New Year's Eve Self Portrait

We've come to the end of another year, and what better way to mark the occasion than with a self portrait? OK, there probably are better ways, but not too many that can be accomplished using only my bathroom mirror and a set of pencils. If you're reading this, I hope 2014 is good to you.

Please Do Not Eat the Butterflies

This is an ink drawing of a crocodile with a mouth full of butterflies, taken from a photo in the Nature Conservancy calendar. Why the crocodile isn't just chowing down on the butterflies is a mystery to me. They eat pretty much anything, right? I certainly would if I were a crocodile. I suppose it's a good thing for the butterflies of this world that I was born to a species that prefers beer and nachos.

Coal Sifting Plant

This is an ink drawing of an abandoned coal sifting plant from a great set of photos I found on Flickr of old machine shops. The original photo is still up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjbacha/6535484845/in/faves-32535921@N08/ if anyone is interested in doing a comparison and pointing out all of the inaccuracies. I've been doing a lot of figure drawing lately and it was interesting to step away for that and draw something with straight lines.

Me vs. Michelangelo

This is a detail from a panel in the Sistine Chapel called "The Sacrifice of Noah." I did this with charcoal pencil in the trusty oatmeal sketchbook. Yeah, Michelangelo was pretty good.

Bill Nye the Science Guy

This is Bill Nye, drawn in charcoal pencil from a photo in Seattle Met magazine. I have a warm spot in my heart for people who bring science into popular culture. I think our country could use a lot more of that to stave off the superstition and ignorance that makes me want to hang my head and weep every time I hear someone on Fox News talking about global warming. This image is also dedicated to Congressman Paul "Lies Straight From The Pit Of Hell" Broun. Man, I'm really on my soapbox today. It's getting slippery up here with all this soap and outrage, so I'll step down now and get back to drawing, coffee-drinking, and voting for people who don't want to shut down the government.

Short poses at Art Not Terminal

I went back to the life drawing session at Art Not Terminal yesterday and, as usual, the model was great and there was a room full of people who were doing really amazing work. These were shorter poses, starting with five minutes and going up to 20. I think it did me a lot of good to try to work more quickly and focus on gesture. The images above were from a 12 minute pose and a 20 minute pose, done with charcoal pencil on newsprint.

Greek Sculpture at the Seattle Art Museum

I went back to the Seattle Art Museum last weekend to pay a visit to the little room upstairs with the Greek sculpture. According to the wall text, this is the head of a woman from a grave site, dating around 350 BC. This was done with charcoal pencil on oatmeal paper.

This Sheep Isn't Taking Any of Your Guff

I saw this sheep in a nature magazine and thought, there's a sheep with serious things on its mind. I'm not sure what those things are, but I feel like they must be serious. Perhaps things along the lines of "please do not turn me into a plate of mutton." We'll never know for sure what, if anything, is going through this sheep's tiny brain, but that piercing stare makes it the Lee Marvin of the barnyard.

Life Drawing at Art Not Terminal

Another rainy Saturday in Seattle spent with the good people at the Art Not Terminal gallery. This was a longer pose that I worked on for the better part of two hours. Honestly, I don't think it looks all that different from the poses I work on for 40 minutes, although I did get into a bit more detail on the hands and feet.

A side note - I realize that this image is a little blurry and a little on the yellow side. This is because I took a photo in my apartment with overhead light on a dark, rainy afternoon using the camera on my iPhone. I cleaned it up as best I could in Photoshop, but it still looks a little rough. Any suggestions on how I can get better photos of my work, short of investing in a better camera or some fancy studio lights, would be much appreciated.

Party Time Again

In the immortal words of the Jazz Butcher: it's party time, better than a cold bath with someone you dislike. The party in question is, of course, Julia Kay's Portait Party. It's been a few weeks since I've checked in there, and what better way than with a sketch of a lovely woman with truly spectacular eyebrows. I hope I've done them justice.

Sketching at the Burke Museum of Natural History

Yesterday I took a trip to the Burke Museum of Natural History with a few friends from work. There are tons of amazing things to draw there, including the Daring Sword Ray (pictured at top). Someday I want to discover an extinct animal just so I can give it a name prefaced with the word "Daring." I suppose I could just re-name this blog "Daring Revenge of the Pencil," but somehow that just doesn't have the same ring to it. I also took a crack at the Stegosaurus skeleton and, while there are some parts of the drawing I'm happy with, I do wish I'd laid out the composition a bit more carefully at the beginning so it didn't run off the page in such an awkward fashion. It sort of grew in the drawing, as the mighty stegosaurus is wont to do. Who's going to argue with a stegosaurus if it wants to wander off the top of the page? Not me, obviously.

Return to the Portrait Party

One of the best things ever on the internet is the Flickr group Julia Kay's Portrait Party. Yes, I know I've talked about this before, but it's been a while and it bears repeating. It's a fairly simple idea - people post pictures of themselves, other people draw them and post their drawings. It has turned into a very active group over the years with some really remarkable work. It's also one of those things that's always out there when I feel like I want to draw but can't seem to think of a subject. These are a few of my recent efforts, all of which were done pretty quickly. I tend to treat these as a way to mess around with materials or techniques that I normally wouldn't use - an ink drawing all in line? An excessive amount of white conte on top of a charcoal drawing? Sure, why not.

That Gum You Like is Going to Come Back in Style

This is an attempt at David Lynch in charcoal pencil. I may have inadvertently added a few extra pounds around the neck, but I like to think that I have captured at least a little of his essential Lynch-ness. I still have no idea what to make of "Lost Highway."

House on 15th ave, Seattle

I've been walking by this house for a couple of years now and I've always wanted to stop and sketch it. It's got that "just run down enough" feel that gives it a lot of personality without making it look abandoned or haunted. My neighborhood could use a little more of that sort of thing. I did most of this on location from across the street, although I did finish off a bit of the detail from a photo when I got home.

Back at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, Plus the Tragic Death of the Oatmeal Sketchbook

Yesterday I went down to the Seattle Asian Art Museum for a little sketching with a friend. It's always nice to draw with a friend, both because you can see how another person approaches similar problems and also because it reduces my tendency to mutter to myself while I draw, which means I get fewer suspicious stares from museum security guards who probably all think I'm about to snap and start drawing mustaches on the thousand year-old sculptures (in fairness, there were a few that really would look better that way). Anyway, the top one is a detail in ink of a piece titled "Buddha and Two Bodhisattvas" (sorry, I didn't have the time or energy to draw the bodhisattvas, so the Buddha is all you get) from Pakistan in the 2nd-3rd century. The bottom drawing was done with charcoal pencil from a near life-size Chinese sculpture labeled as "Monk at the Moment of Enlightenment" from the 14th century.

There is a tragic end note to this expedition. My oatmeal sketch book from Utrecht finally gave up the ghost midway through the day with about eight pages left blank. The paper is fine, but a year or so bouncing around in my Dickies bag has left the spiral binding in a state where the book is now impossible to open or close without damaging the pages. I'm really fond of these sketchbooks and I went ahead and ordered another one from Utrecht, this time hardbound to avoid a repeat of the Tragic Death of the Spiral Binding. I should note that I am no way employed by Utrecht Art, but if they wanted to send me a few bucks for the endorsement I wouldn't complain.