You haven't seen anything new from my "642 things to draw" sketchbook so here's one. The prompt is the mundane "A tube of toothpaste." But my 642s will never be mundane as I have committed myself in this sketchbook to the weird, the quirky, and sometimes downright bizarre. So here is a tube of toothpaste, erotic and winged like the winged phalli of the ancient classical world. Or perhaps it's a pasty green mint-flavored angel, bringing good tidings and fresh breath to Mary mother of God.
Black tech pen, 5 1/2" x 2 1/2", August 18, 2018.
Here's the last one of the series, titled "Colors of Summer." It's done in marker which shows quite a difference from digital coloring. I suppose I could simulate these marker variations with Photoshop tricks but that's too much like work. I'll keep this in my not-so-lavishly illustrated sketchbook journal to bring back memories of a summer most of which I missed.
Markers, 3 1/2" x 5 1/2", August 2018.
Here it is, colored in Photoshop. If you design it correctly, you can use Photoshop's area-finding tool to instantly drop the color of your choice into your art work. My colors of choice here are yellowish greens matching the greens of August in late summer.
And...Ding! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. One of my Facebook correspondents correctly identified the Boston modernist building with geometric designs on it as the exhibition space of the Massachusetts Institute of Contemporary Art, which was built in 1960.
Marker ink drawing, colored in Photoshop, 3 1/2" x 5 1/2", August 2018.
Here's a multiple Geometrikon in the form of a series of tiles. These are not real tiles of ceramic or wood, they're just designs. I plan to do three versions of this set: one in black and white (this one), one in digital coloring, and the third colored by hand. I won't rotate it, this is what you get for all three. I was inspired to do these designs by the heraldic devices of my neo-medieval friends who pitched white tents decorated in their coats of arms at the "Pennsic" fair and gathering. I also remember a peculiar building way long ago, a small exhibition hall on the banks of the Charles River in Allston, Massachusetts. It was decorated in black and white geometry similar to this. The date was in the late 1950s - mid-century modern for sure and I'd love to find it again somewhere though it no longer exists.
Marker drawing with digital tinting, 3 1/2" x 5 1/2", August 15, 2018.
I have often complained here that there are no interesting old houses left to draw in my neighborhood, but that's not entirely true. This handsome porch house, from the late 19th or early 20th century, carries the flag in an area full of nice houses. It is only a few blocks from big shopping centers and a main road, but it looks like it's in a small town. I did this drawing on site, and July 4th's flag was still flying. The drawing, which was finished in the studio, is on a page of my lavishly illustrated 1998 sketchbook journal.
Ink and watercolor, 5" x 5", July 21, 1998.
This is not at all meant to be astronomically correct. It is my impression of the planet Uranus, whose name is constantly derided but is really "Ouranos," a Greek word meaning "sky" or "heavens." I'm using layers of textures as I have been experimenting lately. The curved yellow streak is a ring around Ouranos composed of ice, pebbles, and planetary building debris. There are also bunches of asteroids and space rocks floating about. Remember, it's "Ouranos" and this is not meant to be astronomically or politically correct.
Photoshop, 8" x 5", August 13, 2018.
In the 1980s and 1990s my father had a cat named "Josephine," who had wandered onto our property and adopted him. Josie was a Maine Coon with an abundant, tabby-colored fur coat and white paws and chest. She also had extra toes, looking like thumbs, on her front paws. She had an intense personality and was attached one-on-one with my father. She followed him everywhere he went at home and tolerated me and my mother when I visited. My father was a cat lover and he liked Josephine more than he liked me or my mother, which was all right with me. Josephine gave my father 17 years of companionship and service.
Black and sepia brown tech pens, 5" x 8", 1984.
