Lunchtime Drawings: The Fanatical Doodler Series #3

This is the third in a series of blog posts highlighting some of the drawings or doodlings (many of which are a series) that give you a peek into just how addicted to pen and pencil I am!

Lunchtime Drawings

As much as I love to draw, somehow I go through phases where I am not getting the opportunity or just not making time to draw. A lot of people don’t realize that even talented or career artists can atrophy in their abilities if they don’t keep practicing! I realized this at one point in 2012 when trying to draw something I should have been able to do with my eyes closed and having it turn out bad. I was taken by surprise that life just didn’t seem to be offering the hours of doodle time that I was used to.

So I decided, I need to MAKE time to keep my drawing muscles in shape! The only place my schedule offered any free time was during lunch. So that was that! I decided I’d spend about 15 minutes of my lunch drawing something -anything- in my sketchbook. When I started, someone was supplying a subscription to Time Magazine to our staff kitchen and this offered endless photo from which to draw. When that source ran out I had another almost endless source: The quarterly magazines sent to me by Compassion International, World Vision and Gospel for Asia. I had been collecting them in a stack in the garage as reference photo material for painting for years. Hey, I didn’t have internet or a smart phone for the longest time!

I continued this series through 2013. What you need to know about these is that they are fine liner drawings. I never did a pre-sketch in pencil to make sure proportions/etc. were right. I just started with a freehand, ink line, and once you lay down the black, you can’t go back. So this explains the crude line and sometimes awful proportions of many of the drawings. Anyway, it was fun and I think they improved over time. Without further ado, here they are:

August 2012

1-25-13

Tarzan & Jane, August 2012

August 2012

August 2012

August 2012

Sept. 2012

Tilda Swinton, 1-18-13

Rango, 1-28-13

The dog from the Artist, 2-1-13

Florence from Florence and the Machine, 2-4-13

Batman, 2-6-13

2-8-13

2-15-13

2-18-13 The nose got away from me on this one.

Dalmation, 2-19-13

Me in Japan, 2-22-13

2-25-13

3-4-13

3-6-13

3-11-13

3-12-13

3-13-13

3-13-13

3-20-13

3-25-13

Bee, 3-26-13

3-29-13

4-22-13

4-22-13

4-24-13

Me, 4-26-13

4-26-13

Abe Lincoln, 4-29-13

4-30-13

5-1-13

5-3-13

5-6-13

5-8-13

5-12-13

5-15-13

5-17-13

5-22-13

6-15-13

6-7-13

6-10-13

6-11-13

6-12-13

6-14-13

6-19-13

6-21-13

6-24-13

6-26-13

6-28-13

7-1-13

7-3-13

7-5-13

7-8-13

7-9-13

7-10-13

7-24-13

7-29-13

7-31-13

8-2-13

8-5-13

8-6,7,8-13

8-9-13

8-12-13

8-13-13

8-14-13

8-16-13

8-17-12

8-19-13

8-21-12

9-3-13

9-4-13

9-6-13

9-9&10-13

9-10&11-12

9-13-13

9-18-12

9-19-12

9-25-12

9-26-12

9-27-13

9-28-12

9-30-13

10-1-12

10-1-13

10-2-12

10-2-13

10-3-12

10-4-12

10-10-12

10-15-12

10-17-12

10-19-12

10-22-12 Kate Middleton

10-24-12

10-29-12

10-30-12 Paul Ryan

11-5-12

10-16-12

11-21-12

12-7-12 Ron Paul

12-7-12 Peter Falk

12-11-12

12-12-12

12-14-12

6-20-12 Rick Kenagy & a Haitian girl.

9-12-12

August 2012

September 2012

9-26-12

August 2012

8-20-12 Andy Griffith

9-12-12

May 2012 President Obama

August 2012

4-3-13 Lincoln

4-5-13

4-9-13

4-10-13

4-12-13 Annnd the teeth got away from me on this one.

4-15-13

4-17-13

4-19-13

8-27-12

8-28-12

9-11-12

9-12-12

10-12-12

11-7-12

August 2012

9-17-12

“What’s Going On?”: The Fanatical Doodler Series #2

This is the second in a series of blog posts highlighting some of the drawings or doodlings (many of which are a series) that give you a peek into just how addicted to pen and pencil I am!

The “What’s Going On” Drawings

Probably sometime in the late 80’s my brother and I had this idea to draw a scene, usually centered around a house, packed with as much activity as we could possibly fit into the landscape. The first of these were drawn years before we ever heard of “Where’s Waldo?”. We would sit drawing on these for hours over the course of several days, laughing at each other and sharing ideas. We really enjoyed the Halloween theme in most of them. We did like two or three of them each year through the early 90’s and then they became less frequent after 1995. I wanted to revive the series by doing one on 2001, but it wasn’t until 2005 before I’d do another – this one was grand daddy of them all and done on 11″x14″ paper (all previous ones were only 8 1/2″x11″ paper).

In 2007, after going on a Homes of Hope house building mission trip with my church, I decided to do one themed after that trip. To date, I haven’t drawn one since, but this won’t be the last, my friends! Stay tuned for more!

This is, I think, the first one I ever drew although it’s not dated.

Also not dated, I think I determined this one to be the 2nd because of a slightly better drawing style.

I’m calling this number 3 though it is not dated.

The first one with a date: June 30, 1992

July 1, 1992

The first themed “What’s Going On?” drawing: Halloween! October 27, 1993

As you can see this was my writing folder. In 7th grade we kept all of our hand-written stories in these manila folders and over the course of the semester I covered mine in doodles. I finished on March 3, 1994. (Notice Martin Hanford drawing the scene)

This one was either Veterans or Memorial Day themed. 1994

Returning to the Halloween theme. October 17, 1994

Halloween again. October 28, 1995

The first “What’s Going On?” drawing in 6 years. May 21, 2001

I finally worked up another one 4 years later in 2005. This one was the biggest (11×14) and most packed to date.

Impressions of Ensenada. To date, this is the last one I did in 2007. It was inspired by a Mexico Mission trip I went on that year. Though it is poor quality, I made a video of this one being drawn: https://youtu.be/Zb4buxrt5Ek

Addendum!

I just finished up a new one!! Wow, it’s been 12 years since I drew one of these, I can’t believe it! This one is very special as it was created as a gift for Chris and Jeri Menzies. Jeri is the Children’s Pastor at my church and was my wife’s boss for a year. During that time her and my wife became very close friends and Jeri has been like a mom to Shelly. Jeri has also baby-sat our our kids many-a-time giving us breaks so we can go on dates. Her husband Chris volunteers on Sundays in the children’s ministry. Chris is an ex-marine and ex-cop who has owned and operated an auto-shop for a long time (I want to say 20 years?) Chris has saved my family hundreds and even thousands of dollars by doing favors and fixing our cars over the years. Chris and Jeri have helped us financially in other HUGE ways including giving extremely generously to support our adoption. I started this drawing as a way to say thank you to Chris back in summer of 2018 and just havn’t been able to finish it until October of 2019 and it just happens it is the week after Chris retired and sold his shop. Most of all Chris and Jeri have just been great friends and we love them!

What’s Going On? for Chris & Jeri Menzies, ink, 11×14, 7-22-18 to 10-1-19. The center piece is a ’72 Gremlin, Chris’ dream car. In the sky is an H46 Chinhook which Chris piloted in Vietnam.

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