First post of '09

I once worked at a petrol station on the outskirts of my hometown, no not in South Africa, in Richmond , B.C, Canada. I just figure petrol station sounds a lot cooler than gas station. One day a man with long hair and shaggy clothing walked up to us and asked us for some help, he said he needed gasoline for his car that was up the road, as he held out an empty soda can. We flatly refused to fill his can up, it was against the rules, he had to pay for a federally approved plastic gas container. He didn't have enough money in his pockets. Later on that day I saw my boss and the man with the shaggy hair, this time he had his car with him. After the man and his car went on their way we received quite a tongue lashing from our boss. Some family pulled in and I hastily went over to serve them. I suppose then, for me to be angry at the girl who threw aside the last two napkin drawings below onto the floor near the bar, would be hypocritical of me, wouldn't you say?

Napkin Drawings by popular request

Drawing in my local bar, Canal Bar, is one of my favorite pastimes. Always a steady flow of new and old faces to practice the art of caricature, which is something I would really like to get good at one day. The pool table provides some new gestures to draw from, but as challenging enough as it is to draw from a still life, I much prefer a person to sit as still as possible when I’m trying to capture their essence onto the napkin. The drink helps a lot too, a couple of Brooklyn lagers, some popcorn for sustenance, some elbow space and a stack of cocktail napkins. I’ll supply the pens and markers. Cheers!
note: most of these were done at Bar Great Harry on smith st.