So, apparently Tumblr ate my last couple of blog posts. In case you were wondering why I haven’t posted in a while, that’s part of the reason. Here’s a re-write of my last post describing the other reason:
I’ve been to New York several times before: first as part of an eighth grade class trip, then briefly during a family vacation around the states, and yet again with my high school choir to sing at Carnegie Hall. Last week marks my fourth venture into the concrete jungle that is New York City.
The trip was more for work than for pleasure, though I did get to do some of the latter. I was invited to attend BEA (Book Expo of America) at the Javits Center in downtown Manhattan. BEA is the premier book conference in the United States and among the largest in the world. Publishers, authors, and booksellers come from all around the world to exhibit upcoming titles, network, and learn from experts about the state of the industry.
For my part, I got to sit in on a variety of panel discussions about everything from marketing on social media to the rise of ebooks. I took lots of notes, listened intently to passionate speakers, endured horrific PowerPoints, and struggled to stay awake through boring monologues. And I walked. A lot. Since just about everyone in the world of books was there, the showroom floor was full to the brim with exhibitor booths. The conference center got so crowded and hectic at times that it felt almost like pushing through crowds in Times Square.
Speaking of Times Square, that’s where the hotel was. Right there where 7th Avenue meets Broadway. No matter what, we were always surrounded by people.
Even so, I quite enjoyed exploring the city in the evenings and getting to visit with my sister. She had moved to NYC almost a year prior to attend an acting academy, and this was my first time seeing her there in the city. We spent several evenings going out to eat and walking around town, and we capped off our visit with a Broadway show, The Lion King.
That show, incidentally, has sold out every night since it’s debut in the late ’90s – and I honestly cannot understand how it’s still pulling that off. Perhaps it was just a bad night, but the performance was pretty dismal. The lines were delivered by-the-book with little to no enthusiasm. What’s worse, the singing was embarrassingly unimpressive. If this wasn’t a Broadway musical, I wouldn’t be so critical, but this is supposed to be the pinnacle of stage theatre… right? My sister was thoroughly unimpressed, too. Also, it didn’t help that we had noisy children behind us the whole time. There was also a woman up front who suddenly burst into a loud tirade during the wildebeest stampede scene.
(Sigh)
Afterward, we redeemed the evening by going to get drinks at the The View atop the Marriott Marquis – a rotating restaurant with a panorama view of the city. It was a good night.
Here’s just a taster of a few other highlights from the trip:
- getting pulled over by policemen while in the back of a Taxi. The driver apparently took an illegal right-hand turn. He told the police that he didn’t know he did anything wrong. He also didn’t have insurance in the car for some reason. We sat quietly in the back while the policemen conferred and settled on letting him go with 15 days to send in his insurance or be faced with arrest. Needless to say, the rest of the drive was quiet and awkward.
- getting treated to a lavish meal at Harry Cipriani’s, one of the finest Italian restaurants on 5th Avenue.
- going to see the midnight showing of The Kings of Summer (a great film, by the way) at the Lincoln Center. I went with one other guy, and we ended up walking back to the hotel in Times Square at 2:30am. On the way, we saw a loud group of guys standing in a circle. One of them walked up to my friend and mumbled something about “coke”. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t diet.
- running 5 and a half miles through Central Park on two different occasions. This was one of my favorite highlights. Once in the park, you have to merge into a stream of other runners and bikers – but the park really is a beautiful place to run. People-dodging is really a small price to pay for the experience.
- walking through Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, the Apple Store, FAO Schwarz toy company, taking the subway, and generally exploring the city.
All in all, it was a memorable experience. Now it’s time to get back to real life, and I’ve got some soul-searching to do. I need to find my focus in life. I’m currently gearing up to do freelance design and illustration, but I want to start working toward something… But I’ll save that for a future blog post.
And don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten about the 30-day drawing challenge. I’m committed to finishing it, so stay tuned for more drawings on the horizon.
God bless, and good afternoon.
-Daniel
Day 13: A Horrible Monument
Perhaps it’s because I’ve been watching too much Star Trek of late. At any rate, I just couldn’t resist.
I had this idea when I was already partially done sketching out my original one – also shown above as a pencil sketch. The potential for humor seemed greater in my second idea, so I changed course. What do you think?
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
Day 12: A Make-Believe Occupation
I had trouble settling on an idea for this one – not because I had a bunch of good ideas. Rather, it was the opposite problem. I just didn’t have any really good ideas. This one, for instance, is not as funny as it is creepy. Sorry for putting this image in all of your minds.
But, heck, it’s about time I finished Day 12. Perhaps I’ll revisit this one later when I think of something more clever – and less creepy.
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
Day 11: A Favorite Character as a Zombie
So, many of you will likely guess one of these right away. I’m obligated to clarify that I am not a representative of the rights owners, so I guess you could classify this as unofficial “fan art”.
The other one is a “zombified” caricature of a famous actor. Can you guess who it is?
…and, once again, I’ve stayed up far too late for my own good. Signing out now.
God bless and good night!
-Daniel
Day 10: Any Word as Graffiti
Okay, so this one is a bit of an inside joke. Most everyone who sees this will probably scratch their head when they read “flipping sward (sic)”.
In case you didn’t know, a sward is actually an obscure term for a patch or section of grass. Back in college, a couple of my close friends were working on a crossword puzzle. One of us mistakenly misspelled sword, which was the correct answer for one of the clues. Weirdly, it turned out that sward alsoturned up as a later answer. We’d learned a new word. Then we proceeded to blow the whole coincidence way out of proportion and it subsequently became an irrationally hilarious inside joke amongst the handful of us. We inserted it into every kind of sentence we could think of, and one of those permutations was an exclamation of shock and surprise: “flipping sward!”
So, there you go. I’ve explained the inside joke for you. Now you have some unsolicited insight into the strange and twisted minds of twenty-something millennials like me – who, on occasion, can find or invent humor in something as mundane as a newly learned word.
Oh, and this drawing was colored in with gouache, a translucent variant of watercolors. I think it turned out pretty good. What do you think?
God bless, and good night.
-Daniel
Day 9: A Science Project Gone Wrong
I had a couple fun ideas for this one. It was really fun to draw, and I stayed up way too late finishing it.
Exaggerated expressions are among my favorite things to draw. They have such a tremendous amount of comedic potential. In this case, my favorite drawing was the scientist’s scowl (second to last).
Yet, while I’m happy with the result, I’m probably going to have to reign in my attention to detail so I can churn out these drawings more efficiently. The above cartoon could have been just as successful if I had done far simpler drawings. Fewer lines, I mean. Cross-hatching has it’s place, but cartooning is less about realism and more about storytelling. I guess, in so many words, I’m trying to say that I need to develop a drawing shorthand.
That’s going to be one of my goals for the next couple drawings.
And it’s past 2am…
…
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
Day 8: An Outlandish House
I had plenty of fun drawing this one, although I’m not too keen on my choice of coloring. In retrospect, I think it would have turned out better had I gone with my standard ink and crosshatch technique… but, hey, I just felt like trying something different.
Turns out my drawing was a tad too small and detailed for oil pastels (see the man in the second story window… case in point.) Also, I learned that, generally speaking, its easier to lay down your backgrounds and lights before your foregrounds and darks. This is especially true of oil pastels, which tend to smear annoyingly when they contact any other color.
Oh, and I chose to photograph this with my phone rather than risk smudging my scanner bed. This might explain the blurriness in both right-hand corners.
Oh, and grass is still hard for me to do – as I’m sure you can tell. Sure, I can do cartoon grass patches in pen and ink, but it’s real beast to do convincingly in oil or acrylic. Any tips… anyone?
At any rate, it’s late. Time to hit the sack.
God bless and good night!
-Daniel
Day 7: Liquid in Motion
Water – or any liquid, for that matter – is extremely difficult to draw convincingly. While I’m pretty happy with how this turned out (considering I am working fairly fast), I can certainly stand to practice drawing moving water in ink. The most fun part of this drawing? The dog, of course!
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
“Day 6: A Monster Performing a Mundane Task”
It’s been a couple days now between drawings, so it’s more accurate to say that this is my sixth drawing rather than my sixth day. Still, the point is to exercise my drawing with some measure of consistency – and I think it’s working so far.
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
It’s past midnight, so I’ll keep it short. Day 5 of the 30-Day Drawing Challenge had me think up a “mysterious device”. I don’t like just drawing objects, so I tried coming up with some sort of anthropomorphic “device” – something with a bit of personality. Here’s the image that popped into my head:
God bless, and good night!
-Daniel
