22. The Dude

The Dude abides.

Someone suggested I draw the Dude, I forget who.

Really liked this.  Felt like a breakthrough.  It was the best I could possibly do at that particular moment in time.  So - a good day.

I never work in this style any more.  I find it restrictive and hard to pull off effectively.  And it's slightly generic.  But I got lucky with the Dude.  Sometimes that's enough.

21. Jobi

Jobi is my best friend.

It’s strange but true.  I’m a middle-aged white dude and she’s a young Mexicana.  We worked together for 5 years at a small law firm.  She’s the best kind of friend, listens to my stupid crap, laughs at my jokes, and sometimes gets mad at me and won’t talk to me for weeks on end.  She’s smart, cute, short, proud, shy, hard-working, ambitious, bi-lingual, fearless, phobic, angry and pious.  She’s going to have a great life and do great things.  I love her and I’m very proud of her. 

Gosh - I hope she never reads this, she hates mushy stuff.

Drawing is okay.  She didn’t like it that much.  And I knew I could do better, so I later made amends to Jobi.

20. Bowie

David Jones.  Major Tom.  Ziggy.  The Thin White Duke.  There’s Old Wave. There’s New Wave.  And there’s David Bowie…

First Bowie song I ever heard was Fame.  First Bowie album I ever bought was Heroes.  I played Diamond Dogs so many times I wore out 3 copies.  It still sounds great.

I’ve drawn Bowie many times.  I had a Bowie drawing in my portfolio when I applied to RISD. 

This one turned out okay.  It’s slightly exaggerated – or badly drawn, I forget which.  Either way, I was trying to do something that I still couldn’t pull off yet.  I was still struggling, still stiff – even after 20 drawings.  Progress is so slow.  We do, and keep doing.

So I later made amends to Bowie.

19. Scott

Another of my oldest friends.  We've been housemates, co-workers, best friends. Great sense of humor, whip-smart, practical, neurotic, intense, one of a kind.  My life would not be the same without him.

So I felt really bad when I made this shitty drawing.  I picked the wrong photo.  Did a bad job.  Very unflattering.  Had a hard time drawing the glasses.  Hate drawing glasses.  Not much else to say.

   

Except, I later made amends to Scott.

18. Edward Hopper

One of my Art Gods.  If you know his work you know what I’m talking about, but if you don’t, check it out.  So great.

He was an illustrator who became a fine artist and that always inspires me.  Like Winslow Homer, Michelangelo, Toulouse Lautrec, Andy Warhol.    Hopper’s work has an oblique detached approach that somehow manages to be intensely emotional.  But not sentimental.  His style is flawless and technically amazing.  He taught me that whatever you’re attempting to do, the underlying drawing needs to be perfect.  The architecture needs to be sound. 

This turned out okay.  Not as bad as Jossie, but still.  The only advantage I had was nobody knows what this guy looks like.  Edward Hopper.  This guy. 

17. Jossie

Jossie is the sister of my best friend Jobi.

Soft-hearted, romantic, defiant, with the most amazing face.  A classic beauty.

Which you would never know from looking at this drawing.  It’s terrible, almost as bad as the drawing of Bill (#9).  Like Bill, Jossie has very distinctive features and I thought drawing her was going to be easy.  I knew what I wanted to do, I had decent reference…but I just didn’t have the skills at the time to pull it off.  (I later made amends to Jossie.)

You can rationalize bad drawings in any number of ways.  In the context of this project they were inevitable.  And necessary.  The reason I was doing this was to get better.  You have to hit the wall before you can break through the wall.  To improve you have to exceed the limit of your abilities.  If I was doing this portrait now, I would immediately scrap this and start over.  But that wasn’t an option.  And it wouldn’t have made a difference, because I just didn’t have it that night.  Da truth!

And there was more badness to come.

16. Quin

My super-suave nephew.  Gerry’s son.  Yalie.  Speaks fluent Mandarin.

Right after I got out of college I lived with my brother for a short time.  Quin had just turned one.  He was a great little baby.  Used to love to make him laugh.  Now look at him, all grown up.  Tempus Fugit.

A big influence on me as an artist is the legendary illustrator David Johnson.  When I was growing up he used to be a regular contributor to the NYT Book Review and every week his portraits were so incredible- the line work, the draftsmanship, the graphic precision- it made me want to be an illustrator.  So, the drawing of Quin is my homage to DJ in a way.

I became facebook friends with Mr. Johnson a couple of years ago.  He’s still doing amazing work and blowing me away every time.  Every now and then he “likes” one of my portraits.  I can’t tell you how that feels.  It’s like Paul McCartney telling you he likes the new song you wrote.