Eye Trouble is apparently a sketchblog of some sort.

We saw a paletero on a street in the Coronado District when we were in Phoenix a few weeks ago. I should’ve sketched him there and then, even though, of course, I wouldn’t have been able to get down an actual likeness, ’cause of my amateur drawing status. But, anyway, I wish I’d at least made more than a mental note about him, ’cause the mental note’s saying he had on a leather hat, and I doubt that’s accurate, on account of it was finally hot again in Phoenix after a few cooler-than-normal days. Still, I think I do remember that his hat was a sort of porkpie shape.

And, well, I guess that’s all I know at the moment. Except, I’m including the rough just for the heck of it. The whole thing was drawn in Flash, which, for whatever reason, is easier for me to draw in than the software I suppose I’m supposed to use. Probably oughta draw on paper more, but I like being able to move the parts around until they’re just the right amount of messed-up.

Once again, I have no actual real-life time for this blogging junk, so I’m just gonna very fast post a few random sketches from last week’s trip out West. All these things came off my crappy old crash-happy PDA, which was a complete and total waste of money, except that I like Pocket Painter more than I oughta like it, considering that using it means I end up neglecting the nine million felt-tip pens I already own and also the extremely blank and brand-new Moleskine that needs to get scribbled in really soon. (Or, well, okay, I guess the dumb old PDA came in a little handy last year in London, when we needed to know real quick and easy-like how to ride the Tube from one place to another, which we did by checking the cool animated maps in Visual IT’s Tube 2.) Anyway, so that’s why the sketches are tiny and plus have that pixelbrick look of old MacDraw art from long, long ago, which is a look I always liked a ton. Meanwhile, the rest of the day today I’m working on Master Plan Number 99, which I’m sure is the version that this time will once and for all solve the various fun issues that now and then crop up in this so-called artistic lifestyle of mine. And I need to read some more from the book my wife recommended when she saw me struggling a bit with non-creativity. The book being Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, which so far appears to be the greatest book ever written.

While I know it’s pretty hard to imagine, I actually have 13 or 14 things I’d like to write about, although I’m not sure “writing” is actually the right word. But, anyway, I’m super-busy at the moment, so I doubt a lot that I’m gonna have time today for any sort of writing or scribbling or whatever at all, which is a shame (for me, not for you), ’cause I wanted to write about this weird orange car that keeps getting parked in front of our house, and about the book I’m reading right now, which is a good book for learning arcane graphic design terms like “beard” and “nick” and “quoin.” Also, I wanted to write about book covers I’ve known and enjoyed down the years, and how it’s really strange I dream so often of golf courses, ’cause I’m not remotely fond of golf or the way it uses up the surface of the Earth (with all due respect to my dad and to the memory of my grandfather…I mean, I guess golf was a pretty solid family tradition until it took a detour around me).

Like I said, though, I have zero time at the moment for all that kind of stuff. So, instead, here’s a painting. Which, you know, I guess I’m trying to paint as much as possible, to maybe try and rediscover how to do art. The goal’s to do maybe five of these things a week, but I am, as usual, behind. Anyhow, I think the idea of this one came from spending time in Phoenix, where the sun is sometimes kind of relentless (although I love Arizona), and figures can sometimes look kind of like silhouettes against the bright, bright air. Plus, I remember from Texas how people would often carry around parasols for portable shade, which is a cool visual. Plus I draw in silhouette anyway, ’cause it’s a cheat for how I don’t actually know how to draw the right way. Okay, enough, I’ve gotta go.