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.
A striking hand-drawn conceptual illustration featuring a brain wearing a colander like a helmet, titled "Selective Ignorance." This piece explores the conscious choice to filter out the noise of the world to protect one's mental clarity and focus.
What do I have to so to make people fucking listen to me?! (c) Smart people problems.
I'm almost done first page of my comic, but got distracter by this my meme in my head.
A vibrant garden scene showcasing an array of colorful flowers with tall stems. The background features a mix of greens and yellows, adding to the lively atmosphere.
"Nowhere Fast" is a compelling still life that blends mundane domesticity with surreal, slightly ominous undertones. The scene is anchored by a wooden table where a spilled glass, a pack of matches, and an ashtray with a smoldering cigarette suggest a moment of interrupted pause or quiet, long-term stagnation. Dominating the foreground is an oversized, weathered cigarette carton boldly labeled "WARNING", its subtle but unsettling presence hinting at a consumption that leads nowhere.
In the background, a vintage RCA television set displays a stylized amanita mushroom, a recurring symbolic motif that adds a layer of psychedelia and altered perception to the otherwise drab setting. The earthy, muted color palette and soft lighting create a feeling of weary introspection, capturing a sense of being perpetually stuck in a cycle. The piece masterfully uses everyday objects to explore themes of vice, time, and the quiet, slow march toward an uncertain destination.
Digital figure painting done in Adobe Photoshop. Learning how to paint skin, how can I push this further? I would appreciate any advice or feedback.
Orignal photo and model credits croquiscafe.com.
A piece for an abandoned 5E adventure module; a portrait of the eccentric and reclusive host and owner (and victim) of the manor at which a garden party is interrupted by an unexpected murder.
One of my first landscape experiments in Photoshop. Whereas I previously was working in GIMP. I just wanted to experiment with values and distance and fog and mist, etc. The female figure adds some story to the scene.
My portrait is in a temple, Some temple is very sacred. Everyone knows about this temple. If you have the opporMy portrait is in a temple, Some temple is very sacred. Everyone knows about this temple. If you have the opportunity, please visit this temple.tunity, please visit this temple.
Playgrounds were opened in October then closed again the first weekend of December, and then re-opened yesterday! So grateful. This is one of the renovations by SF Rec and Park while they were closed: Alice Chalmers Playground. It's a pretty crazy climb inside (my five year old needed me to help him down the slide). The Q-bert type iceberg things are super cool, too.
Starring MGMT: Weekend Wars (2007). Let me tell you a story about reading about wars and craving for a future in peace. About the Beatles singing about a revolution to change the world. About people being too occupied with their own lives to "paint or write or try to make a change". Tricolor linoprint using one lino plate. August, 2020.
Joey Diaz is a Cuban-American comedian who was on the Joe Rogan Podcast (for the 1000th time). Shown here smoking a blunt that created a cloud in the podcast studio. Always a fun face to draw.
Apolonia Cacadu (her family is calling her: Polly) is a working girl. Very hard working. During the day, she works part time in three different places, and in the evenings she professionally swings on a swing above the bar counter, in the "Under parrots" pub. Because of this constant running around the city, there is little time for her to eat, and often her daily meal is just a handful of crackers (which she loves) and a few green olives with pepper. That’s why her weight is rather featherlike. She dreams about a trip to the Amazon rainforest and spreading her wings as a dancer (she’s great at dance hall and twerking).
This is the first and only portrait I've done of my daughter [Rae] when I decided to get back into drawing and start trying portraits 2 yrs ago. I've worked on other portraits since and my skills are improving however this is still one of my favs
Daily drawing (#309) of the Joe Rogan Podcast of the 2020 democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang. Pencil drawing and colored in Procreate. (Time lapse animation of color being applied can be seen here; https://www.instagram.com/garybernardart)
