The Gardeners

This doodle was my idea. I was thinking about H.R. Giger who died recently (on the same day as my dad!), and I was wondering what a kid's book inspired by Giger would look like. No little bear, yet. I'm pondering what a new collection of doodles will look like and I'm not sure the role the little bear will play.

Below is Leaf's gardeners which he titled, a good awesome picture. His process is getting a bit more, um, intense. He first typed in the text on the iMac's Notepad, printed it out, drew and colored his picture, scanned it back into the iMac, adjusted the scan with iPhoto, copied it onto a thumb drive, had me copy it onto my computer where he had me tweak it in Photoshop. Only then(!) would he allow me to upload it to the blog.

The Bandit

Long time coming. We've been on vacation and working and doing soccer tournaments, so doodling has shamefully taken a backseat to other activities. That said, ideas are starting to formulate for a new collection.

Oh, also my friend Luke used this doodle for his band poster!

The bandit started out as Leaf's idea to do a cowboy. Then it became a list poem, the sort I'm usually not a fan of, but eh, we decided to give it a shot and throw it up against the wall. Besides, some list poems are genius (Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out!") Anyway, here is Leaf's poem: I'm a bandit. I stole a honey pot and a VW bus. And even more, a buffalo. And even some bowls. So now since I stole all this stuff from B, well now, since I have an army after me, maybe I should find a place to hide. So they're after me now, will you give me an answer? And yasso yeah. And that's the end.

The Loner

This one was Leaf's idea. First he wanted to do an airplane, then I came up with "Lair in the Air," then he came up with the "Fair in the Air." Sort of scrappy and a little sad, but eh, we haven't been drawing together for awhile. Not sure how long we can continue on similar artistic paths. Doodling is not something either of us take lightly. We will see where our energies take us. Anyway, here is Leaf's poem: "Oh, oh, the lonely me. Children won't say hi or goodbye. Have no friends. Don't know anybody. Parents are weird. Farts are stinky. Mark is my dad's name. Monet is my mom's name. Leaf, the coolest person in the world, is my name. Now, chewcabbaca. Splendid is my cat. My dad works at space place or something. And my mom works at whale hospital. My dad makes me do my homework. So I walk outside and I sit on my fake plane. Hmmmm. And I get mad. And I fly. And I see something. And it's an island. Done."

Earf Book!

Phew. The Earf book is finally done. Thanks for all the niceness. All the books from the first box have been claimed. So if you now want a copy, please order from one of the following links:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Snowballs

MORE DETAILS

• What's inside the book? 48 stunningly goofy doodles, all drawn by me. Each idea for a doodle came from the squirrel-like brains of Leaf and myself. Many early versions can be seen on the this blog.
• What about Leaf's doodles? WTF! I realize that many of Leaf's doodles are way cooler than mine. You can still see them on the blog. Unfortunately, it takes a !@#$*@ amount of time to process drawings for a POD book. None of Leaf's original doodles were ever primped and polished in Photoshop. Anyway, I made a deal with Leaf. If he can get 24 pages and a cover, I will make a soft cover version of his next set of doodles (not using Lightning Source, which requires 48 pages and intense formatting; but instead using CreateSpace, an Amazon offshoot). So, he started working on a new collection which I will upload to the blog soon (when I start doodling again). In summary, a book from Leaf should appear soon.
• Is the book cool? I got a proof and it's like a real kids book. The color is amazing, non-glossy. And the illustrations are detailed and really nice. Seriously, I can't believe I drew these, they look so good. Also, it is much better than the blog. Leaf was reading the proof the other day, following the words with his finger, and really getting into it.

Thanks for ordering Earf!

The Fisherman

Here is a smaller one, Leaf's idea. He wanted to do a sea monster but it evolved into a fisherman. He definitely kicked my butt on this one. Amazing line work on his fisherman. Anyway, I'm collecting all my Little Bear doodles and will likely self-publish them as a lil book, so if anybody wants one, send me an email. I'm still working on the details. If mine works out, we'll also make a book for Leaf. Here is Leaf's poem, "Blue blue blue i work in the blue. the blue is my home. have you ever met the big blue whale? or the giant squid? The blue is where I live. i like it here in the blue. it’s fun for me. never get close to the great tiger shark. what do you do next to the great tiger shark? you fight him. Blue blue blue"

The Naturalist

This one was my idea. I was determined to do something positive, without too much apocalyptic overtones. Nothing more positive than an indestructible seed, eh? Here is what Leaf has to say about his, "Far far far away deep deep deep underground awaits a seed. you find it hard to get to. during the great freeze all the trees died. so awaits the seeeed, waiting for its daaay. That is the end."

The Baker

Yeah, this one took two months, but not for lack of trying. It went through numerous iterations. Bears, bears, bears, in lairs, lairs, lairs. Leaf finally landed on the baking bear idea and it stuck. Leaf's poem is, "Wiggly Woggly Woo. I made my own cake. Wiggly Woggly Wee. I made my own oven and I turned it on. That is the end of the end of the Wiggly Woggly Woo.

The Poet

I know, it makes no sense. Sorry. This one was Leaf's call and a compositional um, challenge. He wanted to do an airport and I wanted to do a poet. This doodle is dedicated to my friend Kelton and to Splendid Firecat, who seems happy in her new home, especially after Monet purchased her a ten-foot scratching post (Splendid appears in the doodle!). Here is Leaf's artist statement, A long time ago, when I was only one, I was writing a story, a story that required an airport and in that airport there was noisy jooms, and sometimes the planes took off twenty at a time, including three thousand. I need just one more word, even though I was writing this when I was one and I’m a hundred thousand years old now. It needs to be, a little stinky and maybe tasty too, with some farts. My name was pickly pockly wickly woo.

Sandwich Fixer

Well, it's been two months since we have last posted, but this doesn't mean Leaf and I have stopped our doodling. No, no, no. Since we have been without a home and shuffling from place to place, city to city, country to country, we have doodled at every opportunity, performing on all sorts of surfaces: napkins, place-mats, tables, chairs, walls, our arms and legs, wrappers found in the street, whatever we can get our grimy little hands on. And thus, we have become true doodling refuges. But now, as our world begins to settle, we are closing in on a more stable doodling space, somewhere deep in the woods. In the meantime, to alleviate any concern, here are a few of our lost doodles. Mine is an old idea of Leaf's, the sandwich fixer (sans bear!), that has gone through many iterations. Leaf also drew a version of the sandwich maker, but unfortunately, his doodle was lost on the road, so I posted one of his newer treasures, "The Fantastic Colors", made immediately after he received a new set of markers. More to come!

Zookeeper

Both Leaf and I photocopied four sheets of doodles and then made collages on the computer to complete this one. And man, the pressure was intense. When putting Leaf's together, I felt like Kerouac, piecing together the Naked Lunch. The final work was delivered immediately after a big fight over perception and whether I'm seeing more in the world than he is. Anyway, I had a slight problem in mine, the mongoose and the cobra are hanging from the edge of the void. Sort of an ontological issue. They are above the zoo, but not ABOVE the zoo. Anyway, here is Leaf's poem: In the hoodoo zoo, the cow’s moo. Makes a big who. So all you do is listen to the cow moo. So put some moo-phones on. And that is the end of the hoodoo zoo.

The Curator

I apologize to all the good people of Earf. This delay in doodles is unforgivable. Never mind that we no longer reside at Little Drive and our doodle space has been sold off to invaders from Vegas. Nor that we are doodling on a kitchen table that is perfectly the wrong height. And nor that we have to barter for scan-time in the cubby at Kaibab. No excuses! We are awful slackers! Here is Leaf's story, "The sky left last July without saying goodbye. So I built the sky museum. It has a blimp, a ballooon, a turkey, a vulture, a jet pack man, two flying flooey shoes. The shoes moos while they are drinking booze. While they drink booze, they stew. That is the end of the stew. Okay. Bye bye."

The Cooks

Both Leaf and I are fighting colds and not mentally all there, so this one turned out a little wacky. This was my idea and it came from Leaf and I watching Buster Keaton dodge runaway boulders. I went a little gonzo with the bevel feature in PS and had to deal with some tough technical issues, especially for the little bear. How does he remain in a proper "waiter" position while the boulder rolls? Well, obviously he is hooked to a magnetic, dual-locking, retractable spinning arm-ah-ma-jigger. Duh. Here is Leaf's story: "Steve was his name, yeah, Steve was his name. He could cook everything he wished. His dishes and his doodles. After he cooks turn out all dirty. He has no restaurant dudes. When his flames rise high it’s daytime. When his flames rise low it’s nighttime. That is the end of Steve, yeah, Steve, that’s his name."

Rainbow Watcher

Leaf and I came up with this idea a few weeks ago after we saw an amazing monsoon rainbow from a Basha's parking lot and nobody bothered to look up and stare at the silly thing. People walked to their cars with the head's down, talking in their cellphones. Maybe we imagined it? Here is Leaf's story (the grammatical errors are intentional!): The at the of wiggly wadoodle walked up the hills of wiggly wadoodle wah-dee-doo. And looked up finding a huge rainbow. Well this ordinary looking. How about we sit and watch it and have lunch is well. So staring at wiggly ma-diggly madoo, the colorful lulliful rainbow. They’re building a new one over by the lake. It has twenty-ten colors and reaches France. And that is the end of wiggly ma-diggly madoo.

Tree Builders

Leaf came up with the idea, and I had serious problems meeting his demands. First we started out with elves painting leaves, which was far too, well, elvish. Then I couldn't fit the crane in. And you can see the result of that. And finally, I found it impossible to find space for my poem, which I realize is the least important part of my doodle, but I can't just nix it. So, I filled the right-side of the panel with exhaust. Brilliant, eh? Here is Leaf's story, which is far superior to mine: It’s so hard to fiddly dummily make a tree, you need paint brushes and paint bottles and glue bottles too. To lift the heavy stuff you can’t lift you need a high crane. And to make the roots, you need a lot of string. And you need to cement the tree in. Because, out of all the hundreds of trees we made, it’s just so hard, why not plant a seed? Because if you don’t, you have to do all this kind of stuff. So, you should, you have to pick the weeds, make the tree, cement the tree and make the roots.

Oasis Chasers

Sorry for the two month delay. We've gone to Yellowstone and summer camp, and for me, work has taken over. I need to get back in a groove and realize the epic importance of doodling. The guilt is overwhelming. Leaf's is below. He says, "There once was a man who lived in his house. He one time one day didn't want to live in his house because all he got to eat everyday was burritos for dinner and sandwiches for lunch and granola for breakfast, so he hopped outside one night, hopped on his bike and biked away. Along came a teddy bear. And hopped on a girl. They biked even faster and longer until they found a big tree that was running. They got closer and closer and closer. And it got darker and darker and darker. They found out form its license plate that it was an oasis. But still chasing it couldn't catch up. It jumped in the air. It was getting tired. Tired. Well, they biked faster. The bike had to go slower because it had to go the speed limit. So it couldn't catch it."

Deep Sleeper

This one took awhile. Things have been hectic on Little Drive and I keep forgetting that doodling is really my most important dooty. Shame on me. Leaf has been very patient with me. Here is his drawing. He says, "There was a beautiful mountain on a beautiful place named biddily boddily fiddily finkly. Deep deep deep underground there once and still is a sleeping goblin. So if there is anybody else down there please don't wake up the great goblin. The mountain instead of growing up, it grows down. And it stops on top of the goblin's head. The goblin's name is Eric. And the bear's name is JuJu."

Ocean Cleaner

Man, this one got out of hand quickly. It was my turn to pick, so I picked the ocean and we ended up talking about the Lady in the Lake (hence the sword). Leaf added a fisherman and a dock to his, so I added the same. Then the whole thing was invaded by sharks and in Leaf's, a turtle on a rainbow surfboard. Leaf says, "Pocito is the name of the girl. The teddy bear is on top of the guy fishing. And Pocito is pouring the potion into the sea. A turtle surfing going wee hoo hoo. And lots of sharks in the water and fish and dolphin. And a squid leg was in the water. Pocito has designs on her shirt."

Storm Movers

First Leaf came up with a lightening shooter. Then I tried to turn the shooter into a blue-collar lightening-maker in some silly mechanical cloud, but that didn't go anywhere. So we ended up here. I'm labeling these kid-centric doodles, "earf" drawings. Here is Leaf's. He says, "Storm busters and they bring bags back to their houses full of clouds and rain and stuff, They also bring food so they don't starve. The cloud movers are made out of super strong steel put together with metal. The storms are blustery and cold. The end."

Sun Runner

I'm sticking with Leaf-inspired poems. Also this one is inspired by Monet. Duh. And, bonus, I have a reoccurring character, a bear with an antenna sticking out of its head. So watch out! Okay, now I have to quit doodling and do some work. Here is Leaf's. He says, "The sun plugging in. The machine sun machine has sunny bright things to make the sunny sun bright. It has a fire truck to spray to sun if it gets too big."

Snow Maker

Leaf picked this one. He drew a snow-making machine after the storm a few weeks ago. I changed my goal with this poem, trying to get a laugh out of Leaf, which really is the noblest goal for poetry when you really think about it. He smiled after I read it, which I suppose is a victory. As for his picture, Leaf says, "There once lived a troll who made nasty snow, made of mushy oatmeal and expired medicines, like lots of other stuff. And he mixed it and mixed it until it turned into beautiful white snow, but if you even went out there, make sure to fly, because your toes will freeze."