Last Year's Sketchbook

Yesterday my son tore through our bookcase like Katrina (something he does on a bi-weekly basis.) In the aftermath I rediscovered one of my sketchbooks from about a year ago. These are the highlights.

"gone"

By popular demand (two people) I have self-published my first short story. It's entitled "gone." It's a reflection on deep and powerful experiences in my childhood that have shaped me into the individual that I have become. Yikes, that was very Howard Moon of me, wasn't it? For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Howard T.J. Moon, please return for future posts about him. And maybe future short stories. Unless, by popular demand, I am asked to stop writing.

Enjoy.

Anthropomorph OWL

This is a quick sketch I did for a short story I started writing about my childhood. I've always wanted to write, and recently I've been taking a crack at it. I don't know if I'll ever finish the story (since I've already started another one...) but I like how the sketch turned out.

The Dark Knight

I saw it. Last night. I'd been looking forward to it for quite a while. Frankly, I had been looking forward to it to the point that it was probably going to be a let down. You know how that goes. Expectations so high it can never live up to them, doomed to be a let down.

It was not a let down. It was thoroughly engaging all the way through. All 2 and a half hours of it. And the Joker. Oh the Joker... I have a very strong attachment to the original Joker played by Jack Nicholson. It's hard to beat an icon so firmly and emotionally rooted in your childhood. Heath Ledger managed to dethrone Nicholson so brilliantly that I didn't even notice until it was over.

I'm not going to go into plot points or anything else. Just a brief tip of the hat to The Dark Knight.

The Beauty of Teleconferencing

My ol' buddy, Brandt recently blogged about sketching during teleconferences. You know the kind. The ones that are brutally boring. The ones that almost don't require you being there, but for some reason you got invited. The only way to survive is to sketch your self awake. I've gone through my work sketch books a picked a few of my favs.

Thanks for the inspiration, Brandt.

First attempt

I have made an attempt at a portrait. I am not even going to show it at this time. It is very likely that I will never be showing it. I have been trying to recreate the spontaneous nature of my sketches in painting form. I think that's my favorite part of my drawings. In the loose and roughly drawn shapes something (most of the time unintentional) emerges. So I began a painting the way I draw. I had the idea of continuing the theme of aged seafarers which was partially achieved. But it the end result felt more like a crazy Nazi submarine captain zombie. Not something ya wanna hang in the kids room.

Okay...maybe I will show it. But you must know that I do not endorse this painting in any way!!!

Seafolk

I always seem to sketch in themes, although it doesn't become apparent what that theme is until I get to the 4th or 5th drawing. I'm calling the most recent set Seafolk (which could also be a new genre of music (see Port O'Brien.) For whatever reason, all my recent drawings have turned out to be sailor and fisherman of some kind. Nothing modern, though. More like Victorian sailors and fisherman. There's a certain sinister quality to them. Maybe it's the striped shirts.

sketching for a portrait

My next painting project is going to be a portrait. I've never done one before. Should be interesting. These are some roughs. Even roughs deserve titles: The matador, the soggy sailor, ape hands, mustache of mystery, the cockney lunch break, posh Einstein, monocled keeper, and Gary.

Sweaty Palm Acrylic

For a while I've been feeling like my sketches need to be taken a step further. I've been doing some prints, but somethings aren't meant to be prints. I decided to try painting again. Here's my first in a line of many to come (hopefully.)

Beautiful Losers

There was a special screening of the film Beautiful Losers at Weiden+Kennedy this week. A bunch of us from work went to it. It's a documentary about a group of out casts, punks and street artists. If you get a chance, I would recommend seeing it. Very inspiring! Here are some of their work: