Chore Day, July 17, 2021 -- Blockhead

Pencil with ink outline

The usual chores today: vacuuming the house and doing laundry. Afterwards I spent time with my puppy. Nacho is playful and loves other dogs. They love him until he starts to paw them and climb on their backs. The poor guy just wants to play.

I overslept this morning. Normally I wake up at 6 am, but today I neglected to set my alarm and slept until 6:30 am. It was good to sleep in.

I’ve been doing serious back stretches. Over the past few years I’ve developed serious tech neck and rounded shoulders. I attribute my poor posture to years of leaning over my iPad while drawing and to sloppy posture while I’m at my workstation coding endless hours. My back has reached the point that the curvature can no longer be corrected by simply standing tall. I’m using a device call the BackPod to do deep massage on tight ligaments in my spine and ribs. It feels like an 800-lb masseuse has pinned me down with their knee.

Chore Day, July 10, 2021 -- Laundry, Vacuuming, and Sketching

Another self-portrait, this time a profile without my glasses. Yes, I have huge nostrils…the better to smell you with, my dear!

I’m pretty much healed up from my rib and back injuries. I’m able to do laundry and vigorously vacuum the house.

My puppy is now 5-months old and accidents happen. He still hasn’t realized that he’s supposed to do all of his business outside. He’s been teething ferociously and I’ve been finding little baby teeth scattered about the house. He’s a big time chewer — all of the bushes in the yard are missing a few leaves. He’s a sweetheart and I love him intensely.

I also love graphite. When I make a mistake, I use my tortillon to smear it away. Graphite makes drawing fun, the way it was when I was in the fourth grade — it’s messy, too.

Pencil and Paper Rocks

Today, at my part-time day job, I edited and critiqued about 70 proposals, down from about 100 last week. I’ve streamlined the process enough that my stress level has stabilized at a simmering boil.

The sketch is one of my morning warmup experiments. Sometimes I get an itch to go against the grain of working in a predominantly digital environment. Getting my hands dirty with graphite dust feel good. It’s down to earth and has taught me that there’s no way that a digital pencil can replace a one dollar lead pencil. I’ve tried pencils in Photoshop, Corel Painter, Krita, Procreate, blah, blah, blah, and none of them, even if they’re running on a $3,000 computer, can equal the effect of a humble graphite pencil.

All the same, for doing comix, I’m all in for digital. When you need to crank out 48 pages and you have limited time, it’s Clip Studio Paint EX all the way. But for drawing and getting the feel of graphite in your life, it’s hands down the lead pencil.

Al Fresco Art Challenge -- Just Draw, Dammit!

I was feeling lackluster at today’s meeting of the Al Fresco Art Club. I couldn’t think of anything to draw, sketch, or paint. On a whim, I pulled my first art instruction books out of the bookcase: Jack Hamm’s How to Draw Animals and Drawing Scenery: landscapes and seascapes. These books restore my peace of mind — all of the examples that Jack Hamm gives are gratifyingly instructive and doable. I found some exercises for drawing mountains that looked like fun and started drawing. Just like that, Art was fun again. Thanks Jack, wherever you are!

Resources

Jack Hamm: How to Draw Animals and Drawing Scenery: landscapes and seascapes

Initial Sketches for Betty Burro and Jimmy Jay Climbing a Sheer Rock Face

I want to create an in-your-face image showing Betty Burro and Jimmy Jay climbing a sheer rock face. Betty is frustrated and angry because Buddy left them behind. Jimmy is afraid she’s going to lose her grip and fall on top of him. There’s a lot of foreshortening going on. I like the version on the right.

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Chore Day, Feb 15, 2020 -- Looking Eastward

Chore day is traditionally filled with thoughts of food, from shopping for food, to cooking food, and to eating food. Today I went to the co-op as usual, and cooked my furry boys’ food, as usual, and baked some cookies, as usual. What I did not do was cook a big batch of meals for the next week. I just didn’t feel like spending all day in the kitchen. I’ll bake the veggie loaf and Brussels sprouts (with pecans) tomorrow.

When I had a few moments I made a quick sketch of the view from my kitchen window using a plain old pencil.