Self Portrait Number 12

Another week with very little time to draw. When I was about to sit down on Friday night, suddenly there was a plumbing problem to attend to. Saturday we celebrated my 50th birthday and other than getting some art supplies and arraigning my pencils, there was no time to draw.

Sunday, I finally sat down and I chose a still image from a movie a friend took with my phone while I was at my birthday cake. But Sunday I couldn't make a go of it. I started five or six times and abandoned each time.

Yesterday, Monday, March 30th I had some success:

I am very satisfied in how this one turned out even though I have more of a bubble head and the shadow looks more like some sort of ancient helmet.  What I like about it is the glasses.

Ultimately, this was a very challenging portrait. It is the first time I tried to draw a profile and at the same time there was so much shadow and shading to contend with. One part I really struggled with was getting the glasses right and in the end I think I got the nose and the glasses pretty well.

I do wish I had started the portrait more to the right side of the page but after so many false starts I decided to concentrate on the face and so I ran out of room for the corner of the birthday cake and the candles.  Oh well. It is only number 12.

Bonus features: For the party, I decided to hang all of the drawings I felt were complete. It is nice to see so many considering I only started on January 7 when there may have been a sacred geometry drawing or two but nothing more:

Self Portrait Number Eleven

This week I had no time at all to draw until Friday night and I wasn't particularly enthused with my choices.

I had this picture in the middle of winter as a fun way to acknowledge Chillpack Hollywood Hour's 400th episode which ended with a rare technical glitch: The theme song ended before allotted time and one of the guys could be heard saying, "We ran out of theme song."

But when I considered this one in the past as possible subject for a self-portrait I rejected it because my face is so covered.

On Friday, I just decided to draw for the sake of drawing, I wasn't intending to make this anything but an exercise in noticing shapes, which is why everything is so rough but when I looked at it the next morning, it reminded me of The Scream by Edvard Munch so I decided to add colors, not aping the original scream but evoking it.

Unfortunately, I did not have paints, only some felt-tip markers that were marketed as "brushes" but respond nothing like brushes and many were already dried out even though I only bought them three weeks ago.

Oh well, I only bought them on a whim and so I added waters to the dry markers and proceed.

Even though this drawing looks no better than something I might have been forced to draw in grade school, I find I like it very much. Somehow the way I chose to add color makes it pop and look very 3D.

I could not fit everything into the placard I was holding in the original picture so I chose to abbreviate it as "Ego is Skel."

I think this is the most artistic thing I have drawn so far and that it evoked The Scream to me simply fit in with my mood this weekend.

On Thursday and into most of the day Friday, I was on a very high good feeling place after having some people over to my house on Thursday night. But I feel I have been falling since then and even though I had no conscious intention of expressing this in my drawing, it is there nonetheless.

I will have to get some paints soon, maybe I will recreate this on on a canvas and it will be my first canvas? I don't know.

Here are the images:

Bonus! Bonus! Bonus! Man Screams At Yellow Paint!

Cat and Turkey Medicine

On Thursday, March 19, 2015, I woke up and out the kitchen window the first thing I saw was an orange tabby cat drinking water from a bird bath. I watched her for several minutes, wondering if she had a litter of kittens with her, but none did I see. I just enjoyed seeing the cat and in line of site was the stone marking the grave of my beloved cat, Li'l Tiger.

Later that day I drove to work and as I passed a corn field I saw a tom turkey with his harem, the tom was so close to the road it was like he was looking right at me. I wanted to stop the car and get some pictures but there was no place to stop and there was heavy morning traffic.

When I got to work I looked up turkey medicine and found it means abundance, harvesting the fruits of your effort, connection to the land, and generosity and sharing.

It wasn't until this point that I realized that the cat I saw first thing was also part of some spirit medicine so I looked up cat and found that cat has a lot to do with patience, waiting for the right moment to strike, also desiring independence yet also being social. And as well, cat is the explorer of the unknown.

Well, later that night we had a psychic class at my house which included people who were volunteer clients that the members of the class could practice their reading skills on.

It was an exhilarating night and I could see how this medicine was in play. This is a bit like a giant sync where instead of little things or ideas or thoughts coming up with seeming meaningful synchronicity, it seemed like augury, the entire planet pointing to the meeting at my house being a success.

I don't really have much in the way of further thought or insight on this, I only wanted to record it and express my appreciation to the magnificent unknown that seems always willing to communicate with us if we are only willing to listen.

Self Portrait Number 10

I'm behind in posting my self portraits. I had a bit of a drawing block and I just drew the same picture three or four times and then finally moved on but while I was in crisis I did not wish to post anything publicly.

This week I actually missed my deadline anyway but for a happy reason, it was my birthday on Tuesday and Patti got me a pencil box so I can take some penciles with me, and a giant sketch pad.

While, the first thing I wanted to do was to draw a giant picture that need to be this big!

 This is one of my harder ones so far so far as detail goes. I probably need a two weeks just to draw more details in the photo but I decided to stop in this case when I finished drawing the big balloon.

I seem to have misplaced my neck in the drawing and my torso seems really long but overall I am satisfied with this one for where I am.

I think just adding the little detail of the shadow by my feet gives it some depth. I will revisit this photo later, I think and try and fill in more of the background.