…I was going nowhere.
My band was a failure. That’s what I wanted out of life – music.
We broke up and I was tired of it all. 10 years – 2 with someone else’s band and 8 with my own. With very little to show for it.
Yeah, we filmed some music videos. I got really good at guitar. I learned how to read notes. I even learned orchestration.
But it felt like it was all for naught.
Then I saw her in a coffee shop.
When I first laid eyes on her, I kind of knew. Do you ever get an intuition when you first meet someone that that person would be a big part of your life?
I got that intuition several times and each time, I was right.
She was shy. Her face buried in a book.
“What are you reading?”
She looked up and told me. It was something I’ve never heard of.
“Any good?”
We made small talk. But I felt she felt comfortable with me.
We became friends fast. Too fast.
Draw
I liked drawing. It’s one of those skill sets that you can do anywhere. All you need is a pencil and something to write on.
Even when I did my cartoons back in the 2000s. Yeah, computers made everything easier. But I liked sketching out the scenes by hand.
We ended up not speaking to each other for months. Nobody’s fault. Just too close too fast.
Then out of the blue, she contacts me again. And all is well. Water under the bridge.
Girls are weird.
Basics
I don’t even have a drawing set. I simply use #2 pencils, American made of course, an eraser, and my fingers to smear. You can buy these pencils at Target in the school supplies section.
Yeah, Roxy isn’t in there. That’s because I’m drawing her full body on a large format drawing paper.
I’m taking some time off painting to get back to basics.
I got five models. I got a lot of reference pics of each one.
Before we moved out of that shithole, I took hundreds of pictures of Allie, Roxy, and Sophia. I’m eternally grateful to those 3 girls.
Then of course, met Diana in Romania last year and Katie in Dallas this year.
In person, I draw them. Yes, reference photographs too. But there’s nothing like the old pencil and paper.
You can capture so much more with a pencil drawing than you can with a photograph. If you know what you’re doing of course.
Every once in awhile, you need to return to basics. No matter what your passion is.
So for the next few weeks, maybe longer, it will be just #2 pencils, an eraser, and things to draw on.