Hand Crank

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     Oh my busy life. When will you give me some time to do art? [or, looked at another way: "When will I stop piling so many things onto my schedule?"]. 

     At any rate, this is my "little" sketchbook. It's a Moleskine sketchbook with the thick paper, but it's the little 6-inch one that I sometimes carry inside my jacket, with an abbreviated pencil case that is almost as small. My theory here is that if I have a smaller sketchbook, I will do smaller and simpler drawings. And thus, save time.

     Last week I got into trouble making a couple of really huge, ornate, 100-miles-of-linework type of drawings, and then I was struggling to come up with some little spot drawings for the rest of the week. Don't get me wrong- I LOVED those fancier pieces! But they were for a high school kid, or a retired person, or somebody who is independently wealthy and has a lot of time on his hands. Not for dad with a full time job and a house to take care of. Or maybe I just need to get the smaller spot drawings done first? Then I won't feel the heat when I want to do something elaborate…I would be able to stretch it over two or three days. 

     Maybe that's next week's experiment. In the meantime: Little sketchbook experiment. 

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Dirigible

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      My smart, funny, talented work friends all have Twitter accounts that they take seriously. At their urging, I started posting these pictures on my neglected Twitter account too. We'll see if Twitter works out for me.  I don't think I have the dashing wit to jump upon news events and pop culture memes with an instant funny quip. But I can post a daily drawing with a simple period in the "text" space. That's what I do on Facebook. 

     It that the kind of thing that attracts "followers"? I guess we'll find out. 

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Texting While Waiting

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     Can you create a piece of art when you're tired? How about when you're *dead* tired? 

     Turns out you can. 

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On Our Way

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     This one didn't *seem* like a lot of line work when I started it. But my hand was really sore the next day (I inked this one in right after the ink dried on my In a Row piece). Lots of noodle work, but it was fun and I was smiling the entire time. 

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Southpaw

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    Sketchy sketch. Complete with the "Canson" imprint in the paper and the pencil underdrawing. Sometimes less is more. 

     Sometimes. 

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In a Row

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     Olden days classroom with a bunch of props. Not quite sure how many visual classrooms influenced this…there have been so many visual representations of classrooms in my life. But a few: Schoolhouse Rock, Our Gang (Little Rascals), The Little House on the Prairie TV show, and an old black and white photograph of my mom's classroom from around 1950, where are the kids were sitting at their desks. There's also an Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant near us, it's built in the old Duarte school administration building. It's decorated with photographs of the kids from the early part of the century. 

     When I was a teenager, I also spent a few summers working for the Portland Public Schools, and there were still a few surviving schools from WAY back. They always had a certain look to them. Usually they were Italianate or Beaux Arts buildings with lots of wood and giant double hung windows. They couldn't be built today, because of safety codes and cost (lots of fiddley hand work by skilled craftsmen…who were once common and their services didn't cost too much). But they always took my breath away. Sooo charming on the inside. 

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Flood of Nostalgia

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     I don't go to the well of nostalgic pop culture very often. But when I do, I stop and take a good long drink. 

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