This is my personal best of '21. I was pretty happy with the number of entries here this year and, in general the amount of work until I realized I only completed one song for "The City Silent" this year. That means I have 20 to go and, at that rate, it'll take me 20 years. Gah. I was hoping more for three. Well, my mind wanders and I get interested in portraiture, I get lazy, work makes me tired, etc. Excuses. That being said, I really liked how Smatt's Crew's song came out. I have hopes for Digby's as well. And, in general, I think this year's portraits are better than those that came before.

I have pretty much fully embraced digital art making. There's not a single, 'real media' image in the bunch. That being said, I think everyone one of these started as a pencil sketch. I'm learning to play more to my strengths, and pencil is one of those. For some reason, sketching on the iPad doesn't yield the same results, so I'll try and remember that, making it a sure part of my process. In the portraits of Greyson Perry, lower right, I manage to mix pencil, vector and a flourish of Procreate. The center self portrait I did three times until I got something that worked.

All in all, a good year except for quantity. Here's hoping I can continue to grow in '22 and make things that I like. Can't really concentrate on other people liking it or I'll never get anything done. 

 A little sketch, using a photo my partner sent me of someone's doberman in a hoodie. I thought it looked kind of cool and I had time to do something quick, so there it is. Feels solid enough if unremarkable. Don't like using that much of someone else's photo but as I don't plan to post this anywhere else or do anything with it, no biggie.

 Here's a few more. I got a couple in the airplane that didn't turn out too badly. They feel to me as if I'm flying over Star Wars. The flowers were just two random from the bunch. Orchids just grow all over the place there. The red one... no idea what it is but it was really interesting. The other two were taken at the top of the volcano at a National Park. It was a beautiful day. I would certainly go back. My little iPhone SE takes pretty decent photos, though I could wish for a higher resolution. And the zoom isn't worth crap. Still, it handles color and contrast better than my Nikon.

 I don't usually post this kind of thing, but I had a recent trip to Hawaii and my buddy Vince had one to Boston. He posted his photos which were very cool, so I thought I'd post a few of mine. These are just a few, taken with my camera. There are more I took with my phone, some of which are better. But this will give an idea of what we experienced and saw. There's tons more, some of LA as well which I might post. I love taking photos on vacation, better than pretty much anything else. Don't really want souvenirs, just want photos. So, well, here are some. I did also take a few for reference of my 86 year old father who I hadn't seen in over 30 years. Portraits are forthcoming.

 Here's all the stuff that went into the latest image. At the top is the pencil sketch. I didn't want to use a grid or anything as I wanted it to be slightly quirky (or, "off"). I was happy enough with the sketch knowing that I didn't want to include all the lines in the final. As I tried to make this image work with the style of the last one, I just kept getting frustrated. Made two separate tries and neither felt right. I then realized that there was nothing rough or random about her; she felt very "precise." So I went back to the straight forward AD style and it fell right into place. I don't mind posting some failures as it's all just stuff that took me, eventually in the right direction. It's the failures that just plain fail that I keep to myself.

This is the third try for this woman. She's another model from my favorite painting show (I really need to find out her name). As an older woman, I wanted to keep some of her age but not be cruel. I think I managed a minimum of detail to suggest without using things unneeded. I honestly think she's lovely though I know nothing about here. I wanted to suggest a beauty somehow. I tried the same approach as I did with the last portrait and it simply didn't work. It just looked a mess. Suddenly, I thought about just making things more precise and I think that was the right decision. It's not the most flattering thing ever, perhaps, but I think there's some truth and a bit of beauty in there. Or maybe it's just the sake.