Photoshop is a Ninja.

Just messing around with a sketch to sharpen my Photoshop kung-fu.

Sketch:



Photoshop:

Happy New Year

6 days late and a ten spot short, but better late than never? I don't guess it matters too much, because I already emailed all 6 of my readers and let them know the update would be a little late.

I had a very eventful holiday break. I made a few sketches on the plane ride out and back. It's a great way to get the person next to you to stare at your tray table incessantly. I hate that part, but I really love passing time on the plane by making drawings.

I was at the airport early to death to catch my flight out to L.A. I was feeling surly and unfairly judgmental, so I lashed out with my usual brand of judgmental cynicism. In the first sketch I thought I'd use my neighbors to either side of me at the gate as make-believe competitors in the game of life. whatever. I was super sleepy still and the coffee I'd just bought for $5.72 was so hot, it was probably against FAA regs on account of being able to melt through the aluminum fuselage of a commercial plane.



I'm still feeling surly while drawing the next one, and the confines of the small hopper jet that I was on didn't help. I was feeling mad. No reason for real, but I was definitely still looking at the glass as half empty. Not my coffee cup, though. That junk was still nuclear.



Aaaaaaah. Starting to calm down. It's a good thing too, because I was considering drawing the word "terrorist" in my sketchbook just to see if anything would happen. In the nick of time, I noticed the dude sleeping next to me had an interesting profile. Profiles are a pretty sweet way to catch a likeness. Sorry for talking smack on you earlier, dude. Way to hold still.



I'm not a graffiti artist, but I love it like crazy. Truth is, I'm not into going down for my art like that. I don't need a damned arrest record. I need a job. Khah'm Sayin'? Anyway. I love letters and fonts and the fact that so many people are dedicated to crafting new ones, and abstracting the hell out of the written word, all the while flying the finger to the man and risking civil liberties. It's beautiful.



Tattoo stuff. I'm obsessed with lightning bolts. Traditional tattoos are great too, and I love them for their simplicity. It's time to get out the machines again and start making my friends more colorful.



Connecting flight, another unknowing victim.



And wrapping up the return flight with a couple more tattoo-type sketches. Nothing earth-shatteringly unique, just paying homage. In the first one here, the A & C stand for Allison and Casey. Yes, I love Allison. If there had been a tree on board, I'd have carved our names in it, but then I'd have to have sneaked a pocket knife aboard, too. Or maybe carve it with a soda can tab or some crap. I don't care, I'd have done it.



On the descent into RDU. Later, vacation. . .



I liked having just a few colored pencils with me on vacation. The limited palette was fun to work with, and made me think more simply. Like that's hard to do. I'm so damned simple, it's ridiculous.