Now, I do not believe in fortune telling at all. Only God knows what’s in store for us, and he’s keeping it a secret. I picked this card for it’s cool symbolism. So, before I am accused of anything other than what it stands for, I will give you an explanation. First and foremost, The Death Card is a representation of the end of something. A relationship perhaps. It represents death of all kinds, meaning, the death could be anything from a houseplant to a career and yes, it may also mean the death of a human. But as we all know, a new beginning is a result of the previous new beginning’s end. To some, that may be scarier than death itself. By the way, Tarot cards are really old and popular belief is they were the forefathers of the decks of cards we use today.

The emphasis is on layout in this sketch. The horses head and leg create a definite plane with the side of the building, allowing me to frame out the figure to the far left. That way, they are not competing with one another.

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

                          – Paul Gauguin

 When I was a young man of about twelve, most of my made-up, cool stories in my head (starring me, of course), involved a girl, a fast motorcycle, and my imagination. I could go anywhere I wanted to go and be anyone I wanted to be. Like my friend, Cyrus, I was the king of my castle more than a couple of times. When you look at the drawing and the title you may think they are getting away from something and that’s the escape aspect, but if you look at his face, you see, they’re going somewhere wonderful and that’s the real escape. The quote from Paul Gauguin is regarding imagination and I thought it appropriate. Since early April of this year, I have exercised my imagination every day. I am constantly thinking about drawing and what’s the story I want to tell today. I can go anywhere and do anything. Oh, and thank you by the way for taking this journey with me.

My plan is to do this for a year and see where it goes. So far, my imagination has taken me back many years to remember what motivated me to draw all day in my room in the middle of summer and figure out how to get that passion back. It also allowed me to really dream of the future and remember that anything is possible. Not bad for the first year.

The emphasis in this sketch is motion. Even my signature is getting into the action. The long lines of the background tend to flatten, ideal for creating this type of effect. I “erased in” very few highlights, thus preserving the illusion of dusk.

Every once in a while, I will grow my beard just to shave it in cool ways. I usually chronicle the look by taking pics as I shave. One of these photos made it to my website. It’s on the About Me page. By the way, my whiskers have a lot of grey in them – not so evident here. Artistic license at its best.

I used bristol board for this sketch. It seems to hold up better with all the smudging I do. I have three paper stocks that I use for my drawings. The reason I use three different types is pretty simple, because I have three different sketchbooks. I will draw on pretty much any type of paper. When I was young, my mother would buy reams of notebook paper for me. I would draw on both sides. Anyway, I like the way this sketch turned out. The blending turned out exactly the way I wanted to. Not too heavy and just the right darkness. The erased areas really pop without looking too contrived.

Every once in a while, I do a self portrait. It is something I’ve done since my college days at SUNY New Paltz. Thank you Senior Joe Ramos. Its sort of a reality check. Anyhoo, this is me from about 2 weeks ago. I will post the others when I get a second to do so. Drawing a sketch a day does keep one busy. LOL.