“Stuart could not believe his luck. At a time when he most needed to hide (in plain sight, no less) from his enemies & the authorities (the lazier & clumsier of the two), the pandemic & the obliging mandates kept him masked up & out in public.
Unable to pull a Ted Kaczynski in a rustic hideout dug into the cleavage of some red neck mountain range, too vain to forego Michelin star meals & haute couture tailoring, & too claustrophobic to hunker down for endless months in an apartment dependent on the lowest common denominator of restaurants willing to home deliver; he would live a near normal life behind a face cape, exposed just nose bridge to brow.
Among the upscale streets of Chitown’s Gold Coast & Mag Mile, where you’re likely to trip over an august geezer draped in the showroom offerings of Armani, Tom Ford, Prada, or Zegna & topped with $2,000 Optimo fedoras, he could venture out daily. Even talk to strangers, in between sneaking sips of espresso at any of the dozen cafes he treasured.
But today, at perhaps his preferred roastery, something of note, a troubling note, occurred. He caught the eye of an artist. A capable one with a penchant for detail. Not only had Stuart been captured in his favorite fedora, standing at the marble & tile counter, thereby giving a close approximation of his height, the background drawing pegged him in the exact cafe. One head study didn’t suffice, the page contained three. Matters were made more grave as two head studies of him, a profile of his left side, & a 3/4 rear view of his right, contained explicit features. A mole just behind & beneath his right ear was cause for concern enough, though men of his age were polka dotted with warts & moles & and garlands of age spots. It was the left profile that froze Stuart. There, in the middle of his head, acting as an anchor to the black mask he depended on to protect his identity, was his large ear. The one with the lobe that had been split when a diamond earring had been ripped by a thug sent to collect on a debt. That memento to reckless behavior had been left unrepaired. As a reminder. Now, it spoke to him again.
“I don’t mean to intrude, but you are very talented.” Stuart infused his words with just enough grace.
“Oh, thank you.”
“Do you do that for a living?”
“Well, not much of one, but, yes.”
“What do you do with your drawings?”
“These? I usually just post ‘em online.”
The artist’s hand hadn’t stopped.
“Do you ever sell them? I should like to buy that one in particular. It’s quite….arresting.”
“Well, I usually don’t sell these as they’re drawn on both sides of the page.” The page was flipped to show another cafe scene. “Plus”, he said looking up from the book,”I’m going to publish these soon. So, I’m holding onto all of these till the book designer & I make the final selection.”
Stuart’s emotions were as Grey as his eyes.
Something would have to be done about the sketch, or, the sketcher. Should he post his handiwork, it would draw the unerring eye of his pursuers.
Drawn on a #stillmanandbirn sketchbook with fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens.
Had a one-on-one teaching session at the Field Museum yesterday. What with the downpour, it was a perfect day to spend drawing among the incredible dioramas and collection on a crowd free day. We parked ourselves by wading birds for most of the lesson. This little beauty is a Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), smallest of the Ardeidae family which includes cranes, egrets, and herons. Unlike their larger cousins the herons, which nest in trees, these stealthy rascals nest among the reeds. I’ve seen these patient avians on the prowl at the edge of the pond by the Farm At The Zoo in Lincoln Park. My drawing is most likely a female, the one I saw had a greenish back which I believe is the coloration of the males. But don’t go by me, ask the good folks at the Field Museum next time you’re there drawing. They can be heard making a soft cooing sound (the birds, not the museum staff) early in the day and around dusk and have lovely plumage with a fluffy breast. The satiny sheen on which was part of my lesson where I emphasized awareness of light source and how highlights, shadow, and directional marks help describe form and volume. Perched atop legs scrawnier than mine, with long boney toes tipped with toenails long overdue for a clipping they may at first glance appear petite and bit awkward. But trust me, watch them for a while, they are a study in grace and cocked threat. With chopsticks for lips in constant dine mode; what frogs, fish and small critters won’t live long enough to tell you….these babies are Killers!
I’ve also included a couple quick demo pages I did while explaining my process. Guess you had to be there…
Drawn with fountain pen & Pitt Artist Pens on a Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook. If interested in one-on-one classes or online/in person group sessions, contact me by leaving a message here or thru email – doc51854@gmail.com.
A view from atop the mighty walls of Lucca. The walls are nearly 100% intact and enclose the medieval city of Lucca. Not particularly high, they are massive still, average 20-50 yards in width and would have been surrounded by a moat, evidence of which also largely survives.
The above view is from the northwest section of the wall looking in on the enclosed city.
A view from atop one of the tallest remaining towers within the walls of Lucca. The row of dark green tree tops seen just above the rooftops are on the promenade of the walls, which are about 2.5 miles in circumference.
Drawings done with various fountain pens and Pitt Artist Pens on a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook.
#fabercastelusa #clairefontaine #stillmanandbirn
Three views of the terrific Banana Chocolate Chip coffee cake I enjoyed last Sunday morning at Newport Coffee House. The handiwork of their fine pastry chef Emily Donlon. The one on the left was drawn from life at Newport just before I ate it. The other two were drawn from pics later on. (Pitt Artist Pens on a Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook)
III In the back of a Land Rover and crashing up the snaking gravel roads and hair-pin, hair-raising turns of the marble quarries which pockmark the mountains of Carrara, Italy. Humans have been chipping and chopping away at the much treasured white limestone in these mountains for 2,000 years, removing 6% of the inherent prize to date.
The scale of the mining and extraction is difficult to convey in a couple sketches. There are 190 quarries in these mountains. In the drawing above, you can see openings to caves in the mountain, the interiors which can themselves be cavernous. The smallIsh looking shack in the lower right hand is itself a large shed where some of the cutting could take place and is much larger than the large trucks used to haul multi ton loads of marble down the mountains. The pile of rocks along the bottom of the drawing is the edge of a marble gravel road we took to tour the quarries. There is a precipitous drop just on the other side of the gravel pile and more than four hundred yards between that and the cutting shed you see below.
Drawn with various fountain pens, DeArtementis Ink, Pitt Artist Pens, on watercolor paper, Stillman & Birn sketchbooks.
