Buttnekkiddoodles

Working with the Pitt Artist Pens and Platinum carbon ink in a Visconti Rembrandt on some flash for Lisa’s tattoo and shot out to Rosemont to catch the Chicago Pen Show. Managed not to overheat my credit card. The pen world has it’s own class of geeks, nerds and gear heads. After much gawking, picked up a very affordable TWSBI and an old, very flexible Waterman for not a lot, then took an old Faber-Castell nib to a tech named Mike (pictured below) who noodled on it to improve the flow and smoothness. Sat and talked with Mike for about a half hour while he made adjustments. Swell fellow. Worked at Sailor as a salesman for 20 + years and is now out on his own. Gave me some interesting info on the feeds of some pens that were having trouble with clogging when using Noodler’s inks. Saw and wrote with a gorgeous old tortoise Pelikan fountain pen that produced a very nice line but at $1,600.oo it was not going to follow me home. The vendor put on the full court press and pulled the price down to $1,200. Still too rich for my blood. So far, I haven’t crossed the $500 (that’s after discounts) border. As expected, my ledger book brought several comments.

I intend to go back on a bus in order to add to this drawing.

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.

Drawing on Cachet paper, using Pitt Artist Pens and grease pencil, with advanced drawing class at Louisville’s exceptional Du Pont Manual High School where students take a required 9 art classes before graduation. A program built over the years by Susan Sidebottom and her colleagues, (yup, not just 1 art teacher but a half dozen), students take drawing, printing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, computer graphics, & photography and display their artwork in cases throughout the halls and in galleries that the students help organize and hang. The level of industry and ability is arresting. It’s a testament to how the young flourish when schools give them talented teachers, attention, and resources. I was often the odd ball in my classes that could and would draw on my own. But at this public, spelled P-U-B-L-I-C, school, I would have been buried shoulder deep in a crowd of like minded, capable and motivated kids, all inspiring and pushing each other.

  Came back from LA and did a life drawing workshop at Rockford College with master printer and bon vivant Dave Menard’s class. The model was a former state trooper who was side swiped during a highway stop while standing on a trucks running board. Ouch. As you can see, Paul is a rugged dude but that ended his career as part of the thin blue line. Then headed down to Louisville encountering horrific weather that leveled towns , homes and took several lives.  Had one of those torturous bus trips and landed in Louisville almost 8 hours after scheduled arrival. Once there, enjoyed the gracious hospitality of Kathy and Don, owners of Preston’s Art Center.

I have a solo show at Rockford College opening this Thursday, Feb. 2nd. The above image is just a section of a 7′ x 20′ composite/collaged wall piece comprised of individual pages from various sketchbooks over the last 28 years. Molly Carter is the director/curator of the gallery, helped me put up this wall piece and did a super job with some help from artist/printmaker/uber mench Dave Menard installing the rest of the show.

These drawings are on every kind of paper, vellum, ledger, bristol, onion skin, recycled, and drawn with ball point, gel, India ink, gouache, water color, Pitt Artist Pens, felt pens, Sharpies, colored pencils, fountain pen inks such as Noodler’s, Iroshizuku, Calli, Diamine, Platinum Carbon,  also grease pencil, (aka- China marker), Tom Bow, Daler Rowney F.W. acrylic inks, Staedler, and probably a few other pens no longer in production.