from my sketchbook: wilbur brink

On Memorial Day 1931, 24 year-old driver Billy Arnold was the defending champion of the Indianapolis 500. Having competed in the annual event two previous times, Billy won the 1930 race after leading all but first two laps, the most ever by a winner. On lap 162 of the 1931 Indianapolis 500, leader Billy Arnold …

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Monday Artday: redo a famous painting (part 1)

The new Monday Artday challenge is to redo a famous painting. I did this for another illustration website a little over a year ago. My version of “Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière” by French Neoclassical artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres can be seen here. For the current challenge I chose two paintings that are linked, but for a ridiculous reason. Pinkie  …

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Monday Artday: horse with hands riding a bike

This week’s Monday Artday challenge is an unusual (and specific) suggestion. It’s a “horse with hands riding a bike”.  Supposedly, horses are difficult to draw, hands are difficult to draw and bicycles are difficult to draw. So, putting them all together presents a particularly difficult challenge. And artists seem to always be looking for a challenge. Well, …

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from my sketchbook: stanley fafara and sue randall

Poor Beaver Cleaver. He was a pretty nice kid, if only he didn’t give in to the misguided persuasion of idiotic Larry Mondello and two-faced liar Gilbert Bates. The antics got Beaver into a certain amount of trouble, though he usually walked away with nothing worse than a torn pair of pants or some lost lunch money. …

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Monday Artday: strange food

The new illustration challenge on the Monday Artday website is “strange food”. To break up the monotony between shots of sun-tanned tourists on cruise ships and Anthony Bourdain’s smoke-filled excursions to out-of-the-way gourmet eateries, the Travel Channel debuted Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern  in 2007. Andrew is a chef, a food critic and, most important, a daring gourmand. He’s a …

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from my sketchbook: rachel roberts

Welsh actress Rachel Roberts appeared predominantly in British cinema, earning critical acclaim opposite Albert Finney in the 1960 British New Wave film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.  Her role in The Sporting Life, with Richard Harris, was recognized with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Rachel was regularly cast as women of questionable character, …

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