Buttnekkiddoodles

Ah, the glorious Northwest. I can’t go there often enough. This last trip took me to Seattle by air, flew to Bozeman, then by car to Missoula, Spokane, Pullman and back to Spokane. And finally, after hearing so much about the Palouse I went into the heart of that great agrarian region. Reached the Palouse just after the combines had harvested the wheat and lentil crops and had begun the flash burn and plowing under the fields.

          

Back in Chicago working on a litho at Anchor Graphics Studio before heading out to California. Jumping back and forth between ledger books, a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and toned paper sketchbooks by Utrecht and Strathmore. No surprises with the tools I’m using, Pitt Pens, grease pencils, fountain pens. On the road I made big use of my Pelikan M215, broad nib, rich f and Pelikano Juniors but for the brief time I’m home I’m working the Graf von Faber Guilloche Chevron broad point. Platinum Carbon ink and Noodler’s Ottoman Blue. Since I draw with my fingers as well I notice the Noodler’s and many water soluble fountain pen inks really stain the skin more tenaciously than Pitt Pen ink or even Platinum Carbon. Not totally sure what this means in the long run but…the older I get, the less I’ll sweat that.

   

Productivity has sagged due to house search. Copped a few drawings here and there. Shot down to Hilton Head for my cousin’s wedding and brought the sketchbook along but managed only a few complete pages. Just below is a quick double sketch of Cheap Trip guitarist Rick Nielsen about to board a flight at the gate next to mine in O’Hare. Yes, I’ve fallen to being just a shameless celebrity hounding paparazzi.

Ania and her mom Dixie going bananas while play video games together. Serious body count and general mayhem.

Spent an afternoon talking with painter and serious bon vivant Scott Covert in Michigan. Scott has been making paintings and drawings from tombstone rubbings of deceased celebrities. He spent many years in the art and club scene in NYC and was chock full of crazy stories. One of those guys with an incredible constitution to survive years of professional partying.

Pitt Artist Pens, fountain pens, and grease pencil in a toned Strathmore sketchbook. I do like the toned sketchbook by Strathmore but, the fall apart fairly easily if you work them as I do on a regular basis and have a need to fold the spine back now and then.

I was walking home up Clark Ave on afternoon and wound up at the gates of Graceland Cemetery around 3 PM. I had about an hour before they locked the gates at 4 so in I went. Found a bit of headstone drama with the sun back lighting trees and monuments. It’s just so much easier to capture the mood and time of day using toned paper and adding white selectively. Unfortunately the paper Strathmore uses doesn’t have the absorption delay sufficient to allow for smudging, so I wasn’t getting the range of marks that increases the variety of textures I try to put into play.

 

Riding the #22 home in the city of big shoulders.

Spent a week working and haunting the streets and skyways of Minnesota’s  Twin Cities.

 

     

Made good use of the new White Big Brush Pit Artist Pen. Otherwise drew in a Moleskine watercolor book, Strathmore toned sketchbook with Lamy studio, F-C Ambition f.p., Pelikan M215, Pitt pens, grease pencil. Lost the Ambition, oh well…

      

Labored over an illustrating gig, got back in court to sketch at a murder trial, and drawing out and about both solo and with friends. No change in materials though the smaller drawings are in a Pentalic book w/ unlined, ivory colored paper. Has some bleed thru traits so I probably won’t use one of these again once I finish with it. Not being able to draw on both sides checks the number of spreads I’ll do and means I don’t get full use out of one. I do like how they’re bound and the cover’s nice but they have a touch too deep of a gutter. Fountain pen inks wanna seep thru the page. The drawings on toned paper, which I favor when drawing in court, are in a Utrecht sketchbook.

 

The fellow in the green shirt, a witness at a murder trial, the guy who discovered the body of the victim, was getting a rough going over from the defense attorney.

 

Threw in some life drawings from the old haunt, the Palette & Chisel, from Feb & Jan. Heading off to Texas later this month while I’ll try to run down some life drawing venues there, not to mention some of that awesome central Texas BBQ. Maybe I can find some bar-b-que slathered nudes to draw while I’m at it.

    

Oh and uhm, here’s a recent sketch for an illustration job I just finished just to show folks I do, once in a blue moon, pick up a pencil and noodle around with them.

Well, it’s been, hmmmmmm, weeks and weeks and weeks since I ventured into a life drawing session. Usually, when out on the road, I find some venue, somewhere, that has open life drawing sessions. Didn’t do that this last trek of 2 months. So last night, took the Pitt Pens, fountain pens, grease pencil, and a ledger book from who knows where that was gifted to me by Louisville’s Ed Nelson, and looked toknock off the rust. The opening nude in this post is a drawing from almost 4 years ago.

 

 

 

The above 2 are from 2009. I think it’s good to keep looking to see if you’re gaining or loosing ground on yourself.