Gentle Things and Hard Things

acrylic on 10" x 10" canvas

I'm posting this painting from last year as a form of "Hello", "I'm still here."  I don't think I am going to paint like this anymore, but who knows?  It's kind of tight, but there is something about it that I like anyway.  It's sitting on my shelf.

I've been doing all sorts of experimenting, mostly on a small scale, and working on a painting that has had me kind of obsessed.  In spare moments I've turned to it.  And there is not much yet to see.

I am becoming more and more dissatisfied with wholly representational painting.  Works by artists that are a successful amalgam of representation and abstract have fascinated me lately, and I am trying to see what I can do in that regard.  Abstracting reality may be an answer to my attempts to portray the real behind what we see.  I'd really like to avoid surrealism, but that seems to be what first occurs, an attempt to speak through symbolism.  I will have to let the process occur naturally, and see what happens.

As a casual aside, I've been playing with ink on yupo, hidden images.  One experiment was this, which felt a bit busy:

Ya think?!  Some might call it scribbling.

Then later there was this, on NOT (cold-pressed) watercolor paper:

Semi-controlled scribbling.

And then to this:

Watercolor and ink on NOT 7" x 5" paper

Yes, when I am wearing my fine art hat I am loopy, but my illustrator hat is still in tact.

Let's see what else have I been doing?  Oh,  I had a wrestling match with a flower, and the flower won.  It used to be that my favorite saying was, "The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world." from the Tao Te Ching.  Now I'm sure it's true.  And Lisa Daria makes it look so easy!

Pamo vs. The Old Man (And No, I am Not Talking About Me!)

Pamo and I have finished our virtual comic Tic-Tac-Toe Game. And we have Simulblogged (or something like that) so you can see all about it!

So first please go to Pamo's blog, here, and see our finished tic-tac-toe board. There Pamo will tell you the story of our collaboration. And then - don't forget to come back!! Promise?! Come back please, and there is more..the pictures in order, and a story.

************************************************************************************

Back so soon? Great! Here are the pictures we made in order. After that is a story that Pamo wrote (and that I contributed to) that is based on the pictures:

Square 1

Square 2

Square 3

Square 4

Square 5

Square 6

Square 7

Square 8

Square 9

Pamo vs. The Old Man

Square 1

It was a sunny day full of promise and sunshine. Pamo looked at Scooter and said, “Let’s go to Circle Park and have a picnic lunch.”

“Woof! Woof!"

Square 2

Pamo and Scooter jumped in the car, top down, picnic basket in the back, excited to be going to Circle Park where the trees grow tall and the grass feels silky. “There’s that nice Old Man enjoying his daily walk.”

“Woof!”

“Hi!” Pamo shouted and began to wave. “See you in the park.”

Scooter wagged his tail and barked, “Woof! Woof!” to the bird flying above. And they continued on their winding path to Circle Park, leaving the Old Man to enjoy his exercise.

Square 3

The Old Man relies on his daily walks to keep himself in shape. He uses his cane. He doesn’t really need it much, but it keeps the dogs and birds at bay. Circle Park is the perfect place to exercise and then relax.

As the Old Man sat down on the bench, SPLAT! The bird pooped on his head!

“Darn bird! Watch where you’re flying up there,” he yelled as he shook his cane. He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the bird poo off his head. He thought, Maybe now I can get some peace and quiet. I think I’ll just rest my eyes. He began to snore.

The bird liked the Old Man. His head was shaped like a giant cue tip, with curly cotton hair, perfect for her nest! “Tweet, tweet,” she sang and then swooped down low and PING! She plucked a strand from his head.

He woke with a start. His hand flew to his head, “Ow! Bird! Stop pestering me.” His arms shot up and he grabbed for the little bird.

Square 4

“Got you now, Bird!”

The little bird looked at the Old Man who now held her tail feathers in his hand. She dangled there not quite sure what to do.

Square 5

“Drop the bird Old Man!” Pamo couldn’t believe her eyes! What a cruel old man! Poor little bird!

Scooter sat watching the bird when suddenly Pamo threw the apple from the picnic basket at the Old Man.

Square 6

In a flash, the Old Man and Pamo balled up in a fight, the bird just above the fray. Scooter barked, “Woof! Woof!” The apple lay on the ground while the bird flew high in the sky.

Square 7

Suddenly, the Old Man went sailing overhead, the little bird soaring with him. Pamo landed on the ground while Scooter gawked in amazement.

Square 8

When the Old Man tumbled down, he was wound up like a pretzel. Pamo folded her arms, and practically floated with pride and confidence.

“Have no fear! I can fix you! I’m practically a doctor!” she said. She began to unfold the Old Man.

Square 9

The Old Man worried that all was not well. “I don’t think you fixed me right,” he said, as he looked himself over.

But Pamo knew better. She was satisfied with a job well done. She had fixed the old man, and made her dog happy too.

“Oh, you’re fine,” she said, as she bit into her sandwich. What a beautiful day it was!

Scooter was satisfied too. Oh, you’re fine, Scooter thought, as he bit into the giant and juicy bone that Pamo had given her. Pamo was wonderful! It was a great day!

And the bird was happy too. All that curly cotton hair, here for the taking, and no one seemed to care. She was going to have the best nest ever!

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Thank you to Matt Madden who came up with the idea for the collaboration, which was great fun and very rewarding for Pam and me. You can see his post about it here.

X's and O's

Pam Huggins aka PAMO and I are doing a pictorial tic-tac-toe game. I am "X" and she is "O". The idea is to counter each other's moves and do a semi-coherent complete comic from first square to last at the same time! I have posted the last square (bottom right) above. It was great fun to draw PAMO!! I had to do the last square or Pamo would have won!

Pam has brilliantly summed up our collaboration - in cartoon- at her blog here. (If you haven't seen her cartoon on what we have done, you have got to go there - it is great fun!)

Other moves in our tic-tac-toe game are in posts here, here and here. Hmmm, looks like Pamo hasn't posted all of her squares - but we will have the whole tic-tac-toe board online for you to see if we ever finish!

Well it's been a long day, I'm tired and have little to say. So I leave you with this thought:

Life is like tic-tac-toe:
A bit of a puzzle,
A bit of a game,
And if often we can't get ahead,
We usually don't get too behind either.
And the most important thing
Beyond all else,
Are the x's and o's.
xoxoxo
Don't you think?

(Yes, I always wax poetic when I'm tired.)

Sketching to Go

In that other Moleskine, the Moleskine that doesn't take watercolor - the poor stepchild of my Moleskines - I am free. I can scribble, I can experiment. I do calisthenics with the pen, "zen and ink". Sometimes I just push the pen around without the mind getting in the way, like meditation or sleep, and create zentangles without angles, I guess.

So in this Moleskine I produce mostly, to put it mildly, garbage. And that's okay. Someday I may slather opaque paint on the pages over most of it in a delightfully creative way. But not any time soon.

Every now and then, though, something happens to bring it all together despite my best efforts to the contrary. One day, when I was aching to draw and had no time, while stopped at a traffic light, I drew the head and hand of a motorcyclist. Then the light changed. Now what? I decided to just do quick sketches of things I see (yes, at other stops and then anywhere else I happened to be). Unrelated things. Then on a whim I decided to box each of them, and suddenly the whole page came together as though it were a narrative for a story. Counter intuitive for sure - you would have thought that boxing the drawings would separate them!

Captain Elaine once accused me of Driving While Sketching (DWS), a ticketable offense no doubt. No Captain, not true - I was stopped at the light, honest. (And, well, look at Barbara Week's recent post!)

I like Wil's motto, "If you're sitting, you're drawing", and when I'm in the car I ain't standing, right?

Wrong Holiday - Right Backyard

Well, I have to say that after many years of failed attempts, this Labor Day Weekend we finally got it right. We had a picnic yesterday, and we barbecued today. The weather was wonderful every time it had to be.

Our picnic was at a beautiful little park in Coral Gables named "Merrie Christmas Park". I don't know why it's called that.

As anyone who has been here knows, South Florida is flat. No hills whatsoever. None at all. (Nada in Miami-speak). Everywhere you look -- flat.

Merrie Christmas Park, though, is a valley in a flat land. How is this? I did a quick Google search, and didn't find much - but it seems the park may once have been a rock pit (perhaps for limestone, like the locally famous Venetian pool.)

For whatever reason, then, you have to descend a small mound to get to this park. And at the side of the park, there is an even higher hill for this valley, and at the top of the hill is a two-story house.

So in between eating and throwing Frisbee and kicking a ball around with Matthew (my son) and Lauren (my niece's daughter) and having an all around grand time with them and with my wife Liz, I had bouts of unsociability as I drew and painted that house, surrounded by singing birds and banyan trees, in the house's vast backyard, Merrie Christmas Park.

The Best Things in Life are $236.00.

Once again getting my car repaired, I was waiting this morning at the dealer. Nowadays it's one of my favorite things to do, because there are tables on one side of the large room, and couches and chairs all the way on the other - prime drawing territory. I was able to both draw and paint at the scene without being noticed by the people in the waiting area, and it only cost me $236! What a deal! On the other hand, my car was repaired for free. [Incidentally, for this drawing I used a different pen than usual, one that I had all along and hadn't realized was waterproof, the Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (size S). I like it!]


We are in a recession, I know, and I must be more frugal. So for the cost of a bagel and a coke, less than $5, I was able to sketch (with my Lamy Safari) three guys having a lively conversation outside the Einstein Bagels and Starbucks. Later, when I colored the drawing, my challenge was to create the illusion of plate glass in front of them without weakening the attention to them (heavy concerns for such a light Moleskine). To do this, I tried to use purer colors for the inside than for the outside. Then I placed streaks across the outside scene and rubbed the outside scene with my finger (which may have been a mistake - I don't know.)

So there you have it. $236.00 vs. $5.00. Dollar for dollar a good value either way - don't you think? Who says the best things in life are free?

Falafel, Shawarma, and Other Three-Syllabled Mediterranean Words

On Saturdays I often go to Davie, Florida, a bastion of Southern Pride, complete with cowboys, good ole' boys, horses, and rodeos. But when I go there, I eat at Fala Falafel, a Mediterranean fast food place. Why is it there? Who knows? There are no camels in Davie as far as I know.

The walls there are bright orange on one side and lime green on the other, and somehow it is all good - fashionable and comfortable. This is probably due in large part to how delicious and fresh the food is and how enormously friendly the staff and the owner. When I go, I eat the shawarmas. Why have anything else? But they serve other Mediterranean stuff too. And for the Rhinestone Cowboys, they serve Smoothies.

Because many are not familiar with all those Mediterranean words, a sign is posted on the wall entitled "How to Order". I love this. Ordering is a bit of a challenge for some but the staff is very helpful and friendly about the whole thing, and I can attest that it is well worth the effort. This worked for me once too on an entirely different level because one day I was able to sketch a girl brooding over the menu; it took her quite a while to decide. I could have told her had she asked..the shawarma, the shawarma.

So hello to Brandon and Brandon's girlfriend (darned if I haven't forgotten your name), both of whom work there! Brandon has shown quite a bit of interest in my sketches and has even visited this blog - one of the select few. So Brandon, this post is for you.

A Subject to Talk About

Remarks about this picture:

By the Subject: [Groan.]

By the Subject's mom: "Well, there's a likeness sure, but he's much better looking than that. [Pause.] Don't tell anyone who it is."

By the Subject's aunt: "Don't you ever draw me, y'hear?"

I thought their comments were hilarious.

In truth, I think that the three of them would be much happier with the picture if it looked something like this:


And maybe they're right.





It's something to talk about anyway.


The pictures in this post were both drawn from life in a Moleskine with a Lamy Safari fountain pen using Noodlers ink, and colored with watercolors.

What Has One Body, Three Heads and No Feet? Answer: This Post!

The gal on the left walked away from Einstein's Bagels before I could draw her feet. There's some irony in that, isn't there?

The two floating heads on the right (from Chipotle Grill) are in my other Moleskine. The paper in that other Moleskine doesn't accept watercolors which is fine with me, since occasionally I just want to be free! Trying to find the ideal balance between detail in the ink drawing and the watercolor can be tiring, and this gives me a break from that struggle. (Not to mention the fact that I am still acquiring my watercolor chops.) At this point I am leaning towards more detail in the drawing - it doesn't seem to hurt the result.

Anyway, I carry both Moleskines around with me, often wearing my Lamy Safari (fountain pen) in my front pocket. I've become quite the art nerd, don't you think?

I have several small Moleskine works in process - none are finished yet. One I am particularly excited about (fingers are crossed). These will be posted in the weeks to come.

But today I leave you with these few small sketches and, as an art nerd, I feel I must provide a challenging word problem as well. Here it is:

Two floating heads plus one figure minus two feet, equals what exactly?

Er, you are good at math, aren't you?

Trees Don't Move

They just won't stay still, will they? If it's not a hand, it's a head. If it's not their legs, it's their arms.

Or they'll leave. They'll just leave! Then what? What do you do with that half-drawn nose on the blank page? What then, huh?

The nerve of people.












Why can't they just stay put?








Now trees, that's another matter. Trees are calm. Trees have dignity. Trees are patient, and they'll pose for me.

So let's salute our friends the trees, who are there when the people fail us.



Upper right gentleman with Pilot Precise V5; all other drawings: Lamy Safari with Noodlers ink, the last two with watercolors, in a Moleskine

Screws in Space

Everyday Matters Challenge No. 226 -
Draw a Screw.
boring.

Screws falling. Better.

Screws plummeting into Earth's atmosphere from outer space. That's it!

Screwy, I know. But Fun.

This drawing is based in part on a great photograph, "Floating Screws", taken by Alceu Bap and found here.



ink, watercolor pencil, and yellow highlighter on small Moleskine page

EDM #67 Draw something Mom

4-1/4" x 4-1/4" ink on sketchbook paper, using Castell TG technical pen, size 2 nib, with Radiograph ink.

I drew this from a beautiful photograph I found here. I am the father of two boys. We didn't cut either of my son's hair for quite some time, so both had curls at this age. Although the original photo was of a little girl, I think the child in my drawing looks more like a boy, and the picture brings back memories of my sons at that age.

I originally intended to draw the whole image and add color with watercolor but then realized that I had accidentally drawn on 60 lb. paper (from a pad that alternates 60 lb. with 140 lb. paper) which is too light for the watercolor. So I expect to revisit this image again. In the meantime, this picture meets Everyday Matters challenge number 67, Draw Something Mom.

This photograph is from Morguefile, which I recently found. The site appears to be a great resource for free photography that can be adapted for creative use without copyright concerns.

Something Old, Something New (EDM #136)

When I have sketched, I have mostly used either pencil or pen with water-soluble ink. The result has been that I have not been able to combine color with line. The other day I pulled my father's technical pen set out of a drawer. I would guess conservatively that the set is 30 years old. I suspect it is older than that. It is a Castell TG technical pen set, and contains 9 pens with nibs of different sizes - largely unused. How would they work? I bought some Rapidograph waterproof ink for $5 and filled a pen with a size 2.5 nib. The ink flowed very smoothly.

So at my in-law's house I drew a straggly plant in an interesting pot. I was not so careful as I usually am. So what if the drawing were to be a bit skewed? This was just an experiment. Then I brushed on the watercolor. Color and line - something new (for me) - and it worked just fine.

Well, my mother-in-law liked the drawing so much that she wanted to keep it. It became a part of her mother's day gift and this small 4" x 6" drawing is now hanging in her house, warts-and-all, next to the plant itself. So maybe you'll like it too, as imprecise as it is. It also happens to satisfy Everyday Matters challenge #136 - "Draw or paint something that's alive - a living thing - animal or plant." And this plant, though straggly, qualifies as alive.