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.

   

Made it late and left early to the Palette & Chisel’s 12 hour life drawing marathon. Didn’t come away with anything stellar. Been consumed with buying, packing, and moving to new digs and will flatly state that my drawing has suffered. Looking forward to heading out on tour to hopefully knock off the rust.

                           

Man, when I say “Slung” I wasn’t joking. What a crazy month. Bought a place and in the midst of painting, having electrical work done and moving into the new place, I had to work in New England & NYC, took a side trip to Philly, flew back to Chicago long enough to do laundry, paperwork and then get ready to jet to Washington and Montana for whirl wind tour of several cities and colleges. Still a bit too much running around and not enough time drawing what I witnessed. Have to return to NYC and hang out on the High Line, was a bit crowded but what a vantage point of Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. Plus you could see Jersey as it starts to create the Palisades. Using the Pitts and fountain pens. Back in a Moleskine watercolor pad and also have a hefty and lovely ledger book going.

Sometimes, I get behind in posting to BND, especially during the Fall when I’m tripping about the country lecturing and demonstrating at various colleges, stores and events. You can follow me at:  doncolleysroadtrip.com. Cheers.

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.

I’ve lived in Chicago, and called it home for 15 years. I dig the city. Aside from the extreme flatness, I’ve found it to be very engaging. From the tremendously expansive skies, the magnificence of the lake it builds up to, it’s architectural significance, the food, the people, and even the weather. I stay pretty engage here. It has considerable extremes, big disparity in income and opportunities. The weather, not it’s biggest selling point, can be oppressively hot and stifling then shatteringly frigid. It’s a city that I’ve described as grand but not pretty. Large tracts of it could be said to be blunt. And wealth is evident. No surprise, city amenities and services follow the bucks. It was a big blue collar town but it has been developing more and more to the needs and nods of a white collar work force. The areas of this city that don’t have deep pockets can be quite brutal. In the 15 years I’ve lived here, and the 6 years prior to that during which I would come and visit my friend Tony Fitzpatrick, the city has seen very evident changes, not just in the profile and elevation of the city’s skyline, but in the taming of several rugged neighborhoods. A process some refer to as gentrification.

I will say that the previous administration made real effort to glamorize the urban experience in parts. And while in the minds of many, mine included, the previous mayor may have had a fondness for arboreal development, large floral planters along some of the boulevards, rooftop gardens and showy park improvements, he went out a cad for a truly miserable and suspect privatization of the city’s parking meters. His record on public schools was nothing to mention on a resume either. The dreadful misadventures of meters and schools aside, the city has some neighborhoods with real gracious amenities. And some sections of the city enjoy being extremely engaging and beautiful urban habitats. Might even call some areas pretty at long last. The campus of Loyola in Rogers Park has seen a remarkable turnaround from one of the country’s bleakest campuses to a thoughtful and more bucolic public space that takes full advantage of it’s choice lakeside plot.

     

Continuing to make extensive use of white on toned paper, be it the Pitt Big Brush Pen or White China Marker, sometimes combining both. I like laying one or both down as a base over which I can add color to spike it’s luminosity and achieve a cleaner hue. I do wish I could get a starker black on the toned paper. It seems to me that it softens or dulls the pitch thru absorption and contrast perhaps. Fountain pens don’t produce as crisp an edge in these books either.

   

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.