Glorious Graphite Greatness from Greece

Here are more drawings from my trip:

These two pages were drawn while I was on the overnight ferry from Bari, Italy to Patras, Greece. Besides the cramped cabins, cruddy food, expensive drinks, crappy weather & the constant swaying & rocking of the boat back & forth, it was not so bad. As we were waiting to get into port, one of the other kids from my group asked "Can you draw a seal?". Little did she know that I never drew a seal before in my life, but I said "sure" anyway. I think it looks like a retarded ferret, but at least she didn't notice.

Soon after, a flurry of requests started coming towards my direction, & I drew them out as quick as I could. Most of them are pretty bad, especially the weird-looking lion in the middle & the rabid badger thing directly above it. The only drawing of these two pages I actually like is the bear in the top right corner. Mmm... honey.

At one point, someone asked if the duck I usually draw was Daffy (I get that a lot). Instead of just saying "no", I began to give a little lesson on who's who, just to straighten things out. In the bottom left corner, you can see three ducks: Daffy, Donald & Steve-O. I said that Donald has a round head, Daffy has a triangular head & a flat bill & that Steve-O has a square head & a thicker bill. Of course, they couldn't care less on what shape a duck's head is, but at least I got a little something off my chest, & answered a perfectly good question for someone. Perfectly good boy scout material.

Before we left for our trip, we were promised that when we got to Patras that we would spend a nice, full day at the beach. A perfect opportunity to get some color, swim a little, get some well-deserved R&R... it sounded like paradise. Unfortunately for us, the bad weather from the ferry followed us to the hotel.

As the two days in Patras passed on, we were utterly disgusted over our situation. Instead of feeling refreshed & full of energy, the dark, dreary & damp conditions outside our windows made us feel drab & downright depressed. As I watched the rain, I drew this picture. At least I could imagine sun, sand, surf & slurping ice cold strawberry smoothies. At least the hotel had a pool table. A wet & slippery pool table.

Although I was in Greece for only less than 24 hours, it already had an impact on me. I drew this one thinking about ancient Athenian ruins, statues & a certain Disney movie.

The one problem I had in this drawing was with the faun on the right. The rest of his body was easy to plan & draw out, but the real nuisance was those damn, @#$%& legs of his! Any animal with those legs, especially horses, cows, deer, moose, goats & pigs, drives me off the wall! I can never get them right, no matter how much I study the animal in question. I think God made a big boo-boo when he designed four-legged animals this way. I guess practice makes perfect.

Not much to say on this one. Just a humorous take on somebody being left behind & a crappy pun to go along with it. Notice the iPod & the banana coming out of Steve-O's backpack.

Many looked at this one with confusion. It is kinda hard to read, especially for someone who didn't grow up with a love for animation cliches & techniques.

I drew this at lunch after we saw an ancient Acropolis (not the famous one in Athens, that one's coming up later). This picture looks kinda like a layout for a real crappy postcard or something.

That's it for today's installment. I'll continue posting either tomorrow or Thursday, depending on how the days go. Remember to leave comments!

Also, I apologize for the size of the pictures. On some posts, you can click on them & they get bigger, & sometimes it don't. If anyone can help me out with this problem, it would be really appreciated. Thanks!