Go Figure! Sketch Night At Rainy Day

This past Saturday was the Go Figure! sketch night held monthly at Rainy Day Art Supply. Megan Morse was our model again this month and she did a great job providing us with different poses to draw upon.

The sketch on the left was a blind contour and the one on the right a not so blind contour drawing.

On the left are some sketches of my fellow artists hard at work.

Always a big thank you to Kelly O'Hara for hosting this sketch night. And as always, it was a great time amongst fellow creatives, including Darin Palmer, Anne Garavaglia, Jay Fosgitt, Kevin Minor, among others. Check out their artwork!

Pipedreams #5

(click on image to make biggish)

Here we have the next Pipdreams strip that Darin Palmer and I had fun creating back in the 90s as a way to vent our frustrations working in a mattress factory. 

There was a pond next door to where we worked that had an assortment of ducks living there. Sometimes in warmer weather we would take our breaks sitting by the pond watching the ducks. A little oasis in an industrial setting. I think we named the nutty duck Simon, but I'm not too sure on that one. A smoking, stressed out duck just cracked us up.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker

9x6 (unframed)

watercolor

That voice. He told us to leave his wife alone. He told us that the Motor city was burning. He told us to huckle up, baby. He told us about one scotch, one bourbon and one beer. And he even told us that he eats heavy metal. And we listened. I know that I did and still do. If there is a musician quite like Hooker was, I'd like to see her or him. Of course, there have been imitators and those inspired by him, but there really was no one quite like him. And one cannot copy that voice. Only mimic it. 

This piece as well as others will be a part of my watercolor portrait show coming up in April at the River's Edge Gallery in Wyandotte, MI. 

Pipedreams #4

(click on image to enlargify)

This is the fourth strip that Darin Palmer (story, inks and colors) and I (story and pencils) did years ago about our time in the sexy and glamorous world of mattress making. These three chaps were modeled after actual employees. The truck in the background? A bit exaggerated, but not too much. Apex Bedding was the name that we gave the place, so, you know, to avoid lawsuits and baseball bat beatings and such. 

Thomas Hart Benton

This here is my most recent watercolor portrait of one of my favorite painters, Thomas Hart Benton. Benton was a regionalist painter who seemed to age like his face was a relic of weather worn strata. I tried to capture that here. He looked like he could chew through anything.

Yet, his paintings were fluid, languid and a palette all his own. He depicted life as it was and that irked a lot of people. As with a lot of people whose work I admire, i never really think that Benton would have liked a person like me much, but the more I learn about him the less I think of him like that. He painted interesting scenes and characters and in turn was an interesting character himself.

This watercolor, as well as others that I have posted here will be in a small show soon. Details forthcoming.

Shiver On The River 2019

I'm a little late in the day for this post, but it's still in time. If you are son inclined, head on down/over/up to Belle Isle (you know the one, that big island in the middle of the Detroit River) for the Shiver on the River event that is held island wide every first Saturday of February. There will be things to do at most of the buildings on the island, including the aquarium. I will be helping out with the marshmallow station out front with some fun volunteers. So, if you like fish and marshmallows, stop on by.