Buttnekkiddoodles

The above 4 pages are drawn from the incredible show of WW II posters at the Art Institute of Chicago titled “Windows on the War” which features Soviet TASS posters. I purchased the book and drew from the reproductions therein because the policy at the AIC was No Sketching in the gallery. Having walked in without noticing the sign I managed to get in a few drawings before the guard came over and stopped me.

I rarely draw plants but after an illustration assignment this summer and some visits to the exquisite Chicago Botanic Gardens I’m looking to knock out some more of these. I’ll see if I can sneak a nude into a secluded part of the gardens for some plein aire cheesecake. The botanicals are draw with Pitt Artist Pens and try as I might I managed only to kill the dazzling sense of luminescence and glare. This post has quite a jump in imagery going from a peaceful intimate scene with my girlfriend, to the savage images from WWII TASS posters to cafe dwellers combing thru their computer screens, an infant, a commuter with focus wedged between the pages of a book, and drawings of models and plants with a glimpse of their reproductive organs.

     

Mostly drawing with fountain pens for the time being. The search right now is for water soluble inks that I can work back over with washes and Pitt brush pens, and, an ink that doesn’t clog up the feed and inner workings of the fountain pen. So far I’m getting nice results with Calli inks, Noodler’s, and Platinum Carbon. Pelikan Font has been lifting when hit with water.  I’ve been cautioned to steer clear of Noodler’s by my pen repair guy who say’s it’s been muckin’ up the pens he’s worked on, but I’m using it in the less expensive pens such as the Pelican Junior, the Lamy Safari, and Noodler’s own just released fountain pens. OK so far but I’m hesitant to try it out in  my Peican 215, Lamy Studio, Visconti Rembrandt, or any of the vintage pens I have. I’m using the Platinum Carbon in the Pelikan and like the results. I’ve tried the Calli Burgundy in my Visconti and loved the rich delivery.

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.