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.
This little guy is named Aphros. He’s my character, but wasn’t designed by me. I’ll post his other main doodle soon, any suggestions, questions, comments, etc. that aren’t about his design?
In this drawing, I was striving to capture the spirit of contemplation and reflection, a sort of spiritual sojourn, an ancient practice of pilgrimage, focusing on subjects of transcendent nature, and exploring destinations of spiritual significance. (words taken from scholarlysojourns.com). It is a self-portrait (me as a 14-year-old boy). We had just moved from Mequon to Rhinelander. It was then that I began to romanticize the natural beauty of Mequon. But at the same time, I was falling in love with the beauty of Rhinelander. In this picture, I am walking through the countryside of Mequon. The stringed musical instruments symbolize my love for the progressive classical and folk-tinged acoustic and orchestral music that was coming out of England in the late 60s and early 70s, specifically the quieter pieces of music performed by the Moody Blues, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, and Jethro Tull. A song called Reasons for Waiting by Jethro Tull is a good accompanying piece for this drawing.
So, I got contacted by some suppossedly American guy for a commision on his son's dog. He sent a couple of pretty nice pics of it and I did this sketch. In the end it all turned out to be a very ellaborate scam, which I luckily realized before any harm was done. At any rate, I loved drawing this dog and I didn't even know I could create this because it's totally different from what I usually do. I value the experience I got out of this, overall, but be cautious out there. I've been victim to scam attempts four times in a month lately. Instagram is a wild place right now.
