For my sixth Vircation Drawing I flew to Cairo. I love the hustle and bustle on the dusty streets. My favorite kind of street on earth is one where there happens to be a famous tourist attraction looming at the end of the block. These kinds of streets are very rare. This Cairo street has one of the great Pyramids of Giza towering over the aprtments. It is my dream to wake up one morning and take my cup of tea and to walk out onto my balcony in my underwear and be able to look over the Colosseum or the Parthenon. I loved drawing on the street in Paris with the Eiffel Tower sitting on top of the apartment buildings. No other feeling like it. I guess the people living there get bored of seeing the same thing everyday. I’m not sure I would ever get over it.
Copenhagen
For my fifth Vircation Drawing I flew to Copenhagen. Besides drawing, I rode around on a bicycle to get from place to place. I love biking around with my camouflage knapsack full of art supplies. It’s a great way to discover something visually interesting to draw. Then I do the old park and sketch. Afterwards, I go to a vegan eatery for a well deserved meal to celebrate my newly created art piece. One can always find a vegan place to dine using the Happy Cow app. This is not a paid endorsement. I’m just letting you know how I find a vegan joint in the middle of Copenhagen even though it’s my first time there and I don’t know where the hell I am.
Kiev
Next, I pretended to fly to Kiev in Ukraine and there I did my third VIRTUCATION ILLUSTRATION. This St. Andrew’s Church constructed in the 1700s. As I was drawing the onion domes, I began to lose count of them. Unable to stop sketching onion domes, I decided to give in and fit in as many as possible onto my page. I found myself caught in an onion dome vortex which is a very rare urban sketching phenomenon. The virtual tourists watching me couldn’t believe their eyes. Thinking I might be a daffy individual, they backed away slowly and quietly moved on to their next tourist attraction.
Taj Mahal
The other day I was talking to my artist friend, Sue Rose. She told me she liked my Vircation Drawings. It was as if she bonked me on the head with a rubber mallet. I had called my fake vacation sketches, Virtucation Illustrations, but Sue shortened it by about 20 syllables. She does this kind of thing subconsciously. VIRCATION DRAWINGS is a far superior title. So thank you for fixing that. By the way, this is a Vircation Drawing I did while wandering around the streets of Agra. They have some really great vegan food there.
Fashionable Paris
This is my second VIRTUCATION ILLUSTRATION in Paris. It focuses on the elegant architecture. For some reason whenever I draw on the street, I always attract the attention of beautiful fashion models. I’m like a magnet. They seem to appear from nowhere. There’s always a lot of hovering to observe my sketching. It’s something I’ve always had to deal with. I ignore as much as humanly possible, mostly because it takes so much concentration to draw. I’ll be the first to say that I was shocked that it even happened while I was drawing virtually too.
Paris Cafe
For my VIRTUCATION ILLUSTRATION trip, I go to Paris. First thing I’d do is call my friend, Jean Christophe-Defline. He is basically mayor of the city, at least he seems to be. We’d meet at Le Consulat cafe in Montmartre. Both of us would sit together for a few hours sketching the joint. Basically the conversation Jean and I usually have goes something like this; “you are such an amazing guy.” “No, YOU are an amazing guy.” “But you are such a brilliant artist. “No YOU are an even more brilliant artist.” “Look at your clothes, you’re so elegant.” “Me? You should be in the pages of L’Uomo Vogue.” “You’re a genius” “No way, you’re the genius.” This behavior goes on and on endlessly but we love doing it. Also, that’s the reason I’m sitting virtually in Paris drinking a Ricard and water after having spent 5 hours drawing the adorable little cafe with Defline. A true bromance.
Pilot
I have not been on a plane in a year and I don’t see myself flying anytime soon. So I am going to take a vacation to a foreign country virtually. I always draw on the streets of cities I travel to. Next week I will post some VIRTUCATION ILLUSTRATIONS. It’s my new creation. Starting Monday I will post my drawings that I’ve done pretending that I’m living it up on a pretend trip to Europe.
Climate Change
Rumor has it that climate change is being put back on the menu.
Anne Atomy
Due to Covid, I have not been able to attend any life drawing classes for an entire year. I decided to draw Anne Atomy by using a reference photo.
Leonardo
When I do a life drawing, I meekly attempt to make it look like a Michelangelo notebook forgery.
Animal Rights
Math lesson.
1 Moleskine sketchbook + 8 Muji pens = 1 unexplained, double page drawing.
Flower Girl
Nun
As a kid, I went to catholic school. I was the last era of students to learn from nuns who wore very crazy jet black, floor length costumes. These women looked a bit like grim reapers in scary outfits. There was a lot of layers of vails and drapes hanging about. When they moved, everything flowed like a ghost. In hindsight, I wish the Halloween costumes could have been colorful, maybe with some nice designs on them. It may have cut down on the fear and terror aspect of it all. Not sure I would have turned out any different though.
