one drawing a day

third drinker and fourth drinker

2011-03-12T23:26:00.000-08:00

It's been a good weekend so far.
The sun came out, we didn't get rained on once, and I was able to draw two more sketches.

Things have been pretty busy at the old homestead/studio. We have fourteen jobs, all of a sudden!
Luckily, it's been a slow burn and seems like a good pace.

This dapper gentleman is dressed up for a few cocktails at the flight club.
He'll be out late. Don't wait up.

Then, there's this one.
He's been having a rough go of it lately and has taken to drinking his troubles away. Poor guy.
It really hit him hard when his unemployment ran out.
Things'll get better when the economy turns around, though.
Funny thing is, his great-grandparents were teetotaling prohibitionists.

second drinker

2011-03-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

Here's the second drinker. This one seems to focus on the hand, too.

first drinker

2011-03-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm completing a series of portraits of drinkers.
These will be letterpressed onto coasters as soon as I finish.

I'm not sure what these represent, yet. Is it about drinking or the drink itself?
This one seems to be about the hand. The face is hardly worked at all.. almost detached.
Maybe it's just about holding on.

sleeping beauty

2011-02-10T14:24:00.001-08:00

It's funny to think that ten years ago I drew exclusively with a mechanical pencil.
So much has changed since then. I was reluctant to ever go to art school, because I liked saying I was self-taught, and I was afraid art school would destroy my style and force me to draw like everyone else. This was a legitimate concern because there is a definite difference in works done by someone with an art degree and someone without. After art school, that difference is more apparent to me, and boy, am I glad I decided to go! I definitely do not feel like "they" diluted my "natural talent." On the contrary, I feel like the education has increased my skill and medium versatility and improved my artistic practice.

I'm such an art snob...

turtles all the way down

2011-02-10T14:03:00.000-08:00

We have started to address our lack of card selection. We have cards for the major card holidays, but relatively few for other important moments, like when you just want to tell someone that you appreciate them.

This one was obviously inspired by Hindu mythology.
The world rests on the back of an elephant standing upon the back of a turtle.
The question, then, is what does the turtle stand upon? The answer, evidently, is a turtle, and that turtle rests upon another turtle. In fact, it's just turtles all the way down.

In Stephen King's book It he describes the death of the turtle. Pretty creepy, and what a giant shell!

christmas '79

2011-02-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when I don't know what to draw, I open the family album. It's funny how these albums contain more than what's in the pictures.

another show for elie

2011-02-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

The hardest thing about New Year Resolutions is keeping them. I read somewhere that the average lifespan for such a resolution is six days. Bummer.

Anywho, I did another show card for my friend Elie. She's much nicer in person than she looks here. This image only resembles her, really. Elie disliked this image so much, in fact, that she only used the text for her cards.. ouch!

Oh well. I'll keep drawing, if no one likes them. *sniffle*

I wonder if I can have 365 drawings done by the end of the year. Is there any way I can "make up" my late drawings? I guess it's up to me.

burnt norton

2011-01-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a new year with new goals. One of my new goals is to draw more. My daily drawing scheme for last year kinda petered out by the end of the year, but this year things will be different *wink*. An auxiliary goal is to draw more of the images for our cards. Alia's been drawing most of our images, and I'm feeling rather envious.

So, yesterday I was riding the bus to work while I was reading "Burnt Norton," by T.S. Eliot, and one line in particular conjured a powerful image in my head. This isn't the whole image that popped in my head -- the image was actually a moving image, which is a little harder for me to draw ;P -- this is just the first attempt.

elie's show

2010-11-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

My friend, Elie, has a show this weekend.
If you're in town, you should check it out.

everyone's got a story

2010-10-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Years ago, in another life, I was a Graphic Design major. At that time I acquired some graphic design magazines for reference and inspiration. After a couple of years, I changed my major and then dropped out, moved to Portland, etc. I have held onto these magazines for almost ten years, after moving six or seven times, traveling across the country despite their physical weight and increasing demands from the wife that they disappear (apparently, in a 760 sq.ft. house a handful of magazines take up a lot of space ;).

Well, the reason I've held onto them is that I wanted to draw some of the images therein. (admittedly, I did go through a brief collage phase, and I had thought these would be nice for that, too, but no!) I am starting a small series of drawing montages using these ancient images.

Here's the first.

card for ruth

2010-08-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well, this past weekend was a busy one for the old letterpress biz. We printed up some fliers in exchange for a C.S.A. share -- a pretty good deal I think. We also designed a new "thank you" card and a new birthday card for Alia's grandma, "Gma", who is turning 70(!).
Those pictures will soon be posted on our other blog, here.

In addition to all of that, I still had time (well, I stayed up until two in the morning, after the fam went to sleep) to finish inking our friend, Ruth's, business card/hang tag. Most of the elements were from her sketches. I just arranged them nicely.

Photo by Alicia Carrier

Note: This is not the actual size for the card. I will, of course, shrink it down.

The next step is to contact a die-maker in town who can make us a die.
Woot!

the usual suspects

2010-06-08T10:57:00.001-07:00

Two of the biggest trouble makers I know -- happy as clams.

2010-06-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

This drawing is mostly about the telephone pole across the street. I stare at it whenever I'm waiting for the bus. Slowly, it's percolating into a painting. I just have to stare at it a little more...

stay the course, making progress, honor and sacrifice...

2010-06-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

This is Four Star General So-and-so at a photo-op, speaking to the troops in Afghanistan. I liked this AP photo especially for the body language of the guy in the front row. He's like, "WTF?"

magnanimous magnate

2010-06-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

This is the second time I've tried this drawing. Sometimes the idea for a drawing is as far as it should go.

view over cavanaugh

2010-05-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

This was a recent commission for a friend's mom's boyfriend who is a rocket scientist/bull rider.
What do you get the man who has it all? A portrait of his plane, of course.

sketch and a haircut, two bits

2010-04-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Things are so crazy right now, I had to squeeze in time to do a drawing while Alia gave me a haircut in the kitchen. I used one of those Copic pens with a brush point... pretty fancy. They work really well for producing a variety of line thicknesses and quick pools of pure black.

mother of all comebacks

2010-04-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well, after an unusually long hiatus I have decided to start drawing again. It's not that I haven't been posting, I really haven't been drawing. With my new job taking so much of my time, the lack of a dedicated studio space, and launching a new business venture, I haven't had time to draw daily, much less post and blog about my drawings.
My wife and I started a letterpress business last December, Darling Press, and this is a sketch for a Mother's Day card idea I had. Alia and I are both strongly influenced by the aesthetics of Art Nouveau. This drawing was done after spending four or five hours researching borders, fonts, imagery, and artists. It's a slow process, but looking at art is always fun. It might be obvious to see Gustav Klimt's influence on me.
I am leaning towards a four color card, we'll see what happens!

a mildly surreal wedding reception

2009-12-13T16:03:00.001-08:00

jer gives eric good advice
alia ponders paper folded
and annelise knocks three times

nadir malfunction

2009-12-08T02:05:00.001-08:00

Well, I got the extension.
This is what I came up with.
I hope they like it. These last two drawings were pretty complex.

lovejoy looking west

2009-12-06T22:38:00.000-08:00

I was commissioned to draw two images over the weekend, but I spent so much time on this one that I haven't started the other, yet. Now it's too late to start. I hope they don't mind if I ask for a day's extension to do the other one. I mean, look! It's gorgeous!
The problem was, I used too small of a pen, so it took too much time to fill in the detail. I had too much room to work with, I guess.

big head little girl

2009-11-30T22:27:00.001-08:00

This is a portrait of my wife and daughter,
and, believe it or not,
the source photograph looked even weirder.

cephalopod

2009-11-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

This is Simon B'diddley.
Borne in the winds,
he's my new protagonist
a one-legged elephant.

wagonride

2009-11-23T11:09:00.001-08:00

This is just a proof. I still have to fix the type so that it prints darker.
I haven't been drawing lately because I have been working on this, so I thought I would post it. The image is a linoleum cut, and the type is 10pt. Caslon. The whole thing is printed with rubber-based ink on vegetable parchment.

by Wednesday

2009-11-09T13:07:00.001-08:00

Technically, there is no drawing in this piece, but I just made it, and I wanted to include it here, too.
The real piece is blue ink on white paper, but for some reason, when I uploaded it, it came up as brown on Blogger... I don't mind so much. Originally, I'd wanted to print it in brown, but changed to blue when someone in the studio had some extra blue ink and someone else had some extra black. I don't know why it's brown here other than some synchronistic happening to allow me to see what I missed.

sometimes a great notion

2009-11-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey, who is now my favorite author (sorry J.D. Salinger), and which is now my favorite book (sorry Franny and Zooey). I have recently been trying to meet friends out and about so that we can sketch each other and talk drawing talk, but, somehow, things never work out, and we never meet up. I don't think it's because I am overly flaky. It's just hard to coordinate between people when life is so fluid.

birds of a feather

2009-10-24T15:34:00.001-07:00

Alia's Birthday Card

2009-10-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

I barely got this one done in time!This is probably the weirdest thing I have ever drawn..

frank and bertha

2009-10-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

Someday, long after I'm dead, I'll be a famous artist, and people will have portraits of my obscure relatives on their walls...

film documentary

2009-10-06T20:46:00.001-07:00

three-and-a-half

2009-10-06T20:39:00.001-07:00

I was freeze-framing a video of a film-strip of the countdown number sequence so I could screen-grab a number to draw when this guy popped up.

number nine, number nine, number nine

2009-09-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

The lure of the open road

2009-09-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well, the wedding took all my creative energy, but the wedding is over now. It was beautiful and wonderful and perfect and all that, but now my drawing is all rusty.

2009-07-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

This is a commission for a friend.
He will be riding his bike from Seattle to Portland, and he wanted a "goat dressed as a cowboy riding a bike."
This should make him happy.
Now, part two, I need to learn to screenprint so I can slap this on some shirts for him....

alia and little turtle

2009-06-24T23:57:00.001-07:00

I wish all of our chickens were as personable as Little Turtle is. We just got some more baby chicks -- a buff orpington and a gold laced wyandotte -- and i've been trying to handle them more than i did our first batch of chicks. i've never really been a bird person, and i didn't realize that chickens, especially, were so social.
I really like this analogy:
chickens:us::parrots:pirates

the goat party platform

2009-06-17T00:22:00.001-07:00

I don't really mean anything by this. I got a commission to do a funky goat, and I wanted to practice before I do anymore detail on it. I think the "JOIN" is my favorite part... that and the idea of a four day work week with six hour work day (I'm thinking a two-hour lunch). Where is the Labor Movement now?

the view outside

2009-06-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

I did another drawing of my view at work today. This time I sat outside and stared at the REI building. I wish we had more public art and less public advertisements. From what I gather -- and I must gather this information, not only as a public record, but because the building was finished before I moved to Portland -- the REI building sits on the site of the original Dignity Village that the city moved out by the airport so people in their condos wouldn't have to look at a city of tents beneath the overpass.

another idea

2009-06-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's just an elaborate doodle, really.

nice view

2009-06-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

the text at the bottom reads, "i worked in the art gallery all day, and this was my view."
I'm not complaining. I'm just saying.

keepin' it real

2009-06-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

I may use this for my banner for a while... until I think of something better.

quantum spirituality

2009-06-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

I think the Beatles were more successful at explaining this than I. The image made more sense when I saw it in my head than when I saw it on the paper.

totalmente

2009-06-01T21:33:00.001-07:00

My daughter's grandma gave her a 3CD set of early Sesame Street episodes from the late sixties and early seventies. Annelise has been crazy about them, which might have more to do with this being her first real exposure to TV. This is a line from one of the many songs that have been stuck in my head lately.

duck duck goose

2009-05-22T22:29:00.001-07:00

This is just a play on words: "decadent" for "decagon."
That's it.

us vs. them

2009-05-22T22:28:00.001-07:00

Continuing my Sociological study of the Hipster Subculture.

my first commission

2009-05-16T23:26:00.001-07:00

The request was for a wall of clocks, similar to my Chaos Cafe sketch. I hope she likes it. The requester said to "go crazy" with it, so I had some fun.

community vacuum

2009-05-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to make a sign for the vacuum at work.
The sign I have on there now says: "This is the community('s) vacuum. Please don't just take it,"
but I feel that that must be too complex of a sentence, because no one else ever uses it besides me. This sign should be more to the point.

momma's mama

2009-05-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Alia and I gave our daughter, Annelise, my Grandmother’s maiden name for a middle name. My Aunt Dianne then put together a beautiful photo album of some historical family photos to give Annelise a little insight into her namesake.
This photo is one of my favourites from that album. My Aunt Dianne is on the right, and my mom is seated in my Grandmother’s lap. Uncle Buck, the Air Force pilot, was still yet to be born at the time this picture was taken.
This was my gift to mom for Mother’s Day, even if it was a few days late.

micron convert

2009-05-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

Some friends gave me a micron pen for my birthday. I'm impressed with their line quality and waterproof-ness. Now, if only micron pens were refillable.

loading up and moving out

2009-05-04T22:39:00.001-07:00

big daddy warbucks

2009-05-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a rough study of some relatives of mine. I *think* the girl is my great-grandmother on my mom's dad's side.
I wish I knew for sure. My granddad gathered all of these images. I wish I could ask him about the particulars, but technically I'm not even supposed to have these until either he dies or my mom does (I'm not too sure on the particulars of that bit, either.)

whole nother country

2009-05-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

this is my right hand

2009-04-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

this is my right hand
i call it michael
and it is the south wind

ay chihuahua!

2009-04-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Kris. Not only did she wear this hat on a dare, but she was foolish enough to let someone take her picture while she was wearing it. This is a (continuing) response to the fb application, "You were sketched by an artist!" My drawings may be twenty bucks, but they're pretty damn good!
one hell of a deal.

keep pushing

2009-04-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

As the world economy weakens and the energy crisis grows stronger, the national government will be less able to provide basic services to the population. Communities will become more reliant upon and more active in local governments.

kansas bride

2009-04-15T00:09:00.001-07:00

This was in response to the facebook application that proclaims, "You were sketched by an artist!" I saw that my friend had "just been sketched by an artist!" so I said, "Hey Kris, you should let me sketch you." She said, "That would be cool, OK," and then I was pretty much obligated.

emma 'n el'se

2009-04-15T00:04:00.000-07:00

This is from a picture I took at Annelise's second birthday party. We all went down to Mt. Scott park. Emma was there, and she and Annelise moved pine-needles around for a good fifteen minutes. I think it was a feng shui thing.

a mildly surreal crafternoon

2009-04-09T01:52:00.000-07:00

I took the source image from either Alice's flickr or facebook page.
I don't remember exactly which.

there and them

2009-04-06T02:33:00.001-07:00

This was taken at nw 14th and pettygrove
across from cash 'n carry.
I love drawing the centennial mills water tower.
These people are somehow related to me. I think they are my great-great grandparents on my mom's dad's dad's side. Their faces got a little wonky. His face slid off his head, and she's got the gout -- and a belly-ache, apparently.

forty finished

2009-04-03T12:03:00.001-07:00

and here it is inked.
That took longer than expected because I've been making pinatas for Annelise's birthday party. I made her a blue monkey head and a giant daisy. It was kind of weird to see a bunch of toddlers whacking a blue monkey head with a bat, but I was like, "She's two. She likes monkeys, and she likes flowers. I'll make her a monkey and a flower."

forty

2009-04-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

I'm so far behind I should call this blog
two drawings a day
until I catch up.I want to do another one of my Uncle Buck to send to him.
He's fun to draw because he *looks* like a fighter pilot.
It's his grandfather's chin that does it..
and his shiny hair.

This is what the pencil looks like before I ink it and erase the pencil forever. This was the first time I've used a mechanical pencil in probably ten years! The mechanical pencil used to be my tool of choice -- along with the hatchet and the adjustable pliers.

thirty-nine

2009-04-01T09:27:00.001-07:00

thirty-eight, or thirty-one redux

2009-04-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Since I was sick last time,
I thought I'd redo this one of my great-granddad.
Alia says he looks a lot like my brother, Matt.
I think she's right, and I think I figured out where Matt got his nose.

thirty-seven

2009-03-30T20:16:00.001-07:00

I didn't know what to draw, so Alia said to draw a toaster.

thirty-six

2009-03-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Part of our goal of self-reliance and totally sustainable living is, of course, to buy only locally-made goods. I'm always on a quest to find the perfect art materials anyway, so we went to Collage, an arts and crafts store up on 45th and Woodstock.

The ink I've been using was made in Beaverton and so is my paper, actually. The paper brand is made by the Bee Paper Company, and even though it claims to be designed with Manga artists using Copic markers in mind, it suits my needs. Pencil erases easily, the inks and gouache neither bleed nor feather, and the paper scans in as a bright, pure, white.

Now, if I could find some locally manufactured nibs that were worth a damn, I'd be set!

thirty-five

2009-03-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

thirty-four

2009-03-26T00:58:00.001-07:00

I finally broke out the brush for this one.Radio Cab is the only gas station -- that I know of --
in NW that's open 24/7,
it's the only indoor gas station around,
*and* their gas is usually pretty cheap, too!
Holla!

thirty-one, thirty-two, & thirty-three

2009-03-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I was basically dead for a few days.
Some kind of virus annihilated the college.
Almost everyone was out at some point in the last two weeks.

I tried to draw with lackluster results. This is my great-grandfather, John Baker.
I tried drawing with a nib on sketchbook paper, but the nib kept getting clogged. After cleaning paper fibers out of the nib about a dozen times, and after carving huge gouges in the paper with the clogged pen, I gave up in frustration. I'd lost my knack for drawing when I was sick.
I opted to try something "easier" -- a pencil sketch of my Granddad, John Baker, Jr.

The result was positively degenerate.
Alia thinks I should keep working into the pencil sketch, and I may try, but I feel like I'll just have to erase everything except for the eyes. I pretty much gave up drawing for a few days after this one.
Then, the other night at work I cranked out one of my uncle, Jon Baker, and I feel like I'm back in the swing of it.

Day Thirty

2009-03-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what this one is about.
I just wanted one person talking to
another person's bellybutton.

Day Twenty-Nine

2009-03-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is an idea I have for a painting. I am just responding to my friends who consider themselves vegetarians even though they eat fish "occasionally."

Day Twenty-Eight

2009-03-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Still experimenting with the space monkey theme. I thought I'd just freehand this since the last one I tried turned out pretty sweet. This one.. not so much.

Day Twenty-Seven

2009-03-16T11:52:00.001-07:00

We took a roadtrip down to the Southern Coast. I thought I'd draw the whole way, but it was just too bumpy. I lost interest pretty quickly.

Day Twenty-Six

2009-03-13T00:31:00.001-07:00

another tattoo for the revolution

Day Twenty-Five

2009-03-13T00:29:00.001-07:00

We went into Chaos Cafe tonight after dropping Lawrence off
after his going-away-party. At the cafe I found myself with a pen
but no paper. Luckily, Alia lent me her moleskin to doodle upon
while she finished her commissioned nest piece.

Day Twenty-Four

2009-03-13T00:28:00.001-07:00

firemain pipes

Day Twenty-Three

2009-03-10T22:48:00.001-07:00

I had an interesting conversation with my mother today on the telephone.
[ed.: "Gagarin"]

Day Twenty-Two

2009-03-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm reading "The Omnivore's Dilema," by Michael Pollan, and I *had*
to know what General Philip Sheridan looked like.

Day Twenty-One

2009-03-10T22:45:00.001-07:00

Derek and Tallia used to live here.
This was Sequoia Jade's first home.

Day Twenty

2009-03-10T22:44:00.001-07:00

It's very hard to draw a person's eye while that person is drawing your eye.

Day Nineteen

2009-03-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

Day Eighteen

2009-03-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

Stabbing the black heart of the establishment.
Word.

Day Seventeen

2009-03-10T22:38:00.001-07:00

This is from the lower pedestrian walkway on the Steel Bridge.
I hear that Amazon.com couldn't fit in those silos.

Day Sixteen

2009-03-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

I took the source photo while on a roadtrip a few years back.
I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in eastern California or Utah.
Or Wyoming.

Day Fifteen

2009-03-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

se morisson and grand

Day Fourteen

2009-03-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

I used a nib called a "super hard."
That mistake, combined with too-watery ink,
made for an ungainly drawing.

Day Thirteen

2009-03-10T22:31:00.001-07:00

I just felt like drawing letters today.

Day Twelve

2009-03-10T22:26:00.002-07:00

My pet turtle, Herman, ran away when I was fifteen or sixteen.
I found him in my backyard when I lived in Colorado, and of
course I brought him with me when my family moved to Kansas.
I guess the call of wild was on the Kansas wind for Herman.
I turned my back for five minutes, and he was gone.

Day Eleven

2009-03-10T22:26:00.001-07:00

Day Ten

2009-03-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

This is from my friend, Ruth's, FB avatar.

Day Nine

2009-03-10T22:12:00.001-07:00

These are some logo ideas I'm working on for
*obviously* ABC Co.
Those few tattoos I've been drawing have influenced these.

Day Eight

2009-03-10T22:11:00.001-07:00

Day Seven

2009-03-10T22:10:00.001-07:00

image search: old tractor

Day Six

2009-03-10T22:09:00.003-07:00

I got this image from the cover of the current PCC catalog.
It's not my best portrait..

Day Five

2009-03-10T22:03:00.001-07:00

image search: 1940's radio
the propaganda's all mine, though

Day Four

2009-03-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

image search: tattoo flash sugar skull

Day Three

2009-03-10T21:59:00.001-07:00

image search: 1950's radio

Day Two

2009-03-10T21:57:00.001-07:00

Day One

2009-03-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

we call our spice cabinet the apothecary.