Working In Light Rain, And With Light

• $9.50 Singing In Rain
• Latest Sketch Almost Done

Overworked; Ruined?

I went out this past (Friday) night to play.

There was a very light rain at 10:10 PM, when I left.

When I got into the Quarter, I made a turn towards Canal Street, where David the water jug player usually hangs out.

He was in his usual spot. He asked me if I had any weed after greeting me.

I didn't have any weed, and I only had 61 cents.

In the worst case, I would spend the 61 cents on a can of cat food for Harold and go back home, should I not make a cent, I thought, as I watched the rain continue to fall very lightly.

I tuned David's guitar for him and then headed for the Lilly pad, after turning down his offer of a half pint of vodka. I had had to remind him, yet again, that I have stopped drinking "for about 11 months, now," I updated him.

As soon as I went around the corner and into the alley where "everybody" goes to smoke weed, I started to study the ground and, sure enough, found a small roach from a blunt. Then, when I got to the Quartermaster to pick up a milk crate, there was another even larger roach of some potent stuff laying right by where I usually put my bike as I am grabbing the crate.

Then, I made about $9.50 playing for about an hour and a half until the rain, which was little more than a mist, finally started to accumulate into droplets on the guitar.

I bought a can of cat food for Harold and was given a cup of coffee by Michelle, at the Quartermaster, and I rode back home through the mist.

I got home at about 1:30 AM, thinking that I had just over 46 hours to wait before my food card is charged, and worked upon completing the pencil sketch which I am going to send to my friend Jennifer and her daughter, Jasmine, as a Christmas gift. As soon as I make the money to buy the shipping materials and postage. I'll message her on Facebook, to ask where I can send "a Christmas gift."

Just have to put some kind of shirt on Jennifer...

I have a habit of overworking a drawing.

I stare at them from across the room, getting up every 5 minutes to modify them.

If I could get some fine powdered graphite and some Q-tips, I think I could shade a lot better. Who knows; when I eventually Google "pencil sketching supplies," I'm sure there will be something like that available. It would save having to press super hard with a pencil in order to super darken an area.

OK, I just went to a pencil drawing website and learned that I could be using charcoal, in addition to, or instead of, graphite, or using something called "conté." That is good news.

Also, there are things called "blending stumps," which I should have thought about making my own of. These are for spreading the graphite in order to make smoother transitions between light and dark, and are much more precise than using a finger, due to their pointed tips. There are similar tools called "tortillions." This was good news.

They also, though, had several examples of fine pencil art, as well as a video demonstrating the use of the blending stump. This was almost bad as, just when you think you have done a pretty good drawing, you see the amazing stuff that the guys who draw every day are producing, and you understand that these guys probably took whole semester courses with names like: "Drawing the human eye 201," and this could almost discourage you from sending your amateurish picture as a gift.


In looking at the above, I think if I can blur the background so it becomes more ambiguous, then it won't distract from the subjects as much. Boy, would a tortillion come in handy for that!

Does The Background Ruin Drawing By Making It Too "Busy?"

I ruined my first attempt by using a decrepit eraser, which marred things instead of erasing them.

This latest drawing (above) I had not overworked and ruined until I decided to add a background. The background is kind of a composite of the backgrounds seen among the set of photos from the particular outing that I chose to draw off of.

For the first time, I looked at more than one picture to see the subject from different angles, and in different lighting.

I had more than one picture to study, where Jennifer and Jasmine are sitting next to each other in the pose, but I took Jasmine from one, and Jennifer from a different one. It will be interesting to see if they notice such a small detail as Jennifer posing in front of a fountain, but wearing the sweatshirt that she had only put on later for their pose at the skating rink..