his is a drawing of a marble portrait of the emperor Constantine the Great that lives in The Met. It’s quite a large head. It seems to be the spot where a lot of tour groups stop. I became part of the museum landscape to be ogled at. Several photographer type tourists came by with large cameras. They began filming me like crazy which made me seem important for no reason whatsoever.

Before we went on our European adventure, I did an illustration of one of New York’s main tourist attractions. Rockefeller Center. People from around the world chatted me up as I urban sketched. Now I have to scan and clean up my new European drawings to prep them for posting.

A typical, carp over dying botanical garden flowers drawing.

This is a tossed drawing salad.

Last summer I went to The Met with the artists, Lapin and Veronica Lawlor. At one point, I noticed Veronica staring at an ancient print. I joined her and saw it was a painting of London rooftops and the chimneys had vegetables coming out instead of smoke. I turned to Veronica and said, “I’m going to steal that.” She laughed because she knew I wasn’t kidding. I finally found a use for the idea I procured. Little did I know it would end up on top of a food cart on Houston street.

I had not been to the Bethesda Fountain in decades. In the past three weeks, I’ve made three appearences. I filmed myself two of the days drawing. On Saturday, I met the Sneaky Artist there along with some urbansketchers. The fountain was shut off and completely drained of water for no apparent reason. I made the rounds chatting with nice artists. Ended up at the Met seeing the Raphael show for the third time.

My friend, Nishant Jain is giving a drawing class at Bethesda fountain in New York for the Urbansketchers. It’s sold out. I went to check the fountain out for myself. I’m big on drawing groovy tourist sites lately. I ended up needing two trips there to finish my own drawing because it was more elaborate than I anticipated.

I showed up on the street to draw St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue. It was a blustery cold day. The streets were filled with high school and grammer school aged catholic school kids all in uniforms. I hadn’t seen this many since the 1960s when I myself was in catholic school. Not a single kid cared or looked at what I was drawing. They all passed me by.

This is what the world looks like to me. A somewhat realistic, colorful cartoon. When I pick up my pen and begin to draw, I’m always shooting for super realism but somhow a cartoon always develops. I was breast fed on Woody Woodpecker and toilet trained by Magilla Gorilla. To quote Popeye the Sailor Man, “I yam what I yam.”

Watch me draw flowers for 20 seconds.

Every spring, I make a new version of this same type of flower drawing. I went to the Botanical Gardens on three separate occasions to get this many blooms onto my page. Plus some days it was quite cold to stay out there. When I’m finished, I always think this is the best one I’ve ever done. Probably not true but I love my little sketch anyway.

Recently got back from my first trip to Key West, Florida. First thing you notice there is that everyone drives a golf cart. Next thing you notice is that there are feral chickens wandering the streets everywhere. It’s against the law to harm them. They hang outside the cafes, party in the alleyways and basically do as they please. I was amused listening to them crow in the distance. I love the look of the tiny beach houses separated from each other by only a few feet. A very convivial town indeed.

I did this drawing on site. It’s the Brooklyn side facing Manhattan. I had it framed and gifted it to my niece Megan for her wedding. It’s also part of a little project I did that I hope comes to fruition this year.

If you want to see me draw my cousin’s boat in Florida, then watch this for 20 seconds. Vacation boy.

When Stephen Petronisetronis is drawing with me, he will film me drawing. Then I do the same for him. Proof of life. When someone comes drawing with me, it makes it more fun for some reason.

Just got back from Key West, Florida. It was our first time there. Went for a wedding. I also got to spend a few days beforehand at my cousin, Eileen’s house on Marco Island. I drew her boat which was raised up on her dock. Used my Merlin app to spot ospreys, mottled ducks, fish crows, great egrets, green herons, eurasian doves, brown pelicans, and peregrine falcons among others. Obviously not when I was drawing. A dolphin moseyed by at one point too.

The gritty streets of Chinatown are some of the city’s most visually authentic. It’s a great place to draw because people always want to engage you. I spend a lot of time talking with folks who take an exuberant interest in art. For this one, I had to return to the spot a second day in a row because there was too much detail to capture in one sitting. I’m known to do that. Obviously this was done at the end of last summer. Just hadn’t posted it yet.