Roofers & Baghdad Journal

Pigma Brush Pen in 9×12 Aquabee Sketchbook
(To enlarge, click image, select “All Sizes”)

Sorry for the slim pickins’ today. Yesterday evening I was starting to come down with a migraine which hit in full force early this morning, wiping out all chances of spending time in the studio today. I did this sketch of my next door neighbor’s roofers yesterday morning before work, looking out my kitchen window. They never stopped moving and were wearing very baggy clothes. I tried to pretend I was doing one-minute gesture sketches in a figure-drawing group but it was more like five-second gesture drawings with the figures hidden behind sweatshirts and droopy pants. That’s not a missile the guy’s holding at the bottom right of the drawing, pointing to the guy loosing his pants, it’s a long piece of aluminum.

Since I don’t have anymore of my own art to share tonight (and am amazed I’m even up standing at the computer after a day flat on my back with my eyes covered), I thought I’d mention a truly amazing book I just got at the library. It’s the artwork of Steve Mumford and is called Baghdad Journal: An Artist in Occupied Iraq. You can also see some of his online journal and images here. Anyone who’s enjoyed the work of any of the Everyday Matters journal artists including many of the people listed in my links must see Mr. Mumford’s work. As the liner notes say, “His everyday scenes of Iraq in bold, breathtaking watercolors and drawings…paint a human side of the war…from all sides of the conflict.”