Given that I am a novice artist, I attempt to rely on humor and creativity to mask my learning curve.

Hi!

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"Okay, Speedy, I control this steering wheel now!" - Debbie; "Speed Buggy"

hi..
welcome to DA..
your gallery so incredible..
lovely characters on your artwork..
funny and so sugar all of them..
nice a meet you sir..
see you again..

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//kle->[link]

John/Jaguaro, So glad to see that you are here too! I just created my own page yesterday. Come take a look sometime. We can now post stuff that we'd never DARE post at the Velma Group!
MJBivouac

Unfortunately, my computer is on the system "Windows P.R.U.D.E." so I can't see any of your mature art. Not that I'm a kid or anything. I suppose it is just as well -- I'll just have to have my imagination run wild.

I have a few questions:
1) How long have you been drawing?
2) Did you start drawing Scooby stuff before joining John's site, or do you have any earlier art involving group members?

Jag

Well, since you asked, I was drawing at about 3 or 4. My mother tells me that I liked drawing the wheels on cars. I would have her draw a crude car body in profile and then I'd draw the wheels on! I don't remember doing this but she tells me it's the truth. I just kept drawing and drawing. I really liked cartoons, comic strips, science fiction and monster movies a lot. And all this colored what I liked to draw in those days(and still does).I was reading the funny paper everyday since about second grade. After that I graduated to MAD Magazine and subscribed to that for years. I though Mad had some of the best cartoonists around and I knew them all on sight! In Jr. High I wanted to BE a Mad cartoonist and even got to take a class from a local part time cartoonist/college art professor. Years later in college I had the same fellow for a life drawing class. I wasn't much of a student, but I was good at art. I finally got a BFA in Design and Illustration from Kent State. As for my FIRST Scooby related drawing... well, it was a naughty one, a quick sketchbook doodle of Shaggy and Velma having sex doggy style. I still have it and it used to be posted at my Yahoo Group before it got nuked last year. About five years ago I discovered a FTP site that was nothing but erotic toons! I had no idea there was such a sub culture of this stuff so it was a real eye opener for me. I did a sexy drawing of Daphne and sent it to the FTP site. The owner wrote back thanking me and was very complimentary about the drawing and wanted to know where I found it. I was too embarassed to tell him I drew it, so I said I had simply found it on the internet and that was that. A little later I did a similar drawing of Velma and sent it to the FTP site. I did one or two other non-SD erotic toons for the site but got busy with real life and stopped doing the stuff. Not long after that the site closed down due to lack of funds and pressure from some copyright attorneys. I didn't do any SD art erotic or otherwise for several years until I discovered Yahoo Groups and found there was a healthy,or unhealthy some would say, erotic toon community there. I was and am still involved with a few erotic toon groups at Yahoo, But when I got involved with the Velma group, was when I really started to do the straight SD art. I found it rather refreshing to do straight art for John's group. While I could make Velma more feminine and a bit sexy, I just couldn't go all the way, so it was more of a challenge, art-wise. People seemed to appreciate my stuff and it was just fun to do. I was a big SD fan a s a kid and I always found Velma rather attractive in an odd nerdy girl fashion. Well, I think that answeres all your questions. Drop me a line anytime!
MJB

Thanks for the lengthy response! Interesting read. I didn't start drawing until college in an Art History class (kept my sanity and improved from a D to an A by keeping a cute logbook). I then started drawing while in Europe on vacation, then in Latin America. I still have a few trip diaries. On one trip diary in Costa Rica, I drew the Scooby gang for the first time (with no gang to draw from). My students loved it! I then drew the Halloween item on Cathy's website for Valerie's bedroom last year. So I have really only drawn for a year and a few trips!

I've seen only one or two "erotic" Scoobyesque drawings. Don't really make the rounds -- just happened upon them, so I have no clue if they were yours or not. If they have an element of humor, I remember them!

Jag

Wow! Must be nice to have traveled as you have. Art is a lot of fun. Since I was drawing from day one, I find it very interesting that you never drew very much until you got to college. It would be like me suddenly dicovering tomorrow, that I was good at mathmatics, or basketball. I get the feeling that your doing artwork must be a way for you to unwind from all your teacherly duties. And it can't hurt to be able to amuse your students, as well as your own kids. It must help you to show them that you're a REAL person too, with pop culture interests, and that you were once a kid too. My wife and I have no kids ourselves, but I would have loved it if my parents had been interested in art, or could have been able to draw a little bit. Even at my age, when I meet someone who had an artistic parent, I still feel envious. I have a friend who's grandfather was a well known Warner Bros. animator. When visiting his apartment one eveing, I saw this framed birthday card hanging on the wall, that his grandfather had drawn for him when he was 12 or 13. It was GREAT! I would have gone bananas over having recieved a piece of original artwork like that for my birthday. I also like the fact that you painted a mural in your daughter's room! Very cool!
MJB

Thanks for the compliments MJB! My mum never encouraged me to get involved in art. All my brothers and sisters showed more talent, so they got more of the focus (art classes, etc.). I carried on ineffective careers in piano (not my choice) and basketball (my choice). Wonder how I would have turned out had I either been pressured into art (a backlash, perhaps) or subtly encouraged. Anyway, the moral of the story is that your drawings and others in the group have convinced me to take a basic drawing class this summer. The drawing prof here is a friend and told me she'd let me take the class for free tonight. I can't wait until early June. Believe it or not, the Scooby stuff is a fun hobby, but eventually I want to draw political cartoons. That idea is probably more bizarre than anything I've drawn.

Can't wait to see what you've drawn lately. Must check it out. Feel free to post some of your old stuff.

Jaguaro

Jag, Good luck with the drawing class. I don't know if it's a life drawing class or just a basic skills class, but either way, enjoy it. I hope at some point you can get a chance to take a lifedrawing class, those were always my favorite. Something about actually working from a real live flesh and blood model is unique. But classes or not, just keep on drawing! Practice whenever you have the time. You should buy and carry with you a sketchbook all the time. When you find you have down time, you can doodle and sketch things around you. It's fun and great practice. Talk to you soon, and I JUST posted a new drawing a short while ago. Take a look. MJB