Stone Mad

Last Sunday, I was out downtown snapping pictures for drawing reference. I went to the near west side to snap a few pictures of the Cleveland Public Theater. But, when I went to turn around to come back, I used a side street, and found this fabulous building. It seems to be an Irish bar snuggled among houses.

The Agora

Here's a drawing of the Agora. I have to work on a bigger piece of paper, because I would have liked this better if it actually said "Agora" and not just "Gora."

I don't have much hope for Chris March tonight on Project: Runway, but I'm looking forward to seeing what he came up with on tonight's episode.

Listening To: Tom Petty

Reading: The Pastel Journal (magazine)

Opera House

This is from a photo of the Sydney Opera house as seen from the harbor bridge pylon. You can do the bridge climb for like $100AUS or you can climb the pylon for like $8AUS. And, as a plus, you can take a camera up to the pylon, but you can't on the bridge climb.

Trolley

I drew this, and it wasn't until I got to the rear end of it that I realized it wasn't one of my photos. It's somehow from one of my sister's trips. Don't remember how I got this.


Reading: Dermaphoria (threw State of Fear to the side AGAIN)
Listening to: North Mississippi Allstars (definitely suggest you get a copy of their latest CD "Hernando." Look in the blues section, but they could just as well be in the rock section)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

This is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as seen from the Mather steamer (essentially from the back side). I think I used to much color for this one, and maybe shouldn't have drawn all of the ceramic tiles. But, I don't think it's "bad."

Though, I have plenty of other pictures of the Rock Hall to work from.

Great Lake Brewing Co.

I was really beginning to like these little sketches, so I figured that I had better improve the paper. This is on a hot-pressed sheet of Fabriano Artistico. I was going to get Arches, but it was a little more firbrous which I thought my technical pen wouldn't like.

I slept in this morning (until 8am), which meant that I had a very vivid dream this morning. I dreamed that I was working in a fish shop in a mall where I was gutting and filleting the fish. Then, I also moonlighted at one of those warehouse style grocery stores, where I helped a guy in a beard stack giant boxes of cereal, even though he kept almost tipping them over. Then, I had to help him find a particular brand of cereal, but there didn't seem to be any, even when looking up 30 feet to the top shelves.

Today is an off-day for me, and I'm mulling over what I might want to do today. Haven't decided much besides going to the grocery store and taking the car to the car wash.

Sloppy Joe's

This is from a photo that I took back in 1996 when I won a cruise through Waldenbooks. I've enjoyed playing around with this pen/ink and watercoloring where I use just a little bit of color.

Just noticed yesterday that I won't be able to make the March sketchcrawl. It'll be the first one that I've missed. But, the guy who watches for me on Saturday mornings is going on a school trip that weekend. Won't be too bad, because I'll be off the whole weekend after that in order to go to the Cleveland International Film Festival, and my sister is visiting that weekend.

I might get some hot pressed watercolor paper in order to do one of these types of pieces in a larger format. So far, I've just been doing them in my moleskine journal. Because the paper gets crinkly (which I kind of like), it makes it hard to get lines that are even close to straight. Though, as you can tell, I'm not exactly shooting for perfectly straight lines.

Melbourne, Australia (circa 2004)

This was from a photo I took in Melbourne back in 2004. I wanted to play with some pen and ink techniques, and I think this worked fine. I'm going to play more with this over the next few days.

I got a couple of emails from friends about my fall at work. It was my own fault when it had happened. I knew that it was slick on the steps, but I just went down them too fast, slipped, grabbed the dumpster to brace myself, but the dumpster moved. I thought that I wrenched my ankle, but I actually did something to my wrist when I tried to catch myself. It feels fine now.

Worst Illustration-But it's a Start

Well, not only is this a very unnecessary scene for my book idea, it's also very bad. When I realized both of those things, I just started to let loose with it and not worry so much about trying to be accurate.

My Home Studio Space

Here's a drawing of my home studio, as seen from my computer near my living room windows. It's a little "uncluttered" at the moment, as you cannot see the work table (which is very cluttered). The lampshade is actually crooked at the moment; had just changed the lightbulb and must have knocked it.

Otherwise, life is good this week, except for my left wrist is hurting, probably from my fall in the back of my store over a week ago. I didn't hurt until just a couple of days ago. If it still aches by Monday, I might have to run to the doctor to have them look at it.

Rocker Snoopy

Not a great scan, I'll give you.

Chris March: Project Runway

I won't ruin tonight's episode for those of you who do watch the show, but might not have seen it yet.

I've been a Chris March fan since the first episode. When he was eliminated early on, I didn't know if I'd watch the rest of the season. Fortunately, I did, because they brought him back the very next episode. He just has more joy and fun with designing fashion than anyone else on the show, and his zest shows through in his work and his personality.

When I sat down tonight to watch the episode, I wanted to do a sketch of his winning design from last week, where he designed for a female pro wrestler.

As a side note, my comments area got spammed again today. I enabled word verification for comments, and I hope that stops it. If it continues, I'll have to start moderating comments, which I don't want to do, because I really value each and every comment that comes through here. But, I also want to protect people who read this blog from getting a virus by clicking on a link through my site. So, please bare with me.

Snow Day & Don't Click Links in Comments

Snowed most of the day today, and I'm really sore from shoveling (repeatedly).

Also, tired from waiting for the bus for so long this morning and tonight. I swear the 41 is never on time. One morning, I had to abandon my wait, return home, and get my car. I guess in the great scheme, it wasn't too bad on the way home, about 15 minutes late. And, it wasn't all that cold when I was coming home. It had actually turned to rain.

If I move again, I'm looking where I will only have to take one bus to get to work. Though, I'm not at all ready to give up my building. It's the best bargain in Cuyahoga County. Swimming pool, free heat, free a/c, tennis courts, community party room, exercise room with cable tv, security guard, lobby camera I can see on tv. . . . .

Had to delete and repost this in order to get rid of a post with a link to unrelated junk. To protect yourself, please don't click on random links you see in the comments area of my blog. I will try to remove them when I see them, but the only safe links are in the special links area, in the body of my blog, or by clicking a person's name in the comments are in order to see their blog.

Oh, Those Little Hearts

Who really eats these little hearts? I don't remember them ever tasting good.

Spent the early afternoon cleaning the big fish tank and topping off the small one (by small, I mean 30 gallons). Then, I made stuffed peppers for lunch and dinner

Reading: State of Fear by Michael Crichton (I've owned it for 3 years, about time I read it, I suppose, especially since Next was so good)

Listening to: The Monkees

Watermelon

I'm playing around with turning some photos into something more graphic. This isn't very imaginative, and is still quite literal from the intial image. But, I think it's a fun look. I might play more with this image to make it go further.

Cleveland Sketchcrawl

Yesterday was the latest of the Cleveland Sketchcrawl. It was a nice turnout, despite the cold weather and overcast skies. We made our way over to the library across the Superior, and settled into the Special Collections room. There, I tried to focus on one small thing in order to have something finished when it was time to move again. That's where I did the chess piece. There were tons of chess sets all over the room. And, it would definitely be fun to go there and sketch more. When it was time to move, I was just about done inking the words that I'd copied from the description card. We then went to the general reference room, where I plopped down and drew the first thing that I saw, which was the info desk. I was trying to not be too picky about what I drew, so that I didn't waste time wandering around looking for inspiration. It was fun to draw, because it was a rounded counter with all kinds of stuff on the top. At one point, I went out into the entrance to take a phone call, and I found the glass globe lamp. If I had realized that was there, I'd have sat on the steps out there and drew that. But, I can always do that some other time. Remember that the next sketchcrawl is only 1 month away, and you can definitely join--see the link to the right. And, check out Karen's blog, she did much better than I did at the sketchcrawl--her link is to the right and it's "Pen in Hand."

Year of the Rat

Just got word this week that my design for the St. Clair/Superior Development Corp's Year of the Rat public sculpture project was selected for the first round. It will be in a portfolio of other designs available for sponsorship.

Here is a link to the information http://www.stclairsuperior.org/yearoftherat_sponsors.html if anyone is interested in how this works. There's a photo of the sculpture blank (he's a rat, but he's cute), and information on how to sponsor one of them.

My design is the "Pie-rat." :D

Mardi Gras Lemur 2

Another lemur lurking around the French Quarter.