I'll be engaged with some work over the next two weeks and probably won't be able to post much until Monday, November 1st.

• The professional misanthrope: V.S. Naipaul. (The Times)
• The perfect marriage: Tolstoy and Sonya. (Boston Review)

Black-Haired Woman
charcoal, ink, and watercolour
27.9 x 35.6 cm (11" x 14")

Sometimes not much is required for a portrait.

• In case you don't understand Wayne Thiebaud, this may help. (The New York Times) (via C-Monster)
• What Ever Happened to Modernism? (The Wall Street Journal)

White Background
charcoal and gouache
30.5 x 45.7 cm (12" x 18")

What's that thing on the model's stomach? Her hand, if I recall correctly. Don't blame me. I just draw what I see (sort of).

• Somali pirates: crime pays. (The New York Review of Books)
• Adolf Hitler's passion? Architecture. (Lapham's Quarterly)

Hugging a Cushion
ink and charcoal
20.3 x 27.9 cm (8" x 11")

This drawing might have made a nice painting. Who knows? It still might.

• Albert Michelson, the Michelson-Morley experiment, and billiards. (Lapham's Quarterly)
• The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy. (The Washington Post)
• The subversion of economists. (The Chronicle)

Blue Sleeper
ink and watercolour
20.3 x 27.9 cm (8" x 11")

The model was wearing a blue sweater, which I have somehow managed to make into something more like a blue blanket.

• Only 242,000 items are missing from Russia's museums. (Time)
• T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt retold. (HistoryNet.com)
• By way of nothing: the strongest man who ever lived, Louis Cyr. (wikipedia)

K. on Pink
charcoal and gouache
45.7 x 30.5 cm (18" x 12")

K. liked this drawing a bit more than I did, so she gets to keep it.

Vs El Monstruo de las Ramlas: Rafa Cortés and Jaume Montané

Regardless of the musical merits of this video, I love the cycling and the folding bike. Maybe I'll try riding a bike while playing a guitar. On second thought, maybe not, since I don't know how to play a guitar.

Portrait Demo

Check out this video on tudou.com

It's a demonstration by a Chinese artist of an interesting and slightly different approach to portraiture. It's 30 minutes long, but you can skip through it.

(If anyone knows who the artist is, or how to embed a tudou video, please let me know. I would appreciate it.)