Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

Oscar Wilde

I hadn’t read the entirety of this Oscar Wilde quote before. I feel like the last bit, which is always omitted, is kind of contextually important.

I will name him Glorp and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him.

When a three-eyed space squid falls in love with the Challenger space shuttle, you just let them have it. NASA would probably agree. I’m sure they have lots of rules about space ships and alien love affairs.

This silly octopus drawing exists because I needed a new t-shirt. But now that I have that I want calamari. This shirt makes me hungry. And a little amorous. But mostly hungry.

Digital illustration created in Procreate on an iPad Pro.

Suit up

Unique science fiction and fantasy shirts like this one are available on my Etsy shop.

Still digging through some old doodles. Sometimes you want to draw, but you don’t know what to draw, so you just draw rocks. And fish. And call it a day.

It’s not that robot thinks he’s better than you. He doesn’t think about you at all.

Watercolour, ink, etc.

I was writing about how I had nothing to write about, so just enjoy this silly illustration of a crow in an army helmet, but then that reminded of something to write about and so now I’m writing about that.

This drawing reminded me of how important going one step further is to an illustration. This drawing is made of three things: a crow, an army helmet and a cigarette. Individually they are all boring props. Together they almost tell a story. I could have just drawn a crow. But I went one step further, and added a stupid hat and a bad habit and made it passably interesting.

It’s a bit like “yes, and…” thinking from improv comedy. There’s a crow. Yes, and… garbage day is like a war zone. Yes, and… he likes to relax with a smoke after tearing into a big bag of trash.

Anyway, enjoy this silly illustration of a crow in an army helmet.

I started a new story a few weeks ago. I’m waist deep in roughs and writing, and it’s coming along. It wants to exist, so who am I to stand in the way? Come on little story! let’s find you a nice place to live!

I’ve been afraid of this story for a while. The idea came to me in 2018 when the family moved back to Ottawa. Maybe a little before then, when I was here alone for a few months. But the little voices kept tearing it down. It’s amazing how convincing those little voices can be. They don’t even exist! How do they have so much control over my creative output? “It’s too long,” they said. “You can’t write,” they said. “Nobody will read it,” they said. Miserable little voices pissing on everything.

So the little voices are getting a sound beating behind the barn, an oily rag stuffed in their blathering yapper, stuffed into an old gym bag and dropped over a bridge. Metaphorically. Because they don’t exist. That’s a violent mix of visuals. It might be time for a nap.

If there’s a lesson here, it’s that you gotta make what you gotta make. That’s all there is.

Also this week, the kids went back to school. Cracker Jack started high school! I can’t be certain but I think I live in a time anomaly, because I’m fairly positive she was just born yesterday. I mean, she was just a wee baby on my arm, and now she’s a mostly grown person doing mostly grown person things and it’s all just too wild for me to think about.

Lastly, I’m currently diving into Cable Ties. I didn’t know they existed until a few days ago. What else don’t I know about?! They’re brilliant!