Shipwreck Plastic Pitcher

Shipwreck Coffee Filters

Iron Man 2 (Rough Cut)

This is my "rough" for an Iron Man 2 drawing and I'm happy with the results so far. I've been able to get the image to look like the subject matter but keep the line loose. The big thing is to change the fingers on the right hand, which look like pointed breakfast sausages. With any luck, I'll have this done within a few days. Now, I just hope the movie doesn't suck. . .

Shipwreck Coffee Creamer & Sugar

Coffee creamer and sugar dispenser on Shipwreck counter. Drawn at the same time as sketch featured in yesterday's post . .

Shipwreck Ice Cream Scoop

Ice cream scoops & containers drawn on a Shipwreck take-out menu while having lunch two years ago. .

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. . .

Clash 0f the Titans#4 - Medusa

I've only been able to find one image of Medusa from the new Clash of the Titans. In the lone photo I used as reference for drawing this picture, her visage isn't ugly. From what I can see, apart from her hair full o' snakes and serpent's body, her face is fairly attractive. So, I can only think that she "hags-out" when turning victims to stone. I've learned her performance in the film is completely computer generated. Russian-born beauty, Natalia Vodianova was hired as the motion-capture model for the gruesome Gorgon and her attack on Perseus and his men.
The following text is from the World Book Encyclopedia Volume 13 (1976) and is copyright 2010 Field Enterprises Educational Corporation: "Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, the daughters of the sea god Phorcus in Greek mythology. She was the only mortal Gorgon. Medusa had been beautiful in her youth, and was still proud of her hair. She boasted of her beauty to Athena, who became jealous and changed her into a hideous person. Medusa and her sisters had staring eyes, protruding fangs for teeth, and writhing snakes for hair. They were so ugly that anyone who saw them turned to stone.

Perseus killed Medusa by looking in his mirrorlike shield as he cut off her head. The winged horse Pegasus sprang from her beheaded body, and poisonous snakes arose from the blood that dripped from her head. Athena saved blood from Medusa's body and gave it to Asclepius, the god of healing. The blood from Medusa's left side was a fatal poison, but that from her right side had the power to revive the dead."