I Love Markers

I recently acquired some fancy art markers. These aren't your average Crayola things, they are the highest quality, most fun markers I have ever touched. Nothing against Crayola of course, some of my greatest childhood masterpieces are done in Crayola. But these new markers? They are so smooth and vibrant. I love them. 

The winter is the slow season at the USS Constitution Museum, so while I was at the front desk waiting for visitors to arrive, I drew a sea monster lurking beneath a ship. My co-workers can verify: I draw a lot of sea monsters when I am at the front desk. Then I sketched a half-hour glass, which is an artifact from our collection. They kept time on early US Navy ships using these half-hour glasses. A watch lasted 4 hours and they would ring a bell to signal when each half-hour had passed.

The markers accompanied me to the MFA, where I did a cartoon copy of a Dutch Renaissance painting. I chose this painting because the woman looked incredibly grumpy and it made me think about how uncomfortable it must have been to pose for hours for a painting, wearing your best giant, frilly collar. I was also drawn to all the ornate frames, so I threw some of those in too.

And finally, in search of fresh ideas, I posed on facebook a request for things to draw. One friend suggested an angry lemur. Upon googling lemurs, I discovered they look sort of angry naturally, so it made my task easier. Then I got a suggestion to draw the coolest looking planet I could invent, which ended up with quite a lot of swirling masses, like Mars.

I have more plans for these markers. Just you wait!