Men At Work

When you call and tell them you need help, and they don't ask 'why?', but ask 'what can I do to help you?', you can't really just call them friends.

Thanks, Brothers.

The cookies are on the way!

Music: "I Wanna Be Sedated" - The Ramones

One Little Victory

When it comes down to it, I think the little things are what make the strongest impact in our lives. To be sure, there are momentous, life-changing events, those ones that are marked down either on a calendar or in our hearts, those ones we always seem to associate with a date: beginnings, milestones, endings. These events most people recall most readily when discussing a particularly great or terrible time in their lives. For me, this year has been the kind of year punctuated by these dates, events marked in my mind and in my heart, and no doubt, in the years to come, I'll look at a calendar and begin a countdown to the anniversaries of those dates held so close to me, and the days will seem a bit more grey, life a bit more listless, time a bit more wearying. Those times will wear at me. Those times will be reminders (as if my life isn't a constant reminder) of all I've lost, of all we've lost, this past year, these past years. These events are like anchors in a soul, if not dragging one down, then certainly slowing him down, making it so terribly hard to move, to move on.

And then there are those events that will never appear on a calendar, never marked by milestones, nor celebrations, not noted by the date nor by some other sign so obvious. Instead, those events will be remembered and revered at the most inconspicuous times, triggered by the most minor of reminders, bringing out a feeling of light and life and love that just overwhelms that grey, listless and weary dreary existence. It reminds you that you are alive, and life, no matter how bad it can sometimes seem, is ALWAYS worth living. Where there is life, there is always hope. These little things, these ones that ultimately mean so much, can happen every day. It doesn't have to be much: it can be something as simple as having an unexpectedly deep conversation with your mom, spending a few minutes laughing with kids, of any age, or spending a weekend with your friends, just... watching TV, or going shopping, or going to a bake sale. Whatever! These little things will be those things you look back on, days or months or years later, and say to yourself "THAT'S when life got better for me."

I've spent this past year surrounded by death. What should've been a mental and emotional rebirth of sorts for me has instead been hammerblow after hammerblow to me, to my family, and to some of my oldest and dearest friends. I'd been so slowed down, so worn down, by all this death and loss, I hadn't even realized just what kind of toll it had taken on me. All those events marked on those calendars from now on, all those dates I'll dread to see coming up...

But now, finally, I've also seen all those events that get no marks on calendars, those little victories that take so much of the sting out of that loss and bring sweetness and joy back to life. I've finally seen and realized how important those are to me- just as important as all those losses I'm reminded of, I'll be looking back at those little victories and remind myself of all I have, and all I've gained.

More High-Falutin' Real Life

Welcome back from the holiday- hopefully it went well for all y'all. I'm actually sick, so this will be relatively short (I can hear the rejoicing now). This is another page from my fancy sketchbook- you know, the one that's supposed to have the important work in it. This picture is actually drawn from a photo taken from an issue of National Geographic. NG is well-known for the quality of its photographs, so I figured if you're going to steal, steal from the best. I thought the image itself was very striking- the woman's face is cropped out of the photo- almost as if her entire identity were to be found in this passport.

That's it, nothing more to say. I'm going to bed.

Music: "Across the River" - Peter Gabriel

Quiet Time

Continuing with the subject of real life, this time it really is real life. I sketched this one down in Chinoteague, VA, this past September. Believe it or not, this was done while there was a Steelers game on. Either the little girl is a hard sleeper, or Dad's got some serious self-control. Chinco is a good time for drawing people; my friends will often be sitting around for some time (games and football, always good for that) and they're not very likely to slug me for drawing them. This drawing was done with a regular leaded pencil, and inked with the nearly-ubiquitous brush pen.

Sketching 'real' people is always a challenge. In a typical real world setting, folks don't normally sit still for you long enough to do a fully-rendered picture. Most times, I have to hurry up and draw like mad to get down the basic image (usually just pose and posture, maybe some features) and then, once they've moved, I use my memory and their general appearance to finish the image. It's really not important to catch the minutiae of the subject; what is important is getting the 'reality' of the person. I'd much rather make a drawing of a person sitting on a chair LOOK like a person sitting on a chair, rather than an anatomical model drawn in a sitting position with a chair sketched around them. Life drawing is a great way to learn real people. It's fun, but unfortunately not always easy to do. So, when the opportunity presents itself, I'll take it.

That's it for now; not a whole lot else to report. I think Monday will continue with 'real' people- though Monday's will more appropriately be called 'reel' people. Heh. I'm so punny.

Have a good weekend, and stay warm.

Music: "Hard Sun" - Eddie Vedder

Life, or something like it

So I FINALLY tried to draw something that wasn't based on a comic book, or a movie, or my own twisted little imagination. Since I have yet to actually go to any life drawing classes (which usually feature nekkid people, so many of the pictures might not make it through filters) and people rarely sit still long enough for me to draw them, I figured I'd fall back on the old standby and imagine what they'd look like. This is what you get.

There's no particular logic behind this particular pose or person (I'm pretty sure he's just whatever the lines ended up looking like), I just had this image of a person slouching on a chair in mid-discussion with a group of people. I'm pretty sure he's bored, and not buying into what the others are telling him. Or I hope like hell that's what he looks like, otherwise I'm really reading too much into this.

The big thing about this picture is the fact that I mostly colored it by hand. Well, figuratively, at least. In every drawing I've posted in the past, I've colored it using a combination of the 'magic wand' feature in Photoshop (which picks out defined blocks of space and 'highlights' them) and the paintbucket, which does mass color. With this one, since the sketch itself was pretty rough I thought a less-defined approach to the coloring was the way to go. So, I used the paintbrush feature and my Wacom tablet to color the picture, essentially like using a crayon with a coloring book. I did cheat a bit by using layers and coloring 'underneath' the picture, but only on the flesh parts- doing this let the lines stand out better, instead of getting 'painted' over. I'm actually surprised at how much I like the end result. Messy is not bad!

That's about it this time around. Friday should bring some more 'real' life to the post, assuming I can find a picture I'm happy with.

later!

Music: "Silver Lining" - Rilo Kiley