Cowboy Snowman

Chester County and the surrounding megalopolis are gearing up for an anticipated big snow event starting Friday evening. The chatter has been heavy in the West Chester area about sledding, snowmen and more.

West Chester's John Young, always scheming, dreamed up a Snowman Rodeo with the idea of  building an army or calvary (or cavalcade?) of snowmen this weekend and needed a cowboy snowman for his flyer.

Luckily I was using a tool for work that takes an incredibly long time to save database changes. So each time I saved, I worked on my cowboy - gunslinger snowman. I added a goatee after realizing I forgot to leave space for the requested mustache. Maybe it will help appeal to West Chester hipsters.

For more Snowman Rodeo info (which will include camping out at Snowman Rodeo HQ (West Chester Scoop) and enjoying hot cocoa, movies, and shrinky dinks, click here and/or follow @tikaro.

Archives: Teacher's Pencil Holder Still Life (1982)

Another one from the high school public speaking class journal at Henderson High School. This was the teacher's pencil holder. Her name was Joan Robinson-Metz. I'm pretty sure it was wrapped in a carpet material or something similar.

Archives: For All The Stars In Heaven (1982)

Kristen got me thinking about diaries or 'journals' as we of journalistic integrity would call them. I did a quick basement dig through the bin of high school stuff. It contains all the important stuff that I knew would be needed in the future (like now when I haven't had time to work on some drawings-in-the-works).

Scanning through my journals I'm surprised at the lack of doodles and drawings. I appear to have been spending most of my efforts on actual writing since, I guess, that's how I envisioned myself at the time.

This standard webbed aluminum chaise lawn chair drawing was found in my journal for my public speaking class in the spring of my senior year in high school.

The quote is, of course, from Queen's "Long Away".

Thanks, Tanya: Tried to open the pickle jar

Over the summer I received a few emails from Tanya C, a 13 year old, who said she enjoyed my drawings. She said she had even done a 'mcglinch-inspired' drawing of her own:

The theme is "Tried to open the pickle jar"
And the guy's all bruised up and pickles on the floor!
You've given me so much insperation.
So i'm letting you know that.Because for sure,people might say my pictures are different but they're good.

She took a photo of her drawing with her mom's cell phone and eventually got her mother's permission for me to post it here.

So, thanks, Tanya for the kind words and most of all, the great work! Thanks for sharing and enjoy your Thanksgiving wherever you are!

Creepy Postcard Dude

Drawn on the back of a postcard to my buddy, The Strapper.

Hot Rod Turtles

Was talking with my sister-in-law yesterday and she gave me the update on my 4-year-old nephew's new turtle, Henry (or Henrietta as it may turn out) - a near-road-kill rescue by her husband. I threatened to send my nephew a paint and decal turtle decoration kit. Instead I doodled these while waiting for my own boy after soccer.

Tattoo You

Sometimes I get requests to use my drawings and doodles on other people's blogs or in their newsletters and usually I say, "Sure, thanks for asking." Occasionally, I'll say to 'no' when it's a for-profit site or journal unless they want to pay. And most times people don't even ask.

Recently, I received a request for permission to use one of my drawings as a tattoo. I've had requests before asking me if I'd draw something specifically for a tattoo and failed to execute for one reason or another. This recent request was from a woman who wanted to use this dragon but wanted me to add some stuff to it. Unfortunately I was (and have been) socked in on food data work and told her to go ahead and use it and get someone to modify it if she wanted.

Last night she sent me a photo of the freshly-inked work. Looks a little sore but looks cool.

I know with the death of Mary Travers today, I should post "Puff The Magic Dragon" to go with this but, really, I can't stand that song. So here's a favorite Spoon song:

One More Encounter From First Encounter Beach, Cape Cod

Sea monster-armed ventriloquisty guy camped out on First Encounter Beach this summer on Cape Cod. Last summer we came upon this other clown-faced boy.

This one goes out to 13-year-old Tanya C who wrote me this summer and sent one of her mcglinch-inspired drawings, which, if her mom says it's "OK' I'll post up here for you.

Jellyfish Tar Blob Creature

Another vacation doodle leftover। Some tar blobby jelly fish creature.

[Vectorized in Illustrator and now available on a shirt - any style]

Watchful Jellyfish Blob Creature by mcglinch
View more Jellyfish T-Shirts

Hoisting a Monster Claw

We were working out the best ways to lift the toe of some lake monster that one of the kids found while snorkeling around the pond last week.

CupCake Head

Have been immersed in the food world lately so I have cupcakes and other treats on the brain. Which reminds me of the Spinal Tap tune, Cups And Cakes.

Tied Up Man Drawing on Silly Putty Transfer

I've been doing a lot of research lately and conference calls and the Silly Putty comes in handy as a stress ball substitute. Actually, it's more than a stress ball substitute -- it's far better. Silly Putty has way more functionality: stretching, snapping, shaping, melting, and image transferring.

Drew this guy last night as a call ended and did a transfer with my very old, dust-filled, Silly Putty ball this morning when I was on the phone again.

Atlas under city

Drew this up a week or two ago and finessed (or messed) it tonight in illustrator and photoshop. What does it mean? I don't know. Maybe it's the next album cover. (click for bigger image)

Dog Licker

 

The product of conference calls and taking breaks while writing docs over the last two days.

impatient chair guy

 

For being laid off, I still don't have a lot of time to draw. Pieced this together throughout the day between other tasks.

Turtle Head on Wheels

I think I did this on an Amtrak to or from New York City on a business trip for the old job back in September -- I get to call it that now: "old". I think I had those Art Instruction Schools commercials in my head -- where you draw Tippy The Turtle and a pirate and they tell you how good you are. I actually filled one of those out when I was in elementary school.

Archives: Surf's Up

Another old sketchbook find. My room-mate and our pals were surfer dudes. Back in the free-wheeling single days, I'd spend some evenings practicing drawing/painting in our South Street apartment ball point pen sketching surfer pix by eye out of his surfer mags then painting them in with acrylic. I used to make birthday cards and post cards out of them. These two never made it out of the sketchbook.

The Year Ahead Is This Big

A quick diversion from the Twilight Zone marathon. Happy New Year to all.

Skull & Two-Legged Cat

No reason behind today's rough sketch. Some coffee stains on a crinkled piece of paper. Last sheet in the pad. Didn't like the feel of the pencil on the paper. I've been trying these Bic Pencils but they're a shade harder than the old reliable PaperMate pencils. Got frustrated and just blew off the cat's rear legs. He'll deal with it, dragging himself around where he needs to be.

Congestion

Spent Thanksgiving on my mother-in-law's couch watching The Godfather and pieces of bad NFL games with the worst cold I've had in recent memory while the rest of my family were out feasting at an uncle's house.

This was all I could muster out of that weekend.

Some Houses, You Just Want To Avoid

Sticky Note Butt Monster

I think I put the face on the wrong end of this space monster. Did this quickly at lunch today for the dude over at Sticky Note Theater.

Cat Fancy

The crafty Mrs. has us making tiles for our fireplace hearth. I fancied making a cat tile and was warming up with some cat sketches this morning.

Hey, Hey, You, You, Get Off of My Lawn

We've lived in our house for over 7 years now. Across the street is a horse field and beyond that are woods where deer, squirrels, foxes, snapping turtles, skunks, and more roam.

Until the past month, the squirrels stayed on their side of the street. The Mrs. did battle daily with squirrels at our old Old house. There she even invented bulb cages to keep them from digging up and stealing her prized tulips and daffodil bulbs.

Now the squirrels have crossed the border and have been raiding the weedy garden. The battle has begun -- but this time it will be different...

Ball Head Body vs. Crow

Television

Ghost Creature in the Moonlight

Mostly the product of a phone call with a vendor today.

Jawless Drooler

Gearing up for the Halloween stretch now. This was the first thing that popped into my head on the sticky note pad.

[the piX in the background was an eBay HR thing (people interexchange? (not as lame as RASCI the Process Weasel stuffed animals they handed out) a few years back. they gave us giant sticky note pads with piX on it that I am still working through.]

Long Shnozzed Woodland Creature

Quick sketch the other morning.

Do You Know This Fighting Style?

The other night the Mrs. whipped out this style of fighting when she was challenging the boy or the girl to a throw-down.

It got me thinking about the origins of this  fighting stance -- where you place one hand (the left) over your face to protect it and insert the other (the right), more dominant arm, through the crook of your left elbow. You then proceed to swing the right arm wildly as you rush into the fray fully protected.

The only person I have ever seen use this -- and the one who first taught me in the hallowed halls of Henderson High School -- was my friend who now parades himself around as Dr. Zibbs. When I asked him he said he learned it from a neighborhood friend back then but knew nothing beyond that.

I've tried googling things like "fighting with one hand on your face" and "fight protect face and swing with arm".  Nothing yielded anything worthwhile.

Anyone with a name and/or historical references for this style of fighting, please leave a comment or send me a link.

Dog Watches Fly

dog watching fly. have started working on drawings while my laptop starts up in the mornings. some days it's easily 10 or 15 minutes to boot up and load firefox, outlook, etc.

the pooch and the kitten took turns tracking a wounded bee this weekend.

Germs Alert

School's back in session and so all the kids are back in the germ pool.

Bronzed, Burned, Smoking

Not for much longer in Pennsylvania bars/restaurants.

Vacation Gut: The Product of Ice Cream & Beer

The ice cream and beer has come home to roost.

Cow Dog Grazing

 

Just like it says, cow dog grazing.

First Encounter Beach Clown-Faced Scaredy Boy

 

Came upon this clown-faced fellow while the family and I were strolling the bay at First Encounter Beach (site of the first Pilgrim-Indian enounter: they both ran away) at low tide. The tide goes way way way way out and then comes back in fairly fast.

I think the guy had tidal shock watching the water rise quickly.

Scene Gazing on Gay Street in West Chester

I was standing outside Taylor's Music in West Chester on Saturday while my son was inside learning the nuances of the solo in Stairway to Heaven, I enjoyed a cold iced tea from Nick's Cafe and watched the world stroll by in the summer heat. There were pockets of twentysomethings on a pub crawl complete with t-shirts heading toward Jitters.

This girl -- not on the pub crawl -- was walking along alone at a hurried pace.  The look in her eyes said she had either seen too much of something or had seen something for the very first time and was deep in thought -- sorting it out, trying to make sense of it.

Her thousand-yard-stare grabbed my attention enough to make me snap this cellphone shot real quick. She made no indication whether she heard the electronic shutter sound the phone makes -- didn't change her pace, didn't flinch; no reaction to the flash going off full in her face. She walked on by.

I turned my head to see her continue West on Gay Street then take a left at the end of the block on Darlington.

A shadow distracted me. I looked down to see the iced tea-to-ice ratio in my cup was way out of proportion. Memo to myself: next time ask them to ease up on the ice at Nick's.

I looked up and returned to my street gazing, East on Gay.

Drawings from my 1984ish Temple University Notebook

Found this photocopy of a page from one of my notebooks from my early days at Temple University. My recollection is that I drew this on the very first day of the first class I took at Temple...Journalism 101 perhaps? I could have doodled anywhere. I chose Temple.

I'm fond of the soft pretzel and diner salt shaker behind Happy's head.

Scary Mean Coffee Skull Ring

Scary one-eyed coffee ring antlered skull thing.

Parrot Scissor Hands

Was scribbling this along last week and didn't know what it was until someone said it looked like a parrot scissor hands kind of creature. The daughter just watched Edward Scissorhands for the first time and has renewed her love and commitment to all-things Johnny Depp.

While I didn't get to watch it with her, it must be in my head. Here's a neat little Edward Scissorhands claymation clip.

Victory Barkeep Shocker

Reaction of Victory Brewing Co. bartender when  my visiting-from-Texas brother pointed out that she had been included in a snapshot of the Victory Growler Filler on Feed The Ogre soon after Victory reopened in May.

[sincerest apologies to the barkeep for the unflattering and/or lack of likeness of this illustration! that's just how i roll my Pentel e-Sharp mechanical pencil.]

Frog vs. Fly

Frog ponders fly. Patiently.

If I was a clever lad I'd animate the fly and set him buzzing around on the page. If I was a clever lad with time.

Save the Kitten, Save the World

I'm getting soft in this old age.

Dragon's Roamin' Outside the Barn

and that's all I have to say about that.

Meine Jacke

I took one or two semesters of German at Temple University while studying there in the 1980s. Unlike my French and Italian in high school, I recall very little of the language I'm sure I learned in college.

One phrase that stuck with me was "meine Jacke".

The professor would act out whatever he was teaching us and I found it quite amusing when he said, "meine Jacke" while he gracefully stroked the lapels of his blazer.

It reminded me of how my father, once, during a heated game of Password, used the hand motion of playing with yo-yo and saying the word, "bob". (The password was "yo yo".) It caused a great ruckus, this illegal use of pantomime. The game quickly fell apart as the highly competitive McGlinchey family exchanged accusations of cheating and foul play.

My kids find it amusing, and a little odd, that the key phrase I remember is "meine Jacke." I find it useful. I actually get to use it a lot when I can't find "meine Jacke."