Some 2015 Sketches

Above: a little girl discovers a back store room full of toys in a North Carolina thrift store.


I have been traveling a lot this year. Sometimes for family, sometimes for business. And when I have a moment, I will whip out the sketchbook and draw some people.

This is one of those small sketchbooks, 3.5 in. x 5 in., that fits in a pocket easily. None of these people ever noticed I was drawing them, which is a good thing. I like to be a fly on the wall.

These are, with the exception of the first one below, all from 2015.

Dude who sold me this sketchbook in Virginia really wanted to get me on some kind of list. I told him I was from far away. Dude still kept asking me.

A big man who said this several times to his kids. The mother, who was much smarter, was not to be seen.

When you have a fanny pack hanging off your gut, you really just do not care about how you look.

The above man was a beer brewer and he performed a five hour soliloquy on hops, yeast, water, and the beers of the world on the way from Portsmouth, NH to NYC. I was very happy to get off the bus.

Great t-shirt. I saw this guy a couple of times on the DC Metro.

Sitting and chilling in the Ronald Reagan airport.

A pilot with his sack lunch.

Cool beachy looking man at the Goodwill in Topsham, ME.

A couple of sketches of people working the night shift.

Thanks for looking. Let me know if any of these people is you!

True Story: Thrift Store Confessional

I overheard this fellow at a thrift store in Windham, Maine last Saturday.  He was a quiet fellow, but took the opportunity of the checkout process to tell the story of his life.

Drawn with no pencil foundation -- just sketched off the top of my head. Pigma Micron 02 and 08. Colored in Photoshop.

It's 3AM and My Pants Are Beeping

Here's a true story from my sketchbook: every month, on the same day, my pants beep. It always gets me in a panic and I can't sleep.

Drawn with a Micron Pigma 8 pen, with some Photoshop colors overlaid in a hurry.

Overheard at Market Basket

 Sometimes I overhear things and they stick with me. So I draw them up.

I overheard this older gentlemen ranting to a captive audience (a Market Basket grocery store employee, who was busy shelving).

I listened to as much as I could. I think it's about the BATMAN movie shooting. The "take him out back and have done with it" was damn chilling.

This isn't a cartoon; more like a slice of life kinda event. I hear this kind of raging hate, fueled with wrong statistics (Canada has more gun crime), routinely.

Micron Pigma and watercolor on 110 lb. recycled drawing paper.

And, below, the raw scan of my sketchbook page:

Sketchbook: Catskills Irish Arts Festival 2012

Above: a group of young musicians on the main stage. 


The Catskills Irish Arts Festival is a week-long celebration of Irish music in East Durham, NY. The entire town is invaded by hundreds of musicians and traditional Irish music fans from all over the world. There are classes during the week in fiddle, flute, and other Irish musical instruments. All of the hotels and pubs have impromptu sessions every night. 

Since my wife plays and I do not, I tend to people watch.

Here are a few of the sketches I did from CIAW 2012:

The above trio performed together. Below: the audience was young and old.

A lot of people walking around with instrument cases:

 Love this flutist's wild hair:

A rather dour look on the keyboard player's face:

 Watching the performers:

 Love this banjo player's hair-and-sunglasses look:

 This man danced with his baby, who wasn't too sure about all this Irish music:

 Two guys chatting at the end of the last concert on the last day:

  Here's a woman with her "Shut Up and Play" t-shirt:

Gotta buy a t-shirt:

 Performers were old and young. Here's a fellow in his 20s who had an amazing voice:

Loved this guy's 'fro:

Raw scans of these drawings from the sketchbook: