Just lately it seems that I’m hitting the old sketchbooks a lot harder than I have been, and I am having fun while I’m at it. Fortunately for me, this spate of activity is not tied to a single sketchbook although I am favoring Canson XL Mixed Media pads which have a nice, heavy paper that takes both wet and dry media very well. I finished one off recently which I posted about last week.
I like having noise in the background while I am sketching so I’ll usually have the TV on. I favor episodic television and trash movies that won’t require my strict attention but are still enjoyable. Lately, I’ve been tuning into Tubi TV via my Roku box. Tubi has free, ad supported content and a fairly decent library so they have become my streaming station of choice. Recently I took in Roger Corman’s Sorority Girl (1957) which I had never seen or even heard of before discovering it in Tubi’s lineup. This was a lot like most of Corman’s films — cheap and just salacious enough to overcome the lack of story, setting, stars and Technicolor. It featured beloved character actor Dick Miller and tragic, never-quite-was actress Susan Cabot who’s real life and death is a lot more tawdry and horrifying than a dozen Roger Corman movies.
All in all, it was an entertaining bit of background noise while I busied myself with my sketchbook.
I jokingly refer to the character above as Nora the Explorer. She was a minor character in Monkey & Bird stalking the cartoon couple as they went on their first date. I have some ideas for her, and she has been making regular appearances in a few sketchbooks I’m rotating through.
