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Today I was commissioned to paint a small mural that’ll serve as a backdrop for an internet tv show. The mural will feature San Jose landmarks, the Capitol Drive Ins, SAP Center and the Tropicana Shopping Center and Emma Prusch farm on Story & King Road. It also includes the street signs for Tully Rd, Monterey Rd and Seven Trees Blvd. all per the client’s request. These are the rough & colored sketches. Next, I’ll redraw the artwork and get it finalized before transferring it on the wall.   After an eventful week it’s “back to life, back to reality.” That meant cleaning & chores. This weekend I’ll be live-painting again with my friends in TWC (Together We Create) at Viva Calle. That’s where they close down a few miles of city streets to car traffic and open it up to bicyclists, pedestrians & skaters. We’ll be posted on one of those streets painting 8’x8’ mini murals. I need to figure out what I’m going to paint before Sunday.
Two things I love to do. I bring a small sketchbook with me when I hike so I can draw when I stop for rest breaks. I’ve been thinking about inviting others to join me but I don't know anybody else that likes to do both. Little baby sketches from my hike earlier. I was thinking of different layouts & ideas for zines I spent most of the day running errands but I made time to draw & ink this little diddly. I’m not really feeling what’s going on in the thought bubble. I might change it before inking.  Tonight I inked a couple sketches I made when I was hanging out with a couple artist buddies. The conversation was about copying other artists so as a goof I copied what they were drawing. They started as very loose pencil sketches then I added details and lettering before applying black ink.
I stayed up way past my bedtime but at least I finished inking this dude I drew a couple weeks ago.  Today, while I was hiking, I sketched out some important periods in my life in regards to art & drawing. My earliest memories of drawing rocket ships with my cousin when we were little. Being a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fanatic and learning how to draw them like the cartoon. Being bored in middle school classes and doodling on my class work. Taking my first art class, meeting other artists and acquiring my first sketchbook in high school. In junior college, still uninterested in class, my first job working in a clean room and going out and doing graffiti at night. I haven’t figured out which specific events I’d like illustrate to cover the last 20 years of my so called artsy-fartsy life.      This is important. While I was hiking today I started thinking about memorable movies about aliens. One of them was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Specifically the dinner scene. When I got to back to my car I sketched myself as Richard Dreyfuss’s character with the mashed potato mountain on his plate.  I don’t remember which idea came first, making a zine or making my own sketchbooks. Back in August of 2018 I bought a long reach stapler and starting binding sheets of printer paper and folding them in half to make cheap mini sketchbooks. I haven’t made a zine yet but I’ve been using these homemade sketchbooks over three and a half years now. I was always too precious with my store bought sketchbooks and didn’t draw in them enough. With these cheap homemade books it’s easier for me to draw in and write stuff down. I’ve got 55 of these books and counting. I’ll be pulling sketches from these books to make zines, which was part of the original intent. Tonight I went through them all and marked the dates they were drawn in. Next I’ll go through them again looking for drawings of aliens and myself. Those are the two subjects I want to make my first couple zines from.  Today, while resting on a bench during my hike, I came up with a possible layout for a zine based on all the alien characters I’ve drawn over the years. It’s sorta like a rogues gallery of the different species and environments. 👽  I’m still figuring out how to craft my first zine. I’ve got a couple ideas, aliens & me. Tonight I flipped through 9, out of 38, of my sketchbooks, starting with the oldest, looking for drawings of extra terrestrials & myself. When I finish going through all the books I’ll try to compile everything into two zines.
I finally hooked up my new scanner to the computer and did a couple test scans. I scanned an old ballpoint pen drawing and printed the scans to compare them to the original.    I’ve had zines on the brain lately. I sketched this a few days ago and did a little inking on the iPad tonight using Procreate. It’s my first time inking with this app. I’ve been using Adobe Fresco for their vector brush up until now.
Here’s what I drew in my little sketchbook while hiking at Alum Rock Park today. I’m still hiking and feeling a little stronger every time! My last two hikes have been shorter distances with a higher elevation. Today I stopped at a few benches to rest and draw in my little sketchbook.   Yyy Today I hiked the Penitencia Creek Trail at Alum Rock Park again. I was able to hike without stopping till I reached the end then I took a 40 minute drawing break before heading back. Today I hiked Penitencia Creek Trail at Alum Rock Park again and I drew this little sketch of a UFO being viewed from inside a bedroom window. The thought of aliens coming into my room at night and being abducted by UFOs used to scare the shit outta me when I was a little kid.  I'm finally finished with Inktober for 2021! Damn, it was hard for me to stay on track this time around. This was my 5th year in a row participating. That means I've inked a total of 155 drawings for Inktober. Rounding out this year, I have:
I'm glad it's over now!    It's almost 5:30 in the morning and I need to go to bed. Otherwise I'd stay up and ink the remaining 3 drawings for Inktober. Tonight I inked days 22 through 28:
I sketched, but didn't ink, my Inktober drawing for today. It's the face of the moon with a crashed rocket in its eye. It's the from the 1902 French film, "Le Voyage dans la Lune" (A Trip to the Moon). I was watching a show tonight where the characters were painting a full moon and I got the idea.  I had to ink five drawings tonight in order to get caught up with Inktober.      |
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Copyright 2020 Frankie Mcfly
Copyright 2020 Frankie Mcfly