Fountain Pens Make Drawing Fun!

Self Portrait in Pen
Pen and Ink

I drew this in my sketchbook as an entry to the Fountain Pen Day contest.  

I was having a little fun with this by making it look like my self portrait was pulling away from the pen.

Sebastien

Sebastien is my nephew: my brother, Mylo's, son. He is a special boy full of energy and imagination. I am not sure why he is pulling his turtle neck over his face, but he is likely creating a superhero alter-ego.

Sebastien loves to read and write. He fills notebook after notebook with his stories. It is important he has a notebook because if he runs out of paper he will write on any surface he can get his hands on. I noticed, at my brother's Christmas party, that the Kleenex box was covered with writing.

It is always interesting to see what he will come up with next.

Sitting Around Watching Television

I was just sitting around, watching television, and decided to grab my sketchbook instead of my laptop.  

Normally I sit with my laptop on my lap as I watch television. Sometimes I multi-task and work or play as I watch TV, sometimes I watch a movie or other television program during the commercials of the one I am watch live, or sometimes I look up info about the program I watching and/or the actors in the program. I love computers!

However, this time I decided to just draw. The first image, above, is just one of my generic cartoons. It is not very interesting so I added some festive streamers to it and some colour. Still, was not thrilled with the image. Then I decided to draw a "Crumb" girl. Well, sort of in his style, but not quite. Alexander (my son) draws in the Crumb style much better than I.

We watched a three day marathon of The Big Bang Theory. 

I figured I may as well try drawing one of the characters so I sketched Penny, above.  I may revisit this show later and draw all the characters. This can be decided at a later time.

One of the disadvantage of watching three days of the same show is that you end up dreaming about it. It is difficult to turn off your brain so it is like watching the show 24 hours at a time! Ugh. LOL.

Nonetheless, I still enjoy the show.

Graphic Novel Group

The Graphic Novel Group (GNG) meets monthly in the basement of L.A. Mood Comics and Games shop to discuss a graphic novel. It is basically a specialized book club. We really enjoy attending. The conversation is always stimulating and interesting. Sometimes we have guest speakers in the form of graphic novel writers and/or artists.

Normally I just sit and listen, and contribute when I have something to say. This day (November 12, 2011) I had my little sketchbook with me and a pencil so I sketched the people around me.

Anthony always has interesting things to contribute. He is really good at finding meaning in the novels that others miss (okay, I miss). I love listening to him speak.

EDM 56 - Draw a Self Portrait

As much as I hate to admit it, this pretty well looks like what I look like right now.  I would have loved to draw me young, svelte, and beautiful, however, that would have been an illusion at best and a lie at worse.

One of the inevitable things in life is that we age, and our bodies change as we age. Some people age better than others. Me, I look younger than my age, but I certainly look matronly now. I joke that I look like a Portuguese mother now. Of course, I am a Portuguese mother!

The colour red goes beautifully with my olive skin tone. It is a colour I enjoy wearing.

The background is organized chaos. That is more or less what my mind and life is like: organized chaos, with little dangler bits to grab a hold of, now and again.

Generally speaking, life is good.

Sketchbook Cover

EDM 56 - Draw a self portrait

Original self portrait draw with pen and ink, then scanned and manipulated in picnik.com. Finally, it was printed on a clear label sheet, cut to size and pasted on the sketchbook cover. The white areas were painted on the underside of the clear sheet (the sticky side) with liquid paper before pasting it onto the front cover of the book.

For the most part, this sketchbook will incorporated the Everyday Matter challenges, while documenting a small cross-section of my life's timeline.  It will be a time-capsule, of sorts.

--Originally posted on Ana's Ramblings & Art Corner on August 28, 2011