Category Archives: Pencil

Ratbone

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It’s never easy to find time to do the things I know are important, but I will always make time for those things that get me closer to what I truly desire.

Here are some pearls I have picked up:

Go ahead and ask for what you want in life. The worst possible outcome is you live the rest of your life with no regrets.

Be selfish. Don’t wait for someone else to spoil you.

You are the most important person in your life. Treat yourself accordingly.

There are many more, but it’s late and I’m tired. I will save them for another post. You get the general idea.

This sketch was just another excuse to draw a bowler hat and a skeleton.

Man Overboard

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I don’t like leaving the house if I don’t have to.

I am, admittedly, “directionally challenged” which means I get lost very easily.
I have been this way all my life. I am too damn cheap to buy a GPS, nor will I
spend the extra five bucks a month to get it on my Blackberry.

And, of course, there’s everyone else on the road…

Why is it that people think it’s okay to cut you off and then give you the finger
when they’re driving down the road? Chances are if you were in line at Walmart,
nobody in their right mind is gonna cut in line, turn around and give everyone
behind them the finger. If he or she is, they have either something to prove or
nothing to lose. In either case, I don’t want to make it my business.

This sketch is based on a really cool painting I saw. I wish I got the name of the
artist. Here’s another amazing artist I came across while grocery shopping his
name is John Jude Palencar. He had created a dragon for a book that I saw. This guy is a graphics ninja.

Law

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This sketch is actually plain old printer paper. I wanted to get this idea down before it got away and didn’t have any sketch paper handy.

It’s the process of creating that validates who I am, not the outcome. Every single sketch has purpose in my evolution as an artist. However, I am not always thrilled with the outcome. In fact, I don’t like some of my drawings.

All to often, I hear people say, “I couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler”. Well, neither could Jackson Pollock, but that didn’t stop him. Unless your objective requires a series of straight lines, it’s not a big deal…just create.

Art is expression, it evokes emotion.

Appreciate

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I understand that my art will not appreciate significantly until I’m gone.

I can live with that.

I am really digging the bowler hat thing. I think I will use it more.

 

Before the Take II

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This is my gift to myself.

Not this specific sketch, but all of them combined. Every day, I give myself the time and resources to interpret my deepest creative thoughts onto paper. I do this every day because that is when I’m truly at my best, when I am alive, when I am at peace.

This is also my gift to the world.

This specific sketch and everyone before it. I do it because I am able, by the grace of God. This vision I possess is a great gift given to me to borrow for a short time. I truly believe it is my calling and my purpose in life to share it with the world. I believe it is an obligation that all artists share.

In this sketch, I have discovered a new technique, blending highlight direction (I have GOT to come up with a better name for it). By accident, I forgot to blend the features at the bottom of the sketch. Instead, I get an entirely new type of texture to explore. Thank God for mistakes.

Happy almost-birthday, Jesus.

Uk

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In my world, their are assassins so mysterious, they are thought to be ghosts by some. They’re known as Uks. I know it’s a very strange name. The legend is that their name is actually a lot longer, but the only man to dare say the full name out loud was assassinated before he could utter any more syllables of it. After hundreds of years, people stopped saying the name for fear of swift death and the name was lost forever.

I left this sketch very loose to give the illusion of camouflage. Not the pattern, but the actual blending in with the environment. I meant to keep the focus on the eyes, therefore, I spent most of the time on the detail.

Sunday Afternoon Potluck

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This sketch was inspired by just about every family in our congregation at Union Center United Methodist Church.

I knew some real characters. One of the most notable, I shall call him “GP”, always had our attention. One Sunday, he brought his sister’s gold confirmation necklace to Sunday school to show us all a cool trick he had learned by accident.

He leaned his head back, snaked that whole thing down his nostril, snorted and hacked a couple of times, opened his mouth, and there it was on his tongue.

That was probably the most bizarre human trick I have ever seen in my life.