2012: A Return

It has been nearly a year and a half since posting to this blog. I won't make excuses, but I can say, that the pens and pencils were still busy in that time. Maybe I will share some of that, maybe I won't. What's important is that I'm back. I won't be making any unrealistic promises of posting something every day, but I expect the content to flow more frequently than not.

2011 saw a few big changes (License! House!) and so far 2012 is proving to be another eventful year (Dog! Banjo!). My personal challenge continues to be the effort of fitting everything that I am interested in and care about into my days, nights and weekends and still remain coherent and sane - but perhaps a little incoherence and insanity is good for us all.

Sooner or later, the structure of my blogs will be updated to meet the needs of the content that I am planning, but for the moment, I want to just get right back into the thick of it. First up is a formal drawing extrapolated from a gestural scribble. This style of sketch continues to evolve through my personal sketchbooks and is a refinement of graphic expressions that I have been toying with for a long time.

Studies, Revisited

Feels like it has been ages since a new post, so I'm putting something out there! About a week back I was back in "Study Mode" (the thumbnails, not the cram session), revisiting these styles of collage, or what might eventually become collages. Form, texture, shope, composition. Did a whole sheet of them in pencil on the train ride home and I just spent a little time this afternoon refining some of them in ink, making them pop a little more. Time to get back into collage mode!

Seraphim Falls

Watched the movie Seraphim Falls last night. Its a great movie about the pursuit and revenge in the post-Civil War era, though I can only watch it when Jess is not around due to one particularly gruesome scene involving a horse. Regardless, there are some great compositions and beautiful landscapes throughout the film. I tried to draw some of the characters - a gruff Pierce Brosnan is the one on the left and the right is supposed to be Liam Neeson peering from the shadows. I learned that Liam Neeson is not an easy likeness to capture, especially while wearing a hat.

Sketched Screen Idea

Quick sketch done to develop an idea for an architectural screen or surface. Made of wood slats and cable.

Retro Week 2009 - Day 6

A random page taken from a 2003 notebook. Clearly my mind was wandering from something very exciting.

Retro Week... Day 6

Today I dug out a REALLY old sketchbook, and found something to post here. The sketchbook was from Junior-High. I liked drawing and even has mild aspirations of becoming a cartoonist. I was also really into Star Wars at the time. Unfortunately... I was really horrible at drawing people. I think thats probably a big reason why I decided on Architecture. I could draw, get paid and not draw people. So I thought this crappy sketch would be a fitting addition to "Retro Week".

When I brought the sketchbook by the window to get some natural light for the photo, I was interrupted and something far more comical ensued. I have added captions of what it looked like Rufus the cat was thinking when he decided to critique my work...

"What are you doing by my window? Ah I see, let me take a look..."

"Alright, man, I'm going to give you my honest opinion..."

"IT SUUUUUCCCCKKKKSSS!!!!!!"

"But please... you must draw me instead. I insist!"

Retro Week - Day 3

Reaching way back to my College of DuPage years on this one - Circa 1999. Found a drafted contraption on vellum slipped into an old sketchbook. Im sure this contraption had some great and fantastic use which i have long since forgotten. Or have I?


Rain water runoff from a memorial I designed would funnel down and collect into this, and amonst the pouring rain would divert the water into these channels which would slowly release trickles of water out of the two holes! You could use the lever to unclog the holes with pegs mounted on another surface. Why this technique is not implemented today is completely beyond me!

Post It Doodles

Whipped these up late in the afternoon. I was bored and no one was looking...

Sunday in the Park

Sunday, Jess and I decided to have an impromptu dinner in the park a block away. We decided to grill up a steak and some veggies and have a fast dinner... all before it got dark, cold and filled with vagrants. Why we have to grill in the park and not at our complex is another story entirely...

While waiting for the meat to cook up i did a couple of small pencil sketches, one of a nearby tree and garbage can (there are a TON of garbage cans haphazzardly scattered about), and another of a nearby house facade... if it were plopped on a hill.

Continuing Effort

Here is some branching and a severed limb. The limb hasn't decided what it wants to do with itself or where it wants to reside yet, but when it does, I will be sure to take a picture and post it. It is a only a small portion of the perpetual drawing project that I posted on Saturday.

Work In Progress

Every few months, without fail, I pull out a drawing that I have been picking at for years now. It comes out for a few days then returns to a dark place where it festers until called upon in a time of need. This past week I tinkered with it some more. While I am not entirely sure where it is going, I always try to plant a little something in there that makes evident the state of mind that I was in while drawing. I have also tried to incorporate work-work related elements in there. I stare at things all day and it makes sense that they linger in my mind and haunt my dreams. Sometimes it's the only way to associate some further meaning to the Droll.

I'm hoping that more can be done on this before it goes away for another undetermined period of time, though I am not sure if it is ready to be finished or I ready to do the finishing.