I drew this in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Two nice college aged girls approached me and wanted to chat about my street doodle. Of course, one of them was an artist. The non-art girl adressed me for the first time in my life as, “sir.” That seemed to open the floodgates. Then they both barraged me with “sirs”. I’m at that age now. It felt good if you want to know the truth.
Rhino 2025
My drawing cohorts figured out that if they buy their ticket online for the Natural History Museum, they can pay whatever they want. So they enter for twenty five cents. I’m a member, so no problemo. They chose a rhino to sketch. I gave it my best shot.
Ladies
I made it to the Botanical Gardens to draw my first flowers of the season. As I was drawing, I heard my name being called. It turned out to be some of the ladies of the Urban Sketchers who spotted me in the wild. We were able to hang out a bit. Then I went home and added the animals to my sketch.
Green Skull
Smoking skeletons, yellow-eyed monkeys, green skulls, and floating goldfish, are all a part of drawing at the Museum of Natural History. On the other hand, it could just be that my failing eyesight creates things for me to draw that are not really there.
Florida
I spent a few days in Florida at my cousin, Eileen’s house. In between swims, I managed to make a drawing.
Model 2025
I’ve been drawing so many animals at the Museum of Natural History and condiments from the table of my local diner because it’s been too cold to hang outside. I’ve stuck to drawing things indoors. So, I drew this random face to break up the monotony.
Slew
I returned to life drawing class at Studio Slew. Friendliest artists I’ve ever run into. It’s very easy to meet new people. I always enjoy myself there. The model wore a fantasy costume. I will say I’m more than double the age of everyone. The elderly stateman squirrel artman.
Dope
I will explain how I do my typography on my sketches. I go to Dafont.com and peruse the endless diferent typefaces. They are divvied up by categories. I select an unsusual one I like and then download the font to my desktop. I then load it into my Apple Font Book. Lastly, I type what I want to say in Photoshop and put it in the newly found typefaces. Then I just draw the type as if I was drawing any other object. That is why my type looks so dope.
Eagle
My friend Stephen Petronis chose the eagle to draw, in fact he chose the African masks too. I like when I can keep my brain shut off in the museum. I go on autopilot when I’m doing the drawing.
Japan
I prepped a page the day before I went drawing by sketching a lot of Japanese anime characters along the bottom. The next day, I went to the Natural History Museum and drew the dinosaur head and the ancient Chinese figure. When young boys looked over my shoulder at the museum as I sketched, their heads nearly popped off seeing the pile of cartoon figures. Of course, they knew them all by name. They couldn’t figure out what the hell I was doing.
MET
Last Saturday, I went to The Met to draw with the NYC Urban Sketchers led by art teacher, Mark Leibowitz. As you can see, my drawing is all over the place. Giant head, proportions are not even remotely in the ballpark. A failure if there ever was one. As I sat down to begin to draw, I found myself in conversation was some fantastic women artists who were sitting within earshot. I began to chat and take my eye off the drawing I was making but I kept forging ahead. In fact, I started to enjoy the company more than the sketching. One was artist, Amanda Kavanagh who I’ve been following for years on Instagram. Here we were meeting for the first time by pure coincidence. There were also some newbie artists showing great courage by coming out and drawing in public. I love those folks. I had a great day but I feel I should also post and show my work when I totally screw up. I didn’t do it in a sketchbook but used a single pre stained piece of watercolor paper which shows I felt it would be a tough environment to draw in on a crowded Saturday.
Studio Slew
I discovered the best life drawing class ever. It’s held at a place called Studio Slew in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The whole thing is run by artist Sam Lewis. The enormous studio is gorgeous with great light. I attended a 3 hour, one long pose session. A great model with only a handful of artists. They limit the number that can attend which makes for a nice environment. The model is dressed in a costume which I loved. Everyone there was so nice and friendly. Lovely music and a groovy vibe for sure. I intend to go to this place a lot.
Sugar Sugar
Back to my local diner early in the morning so I can draw all alone. When my friends show up later, I get my vegan breakfast and show off my new sugar doodle to them.
