The Unwelcome Return of the Rat King

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     I did this entire drawing in brown ink, before I actually realized it. Normally, pure brown ink is a little too faint, and a little too…what is the word?… "bleedy". If you try to put white over pure brown ink the brown bleeds right up through it. It's more of a dye than an ink. 

     But if you mix it with a bit of black india ink- beautiful! (and it lays down better too). 

     Because I wasn't paying attention, this one ended up in pure brown, so to darken it up for the inter-webs I did a bit of contrast/saturation work. But I didn't DRAW it on the computer (or draw any digital "fixes"). It's true pen and ink, mistakes and all. 

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Furry Balloon

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      My youngest daughter opined: "If this is a real cat, then I don't like it.". 

     Daddy assured her that it is not a real cat, merely a cartoon, and that no actual cats were harmed during the creation of this drawing. Daddy also told her that, because of the limits of our physical world,  pumping up a fake cat with a bicycle pump wouldn't cause a cat to float anyway (whereas a helium tank…). 

    "Well," she said, "I just really hate the idea of people being mean to cats". 

     So, we can safely say that this one wasn't a crowd pleaser, even though it has a cat in it. 

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Lasso-ed

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     Did most of this on a bike outing with my youngest daughter. She and I shared an inkwell, and she made a little kitty drawing of her own. All while sitting in the shade of a tree at a tiny little park in Orange County.

     It's so nice to have a small portable sketchbook and a very small art supplies kit. It goes anywhere, and you can be creative almost anytime. 

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Skater

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     Sometimes, everything just works out in an unexpected beautiful way. 

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Tour Tram

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     A tour tram in a distant place with lots of high mountains. And funny birds. Pen and ink, ink washes and white highlights of acrylic (Cel Vinyl). Acid free Moleskine paper underneath it all. 

     My daughter wandered into my studio after I was finished and pointed to the lower right hand corner. "Cute" she said. "I like this part". 

    I dreamed of boxes before I did this one. I thought that they would turn into a snake made of boxes but somewhere along the way I thought of a little train conductor guy driving and controlling the snake, and then it became a tour tram. Just because that's where my mood took me at that moment. 

    

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Lost Now Found

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     Pieces of random, doodled in abandon. 

     Grey paper is soooo pretty. It's funny, because it seems like it really wouldn't be. But once you get turned on to these neutral colors (browns, greys), they are hard to walk away from. Darks fall back, whites pop forward. It's a beautiful thing. 

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Shopping Cart

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     Hello to my international friends. Today is the start of the week here in America, because yesterday was Labor Day, a national holiday. 

     I've been trying to post something every American weekday:  any normal Monday through Friday that isn't a holiday. My idea is that people get bored at work, or during their breakfast on the way to work, and they need a little something to help them along in the mornings. 

     I live to serve. 

     But some of you went in to work yesterday, sat down at your computer in Germany or India or someplace, and there was no Bernie drawing to get you through the day. Sorry about that. In the years to come I'll try to wrap my head around the idea of posting on "Holidays". 

     At least we Americans aren't given (and often don't take) very many holidays. So there really won't be THAT many interruptions to the normal weekday flow.