Had a lunch-time sketch session today with the famous Joe Sanabria!

That's right...I'm just gonna post this as if I've been servicing this blog all along....

Remember folks, these are inks, straight up, done from life--no safety net!

Unless you count Photoshop. Which I use sparingly.

But still! No net!

Except Photoshop!

Rest easy, for this particular drawing had no Photoshop intervention.

Oh wait, it did. On the jaw.....

It looks like he knows I was lying.

Talking into a voice-recorder. In the Starbucks. He looks very Edward R. Murrow here, doesn't he?

"This is...El Segundo."

Men's hairstyles like this are funny. Especially when they find their way onto the heads of men who aren't obvious fashion plates.

I'm sure it's just jealousy speaking here (I'm cue-ball bald), but mousse'ed up approximations of bed-head (or mohawks!) on grown men just strike me as...coy, I guess. It's fine on yesterday's subject. But picture him ten years on still styling the same 'do. Hmmm.....

Can you tell he's about to order?

I know, this was drawn yesterday. Some days I draw it and post it right away, some days there's a lag. But truth be told, I liked this one too much not to share it.
Also, I'm getting a late start today. Last night I was up too late watching the Stanley Cup Finals, (despite the game going to triple overtime, it has been the suckiest Finals I've seen in a long time. Doesn't help that I hate the Red Wings).

Not mean enough.

Just mean.

I've been late posting, an online sin as inexcusable as it is pervasive.

On this day, I accompanied Dear Wife to the Getty Research Library where she researched and wrote, and I libraried and worked on the upcoming "Paris Sketches" book (it's promising!). We rewarded ourselves with a screening of the new Claude Lelouch film, "Roman de Gare" ("Train Tracks," I think), and IT WAS FANTASTIC. The best movie I've seen in a long while. And not for obscure or avant-garde reasons--it's great for the same reasons Hollywood movies of the '40's-'60's are great. There's the pure pleasure of suspense, AND SO MUCH MORE. Maybe it's so good because it seems like it's made by people who have lived some life, not just "life-in-Hollywood."

Highly recommended.

Spotted on Friday, drawn on Monday. I'm working on drawing from memory.

I think he was pitching a video game.

The lack of posts lately is inexcusable. My apologies.

I just couldn't get anything going this morning.

The Starbucks Sisters were working at the 'Gundo. One day I will have to draw them. You may have noticed that I rarely draw any of the employees--it just strikes me as bad form somehow. I'm trying to stay on the best terms possible, but sitting down and drawing for long stretches in somebody else's place of work makes me uncomfortable--and very self-conscious. Today it affected me to the point where I was blocked.

Normally I can establish some sort of rapport with anyone I come into regular contact with (Ellis will testify to this--I'm very personable). But I find that impossible to do when I'm on a drawing mission. With pen in hand, I become aloof. I feel self-conscious. To me anonymity is best for this sort of work.

It was easier when I was going to new SBUX every day.

45ish with two kids in the age range of 4-10.

Note unlaced Converse shoes.

Nothing wrong with that....

I'm just saying!

I've got a much better post up at the world-renowned TAG Blog today.

A little "grotesque" thing going on today. Any loveliness was consciously suppressed.

Beach weather is back. Bikinis under tank tops and shorts. The flapping of flip-flops everywhere.

This morning it felt like a holiday. The fellas at the Douglas & Rosecrans SBUX commented on it, too. Light traffic this AM until about 9:30.

A man was rooting through the shelves of merchandise and managed to upset a large glass coffee pot--it was empty, but on its way down it collided with his cup of coffee and both exploded on the tile floor. Good stuff. The manager (depicted here last Tuesday toting a bag of beans) was right on it.

No other casualties to report. (And yes, I finagled the fingers in Photoshop.)

Why does this man look so forlorn?

He forgot to vote in yesterday's poll!

Remember, only you can prevent bad caricatures.

'Tis a narrow patch o' turf between the human and the grotesque...

I'm not a brave man. When I'm drawing someone, and they suddenly make some movement toward me--an instant sheet of scarlet shame and sweat breaks out on me. That's when I know I've gone too far.

That little sliver of turf is well trod lately, and going slightly brown.

"Impatience at the coffee bar." The feet are not consistent. But they should be.

Observed two days ago. A rare break with my "drawn this morning, posted before noon" policy.

This is the manager of the Douglas & Rosecrans SBUX. I am going for a more obviously stylized style, more like Marlo Meekins (the greatest caricaturist of all time)(look at her stuff and then look at this and you can see how tame my work is).

I made a couple of bad studies from life trying to get this sort of look, then came home, worked on it some more, and finally came up with this.

Funny is hard work. And I don't even think this is as funny as my "normal" style. But I'm always very dissatisfied with my whole-body shapes/compositions, so this drawing is a step toward improving that aspect.

Mornings can be a difficult time.

p.s. he was with his mother.

This blog is now officially being rolled out.

There has been interest expressed in the beverage I drink while sketching at (typically) Starbucks (henceforth referred to as SBUX). I have been holding steady with a Venti (the large) iced vanilla latte--but with just half the vanilla syrup (3 pumps instead of 6).

My hands were shaky today. Too much caffeine...or not enough?

What a bad sketch morning. The 'Gundo SBUX was packed, but I never came to grips with thes churning pageant of coffee people. It is a mysterious thing, drawing--I've had a good streak the last few days, and then this morning--pffft.

Maybe I was too distracted trying to eavesdrop on the hushed conversation going on next to me. Two ladies, one looking like the adult daughter, the other like her mother, (though I am sure this was not their relationship), met each other in the long line and then sat beside me for almost an hour....

(Yes, I know, almost an hour sketching and this dull strip was the only thing I'm willing to post--I even started a second page--all dog bones--and then the sketchbook cried, "Have mercy! This paper is dying for nothing!").

I love to listen in on other people's conversations, (doesn't everyone?), but I have very poor hearing--a frustrating combination. The girl was intriguing, nicely dressed, good looking, no wedding ring--but near as I could tell, they spent most of the hour talking about real estate. What is this world coming to? Shouldn't they be sharing all sorts of guy-centric salaciousness?

OK, it was just a bad morning.