue
and some random sketches

Herve Morvan

Heres the book cover



This was a real treat for me to illustrate this kids bio of the Nova Scotia giantess,Anna Swan who P.T Barnum made famous in the 1800's.


I like circuses and carnivals and Pt Barnum and all that kind of stuff. For Christmas my wife bought
me the original poster of an old movie I like, Circus of Horrors. Circus and Horrors WOW. It hangs in our upstairs
hall now.
Anyway below is this cool circus pop up book I found at a garage sale a while back.Its Czech and from the sixties. What a beauty eh



I illustrated two kids books last year that are coming out this year and one of em { you guessed it] is somewhat circus related. Actually
its based on the life of giantess Anna Swan from the 1800's. It should be available soon [ tho I'm not sure where and exactly when so thats all I can say] and I'll probably post more
about it when it comes out ..so thats it for now.
But ..these are my earlest doodles/searches from the project. Nothing great but the first.













and here is a tiny piece of a finished illo,



and heck since I mentioned christmas heres the ginger bread house my wife and I made together during the holidays,
its so much bumble food now "sigh"

and my cat Igor and the bunny Monty