wagonized

Finding space

Sometimes i am so sure i am going to mess up a drawing, i don't bother starting it on a fresh page -- i find some space on an old one. I had an unfinished motorcycle on this one. I added Tom as he was watching the McCain-Obama debate on his laptop.
Pigma Micron (the dying one, still!) and watercolor.

A captive audience

We had another faculty meeting today after school. It was short and sweet, which was good since my Pigma Micron was dying. There is something irresistible about drawing with a dying pen. It allows for more nuanced values, and i am constantly thinking "ah, this might be the last possible line" -- but it seems to soldier on, every time. Then i cap the Pigma, use it the next day, and it's as good as new -- that is, for a minute or so. Then it starts dying again. And that can go on for weeks.
Pigma Micron 05 and watercolor in sketchbook. Oops, my date is wrong. Today was Sept. 29 :-)

Ladji Doucouré

I liked his picture in the paper. More about Ladji Doucouré on his official website.
2B "fat" graphite.

Yellow submarine

I had to start this one twice. The first one was a disaster. No sooner had i tackled the back window than i knew it was off. Drawing curves with a pen is pretty unmerciful. It still isn't quite right, but as long as you can recognize a yellow submarine...
Pen and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.

I guess I'll just nap now

I was covering a health class yesterday. Pilot pen and watercolor in my crappy but beloved sketchbook.

Instant cuteness

This one is for Robert K. in Tanzania :-)
Pilot pen and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.

Not enough bugs

For all the ladies i've drawn, i have only done a couple of bugs -- one of which was in a letter to my friend B. a couple of years ago (see below). The other was a souped-up version i had spotted in California.
This is a quick sketch done with a Sharpie marker on a piece of cardboard (which was a little too big to scan well, hence the poor quality) in preparation for the 1974 Superbeetle i intend to draw today. There just aren't enough bugs here.

Hemmed

Megan (with whom i engaged in a couple of draw-offs last year at school) and i took some time aside today and drew for a half hour. She was finishing a negative space drawing while i tackled her star-studded Converse (whose plural seems to remain Converse and not Converses, though most people seem to avoid the issue altogether by calling them Chuck Taylors) and the bottom of her ingeniously hemmed pants. I wish i had been able to draw more but we both had to go teach. Pigma Micron in my little Moleskine.

Certified mail

When i sit at my table and wonder what to draw, salvation sometimes comes in the form of a simple question: What would Danny Gregory do?
In moments like this, his soft British accent wafts in: Draw what's in front of you.
But of course.
Tonight, it was a not-so-haphazard mix of items on my dining room table. I did move the iPod closer to the glasses so it would fit on the page -- and now after scanning it, i am finding out it is disproportionate. But heck.

Goatee

I spot pictures and i revisit them weeks or months later... and like tonight, one clicked. I had to draw it.
Also, i have established that the more i draw, the less i like paper with tooth. I tend to lean toward smoother surfaces these days. Hence the repeated Moleskine + pencil encounters.
Original photograph by Micha Kaufman.
2B "fat" Cretacolor™ graphite on some smooth paper, but i am not sure which.