2023, Ballpoint Pen on 5” x 8” (10” x 8” Double page spread) acid free Moleskine sketchbook paper, Adobe Photoshop. Based on a photo (by David Redfern/Getty Images) of the singer, songwriter and civil rights activist performing at the BBC Television Centre in London, January 1966. Last sketchbook piece for 2023. 2024 will be my last year on this platform - thank you all for appreciating and following my artistic progress.
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Shostakovich’s contemporaries do not recall seeing him working, at least not in the traditional sense. The Russian composer was able to conceptualize a new work entirely in his head, and then write it down with extreme rapidity—if uninterrupted, he could average twenty or thirty pages of score a day, making virtually no corrections as he went.
But this feat was apparently preceded by hours or days of mental composition—during which he “appeared to be a man of great inner tensions,” the musicologist Alexei Ikonnikov observed, “with his continually moving, ‘speaking’ hands, which were never at rest.”
Shostakovich himself was afraid that perhaps he worked too fast. “I worry about the lightning speed with which I compose,” he confessed in a letter to a friend. Undoubtedly this is bad. One shouldn’t compose as quickly as I do. Composition is a serious process, and in the words of a ballerina friend of mine, “You can’t keep going at a gallop.” I compose with diabolical speed and can’t stop myself.… It is exhausting, rather unpleasant, and at the end of the day you lack any confidence in the result. But I can’t rid myself of the bad habit.
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #shostakovich @masoncurrey
Bic4 Ballpoint Pen, Sanrio Novelty 10 Colour Ballpoint Pen on Archival 8.5" x 11" paper
Quick ballpoint sketch of Mr. Batman (that’s why it’s a little wonky).
A close friend recently lost their family pet, Joey. As a tribute gift, I did his portrait.
I usually just draw people, so this presented quite the challenge for me. I have never attempted to draw animals/pets.
Bic4 Ballpoint Pen, Sanrio Novelty 10 Colour Ballpoint Pen on Archival 8.5" x 11" paper
2023, Ballpoint pens on 5” x 8” acid free Moleskine sketchbook paper, Adobe Photoshop colour correction. I was doing pre-purchase research before deciding on a set of noise cancelling earbuds when I landed on the Google Pixel Buds Pro website and found an interesting model in an interesting pose.
(Gel Fineliner on A5 Paper) My opinion of the whole Inktober challenge. There's something to be said for the rebellious nature of drawing a simple cock and balls!
