Blackwing Sketchbook

2011-12-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

irish dance

2011-08-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

gloved

2011-08-02T16:10:00.001-07:00

I feel happy

2011-08-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

...and when I'm feeling happy, I feel like drawing.

My Backyard Birds

2011-05-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

I recently added a couple of feeders and a birdbath to my backyard, and it's become an all-day party scene for the locals. Missing from the lineup are the (resident and nesting) mockingbirds and (occasional) scrub jay. Before moving to the San Gabriel foothills a couple of years ago I'd never seen a grosbeak, towhee or goldfinch at my feeder, but all the others are old friends. I've found their various personalities and antics fascinating. The boldest and least afraid of me is the tiniest-the 4" goldfinch. The Towhee is a quiet ground-scourer, and the finches and sparrows battle it out.

DoD: Cold Feet

2011-03-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

This was the theme for Monday.

Tad

2011-03-05T17:37:00.000-08:00

DoD: Water Pressure

2011-03-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

...or lack of same.

DoD: Sour

2011-03-05T16:57:00.001-08:00

Drawing of the Day

2011-03-01T10:08:00.001-08:00

"...the password is: 'Pampered'"

Drawing Of the Day

2011-02-28T16:25:00.001-08:00

"Box"

2010-11-24T13:08:00.000-08:00

2010-09-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

I'm cleaning up my desktop and found some old WIP things from the beginning of the Dave Pimentel/Jeff Snow/Dave Derrick "drawing of the day" thing...just...scribbles.

2010-08-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Fruitful

2010-07-29T17:06:00.001-07:00

I'm done with posting cintiq drawings here for a while I think.
This is a quick one drawn with a Copic marker. I put that tiny bit of color on in PS but that's it for digital with this one.

Jetta

2010-07-22T22:45:00.001-07:00

This is a slightly different version of the drawing I did for Craig Yoe's new compilation book of the late, great Dan DeCarlo's "Jetta" comics.

the theme today is "tall"

2010-07-21T18:16:00.001-07:00

grey cat

2010-07-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

2010-06-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

wading out

2010-06-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

Drawing of the Day: Bird Of Prey

2010-05-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today's 'drawing o'the day' theme was up to me, and so I decided to see what we'd do with this one. Go see what Snow, Pimentel, Dave Derrick and Louie Del Carmen have flown with on their blogs.

(a) Drawing (every other) Day, Monday edition

2010-05-18T10:23:00.001-07:00

...posted Tuesday. Those other guys are sick! Yesterday's theme: Baseball.

A drawing every (other) day

2010-05-13T15:40:00.001-07:00

A drawing of a female centaur, at the behest of messrs Dave Pimentel and Jeff Snow. Go see what they did with their theme of the day. They're both killer.

working and listening to Busby Berkeley soundtracks

2010-05-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ruff ruff ruff

2010-05-03T19:49:00.001-07:00

2010-04-29T21:00:00.001-07:00

2010-02-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

This is a rarity among the drawings I've posted here in that this one was drawn using a photograph of songwriter/performer Joanna Newsom as my model. I found it via Nico's's terrific site, liked it and pulled it up on one of the two monitors on my desk(the one that's in front of me being the one I draw on, the Wacom Cintiq). The photo was small and over to the side but I just wanted to glance over at it and freehand it for fun, not copy it(always a bad idea to "copy" slavishly as I'm sure you know).

Like the other drawings I post the idea is to just put down whatever I get and if I like the results at all--post it. As with the rest of my posts, if a drawing doesn't come out well I delete it and start another one rather than fuss with it.

The thing here was to get an impression of a stance and attitude. This photograph had a lovely posture, better in real life than I managed here but them's the breaks.

2010-01-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

self satisfied

2009-12-30T13:30:00.001-08:00

wintertime doodling

2009-12-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

I know this is a weird one...I was thinking of victorian illustrations. And I know her anatomy's all cockeyed etc. Just for jolly.

2009-11-12T22:01:00.000-08:00

2009-11-12T10:21:00.001-08:00

2009-11-11T13:43:00.001-08:00

2009-03-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

2009-03-11T18:02:00.001-07:00

2009-03-11T17:50:00.001-07:00

utterly meaningless

2009-03-06T12:36:00.001-08:00

...just a doodle to get the yayas out(and post something). You know, it's been one of those decades. sigh.

2009-02-11T08:48:00.001-08:00

a story artist

2008-11-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

dogs

2008-11-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

I've put my one remaining pup in day care today for the first time in ages--well, really decades in dog time. He's an active fellow and troublemaker by default(usually). These are quickies done off the live webcam...oh, dear: I just saw him hauled off to solitary for a spell. Oh, the shame of it!

2008-11-10T17:38:00.003-08:00

2008-11-10T17:38:00.001-08:00

2008-10-01T14:02:00.001-07:00

2008-09-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

Really, really a scribble

2008-09-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

...and I'm not kidding. Actually I was just warming up and daydreaming and remembering this great, ubiquitous Degas statue. When I first saw it at LACMA as a 3rd grader I liked it for its personality-and, I admit, the mannequin-like quality of it too--she had real tulle on her skirt and in her hair.
I believe the Norton Simon in Pasadena also has a copy. Years later I read an article somewhere(The NY Times I think) all about these girls, how many there are aroiund the world and the unique problems involved trying to maintain a bronze with 100 year old "clothes". I could google her to see what she really looks like but I resisted the temptation-I just wanted to draw-and now I'm kind of loathe to peek and see if I got anywhere near her pose. I know she isn't anywhere near this long, that's for sure.

pixie cut

2008-09-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

sketch redux

2008-09-05T14:54:00.001-07:00

clickez-vous to enlarge

An old page(15 months old to be precise)-one of my early cintiq mass doodles.
Really, I have to break in the home cintiq properly. It's got some bugs to be worked out, but this weekend--watch out. I mean, truly: duck.

Pegasus

2008-09-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

2008-08-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

age 10

2008-08-11T12:11:00.001-07:00

hanging

2008-08-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

matronly

2008-08-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

2008-08-07T16:02:00.001-07:00

nervous time

2008-07-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

2008-07-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

just another doodle

2008-07-09T18:17:00.001-07:00

this one has to be opened larger--if you want to(just click)

Inspiration

2008-06-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

My pointer Weet. He served as the raison d'être for the contribution I made to the book I have coming out, "Scrambled Ink"(see my other blog).

I love words and have no reluctance to use them whenever possible, but for the Scrambled Ink story I wound up cutting nearly all of the text. Initially I'd planned something much more like "Eloise". Not comparing myself in any way against the brilliant Hilary Knight or Kay Thompson, mind you--I just enjoy the sorts of stories that are all too rare nowadays-ones that are a little bit more text than pictures but the pictures are many.

In the event the story I did is all pictures; I now look at it as a kind of private conversation/reminiscence between Pete and me, who had been to Paris for the first and only time not long before.

2008-06-17T15:16:00.001-07:00

16 years old

2008-06-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

midnight

2008-05-14T19:59:00.001-07:00

One of my very favorite films (of all time, kids) is Mitchell Leisen's "Midnight". It's just perfection.
I've seen it many times, but I can always stop and watch it again. It's just been released on DVD and since the NY Times has seen fit to give it one of the most intelligent reviews I've seen in recent years last week it's been on my brain.

I was thinking of Midnight when I doodled this. Everyone: drawings aside--you can't go wrong with John Barrymore(Drew's grandpappy), Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche(yes, Don Ameche!), A Billy Wilder script and Paris, Paramount(as Ernst Lubistch called it). Seek it out.

just a doodle

2008-05-07T11:12:00.001-07:00

...been a while.

The live model in front of me at the moment

2008-03-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

2008-03-17T15:25:00.001-07:00

2008-03-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

ruff riding

2008-01-18T16:30:00.001-08:00

2008-01-04T13:59:00.001-08:00

taking a break

2007-12-30T12:51:00.000-08:00

An early Buster Keaton feature on TCM

2007-12-28T10:48:00.001-08:00

I'm very busy on the HP tablet at the moment and took a break just now as there's this mystery film with (I think) Gilbert Roland and some wonderfully marcelled actress on. This has got to be circa 1930 or '31 but no later.

EDITED TO ADD: Aha! The sudden appearance of Buster Keaton in the mix tells me it's "The Passionate Plumber"--with the marceled dark girl and a blonde I don't know. Here's my doodle of the blonde:

Poor Buster was probably drunk for the filming of this turkey...he's not up to form but who would be paired with Durante. Gawd!

Santa Paws

2007-12-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

It's him again

2007-12-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

2007-12-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

dux

2007-11-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

My friend Paul showed me a scene he did today. There was a great duck in it. Ducks just always slay me.
When I was a kid my family's dearest friends had a duck; they also always had about seven beautiful cats, a horse, an airedale named Wilbur and for a long time this white duck, Sunny, who was a unusually personable character. Anyway, this is just an excuse to post more doodles of something tonight-I'm really on a posting jag.

playing with my Disneykins in the dirt

2007-11-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

One of those memories from four or so.

2007-11-29T22:06:00.000-08:00

advert

2007-11-29T21:51:00.001-08:00

dollface

2007-11-29T21:45:00.001-08:00

2007-11-29T21:39:00.001-08:00

Note

2007-11-29T21:34:00.001-08:00

2007-11-29T21:30:00.001-08:00

2007-11-29T21:26:00.001-08:00

2007-11-29T21:25:00.001-08:00

2007-11-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

warming up on the cintiq (again)

2007-11-20T13:36:00.003-08:00

my 2 dogs

2007-11-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

2007-11-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

2007-11-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

2007-10-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

laptop again

2007-10-14T14:17:00.001-07:00

2007-10-05T14:09:00.001-07:00

2007-09-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

I was fooling around last week(and I mean real, desultory, aimless doodling), browsing the internet and looking at some photos online simultaneously. I spied a friend's photo of his wife, which was a very nice snap, and grabbing some printer paper, drew her in a sort of reverse-tablet scenario. Pretty crummy--so I flipped the paper over and, not looking at the photo but instead at the faint bleed through of the Copic marker, drew a flopped one. Not much better, but I still think it has personality(and that's not a compliment to me, but to the original photograph and of course, the original person).

Then I got annoyed as yet another Copic marker was fizzling out on me...so as it lay dying I drew this other thing with both barely-there ends.
I sure do love these markers, but I make a mess of refilling them so they don't last long for me.

Here's another tablet/alias doodle of the same girl-my impression of her,that is.

Alias sketchbook thing on an HP tablet

2007-09-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

When I was five

2007-09-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

I too was a child, once. Here's proof.
Everyone in the class had to contribute to a book the teacher mimeographed. One girl was an especially gifted artist--her drawing was as developed as a 12 year old's--a good twelve year old. She was a big inspiration to me. She certainly would have been an artist, I think(she took it very seriously--not surprising given her talent), but she died shortly after this in a swimming accident.

This is but the top half of the page; the bottom picture that accompanies the lower "story" (of the girl who believes her family consists of sky, flowers and clouds--including my almost-perfect spelling of colors on a lot of large house paint cans)was too messed up to post--even worse than what's here.

Um, busted!

2007-09-11T17:52:00.001-07:00

This was taken when I wasn't looking yesterday in life drawing...damn cel phones! I'll get him back when he least expects it, wait and see.

This was not the model, btw...

Alias doodles

2007-09-10T01:05:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, this is a life drawing of a doll. A japanese doll.

..and these are just doodles, drawn nearly flat in my back at 1 am, using this HP tablet sketchbook. They aren't the greatest, but it's late and they reflect my mood...also I haven't posted anything much in a while. ; )

After Dedini

2007-08-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

I always liked the lushness of this guy's drawings(and his women--you really can't call them "girls" are neat, simple designs). This is a quick study/copy/call it what you will I did the other day on the cintiq. Not finished--but then how many of these doodles are?

I love this guy's watercolor technique...you really should look him up or get the new book devoted to him that Fantagraphics has put out.

2007-08-10T01:06:00.000-07:00

slip of a girl.

blue

2007-07-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

casting

2007-07-20T16:48:00.001-07:00

1918-ish

2007-07-20T16:15:00.001-07:00

This is just a semi-absent-minded doodle.

1970

2007-07-11T21:49:00.001-07:00