what to do for Father’s Day when you’re sort of an artist and also you’re out of your mind

FredFred is not all better yet. Edwin Jackson knows how to perform up to the occasion. Alex Avila makes a nifty block at the plate. Magglio Ordonez’s oblique is probably feeling better.

OK, now that we’ve dispensed with the Saturday night game, let us instead discuss Father’s Day!

Because I have problems with this. I know my dad enjoys Tigers-related things, but how shall I present him with such a thing? I can always give people nice prints of photos, but people who are directly related to me end up with, erm, rather a lot of photos after a while. I can always do drawings, or even a painting, but that stuff also starts to pile up after, you know. More than a decade.

A stuffed critter? Well, I could make one of those, but… eh. If I wanted to give someone a stuffed Paws, I could just BUY one, and where’s the fun in that? So I decided to make something that I thought he might get a kick out of, something that cannot (to the best of my knowledge) be purchased in a store but is still within the reach of my (definitely meager) abilities.

BEHOLD. I HAVE CREATED BOBBLEHEAD.

DERANGED TERRIBLE CARTOON DAVE DOMBROWSKI BOBBLEHEAD

His shirt is striped! He clutches a scouting report! His hair is… you know… whatever! HE BOBBLES! (Seriously, the fact that he bobbles just like a real bobblehead is the bit that makes me happiest. I had no idea what I was doing and was afraid his head would, like, stick there awkwardly or something, but it doesn’t, it has great bobbling movement.)

BOBBLING ACTION!

Seeing him from all sides really gives you the sense of how I tried to maintain the Terrible Cartoon proportions. And yes, he is lumpy. Do you have any idea how long it had been since I last sculpted something? We’re talking years here, kids and kittens.

I don’t really know where this post is going anymore, but here are a couple in-progress shots, if anyone cares.

Nothing complicated. The main stuff is all SuperSculpey, the base is MDF from a bit of discarded cheap shelving that was just lying around (sawing this down was by far the worst part of the Dave Dombrowski Bobblehead Construction Process). There’s a dowel and a little spring to make the bobble happen, and the important bits are stuck together with epoxy. Throw in some acrylic paint, and there he is.

My dad will be getting this dubious marvel for Father’s Day. It is far (faaaaar) from perfect, but it’s the spirit of psychotic Tigers fandom that lets us enjoy a bobblehead of the team President/CEO/GM that counts. That’s something you truly cannot buy in stores, you know?

Yes, you all know. You are reading this blog.