Poor Sailor

I went to see Shoreway last week at the Beachland Tavern, so I thought I'd post fliers I made for  Matt Rolin's old band sometime around 2007.

The first of many astronaut drawings, and both riffs on paintings of Cupid and Psyche.  

Originals: Jacques-Louis David,  Francois Gerard 

I didn't know it at the time, but these obviously set the tone for a bunch of my non sequential work. 

Rock and roll and spacemen, yknow?

PENCIL RIOT!

I've always said I never know if I've drawn anything worthwhile at Dr. Sketchy events until the next morning when I've sobered up. 

Which is the best way I can recount my night on the PENCIL RIOT! A bar crawl with all the sketchy kids through the w.25th area.

 

The night started at the Market Avenue Wine bar, which is where we have Sunday Art Club.  Their back room has the same feel as an old timey hunters lounge, and it was full of art reprobates.  It was awesome.

For some reason I decided to start a bar crawl drunk, so the drawings started out fast, furious, and loose.

 

Next to the Flying Fig where Danielle, Thor, and Tess mounted the booths and bars for some dynamite poses.  Ron and I bombed the menus with PENCIL RIOT propaganda in case unsuspecting patrons weren't baffled enough by this nonsense.

 I gave up on any pencil under drawings once we hit the Speakeasy under the Bier Market.  Maybe it's how much Jim Mahfood I've been looking at lately, or maybe it was the booze, but drawing this loose was a real blast and I plan on doing more of it soon.

  Being a Saturday night, it was hard for the models to do their thing, so I nabbed a portrait of an innocent bystander.

 Off to the ABC for Celeste posing on the upper railings. The crowd at ABC was probably my favorite.  The sort of guys that would make fun of art types in any other situation, but because we brought a gang of pretty girls with us, they were super interested in what we were doing. 

I wish I would have cataloged the conversation next to the drawings.

 

More Celeste on some tables, and my favorite drawing of the night.  I've got to work on capturing this sort of looseness without drinking my weight in beer. 

 Quick doodle of Dr. Jason before leaving the ABC.  I ended up killing my brand new Copic that night.  Blew out a marker alongside my liver.

 Final drawing of the night at The Old Angle, where I didn't get another beer. 

I've done a few things in my sketchbook over the years that aren't about the drawings but capturing the moment instead.  Line is a better camera when it comes to capturing the artists mood.

These drawings may be loose and rough, but they're a great catalog of an amazing night. 

Also, check out Craig's stuff from the riot:  Sketch Of The Day 

And Erin's: Pencil Riot!

And Jim's: Sketchery

Hopefully we can catalog all of these together online somewhere.  If nothing else for the court testimony.

Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom @ The Cleveland Library

This week is the beginning of the library performances of the Ingenuity adaptation of Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow.  If you're in town, you should come out to support it: Library Performances.  It's a really fun event, and an excuse to support libraries.

I illustrated the third act of the play, and thought now was a good time to show that off.  You should still try to come out if you can.  The pictures make a whole lot more sense with the voice actors and music.  

Actually, even without the easy access to scotch, the library is probably a much better venue for the play than Ingenuity was.

Dr Sketchy Cleveland: Dazzling Nadine

A couple months old at this point, here's some drawings from the second Dr Sketchy PHD I made it to, held at the Market Avenue Wine Bar.

 

  

 

Shoreway: October 23 2011

I love Dawkins, Hitchens, and I usually have an issue of Skeptic magazine next to my bed.  I wish I could wax poetic about religion being a product of man, but I only know how to draw robots.  

If you're in Cleveland, you should come out, it's going to be great.  So says the robot.

Dr Sketchy Cleveland: Ingenuity Speakeasy 2011

 

 I've really been digging myself into the drawing community of Cleveland lately, and the speakeasy was the beginning of that.

 

A week before the event, I'd decided to put art in the backseat of my life.  I'd just been dumped, and the thought of doing this nonsense alone was tremendously frightening.  I'd go to events and doodle (because it's still more interesting than football), but I wouldn't make it a priority. 

Drawing has always been both the most fulfilling and most arduous part of my life for as long as I can remember.   If you've ever dated someone who draws, or you draw yourself, it becomes hard to prioritize and I didn't want to deal with that anymore. 

I wanted to come home to something simple.

 

 I really half assed most of this stuff.  I drew in the Dr Sketchy style that I've been using for the past three years, and I focused more on the beer and conversation. 

 

The drawings were nothing more than an admission price to a party, a ticket stub rendered in marker.

 Going back and looking at them now, after doing a project for Ingenuity, organizing art shows, teaching cartooning, and literally drawing every day.  I don't see that anymore.

I see portraits of my friends.  The thing about drawing from life, is that a lot of times its the only way you can slow your brain down enough to really appreciate the moment you're in.  It's not really about smelling roses, it's about drawing them.

 

The Apples In Stereo wrote this on a record once:  "The Elephant 6 Recording Company re-opens our doors and windows, and invites the world: join together with your friends and make something special, something meaningful, something to remember when you are old." 

I've liked it since I read it, but nowadays I've adopted it as a way of life.