Black & Gold Grill

My bar napkin @ The Black & Gold Grill, 1433 Main St, Latrobe PA.

Dino's Sports Lounge

My bar napkin @ Dino's Sports Lounge, 214 Rt 30 E, Latrobe PA.

Leo's Pub & Grille

My bar napkin @ Leo's Pub & Grille, 202 N Diamond St, Mount Pleasant PA.

Patrick Square Kat in progress

I posted a sketch for a Square Kat about a year ago, started painting the little guy and then stopped. I totally forgot to post the "in progress" picture I took from last year, so here that is first:

I started working on him again earlier this week and got sidetracked for a few days, but I was back at it again today. Here's what I have finished so far.

I'm hoping to have him finished and ready to go for St. Patrick's Day. I think it might happen.

Ligonier Country Inn

My napkin @ Ligonier Country Inn, 1376 Rt 30, Laughlintown PA.

Sharky's Café

My napkin @ Sharky's Café, 3960 Rt 30, Latrobe PA.

Sketchbook Project Limited Edition 2012—Nacho #sketchbookproject

The next page from my Sketchbook Project Limited Edition. One of the people who likes The Rots Facebook page suggested the name "Nacho" for this little guy, and it stuck.

So.

Say "hello" to Nacho.

You can take a look at the digital version of Nacho on this page here.

Have a heart

Working on an image for Valentine's Day. Here's the sketch I came up with.

Find Your Beach (final, in color)

Here's the final version of the Christmas card we sent out this year. You can see the original sketch for it here. I ended up making a few changes, but not too many. Click on the image to see it biggie-sized.

The Wicked Googly

My napkin @ The Wicked Googly, 209 W Main St, Ligonier PA.

I Rotted my doctor

In these last couple of weeks since my surgery, I've had some time to think of some new ideas, but those new ideas seem to have a lot to do with my surgery. So I went with it.

Here's the Rot I drew for my doctor:

I think I'll call it "Uterless." (The other option was "You Probably Thought That Was a Rubber Chicken.")

Find your beach

Here's my sketch for Christmas this year. Nothing fancy. Just Kris and the little ones taking a well-deserved day off. With Coronas. 

Vampire Bats

Scanned directly from my sketchbook, here's a page of bats to celebrate Halloween. I started the page with the idea that I was going to fill the whole thing with bats. I wanted to push myself to come up with as many ideas as I could because I tend to start sketching and get lazy about it way too soon. As you can see, the first ones I drew at the top of the page are nowhere near as good as the ones that showed up on the bottom. (Click the image to see it biggie-sized.)

I'm working on painting a few of these little guys on my iPad. I found a fun new app called Auryn Ink that paints like watercolor. It even has a tilt function that, if you tilt your iPad, it makes the pigment collect in the direction you're tilting. I'm playing around with it to use as the background.

The next page in my sketchbook is all about pumpkins. I've noticed in recent years that pumpkin nummies are a whole lot more numerous than when I was growing up. Pumpkin gobs. Pumpkin cake. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin donuts. Pumpkin Spice Latte. Pumpkin soup. Pumpkin rolls. I think all we had when I was little was pumpkin pie. It's too bad this only lasts about two months out of the year. I haven't found a pumpkin nummy yet that I didn't like.

Sketchbook Project Special Edition 2012—Oscar #sketchbookproject

 

Here's the next page from my Sketchbook Project Limited Edition sketchbook. I've filled the entire sketchbook with Square Kats, but the twist was, I drew them all using markers. From the first pages of the sketchbook, you can pretty much tell I haven't used markers all that much. O.K. I haven't used them at all. This was all new to me, but by the time I got to Oscar I was starting to learn a little.

 

Just a little.

The Trailside Pub

My place mat @ The Trailside Pub, 108 W Main St, West Newton PA.

New site up and running

I just uploaded a completely new website for The Rots (http://www.the-rots.com). I spent a long time getting these pages together and working. The original site was built completely in Flash (http://www.the-rots.com/old), but that was years before Steve Jobs decided the iPads he wanted to sell in the future wouldn't include the ability to view Flash. And I, like so many others, really need to listen to Steve.

I also had to build separate style sheets for tablets and other mobile devices, because those also weren't much of a factor when I built the original site. But it's finished, and I'll tweak if necessary, and hopefully (hopefully) the site will work for whoever wants to take a look.

So, if you're so inclined, I would really appreciate some extra eyeballs looking over the site. I need to know if it's working on everything it was designed for. I've already hit a snag with my smart phone, which doesn't want to recognize the style sheet I built for smaller devices, and I'm not sure how to make that work.

What I need is a web guru that will sit under my desk like a troll and look over my coding when I run in to problems. I just don't know any gurus, so I guess I'll be trolling the help forums online.

Sketchbook Project Special Edition 2012—Snowflake #sketchbookproject

Here's the next page from my Sketchbook Project Special Edition. I was having so much trouble with the markers that I went the safe route: no browns to speak of and not a lot of colors to mess up.

 

I also went safe with the drawing. I had originally drawn Snowflake for Christmas cards that I sent out last year, and I thought he would be a good confidence booster considering how much markers are hating me right now.

Stuft Rots idea

I pulled out my sewing machine yesterday to do some repair work and got an itch while it was out. Here's what happened when I decided to scratch:

I had some old fabric that I wasn't using for anything because it was stained. I think I was keeping it to use as a possible drop cloth.

I created a pattern months ago based on the size of a dryer sheet (I want to use them to recycle them), so I used that on this fabric to make my Stuft Rots Square Kat prototype.

I did a little embroidering before I sewed it. Buttons for eyes and embroidery floss for the nose and heart.



As I was embroidering, I saw this stray thread on the floor that had missed the garbage can when I was doing my sewing repair work earlier. I think it was a sign.

At this point in the contruction of "Ralphie" I started getting a little excited and totally forgot to keep taking photos as I went. I didn't remember again until he was finished, so you'll have to just do a little imagining as to what the interim steps looked like. (Sorry.)

That little bit of blue fabric sticking out from the right side of him under his arm is just a placeholder for a label. He measures 6¾" tall from ear to toe.

I have some fur that I found at JoAnn's that was made from plastic bottles. It came in a bunch of different colors: brown, tan, white, black and cream. I've been thinking of all kinds of ways to customize each one with different eye buttons, sew-on button shapes, collars, collar tags, clothes and even knitted sweaters, to name a few. I also would like to make a line using recycled things like those dryer sheets and leftover printed fabric that I've collected through the years. I'm also thinking they could be customized for special occasions and holidays, and people could even give them with maybe a ring on an arm or a necklace or earrings. School colors are also a possibility. I could make smaller versions with something attached to the tops of their heads so they could hang (maybe like illegally from your rearview mirror).

So many ideas, I hope I've written everything down.

Right now I'm just wondering if I would be able to sell these little guys and send them out with their adoption papers. They would probably need about a $35 price tag for me to make any money doing the work.

Please let me know what you think. This would be a big (huge) time consumer, and I need to make a decision whether to put a lot of it into them.

Thanks in advance.

Sketchbook Project Special Edition 2012—Just Turn the Page #sketchbookproject

 

Maybe this isn't the best Square Kat I've ever drawn. O.K. It isn't. But he's in the Sketchbook now, and markers are more permanent than plastic so there isn't anything I can do about it.

Dino's Sports Bar

My napkin @ Dino's Sports Bar, Latrobe PA.