Sketchbook!

For the longest time I kept saying, "I really should keep a sketchbook," but every time I tried to start one I'd draw a sketch or two, not be satisfied, and then forget all about it. This year, though, thanks to the king of Etsy and the combination of whiskey&cokes and free popcorn, I've already finished one sketchbook and started another one! My drawing muscles still have that "pins and needles" thing going on after so much time spent unused, but I'm learning to draw ugly, draw fast, and draw weird. Hopefully things will just get uglier and faster and weirder from here.


My favorite sketches I'm still unsure about posting - when it comes to explicitly sexual stuff, I'm never sure where the division is between "ballsy fine art" and "wildly unprofessional bad moves." I'll think about it. Probably post it at some point. Anyway. 


All of these were done with brush-tip markers, which I've never had before but love, so much.

The first time I was badgered into "drawing ugly." Really like this one. Drawing it felt like being pushed into the pool after whining about not being able to swim - you need someone to do that, sometimes. 

A sad Japanese man, and a diplomat's son (or is that Gatsby?)

Crabwalk.

Trying to draw even uglier, because apparently my earlier ugly wasn't quite there. Is that you, Ronald Reagan?

That's all for now. Have a good week, everyone! Do something crazy for me.

Looks like I'm starting a blog

I've been meaning to get a blog for a really long time now, so here it is. I'll be posting pictures (and maybe descriptions) of my artistic output, which will hopefully flow out of me in chunks once I get this website going. Excited? Excited for the chunks? I know I am. 

On the subject of output, a month or two ago I bought my very first camera, a Canon Rebel XT, and we have become super close buddies. I got a few snerks from photographer friends ("It cost less than a thousand dollars!" "The lens isn't powerful enough to zoom in on moon rocks!" etc), but it does what I bought it to do, which is take pictures, and I love it. 

I have a decent amount of experience in Photoshop - I used to do a lot of digital painting and drawing, and I edited some photos very poorly based on tutorials while wondering what on earth "soft light" meant as a layer property. I'm not really interested in taking pictures that are senior portrait-esque, crystal clear, sparkly - you know, like of babies in a fountain and you can see all the water droplets.... It's cool when well done, but my painting background has me wanting to paint with a camera. If that means distorting photos, editing the everloving crap out of them, etc, I guess that's what that means. I've had fun so far, I'm excited to take more.

Here's one: