Seven Drawings, Before and After – part 2
2013
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2013
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2015
Seven Drawings, Before and After – part 1
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?
ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2014
ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2015
ink & acrylic paint, Shades of Brown, Tulsa, 2018
ink & acrylic paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, 2015
ink and acrylic paint, 2013
ink & acrylic paint, Fair Fellow Coffee, undated
Ink and Acrylic Paint, Starbucks, Tulsa, undated
Part 2 will be the vertical drawings
© 2021 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
The Vaccine – An Illustrated Short Story
The Vaccine – An Illustrated Short Story
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.
The End
© 2021 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
A Woman Making Her Way
A Woman Making Her Way – An Illustrated Short Story
Deborah was at a spring party in someone’s backyard. She told the man who was too interested in her this analogy. She saw herself as being on a paddleboard, making her way through the perils of life. She had to row, she had to balance, she had to keep strong, and she had to focus to avoid all the dangers around her and get to where she wanted to go.
The man who was too interested lost interest and went on to another young woman at the party. Deborah smiled and went over to the canape table and ate 6 crackers with crab dip on them.
The End
© 2021 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Chimera Cafe, Tulsa, OK
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.
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.
© 2021 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com