Posted by: pa (190 posts)
June 29, 200811:22 PM
Sketching subway passengers and trees will never grow old for me.
Sketching subway passengers and trees will never grow old for me.
Graphite drawing, Ocean City, NJ, June 22, 2008.
A small watercolor sketched on the first day of summer 2008, Ocean City, New Jersey.
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Here's a drawing with overpainting of writer Lewis Beale from a photo in the NY Times.
It looks like a thousand cat scratch brush strokes forming the face. I thought I stumbled onto something and that if I did thousands of cat scatch portraits they would all look as nice as this one. It was going to be wonderful, and every drawing I did would look incredible, and it was a formula that was going to work... every time. All my drawings would be incredible. Life was SOLVED!
Oh, well. you know the ending. A happy accident. Life has returned to normal. Each good drawing is a struggle. A fluke in the sketchbook of life.
Anyway, if you see this drawing and like it Lewis, let me know. It's a favorite of mine.
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so... i've been busy planning a wedding... which will be here in 4 days! we are honeymooning in tahiti and the french polynesian islands so i hope to bring lots of art and inspiration back to this side of the world... and to invisibleman which i have shamefully neglected over the past few months. our cruise ship is even called the paul gauguin. :)
also, when i return i'll post some of the custom wedding goodies i have been crazy making over the past 2 weeks. i think i may have found a future calling.
au revoir et salut
Comments (3) - Link to this postA few years ago while visiting friends up in Phoenicia, NY we stopped in an amazing antique shop, where I came across this stack of 4"x5" black and white negatives. They seem to have come from a firehouse's collection or something. One packet was labeled "GAS EXPLOSIAN JAMAICA N.Y. 11/25/46" and the other indicated that it was firemen in London, England, though no date was given. You gotta love the British firemen's roman helmets. I am always excited to find such cool visual remnants. There are so many amazing glimpses into the past tucked in people's attics and basements.
I just placed the negatives on my lightbox, and shot them at different angles with my digital camera, then inverted them (and restored the proper coppery tint).
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This past Saturday while strolling through Central Park I stopped to draw the rocks and tree above. Later in the weekend a great idea for a children's book dawned on me and I added the elusive creature as a nod to the inspiration.
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The first set in an ongoing series of 25mm badges is now available from my Etsy Shop. The four badges come packaged in a lavish full colour double sided printed blister pack and runs as a limited edition of 100. Pin a little Slavic folksiness to anything and everything for only $6.00! Go cats go!
Graphite drawing, Southold, New York, June 8, 2008.
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Every now and then you get a good drawing. I like this one. Keep drawing, everyday. It makes your brain work better. Smear your drawings with coffee, orange juice, sparkling water, or soda. You'll like them better.
If you're hungry in the desert someday, you can eat them too. They'll taste good. Who says art isn't functional?
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The lower part of this fella's beard is inspired by Eric's bushy mane.
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I created this illustration for this past week's Wall Street Journal Economic Forecast Report. It's been a long bout but according to a bunch of economists, Bernanke has the bear on the ropes. If I were that bear I'd lose the gloves and start utilizing a strategy of claws, paws and fangs.
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I take my moleskin with me everywhere. Here's a page with drawings from a lecture by Tracy Kidder. A few members of the audience are in the circles around the page.
In an ongoing search for recycled materials, I "ran" across some red carpet. In a Mark Rothkoesque fashion, my intention was simply to create a landscape feel with one horizon line. It's glued on painted board, 17"x22".
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During our trip to North South Lake I seized an hour or so create this oil sketch at the site of the former Catskill Mountain House. The site overlooks the entire Hudson River Valley. Although the day was hot and hazy, the view remained magnificent.
I did this drawing of Kanzi the Bonobo Ape who was part of an article on intelligence in National Geographic. Kanzi can speak several languages, type 60 words a minute, uses Photoshop CS3, and works on a Mac. Hey..................... just kidding and wanted to see if you are paying attention. He really writes code on a PC.......... now STOP it, Roger.
I devised a clever method of doing drawings to illustrate what I was talking about while in Portugal at the top of this sketchbook page. Pictionary was my way of talking in Pictures. Unfortunately, the only person I met that spoke English, was a Chinese Man working in a Chinese restaurant in Evora. I'm not sure whether the words he told me were in Chinese, or Portuguese.
Kanzi wherefore art thou?
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I like Moleskin Sketchbooks because they have a small pocket in the back, where you can put your train tickets. I put all of my notes on the last two pages of my moleskin books because I can find things instantly. Not that I can read the small type though.
On the right page is a great quote from Matt Caserta, a former student- " How come you attract all the crazy ones?" Oh, animal magnetism Matt.
There's a drawing of Ray Beale on the right page at the Chocolate Shop in Cazenovia.
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An illustration that I recently did for the Wall Street Journal
We drove down highway 1 from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo this past year. It was nervewracking travelling south on Highway 1 because we were on the ocean side of the road. I compensated for the scary view by driving on the mountain side of the road until traffic came along.
San Simeon is William Randolf Hearst's house that he bought in Europe and then reassembled on top of a California Mountain. At one time he owned a piece of property 300 miles square. The house was up on top of a mountain, cold, and lifeless. The bus ride to the top was equally scary.
This drawing was done of the woodwork in the large front Cathedral room. I felt trapped on the tour and couldn't wait to leave. One second of listening to a prepared speech leaves me gasping for air. No more tours for me.
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An ode to The Legendary Stardust Cowboy.
This was originally an illustration about the band Silver Jews which ran in Plan B music magazine. I'm now offering Etsy buyers the chance to buy their very own personalised print version. Buyers can request up to four letters of their own choice which will replace the text "SJ" as seen above. This could be a date, name initials or anything else you can think of. This of course will make each print a unique piece of art!
9.25"x9.25" high quality laser print on 200gsm card presented in a white wooden frame (11.5"x11.5"x0.5") for only $22.00.Go here to have a look...
This is a drawing of Thomas Edison I finished recently. I went to his creative workshop when I was a kid a million years ago. He's an inspiration to all of us. A workaholic that produced hundreds of patents, inventions, and clever things.
His workshop was in East Orange, New Jersey. I'd like to go back and see what I missed.
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This is a drawing I did from the obits page of the New York Times. They always have the best picture of a person on the Obituary Page. Nice stories too. Elizabeth Tashjian owned a giant gothic house in Connecticut, and ran the "Nut" museum from it. Admission was one "nut".
Eventually, power of attorney was used to evict her from the home. Anyway, here's to Elizabeth Tashjian. She emigrated from Eastern Europe, and didn't understand that a "Nut" could also be a person too. Oh, well, nobody's perfect.
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It has been just shy of a year since the intrepid members of the Invisibleman Exploration Committee first surveyed the wilds of the magnificent Escarpment Trail in the Catskills. After a thorough examination of the flora and fauna, we declared it safe enough to bring our significant others along, and this past weekend we had a delightful (but HOT) weekend of hiking and camping, based at the North South Lake Campgrounds.
These are two small 'thumbscapes' I did while being consumed by gnats and black flies.
Posts from last year's trip:
http://invisibleman.com/archives/travels/000467.html
http://invisibleman.com/archives/photos/000465.html
http://invisibleman.com/archives/travels/000468.html
http://invisibleman.com/archives/drawings/000483.html
A couple sketchbook pages made while wandering the grounds of Rockefeller University.
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With Washington Square park mostly under construction the array of musicians have been squeezed into a denser area. This makes for some quality sketching and as well as some outstanding musicianship. The older gentleman with the saxophone wore a Members Only jacket and operated his instrument with amazing fluidity.
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Sorry, guys! I’ve been taking a little vacation! I do have some exciting news, however—my Black Spot comic will be in the next issue of Mome. It debuts at ComicCon in San Diego!
However, if you need some nerd-out stat, do check out MoCCA this weekend in at the Puck Building in New York. There will be an array of fascinating speakers (including my fav Lynda Barry!) as well as fine publishers and mini-comics folks.
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This is a drawing I did of Victor Yushenko after he was poisoned by the KGB by putting Dioxin in his Vichysoisse.
I think I ate in that restaurant once, and I'm not going back.
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John Soane was an architect and collectiholic and lived just down the street from Sotheby's auction house in 1790. He loved Greece, Rome, and once in awhile Egypt.
We can appreciate it today thanks to him, because he bought everything.
In fact, he filled his house with so much stuff that it's hard to walk inside. When the giant alabaster sarcophagus from Egypt arrived they had a party that lasted 3 days.
I have modeled my house around his. Except, I'm an Uncle Wiggly fan.
Stop by his house in London when you're there next. You'll be glad you did.
This is a drawing of a Roman Schard from inside his house. Well done, John.
Valerie Holzworth is one tough lady. She's British, and made a statement about the poor dental care she was receiving. In retaliation to British Health Care, she extracted 8 teeth with a pair of pliers and one strong glass of spirits. Well, she showed British Health care, didn't she?
I'll have a beer thank you. No spirits for me.
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This is a drawing in my moleskin of my friend Ray Beale who is one of the best portrait photographers I've ever met. He also taught me more about color than anyone else. Interesting, since most of his work is black & white. Ray recently went on vacation in New Orleans. He flew over 2,000 miles and stayed a day and a half and then returned.
So much for vacations. Here's the quote about being an artist: "It's very interesting being legendary when you can't even make a living & the public has never heard of you" Florine Stettheimer.
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I like Lisbon, because nobody speaks English there. It's more fun that way. How great to have 2 hotels named the "Metropole"! Isn't that great?, and one is like miles away in a totally different direction. Isn't that great? Anyway, once you figure it out, it's even more fun. The "Real" Metropole has a neat marble bathroom and located in the old section downtown. Everything is still in the stores from a 100 years ago. I was able to get Rotring pens that haven't been sold here in 20 years. I love Lisbon. Go there.
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This is a spread from my moleskin sketchbook of a small shop in Cazenovia. I've shot some interesting panorama photos inside the store. Amanda finds "Objects D'art" for my Museum of Art Supplies. My studio is filled with ancient tubes of dried up paint, brushes that nobody can use anymore, and paint trays made for the Queen of England.
Well, maybe I exaggerated a bit. Hey, wait a minute... I forgot my pen point collection.
While in Philadelphia last March I had only a couple of hours to spend at the Mutter Museum. Perhaps one of the scariest museums I've ever been in. Each turn is filled with medical abnomalies, jars filled with grotesque oddities, deformaties, dusty, sepia-toned formaldehyde jars from two centuries ago with sliced faces, dangling eyeballs and double bodied heads. How does a jar filled with formaldehyde with the label "Moist gangrene of the hand sound to you? The museum is an artist's paradise.
Zoetrope Studios and Francis Ford Coppola owns this great building in San Francisco. Most of the outside of the building has a beautiful copper green patina. The Iron frame of the building was standing during the 1906 earthquake and survived intact.
I did this drawing in my moleskin sketchbook while at the MacWorld convention.
This is a spread from my moleskin which I carry with me everywhere. It's the small size Moleskin book with heavy paper. I draw each page with a Lamy Fountain Pen, and then smear the ink with a wad of napkin dipped in coffee, water, or whatever I'm drinking.
This page was finished while waiting for tickets to "O" in the cancellation line at the Bellagio. Incidentally, the show is incredible, I'd go again in a minute.
Viva Las Vegas!
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I just wanted to thank Jon Keegan and the Invisible Man for allowing me to be a guest artist. I'm thrilled, and hope my birthplace of Passaic, New Jersey will be proud of me.
( I was in a street gang in 2nd grade, and the only member brave enough to lick rocks, but that's a story for another day.)
I've been teaching Illustration at Syracuse University for 29 years ( wow, that was quick.) and been a freelancer forever.
I'm currently working on my 3rd children's book "Dinner for Eight" about an Octopus's dinner party which I wrote and Illustrated. My 2nd book is due in from China in July. "Please don't eat me" which is about a fish that doesn't want to be eaten. It is dedicated to the city of Passaic.
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A Circle Pit is a type of mosh pit. It is a type of strenuous dancing associated with certain subgenres of music such as ska, punk rock, thrash, heavy metal, and even some harder rock music and is usually started by members of the crowd running wildly in a circle slamming into each other in response to the speed of the music and the beat (...)
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The lonely yeti surveys his kingdom. These were separate drawings compiled and colored in photoshop. I thought the near-empty sky (with the exception of some owls) would be a good location to place some text at some point.
| 06/25 bz mia |
| 06/24 firemen negatives |
| 06/22 Elusive Creature |
| 06/22 BADGES! |
| 06/20 Sculpted Maple |
| 06/19 Sachel Sister Marie McCollugh |
| 06/19 abandoned shopping cart |
| 06/17 PITU 2 |
| 06/16 Bluebeard |
| 06/15 Ben Bernanke Boxing with a Bear |
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