American Vernacular

This is the real thing. Urban sketching at its purest. Done on site, while parked in a church parking lot sitting in the driver's seat. The only way it would be more pure would be if I had walked there, stood out in the cold air and drawn while wearing fingerless gloves. In freezing rain. That's how they do it on "Urban Sketchers." OK, there's a little more impurity in this drawing...I admit to having used "digital white-out" to erase some stray lines and dots. 

We (as in, the residents of the DC-Metro area) are promised snow showers tonight and tomorrow. We want spring, though we haven't had enough "real winter" weather to earn the desire for spring. You're not supposed to complain about anything because there's always someone worse off than you. Right? That means about work, food, health, job status, etc. Every time I read the paper I get so depressed that I want to go read comic books. And then when I read the comic books I get really depressed. What ever happened to the cheerful heroes in colorful tights who saved children and animals and fought super-villains? Now all our comic book "heroes" are brutal killer thugs in black leather. What's with that? 

OK, that was a bit of a rant. Back to the drawing. It's a house near Washington, DC, done in an intriguingly irregular and somewhat bleak interpretation of "American vernacular" residential architecture. There are two rocking chairs on the porch. One for you, and one for me.