This little girl was wandering around the bank while her mom was waiting in line in front of me. The cuteness was almost unbearable, she kept walking around and examining everything with her hands quite intently, and her nose was runny the whole time. When she took her hat off, the crazy case of hat-hair caught me off guard, with bits of her scalp peeking through her fine hair. The mom, by the way, was really awesome with her. I overheard her calling her Twyla. Had to try to get her down when I got home.

This beautiful park is just two blocks away from where I live, and a wondrous oasis amidst the hustle and bustle of the Inner Richmond. It’s a wonder there’s a peaceful lake just a stone’s throw away, where you can go and just let your thoughts be for a while. Gulls were abound today, and a few children on the playground. I like the big tree with the sign that greets you when you walk through.

Violetta’s little traveling wagon. Her bear Blue, carts her around with the harness.

A little bit of scribbly ballpoint covered with Photoshop later. Violetta is looking a bit on the “bad girl” side on the bottom. Probably needs to be toned down. She’s a trickster, but she’s not evil. More like a Puck character. And I kind of like the little Hindi woman that appeared.

This is a continuation of the weird and random drawings of bears from before. I think I found him. Will be working on color, too.

The little gremlin on the left was drawn with my non-dominant left hand. Just to see what would happen.

I came across an old black and white photo on the internet while doing some research and pretty much stopped dead when I saw this gypsy girl showing off her dress. Here’s a quick sketch. She’s creepy but I can’t stop looking at the photo. She kind of has that quality of the twins from “The Shining” who themselves were based on a famous photo of twin girls by Diane Arbus. Kubrick and Arbus knew the inherent creepiness of little girls and symmetry.

On such a gloomy, wet day like today. He’s definitely part of Violetta’s world. Just a blip in the mind right now.

I’m an avid newspaper reader. Waking up early and perusing the articles and photographs every morning with a cup of coffee and a bowl of chunky oatmeal is bliss to me. I always go through the op/ed pages which include the editorial cartoons. And over time, I’ve discovered that the cartoons that stick out to me the most are those by Ann Telnaes.

What I love about her work is the perfect combination of her style that makes such great use of simple shapes and caricature, matched with her searing portrayal of issues that face our country. I think she’s pretty incredible. Her line quality and draftsmanship are inventive and superb, simple and precise. And her clever scenarios are full of bite, wit, and fiery satire. Indelibly, her cartoons leave a lasting impression on my mind.

Looking at her site, I discovered that I’m not alone. Ann has won the Pulitzer Prize for her work in editorial cartoons. Before cartooning, she worked at Disney as a designer, and is a graduate of Cal Arts.