Shipwreck Waffle Maker

The past few months I've done a lot of planned drawings: using reference photos and working for a distinct look in the finished piece. This was done for the blog and while it can be gratifying, it can also wind you up. As one of my teachers told me in high school, "you've got to be loose before you can become tight.". What he was saying was that I'd start my drawings out too rigid. The result was that the line work was good but the overall drawing didn't flow. In the years following that advice, I really worked to make my style looser. In fact, most of my work following high school became very abstract. It was loose and that was the goal. But lately my work, though I'm happy with it, is too tight and that can make drawing uncomfortable.

So, I was eating breakfast at Shipwreck three weeks ago and while waiting for my food I got the urge to draw. I was in an early morning, "still waking up" mood and was very mellow so I knew anything I was about to draw would be loose. I had a pen but no paper so I went through my wallet and pulled out an old business card. Flipping it over, I cranked this sucker out in a few minutes. As a result, I got what I can only describe as a "runner's high"; that mellowed euphoria one gets after a good workout. This almost always happens when I haven't done a loose drawing in a while.

The Shipwreck Diner

Here's a 2007 drawing of Northport's famous Shipwreck Diner which has some of the best food you'll find on Long Island. Best burgers, best fries, best everything. Owned and operated by Tim Hess and his girlfriend Janet, this place has a real down home feel to it. Don't expect to rush in and out like at a Burger King, Shipwreck is warm & inviting as soon as you walk in. Stay a while, rest a while: that's their approach. Its always packed on the weekends for breakfast, especially Sundays but the wait is worth it. The food's delicious & the menu diverse with plenty of things to choose from. The Shipwreck Diner (along with Northport Hardware) was featured prominently in the 1998 film In & Out starring Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck.

Evel Knievel (Full Color)

The following is a re-post from March of 2008: You'd think that a guy who jumped over greyhound buses & shark tanks for a living would have died years ago. But, Evel Knievel died an old man. In the pre-Star Wars era of the 1970s, superheroes were one of the big cultural fads and, along with Muhammed Ali & Joe Namath, there was Evel Knievel. He actually fit the part of a superhero: he dressed in a red, white, & blue leather jumpsuit with a cape and a fancy walking stick. He looked like Captain America except that he was really a crazy guy on a motorcycle. He jumped canyons in rockets and over the fountains at Caesar's Palace, but he also holds the World's Record for number of broken bones. Despite this reckless lifestyle, it still surprised me when he died. This drawing is a tribute to one of my childhood heroes.

Easter Ape#2

. . . and here's my rendition of the same photo done two years ago during a lunch break at the Starbuck's in East Northport, NY. Happy Easter!

Easter Ape

Here's an AP photo from 2008 of an ape at the Cincinnati Zoo celebrating Easter. . .