Buttnekkiddoodles

Went to the Friday night life drawing session at The Palette & Chisel to discover that the presumed model was a no-show. So we began by taking turns modeling 10 minute poses, hence the drawing of Peggy, when Kevin said he was a model so off came the clothes and onto the platform. Got the above drawing which is not without it’s problems. Proportions and wimpy feeling arms. My fault, not Kevin’s features. Some of the times I make some cursory measurements, other times I just like to bang it out without all the guide lines and math. Kevin had a little trouble holding poses, and I appreciate how difficult it is to really freeze a pose, but I didn’t accommodate his drift very well in my study.

Headed out to see a show of Goya prints at Northern Illinois University and got the drawings out and back in the row below. The most frequently asked question at my lectures and presentations of my sketchbooks is about being noticed while I’m drawing someone and if that leads to tricky situations. In the drawing of the group below and the subsequent detail where the fellow with ear tunnels, five o’clock shadow and sunglasses faces directly at me, his dark sunglasses prevented me from know if he was in fact looking directly at me, or in my general direction. Can’t say for sure what caught his attention but, I think he took interest in me, may have noticed me drawing or sensed my glances in their direction. I was being subtle and took the challenge to record him. I don’t want all my drawings to just be profiles. Below that row I just threw up a slew of head studies in various inks, Platinum Carbon, Noodler’s Bad Blue Heron, and a new color from Noodler’s – Ottoman Blue, Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo, the white China marker, and Pitt Artist Pens. All the usual suspects I guess. I have a shelf full of various inks and in this ledger book I intend to play around with a grater range. I’ve limited myself not only because I’m looking for inks with which I can get a range of tones but I go out with enough gear on me already so I don’t want to haul around scores of bottles and pens since I’ve no desire to flush any pen out while I’m in the field.

Felt for a while there like we really were gonna have a Spring in Chicago but it returned to the chilly, wet weather I’ve come to accept here.

Back working in a ledger book. This time it’s a beaut of a hard case physicians’ log from 1937 by the Colwell Publishing Company out of Champaign, Illinois. The cost at that time for the book was $6.00. Depending pretty heavily on the Pitt Pens and fountain pens. Primarily using Noodler’s and Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo. I like working back over the Noodler’s as it’s fairly waterproof but when I’m using more costly fountain pens, like a beautiful Classic Ebony Graf von Faber-Castell or my Naginata-Togi by Sailor, I sweat clogging the feeds. The Pitts are setting up too quickly in this book for me to sweep the inks so I’m relying on fp ink for that purpose. As a result, you’ll notice more hatching when I use the PAP.

My gal Jennifer and I went out for to take in a cool but beautiful Sunday and loitered a bit at Indian Boundary Park off Western and Lunt. We caught the last tune of a Civic Orchestra Ensemble in the Rec Center and parked our rumps on a bench by the pond where, unable to persuade anyone to doff their clothes and pose for me, I resigned to draw the fountain.

I’m back into fountain pens for the moment, making use of water soluble inks so not always able to fill in with the broad strokes of the Pitt Brush Pens. As a result the drawings are a bit airier.

Meant to add this one to the last post. Sorry but my cut and paste wasn’t so precise. 25 minute study of Anne @ the Palette & Chisel. Pitt Artist Pen and gel ballpoint in ledger book.

Jeeziss, I freely admit to being the King of Procrastination. I shoulda been outta this damn ledgerbook and well into the next sketchbook months ago but I just couldn’t pull away from the book’s roomy 11″ x 17″ scale. ( Actual page dimensions are 10 3/4″ wide x 16 1/2″ tall. That, and the creamy color of it’s pages that seem to be tarnishing with use and age like an old Meerscham pipe due to the presence of non archival materials. Older ledgerbooks probably have a high rag content but many later books most likely contain pulp that if ithey haven’t been pH nuetralized are slowly burning themselves up. It’s also possible that the act of frequently handling the books may leave salts and acids that can’t be too good for their endurance. The pages have become terribly brittle and ocassionally you may have witnessed loose flakes on the scans of the drawings entered on this website. The old soldier’s really coming apart at the seams and it’s long past due that I file it away but I’ve had a blast working the shit out of it.