As many of you know, I draw in church. When I lived in Tulsa the person I drew at church most often was the pianist. We sat in just the right location to get a good view of her so she was a ready subject. When we moved to Texas and found a church the orchestra was behind a low wall so I didn’t have a good view of them. However, I did have a good view of the singers who led the worship. Next thing you know I was drawing a lot of people with microphones. Most of the time I would actually not draw them while they were standing up in front. I would look at them while they sang, memorize certain things about how they stood, held the microphone, what they wore, etc. Then while the sermon was being preached I would start the drawing with that person in mind. I didn’t worry about being accurate, it was just a place to start on the page.
‘The Mottled Woman’, ink on paper, 2022
Sometimes I think of something the person is saying or thinking, other times I don’t.
‘The Colors and the Grays’, ink on paper, 2023
Singing Apples, Thinking Oranges
At the Edge
The one thing that occurs to me again and again, especially in Christian circles, is how different what we say is from what we think.
‘The Sea Angel’, ink on paper, 2022
Some people are able to rise above. Not many, but some.
‘Cathie Hill Singing’, ink on paper, 2023
My sister-in-law singing at her outdoor church in Colorado.
‘Eve with Singing Snake’, ink on paper, 2022
What if the snake had listened to Eve instead of the other way around?
‘The Singer and the Pain’, ink on paper, 2022
The thing is, people say things often because they believe it convinces others of who they are. But if you are around someone long enough their actions say who they are not their words and no one is fooled.
‘Interview with a Meteorite’, ink on paper, 2023
The drawing attention to disasters all around the world, the big crazy ones, is often a tool by which we hide our own disasters from ourselves and others.
‘Halo of Guilt’, ink on paper, 2023
Being a saint is as much a curse as it is a blessing. You know you did barely anything to deserve the accolade and yet you can’t escape it. BTW, I do not know this from first hand experience.
‘The Show’, ink on paper, 2023
The voice speaks but it is the hand that proves who you are.
I recently finished a sketchbook. It’s a weird thing to finish a sketchbook. I always feel like a relationship is ending. The feel, paper, size, look are all unique. How it takes ink, how I hold it, how it fits as I go somewhere is different with each sketchbook. Some allow me to draw inconspicuously while others are too big to hide. Some say ‘hippie natural’ while others say ‘serious conformist artist’.
But most importantly, what I draw in it is different based on all those things. Some lend themselves to drawing live while others tend to move me to draw purely imaginative images. It isn’t exclusive, I draw live and imaginatively in every sketchbook but there is an inclination depending on the book.
Here are some from a sketchbook that lent itself to a lot of imaginative drawing. I chose recent paintings that include polka dots or other type of recurring pattern on the clothing. I often do this so as to give definition to a form or to define a something as in front of or behind something else. They also include a lot of people holding microphones. That is because I often start the drawing in church, lightly memorizing the person on stage during the singing, then drawing a version of that person once the sermon starts.
Enjoy and let me know what you think. Do you have a favorite?
Finally, after many years of not being able to get out and draw live i’ve started to sketch in person again. These are from the winter of 2022-2023 in various locales; in a waiting room, at a pharmacy, at a coffee shop, in church and on a train. Sometimes I talk to the person, sometimes I don’t. It all depends on the circumstances and proximity.
These are done with a Copic brand pen and Copic brand color markers.
Annie finished reading her daily scripture and was contemplating its meaning when the phone rang. She decided, based on her morning study, that she was not going to answer the phone. The phone call was from the National Academy of Poodle Excellence and they were going to offer her a job as Executive Vice President. This wasn’t the first time she hadn’t answered a call from this number so they eventually gave up on her. They offered the job to Sid, a poodle in Oklahoma, who took it and eventually reached world-wide fame as the CEO of NAPE. Annie meanwhile continued her studies and was never the wiser because she didn’t watch the news.
Here are 10 drawings I’ve done over the Winter and Spring of 2021. Let me know your favorites!
‘The Tik Tok Dancer’
Ink on Paper
2021
She practiced her TikTok dance in the mirror in the room with her favorite dog and painting on a Sunday instead of going to Temple.
‘The Sunbathers’
Ink on Paper
2021
“I Like to Sleep in the Sun.” “Me Too.”
‘The Overdramatic Musician’
Ink on Paper
2021
The story is told of the time when the melodramatic musician overreacted to the famous painting of Mt. Vesuvius and burst an embolism and died right at that spot and made it even more famous!
‘Spiraling’
Ink on Paper
2021
‘American Allegiance’
Ink on Paper
2021
‘The Whiner’
Ink on Paper
2021
“Whoa (yes, I know it’s spelled wrong) is me why me who am i why cant i when will this how will i ever what will how will i be?”
“OMG, why did I get such a whiner for a mom? Damn, that means I am going to be the grown up from day one. UGH!”
I sometimes think ahead and scan my line drawings before painting them. I thought I would show some of them to you side by side. The drawings were all done live at the scene. Painting was done afterwards in my studio. Five of these were done in coffee houses, one was done on an airplane.
There is a slider you can control, going from just line to fully painted. What do you think?
The Conversation, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2014
Anna and Meera, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2015
The Knitters, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2018
Megan, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2015
Catherine, Before and After, ink and acrylic paint, 2013
Britni the Filmmaker, Before and After, ink & acrylic paint, Fair Fellow Coffee, undated
Men at Starbucks, Before and After, Ink and Acrylic Paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, undated
The woman had rarely been out of the house for the last 12 months. The last time was picking up her daughter from the day care center the day it closed down. Since then she’d had groceries and meals delivered or her partner had gone shopping. She had worked remotely and had done all her exercising either on her own or via zoom.
She had gotten into the habit of staying in her sweats all day, not wearing a bra, makeup or doing anything with her hair. She told herself she liked it like that because it was so much easier.
But when it was time for their vaccine appointment she put on a bra and makeup and even colored her hair her favorite color. She put on her best tank top (it was hot that day) and her old skinny jeans and tried out a new pair of hoop earrings she had got for her birthday but had no reason to wear over the year. It made her unexpectedly happy to do all this.
They waited in the car line for about 20 minutes then it was their turn. She was so excited she forgot to put her mask on but no one said anything about it. She made sure to be on the passenger side with her partner driving so the shot would be in her right arm since she was left handed. She thought the nurse was the prettiest woman she had ever seen in her life and told her so. Her partner smiled because she had missed seeing that part of her over the year. Then they waited 15 minutes until the nice firefighter signaled they could go.
When they got home the first thing she did was take off her bra. But she kept the rest of her clothes on because they made her feel good. Then they had bologna sandwiches and potato chips to celebrate as they finally planned their long-delayed wedding.
Back before the Pandemic, when we could actually go and hang out in coffee houses, I did so on a regular basis. Way back in October of 2016 I tried a new cafe, Chimera, in the Tulsa Arts District. After I settled in I drew the scene in front of me in my sketchbook while I sipped my coffee. I used a Japanese brush pen called Copic Gasenfude.
Copic Gasenfude brush pen
Fast forward 5 years. I was looking through that sketchbook and realized I never finished the drawing. Of course, 5 years later I had no memory of the actual colors of anything. All I knew was the bricks were red so I started there. After that it was simply using colors and tones I thought looked good in the scene and together. I added brick under the counter as a way to tie the image together even though I don’t think there actually was brick there.
This is an important thing to remember about art – unless you are being paid to replicate something or someone then what matters is how your image looks, not how accurate you are in copying reality. The image IS the reality people are looking at, not the original thing. That is why so many drawings and paintings made from photographs are so bad, because they look like bad drawings and paintings of photos, not good pieces of art.
Worry less about unoriginal and uncreative copying and trust more your own eye and hand to create something of interest.
