New BuckToonz for the New Year

Hello friends and fans.

BuckToonz has been put on hold due for a few months for a number of different reasons. I won't bore you with the how's and why's because I have good news to share. There are plans to resume regular posting (and the ensuing hilarity) in early 2015. I appreciate your patience and in the meantime, why not take a stroll down memory lane and re-visit some of your favorite cartoons of years past? You can access the blog archive located a little ways down and on right side of the page.

Wishing y'all Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year! Have fun and travel safe.

Rhyming Time

I never fancied myself a poet, but on past occasions I've tried my hand at a bit of prose. Now wait...before you click away-- I promise this will be kind of fun.

This first one tells the tale of how I dealt with a roach infestation many years ago when living in a tiny apartment.

Roaches Goodbye

This war has raged here long enough

Tried traps and sprays and other stuff

My food and garbage they still eat

And run at night across my feet

But I'm a smart and clever man

For I have genocide in a can

I pull the tab, release the spray

And leave my house for the day

I come home late to a welcome sight

A victory won by chemical might

I walk the floor and then I feel

A hundred bodies beneath my heel

The city where I live was built in a coastal region that has a very high water table. The local newspaper once stated how that water table effects the structure of buildings across the city, and causes them to slowly sink a little each year. Around that same time I also became aware of how many people, including myself, who have accumulated large amounts of pennies, and stored them in big containers for a future trip to the bank. I then saw a "correlation" between these two things and came to the following conclusion....

Copper Deposits

They say this city sinks each year

A foot or more this time they fear

Its pennies saved in jars like mine

That sink this city over time

Objectified

In this week's toon I'm referencing one of my own
sculptures, which can be seen here.
Is that a little weird or inbred somehow?

Having It Both Ways

This week’s toon is one of the few remaining relics to be found in my secret, archive bunker. Many years ago I was totally opposed to the idea of hunting. Over time, I reconsidered that opinion. This cartoon has been altered quite a bit from the original version which was rather dark, and heavily biased. These days I’m all in favor of taking rational measures to protect our wildlife resources, but it seems that the conservation groups that are backed by the hunter demographic, have an ulterior motive. I find that a bit ironic, even though I have donated money to such groups.

The way I see it -- if you shoot it, trap it, or catch it…then EAT it! What I don’t endorse is the idea of trophy hunting. I think its wrong to kill an exceptional animal just so you can hang it's head on your wall, and make boots out of its hide. Hunting should be done to keep animal populations under control, and to feed people. Hunt in order to sustain Life...not ego.

It Grows On You

Every year prior to the winter holiday season, Americans are inundated with a particular TV commercial and its familiar "Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!.." jingle. For those in the audience who live outside the US you may not be aware of the annual Chia Pet phenomena. The Chia Pet is a small terra cotta figurine usually in the shape of an animal or the head of a famous person; which is used to grow chia (Salvia hispanica). The chia sprouts over a few weeks and creates the appearance of green fur or hair on the figure. This is a novelty product that is readily available throughout the year but is only advertised for a few short weeks. It has been extremely successful for almost forty years. From a marketing standpoint I find this amazing.

For those of you who now have that silly Chia Pet jingle stuck in your heads, you can go here to get some relief.

Duck (Alphabet) Soup

"Nap Time"

The goal of this week's project was to use metal rods, sheet metal, and plate metal to echo the form of something organic. We could use plants, animals, insects, microbes, or even natural phenomena for inspiration.

As usual I like to inject a little bit of fun into my projects whenever possible and this time around I was in the mood for a little dark humor. The idea of a snake-eating-a rat came to mind. Nothing against rodents of course; I strongly prefer them over snakes, but I wanted to create a typical scene out of Nature.  We all know what happens when a snake eats a large meal; the snake becomes very lethargic and will rest or sleep for a long period of time as it digests its kill. This is where the title for my piece "Nap Time" came from. Also, creating this scene would allow me an opportunity to experiment more with hot bending techniques, and to attempt a ship-in-the-bottle type illusion which has always fascinated me.

The snake body was formed by hot-bending 3/8" metal rods into coils. The rods came in 48" lengths, and were welded together end-to-end as needed. It may not look like it but the snake body used up about 14 feet of rod. This took much longer than I had anticipated and was quite physically demanding to manually bend a total of 18 coils. Although super heated metal can be quite pliable, I could only bend an inch or so at a time, to gradually form the concentric circles.

Nails were bent and welded in place to create fangs. The tail was made with two pieces of hand-cut brass, and then struck with a ball peen hammer to create a scale-like texture. This part was fun in that I got to finally put to use a tiny anvil that I have here in my home studio. The tail is attached to the body with a spring. There is a hollow space inside the tail that holds four BBs which will rattle briefly when the tail is flicked with a finger. Thus my piece becomes "interactive".

The eyes of the snake were not the best choice according to my class and instructor critique. The "language" established by the steel and plate is interrupted by the plastic of the eyes. I can remedy this by substituting something such as small metallic discs or using nuts for the eyes.

The rat is hand-cut from light sheet metal, and it's texture was created using a wire brush attachment on a power tool called an Angle Grinder. The rat's eyes are copper BBs (the same kind that were placed inside the snake's rattle), the tail is a brass rod, and the legs are heavy wire with small magnets for the feet. Here's the ship-in-the-bottle part of all this; the rat went in last, after the snake was assembled and painted. It is not as easy as it may look.

The rat body with tail was inserted first, and then the legs and feet were attached while inside the snake. This procedure took the better part of an hour to complete, and the whole time I was trying not to scratch the painted surfaces or warp the rat body. I found a version of Super-Glue that will bond metal together rather nicely and I used that to attach the magnetic feet. Why magnetic feet? I liked the look of the magnets and it allows for re-positioning of the rat if and when needed.

Here I am in my welding gear.

To balance out the macho, robotic look..I added a "Hello Kitty"sticker on the side of my helmet.


The next post will be on Wednesday May 7th.
See you then.

Two for the Price of One

This week we look at two recent projects from my Sculptural Processes class in which we spent the first half of the semester working in the wood shop and the second half working in the metal shop.  I’ve used  all the basic wood working machine tools before but never to the extent that they are used in this class.  As far as metal shop goes I’ve only done some very basic spot welding which took place many years ago.

Wood Shop “Towers” project.  Working in pairs each team was provided two 8 ft. x 2”x4” pine boards. The goal was to create a tower (something that is taller than its base is wide) that uses all of the main power and machine tools in the shop. The design categories were to build; the tallest, the strongest or most aesthetically pleasing. Initially it didn’t look like I would have a partner because on the day we were assigned the project we had students who were absent, which gave us an odd number of people.  Instead of waiting (and wasting an entire three hour class period) until the following week to see if I would have a partner, I went ahead and designed a tower for myself.

The next week I was assigned a partner, and in order to save some time we went ahead and used my design but the actual work of constructing the tower was evenly split. We had to use the provided boards but they could not look like standard 2x4s. They had to be split, cut down, or re-shaped in some way. Our base was a bit overbuilt because at the time we didn’t know how large and heavy the arc was going to be. Wood screws and wood glue was used to hold the entire thing together. The screws hold the pieces in place and allow for the glue to dry. The glue would set and become structurally sound after 24 hrs. and that is the true strength that holds the project together.  Finding and cutting the proper angles was the key to our success.  After that, the build was pretty easy. This project preceded the 3D wooden puzzle fish posted here a few weeks ago.

Metal Shop “The Body” project. Working again in teams of two using up to twenty feet of 3/8” steel rod we were to reference, represent, enclose, modify, or otherwise interact with the human body or one of its parts.  Once again special attention had to be placed upon making solid, clean, welds, and spray painting the surface in a professional way. This time my partner had a strong idea and we went in that direction with a few modifications. We wanted to combine form, function, and fun by creating a coat and hat rack that looked like an abstracted “butler” type figure. My contribution to the original design was the addition of the wheels, the bow tie, and the hand with tray. The bow tie was originally going to be cut and formed from sheet metal but for a variety of reasons that did not work out. So the tie was created with red felt and “museum board” which is a very stiff and strong cardboard material. The tie had a purpose in it was used to conceal the junction of four rods coming together. Not a pretty sight for us first-time welders. We have been told a number of times that “a good craftsman covers his mistakes well”.  And that is exactly what we were doing; covering our unsightly intersection.

Bending of the rods was done mostly “cold”, using manual labor by placing the rod in an iron brace and using brute strength and body weight to make series of incremental bends. The hardest part was bending the 2ft circle for the base. That was a two hour process of continuous, slow, and deliberate work that I did on my own. The figure’s hand was hot bent with an Oxyacetylene torch. One merely heats up the rod until it glows a bright orange, and then the metal becomes quite pliable. 

We went through a few working titles for this project which ranged from simply “The Butler”, to “Winston”, and eventually to “Wobbles (the Butler)”. The name came from the fact that our figure being a little bit top heavy, had a tendency to wobble somewhat any time it was touched or moved. We thought the wobbling was not a detriment but it actually helped to animate our guy and put a little “life” into him.  

Painted wooden balls were placed on the ends of the coat and hat hanger arms. Painted black wooden balls were also used to cover the nut & bolt assembly that holds the wheels on. We wanted the option of being able to remove the wheels in order to place Wobbles in a semi-permanent location. A plastic tray was velcro-ed onto the hand and there were three shot glasses placed upon it. We had a little trouble with gravity just prior to our presentation on Critique Day, when two of the glasses slid off and broke on the concrete floor…yikes! But it all worked out fine in the end.

Times Are A Changin'

BuckToonz is altering it's posting frequency in order to conform better with my school schedule. For almost four years now BuckToonz has posted each week except for the occasional hiatus. My school work is the highest priority, and will remain so until I graduate in about two more years. I truly enjoy creating the cartoons and other odd bits that have appeared on these pages, but I'm finding that my time is getting tighter and tighter. I want this blog to continue to be fun for me to do (and for you to enjoy), but not be forced to make artistic compromises in the interest of meeting a weekly deadline. Its a quantity versus quality issue for me. So in order to reduce this pressure, BuckToonz will be posting only twice a month beginning in April. The posts will be on the 1rst and 3rd Wednesdays of each month during regular semesters. Perhaps during school vacation times the posting frequency will increase; we'll just have to see.

I still aspire to open a BuckToonz online store, but that will happen when it is feasible for me to maintain that level of commitment. I have many ideas for some really fun, affordable, blog related merchandise and art work etc.

Now might be a good time to become a Follower, so as not to miss out on anything. Please see the sidebar under my photo on the left side of the page for that information.


See you again on April 2nd & 16th. Thank you for your patience, and continued interest in what I do.

Skylight Dreams

This cartoon was inspired by a small moment in real life. Recently, I was in a shopping mall and I noticed a single balloon trapped in a skylight. It seemed funny to me but a little sad at the same time. The balloon was a prisoner under a glass dome unable to float freely and join the sky.

 

 If we were in a philosophical mood, the trapped balloon could be seen as a metaphor for something preventing us from realizing our full ambition.

A Fish Tale

This week we're looking at a project from my Sculptural Processes class. In this class we spend half a semester in the wood shop training on all the various machines, and tools followed by half a semester in the Metal Shop learning how to weld and fabricate. I'm currently on the wood shop side.

We were tasked with creating a puzzle which would fit together without using any type of fasteners such as: nails, staples, or screws etc. We were only allowed to use wood glue and dowels. Special attention was to be placed upon the finished surface, which could be painted, stained, or waxed, but had to be very smooth and attractive. I chose to make a representational piece in the shape of a fish. Why a fish? Fish have smooth, streamlined contours which would be a challenge to create but also something that when properly sanded and finished would look and feel good to the touch. My puzzle was not designed as a problem in need of solving, but is a puzzle in the sense that all of the parts are interconnected and necessary in order for it to be complete.

I found some clean pine boards while on a class field trip to a wood reclamation facility run by our city. Contractors and builders donate usable materials from job sites, restorations, and tear downs; then the city allows citizens to take as much as they want. This is done in an effort to cut down on the amount of building materials going into the landfill. 
     

I laminated the boards together at home with wood glue in order to be ready to start work the next day in the shop. The glue has to dry at least 12 hours in order to be workable, but it does not become structurally sound for 24 hours. In the shop a band saw was used to cut the basic body shape. I then cut the body into four pieces...this was a miscalculation. I should have left the body intact for as long as possible as I sanded it into shape, and then cut it apart to be re-aligned in a life-like position. Oh well. It all worked out in the end as you will soon see.

All of the contouring was done using sanding machines of different sizes and with different surfaces, one of which has a 24" disk! The final shaping was done using a hand-held power sander, and the final detailing was accomplished with good old-fashioned hand sanding, and lots of elbow grease. 

The ends of the body pieces were  sanded at angels so when they fit together the fish would be in a natural looking position with a slight curve to it.






The fins and tail were made with a separate laminate of pine wood boards that had a slightly reddish tint to them. With a light stain those parts would have a different tone in contrast to the body. Round wooden balls were purchased to serve as the eyes.

This exploded view shows how the dowels are set up to hold everything together. It was important to me to have all the parts fit snugly as possible. Getting the fins to fit tight up against the curves of the body was much more difficult than anticipated, but totally worth the effort. After the last of the fine sanding and fitting was complete, Tung Oil was used on the body, and a light stain applied to the fins, tail and eyes.

A dark stain was use for the base.

 A big fish in a small pond!

During the class critique I was asked by a student what kind of fish is it supposed to be. I answered with, "its a Striped Pinewood Croaker; a fish that is often heard but rarely seen." That got a big laugh.

Later that day, someone made a solid offer to purchase the piece. I will sell it at the end of the semester but first I want to do a little more fine tuning and tweaking. Then take more photos for documentation, and live with my creation for a little while. Then I'll be happy to let it go to someone else to enjoy.

Hog Wild

Americans are behaving as if they have discovered bacon for the very first time. The entire country is caught up in it's new found bacon lust. For many people bacon is truly the food of the gods. Is this national obsession an organic occurrence, or just brilliant marketing by the Pork Producers of America? Who knows? Bacon memes abound as do bacon related novelty items such as: bacon flavored toothpaste, bacon soda, and lip balm. Nothing creates a more romantic atmosphere than a bacon scented air freshener or candle. Yum! The holiday season is now made even more special with bacon themed ornaments on the Christmas tree.

When Americans get involved in something, they really own it!

 

Pieces of Mind

This is a collage that has been hanging on my wall for a long time. I never seem to tire of it, and it has moved from place to place with me over the years.

It measures 18" by 48"and was made the old-school way...by hand. No Photo shop or Google images were used. Its a slow and thoughtful process to collect images, words, and phrases, that resonate with you on some level.

One fine day when it appears as though there is enough material, you sit down, trim everything out, and put it all together. There is no randomness about the collection process or the final assembly. If I recall correctly the main sources for my imagery came primarily from: TV Guide, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, The Weekly World News. and a few other sources I can no longer recall.

Take a look and see what you can find. I encourage you to create your own as well. Just make it for yourself, with no expectations except to enjoy the process. And remember, you are not required to share it with anyone else.

Have A Fit

Cover Tunes

This week we'll look at last semester's final project for my Illustration class. The assignment was to create an album cover. Not a CD cover, but a 12" x 12" jacket for a vinyl LP. The idea was to combine two completely divergent musical styles, and create a band name that would indicate what genres are being cobbled together. The first name I chose was "The New Age Red-Necks" which I soon changed to "Angels Wear Mullets". We had our choice of medium, and I went with acrylic paint as I had not used them in a while and I needed bold, psychedelic colors. The title of the Angels Wear Mullets LP is "Off-Road 2 Atlantis".

Note the truck's mud-flap. Instead of the stereotypical, busty, nude woman in silhouette; this woman is seated as if meditating in the Lotus position.

On the back cover are images of the individual band members and what they play. 

The mud-flap woman appears again on the disc label where the songs are listed. The part I enjoyed the most on this project was generating fun song titles, and naming the band members.

I received a good grade on this project. There was high praise for my concept however I need to continue working on my painting technique.

Like many others of a certain age I grew up listening to vinyl records. CDs and MP3s have some advantages but I really miss the warmth of the analog recording process; along with the often times amazing art that adorned the album jackets. On CDs there is just not enough space for a decent image, and most detail gets lost. It just lacks the visual impact of a traditional rock LP cover.

There were artists in the 60's and 70's who used to make their entire living by designing album covers. Many of these became iconic images that helped define the genre and the times. For most creative types the idea of creating album art for a favorite band would be a dream come true.This project gave me a taste of what that would be like.

Who's Your Daddy?

As my regular readers know I don't normally do topical subjects due to their extremely short shelf life. But in this case I feel compelled to comment.

Miley Cyrus was one of the most overexposed and least interesting celebrities of 2013. Its wishful thinking but, lets hope the public tires of her un-original antics and that she fades away soon.

 

However, one cannot avoid asking the question; What is it with that freakish tongue of hers? I'm not sure its even a tongue. It looks to me like she's trying to eat a very large snake-- head first, and hasn't quite finished swallowing it yet.

I have my doubts that Billy Ray Cyrus is her real father. I think a paternity test is in order. My money is on Gene Simmons.