by Marty Coleman | Nov 28, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
I got some markers in 1993. It allowed me a lot more color freedom and I went to town with them.
A Plaid Person Peering
You can see from the background landscape that they haven’t changed much over the decades. I always return to distant hills, ocean and receding paths.
Spotted Bust in Spotted Gallery
The horizontal calmness of that landscape is what I love. It juxtaposes nicely to the usually more emotionally or psychologically intense portraits in the foreground.
A Woman With Hand and Messenger
I lived in California most of my life, on the beach and amid rolling hills that would be green or golden depending on the season. I always come back to them.
See Through Woman
Unfinished Portrait
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 25, 2010 | Gratitude - 2010/2011, Marty Coleman |
It’s day #4 of Gratitude Week
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A Thanksgiving Poem
A Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, family and friends I haven’t met yet, in America and around the planet! I appreciate you all very much and love you even mucher!
Drawing and poem by me.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 24, 2010 | Frank A. Clark, Gratitude - 2010/2011 |
Thank goodness today is day #3 of Gratitude Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa this past Sunday. I didn’t do well during most of the race. It wasn’t anything about training, nutrition, hydration, race day preparation or even my time (which was bad) that makes me say that.
It was my attitude. I started out with a mess up finding the people I was going to run with. It was crowded and I was alone, no running buddies. My legs were sluggish to start. My attitude wasn’t infused with thankfulness or love, it was infused with bother. I was bothered by walkers. I was bothered by gatorade spilling on my hands. I was bothered by music bands along the way. I was bothered by my inability to get my body in gear to keep at the pace I wanted.
Two things changed that. At mile 21 I finally met up with two of the runners I was going to run with. They were both stopped and in great pain. One had to keep walking, the other started running with me. She had injured her knee half-way through and was crying. We kept plugging along for the next 5 miles, running, walking, running as best we could. I was beat, she was even more beat. But she kept going with me. All my bother melted away and I was only thinking about getting us both over the finish line. And we made it together.
The other thing? A young man, 27 years old, had collapsed and died on the 1/2 marathon route. Need I say more? Nothing changes an attitude quicker than realizing the old adage ‘There but for the grace of God go I’. I have lived twice as long as he did. I have had marriages, children, love, travel, pleasure, pain, great friends and family. Many of these things are lost to him now and forever.
It was a sobering reminder that my attitude, as long as I am alive, should continually strive to be at, or move towards gratitude, thankfulness and love.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Frank A. Clark, 1911-1991, American Pastor and Aphorist
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 23, 2010 | Gratitude - 2010/2011, Samuel Johnson |
I am grateful today is day#2 of Gratitude Week at The NDD.
What makes a person gross? Do you see a connection between your understanding of that term and lack of gratitude? What does ‘great cultivation’ mean? Explain.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English author (and more!)
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 22, 2010 | Gratitude - 2010/2011 |
Day #1 of Gratitude Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Thanksgiving week is a perfect time to be diligent about practicing ‘now and here’. Your relatives might be disruptive if they are coming to visit. You may not like their ‘fly by the seat of their pants’ way of planning a trip to your home. You might not like their indecisiveness, their politics, their nasty habits or nasty judgments.
But they are coming. And they will be at your house. Are you going to ruin your own week by focusing on what you don’t like about them or are you going to enjoy your week by accepting the characters and events as they occur, lessening the time spent wishing things were different and allowing yourself to find what the good in what is happening and be thankful for it?
It’s your choice, you know.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 21, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
In 1991 my two oldest daughters were taking ballet lessons. I would sometimes be the one to take them and wait. When I did I would sometimes draw those around me. On this day in 1991 I happened to capture two very interesting mothers while they watched and contemplated.
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| Ballet Mother Watching |
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| Ballet Mother Contemplating |
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 20, 2010 | Death - 2001-2011 |
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Drawn for my daughter and put in her lunch to be eaten at school. The lunch that is, not the napkin.
Ever notice how most everyone doesn’t want to die? Ever notice how a good portion of those same people are pissed off about some or all of their lives? Heraclitus noticed it over 2,600 years ago so it’s not a new phenomenon. I doubt it is going away throughout humanity. But I certainly think individuals can get rid of it in their lives if they so desire.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Heraclitus, 535 BCE – 475 BCE, Greek philosopher from Ephesus.
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 15, 2010 | Aleksander Fredro, Stupidity - 2001-2011 |
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People believe stupid things. Why is that?
- People kill themselves so they can meet up with a UFO behind a comet.
- People send money to a Kenyan who has $50 million bucks to give them.
- People believe Hitler and the final solution will lead to a thousand year reign of peace.
- People think anti-aging creams really work.
- People believe the world will end in 2012.
- People believe that a tortilla with an image of a face on it has spiritual powers.
- People send money to religious leaders who will pray over a cloth swatch and send it to them.
What other stupid things do people believe, and why? Leave a comment!
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Aleksander Fredro, 1793-1876, Polish writer
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by Marty Coleman | Nov 14, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
The 1990 sketchbook isn’t as good as the one from 1989 for some reason, not sure why. But there are some interesting images.
Nude with Much to Contemplate
I had started to make a habit of drawing over some earlier odd or incomplete sketches with nudes from the drawing class I was teaching. I was doing it in part to teach them about finding value in your work. If you don’t like a piece, you can either destroy or improve it. Most people think they have to improve it by continuing in the same direction as they have been going. But another idea is to transform the first image by superimposing a completely different image on top and seeing what happens. That is what I did here.
Here are some others from that same sketchbook.
The Woman with Big Curl
Connie at Kaiser Hospital, Santa Clara, Ca
Woman Watching Spiritual Birds Watching a UFO
Drawings © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
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