Drawing The Medary School

About a week ago I went for a short walk looking for something to draw. I sat on the steps of a church and drew part of The Medary School. It is a huge old school that is still being used. It has a lot of interesting architectural details and was pretty fun and challenging to draw. It was very windy that day so it was also a challenge to hold the paper down and keep my hair out of my face while I was drawing. While I was sitting on the steps a mocking bird was sitting up on a wire entertaining me with its songs. One of the sounds it made was a hawk, which was funny. I wonder if the other birds can tell that it is not a real hawk sound. I didn't draw anything all last week, I need to get back into the habit. 

Drawing Shells

I picked a couple of shells out of my collection to draw. I set up some rules in my head about these drawings. No black lines and try to just lay the color where it is. Easier said than done. I did these drawings with my Crayola Markers. Do you ever set up rules for a drawing before you start?

Cowboy Doodle

This is another doodle drawing from Friday night when I was drinking Woodchuck Hard Cider and the guys were working on amplifiers. Pandora Radio was on and a song about a cowboy came on and sparked this drawing. I colored it the next day with my new Crayola Markers.

doodles

I drew this silly page Friday night while I was drinking some Woodchuck Hard Cider. I am not a big drinker but that stuff is good! The bird is in the likeness of my old pet Quaker Parrot, Olive. There is a weird water dinosaur creature, a flying woolly worm, a clarinet, so many weird things in this doodle! I drew it with my trusty PITT Artist Superfine Pen. The next day I decided I needed some Crayola Markers so I went and picked some up at Target then came home and colored this page. Some people out there may not take Crayola Markers seriously as a drawing medium but I have used all kinds of fancy markers and haven't found any so vibrant! Also they are now really environmental as a company and use recycled plastic for the marker barrels. I have drawings I did with Crayolas from over 10 years ago and the color has held up great! I just bought the bold colors but I really should have went for the 64 pack! I can't believe they have 64 different colored markers! The only trouble with the big pack is that they are short, made for little kid hands. I didn't draw anything for about a week but in the past couple of days I have done quite a few drawings so I think my little dry spell is over. Sometimes life just gets too hectic!

Fish Fish Fish

I hadn't drawn any fish in awhile so I thought I would fill a page in my sketchbook with them so that I did.

Llama

Yesterday I went to visit my Mom, while I was there we walked over to the neighbor's house to see their llamas. They have 4 or 5 black llamas who like to come up and sniff your nose. They are too cute. I took some pictures and when I got home I did a quick drawing. I used my PITT Artist Superfine Pen in my sketchbook for this drawing.

Old Sketches

I haven't drawn anything for a couple of days, sometimes things are just too hectic. I started scanning my old drawings this afternoon so I thought I would share this one with you. You can see a lot more of my old drawings on my flickr account. I drew this way back on 2/24/2005 when I was living in Phoenix, AZ. I was working in a data center and the job was very boring so I always brought a backpack full of stuff to occupy my time. We worked 12 hour days, that is a lot of time to fill! Most of the stuff that I took with me everyday I thought was important at the time but I no longer have most of it. It is amazing how quickly we go through material possessions and don't realize it. I still have the little Sanrio pouch, Koi Water Colors, Niji Waterbrush, Hello Kitty nail clippers, and some of the keys. I don't even have that bag anymore. I don't know what I was thinking using that sketchbook, the paper was horrible! Anyway, I don't really carry a bag these days but I think I am going to do a what's in my pockets drawing to see how times have changed. Feel free to join me in this. Draw what is in your bag or what is in your pockets, whichever is appropriate for you. You can post a link in the comments or comment on this drawing in my flickr account. I look forward to seeing your drawings!

Drawing 30 Rock

I drew this picture of Jack and Liz while watching 30 Rock on TV last Thursday. They were not easy to draw, they move around a lot on that show! The little guy in the corner is from a commercial. I used my PITT Artist Superfine Pen in my sketchbook for this drawing. 

Drawing The Sound of Ideas

I drew this while I was watching "The Sound of Ideas" I wasn't all that interested in the show but since it is a radio talk show that is on TV the people do not move around that much so they are a good drawing target. I think my favorite part about the drawing is the frame. This was drawn in my sketchbook with my Faber Castell Pitt Pen size S.

Drawing Greg playing guitar

I have so much trouble drawing Greg. I think I want the drawing to be really good so I over think it and try too hard. Do you ever do that? It is like I don't want to make him a cartoon but I do not have the skills to make him realistic. This drawing is on textured paper that I do not get along with very well using Derwent Inktense Watersoluble Ink Pencils and my Niji Waterbrush.

Daydreamer

Last night I had some time to play around so I drew this girl, the objects around her head are what she is thinking about. On one strand of her hair it says "Sorry I wasn't paying attention". I drew this with my PITT Artist Superfine Pen and used my Koi Water Colors and my Niji Waterbrush to paint it. It is available for sale in my etsy shop.

Terry's Yummy Salsa

The other day I was drawing in my sketchbook and Greg was eating some salsa that I made. He said "you should call this Terry's Yummy Salsa". This spurred me to draw a silly label design for the fake product. The salsa has roma tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, garlic, jalapeño, cilantro, salt, chili powder and black pepper in it if you would like to try to make it. I learned to make this salsa while living in Del Rio, Texas many years ago. I used my PITT Artist Superfine Pen for this drawing. 

Drawing people from the news

These are drawings of people that were on the news while I was watching TV. I am getting better at this, they pretty much look like the people they are supposed to be. I used a PITT Artist Superfine Pen in my sketchbook for this drawing. 

Drawing a jar of tea

A few days ago I was drinking Earl Grey tea out of a jar like I always do when I decided to draw it. Just a quick sketch, not too much detail.

Drawing David Letterman

The other night I drew David Letterman while watching his opening monologue. Drawing people who are on TV is good practice for drawing people in life because they are always moving. I think that you can tell who this is. I think I am getting better everyday. There was a time when I didn't realize my drawings were cartoons, then someone told me I was drawing cartoons and I was kind of surprised at first and then kind of relieved. I knew what I was drawing didn't look real but I never thought of my drawings as cartoons until that moment. It is funny how things like that happen. I live in my own little world.                                      

Drawing at the radio auction

Last weekend Greg and I went to a radio auction in northern Ohio. We went Friday evening for the preview then stayed in a cheap hotel down the street so we could make it there early the next day. The auction started at 8:30am! When we go to auctions there is always a lot of down time where we are just sitting around waiting for the items we are interested in to come up so I did a few little sketches in the notepad I was holding. I was keeping track of prices in the little notebook. First I drew the auctioneer, the drawing on the right. Next I drew one of the helpers, I got his eye totally wrong, I need to work more on profiles. Every time they brought up another horn speaker I drew it on the paper in the center, they come in such cool shapes and each one seemed to be a little different. I just used a cheap ball point pen for these sketches, it is what I had on hand. 

Drawing the news

This is when things get really really weird. The news came on and they were talking about construction so I drew a backhoe then I drew some of the people that were on the news. They are a little improvised because the picture kept changing. The one guy was a little too close to the backhoe so I just decided to incorporate him and make his hair blend into the dirt. The other guy became a bird. I used my Stabilo pens to add a little color. I really have no idea what is going on in this picture but it is fun to look at and it was fun to draw. I like it when my drawings make me laugh. It is very important for me to use cheap paper that I do not care about in a sketchbook, I am much more free that way. Who cares if you "mess up" a piece of copier paper. A piece of expensive watercolor paper is much more intimidating to me. After I am done with this little sketch book I plan to use sketch paper that can take a little bit of wet media, it will still be cheap, just a little thicker. It is making me a little crazy that I can't use watercolor on this paper.

Dinosaurs Dream of Pancakes

This is from last week, still drawing people but now things are getting a little weird. On the right you see a man daydreaming about a dinosaur who it dreaming about the man and they are both daydreaming about pancakes while the girl just gives them a funny look. Anybody want to try to interpret this? I was watching PBS at the time, I think it was a show about Jimmy Carter.

Drawing More People

The other day we were watching a show on PBS about Jimmy Carter and I thought it would be fun to try to draw people while watching the show. The people here are mostly composites of people they were showing because they kept showing different people all of the time and I couldn't keep up. The only one that is a real person is the little girl, she is supposed to be Amy Carter. I couldn't resist drawing the little hat and braids. I also really enjoy drawing people with facial hair. You can see that my people have improved quite a bit from when I first started. I am happy with my progress. 

I have been feeling handicaped though, there was an accident with my PITT Artist Superfine Pen a week or so ago and I have had to use other pens since then that have not quite been cutting it. Finally today I went to Blick and bought 2 new pens. I haven't used them yet but I feel better just knowing they are here. 

I signed up to be an affiliate with amazon so if you click on that link and buy a pen I will make a small amount of money. I will only endorse products that I know and love and would talk about anyway. I just feel that I should let you know this is happening so I do not feel like a slimy sales person. But seriously PITT Artist Superfine Pens are my favorite!

David Wu What Did You Do?

One day last week I was drawing people that were in the news and I came across the story about David Wu sending pictures of himself dressed as a tiger to his staff. I thought it was pretty funny and really don't see much wrong with dressing as a tiger but I am not a politician so my standards may be different. So I drew the photo from the story with some tiger parts added for humor. 

Somali Pirates

This is from sometime early last week when I started attempting to draw people. I looked at the day's top news stories and I found some photos of Somali Pirates. These were two separate photos but I put them on the same page. Nowadays pirates have machine guns and walkie talkies. Scary stuff! 

Drawing at open mic night

Last night Greg and I went to open mic night at The Bethel Rd. Pub. Greg gets up and plays guitar or bass while I draw. It is a lot of fun for both of us. I decided to be brave and try to draw these guys while they were playing and I am pretty happy with the result. It isn't perfect but much better than I could have done earlier in the week. Proof that if you want to get better you have to practice! Greg has the most perfect nose and I was sad that I didn't get it right but I am pretty happy overall. So from Left to right Greg, Andyman, and Eric playing and singing together at open mic.

Drawing Muammar Gaddafi

I wanted to draw more people but I couldn't think of anyone off hand so I decided to see what was in the news and of course there are pictures of Muammar Gaddafi everywhere and he is quite a character so I drew two pictures of him on  the same page. He has a very square face. I figured no one would really be upset if I did a bad drawing of this guy. 

Adventures in drawing people

I have always shied away from drawing people because truth be told I have never been good at it and I was too embarrassed to even really try.  For some reason last week I got the idea in my head that I should start drawing people no matter how bad the drawings came out and you know what? I had a lot of fun drawing all kinds of people from historical figures to people in the news to some characters I saw in real life. I filled page upon page of silly looking faces and I really enjoyed myself and made myself laugh. I realized it doesn't matter if I am not good at drawing people because I am having fun and the drawings actually started improving after only 2 days of practice. I think if I keep on going I might actually get good at drawing people. Is there anything you are afraid to draw? If there is maybe you should give it a try. You don't have to show anyone the results if you don't like the way it turns out.

I decided to change to blogger because I have more control over the layout here. You can see a few weeks worth of my sketchbook over on typepad where I started out if you would like. It will be here from now on. Sorry for any confusion over the switch.