Dave P's Monday Noon Gesture Emporium

Cures what ails ya.

Sketches posted at the behest of my pal, Jenny.

Pen and marker on some old book (Historical Anthology of Music), tone added in ye old photo-shoppe.

Impromptu Sketchcrawl

On Thursday, a group of friends and I went out sketchbooking--it was pretty great because the day happened to coincide with Worldwide SketchCrawl # 19! We had a fun time, even if the first hour or so was spent drawing each other (and making nerdy conversation in which we decided which superhero each of us was most like).
Oh yeah, AND it was Stacey Bethers' birthday! So I drawled her. Jake took care of her superhero self, here.
Then, because we are attached at the hip, Jake and I went to Sam Hawk where he ordered some mysterious Korean dish that he couldn't pronounce (when at a loss, you can always just point at the menu). While we waited, we drew--what else are you gonna do with down time like that?
THEN, I went to a Cubcouts meeting (I was recently volunteered as the Cub Master of our local pack--which is pretty silly when you consider that the extent of my scouting knowledge is limited to burning plastic grocery sacks over a fire and trying to flick the melty plastic bits at friends). But I did get some drawing done!

I saw these interesting folks at church. Can you believe the strange things some irresponsible parents try to feed their young?
Some sketches from earlier in the day--this is of my good friend, Jeff Call. I can't remember which superhero he would be.

This great moment in time happened at a local bus stop. Come to think of it, lots of great moments in time happen at bus stops.

A Handful of Recent Sketchings

I find that one of the best ways to keep myself on my toes as an artist is to switch up the way I draw things. Since so much of animation, comics, and the like is about finding cool ways to simplify and stylize the figure (or whatever your subject maybe), I like to try new methods in my sketchbook--a great place to experiment and make mistakes.
Also, since I find that I'm not nearly disciplined enough to make changes in my drawing habits on my own, I try to get new materials and tools to draw with to keep me fresh. This latest batch is done with a 3.8 mm nib Pilot Parallel Pen (from my friends at Jetpens.com...that place is a goldmine for cool drawing/writing instruments), which is supposed to be a calligraphy pen, but I thought I'd try it out for this. I'm still drawing in a vintage book that I converted into a sketchbook by gessoing the pages with tinted gesso. This particular book is an old Jehovah's Witnesses tract from the 1960s or 1970s, which makes me smile.

Trees are pretty. I feel like I'm achieving marginal success in ripping off Bill Waterson.
These gestures are done with one of my staples--a Uniball ballpoint (0.5 tip is my favorite).