It's Manatee Time!

As most right-thinking people are well aware, it just isn't Wednesday without a manatee. In the interest of full disclosure, I should confess that I drew this last night, making this more of a Tuesday manatee and introducing the possibility that I've violated the space-time-manatee continuum. I apologize for any black holes that may appear as a result.

A Self Portrait and a Lesson Learned About Vine Charcoal

I've been using a lot of vine charcoal lately. You can't get the deep, rich blacks that you get with compressed charcoal, but it's really malleable and fun to work with. So malleable, in fact, that if you don't hit it with fixative you can pretty much wipe away an entire drawing with your fingers or, if you're as clumsy as I am, you might drop your drawing and send it sliding, face-down, across your kitchen floor and wipe out the bottom half of the face in a self-portrait that you were pretty happy with. It's possible that this resulted in a few phrases being uttered that were not entirely appropriate for younger readers. Being the fully-grown adult that I am, I then proceeded to throw a tantrum and put the drawing in the closet for abut two weeks before I worked up the gumption to pull it out and re-draw the mouth and the neck. From here on out, I vow to keep the fixative close at hand when working with vine.

Robert Sedgewick Knows More About Algorithms Than You Do

I've been spending a lot of time staring at this man's face over the past few weeks. This is Robert Sedgewick, a professor of Computer Science at Princeton and, in an act of remarkable generosity, the instructor of a course on algorithms that is currently available for free on Coursera. As someone who makes his living as a programmer but who did not actually study computer science in college, this has been a huge help to me. I know, you're all shocked to learn that I don't earn enormous amounts of money selling my drawings. My (sometimes painfully slow) efforts to work through the lectures and exercises really have given me a much deeper understanding of some really fascinating and important topics. Thanks a lot, Bob. May I call you Bob? How about if I promise to buy you a beer if you're ever in Seattle?

The Man Whose Head Expanded

I normally try to stay away from portraits of rock stars, writers, artists, and other famous people I admire. There's just too much baggage involved in hero worship. I had to make an exception for Mark E. Smith, longtime evil genius behind The Fall. The man has a face like no other. Granted, many of the distinctive features of his face are the result of decades of rampant alcoholism that should not be imitated or romanticized. And yet, despite all this, the man still managed to make "Hex Enduction Hour" and "This Nation's Saving Grace." The mind reels.

Back to the Seattle Asian Art Museum

How great is it to live within easy walking distance of Volunteer Park? That was a rhetorical question, of course. The relative greatness of proximity to enjoyable places is a very difficult thing to measure, although I'm sure someone at Google is working on it. The highlight of any visit to Volunteer Park is the Seattle Asian Art Museum, which has a lot of interesting work on the walls (I'm a big fan of the Japanese wood blocks) and tons of sculpture just begging to be sketched. This particular piece is of horse from the Tang period (insert astronaut joke here), dated around the 7th or 8th century. Thinking about how much time that really is and the fact that some human being's hands actually made this thing that I am standing in front of more than 1,000 years later makes me feel totally insignificant. I hope some piece of my life stays around that long, even if it's just the styrofoam I throw in the landfill.

Note: I realize that the bottom of the stand is falling off the page in a really odd way. This is because I violated one of the first rules that any beginning art teacher will tell you and did not fully plan out my composition before I started work. Mea culpa.

Me and Stanley

I've recently started taking a portrait drawing class at Seattle Central Community College. Except for the fact that I had a terrible time finding the room the first night (who knew that the art building was on the other side of the street from the rest of the college?) I've been really enjoying it. Drawing portraits from a model is a vastly different experience from drawing from a photo or even a self-portrait in a mirror. There is real geometry when the head is right there in front of you that just doesn't show up when you're working from a 2-dimensional image.

The first drawing is from an exercise we did in class with a model named Stanley, who did an admirable job of holding the same expression for two solid hours. The second one is a self-portrait I did in front of my bathroom mirror where, true to form, I have captured an expression that makes it look like I'm thinking about destroying something small and cute. Someday I'll learn how to smile and draw at the same time. I also realize that the eyes are wildly mis-placed, but I decided to post the drawing anyway. That's the sort of painfully honest approach that we here at Revenge of the Pencil Enterprises have always pursued despite the protestations of friends, family, and legal counsel.

Imagine How Tough This Guy Would Look With a Complete Nose

I took another trip to the Seattle Art Museum today and ended up drawing this Roman sculpture from the 1st-2nd century (that's what it said on the wall text, sorry I can't be more specific) of a "barbarian." This particular barbarian has lost a few bits and pieces over the centuries, but he still looks tough enough to take my lunch money.

Oranges in Ink

Yep. Like the title says, this is a still life in ink with three oranges. I'd like to dedicate this drawing to anyone who thinks the NRA's proposal of armed guards in every school in America is the stupidest thing they've ever heard.

Car on 17th ave, Seattle

This is a car that is permanently parked down the street from my apartment, one of those neighborhood fixtures that I try to get into the sketchbook whenever I can. I've never been much of a car guy, a state of affairs that I think was alternately disappointing and puzzling to my father (a self-professed "gearhead"). That said, they can be fun to draw. There are a lot of interesting perspective challenges involved, several of which I failed to overcome in the present drawing.

Bauhaus Coffee, Day After Thanksgiving

Today my wife and I made the long walk in the rain through our flooded neighborhood to pay a visit to Bauhaus coffee, which is unquestionably one of my favorite places in Seattle. I realize that this drawing doesn't exactly scream "coffee shop" since there are no people and no coffee, so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you that this was in fact drawn while sitting inside such a place. I opted to skip the usual subjects and instead go with the back staircase and the bookshelves against the wall, which really are a substantial part of the experience.

What Americans Think of When They Think of Europe

This is an ink drawing done from a photo in the New York Times travel section. To me, this pretty much sums up the image most Americans have of life in Europe: funny-looking cars and old churches. All that's missing is socialized medicine and a few Italians waving their arms around.

At the Seattle Art Museum with the Urban Sketchers

The Seattle Urban Sketchers had their monthly sketch crawl this morning at the Seattle Art Museum. The drawing at the top is of a sculpture by Yayoi Kusama called "A Pair of Shoes." I'm not sure how well this reads in a pencil drawing, but it's basically a white plaster sculpture of a pair of shoes with rocks, bean bags, and other "mixed media" attached. It's actually kind of a beautiful thing to see in person, I hope I've done it justice.

The second drawing is a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois called "Winged Figure." I'm fairly confident that I did not do this one justice with a pencil sketch, but I'm including it here anyway in the spirit of over-sharing on the internet. This is actually the second time I've drawn one of her sculptures - I think this one from the sculpture garden in New Orleans did a slightly better job of capturing what it's like to actually stand in front of her work.

Here There Be Dragons

Sometimes I take my sketch book to a museum and spend a lot of time wandering around trying to pick something to draw, saying to myself "hey, that looks kind of interesting, but then I also really like that sculpture I saw downstairs. Hmmm... what to do?" Other times, I walk into a room and right there before me is a guy riding a dragon. At that point, the decision is made.

This was my experience when I went to the Seattle Asian Art Museum yesterday afternoon. According to the wall text, this piece dates from the Ming Dynasty somewhere around the 14th century. Apparently this was actually used as a roof tile and there were buildings whose outer walls were covered with them to ward off enemies and bring good fortune to their inhabitants. I'm thinking of asking my landlord if he can put a few of these up on my roof.

Me vs. the Parthenon

This is a pencil drawing of a section of the north frieze of the Parthenon. I actually started this a few months ago but, for reasons known only to the voices in my head, tucked it away in a drawer and only just got around to finishing it. It's not quite the drawing I originally intended (I had grand plans of including a lot more of the details), but in the end I'm pretty happy with it and I think I've reached a point where I need to stop messing with it. I really would like to go to Greece someday.

Have Nothing In Your House That You Do Not Know To Be Useful Or Believe To Be Beautiful

This was drawn from a photo in a book entitled "The Gardens of William Morris" that my friend had in her living room. I'll admit that I didn't know a lot about William Morris before I started flipping through this book and I mostly selected the subject because his beard looked like it would be fun to draw. It turns out that William Morris was actually a pretty righteous individual, as evidenced by the quote I copied on the drawing. For those who can't read my handwriting (which would probably make my third grade teacher hang her head in shame), it says "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." Sound advice.