Buttnekkiddoodles

Following my New Year’s Day ritual of a decade, I opened the new year by attending the 12 hour life drawing marathon at The Palette & Chisel. Nothing like bare flesh to knock the cold outta yer bones in the depths of winter.

  

I’m loving the way this ledger book is taking ink. It has a fairly long delay before the ink is absorbed so it’s easy to smudge and blot the ink to create tone and finger print textures. The fountain pen I’m getting considerable use out of is a broad nib Graf von Faber guilloche. The Pelikano Junior made it’s presence felt to a good extent also. Pitt Pens, Platinum Carbon and Noodler’s Ottoman Blue are the inks. While I was drawing the reclining model titled “Blue Nude”, I had black ink on my fingers from drawing in black on the previous poses so when I wiped the ink on her leg as it was drying, it turned the blue a dingy color.

I was walking about downtown St. Paul with artist Ken Avidor and we happened upon a police crime scene 1 block from the hotel I was staying at. We both drew the event and you can see the witness still sitting in the transit kiosk.

After we finished, we went back to Ken’s place to post the drawings on an Urban Sketchers’ site. I left there near midnight and returned to the hotel I was staying at where I showed the night front desk clerk the sketch. Turns out, a fellow connected with the event had snuck into the lobby and was hiding in the lobby balcony. The night clerk could here him wheezing and panting and then told him he had to leave, to which the fellow responded he wasn’t going back out because, “they were going to kill me”.

Woke early and drew, from my hotel room window, the transit kiosk where the victim, who made it to the hospital ER alive, collapsed.

Top drawing done with fountain pen, and Pitt Artist Pens in Molskine watercolor notebook.

Middle drawing, fp, PAP, and Pitt Artist Pen white in a Strathmore toned sketchbook.

Bottom drawing, fp filled with Noodlers Ottoman Blue and PAPs in Moleskine.

Friday nite life drawing session. What better time to see a spot of flesh than in the depths of Winter. Justin is a good model. Very muscular, light produces definitive shadows on him, important at the Palette & Chisel as their extensive use of fluorescent lights blows out dark and dramatic contrasts. He is limber as evidenced by the drawings can hold athletic poses reasonably well. Drawn on a Boorum & Pease ledger book with 3 different fountain pens, a TWSBI 540 medium nib, Faber-Castell Coconut Ambition broad nib, and a Pelikano Junior medium nib, all filled with Noodler’s Ottoman Blue ink. Some additional work done with Pitt Artist Pens.

     

Visconti fountain pen w/ Platinum Carbon ink

Argo Tea

Cool Daddio readin’ the paper

problem solver

Got into a life drawing session Friday nite with mixed results. I’ll post those later. Wanted to get several quick studies of the fellow with long hair reading the paper but people kept sitting in front of me blocking my view. Still running into problems trying to get the web page to look as I wish. Graf von Faber fountain pen, Noodler’s Ottoman Blue Ink, Pitt Artist Pens, Visconti Fountain Pen, Platinum Carbon Ink. Working in an old ledger book given me by Louisville Ed. Big and roomy, perhaps a bit awkward drawing in tight public spaces like a bus or the orchestra, but it’s best attribute is how impenetrable the pages are.

Caught Larry Coryell wit Paul Wertico and Larry Gray at The Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Terrific performance by a hopped up trio. Had a decent vantage point with enough overhead light to see what I was drawing. In the drawing on the CTA transit system, bottom right, the guy with the shaggy hair reminder me of “Shaggy” Rogers  from Scooby Doo. Fountain pen w/ Noodler’s Ottoman Blue ink, Pitt Artist Brush Pens, including a new White PAP, and white China marker. The toned paper is an older Cachet, pre Daler-Rowney buyout, sketch book that keeps a crisper edge than the toned Utrecht sketch books I make heavy use of.