I Was Screwing Around With The Doctor Who Red Nose Day Special Short "Space/Time" (see Those First If

Edward Snowden (b. June 21, 1983)

Technical expert Edward Snowden once felt something to which he had access contained evidence of something he felt was deeply wrong, in a way the public had a right to know about.  The echoes of his actions continue on the world stage, and have left him exiled with no current possibility of fair trial.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

A fun little fandom meme I filled in bit by bit on breaks over the course of a busy day.  I generally try to fill things like this in by doodling as rapidly as possible with minimal erasing or undoing.

I was pointed toward this meme by my friend and fellow Doctor Who fan aikainkauna.  The original blank meme is by neekaneeks on Deviantart.

We at The Media Show got wind of some dodgy claims by McCormick Spices extolling the supposed health benefits of that pinch of dried plant matter with which you might flavor your food.  Weena fights hyperbole with Youtube Poop.

The great Harold Ramis passed away today.  His work meant a great deal to me; not only Ghostbusters (which I love) but his many other contributions to the world of comedy and the art of filmmaking.

As the news circulated, a small shrine to Ramis popped up on the sidewalk in front of Ghostbusters HQ (or, as it’s known in real life, Hook and Ladder 8.)  I sketched a portrait of Ramis on a small art card, and went downtown to add it to the memorial.  I then got to hang out for a bit with the others who had gathered there in the cold - including a Ghostbuster in full homemade uniform and proton pack - and we all chatted about what the man and his work meant to us.

He’ll be missed.

A true story starring myself, my cats, and nypl.

My Mother the Matchmaker

I made this comic for /r/behindthegifs, a subreddit where the idea is to take a GIF that's going around and make a comic that tells what led up to it.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out after scratching it together at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Here's the Reddit post, and here's the Imgur gallery.

Drawn in MyPaint, lettered and laid out in GIMP.

Jude "St. Jude" Milhon (March 12, 1939-July 19, 2003)

Jude Milhon, generally known as St. Jude, was an author and hacker whose achievements span many corners of hacker culture. Her work with seminal cyberpunk showcases Mondo 2000 and Boing Boing, her work in cypherpunk (a term she coined, and movement she founded), and her righteous and mischievous persona continue to inspire.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my September 2015 set Luminaries of the Hacker World.

Trying out something a little different.  Here's my reading of the short humor essay "The Gusher" by Charles Battell Loomis, from the 1907 anthology The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IX edited by Marshall Pinckney Wilder.

The President's Red Phone

The Moscow-Washington hotline which existed during the mid-20th-century Cold War was a teletype-based affair, not a telephone, but that didn't stop the imagined concept of a red emergency phone in the White House catching on in popular culture.  One example of this is the Red Phone's starring role in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; indeed, the film's Spanish title is ¿Teléfono rojo?, volamos hacia Moscú, which means “Red Telephone?  We're Flying to Moscow.”

The iconic “Red Phone” image continues to grip the public imagination today, appearing regularly in fiction, art, and even Presidential campaign ads.

Acrylic on canvas, 5x7″.  From my series of paintings of historical telephones.

I’d recently come to the conclusion that I needed to do more regular artwork to keep the brain juices going, even if only one quick doodle per day.  To this end, I began privately doodling some of my friends’ Twitter userpics.

I’d done a few and realized that the best thing to do with my growing collection of userpic doodles would be to start posting them on their own dedicated Twitter account, and throw the general Twitter public into the mix.  Hence, twitter.com/RobDrawsYourPic.

Now friends, acquaintances, luminaries, and total strangers are all finding themselves receiving my unsolicited mutations of their avatars, and I’ve even fulfilled some requests.  It’s a good excuse to not only get some sort of drawing done every day, but to try out some different styles.

So far folks on the tweetybirds seem to be digging it, or at least taking it in stride.  A couple of people have even changed their userpic to my version, which is entirely wild.  I’m sure I’ll creep someone out eventually, though.

Images are scaled down here; hit twitter.com/RobDrawsYourPic and the subjects’ Twitter accounts for the bigger versions.  Original userpics remain the property of their owners.