Simple

Simple-Illustration Friday.
It's really simple...most of us were disappointed in "Sea Monkeys" as pets!
I started researching this week's challenge and among other things came across "one celled organisms." Which reminded me of how much I loved looking at things under a microscope at school...which also led me to remember those famous Sea Monkeys I put under the microscope and became horrified and disappointed all in the same moment!

Harold Nathan Braunhut (aka Harold von Braunhut)was an American mail-order marketer most famous as the creator(though they were discovered in Lymington, England in 1755)
and seller of Amazing Sea-Monkeys. He was also an inventor.

Von Braunhut (who died in Marlyland due to an accidental fall in 2003)used comic book advertisements to sell an assortment of quirky products. Braunhut held 195 patents for various products, many of which became cultural icons.
Some of his products included:

X-Ray Specs, Crazy Crabs(hermit crabs), Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters (a card with a printed monster that would grow "hair"- mineral crystals- when water was added) and Invisable Goldfish (non-existant fish that were garunteed to remain invisable permanently!).

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Sea Monkeys didn't really take off until comic book illustrator Joe Orlando drew comic book ads showing humanized versions of the Sea-Monkeys enjoying life in their underwater fantasy world.

Thanks to you, Joe Orlando, I got a taste really early in life about "reality vs. fantasy"...after that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were all put under the microscope as well!

Chair

Chair- Illustration Friday. Well, I have to say I had MANY ideas for such a simple word...a woman standing on a chair with a mouse underneath it...chairs with characterization playing instruments- "musical chairs," then the first piece I actually put on paper for this week's word challenge was a pencil sketch of Walt Disney resting in a rocking chair. But, for as long as I spent on it, you would think I learned by now...pencil still does not translate well on the computer.
Then I did a piece called "View from a beach chair" but that wasn't going to be completed on time...so, here you go. A simple graphic instead. A tribute to the type of chair I had at school growing up. (Of course the best part was reading all the graffiti that was written on them and carved into them!)Sakura ink one hour.
At least I got several pieces for my portfolio out of this!!!