The Professor

This one was Leaf's idea. First he wanted to a scientist who couldn't make any progress with his studies, so he decided to restrict his studies to turtles, then I came up with a monster who learned by eating books, and we met somewhere in the middle. Here is his poem:

The Scientist

He would work all day and night
He was a scientist that liked to work on how the world was made.
And never made any progress at doing it while doing it was very fun for him
So he worked very hard but did not have any progress
So then he decided to do science on turtles and he had a lot of progress

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!