Monthly Archives: April 2009

Illustration Friday: Talisman

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The Year of the Rabbit
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This week’s Illustration Friday topic fits very neatly into my current project: portraits of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. This is the Rabbit, accompanied by a symbolic stone with his sign. I’ve already posted the Snake and the Ox, and more are on the way. I debated whether to include the stones in these images, but I really liked having a concrete sign of why I was making them… a talisman of sorts. It turns a simple drawing of a rabbit into a symbol of something more, representing one piece in a whole intricate structure of meanings with an ancient history.

These images will all be for sale at my RedBubble page, if you want a card or print. I’ll be making more products available when the whole series is complete.

I’m about one third of the way through drawing the series, although I still need to color them all. It’s been fun using the brush pen again… if I think I can cat-proof the arrangements I’d like to start using a regular brush with ink again. Along with dip pens, they’ve been sidelined in the interest of keeping the ink on the paper and off of the floor.

Illustration Friday: Poise

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 Dr. Sketchy Atlanta #2
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Perhaps an unusual choice for this week’s Illustration Friday topic, anyone who can model so unselfconsciously for life drawing strikes me as the epitome of poise. This model in particular managed to look positively serene while wearing french powdered wig in a very crowded and noisy bar while people were staring at her and scribbling frantically.

While I was attending the SWSX conference in March, I had the great fortune to attend an event which included a session of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.  There’s more info at the link, but in brief it’s like a life drawing class except instead of in a formal art studio it’s at a bar or club, and instead of a nude model you have a cabaret or burlesque performer in costume.

Dr. Sketchy Atlanta #1

In this particular case, the life drawing was going on in the back of the club, while an actual burlesque show was going on at the main stage. Because it was part of the conference it was packed, but I managed to snag a stool and pad of paper in the drawing area. The performers were lining up to model when they were between sets, they were so excited to participate. It was very cool!

We only did five-minute poses. It has been sooooo long since I did life drawing like this, much less while balancing a pad of paper on my knee sitting on a barstool, but it was great fun.

Dr. Sketchy Atlanta #3

Unfortunately, just as I really felt I was getting warmed up, the rest of my cohorts were ready to move on. But I got several very nice sketches done, and they even managed to survive the night intact.

There are Dr. Sketchy’s clubs scattered all over the country… if this sounds like fun to you, google to see if there’s one near you!

Back in the Saddle

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Some months get more hectic than others. March qualified as one of those.

It’s been a particularly hectic time at my day job — not assisted by my having to move offices for the first time in many years. Being busy is good, but these days it feels like we’re always playing catch-up.

In the good kind of hectic, however, they sent me to SXSW Interactive, a week-long conference on all the latest and greatest internet trends and technologies. It was an amazing experience, which I’m still processing in my head. I met a lot of great, amazing people, and if any of you are reading this and wondering why I haven’t gotten back to you yet, read on.

Immediately upon returning home I had one good day at work before coming down with my all-too-typical Post-Travel Creeping Death Plague. This time it took the form of a horrendous headcold which knocked me completely out for three days, not counting the two days of feeling ucky beforehand and now over a week of deneumont. Fortunately, I’m now just down to a nagging cough, a tendency to tire easily, and lingering congestion which could just as easily be caused by the weather. Which I’m trying to shake off as quickly as possible because I’m still very charged up from my trip and want to act on it, but I’m also playing catch-up from being out of the office for over two weeks. (Not to mention packing/purging ten years worth of stuff to fit into an office which, although it has a window with a nice view, is significantly smaller than my current space behind the boiler room.)

All of which is my long-winded way of saying: watch this space. Tho the pace may be slower than I’d like, good things will be happening here soon.