As long as I can remember, I’ve drawn. I just love the process of battening down and putting pencil to paper and making a picture appear out of nowhere.
I remember my first attempt at photorealism. It was in the early 90s or so. I was HEAVILY into Aerosmith at the time, so I decided to take a crack at drawing Steven Tyler. Their album Get a Griphad just come out so it had to have been 1993 or so. I used a poster-sized spread from one of those late-80s, early-90s rock and roll magazines, like Circus, or something similar as a source image, I used Scotch tape to tape together four pieces of regular ol copy paper and made the drawing. If I ever find the scan, I will paste it here
[placeholder for Steven Tyler drawing]
Anyway, years went by, I continued honing my craft and got to the point where I was making some damned fine art. I think Grimm already showcased a piece before, right? My Coke and M&Ms?
Flashback to January of 2019, after the tumultuous end of a toxic relationship, most of my stuff, including my drawing table, went into storage while I regrouped and got my life together.
Once I met my wife and we moved in together, most of the stuff in storage wound up at the dump in Albuquerque, my drawing table included. That happened as we were getting ready to move from New Mexico to Iowa, in February of 2022. I had been without a drawing table since.
UNTIL I got one late in 2025. After taking my sweet time setting it up and getting it in my office, it was after Christmas. I had gotten a paint-by-number canvas of Zion National Park from my in-laws for Christmas so that’s been taped to my desk ever since.
My office is almost in prime condition for me to start drawing again, and I am anxious to start, but with all the creative jumble-tron going on in my ADHD-addled brain, drawing is competing with so many other projects at any given time so we will see when I actually get around to it…
In the meantime, expect a report from Grimm every Monday where he will showcase a drawing that I’ve done already, put in his sarcastic two cents about the piece, and add it to the Drawings gallery.
I’ll be back tomorrow to talk to you about writing.
-Phil