Category: sketchbook

drinks diary 16 & 17 january 2014

sb14-1-16

Ballpoint pen in every colour my beloved Zebra F-301 comes in: black, blue, red, and green. Plus a few markers and yellow highlighter.

The Money Train was a special feature that came around occasionally back when I was working all-night volunteer shifts at the bingo hall on behalf of Artcite, our local artist run centre (link: Artcite Inc). I don’t know if I was ever actually present when the Money Train arrived (if I was, it will turn up in this book eventually) but it features heavily in this sketchbook and the big blue one, both of which I used to bring to the bingo and draw in during our significant chunks of downtime.

This was also a period in our lives when we used to put my partner’s daughter on the Greyhound bus every other Friday to go stay with her mom in another city, and after the bus we’d eat pizza at Terra Cotta (link: Terra Cotta Pizzeria) and share a half litre of red wine. Back then I only had about a 50% chance of getting a migraine from drinking red wine; now it’s more like 100%. And yes, that song lyric is misquoted, whoopsie!

drinks diary, 11 january 2014

sb14-1-11

A dragon tree in a commode and coffee at the Maple Leaf Diner, the one and only time I’ve ever been there (for a meeting with the roller derby league board of directors). I feel like I may have actually drawn that plant in my partner’s office in the library, though, because he used to have a dragon tree in a commode that died when the first covid lockdown happened.

Drawn with all the Zebra F-301 colours: blue, black, red, green.

blue sketchbook, pages 24 & 25

page24-25

Red winged blackbirds, male and female, and a giant bird head. This was the first sketch I made while thinking about a design for my chest tattoo. KEEP IT BEAUTIFUL was the slogan on Ontario license plates produced between 1976 and 1982 and I guess it’s about littering on the highways but I’ve always thought it was a good philosophy to live by and I don’t know how many people know where it comes from when they see it on my clavicle.

Ballpoint pen and gesso over top of an older drawing of ballpoint pen and coloured markers.

drinks diary, 4 january 2014

This 4×6″ black hardcover sketchbook was filled between 4 January 2014 and 4 January 2015 and contains a drawing of everything I drank outside my own home that year.

sb14-1-4

I started drawing in a fresh sketchbook while sitting in the Exeter Lions Youth Centre after my cousin Jon’s funeral, watching beads of coffee leak through the side of a styrofoam cup on the table in front of me.

Drawn with blue and red ballpoint pen (0.7mm Zebra F-301, for the pen nerds).

blue sketchbook, page 20 & 21

page20-21

Ballpoint pen, markers, white gel pen. Portrait of a random stranger, from their social media profile picture.

I remember drawing this page while working the midnight sessions at the bingo, listening to the ladies who ran bingos for various charities talking about the city’s cracking down on how many charities each of them could volunteer for. It was stupid and short sighted but, welcome to Windsor.

blue sketchbook, pages 18 & 19

page18-19

Ballpoint pen, blue highlighter marker, and crusty ancient Letraset letters. Everything else is bleed through from the preceding and following pages.

I drew this little cartoon of José Mourinho after one of his whiny press conferences where he accused the match officials of bias against his team, muttering “por qué, por qué” while shaking his head and rolling his eyes around. It may have been after the 5-0 defeat to FC Barcelona on Matchday 13 of the 2010/11 season, or after some other time Barça beat them. At one of those matches around that time, a Barça fan in the crowd help up a sign that said MOURINHO, HOY, MAÑANA, Y SIEMPRE: TRADUCTOR and I’m still laughing about it.

blue sketchbook pages 16 & 17

page16-17

Howdy friends, it’s been a while!

Here’s another spread from that blue sketchbook. Ballpoint pen, white gel pen, and colour markers of varying quality. Those floating rings reminded me of meat, mac, & cheese, something with which I had a sick fascination as a kid but which I have never eaten (because, ew).

“Peking Duck in Lotus Land” was the title of a painting by an unknown Chinese artist, one of a small collection that were for sale in a gallery I used to work at in the late 90s. The painting depicted a line of ducks zigzagging along a winding river between giant lotus plants and I desperately wanted it but couldn’t afford it because I was in my 20s and working several part-time jobs. I still regret not buying it but, oh well.

blue sketchbook pages 14 & 15

page14-15

A droopy eyebird, a gold lamé doughnut explosion in space, and a super sheen comet.

Ballpoint pen, markers, gesso, metallic gold paint pen, old wooden thread spool label.

Up in the attic I have a big sparkly round gold lamé tablecloth with a single cigarette burn in it, given to me 25 years ago by my cousin Chris back when he was working for a party rental company. I’ve been hanging onto it all this time waiting for the perfect project. Throwing it on as a cape and going as Rick Wakeman for Hallowe’en has always been high on my mental list of options, but my hair is all wrong and also, I can’t play piano.