The People on the Bus go....

click on the photo for a closer look

I think I drew the back of this guy's head before... or somebody that own the same jacket. I cant seem to land on a style that makes me happy. Then I start thinking about it while I draw... then the whole thing turns into a muddy... scribbly mess. I know what I like. But I think I'm going to list it out analytically with citations and examples... A sketch manifesto if you will... maybe that will get me back on track. I'll publish it here on the blog, and you all can say you remember the day that Ken went completely Bonkers.

Click this picture for a closer look.

The Rock and Roll Hall of fame on my train car! I was doodling like I do... trying to draw without looking like I was drawing...looking for the characters in the crowd... only after I was done filling out the page did I notice that the guy on the top looked a little like U-2 guitarist "The Edge",
The Emo girl in the middle looks like shock-rocker Marilyn Manson.
The guy on the bottom sorta looks like "The Boss" Bruce Springsteen. I don't know who the guy on the left looks like... bet he should consider rhinoplasty.

Embroidered logo

click on the picture for a closer look


I draw on the train. Not the most comfortable conditions. A moving vehicle, packed with work-a-day Portlanders that just want to get home. Sometimes it gets tough just to find a seat. The scenery moves... the people move. If you are shy about drawing in public (I AM!) then drawing on the light rail train during rush hour is a nightmare!

But on this trip, things were different. The guy sitting in front of me had on a ball cap with an embroidered logo. So, for 20 minutes, my subject hovered motionless, inches from my face! In baseball terminology... I was served a meatball on this one!

Dude.... I was drawing that.

click on the photo for a closer look
I decided to post my failed attempts to draw the EDM challenge of a towel... I know the exact sentence I uttered to my son as I stopped drawing: "Dude I was drawing that.....".
click on the photo for a closer look
It was the second time I had to say it to him. His reaction was identical each time too.
He attempted to put the towel back in it's original spot... Like that's possible!

EDM #157 : Draw a Towel

click image for a closer look

I don't usually say this... but, I actually like this better on the page than I do as a scan. Scanned images have a way of blurring out the blemishes and evening out tones - its kind of the botox for sketches. My usual PhotoShop routine for these things is: scan - desaturate (if it's black and white) - manually adjust levels (to get the color of the paper back to white) and save for web.
Here's my last gripe. The damn grey fade on the left side of the page, where the page curves into the sketch book binding... its annoying and distracting.

Last mother's day

Another old sketch from m other blog, that I'm able to find, scan and upload. In some ways it feels like cheating. But... It's my blog I can do what I want.... and... I miss having a lot of stuff cataloged on the site.

old mower

An older contour sketch of my lawnmower. Sharpie marker.

Catch-up sketches

I need to get better at uploading the things I sketch. It really is the bottleneck in the blogging process. These were done on the train. I think I need to do more stationary drawing.

He had Kurt Cobain hair.

click the image for a closer look.
Three kids were on the train. Around sixteen or seventeen years old. I decided to sketch this guy, dressed all in black with "Cobain Hair"; stringy and blonde, in his lap were his girlfriend's legs as she quietly reclined across the seats. His buddy sitting across the way was making stupid sound effects and laughing non-stop. Then randomly the silent reclining girl would lean forward for 2-minutes of extreme kissing before falling back into silent repose. then the stupid sound effects and laughing would pick up where it left off.

6B pencil... a little over worked, next time I'll try to be a little less liberal with the graphite!

The Punk Dude On The Train.

click the picture for a closer look

Here's my sketch from my ride home yesterday. 6B pencil on bond.
The six o'clock slouch. iPod, Blackberry and Portland business casual dress.

Before I could capture him... ha got off of the train.

Work sketches

I haven't had much time to sketch for personal pleasure, so I submit this montage of sketches for a project I'm doing for work. Every sketch on this page represents a design dead-end.

My jaw got massively infected last week and it made me pretty sick. I ended up missing two and a half days of work, and loosing two teeth (A wisdom tooth got pulled too.) a Doctor's appointment, two dentist appointments and a ton of antibiotics and painpills later... I'm begining to feel better.

centerfold

click for a closer look

New rules -
Start drawing when I get on the train, and don't stop until I reach my destination, no stopping, no re-starts.
Or: 45 minutes of graphite chaos.
This ended up a little sketchy, but here are some good things about it; it's an accurate panorama drawn from life. Every seat, hinge and bolt were drawn from observation, in public (I'm a shy public drawer), and it is a 2 page spread. in my hand made sketchbook, with a dull #2 ticonderoga pencil.

EDM#9 - Organized Chaos

click for a closer look

uploading some Old EDM challenges. This is my desk at work, the essence of chaos.

EDM - Leaves

click for a closer look

Going back and uploading some old EDM challenges to my new Blog.

EDM - Folded

click for a closer look

Going back and finding my old EDM challenges and uploading them to this blog.