Albert Ayler - Ghosts (From 1964’s Spiritual Unity)
I’ve had the opening melody of this track stuck in my head for days now. The descent (ascent?) into a free jazz sax workout is pretty wonderful, as well.
If the colour or resolution on this looks funny, don’t despair! It’s because I have terrible scanning / editing skills.
I uh, hope that clears any confusion.
Also, I clearly can’t draw arm hair, despite my having quite a bit of it. Dang!
Another speed drawing; this one was done in a minute. I’ll post another drawing soon, this feels too insubstantial to be a regular drawing post.
Killer Mike - Reagan
This seems to be the most-talked about track from Killer Mike’s excellent R.A.P. Music, so I thought hey, why not join in the fun. Mike righteously takes Reagan and Obama (and by extension, politicians in general) to task on a long line of discriminatory / bullshit policies, pausing to issue a verbal smack on the collective head of the rappers who mislead youth with tales of false glories in the game, when in reality, the situation said youth are getting sucked into puts them into so much worse of a position. Points to Mike for never coming off as preachy; he is smouldering with anger here, which I’d imagine is helped by being one of the few rappers who points out what he sees as the stunningly obvious. And of course, El-P’s production kills it. Great stuff.
it’s a secret between me and you
Here’s another speed-drawing (done in a minute and a half, on the left), and a slower, still-sketchy version of the same drawing, with more emphasis on shadows and details and such.
Also, for the first time, an actual background has been included in one of my ‘real-life’ drawings (I mean, barely, but it’s there). Hopefully this is something I’ll be exploring more soon, definitely something I need practice in.
anyways
Charles Mingus - Tensions
I’ve been on a big Mingus kick for the past few months, so here’s Tensions, off the album Blues and Roots, recorded 1959 and released 1960.
Hey, I’m back.
I’ve been trying to draw outside my comfort zone, so bear with me while the drawings I upload show some stylistic changes. Recently, a comment I saw online got me thinking about the idea of extreme speed-drawing, i.e. minimizing lines to convey a maximum of information, which I thought could be interesting. I made a bunch of these, most which are really bad, but here are three that I thought were worth uploading. From left to right, the drawings took 2 minutes, 1 minute, and half a minute to draw, respectively.
Tortoise - Djed
Easily one of my favourite songs ever. The past drawing was a sort of speed drawing, to see what I could do in the span of this 20 minute song.
The Youtube video is cut in 2 parts, sorry about that! I don’t have much else to say about this song right now. I’m kind of sorry about that, too, but a little less so than I was with the first apology.
anyways
I’m guessing Tumblr won’t be too kind to the proportions of this drawing if you’re viewing in the Dashboard, so maybe click through for a full view.
It’s my hand holding down the page I was drawing on. My middle finger looks too skinny, I promise that’s not true in real life.
I should probably mention that I’m going to be at TCAF tomorrow for maybe a good while, so if anyone wants to maybe meet up for a bit maybe, I dunno, just drop a message in my inbox!
The Flaming Lips - 6 Hour Song (Found a Star on the Ground)
I’ve yet to have a chance to listen to all 6 hours of this behemoth, but from I’ve heard it’s pretty darn palatable. I can’t really recall the last time I was disappointed by this band (I still like At War With the Mystics!), and Found a Star on the Ground is no exception.
(While I’m still on this note, I largely enjoyed their collaboration with Ke$ha. I scarcely know where to begin with my thoughts concerning the last sentence. Name another band that would conceive of that pairing and make it excellent to boot… are there any? This is why I love The Flaming Lips)
