Frank's Sketchbook Entry of the Day

This week was a friend's 20th birthday, someone I've known all her life. As a 2 year old, one of her things was to want to "sit on the steps and talk about life." She was very verbal for her age. Anyway, I wanted to draw something involving someone sitting on steps. And I wanted to use the white pens and black paper notebook (the notebook was a gift from her...well, she was getting rid of some art supplies and I happily said I'd take that, so it counts).

After some searching for a reference image, the best I could do was find one of someone sitting on steps with his back against a wall. I used it as a reference photo and I think it came out OK in white-on-black. The person is no one in particular, not me, not her, not anyone we know. But I like the pose and the sort of wistful look on his face as if he is contempating life. The steps aren't bad, though they're more of a suggestion. I will note that the words "steps" and "life" were drawn with silver and gold glitter pens (also cast-offs/gifts).

The folds on the shirt were some afterthoughts, since it was mostly white. And the blips of white dots on the pants were to suggest a substance when it was almost completely dark. The black lines separating white areas from each other works (like shirt and wall or arm and body) and the lack of "noise as shadow or notch isn't bad either (like the lower step) or the notch going up diagonally on the side of the step. And I like how the pose of the hand worked out. So I'm pretty happy with it. The original went with the birthday card but the full size imge is here.