This drawing was used as a back cover for my book of drawings titled "A Sketchbook".  See it here. 

I recently bought a Micron brush pen and did a portrait sketch of my friend and artist Richard laForti.  It takes a while to get used to it - I'm used to the more rigid Micron 005.  Here's a jpeg of the drawing......

I also did a sketch of a tree in the front yard.......

Just when I thought it was all over  - this morning I received a check in the mail for $3999.01 from a lady in NYC and signed by somebody I hadn't heard of yet.  There was no paper work in the priority packet, just a check.   I'll keep you posted....this is very strange....

When somebody approaches you to buy your art on line, do you cringe?  I'm starting to.   I got approached this week by a man named "Harry Westhood" who was interested in a watercolor abstract that I had on my art website.   We had a series of email exchanges and after the third one I was sure that it was a scam.   He wanted to know the price of the work, and if he could pay by check (I told him that I preferred PayPal) and that he had a shipping agent that would contact me (a tip off).   I told him that it would take 2 to 3 weeks to clear the check before I would ship the painting.  Then I asked him for his complete contact info in order to proceed.  He answered with a long list of information that he wanted from me: address, phone, cel phone, etc.  I decided to google "Harry Westhood" and the first thing that came up was "Harry Westhood, Art Scam", a posting by another artist who had been scammed by him.  That was lucky and my gut level was right.  I emailed him back and told him what I saw on Google and that I could not proceed with the transaction.   What a waste of time - this has happened three times in the last year.   Things to look for:  (1) A sense of urgency.   (2) Poor grammatical use in the email.   (3)  Wanting to pay by Cashiers check (sometimes a greater amount than you are asking)  (4) They want to use their own shipping agent.  

A couple of hours after I sent him the final email, he approached me on my alternate email with the same pitch all over again....only this time his name was "Harry Westwood".  

This is a drawing that I did while laying on the floor of a house that my first wife, Judy, and I were renting in La Crescenta, California.  That was in 1960 and we were paying $75 a month rent in a very nice neighborhood.  The drawing was inspired by a photo of a poet that I saw in Life Magazine, but then it took on a life of its own and started to look a little bit like my grandfather and my own father.   It has a dramatic intensity that makes people respond to it in lots of different ways.