I’m going to be busting my ass to make sure that 2010 is the year that I finally make the plunge and open my own art/photography studio.  I’ve been following up on every lead for good, affordable studio space as well as making a checklist of must have items to furnish my studio with.

One of the key items will be a coffee machine.  And not a Mr. Coffee, no way, not in my studio.  I want an eye pleasing yet fully featured coffee machine that will be able to churn out pot after pot of hot, fresh coffee on a daily basis.  Of all the equipment that I may end up needing, this coffee machine is number one on the list.  You must get your priorities straight right from the beginning.

I have not settled on a particular brand or style just yet but I am certain that I will be pleased with the final choice.

Additionally, I will need a mini-fridge to hold and keep chilled a selection of energy drinks to supplement the above referenced hot coffee.  Caffeine is the number one item to keep on hand at all times.  Given the choice between going one day without food or one day without caffeine and I will always choose to give up the food.  Man, oh man, this is really happening.

So there I was, sitting at my desk and between the tediousness of helping those who are not able to help themselves, I did a little #2 pencil sketch of the Sharpie marker that I keep on hand for special projects.

Granted, this is just a simple sketch.  Practically a doodle.  But in a moment of vanity I decided that this piece of art must be photographed and uploaded to Flickr and Facebook.  So I did just that.

You see?  Do you see that?  The delicious irony made even more delicious and evil because it was not intentional.  In case you missed it, look at the drawing above.  It is a sketch of a Sharpie marker, done with a #2 pencil and then photographed with the camera on my BlackBerry Curve.  The photo is out of focus.

Do you see?  Do you see it now?  It’s a sketch of a “Sharpie” but the it is out of focus and hence, NOT SHARP AT ALL!!!  Oh my god, how can I be so talented and clever?  I don’t question these things, I just roll with it.

We’ll be kicking off the weekend with a tribute to myself.  Thank you, thank you very much.  You are all too kind.  Unfortunately I tend to be a lazy artist so the examples I am presenting below are not complete.  They are what is known in some circles as, “works in progress”.  I won’t say just how long they have been in progress but I am confident that one day they will be completed.  I’ve been working with Adobe Photoshop CS and both pieces are based off of digital photographs I took of both locations.  The first example will be the Bagdad Theater and the second example is the The Portland Center for the Performing Arts (or PCPA as we call it) and also referred to as simply the Portland sign.

The Bagdad Theater is a movie theater in the Hawthorne District of Portland, Oregon. It originally opened in 1927 and was the site of the premiere gala of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975, and of My Own Private Idaho in 1991.  The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bagdad Theatre in 1989.  It is currently owned by the McMenamins brewpub chain.

The digital illustration you see above is a work in progress and is based on the original photograph below that I took back on October 28, 2004.

Additionally, I present to you another work in progress, The Portland Center for the Performing Arts or simply the Portland sign.  Again, this is based off of a digital photograph as is being rendered in Adobe Photoshop CS mainly because I have never like Adobe Illustrator.