Buttnekkiddoodles

 
“Dogged pursuit. A month ago, I caught him, crouched over the shadowed keyboard and sunken screen. Same kiosk. Just as focused in the same gathered one-size-fits-all ball cap and banker’s bold pinstripes. Posture alternating between ankles crossed beneath the chair seat or stretched out before him. The library can be a noisy place with the self obsessed soliloquies, tutoring sessions, snoring, and phone calls but no distractions, no matter how grating or abrupt, pulled his jowly face from feasting on the grey-blue screen. And there’s a certain disinterestedness to these large rooms that excepting the acknowledging pinched grins of the passing regulars, allows for the in and out of the anonymous. Your business remains your business. Except these and those I chose to make my business.
And this guy, the crouching tiger in banker’s black’n’blue stripes, tracking something over the internet savanna, had come to my attention several times over the course of many months. But it was just last month, at the same booth, in the familiar attire and riveted posture, that I had inked his memory into my library. He really was a calm study. Little changing as I drew. The right mitt releasing the trapped mouse to tap the keys beneath his chin. The left mostly at rest on the desk yet dropping to tap at the keyboard or rising to knead his forehead.
Focus. No sign of fatigue, or boredom. No calls interrupting that steady gaze. Was he lying in wait, or had he already sunk his teeth in? Was this a cat-n-mouse game of gaining info and ground on the game while yielding as little of his position to the digital predation of marketers and hackers? To bring home the bacon without being lured into a poacher’s snare.” A snippet from the amorphous online graphic novella, The Java Knot.

Drawn with a Faber-Castell Essentio Black Leather fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens

Zombie Moolah – A Scam 4 All Seasons. Dadgummit!! I shoulda known. They never wear out this formula. They got you thinking, well, I think it’s really dead THIS time. Da monster’s kaput. They finally swept the town clear of the undead, the last one has sunk into the ooze of the epilogue. The music softens, the camera pans the still swamp, toads are croaking, and a lone violin holds a jittery note….DAYUM!!!! The Zombie Hydra of Hysteria comes sputtering back up out of the murky goo and it looks like mayhem is about to set loose all over again!! I get suckered every time. I was totally inspired by Giuliani‘a impassioned challenge to the electoral process, as if Postmaster ‘G’ DeJoy & the govs of Texas, NC, and Georgia hadn’t given it their best. Sumbody’s jiss gotta git to da bottum of this vote fraud thing! And who better’n a bottom dwelling reptile skilled in Rudimentary survival in the Beltway Bayou with a nose for filthy lucre? An old pro who knows a patron’s impending prison sentence when he doth seize one. That mad-as-a-hatter Sanpaku gaze outta be the clue it’s all about the Benjamins. As I was drawing Rudi’s top choppers and tinting his skin toady green, I kept asking myself, “where have I seen….” then it dawned on me! Yupper, Jim Carrey nailed him years ago. Separated at birth?????
 

Drawn with #fabercastellusa Pitt Artist Pens and Albrecht Dürer Watercolour Markers on #clairefontaine Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

 
 
I was at the Evanston Farmers Market early Saturday morning sketching Nice Guy Nick at Henry’s Organic Farm stall when I heard whooping and the sound of a large party hitting stride. A PA system started playing Ring Of Fire by Johnny Cash very loud. I had an inkling but asked Nice Guy Nick what the commotion was about. He only said “Well, given the current situation…”pulled out his cell and sure enough, Biden had just been declared the winner. The jubilant sounds spread, cars started honking in all directions. On the way back to my apartment a car eased by horn a-honking with the American flag held aloft from one window and the flag of Chicago out the other. Rode the train downtown to Giamila’s and the celebration continues. Now, waiting till the keys to the White House are handed over.

Drawn with Faber-Castell Essentio Black Leather fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

 Almost at the end of the season for most vendors at the Evanston Farmers Market. Gotta B Crepes got slammed with devoted customers on their finale day till the state of Illinois lifts the ban on indoor seating. they’ll take a vacation till the COVID-19 infection rates drops and Gov. Pritzker lifts the order.
Nice Guy Nick said Henry’s Farm has another week in Evanston.

I used Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens, an F-C Essentio and Graf von Faber  fountain pen on a Clairefontaine Stillman & Birn Beta Series Watercolour sketchbook.

Farmers still getting produce to market while keeping workers and customers as safe as possible under the very real threat of spreading a lethal disease.  

• Drawn with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens and the Essentio fountain pen on Clairefontaine Goldline Watercolour sketchbook and a Stillman & Birn Beta Series Watercolour sketchbook.