It’s high painting season, and I have to, um, steal time away from something in order to do any drawings. Here are the two most recent:
Tag Archives: Erwin Dence illustrations
new, revised, or redrawn images
I’m preparing to add some more images to the realsurfers coloring book, getting them resized, adding some lines; redrawing a few. Here are some I’ve been working on:
And here’s a backstory on the drawing of the guy on the nose. I’ve drawn it several times, had it all finished, but it didn’t seem right. I went back to the drawing I took this from, realized the surfer’s left arm is supposed to be in front of his face. Oops. And now it’s a bit darker. If I could, on occasion, sort of duplicate the silky, magic-lighting look of classic John Severson photos, I would. Maybe this is as close as I’ll get (not that I won’t keep trying).
Hey, it’s all just lines and dots. Suddenly I’m not sure if I reported on how the poetry/singing/book selling event went with “Awkward Guy” writer Franco Bertucci and I… it went well, probably better than expected. We’re not done. I’ll let you know.
The Real Surfers Coloring Book is…
…ready. I put it all together in time for an event at the Port Townsend Library last night; twenty copies, numbered, artist’s proofs. Here are a few drawings that were redrawn, resized from the large originals, or are actually new: Oh, not sure how this happened, but the drawing on the left is the cover for the poetry book I illustrated. Franco read some of his poetry, sang two of my songs, two of his; and I recited (rather than sang) a song or two, played some harmonica, recited some of Franco’s poetry. It went well. And we sold a few books.
Surfer/librarian Keith Darrock took this photo of Franco Bertucci and I setting up and preparing to kill it. It didn’t feel like ‘killing it’ at the time; but, for a poetry reading, it was racy and raucous
Now, if I could figure out how to approach the larger market.
Working on it.
“Awkward Guy” and, um, me…
…that would be Franco Bertucci, and I are getting ready for an event, Thursday, June 29, 7pm, Port Townsend Library. This is a flyer I passed on to PT Librarian Keith Darrock so he could do some publicity. First he has to add the copy. Glad it’s him; I can’t seem to keep it simple.
I did some illustrations for Franco’s book a couple of winters ago, opting, because I have a lot of faith in Franco, and his chances for success, to take a percentage (sort of vague on that) of the profits. Because, in order to get it out there in some form, he did a Kendle book; all fine, and you can buy one, and some have; or, if you’re an Amazon Prime person, you can just download it for free; or, it seems, you can just look at it for free.
I think that’s a link. Check it out; free; if you can.
I’ve been getting my drawings for the “Realsurfers Coloring Book” together while searching for the originals I did for “Awkward Guy” (evidently I scanned them to a computer that no longer is alive- but Franco has the color versions). The plan is to have both of these available in a paper, hold-it-in-your-hands version for the event. And this might be where I get into trouble in describing, simply, what Franco and I plan on presenting to whoever shows up. The leader of “Locust Street Taxi,” a very tight and professional group, Franco is a talented musician.
So, the deal is, since I have a lot of songs, copyrighted under the title “Love Songs for Cynics,” and though I play an acceptable harmonica, my singing stylings are, one could say, underappreciated; Franco has agreed to sing at least one of my songs, and, in return, I’ll read or recite several of his poems. And a couple of mine.
That was my idea. Franco’s was to open with Q&A and go from there.
Real Surfers Coloring Book Cover,
sort of. I couldn’t get the scanner to do the other half of the cover after I did the preview. It must have been tired. It’s so exciting for me to do this layup and printing stuff, with lots of help from the folks at The Printery in Port Townsend.
So, I’m still working on how to present the actual book; which and how many drawings to put inside, whether to go two-sided or not… I’m thinking it would be really great if I could do a thing like the old pee-chee folders, loose drawings one can pull out of one side rather than a book style. I’ll investigate.
So far, the main criticism has been that I’ve pretty much filled the space where color could go. Okay, probably because I didn’t originally start drawing them with a coloring book in mind. Then there’s trying to sell some of these.
Oh, and I have to do a drawing of a stand up paddleboarder before I can go farther.
Real Surfers Coloring Book Cover
When I get the portfolio/book thing sorted out, this might go on the plain brown cover, handy for shipping, stealing…still working on it.
The next thing I need to do is get a collection of my colored-in stuff together, get them reduced, make up a montage for the back cover, all the inside stuff black and white; like, you know, a cheap magazine. Perhaps the portfolio/envelope could be a bit larger than the inside pages so folks can stick some colored pencils inside, whip ’em out when they’re ready to colorize; on a break, at a break (that’s not breaking); out to coffee, on a train; in public or in private. COLOR! Oh, I just did some coloring on this one because, as usual, Trisha’s assessment was, “Done? I’d say overdone?” “Great.” “Is that a question?” “No.”
Water Seeks Its Own Level (illustration)
Because I’m dead-ass serious about getting my coloring book together, I’m searching through some of my older drawings. I redid this one to make it more… I don’t want to say professional; let’s say cleaner.
I’m doing some work for “The Printery” in Port Townsend, with the goal of trading out some of the profit to pay for a few more copies, and maybe something a little more ‘professional.’ Yeah, now I’ll say professional.
New Illustration for the (Upcoming) Coloring Book
If you draw on it long enough, keep adding to it, it eventually becomes gray.
This is the third version. Partway through the first version I decided to add the beams of light. Too late, too sketch-like. Partway through the second version I decided… well, there were things I liked about each of those, and my evaluator, Trish, liked the first one best. But, partially because I’m working on putting together a ‘real surfers’ coloring book, I went with something, probably a bit more, um, draftsman-like. Nah; can’t quite master that. I have this, and, when I tried to make a copy, this weird tire-tread-like line went down the right side, so, not risking the original, I may not actually color this. Yet.
Really on the coloring book. I’m just trying to figure out how I can do it at a reasonable price, and, of course, how the hell I’ll try to market it.
“Awkward Guy” illustrations
I did some illustrations a year or so ago for a friend of mine, Franco Bertucci. The drawings go along, sort of, with poems he wrote about raising kids out in the country (he and his wife and three kids live on a working farm), love, poetic stuff like that. Franco is a musician and song writer, heads up a professional band, Locust Street Taxi; very tight, very showy. And Franco, the most low key guy in person; on stage, is radical. AND he can leap, flat-footed, like, amazingly high.
The book is available, so far, on kindle. Jeez, let me check that. Yeah; kindle. Franco offered me (some undetermined amount of) money to do the drawings, but, very non-characteristically for someone who always takes the short money, I chose to take a (similarly non-determined) percentage of future profits.
We’ll see how that works out. I checked out the little sampler, and, whoa, and maybe it’s because I haven’t seen the drawings in a while… they looked awesome.
I mean, objectively speaking.
Surfing To You
Maybe it’s because I suffered the triple skunking the other day… a trip to a spot on the Strait that should have been, according to the buoys, working, but wasn’t. At all. Then a backtrack to a backup spot that also wasn’t working; but, while in cell phone territory, I discovered the buoy readings were even better. With various theories of tidal influences, ebb, flow, playing in my head, and not wanting to miss it (never wanting to miss the small windows) I headed back out.
That’s the double; didn’t have the triple until I got a report that several surfers near where I would have been if I hadn’t driven out, got a session (as in, after the session). This probably, with nothing showing in the forecast, bothered me more than it should. It’s only surfing, after all; not like it’s critical.
So I resumed my occasional contemplation of what surfing means. Fifty plus years of some participation in this; I still don’t have it figured out.
This (below) is an edited version of something I wrote the day after I was triple-skunked.
When you finally, having, perhaps, exhausted all the cheap and easy options, admitting that being among the waves fills some void in your heart, and, possibly unaware of how brave and foolish and true this confession is; it’s impossible to do anything else but agree.
Still, this is not an empty heart; it is a heart; and as long as it’s beating, as long as the liquid flows…
I’m considering putting together a coloring book (all the rage I hear) of black and white drawings. It’s not like you can’t color them in as well as I do. I always feel like I need more colors in my quiver. Three sizes of ink pens does fine, but color, color… imagine the possibilities.
Real Surfers 