Vintage Gas

This pretty much out of my head of course influenced by my collection of old photos etc.

As usual mostly pen and ink and Neocolor II, my favorite stuff to try and make pictures with.

Nice quiet day here today, a break from Dave and Kathy's taxi and babysitting service. The wife nagged me into mowing the front yard ( it did need mowing) but it's pretty much all I had to do today. The Bears even won alhtough it wasn't looking pretty at the start so mark this day up as a good one.

Another Girl

Another kind of pin up girl picture, pen and ink and Neocolor II. When I was younger I would draw girls like this more often but for some reason my wife didn't like it. I would tell her it was just artistic expression but she would say I could express myself by drawing a nice bowl of fruit.

Of course that was back when I would let her see my drawings to get her judgement on how I was doing. I don't do that anymore, pretty much knowing what she thinks and unable to take criticism that well.

I don't think it matters to her much now what I draw, she doesn't pay any attention except for the rare time I might ask for an opinion on something and besides we both know I'm pretty much harmless as far as women go by now. I like the picture, not going to ask her what she thinks.

Weather around here is good but late September always sucks to me. Getting dark earlier, getting cooler at night ( wife just went around closing the windows in fact.) Halloween stores already popping up. All of it reminding me that another winter is closing in on us.

Princess of ?, Pen, Ink and water stuff

Just finished this, haven't thought of an appropriate title yet but like it enough I have to give it one. I don't name most of them but when I finish something I like I have to give it an identity. It's ink and different waterbased media, neocolor II, watercolor pencil. 9x12, so we are in for a wait while it uploads.

I have promised myself to call comcast this week and get the high speed internet, either from them or someone else. They started us out sometime back with the "introductory rate" for phone and tv ( remember when tv was free? or when it cost a little but there was no commercials and now we have the large fee and commercials and it's going up every month.)

Anyway we started out paying around $100 a month for the phone and tv with a movie package and after the rate ended it started going up and up and now averages around $160 for the same stuff. I know someone that just got a three bundle from them for the same hundred a month and they threw in a free notebook computer. So I'm going to call and if they don't lower the rate and give me internet I'm thinking a switch to someone elses introductory rate. It's a hassle but I guess the thing to do is switch carriers every year.

Kids are back in school , got up today and had to go get my daughter and bring her hear so she could take a shower as they are working on her water and then take her to work, an hour later pick up the grandson and the other boy from the busstop and bring them here so that an hour later we could pick up the daughters boyfriend from work ( I let the wife do that). It's a good thing they don't pay us or we would have to get a taxi license. Man it's good to be retired and have nothing to do all day long.

Molson

This a detail from a drawing, the full thing too large to post here. From a vintage photo in my collection. I think I remember seeing ads like this on barns when I was younger. I say " i think" because I've seen them so many times in pictures that I don't know if I remember or if it's one of those memories you make up. I do remember the old Burma Shave signs along the road. Those were neat and something I haven't seen in a long long time. Driving to Kansas City as a kid (passenger of course) those signs would make the trip so much shorter waiting for the next group to come up. They had some good ones but I don't remember any now, going to have to google it soon as this picture gets loaded.

Sparrow

Not a repost, honest. Seems to be a recurring thing with me though. When in doubt draw a bird.

First outdoor barbeque of the year today. It was cloudy which it usually decides to do when I cook out but we made it, no rain. Food just tastes better to me when it's cooked outdoors.

Girl in Red

I knew I had been neglecting the blogs but time does fly, didn' realize is was eight days. I apologize to my regular readers ( both of them.) I'll use the last minute tax season and a touch of stomach flu as excuses.

This girl was with others in a old postcard, all looked like sisters and all had thier hair cut the same. Nothing written on it so just guessing it was sisters but looked like a family thing.

Girl with flowers

As often the case my model is from a photo in my vintage collection. They work for cheap and rarely complain. I change them enough they wouldn't recognize themselves even if they do follow blogs at the really old folks home.

I have a lot of things to draw from now, yesterday uploading pics from my digital camera, something I hadn't done in awhile, 280 pics being awhile. Not sure why I let it go that long except to say prograstination is an art form and I am a master at it. Lot's of family stuff of course, holloween pics and baseball pics from two years ago but also pics I took with the thought that it would make a great drawing or even a painting. My wife also has a digital camera that she relies on me to upload but she'll have to wait. Only printed out a select "few" of mine and used up all the ink and photo paper in my budget until payday.

Return of the Hawk

I was sitting watching television yesterday when there was a "crash" against the big picture window. This is not unusual, the birds often get confused by the reflection and hit the window but this was louder then usual. Reason being it was not one but at least two birds, a sparrow and a much larger hawk which had chased the sparrow in that direction.For anyone that may have just wandered here or not been with me that long it is the second appearance this year of the hawk, something not seen in the preceeding ten years we have been here. We hang bird feeders and a couple of bird feeders right outside that window and as I said before while I appreciate the beauty and magnificance of this predator I do not want to furnish a hawk smorgisboard.

After the collision the sparrow and his friends took off for parts safer and the hawk flew up to a trestle we have by the deck, sitting there collecting his senses or maybe just showing anyone watching that he was unharmed and meant to do that, kind of like a cat that does something stupid will do if you know what I mean. Damn thing is that I usually have a camera around me, sitting on the table or at least nearby but of course it was put away somewhere else at that time or I could have got a picture as he sat there several minutes even while I had called my wife and she came out to look at it out the window.

I'm not sure what to do about it, if it was a regular type bird I could get a scarecrow, one of those owl or hawk dummies that supposedly scares the birds away from your garden ( I know from experience they don't work anyway). I'm not sure of what a hawk is afraid of though, other then maybe a shotgun but firing one off might get me too much attention. I'll have to think of something though, much as I liked seeing this bird twice now I really don't want to see it again, not at my birdfeeders anyway.

Baseball

Just one cartoon from my grandsons baseball practice. I had more in mind but got sidetracked.

The coach was holding this ball on the stick and the kids would practice thier swings at it. Sometimes he would run at them with the stick held out so it was more like a pitch. Some of them were taking pretty good slices at it, ought to be some home runs this season.

The team is for eight and up and you can tell some of them have been playing a year or two, pretty sure of what they are doing. They have at least one girl on the team, something different from when I was a kid, no girls allowed then in boys sports, organized or otherwise. Most of the teams have girls playing though now and most of the girls that play are as good as most of the boys. It's not for every girl but then sports aren't for every boy either. When I was a kid up through high school I played at everything I could but I can let the secret out now, I was never much good at any of them.

Again I have to say "good work" to the coaches. They really give it thier all, working with all the kids, not just thier own and everyone I've seen is good at it, giving the kids encouragement and getting on them a little when it's needed. This team even has a lady coach, wife of one of the men coaches. Sometimes they put up with a lot from the parents too, funny but the kids all seem to get the sportsmanship deal but not always the same with the parents.

Cherub

When I said warm and fuzzy I was thinking like a kitten and maybe some flowers or playing with the standard ball of yarn but I came up with this Cherub and threw the flowers in for cover.

Not what I had in mind but I liked it and my wife said it was OK so I'm posting it. It's rare for me to ask my wife's opinion. First of all she's just not that interested in my "art". Pretty much to her it's a too exspensive hobby. Second and probably more importantly she is just too honest. I don't mind advise and constructive criticism but she is rough.

Next post I hope to jump back to the world of reality. Went out today and caught part of my grandsons baseball practice and took the sketchbook of course. Didn't get a chance to re-draw anything though. I know some of my sketches here are "rough" but believe it or not, they get worse. When I am drawing outside, something with action it's more or less just lines, kind of impressions of what I see that wouldn't be recognizeable to anyone but me.

He seems to be doing OK, I mentioned before this is the first year playing hardball. With T-ball they use a softer ball about the same size. He's been smacked a few times already and is still in there trying. Anyone that's ever been hit by a pitch or a wild ball knows it can smart.

It's good to see him moving up but I will kind of miss the T-ball, the kids are so funny, sometimes sitting down in the field, rarely catching a throw, not knowing where to go or where to throw. It's a riot to watch. I have to give the coaches credit. Usually of course it's guys who have kids on the team but they do a great job with all the kids.

Vampire

This is a detail of a work in progress, drawing of a lady vampire. I have always liked the vampire movies and even television, for a while my favorite show "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer". Yes I know it was a silly show but it was supposed to be now wasn't it? Not denying that Buffy was hot I think maybe spike was my favorite character. If you never saw the show, Spike was kind of a good guy- bad guy, starting out bad but then wanting to be good but slipping back to bad, so on and so on. He was at the end in love with Buffy which is kind of a dangerous affair of course, the vampire being in love with the Slayer. The show isn't on anymore around here anyway but it will be back, one of those that will be in reruns forever.

Actually the whole thing started out wanting to draw gargoyles because I like them, gothic architecture in general but it all led to this. As I said it's a work in progress but you likely wont see it again as the paper is 9X12, too large to scan and upload with a dial up connection. Next I will try to sketch something nice, warm and fuzzy like.

Flapper

a small pen and ink sketch of a 1920's era girl, my model an old postcard. I love the look girls had in that time, a very important time for the history of women. So many things changed around the turn of the century, a lot having to do with the automobile, manufacturing, transportation and communications in general. Women were changing thier place in society so much, up to then in many ways second class citizens but around that time starting to demand thier rights and respect.

The drawing is small, 5X7 and done quickly ( an hour or so) in pen and ink. For those that like to draw I find stopping now and then and looking at the drawing in different ways helps find mistakes, in a mirror or even upside down changes the perspective and makes errors stand out.

No Leprechan

I was intending to draw and post a leprechan for today but after repeated efforts they all looked far too evil so I gave up. Maybe it's that movie that sticks in mind where the little guy was evil and killing everyone but I would rather think of them as kind, gracious creatures who are just zealous about protecting thier pots of gold. Giving up on my irish heritage I am just posting this car I had scanned a while ago, a portion of a larger drawing but the car was my whole purpose in the drawing. Don't know what kind of car its supposed to be, just the image tucked away in my brain for when I want to draw a vintage auto and don't have a reference photo.

Nice warmish (60's) day here and more improtant a quiet one, the wife off to her relatives for the day so it's peaceful here, plans to catch up on a chore or two but of course it's late now and nothing done other then to fill the wastebasket with evil leprechans.

Valium in a tank

I have shown you my cat and our birds, talked about the dog and there is another cat but besides all that my wife has fish, lots of fish. She has a 55 gallon tank in the front room and a smaller, 10? gallon tank in the kitchen and a couple of small bowls here and there, adding up to how many fish I don't know. We also have an outdoor pond which is still fishless from the winter and went without last year but was occupied in the past. The outdoor pond is the only thing I object to as it means work for me. I was up to it the first few years but back, leg pain and lazyness maybe are putting it out of reach. We have had help a few years getting it ready but last year we kept them inside.

Other then that she does all the work, cleaning the tanks ( which is a job), feeding etc. I reap the benifits though. Benifits of fish? You have to have them to understand probably. Just sitting there watching them swim back and forth is very relaxing somehow, can't explain why but it is. That explaining my valium reference. Valium might be more fun in the short run but fish are better for you and don't knock you out. I don't know how to classify them, not really pets since you can't actually pet them or take them out and play with them. Well, you could but not for very long and I don't think it would be very satisfying for you or the fish. Thier more then decorations, somewhere inbetween I guess but if you don't have any I suggest them as something you might want to start out with.

What , Bird's Again?

Well Yeah, what can I say. First I like them and second I see them every day outside the window where I sit. So they are on my mind a lot and that transfers to what I draw. I try to make them a little different each time. I could try a Cardinal now and then or a Blue Jay because we get those once in a while. The other birds don't like the Blue Jays of course, I understand they like to raid nests and eat eggs of the other smaller birds. Mostly though its sparrows which I think are cool even if they are common. I never knew how many different kinds there are until I started trying to find out what we have here. There are lots and lots of different sparrows even in this area. I still want to know who coined that phrase when they say someone " eats like a bird." meaning I guess that they don't eat much. We buy a 20# bag and are lucky if it lasts a week. I fill two feeders and one is all empty and the other mostly within two hours. Of course a lot of it is on the ground as they are choosy, looking for what they want and flipping the rest all over the place. When it's empty they will go to the ground and eat so it's a matter of preference, not that they wont eat it all.

This is a detail of a bigger drawing done in the usual watercolor pencil and inks.

Life returns

There isn't much these days you can count on it seems, economy, politics, world peace, you name it everything seems all chaos and turmoil, nothing solid and reliable. Of course those are all things that count on us to keep in order and I suppose we have messed a few things up, hopefully not beyond repair but if history proves anything we will get through it all.

There's one thing that always stays the same though, no matter how long winter might seem or how depressed it might make me sooner or later that seed that fell in the fall will germinate and push its way up though the soil searching for the sun and it will break through and find it.

Those somewhat corny thoughts are what I had in mind when I made this drawing, a small 5X7 mostly watercolor pencil with some ink. I did it from my head as hard as I looked I couldn't find anything similar outside today but it was cool and I didn't look too hard, soon though.

Granny

A small (5X7) drawing of a granny, not mine but she had to be someones. She's actually from an old photo I bought recently. I just loved her look, typical granny sitting outside in a favorite chair. The drawing is mostly watercolor pencil, some dry and some brushed on.k

Another warmer but wet day here in Chicagoland, went out to the store with just a light shirt jacket on but it was over quick, starting to feel the chill as I got back home and it was just starting to get a little darker so the temp drops.

Just a couple of sketches

The last couple of days I had something in mind that I was going to draw and post, kind of a self assigned drawing. It's really the first time I had thought it out, if it isn't obvious my postings here have no special ryme or reason, just whatever I happen to be doing or drawing that day. I have learned my lesson, trying to do one simple thing and make it look right was too much for me and I finally gave up. Might have something to do with why so long ago I went into law enforcement instead of trying to make a living at what I liked most. Anyway, what I have finally put on display today is a fellow leaning against a post, detail from a larger sketch I did awhile ago. The somewhat wilder looking fellow is a sketch from today, started out thinking of kind of a St. Francis man but didn't look right for that so is just what it is. It's been nicer here is Chicagoland the last few days, warmer anyway. There was a heck of a thunderstorm early this morning but I take it all as sign that spring is around the corner. Got to remember to set the clocks ahead tonight.

Sketching

Like before a couple of sketches done while watching television and then a rooster, playing with some color pencils for fun. I'm working on some bigger things but filling the wastebasket more then the paper. Nothing unusual there, happens all the time. Sometimes something just comes easy but more often I get to a point and do something stupid to ruin the whole thing. Sketching is more fun, doesn't matter if I mess it up or not.

Pixie

Just a rough sketch today from my journal, kept at hand while I watch television. Just a couple of woodland creatures having a chat. I love drawing fantasy creatures, the only rule being that they have to look reasonable.

I'll put in another plug for my other blog again, vintage snapshots and postcards, maybe pics from vintage magazine all from my collection.

Easy way to find it would be go to my profile and look for my blogs.