These were drawn on different days, in different places.
A salt shaker and sugar rack at Beans & Barley on Milwaukee’s East Side—a place that is gone now. A chair at Starbucks, which is still there.
When I go places, I wait.
Waiting is filled with observation.
Observation is recorded with marks.
Marks spark memory.
I can look at a few pencil lines years later and remember where I was.
Maybe that’s what a sketchbook really keeps. Not drawings of things, but evidence of moments.
For Doodle Addicts, I would use this rather than making Beans & Barley the whole story. The loss of Beans & Barley gives one sketch poignancy, but your larger idea is better: drawing converts otherwise disposable waiting into memory.
A quick observational sketch from the chess meet—boards, pieces, and the strange architecture of waiting. The chessmen seemed to be rehearsing before the players arrived.
Muppet fan art no. 2 today! I adored the Muppet Babies growing up and this video tape, well, how the hell it never wore out is beyond me.
If only the rest of the tv series was an easy find…
Today I’m tackling the elusive Tully Monster as a drawing subject!
“It might be either a wormy type thing or a molluscy-like thing but for the most part, comprehensive taxonomies placed the monster in the animal kingdom untethered to any particular phylum, making it essentially unclassifiable. The perplexing nature of these fossils earned them the parochial nickname ‘Tully Monster’.”
For an Instagram art challenge, we had to draw a beat ‘em up character in the style of a robot. Here’s my contribution! I could’ve gone with some fairly obvious choices, but to challenge myself and try something new, I opted for Gon from Tekken 3. Turning this dino into a robot, now that’s where it got interesting!
Something very different(ish) for me… a touch of life drawing! It’s been near enough eight years since I last had a go at this sort of thing. Pleased to see I’m not too bad at it… definitely giving it another go when I can :-)
The inevitable Labubu fan art has arrived!
I mean, I see so many of them here in Edinburgh and my folks (knowing full well my plushie habit) just so happened to pick one up for me as a gift en route back from their Cyprus trip. Can’t complain obviously, he’s a very good boy! :-)
Relaxed tension. Two parents at a national chess competition. Their kids squared off at the board, and so did they — one leaning back, shoe propped up, trying for calm; the other sitting stiff, watchful. The game played out in more ways than one.
Imagine trading your soft bed for a deflating mattress.
Imagine food cooked under ash, a fire that smokes more than it warms.
Imagine waking at dawn with stiff muscles, yet finding yourself strangely alive.
This sketch is not just about tents, cars, and campfires.
It is about the in-between—where inconvenience and beauty wrestle, and something deeper sneaks in.
Camping reminds me: comfort is overrated, but presence is priceless.
