The Power of Friendship

A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.

Jim Morrison

Medusa Sun 2015

My friend Q and I met in a life drawing class at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill California. We had been looking at each others work for a couple of classes, and one day I was at an easel behind her, and commented that I wished I had a style like hers. She said "I wish I could draw like you." We have been friends ever since. Q introduced me to Prisma Color Pencils and a lot of other things for which I am eternally grateful. I have never looked back. I have tried other mediums, but I prefer to work with point media: pencils, ink. And mixed media felt tip pens, watercolor washes but all with a point media for detal. This sun is Prisma Color marker, Prisma pencils, Farber Castille brush point markers, and Micron Pigma Black pens. 

When we first met, in our early twenties, one of the things we did was take off in one of our Bugs (We both had VW Bugs) and go drawing. Q's style is much flatter than mine, and when we would sit down and draw the same view or the same still life you could tell it was the same thing but the styles were 180 degrees apart. She really opened my eyes to looking at the world in a different way. Then, one of the tools she used was this round point drawing and caligraphy pen: the ink was in a cartridge that you changed when it ran out. Very fluid and sometimes very messy because they would occasionally leak. We would draw straight onto the paper. It required really being in tune with what you were drawing, and really paying attention. It also required being able to adjust away from absolute reality when things drifted a bit and creating the scene to fit. I don't use that kind of pen anymore, but I still like to go out and draw what is in front of me, with a pen, because it is a form of meditation. 

For my birthday this year She gave me this amazing bracelet. This is the Thank You card I am sending to her. Thank you for everything else as well, Q. Meeting you changed my life in the best way.