A plan
I've just marked five years of keeping this blog. The milestone prompted me to think about how much time blogging, corresponding, promoting, writing,self-justifying and so on have absorbed of my free time. It has been a wonderful experience, but...
A card from Seamus
"An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers" now shipping from Amazon! Click to play...
First reviews
Dear Danny, I've been looking through your book. over the past several days and it's a gem. It's a delight. I had great fun checking out the various ways artists approach those blank, bound sheets of paper. My three...
Cindy
Cindy Woods has long been one of my favorite sketchbook artists. I love the quality of her line, the clarity of her observation. And she is a strong exemplar of the fact that no matter what one's situation, drawing...
Teaching
For the first time, I am teaching a regular class on sketchbook journaling and, it is some thing I really look forward to each week. I have an awful lot of students (25 or so) and our classroom is...
Catching up
The very first copy of my new book, An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers finally arrived and it is gorgeous. First off, it is ridiculously thick, 266 pages jam-packed with journal...
Me Time
As I described in my last post, I have just completed a project called 'Me Time', which is an attempt to find an opportunity to pursue the many things, small and large, that my normal waking hours just don't...
Tick-tock
My grandfather died last winter at 98 so I’m not even half his age yet. Maybe I’m only approaching the midpoint of my life, or maybe I’ll have massive heart attack and keel over at my desk this afternoon....
An Illustrated Life Podcast 013:
Christine Castro Hughes
My editor tell me that in a week or two, I will be getting the first advanced copy of my new book, An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers. As you can...
Childhood memories
(click images to magnify) When I was a boy, I travelled a great deal. My family wasn't in the Armed or Diplomatic services. I guess they were just adventurers, peripatetic wanderers, refugees, gypsies. These are pages of random memories,...
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!
Another Sunday Drawing with Jack
(Click images to enlarge) Back for another go at life drawing. I un-retired my dip pen and was glad of it; it's so much more organic and expressive than the Rapidograph. I also decided to tackled the entire form...
A sketchcrawl with Dong
I love this 1954 film of the master watercolorist, Dong Kingman, painting just a few blocks from my house. Kingman worked through most of the last century (1911-2000) and his style is timeless. He combined intense observation and minuscule...
Air Devils and Mad Men
When I was a boy and living in Israel, my mum happened upon an ad in the Jerusalem Post looking for children who spoke English and were interested in appearing in an American TV commercial. I was both and...
Holy Moly
. While I like to look at them, I have never particularly enjoyed participating in collaborative art projects like artist's trading cards. However, watching this video of France Belleville opening a package made me understand the fun of it...
A Little Portrait
Sean: ink and color pencil 7"x10" Jack and I haven't been to life drawing together for ages so we dropped by for a few hours of portrait drawing at the Spring Street studio. We had two models, a woman...
Mattias Rocks
Everyone in my new book is mad inspiring. Here's a terrific example. Mattias Adolfson, a very Swedish fellow, draws with enormous clarity, accuracy, and humor. His line is so distinctive and takes him from letter perfect landscapes to silly...
The Old Man Mad About Drawing
Here's an inspiring little film by Tony White for anyone who worries that they are too old to start drawing or frustrated that they have yet to achieve the perfect approach to drawing. Katsushika Hokusai was the most extraordinary...
9/11/08
The view from my bedroom balcony tonight reminds me of the loss of seven years ago. I remember waking up at 4 a.m. on the morning of 9/12/2001 and going out on the balcony with Patti. We watched the...
Things I like: Teeny weeny house
I have always loved the idea of having a little horse-drawn caravan to live in. I'd also love to live in a tiny house with everything all compact and stowawayable with room for some pens and tiny journals. Staying...
Things I like: Freedom of the Press
I love this little film. Doesn't it just make you want to make something...and really well?...
My vote
As important as art and drawing are to me, I have also always been deeply interested and involved with the politics of this country, ever since I was at Princeton, majoring in political science, working for my congressman, and...
Oregon and Back
Jack and I just spent a week driving 1,000 miles or so (a crazy distance for New Yorkers) across Oregon and back to visit our pal, d.price. It was the first time Jack has seen the huge scale of...
What's Up?
I have been lounging around on vacation with my family for a week, reading, drawing, playing gin rummy, and recharging. In a couple of days, Jack and I will be going to Oregon to spend a week in the...
Take a workshop with me ... from anywhere
I have been invited to give various workshops over the years but have often been reluctant because of the traveling involved. I love the idea of sharing ideas and experiences with other writers and artists but my schedule is pretty...
A surprise book: Bad to the Bone
Maybe it's because of my initials, but when I was little, I was determined to become a vet when I grew up. In fact, I got my first job at the age of 11, working for a vet at...
Facing facts
To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. William Blake - Auguries of Innocence I have been reading...
An Illustrated Life preview in HOW
The August 08 issue of HOW magazine has a healthy preview of my upcoming book, An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers. You'll find sketchbooks and interviews with seven contributors as well...
A Challenge for the Whole Family
It's the 13th anniversary of Patti's accident. Jack wrote a lovely essay about how that event has effected him since he was just a baby. Here's a video of him reading it at his school's literary festival. Oh, and...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 012:
Melanie Ford Wilson
Melanie is a wonderful illustrator and designer based in Ontario, Canada. I first encountered her work through her blog and was enchanted by the sweetness of her perspective and by the lively way she writes. We had a length...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 011: Seamus Heffernan
Seamus Heffernan is the youngest person in my new book but his work is mature and inspiring. He hand makes his own journals and paints and draws in them with enormous style and beauty. Seamus grew up in New...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 009 & 010:
Roz Stendahl
Many readers are probably familiar with Roz Stendahl and the incredibly useful advice she dispenses as a member of the EDM group. You may also remember that she gave me a special correspondence class in watercoloring a few years...
Blue Skies
From a comment submitted re. my last post. What is creativity? Creativity is the ability to come up with productive, enterprising ideas and work that, at the very least, should have aesthetic, if not monetary value. It's all very...
Why?
Danny, The moment you get up to get your sketchbook to draw, why do you do it? What makes you want to make a sketch your sketchbook? Do you do it for you or does knowing other people will...
Stuff I Like of Late
I've collected yearbooks from flea markets for ages: they give me an opportunity to draw lots of faces framed in similar ways so I can focus on their differences. John Marz had really outdone me by drawings every single...
Wear me
I like to wear t-shirts with drawings on them and have been making them for myself. If you'd like to wear one too, I have posted some designs on this site. I've priced them as cheaply as possible (though...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 008: Paul Soupiset
On this week's episode, I talk to designer and San Antonio native Paul Soupiset. I first came across Paul's work last year when he posted his Lentenblog. I loved his watercolors and the interesting way he was approaching his...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 007: Mark S Fisher
A sketchbook is a place of contemplation. For some people, like me, that contemplation is of the exterior world, and focus exclusively on drawing the things that are in front of me. But for others, contemplation is internal. They...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 006: Rama Hughes
This week's podcast is an interview with LA illustrator and teacher Rama Hughes. Rama's work is clear and confident and his ability to capture likeness is unnerving. A long time sketchbooks keeper, he has a lot of interesting things...
Happy Birthday, Portrait Party!
If you haven't already, join the Portrait Party. It is a fantastic site that was started a year ago by my pal, monstrously talented Rama Hughes. The rules are simple: In order to play, you and a fellow artist...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 005: Kurt D. Hollomon (Part II)
This week's podcast is a continuation of my conversation with Kurt Hollomon. See the notes for last week's episode for more details. Please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to this weekly feature until the book...
An Illustrated Life Podcast 004: Kurt D. Hollomon (Part I)
Time for another in my series of podcast interviews with cool sketchbook keepers. Are you enjoying them? I first encountered Kurt Hollomon's work when Dan Price sent me an outdoor gear catalog from Royal Robbins which Kurt had illustrated....
Meeting Art
I have just arrived at the last page of my office sketchbook, the one I carry to meetings and use to write down my 'ideas'. Flipping through this most recent volume, I came across lots of little drawings. They...
An Illustrated Life podcast 003: Hal Mayforth
On this week's podcast, I interview illustrator Hal Mayforth about crow quills, snowboarding and the Blues. Hal and his work are smart and funny. I am particularly inspired by the travel journals he keeps, documenting the hijinks of his...
An Illustrated Life podcast 002: Cathy Johnson
Cathy (Kate) Johnson has been an inspiration to me for years with her extraordinary nature journals, her beautiful watercolors and her generous willingness to teach many of us in the EDM community via her informative posts and her many...
Paint it blue
A recent email: Hi Danny, Do you think being creative and artistic makes a person more depressed or prone to depression? I read a book about this a long time ago. They actually used Jonathan Winters as an example...
An Illustrated Life: the Podcast
One of the most exciting aspects of working on my upcoming book, "An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration form the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers" has been the chance to get in touch with the many artists whose...
Update
I have not been posting. But I have been drawing. I began a new larger (8.5" x 11.5") book and committed to only drawing in black and white. Because of the size of the book, I keep it at...
Merry
Have a nice set of holidays. See you in 08!...
The Three Stooges
All too often, I see odd things on my walks home. This is one example, seen tonight. I think this may be the person behind it, one Oliver Walker. I mean, could there be others?...
Beyond the finish line
Jack just made this beautiful piece by making a squiggle and then drawing portraits in each section. Last weekend, Jack had his 'audition' at the art high school, doing three drawings under supervision and showing the portfolio of work...
The Mouse Race
In most normal parts of the world, when children graduate from their local middle school (also known as intermediate school or junior high school), they go onto their local high school. Their school choice is pretty much set by...
A Personal Journey from 6H to 6B
It may seem hard to believe, upon looking at my current bloated form, but there was a time, years ago, when I went to the gym and lifted weights every day. Seven days a week for over a year,...
The Giant Sketchbook
Art-alternatives.com sent me the biggest sketchbook I have ever seen. It is almost 700 pp. long, weighs 8 lbs, and is quite spectacular. We made a little film to show you what an effect it had on my family....
Ex Libris Video
Click To Play This is a little video with vague reviews of some new books I've gotten and quite liked. If you'd like to get copies of any of the books I mention in this video and rebutt my...
School for Evil - exploratory
Toward the end of Fall semester of my sophomore year, I found a small reading room deep within the bowels of my college library. It was called "The Somebody or Other Memorial Hunting and Fishing Library" and was almost...
An Illustrated Life
Amanda Kavanagh's workspace. From my new book, "An Illustrated Life". I apologize for how long it has been since I last wrote any sort of decent blog entry. It’s not that I’ve been sitting around paring my toenails and...
Taking a break
Have a fun summer. See you when I return....
Jack Goes to Camp
Click to Play Last weekend, we all drove up to Vermont (about five hours each way) to take Jack to summer camp. He'll be swimming and whittling and camping and working on the farm for a whole month while...
All together now
When I was in Atlanta, I talked a bit about Sketchcrawls (a group drawing get-together) and had a lot of enthusiastic response. Many people asked me to keep them posted as to when the next one would be ....
The Drawing Habit
After an insane amount of time spent at the Atlanta airport (so insane that the media was there to cover it), I have just returned from several days at the 2007 HOW conference. It's the largest conference on design,...
Brush Twice a Day
Maybe I'm my own worst enemy. Or maybe I just love being a novice. Or maybe I'm bored too easily. But if I gaze back on the course of my passage across the infinite drawing landscape, I look like...
Where the hell..?
I do hate writing this sort of entry. But the fact is, people have been writing to me with a mixture of alarm and disgust, wondering where the hell I've gone and why I haven't posted anything fresh since...
Unpacking the Impressionists
Last night I woke up way too early, at 5 a.m. and ended up watching TV. PBS was broadcasting a program that dramatized the lives of the impressionists. It was like the O.C. except about 19th century French painters....
This is weird. What's gonna happen?
Click to Play Patti hated the way she looked in this movie -- no hair or makeup people on set. So I fixed it with a few hits of LSD. Now she likes it just fine....
Chute
Click to Play Our hounds worship our garbage chute and stand listening to trash fall down it all day. This is a typical scene. One day Tim may actually manage to jump down the chute....
Comic Cavation
My approach to drawing these is a little unorthdox. I whack the page into shapes I find interesting and then just draw one thing sitting in frontof me after another. Sometimes I write down what people are saying, sometimes...
Iron Monkey
Click to Play An early Jack Tea Gregory Kung Fu classic. Featuring Frank as the Victim and Patti Lynn as The WunWomn...
Marooned
Click to Play An adventure movie starring Jack Tea Gregory dug out of the archives for your viewing pleasure....
Portrait #653
Angela's Book Report
While we have are in Arizona for the week, Jack is working on his book report on Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy. Meanwhile, Sheila sent me her daughter Angela's report on my book, Everyday Matters. What a fantastic job she...
Portrait #652
LA Watercolor: a demo
Click To Play A demonstration of how I do a pen, ink, and watercolor painting of an LA landscape. Includes time lapse and extensive commentary. It is long, a little large, and may take a minute or two to...
Making Today Matter
I drew this comic and then, without thinking, filled in the ballons. Some how it seems right to me but it may just be crap. Whatever. I am far away from home and have been for ten days. I...
Another Crayola spot
Click to play my most recent spot for Crayola Color Wonder. It was directed in Vancouver by my pal, John Mastromonaco. The music was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh who scored some of my favorite movies including "Bottle Rocket", "Rushmore,"...
Portrait 698 demonstrated
If you'd like to see a video I made while I drew this portrait, click here to play it. Click To Play...
Jack Ckomicks
My comic drawing style is still developing. I've given myself three handicaps: I'm drawing small, with a brush, and from my imagination. Despite my reservations about my drawings, I do like the look of these wee moleskine pages filled...
How to avoid having your Creative License revoked.
In the EDM group, a member recently posted the following: " ... I recently read, I forgot where, that gimmicky [drawing] methods, e.g. left hand work, blind contours, upside down, etc, is a not legitimate way to produce a...
Comic experiment
(Enlarged image of comic here) I have always enjoyed reading comics. I started when I was about 7 or 8, with Disney comics and Archie and Tintin and Beano then in puberty progressed on to underground comix by Crumb...
Portrait 694 demonstrated
I made a little film of how I drew and painted this portrait. I hope it's helpful. Click To Play Click To Play...
"Magic" shipped
Click To Play - may take a moment or two to load We just finished the first Crayola commercial and it has been pretty well received within the company. It was a little nerve wracking to make because we...
Glowing
My gray adventure continues. Do you know Ben Katchor's work? I love the way the newly scrubbed and illuminated Washington Square Arch glows in the early evening light as the City falls dark. Moby invited us over to his...
Portrait 685
Gosh darned
In this country, and many others, it is very unpopular to not believe in god. Some people are coming out and discussing this but it is the taboo topic of our time. Even here in the Gemorrah called New...
Ratcatchers
Click To Play One remote-controlled robotic rat, two miniature dachshunds. Let 'em rip. A new Gregory family funfest. Original score....
Fade to grey
One of the major issues with the books I like to make is that publishers hate to pay for 4-color printing. It creates a lot more complexity in the production process and drives up the cost of making the...
Cigars all 'round
My new niece, Maggie (8 lbs. 9 ozs), arrived yesterday, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Her middle name, Kate, used to belong to my grandmother. Maggie and my sister Miranda and my bro-in-law, Chris, are all doing...
VD+1
Yesterday was several memorable things: freezing cold, Valentine's Day and my sister, Miranda's 40th birthday. Today promises to be significant too as Miranda is in the hospital in Brooklyn, well-dilated and about to pop out her first child. We...
Portrait #651
Idol effort
It was very nice to come back to the Arctic tundra formally known as New York City. My family survived my absence though my dogs did need a good bath yesterday. As you may know, I am a big...
This Week in Vancouver
Click To Play A cheery video wrap-up from noted international personality and raconteur, Danny Gregory...
On the set
I was confused before I arrived in Vancouver; whenever I would check the weather report for Vancouver, it would say it was well below zero so I packed all sorts of protective gear in anticipation of Arctic conditions. When...
Mesmerized
We had a very succesful reading the other night. A few dozen folks showed up and I read from EDM and Creative License. It's sort of odd that I have only done this one reading from my books; they...
Portrait #650
This image reminds me of why I love painting with Sumi ink,. The soft grays are also quite consistent and flat so I get nice layers of tone. This scan is a bit pinker than it ought to be...
Poisoned!
I love these pages and looking at them again after a couple of months makes me wish for the soft light of autumn and consider getting back into full glorious color painting again. I survived my insomnia and Joe...
Portrait #647 and a critical response
Dear VulpesFerox: Thanks again for your Amazon review of my book, The Creative License. The first paragraph of your review was very supportive and suggested that you found the sort of encouragement I had intended to offer. However, I...
New book
Ah, the fresh, crisp promise of an untrammeled moleskine! And thus I open Vol. 49 of my ongoing adventures. Our pal, Moby, invited us to a concert at a tiny venue on the Lower East Side. We were smack...
Portrait #648
Jersey City
On the way to work, walking up the West Side drive, one of the loveliest additions to my lovely city. The view of Jersey is is a little dull with all its new glass box construction but it's nice...
Portrait #645
New Year's Eve
We had a fun New Year's Eve dinner with our friends Julie Salamon, Bill Abrams, Brian DePalma and their various kids. We are making this sort of a tradition and we always go to the same restaurant in our...
2006 in retrospect
How I packed a busy year with art experimentation.
Portrait #644
Happy post Xmas and pre-New Yearz! We're back from Mexico. Details to follow....
EDM in Paperback! Wahoo!
We just got the very first brand-spanking new edition of my book, Everyday Matters. It is so damned cute in paperback! It will be officially available on January 9th, just in time for early 2007 Xmas shoppers. Get it...
Portrait #643
Slumberpups
Sometimes I use my journal to do more involved, careful drawings. At other times, I use it to just fill in a few minutes, or to record a little factoid about my day. This spread is a good example....
Portrait 640
Backstage with the Peeps
Jack's band, the Peeps, continues to flourish. They are currently big fans of Tenacious D and discussing playing some of their songs at their next concert. The lineup coninues to vary a little bit and some members are switching...
Portrait 639 and a conundrum
From a recent email exchange with Bill, a reader: Hey Danny: I have a real conundrum. After a few years pursuing other dreams (but still keeping my artistic feet wet). I ramped back up my freelance illustration pursuits. With...
Here and now
One of the pleasures of carrying round a little journal is being less precious about my drawing. Insteads of sitting down in a studio with all of the materials at hand, I can just whip out my book and...
Portrait 638
Outside the Gallery
My office is smack in the middle of the Chelsea art district and I often pop in for an art break at lunch or on the way home from work. There is such an endless variety of interesting things...
Portrait #615 and some advice
Hey Danny, I have loved your stuff since finding your site. I need some counsel from a fellow habitual doodler. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to do stuff with art. I even got my bachelors in...
Happy Birthday, Jerry Lee!
My colors are a little murky here. I love the vermilllion in my paintbox but it is so soft and rich, like lipstick, that it can easily overwhelm my page. I notice the rooftop on this row of buildings...
portrait #614
Sucking and Idling
I like to draw complicated machinery in the streets. If buildings are my landscapes, trucks are my wildlife. I drew this critter hurriedly and from my uptown balcony. Just as I finished, it pulled in its trunk, stowed its...
Portrait #612
Crank up the chroma
I really enjoyed Ric Burns' two-part PBS documentary on Andy Warhol. Andy's color sense was superb and it had an immediate effect on my painting. I love my new paints a lot and I am trying to use my...
Portrait #611
A Fountain of Learning
As my Rapidograph was still empty, I continued drawing with my green fountain pen. I drew this funny old car against the curb, managing to overcome my usual disasters with angled wheels. The ink in my fountain pen is...
Portrait #610
New color
For the past couple of years, I have used a fairly good set of Grumbacher "Deluxe" watercolors in a big plastic box. They have served me well all over the world,and I have grown quite used to their slightly...
Portrait #609
Fleedom's just another word for nothing left to delouse
While we were away, so were our hounds, Joe and Tim. They went to stay with the Globuses (their breeders) and various relatives in Fire Island.The highlight of their vacation was when Joe, a natural hunter, escaped from the...
Portrait #608
Portrait #607
Late Night
I have been quite busy launching some new advertising for Chase over the past couple of months. You may have seen my newest spots on the air for the new Chase Freedom credit card. If not, check 'em out...
Portrait #606
September Buildings
I was appropriately melancholy on the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, thinking about how things have changed and how much damage has been done to us all by those maniacs in the caves of Afghanistan and the conference...
Portrait #605
Drawing a crowd
Tom Kane just came back from several weeks of drawing in the Far East. Everywhere he went, in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China, he drew big crowds when he drew. People would sit by him for hours,...
Portrait #604
Street Folks
People walking down the street are one of the more challenging subjects for me draw. They are always changing shape and size or just disappearing before I can study them long enough to get down on paper. As I'd...
Portrait #603
Notes to Myself
I've used every sort of journal-book over the past decade, but the one I've returned to the most was the pocket-sized, drawing Moleskine. The paper is a little odd; it has a water resistant treatment designed, I guess, to...
Kitchen Window
In the morning, as I eat my breakfast and listen to the news, I like to draw the view out the window. I can see the Park and the Judson church and the layers of buildings stretched out to...
Amsterdam Journal
Here are some pages from the tiny journal I kept recently in Amsterdam. For a more full-blown gallery with larger scans and more legible writing, visit here....
CU Comix
I am taking a hiatus. Here's what's going on in my head(s).
Class with a capital "K"
Yesterday, Jack and I overcame our usual aversion to art classes and joined Patti on 6th Street and Avenue B at a comic drawing class. The teachers were graduates of a comic drawing college in NJ, though one of...
From Today's NY Times
I was interested to read this review in today's NY Times of the exhibit “Teaching America to Draw: Instructional Manuals & Ephemera, 1794 to 1925” which continues through July 29 at the Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, Manhattan; (212)...
Like father, like son, kinda
My father has been drawing self portraits every day for ages. He just sent me a day's output, drawn looking down into a mirror lying flat on the table. In the accompanying note, he says: "Doing things in pen is...
The Everyday Matters Resource Center
I have begun to build one of the components of my fantasy, a gathering spot for cool and useful information that can be built by the whole community. See it at everydaymatters.pbwiki.com I have sketched in a few little...
What if:
Some dreams and plans for the perfect online creative community
Year in Japan winners!
Kate Williamson came to our home today to draw the winners of the Year in Japan raffle in person. We were delighted to chat with her about her trip, her work and her life. We had some tea and...
Through a Glass Brightly
On getting reading glasses at 45
A Year in Japan
My favorite new book is A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson. It is a fantastic, illustrated journal bulging with lovely, graphic watercolors and sprightly writing. I was so excited by the book that I have acquired some...
Thursday
How to draw
A step-by-step primer to get you doing it.
Slo-Mo
Ways of adding a deep breath to your day from drawing to putting away your iPod.
Too hot not to cool down
Life without drawing is bad. And drawing without life is bad too.
Trial balloon
A failed but informative experiment in art.
Podcast EDM008: Danny Redux
For those who've never bothered listening to one of the EDM podcasts, this one might actually be worth the bother. My mother offered to help me make this episode a bit more focussed and so she has interviewed me...
Every Hair Matters: a graphic novella
How to draw a How cover
How:Design Ideas at Work is a great magazine, primarily for graphic designers and art directors. It has a lot of practical advice as well as coverage of the leading edges of design, advertising, and art. Recently, I was asked to...
You suck. But enough about you.
Should you care about others' opinions? How much? A lengthy and popular discussion ensues.
Recent Adventures and a New Venture
I have had several interesting drawing experiences over the past month and neglected to share them here. The first was soon after I had arrived in Los Angeles and attended a sketchcrawl arranged by the SoCal Drawing Room, a...
I do it 'cause it's trendy.
Why is journaling so popular these days? I take on the topic.
Creeping down the Promenade
The effect of globalization on the landscape and how we draw it.
Home again, home again, clippety clop
God, has it really been three weeks since I last wrote anything here? So much for everyday mattering. Sorry for the absence. I have just come back from Los Angeles to find that the weather in New York is...
Booking to LA
I just started working on my 45th illustrated journal and decided to give myself a treat by binding up a variety of really nice papers into a special book. My new journal is an inch thick slab of 8x12"...
Gran
My grandfather had a small stroke last week and now one of his ankles is paralyzed. After a depressing day or two, he got a splint and is, by all accounts, quite happily mobile again. Gran was a doctor...
Advertising and Its Discontents - Part II: Charity
I like nice. I like sweet. But even more I like raw. I like real. And Ilove Charity Larrison. She and I have been corresponding for a couple of years ago and she always cracks me up and take...
Advertising and Its Discontents - Part I
Above: Notes from a really important meeting I no longer remember. A few years ago, I temporarily detached from the ad teat. It had been a good run. Ad agencies had provided a good steady income, kept my family...
Los Penasquitos
A traffic cone! Jane LaFazio is a mixed media artist in San Diego. She left the world of graphic design and marketing in the late '90's to commit herself full time to her art. I love her philosophy: "What...
Two Sundays
Last Sunday I was the guest on Louden Clear, Jennifer Louden's show on the Martha Stewart Living Network on Sirius 112. It was a great talk, about drawing, meditation, and various aspects of my books and art work. Jennifer...
$urviving
One of the chief obstacles many creative people face is how to cope with the intersection between our creative and our professional lives. Is drawing, painting, photography, music, whittling, just a hobby? Or are we serious about it and...
Fuh-ree-key!
This afternoon, Patti called me at work to tell me, "It's here!". And when I got home, there, sure enough, it was. We immediately started drawing parallels. Jack reminded me that Homer Simpson had found a box of Japanese...
Drawn Together
Himalayan Demon drawn by Jack Tea Gregory on the Rubin Museum Sketchcrawl I had one of those week's from hell -- work in particular had been tough, stressful, and I'd had to work very late several times -- and...
Sketchcrawl New York
Please join us in New York at the Rubin Museum this Friday, the 3rd of February from 7 to 10 pm. If you would like to contribute to the Earthquake fund or get sponsors who support your drawings, there...
Change of scene
When I was drawing with my pal Roz Stendahl, I was amazed to see that certain pages of her journals were randomly pretreated before she turned to them. She might have a fat, wet brush stroke across a spread...
On drawing from photos
An exploration of the effect photographs have on my brain and eyeballs.
TCL: Supplementary Material, IV: Andrea
I first met Andrea Scher through her blog, Superhero Journal. Within days of roaming through her posts, I was hooked. Being hooked meant more than just loving her photos and learning so much from her wisdom and compassion. It...
TCL: Supplementary Material, III: Richard
As readers of this site probably know by now, Richard Bell is an extraordinary nature illustrator who, despite the many miles and water between us, is one of my very best pals and a major influence and teacher. When...
My Conversion
Dear W_____: First of all, thanks for your note and, secondly sorry, for the delay in my response. Your words were quite important and I wanted to give them some time to think of proper response. I have looked...
TCL: Supplementary Material, II: Walton
Walton Ford and I met when we were both sixteen and at the Rhode Island School of Design summer program. He was one of those rare creatures who was born with phenomenal talent. The drawings he did at four...
TCL: Supplementary Material, I: Roz
The first installment of a series on "Stuff that didn't make it into The Creative License"
The Magic Mailbox
Over the past month, I have been so excited to go through the mail. Almost every day, nestled among the Christmas catalogs, there'd be a special envelope or two -- painted, calligraphed, covered with rubber stamps, all responses to...
New Year's Resolution
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world".- Gandhi New Year's Day. It's a good time for stock-taking, for self-appraisal. With each change one makes in oneself, one see more changes yet to be made....
Dibujo en México*
Notes from my trip to Mexico and some thoughts on travel journaling.
Danny's not got a brand new bag
Thursday, 8:10 a.m. Getting ready to leave the house and start the frigid, two-and-a-half-mile walk to my office, I suddenly realize I don't have the bag I use to tote my pens, paints, and my journal. I feel my...
Between the covers
A tour of my brand new book and some early reviews. If you like this site, journaling, drawing, art, etc, you will like this book. If you want to jumps start your creativity, please read on.
Having faith in Brooklyn
A visit to the Beerhorsts, a family of artists living in Brooklyn.
Next
An invitation to the next sketchcrawl and a status report.
Welcome to the New Site
Today we are launching a brand new version of dannygregory.com, full of the many things you've (hopefully) liked in the past and a whole lot more. New content, new ideas and new ways to find your way around. The brilliant...
A Dawg's Tale
Jack's newest experiments in stop-motion animation.
Everyday Matters Member Sites
Group has spawned a new guide to the illustrated blogs of member artists.... site, you can access several dozen beautiful blogs brimming with fresh art. If you'd like to add your own site to the list, please sign up,.
Attention D.Price fans
As you may know, Dan Price, author of Moonlight Chronicles, has a wonderful new book out called “Radical Simplicity: Creating an Authentic Life”.... Secondly, if you are interested in supporting Dan, please share your opinion on the Amazon page for his book Some abusive 'critic' has written a horrible, completely baseless review which has drastically lowered the book's rating.
Chip Off the Old Blog
My boy, Jack Tea, launched Life in LaGuardia, his own vblog recently. If you;d like afull report on Halloweena nd whey he doesn;ts mil in pictures, cjheck it out.
A record of my exploration into all aspects of drawing, illustrated journaling, creativity, and the inspiring aspects of art. By the author of "Everyday Matters," "The Creative License", and "An Illustrated Life" and other books.