Drawn to Distraction

This is my second stab at drawing my FB friends he’s my nephew Nick Parks but his um “nickname” is Chester. He is a really creative musician and artist now living in Portland, Oregon.

I like “comfort” movies. Comfort movies are like old friends that just let you be yourself and don’t judge or guilt you out they just bring comfort and a sweet sadness that makes you feel not-so-alone. One of my favorite comfort movies is Amalie which I watched last night and so today I felt compelled to sketch her from the bit where she’s in the photo booth in the Zorro costume.

Audrey as Amalie as Zorro

Back in the day 2 of my best buds Mark and Jeff used to have plenty of “arty” adventures, including making arty short films on video. My favorite title was “Burnt Pogens” I was thinking of them in light of my “draw all my pals on Face Book” project and Imagined what if there was an animated documentary on the life and times of Mark & Jeff. It would have to be called Burnt Pogens, so here is my rough idea of what they would look like as animated characters. I scratched these out from memory so unfortunately I don’t have any photo reference to show, but I think I caught their spirit pretty well.

Mark & Jeff circa 1980

My friend and amazing photographer RJ was in the studio today so I scratched out a sketch.
If you need a fashion photographer he’s top notch so hire him before he hits the big time and you can’t afford him.
Go check out his work, there’s a link to his site on the right column under Friends.

RJ LaMendola

I had the pleasure of watching the Martin Scorsesi documentary on George Harrison “Living in the Material World” with one of my oldest friends. Both of us being long time fans of Harrison were not disappointed and I recommend it to anyone interested in who the man really was. As I watched, of course I had to scratch out a portrait. Cheers.

George Harrison circa early seventies

A couple of nights ago I watched two bio-pics back to back while I was working on the computer, one on Thomas Merton and one on R. Crumb. It made me aware very colorfully the two spheres of motivation -our upper and the lower selves. Here is a quick sketch of Merton I will add a Crumb sketch later.

Both these men were artists and both were very aware of their political surroundings but they took entirely different approaches to expressing themselves and commenting on the culture. Two very interesting people.

Thomas Merton

Robert Crumb

My friend Scott pointed out yesterday I had neglected to produce a Crumb sketch so I doodled this out today.

A bright spot in a pretty crummy day, this sketch came out of nowhere, and I like it.

Where did all HP Lovecraft's ideas come from?

I heard it’s Star Wars day today

I was doodling away when whaddayaknow an accidental portrait of Lyle Lovett popped out of my pencil. -I love it when that happens.

Accidental Portrait of Lyle Lovett

30 years ago today