SKETCHBOOK : Open Mic Night

     This is what I sketched while we were at the Gypsy Den in Santa Ana last night, watching our friend Matt do "open mic" night. Matt played guitar and sang, and did a great job. There were maybe one or two other acts that were okay, and the others were mostly endurance tests.
     I never know where to look when anybody other than Matt is up there. We sit very close to the stage, and I don't have much of a Poker face, so I'm afraid to look directly at the performer, in case I accidentally sneer, frown, or make a painy face. So it helps my nerves to have my sketchbook to disappear into. Especially if someone is reciting a poem, which is worse than having your teeth drilled.
     It was kind of cool, though, when a young lady at a table across the room somehow set some napkins on fire with the candle on her table. All of a sudden, while some guy was performing, there were flames and people running over to douse it with water.
     The lady was by herself, and had a strange honky afro. When she first walked in she had an attitude like, "I am a quirky, interesting lady!" But after the fire, she looked like she wanted to disappear into the floorboards.
     In my mind, I have re-written it so that her honky afro was what caught fire.




ORIGINAL ART : "Art Friends Are the Best"


     Received a really cool envelope from a friend, highly-decorated with special postal stamps and such. Inside was a print of Little Nemo-inspired artwork my friend had done recently, and a nice little note about inspiring each other artistically.
     So I did this drawing last night, and plan to put it in the mail as a lil' thank you.
     Long live snail mail and spontaneous art!

ORIGINAL ART : Sketches


     My husband likes that guy. The doughy-looking one above.
     He also likes the lady in the middle, below:


     I'm partial to the angry child on the right, especially because that bicycle is so wrong. I knew it was way off when I was drawing it, so I added the bell as a distraction.

     These are the kinds of things I doodle on a Friday night when I've had a long week and just want to relax.