(drawing) Smudge Drawing Origin

After seeing the images made in the Coffee Cup Resurrection series people have asked me how I figured out the smudging technique used on those coffee cups. It all started way back in the early winter months as I was working the door at Einsteins. The night was slow and I had already read all of the posters on the walls in the doorway area. That's when I noticed an ad for Godzilla Sundays, which is some sort of sketch comedy I think. The thing that caught my eye was the heads of two of my friends Brad and Tim on the front. After inspecting the card I pulled out my pen and began to draw on the back to help pass the time. With an accidental swipe of my finger the line smudged across the card and my new drawing medium was born. I had been reading up on Telouse Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh so I decided to turn this new style wild on the customers of the bar, the common folk as it were.


Electric Chair

The first in the series, and the only one from my imagination. I continued to manipulate the ink smudges of that first faithful card until the shape of a man in a chair emerged. Its kind of funny how the imagery in this series follows an opposite path than that of the Coffee Cup Resurrection.

the rest of the drawings are not in chronological order

Party Time

A nice group of people just happened to be sitting in the area visible to me from the doorway. It was triggered by the man at the far left sitting still for a long period of time. The drawing then spread along the table collecting more and more people as it went.






Get Together

Saturday night, live music night. Even though the band is blocked by a pillar the guitarist (who may or may not have been the entire band, i cant remember) is seen as a shadow cast against the back wall.







Sing a Song

Another Saturday night. This is one of the members of a two man band. Unfortunately the shading of the shadows merge with the shading of his hair giving him the appearance of having hill-billyesq facial hair.







First Two Arrive

These two people were the first to arrive in a group of 10 or 12. I couldn't resist the pun in the title.









Dancing Drunks

On occasion there will be a drunk person or two who will dance in the middle of the bar if for no other reason than to be in the way. This particular piece was sold in the 2nd annual 1000 for $10 show.













Douche in Green Sweater

Framed by posters in the doorway was this man and a few of his friends. He thought that if he took off his sweater he could escape the bar without paying... what a douche.














Drummer Boy

This is the drummer for the band The Restless Age who had managed to get the title of house band. Funky covers sometimes slow. They don't seem to bring in much business.








The Game's on

The bar could have been on fire and this man wouldn't notice. I watched as people, who might have been his friends sat down tried to talk to him only to fill their glasses and walk away. He was really into the game.







Portrait of a Doorman

Not exactly drawn from life is my self portrait showing me standing in the stairwell with my clicker in hand to keep track of the people inside. I like the light case on the wall in the background even though the shadows of the portrait don't match it.