But when you look at this drawing… is it really black and white? I once met someone who emphatically stated ”she couldn’t understand why I would waste my time with black and white. What a shame you couldn’t paint the cowboy starting the fire.”

After first hiding my shock, I asked her if she couldn’t see the yellow slicker the cowboy was wearing… could she not see the dark green shadows of the trees in the background… and could you not see the billowing gray smoke coming from the makings of a fire?

She admitted that those colors were not something she could make out. I showed her a piece of artwork of a friend of mine. She is a lovely person, and I respect that she sells her artwork. But truthfully, its not what I enjoy. She paints purple cactuses, pink cows and other boldly-colored canvases. The girl immediately came to life, and I could tell she instantly loved my friends work.

I am amazed that some people are not able to let their imagination run wild and visualize with their minds eyes the colors within a graphite drawing. I urge you to take a look, and let your imagination run wild… see what you can without the urging of the artist to paint purple cactus and pink cows.

“Cat Pose”          12″ x 9″          Graphite on paper

About 9 hours into this so far. Not very skilled with hair, we will see how it turns out.

9″ x 12″          Graphite on paper

Graphite and charcoal portrait drawn by my daughter, Miho. 2012. Her name means ” preservation of beauty” in Japanese. And in Chinese.

9″ x 12″     Graphite on paper

And it will happen. Always does. Patience and urgency, laziness and obsession are all in a little wrestling match inside me most of the time, and each wins occasionally. What really matters in the end is, I suppose that eventually I win. So yes, I’ll be drawing again soon.

Whatever it takes to keep me entertained and happy, don’t you know.

All I can say in response to this is that (a) I have managed to live a remarkably happy life and get a few useful things done along the way despite these obvious shortcomings of mine and (b) conformity is highly overrated. Oh, and (c): thanks to my wilfulness, I did get to grow up (relatively speaking, anyway) and follow a ‘career’ path that takes full advantage of–even encourages–such Frivolity as woolgathering, lollygagging and other highly refined forms of daydreaming. I’m an artist, y’all. So you will just have to sit by and suck it up when I choose to so use and/or abuse my time on a continuing basis. I take the liberty of assuming that if you’ve shown up here, and especially, if you’ve come by and still bother to return after seeing what I’m doing (or not doing), then you evidently either condone or at least tolerate such shenanigans on my part.

In that spirit, I’ll hand over, if not my actual homework for the day, a doodle of some other fanciful daydreamer, and we’ll call it good. Or good enough! And I wish you all, in turn, the freedom and ample opportunities to live in your own little fantasy worlds too, and if it suits you, to produce nothing more pertinent than whatever odd little items appear as evidence of these flighty fun activities of yours. Because I’m here to tell you, it’s a mighty fine way to have a life, even if it doesn’t make you a living.

Cheers!

This drawing was started in September and completed late October. As you can see, everything starts with the face, especially getting the eyes correct. Sometimes, as with this drawing, I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with the background.  With this particular drawing, it sort of developed all on its own. I think the background on this really enhances the movement of the horse.

The finished drawing is 16 x 20, and is framed in a wonderful western-style frame with triple matting.

9″ x 12″          Graphite on paper