Buttnekkiddoodles

Jeeziss, I freely admit to being the King of Procrastination. I shoulda been outta this damn ledgerbook and well into the next sketchbook months ago but I just couldn’t pull away from the book’s roomy 11″ x 17″ scale. ( Actual page dimensions are 10 3/4″ wide x 16 1/2″ tall. That, and the creamy color of it’s pages that seem to be tarnishing with use and age like an old Meerscham pipe due to the presence of non archival materials. Older ledgerbooks probably have a high rag content but many later books most likely contain pulp that if ithey haven’t been pH nuetralized are slowly burning themselves up. It’s also possible that the act of frequently handling the books may leave salts and acids that can’t be too good for their endurance. The pages have become terribly brittle and ocassionally you may have witnessed loose flakes on the scans of the drawings entered on this website. The old soldier’s really coming apart at the seams and it’s long past due that I file it away but I’ve had a blast working the shit out of it.

I’ll miss drawing in this old ledger book.  I started doodlin’ in the old horse July 25th, 2009. The book, a 200 page  ledger book, The Policy Register of the County Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia,  was a gift from a pal and had contained some 64 pages of entries in graphite, of groceries and expenses  between January 1932 and 1946. I flipped the book and began drawing from the rear. At a certain point,  our entries collided. However, I’m leaving 2 pages of the previous authors’ writings untouched. The old book has seen a lot of wear and tear, literally. Lard knows how old the book really is, but I can tell you them 16 1/2″ by 11″ sheets are brittle and easily torn and tattered. On some of the scans from the book you can see flecks of dislodged paper that have fallen on the scanners’ glass plate. Have a close look at the  neck of the model in the 3rd column 4th row of this post and the young boy’s hair in the 4th row 2nd column of March 9th’s entry, “Chicago Commuter Portraits in Ink”. The more I work thru it, and the more I let others browse it, the more it sheds and tears.

Any chronology I may have been establishing has been muddied by my reluctance to move on. I go back to make use of sparsely worked pages ( column 3 row 4 ), jam a head study into a crevice in row 5 column 2, or dove tail a studious Marko from a live session at the P & C in between someone hammering away on a laptop in a coffee shop and the sinuous echo of a tree branch. On pages where I’ve amassed speed study spaghetti, I love to reclaim some crowded real estate as with the seated figure row 5 column 1 or the composite head column 3 row 5. I began drawing a bus riders’  brow, eye, and nose who then disembarked. When the next commuter took his seat, I finished the head with rider #2’s mouth, chin, jaw, ear, collar and ski cap. Love doing that. Haven’t attached a woman’s French braid to the face of a swarthy old man yet but I’m hoping…

While most of the drawings in this book are observed from life or out of my head I do still draw from other references. Always have. The diaphanous, winged head in bonnet, row 3 column 3, is after a portrait by Hans Holbein and the back to back female and male nudes in row 3 column 2 are copies of  life drawings by Canadian great, Clive Powsey.

Only 14 of these beautiful oat meal colored pages remain in this ledger book and then it’s on to a lakota papered sketchbook less than half this size. And though I intend to range back thru these pages to amend and violate prior efforts; I’d be stealing the breath from some of the sheets if my OCD gets the better of me.

Finally got back into some life drawing sessions this month. I’ll spare you, for now, the rustiest, and most belabored efforts. These drawings are largely from the Friday night open studio at The Palette and Chisel. I like the format on those nights, more about why in a future post. The random heads are studies of folks on the trains and buses I took to and from the sessions.

I haven’t been to “life” drawing in some weeks, but thought I’d post some drawings from life aboard the CTA Red Line. I’m often asked if people know if I’m drawing them. Well, I think the bespectacled fellow in the second row of the third column caught my glances, brief though they were. And for sure the young lad in the middle of the bottom row knew something was up, cause every time I shot him a glimpse, I was met with a full stare. Not a sharp or defensive one. But he was drawn to me sketching, and his curiosity was unflagging. Mostly folks are oblivious unless they can actually see the page I’m working on. While I was drawing the woman with the plaid headscarf in the upper right, the couple seated behind me were commenting to each other about my drawing. About 3 times the man even rose out of his seat to lean over my shoulder for a better look. Once, while drawing in the Bargello, in Florence, Italy, I had a French tourist practically rest his chin on my shoulder, ocassionally turning his face towards mine. If I’d waxed the tips of my moustache into little points, he’d have gotten one up his nostril. I focused on drawing and gave him not the slightest indication I was aware he was hovering like a humming bird at a feeder. Since I’m taking note of those around me I feel I’m fair game to watch. I do make an effort to be discreet or sly and try to avoid making someone feel like a field mouse being targeted by a swooping owl.
The dude with the spikey hair and sideburns in the second row of the first column, is a composite figure. I began with the eye and nose of one guy only to have him rise and get off at the very next stop. Another fellow took his seat and I resumed drawing by fusing his hair, ear, and lower facial features to the previous commuter.
In the near future, as soon as I settle on a shipping method and payment or escrow account, I’ll post specific images that will be for sale. That info will most likely be listed at the top after “Contact Don” or “My Work”. Ciao.

I’ve been enjoying a 3 week Artist-In-Residency at Anchor Graphics/Columbia College Chicago. So, between working on a couple of prints there and giving 10 slide presentations/lectures/demonstrations at AG/CCC, the College Arts Association, and Northern Illinois University, I’ve managed just a few pages in my sketchbooks by snatching the minutes I spend commuting on the CTA.