Chromatography is used in chemistry to dissolve a mixture and place it into a "mobile phase," which allows the solvent to carry it and its components up the paper. It shows the layers, exposing deeper, hidden tones and colors, something only seen when a solvent of the same polarity is used. It's odd. Life feels a bit like that, and I'm seeing the colors separate for the first time. It's all there, everything that's been hidden in the inky mess for the past however many years. And now it's smeared. Bold. Clear. But blurry. What's on me and what's on you? Where do we go from here?
Still playing with ballpoint pens. This time, I tried a “scribble” drawing, holding the pen way back on the shaft and making little circles and scribbles….then layering them over and over. It was actually very liberating and fun. I did this on a Canson sketch paper….which didn’t wear through, but did buckle a little towards the end.
I'll be honest, this prompt stumped me a little bit, I wasn't sure where to go with it. Here's my take on it, reflecting the 50s and 60s vibrant music scene and the Cold War shadowing it.
I'm really proud and content with this drawing and the outcome :) considering it took me 4 days to finish and I don't usually draw backgrounds.i finally gave Mevlon a simple yet suitable outfit that matches his personality,he's the only 15-year old office clerk at his acedemy which means he is a meticulous,stern workaholic who never goes to classes with 10th grade students (he usually doesn't leave his office only when it's break time or when's it's time to go home)He is very fond of Vance,he considers him his best friend but he dislikes Morrison and Sidney (Vance's friends)they both share a youthful appearance too mainly Mevlon with having a large head,large eyes and a small stature (4'8,Vance is 5'2) despite being teenagers.
Pasha was a beloved German Shorthaired Pointer rescue dog. He came to us a bedraggled youngster and lived to become a "grand old man." This pencil drawing was done as a tribute after he "crossed the rainbow bridge."
I can relate to this girl so much. She's wearing a fancy dress, at a fancy event, and she's got her sketchbook with her. That sounds like me, honestly.
Pencil drawing I did a number of years ago. Self portrait of myself with my mare, Chia. Graphite on bristol board. Took probably about 40 hours. This particular piece is sold.
The meal was my attempt to bring a little comfort into the rugged outdoors. The sketch was my reminder—to hold onto the moment, even when mosquitoes, ashes, and deflating air mattresses had other plans.
Two wicker chairs in the sun.
One for the waiting,
one for the hoped-for.
The table between them
holds its silence,
its place set for bread or talk.
I draw what is here—
lines quick and unerasable—
and what is not here,
her presence,
waits with me in the white of the page.
Imperfect Lines, Honest Presence
This sketch is not perfect—and that’s exactly why it’s alive. The bold figure, the dissolving hat, the tilted chair: all of it feels unfinished, fleeting, caught in motion. It’s what the Japanese call wabi-sabi—finding beauty in the imperfect, the impermanent, the incomplete.
But there’s something deeper here too. A quick sketch is not just what the eye records. It’s what the soul permits. To draw without fixing, without polishing, is to admit the world will not hold still for us. Life slips past. The lines break off. And yet, somehow, the essence remains.
When you sketch this way, you are not the master of the moment—you are its guest. The pencil does not carve permanence; it pays attention. The act of drawing becomes an act of being present, of honoring what is already vanishing.
So here’s a challenge: grab a pencil and sketch someone near you in sixty seconds. Do not erase. Do not perfect. Let the lines falter. When you finish, ask yourself: What truth did the imperfection reveal?
Perhaps presence itself is the real art.
