Skip James is the man. I’ve been wanting to do something music related. I sketched this a year or two ago. It was fun to bring it into Procreate and add doodles, lettering, color and more elements like the guitar neck. I’m always looking for a way to combine my pencil with color and have it look like it really goes together. This one felt right.
I've been mailing these quick, improvised, hand-drawn doodled envelopes out to random Instagram followers. I'll be doing more of them so follow me @doodlers and let's be friends.
It's been a weird couple of years where social media became so toxic I'm just not online much. This place isn't like that so I have no excuse! So here's the CD cover for my new album "Junkyard Sam - OUTCAST", now available on Soundcloud & Spotify.
In the Finnish mythology killing of a bear was followed by a great feast in honour of the bear (peijaiset), where a substantial part of the celebrations consisted of convincing the bear's spirit that it had died accidentally and hadn't been murdered. Afterwards, the bear's skull was hung high upon a pine tree so its spirit could re-enter the heavens. The bones of the bear were then buried under the pine. Reference for this work is my old drawing of karhunkallopetäjä/bearskullpine in the Riisitunturi. Also practice sketch of bear skull and at last photo i took of pine.
I have been working on this A3 double 'Pets in a Portrait' and I can't share the finished piece until after christmas as it will be a gift. I'm so chuffed with it, so heres some sneaky peaks that don't give too much away!
I've been so impressed with the ball point pen art that I have seen on this site, that I decided to give it a try. This is a Betta fish (Siamese fighting fish) done in red, blue, and purple ball point pens. Obviously, I have much to learn....but it was great fun and I have ordered some more colors since I plan on experimenting more. I've enclosed a photo of the work in progress and the various reference photos I used. The colors are more true to the final scan than in the flash photo of my drawing table.
Ice Dream. There’s some strange references going on in this one. If I don’t explain it won’t come together. Back in my day the Europe 72 3 record Dead live album had a crazy kid on the back cover smashing a cone on his head. Later an ice cream truck company called Weaser ripped off that art and would visit my mid Jersey neighborhood daily. Google it if you care. Flash forward to 2019. The ice cream truck that hits my neighborhood EVERY DAYS has a loud obnoxious song and no Greatful Dead connections. It drives me out of my mind so here is the result. I always try to turn my pain into gain. What a long strange explanation it’s been.
Man, I’ve been random lately. I think my mind’s eye sees stuff that normal people don’t. That might make me abnormal. I’m kinda comfortable with that. Guess who’s going to be watching some Clint Eastwood tonight?
Gouache on Arches watercolor paper. I have been living overseas for 6 years now with my wife. (Originally from the states) We have lived in Seoul, South Korea, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tel Aviv, Israel, and in the Summer we will move once again to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So this is a painting is a sort of self-portrait.
Some crazy Moleskine doodles for the day. I haven’t been doing enough of these and really need to kick my butt harder. Not sure why because it’s so dang enjoyable.
It's never been my practice to stick pins into insects and collect them that way, but drawing them is quite appealing. These are created with Prismacolor pencils and a Micron pen.
I have long been fascinated by the vision of a campfire in a dark forest and I have drawn a few versions of it with different results. This is the latest attempt
What's more comforting than a summer day with butterflies flitting and bumblebees tumbling amonst the flowers in the meadow? My husband felt that blue was most comforting for him. Me, I liked the salmon. The mandala is drawn in Spirality...which takes the designated "wedge" and repeats it around the circle. Colored in Photoshop (given there is a 20 min. time given for this challenge---otherwise, I would have colored it by hand).
Poppies are among my favorite flowers---vibrant AND delicate. Great swaths of "bread poppies" garnish our garden. We harvest seeds for lemon-seed cake and poppy-seed rolls. (No, we don't harvest that other stuff.) They reseed generously and we have beautiful crops of red and purple flowers each year. I've been working on this colored pencil drawing for the past week. Enclosed are some images of the progress over that time.
This week, I've been doing pencil drawings of dogs---usually while listening to the news on my computer. Cardigan Corgi, Bloodhound, and Borzoi (Russian Wolfhound). Various graphite pencils on Canson Sketch pad paper. Random on-line photos as reference.
I have been seeing the moon a lot and it is always shining really bright and full. I thought I would make this as a prompt for what's outside my window. (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤ Medium is white charcoal on black paper.
” Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul to waste ”
I have had an idea for a long time to illustrate Sympathy for the Devil from Rolling Stones.
This start from free sketching of cloud looking lines and soon i realise they look like atom bomb cloud. Original idea was more landscape version but maybe later.
When your own son calls you anonymous, you probably don’t exist. He likes to be funny on greeting cards. Hahaa! Usually my doodles are a one to two day thing. I continued adding to this one over a period of a couple weeks. Life has been a blur lately. It feels good to be able to post something again.
In July of 2022, Brianna Grier died falling out of a moving police car while having a mental health breakdown. Since Brianna passed, I have been heartbroken for her twins and family but also reflecting on my struggle with mental health. Mental health needs compassion and empathy, not police and punishment. The brunch strokes are purposeful, but I completed them with empathy in mind. I want to keep the composition simple but filled with meaning. The color theme represents vastness and loneliness, but also kinetic energy found in warm orange tones.
It’s been raining all day so I felt like taking a party wagon to the beach and catching some good vibes! This is based on a 1960 Volkswagen Transporter.
Sensuality, power and fertility - meditative layers and tangles of flowers, weeds, and grasses. A bee emerges, free! Ultimately a positive message of hope!