Foot Brothers in Color

First Colored Illustration for the Foot brothers Three.

...and hand in paw the hunters and the rabbits dance 'round and 'round singing....Theres' one Foot, and Foot-Foot, and a brother they called Foot-Foot-Foot.......

The Foot Brothers Three

Foot was his name....not an ordinary name and most of all not an ordinary rabbit. He had lots of friends with ordinary names. Fluffy, Carrot Top, Big Ears Ernie, Bunny O'Hare, and all the rest. But his best and dearest friends were his two extraordinary brothers.........
Foot-Foot and.......
Foot-Foot-Foot.
The three of them would play every rabbit game together.
HOP!
FLOP!
SKIP!
and THUMP!
Their favorite place to play was a brier patch because that's where rabbits like to play. Thorns, stickers, nasty chiggers nothing bothered them because...........they were singers. Harmonies, melodies so many similarities...the notes rolled off there fuzzy whiskers like busy bees humming. And they would hold each other's lucky rabbit feet, and rub their floppy ears together....'round and 'round, and 'round and 'round, they would sing this happy song..........

THERE'S ONE FOOT; AND FOOT-FOOT;
AND A BROTHER THEY CALLED FOOT-FOOT-FOOT
THREE RABBITS THEY PLAYED GAMES
THEY HAD PECULIAR NAMES
THE FIRST'S CALLED ONE FOOT
THE SECOND'S CALLED FOOT-FOOT
AND THE THIRD'S CALLED FOOT-FOOT-FOOT
AHHHHHHHHHHHH-MMMMMMMMMMMMM
One day something happened in the brier patch.Something no rabbit had experienced before. Three...count 'em...One, two, three hunters with the biggest guns a rabbit had ever seen! And raised three guns to make a gigantic sound.
But when they heard the rabbits sing their magic song those guns fell silently to the ground.
Then hand in paw, the rabbits and the hunters began to dance 'round and 'round and 'round and 'round singing................................There's............Chorus.

Notes
This is the first rough draft of The Foot Brothers Three or The Foot Foot Song (or what ever) written by Stephen Cormey, (see blog address to the right) Illustrated by Yours Truly.There are more pictures but i wasn't sure how many blogger would handle and it's sort of tricky because you have to load them up and write the story from the last page to the first. Hard work for a bear of little brain!It can be edited but i'm not sure how to edit the pictures without getting everything out of whack! So I'm learning as i go. I also left out one line,"They would play all day long under the bluest sky a rabbit could ever imagine", because, so far, the pics are only in black and white. What I'd really like to do is the color part in photo shop or illustrator. I'm working on those programs now. Meanwhile I'll probably use layered colored pencil and ink. So stay tuned. I welcome any comments and /or constructive criticism.We have a ways to go!
Cheers for now, Ronnie Roo.

The Foot Foot Story by Steve Cormey

Here is the Foot Foot story by Steve Cormey. It might be a while until I get the story plus pics up and running but bare with me. Corm is also working on the accompanying music. Click on the writing to make larger.

Roughs/introducing the other characters

FOOT FOOT

I love doing the roughs for my illustrations. They seem to have a lot of energy in them. Maybe it's because I'm not so concerned about getting everything in the right place and can be more free and have fun with the placement of lines. These will probably keep changing as the picture book evolves but will give you an idea of how the characters might look. eg I'm thinking of giving them little ball caps.

FOOT FOOT FOOT

The rabbits with ordinary names. FLUFFY

CARROT TOP

BUNNY 'OHARE

BIG EARS ERNIE

THE HUNTERS!

Portfolio continued/Foot Foot Song

Here is my very first rough sketch for the main character of a story written by my good friend Steve Cormey http://stevecormey.blogspot.com He has fashioned the story after a song called the Foot Foot song written a long long time ago by Ray Bolger.The song also features in the story and the whole thing is really cute. I would use this song when i was a storyteller years ago.Cormey had three really dilapidated rabbit puppets with button eyes that didn't match. I used these as props and still have them here in my studio closet. The kids loved them. When my stories just weren't working and things were not going well on stage I'd just pull out the rabbits and sing the Foot Foot song. Anyway, the story, the song and more illustrations will come later. Stay tuned.

Portfolio/Silly Magic

SILLY MAGIC written and illustrated by Ronda Eden Willy and Waly Wombat lived in far away Australia. They were happy little fellows and had good reason to be. Australia is a really BIG place so they had lots of room to run around and play. And when they weren't playing they were napping. All day they could play, take a nap then play some more. When they weren't playing or napping they would do what they loved best of all...........ride their bikes!
One day they discovered a mysterious trail that lead them into an even more mysterious forest. After a while they became a little pooped and decided to take a break and have a snack on some sandwiches they had swashed in their pockets.
As they relaxed under gigantic mysterious trees they didn't notice the magic stuff falling onto them from the branches above.They gobbled down their sandwiches and still didn't notice the magic stuff. They couldn't have possibly know this was 'silly magic', the kind that makes you do the strangest things.


SUDDENLY they felt really dizzy and the world started spinning around them. Willy's skin began to tingle and and the hairs on his neck stood straight up on end.


Then he leap t to his feet and ran full speed through the trees.Wally ran after him and they ran and the ran and they laughed and they laugh. They were being really silyl and having so much fun that they didn't notice it was getting dark..............until.......IT WAS.
Willy and Wally were lost! And they weren't feeling very silly any more! They couldn't possible find their way back home in the dark, so they used their 'wombat sense'. They dug a shallow hole, covered themselves with leaves to keep warm and went to sleep.
In the morning when the sun came up they could easily find their tracks. They followed them around and around and around and around and around until they finally found..... their bikes.
They jumped on and peddled out of that mysterious place as fast as their little wombat legs could carry leaving all of that silly magic behind them.Well almost all of it!


To be edited etc

More bloody portfolio stuff / Robby the Roo

Illustration for a rhyming story called Robby the Roo.
Click on image to enlarge.Have a look at Robby's eyes in the second pic. The only thing I photo shopped. Guess I need more practice aye! LOL

Robby the Roo
built a canoe
with intentions of sailing away
he built it you see
from a eucalypt tree
it took him three weeks and a day!.........

Yes it goes on for quite a bit.

Portfolio continued/people

A possible illustration for a story I'm writing called My Teacher has Eyes in the Back of her Head.
Click to enlarge.

portfolio continued/people

"Bother", grunted Hilda."Missed again!" From Boris, Hilda and the Strange New Thing.

Portfolio continued/ Goanna

A bit silly but this actually happens. We are all told to stand perfectly still when you see a snake. This doesn't work with those big tree goannas. Their eyesight's not too good. If they panic they'll head right up the nearest thing they think might be a tree. It's a little unnerving wouldn't you say?!
Australia's a strange place.

Portfolio continued

Mutants in the Fridge (228 words)

By Ronda Eden

There are mutants in the fridge and I don’t know what to do

Slimy bits of watermelon and all this yukky goo

Something green and furry, something all gone black

Some chips all dried and shriveled and what looks like a Big Mac!

No one likes to clean the fridge they’d rather let it be

They’re scared to take the lids off things

They’re scared of what they’ll see

The meat’s gone green and slimy and it’s really on the nose

The cheese has grown an overcoat and all the spuds have toes!

The veggies are quite clever, they take care of themselves

They turn themselves to liquid and move to other shelves

And if they’re left there long enough, they head toward the door

Then when you open up the fridge, they ooze onto the floor

Each day they’re growing bigger and changing shape and color

Some are getting brighter and some are getting duller

One day they might turn into, huge gigantic toads

And just keep getting bigger until the fridge explodes!

Whoa!

Then what a job will that be, to clean up that big mess

We’ll have to think of something

We’ll have to move I guess

Just thinking of this makes me tried

And makes me hungry too

But there mutants in the fridge and I don’t know what to do.

Children's Book Illustration Portfolio continued/people

Have You Ever Had a Hot dog?

Have you ever had a hot dog
that you wore instead of ate?
The type that makes a gooey mess.
The type your parents hate!

Did the ketchup run all over you
and all over your clothes?
Did it make a bright red sticky river
from your chin down to your toes?

Did you have another, then another
then another one?
Did you make a super hot dog mess?
Did you have a heap of fun?

Well if you had a hot dog
that you worn instead of ate,
the messy gooey icky type,
the type you parents hate

consider yourself lucky
'cause when all is said and done
the one that doesn't make a mess
is the one that's .....just no FUN!

My New Chlidren's Book Illustration Portfolio/animals

New character drawings for Peggy Lou the Emu. Note Peggy Lou's head is larger to add more 'cute appeal' she no longer carries a book and pencil and I've given her sneakers that are too big for her. I have also changed my colored pencil and ink technique.

Why we live in Wyoming!

My good friend Marjorie sent me this little Poem of truths.We both wish we wrote it.

It's winter in Wyoming
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below.
Oh, how I love Wyoming
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Wyoming
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground.

Anon

What's Cookin' in 2008

Click on image to enlarge.This is how I describe my new web page on the Northernfront( see www.northernfront.net or links to the right) The things on the stove top are what I'm on about right now and the canisters on the shelf are what I've been doing for the past couple of decades. I had to put some things on the shelf to make room on the stove but that doesn't mean I can't reach up and grab one of those canisters from time to time. Maybe next year I'll be cookin' up something new.

www.northernfront.net

G'day! I've just signed up for a page on a very nice virtual art gallery know as the Northern Front; brain child of prominent Laramie artist Terry Reid.Actually Terry describes it as follows......" www.northernfront.net Gallery of the Northern Front: Contemporary Art of the West/ a digital portfolio and resume service for professional artists." The page will help people figure out exactly what I'm up to in my cocoon studio here on the ranch. It will help me also to figure out what I'm up to which is quite a feat in itself. Right now it is a work in progress and my challenge is to create a description of the page in as 'concise' a manner as possible. First of all I have to come up with 'tags'. So please bear with me while I brainstorm.
Children's Literature, Children's books,Children's illustration, Picture books, illustration, writing for children, cartoons and caricature, commissions, paintings, oil pastel, mixed media, equine art, horses, humor, murals, humorous poetry, Australia, storytelling, didgeridoo playing, belly dancing, Greek culture, roodroppings. That's enough for now. Go check out 'the Front' at www.northernfront.net while your waiting for my personal page to gestate. Stay tuned for the birth.