Pumpkin Head Blues

I was s'posed to ink this before Halloween, but Halloween came up too fast this year, or I was inking too slow, I don't know which. Sorry 'bout the light pencils. Happy Halloween!

Suzuki violin

It's a vacation for me to sketch with a pen. I have to remind myself every once in a while to pay attention to negative space. Note the little girl wearing the skirt and boots. I've found in almost every violin group class, about one in every twelve girls has a creative fashion sense.

More Suzuki Students

More micron sketches swiped from a Suzuki Violin group class about a month or so ago. I fell deeply in love with the sandals at the bottom of the page. These pen drawings remind me of the type of line art that was everywhere in the late '60's and '70's. Check out a Boy Scout manual (paper-back edition) from this period or any textbook for that matter.

The Great Shark Hunt

Drawn from a photo published by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, 2001. It was the anniversary of a strange incident in which a large shark had made it's way via high tide, streams, etc., inland to local swimming holes, causing all sorts of trouble. Above is from a photo taken in the '20's of a group of local gals waiting to take a pot shot at the shark from the bank of a river. Pen n' ink, prismacolor on toned paper.

Ancient Technology

Our niece surfing the "inter-web" in a tiny apartment in New Jersey, 2001. Back then, phones were hard wired into peoples homes and this is also how people received the Internet. A computer system typically consisted of several components: the hard drive, the keyboard, speakers, and a "mon-i-tor" ( not the creature from mythology!)- can you imagine?! Why I'll bet she's waiting seconds for her "X-Files" related searches to yield results! Seriously, it's prismacolor on toned paper.

The Best Buy at Best Buy

Dude, blocking the entrance to the Best Buy in the suburban shop-plex that took over the flood plains of Chesterfield, Mo. I don't know why this guy tweaked me so badly. It wasn't just the offensive use of "dude" in a public setting, or his location in the entrance designed to maximize the amount of people who would notice a dominant phone display. Is it possible that I was jealous of his Ralph Lauren style, his designer hair or the fact that he had numbers to crunch? Yeah, probably.

Boardwalk Empire

What happens when you watch TV and sketch at the same time. My old friend, black Prismacolor.

First Communion

My Mother-in-law, circa 1940's Bolivia. Pen and Ink with white prismacolor.

Visigoth Batman

I took a vacation day recently to catch up on housework .... I spent most of that day inking this. Par for course as far as I'm concerned. Batman re-imagined as a really butch northern European.

How to Draw the Joker in Cape and Cowl

I've been noodling around with digital painting lately. This is something I'd started sometime in the Spring and only returned to it in the last week or so. I saw a piece by my hero Barry Windsor-Smith in which the Joker is wearing Batman's ill-fitting cape and cowl, while joker playing cards rain down on him. For the life of me, I can't remember where I saw it- online somewhere. I laid everything out quickly, then hit a few snags so I abandoned it for a while. Coming back after a hiatus I think I worked through some of my problems.

A Season in Hell

Yep, it's the only known pen n ink sketch of the only known photograph of Arthur Rimbaud .... one of my short-term personal saviors (sorry Bruce!). I recently resurrected this old sketchbook from around 2001. I was a new father and playing Mr. Mom, so I had plenty of time drinking exotic teas, fantasizing about running guns to Africa, and breaking the ancient taboo of using colored papers.

Suzuki Class Sketches

The last page from the sketches gathered at Suzuki Group Violin class of the 9/25.

2 Attempts at the Same Pose

Same child from the previous post. I can't recall what made me start over the pose above and finish the pose below. The Faber-Castell pens I bought a while ago did not work out for lettering and such, but I now carry them in my man-purse and they seem to work well for sketching.

Micron Valley

Every other Saturday, my son has violin group lessons .... an excellent sketching opportunity. I'll admit to a small amount of smug superiority of being the only only parent not farting around with their phones, droids, blackberrys, laptops, i-pads, whiz-bangs, dingle-whatsits, etc. When did I become such a dinosaur?

Happy Anniversary!

The worlds seems to have gone crazy these last 2 decades .... terrorism, economic upheaval, Glenn Beck, etc. The gods are truly punishing us. It's my fault, I'm afraid! 18 years ago today, through guile, trickery and deceit, I snatched one of their own. What hubris! By marrying someone way out of my league, I've caused decades of suffering for my fellow mortals. It was worth it. Thanks, Carol and sorry everyone else!

How to Draw Your Co-Workers

Leftover goof-off drawings from my time at an East-Coast Animation Abattoir. It's fun to work with cartoonists and animators. Do or say something stupid, and it's bound to be immortalized in pencil or ink. The top drawing is dripping with irony, by the way!

How to Draw a Princess

More goof-off drawings from the same set as earlier (done while avoiding work at my animation job some years ago). My supervisor was a real Disney fan and kept several photocopied Disney model sheets next to his desk. He was also a real straight-arrow, handsome, positive, church youth-leader.... we were natural enemies. These perversions of his model sheets were meant solely to put a burr under his saddle blanket. I don't think he ever noticed them.

More Forbidden Drawings!

From the same collection as below, (special thanks to the MacArthur Foundation for loaning them back to me). I have no recollection of doing this, but rest assured, it was probably meant to annoy someone. It looks vaguely like John Travolta from Battlefield Earth- I didn't see the movie, by the way, as I was told if you viewed it you would become a Scientologist!

How to draw liverspots

Another beaut from my animation "Goof-off-while-at-work" days.

Balance

Something's slightly off-balance here and I can't quite put my finger on it.