Another drawing

Here’s another page in my new sketchbook. This is supposed to be a picture of my blogger friend, Carl D’Agostino. (He’s a wonderful cartoonist. Check him out.) When I first started assembling Carl’s face on the page, I was looking at his photo on my laptop. I was sitting in McDonald’s, nursing a milkshake, watching the news, and cruising around on the internet all at the same time. It was a pleasant afternoon. A few hours later, I went back and did most of the shading, fine-tuning, and fiddling — but I didn’t have his photo in front of me at that point. So, unfortunately, the guy in my sketchbook evolved into someone slightly different from Carl. Oh well.

I still plan to draw a few more people I’ve met on WordPress. Drawing portraits and posting them isn’t really the “standard format” of my blog. I’ve just felt like doing it lately. On Monday, I think I’ll post one of the illustrations from my novel and tell you about the ridiculous way I kept myself entertained while I was drawing it. I think it will be an interesting (and somewhat embarrassing) story.

My new sketchbook

When my German friends, Wolfgang and Regine, landed in Georgia last week for a quick visit, they surprised me with a couple of neatly wrapped presents. They gave me a Moleskine sketchbook and a set of Faber-Castell colored pencils in a fancy metal case. (They actually gave me three gifts, if you count the Haribo gummy bears. It was like a mini-Christmas in April.) Even though I was thrilled with all three gifts, my favorite was the sketchbook. I’ve heard a lot of artists talk about Moleskine sketchbooks, but I never knew exactly what they were. Now I have one. The pages are thick and heavy-duty, but soft and smooth at the same time — similar to the card in the back of a library book with all the due-dates stamped on it.

On the first page of my new sketchbook, I drew a caricature of Matt Smith, the current star of Doctor Who. It looked terrible. I almost tore it out, but I didn’t want to cheapen my brand-new sketchbook by ripping out the first page. So I reluctantly left it in there. On the second page, I drew a picture of Billie Piper. This one also turned out to be a hideous train wreck. On the third page, I did a sketch of G.E. Gallas, one of my blogger friends I met here on WordPress. She’s a writer/illustrator who lives in San Francisco. I was actually happy with this one. Tomorrow, I’m going to attempt to draw Carl D’Agostino, a new friend of mine in Miami.

I still plan to draw a few other citizens of the blog universe, but it will take time. I haven’t forgotten you, I promise.