A Sketch By Any Other Name....

Okay, so today's sketch is a digital one, but it was done under 10 minutes so it counts... This was the first little illustration I made about 6 years ago when I got my first graphics tablet. Until that day, I had been doing all my computer graphics with a standard computer mouse. I had to test exactly how awesome using something that, not only DESIGNED for creating digital artwork, was actually shaped like and responded like a pen. It was magic...

Literary Vandalism, Jr.

Since this five minute Buddha drawing was done in an old DICTIONARY, not Bible, I assume it's only book vandalism's younger cousin... Either way, it's still awesome! I have to revisit this concept and do one for realzeez. And, no, this page choice had no real significance other than it didn't have any etching illustrations on it.

My Mind Plays Tricks...

Sometimes when I sketch something I have no idea what it is going to be. I'll doodle a circle or a spiral, just your basic shape, and it morphs into something all on its own. I'm probably the most cheerful, optimistic lover of the macabre you will ever meet, so sometimes the content is a bit dark. This OLD -er, 2007- ball point pen sketch is a perfect example of my hand working independently.

Words as Art

Typography (τύποςγραφή) is one of my favorite abstract art styles, albeit I don't create much myself. I love words, quotations, phrases, sayings, etc. It's amazes me that out of the volumes of words any one person speaks on any given day, only a few selects snippets and sound bites manage travel immortally through history. Could it be possible that only a handful of what we say is at all meaningful? If so, then we talk way too damn much. Whatever the case may be, its impact on me is effective.

At the request of an artist, Wendy Sheridan, who likes to use found objects, words, and scrappy bits in her wonderful art, all of us at the library were given scraps of paper to write or draw whatever we wished for her to use in her art later. Here is a very crappy cell-phone picture of the Margaret Meade quotation I chose to write (a la typography style).

"Never underestimate the power of a few committed individuals to change the world,
indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Literary Vandalism

For those of you whom I don't know (and don't know me), I should tell you that I like to do things a little unconventionally. Not everything I draw is done on sketch paper out of a drawing book. Sometimes I like to vandalize already printed paper. This August 2009 sketch was done on a page of a 100+ year old bible - provided to me by my kind, generous colleague and cohort, Erin Perry - for which there is probably a verse against such things inside. Think they'll notice??

Gateway Into Your Soul

I have always really loved eyes. Even as a young artist, I would practice different types of eyes - right and left - because I thought if I was really good at drawing them my piece would have more "soul." I'm not sure if that's true or not, but eyes are extremely expressive. One thing I did learn is eyebrows are just as important as the eye itself.

Another sketch from February '09:

Concocting and Conspiring

I'm really looking forward to this project. So much so, I am considering starting slightly early. After I have all my Christmas presents finished, I think I'll start on new sketches. But, no one can hold a missed day against me until 1-1-11! Sorry all, but them's the rules.

Here's one from February '09 called "Cancer"

Resolutions Come Early

In an effort to be more creative, I have decided that 2011 is the year of art assignment. I will designate 20-30 minutes each day to sketch a picture. At the end of the year, it should be quite an interesting sketch collective.

I invite you to join me, or pick your own daily creative routine. Please, share with me what you do.

I'll post this guy to get things started: