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.

Took a jaunt down to Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, ‘cross the Ohio River from Lool-vull. Got in some quality time with the good folks at Rolling Knob Press, where master printer Brian Jones and crew tackled every obstacle I could think to put at their knees. That’s the Honey Badger herself, aka Donna Stallard,  workin’ the rolling pin on my print “A Good Man”.

Had a hellacious good time working with Brian and Donna and their students, Wende, Stasha, Danni, and the pogo stick king himself, Alex. We ran into a fair share of tech knots trying to combine litho and woodblock and how to get some clarity from the gobbledygook tusche washes I attempted. Days ran from 8 AM to 11 PM and the crew’s enthusiasm and energy never flagged even when we soaked ‘em with some local brews that ran better than 8% ABV.  Apparently, pizza is a daily requirement in New Albany, though we did manage to jack our blood sugar levels with donuts. Some large enuff to go tubing the rapids with. Made extensive use of the Pitt Artist Pens but worked on some pages, Mega Bus Man & Alex e.g., with Noodler’s Bad Blue Heron fountain pen ink. The 3 sketchbooks I used were an old ledger book, a toned and recycled sketchbook form Utrecht, and an Epsilon series spiral sketchbook by Stillman & Birn.

Above left is about an hour’s worth of drawing from the figure in Emily Sheehan’s class. I attended a party for IUS former student Pako Munez’  who read elementary students’ letters to him after a visit to their school. One really appreciative student commented on all he learned about Mexico and said Pako was the best Mexican ever. No doubt. (I may have to put in a vote for my grandmother Zulema as well)

Busy working on a woodcut to be published at IUS in a couple of weeks so I’m not posting a gob of images. Haven’t been going to figure drawing sessions in a good while neither so a dearth of those drawings to post. Caught this young lady going at it when I popped in for a beverage en route to a job. Relied on the Pitt Pens and did a little finger sweeping which I try to keep to a minimum so I don’t show up to a gig looking like I’ve been picking berries.

Above is a drawing from a couple years ago that I’m currently translating into a wood cut print. You can see my progress on the actual wood block. I already bent one of the 1.5 mm u-gouge chisels but the damn thing’s been a blast to carve. I should be proofing it and then pulling an edition next month at Indiana University Southeast.