Tunji

colored pencil and symmetry

Los Angeles 2015

The Crystal Ship

Before you slip into unconsciousness

I'd like to have another kiss

Another flashing chance at bliss

Another kiss

The days are bright and filled with pain

Enclose me in your gentle reign

The time you ran was too insane

We'll meet again

We'll meet again

Jim Morrison, The Doors

The Crystal Ship

The Doors

Can't seem to make you mine

THE SEEDS

Back before the Sex Pistols, before the Ramones, before the New York Dolls, back before all of them, The Seeds were Punk.

The Seeds were Punk not so much because of their music but because The Seeds were... Punks.

In 1966 The Seeds owned Sunset Blvd.

"Come back baby, cuz I'm all alone"

OMG my father hated these guys hahaha

The Seeds

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to dust we return

pencil drawing, calbayog city, 2024

By the sweat of your brow

will you have food to eat

until you return to the ground.

from which you were made.

For you were made from dust,

and to dust you shall return.

-- Genisis 3:19

pencil drawing, calbayog city, 2024

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Next

colored pencil, calbayog city, 2025

These drawing are like playing with finger paints but with maybe a little more intectual input.

I work in layers. The above drawings is made of five layers. Below is the drawing after three layers. Really fun to watch them grow.

black and white

Massive Attack/Horace Andy - Man Next Door

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The First Time

The first time ever I saw your face

Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack

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Waiting for tomorrow

(Perfect day - Lou Reed)

Pencil drawing in my moleskine

Calbayog City 2024

This morning's drawing.

One advantage to being an unknown artist is that whenever I sit down to draw I can draw whatever the hell I want.

Young woman with a hair barrette

Pencil drawing

Calbayog City 2024

Is this a shameless plug for my Instagram?

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midnites

watercolor and pen, westwood, 1985

I used to have bad insomnia. I'd toss and turn in the middle of the night and finally, in frustration, I'd roll over and draw. I kept a drawing lying next to me just for this purpose. In the middle of the night I'd drawn until sleep came. The above drawing is one such piece. Slowly drawn in the wee hours of the morning during bouts of insomnia.

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Come to me

OTIS REDDING

pencil drawing, calbayog, philippines, 2024

I haven't been drawing for a couple of weeks. I don't know why.

Shit happens. Sometimes shit doesn't happen.

This morning I went through some old drawings looking for inspiration and I found this drawing from last year.

I like this drawing. I probably shouldn't like it because it's half done, but who among us can claim to be complete?

And she talks to me. She has attitude. She's like a character from some hard boiled novel.

She exudes plot.

Magic that I will never fathom.

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T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Nougbo Vehou

This really blows me away. Going back I'm finding that I like my colored pieces better in black & white than in the original color. SMH

This really bothers me.

Next day...

It's not that I don't like the drawing's color. It's more that the drawing becomes lost in the colors and it becomes flat

Back when I did this drawing I wanted my drawings to have no there there. Nothing to suggest a shape other than the image in its entirely.

But now looking at it I want something to define something.

I'm going to do another one of these to show you what I mean.

Kind of Pink

Colored pencil

Los Angeles 2015

New Mexico

red and black sharpie

Somewhere in New Mexico 2010

In 2010 I moved from Miami Florida to Los Angeles California. It was a great trip. I packed all my stuff in my Honda and took two months off to drive across the country.

I wound up spending most of my time camping out in the mountains of New Mexico. I was traveling by mysef and let me tell you, sleeping alone in the pitch black darkness of the New Mexican wilderness was creepy..

I remember one day I decided to go for a hike. I walked up a mountain trail following a small creek into the wilderness. After I had wandered for a few miles I found, growing by the water, a wild cherry tree covered with cherries. The cherries were ripe and almost black and so sweet.

So I sat down by the creek and made a lunch of wild cherries and cool mountain stream water. In the middle of the wilderness. No one there except for me and God.

Me, somewhere in Nevada. 2010

During my trip I drew in my moleskine a lot. It was during that trip that I hit upon drawing with red and black sharpies. The above drawing is from my moleskine. I was feeling deep into the colors and imagery of the American Southwest.

Some where in New Mexico, 2010

I've returned to this motif several times since then. Here is one I did around 2016.

Arizona

red and black sharpie on manila paper

Los Angeles 2016

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