July 8, 2006
Another hot one on the Sonoran Desert. Sun just going down. big clouds all day but nothing came of it. Swam 12 passes about an hour ago.

Worked all day on Tales From the Triple B stories. Had a long conversation with Paul Hutton about one of the ideas. We are scheming on a graphic novel and it could be good. Paul also told me one of the most prolific and historically correct cartoonists died two weeks ago. He specialized in strips on Texas history. Allegedly a suicide. Too sad. More later when I confirm the details.

Kathy drug me to yoga this morning. Oh how I hate the down dog deal, but I'm so damn tight, it can't be anything but good for my body. Just don't tell anyone. It's not good for my image. Ha.

Went to dinner last night at Claim Jumper down in Scottsdale. Russ and Wendy Shaw treated for Kathy's belated birthday. I wanted a steak, but had a caesar salad. I know, wimpy stuff, but I got contemporaries dropping like flies all around me.

A glass of red wine most nights, tomato juice every morning. Fish, chicken, salads and exercise. Some cowboy cartoonist, eh?

Did four cloud painting studies, one right out of my studio window. Really dramatic thunderheads with great lighting poking through. The problem with drawing and painting clouds is everyone wants to illustrate them side by side, but the critical detail is portraying them IN FRONT OF EACH OTHER, because they stack up and push in front of and behind each other and that's not easy to do. It's a very subtle, but dramatic dance. About the only guy I know who really gets this is Ed Mell.

"Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design, is often to ruin it."
—MIguel de Cervantes