Feeling the Bern: 2021 is off to a good start.

January 2021 is off to a good start. I was able to get a few sketches in, including a couple of Birthday Bots. I'm also trying to play around with doing ink washes, hoping to get better at it, but I'm having to learn a whole new level of patience. I'm definitely going to need to work with better paper than my sketch pads. 

To start off, I want to share my latest drawing. Taking a little break from #robots, I thought I would try and make a quick rendering of the—Photoshopped, meme-famous—shot of Bernie Sanders @berniesanders taken by Brendan Smialowski @bsmialowski - photojournalist for Agence France-Press (AFP).

Here, I’ve placed Bernie nowhere special—just on another page in my sketchbook.

I also did a couple of Birthday Bots. When we sign office birthday cards, I’ve tried to add a little sketch about the person being celebrated. Since COVID-19 and working from home, I haven’t been able to do that. So I decided to bring it back—virtually. 

Here, I've captured Zach Deutsch @zach_d - Account Supervisor at LAUNCH agency @launchagency 

I’ve worked with Zach for several years and respect him as a valuable member of our agency. When he’s not helping at Launch, but Zach travels quite a bit. In fact, he’s visited every continent. So, I decided to capture him as a ‘travelbot’. Happy Birthday, Zach!

We also celebrated Diane Seimetz Duncan @dseimetz - Creative Director and one of the principal owners of LAUNCH agency @launchagency I’ve worked with Diane since before they started the agency in 2003 and I continue to be inspired by her.  

Not only is Diane an incredible creative thinker and strategist for Launch, but she also creates and sells her own cruelty free, vegan and organic bath and body products. Diane is also a vegan, who has generously helped me with my own meat-free lifestyle. Today, I’ve captured her as a plant-loving, idea-generating, vegan-bot. Happy birthday, Diane. 

Finally, a couple more random sketches. I wanted to start the year off right with a sketch that illustrates the positive direction that we are moving. This one pays tribute to the new COVID-19 vaccines that are in distribution. Two shots (although actually weeks apart). Hopefully this leads to the end of this pandemic and an optimistic future.

Inspired by the amazing work of Simon Stalenhag, @simon_stalenhag , I thought that I would play around with the concept of some surreal and haunting technology. Here is a man reliving a childhood memory, served up by his second-generation dreambot. This is another exploration of ink washing to get richer shadows.