Lost & Found - A Mixed Media Drawing.

After two years of being out of contact, a good friend and I were able to catch up in person last week. Most of my college years were spent sitting next to this guy, both in class and out. He was someone I trusted when it came to sharing ideas, crappy drawings, or my fears of talking in front of the class. 

Something that came up during our time together the other night was my lack of a sketchbook. I feel like I've talked about this in the past (or maybe I've just been thinking it), but I almost never sit down and draw anymore. I usually figure out what I want to work on, gather my reference, and work it from start to finish in one shot. At most, I have little stacks of bond paper lying around that I might rough an idea out on, and then throw back on the pile. 

So, I decided to take the first step and reclaim the cleanest sketchbook I own. Tucked inside the back of the book, I discovered a treasure: a marker and would-be colored pencil drawing that I had to have started around three years ago. I have memories of sitting behind the bar that I worked in at the time, smoking cigarettes and furiously throwing in layers of color between customers.

All of this time later, (still) sans cigarettes, I finished up the drawing. I was shocked to find that I still had the reference photos. Unfortunately, the resolution was so incredibly low that most of what ended up on the page was guess work.

No matter. I still like the color choices I made all of those years ago, and it was neat to look back and see how I was going about its creation. For sure, I've refined the process since then: smoothed things out and all.

All of that aside, I believe the drawing was totally worth salvaging and I'm glad to be sharing it with you today.

6" x 7 7/8" with a 3/4 inch border,

marker and colored pencil on marker paper.

I made good on my other promise to myself and finally scraped my oil palette as well. Hopefully I'll have some new work in that department to post here soon.