Suddenly, we came upon the rocket ...

There was a time when I'd be out some place with a sketchbook, or even just a piece of paper and a pencil and/or pen and I'd purposefully make a point to sketch and doodle to get attention. But, I was 15 then, and as an awkward 15-year-old, I kinda needed that.

At 27, I don't.

This morning (well, yesterday morning, if you want to get techinical about it) I had to take my car in to have the headlights replaced. To pass the two and a half hours I was there, I naturally had brought my sketchbook. When I'm doodling, I've got my iPod on, usually rocking out to Tenacious D or the Blues Brothers or the soundtrack to The Last Starfighter, and I'm usually pretty focused on the blank pages before me. I really don't want to talk to anyone, and I don't want anyone to talk to me. But, whilst sitting there, three of the service mechanics came up to me, one by one, and each said something that equated to, "Wow, did you draw that? I wish I could draw. That's great. Do you do that professionally?" And all I can do is say, "Well, thank you. No, I don't draw professionally, though I'd like to. Yeah, I'd like to do a comic book one day. Thanks."

Now, these guys were all nice guys, they all meant well, and I don't mean to sound harsh. But let me put it this way: I can't do shit with a car. I wouldn't know the first thing about changing a tire, or a headlight, or oil or anything. I'm totally inept when it comes to machines more complicated than a manual can opener (and even then I'll fumble around like a retarted chimp after being lobotomized). But it's not like I went up to any of the mechanics, elbow deep in the bowels of my dilapedated Kia, and said, "Wow, did you just change that headlight? Man, I wish I could change the headlight. When I tried doing that, I fucked the damn thing up three ways from Sunday. You do this professionally?"

Sigh.

As a side note, this sketch got me thinking about doing something simple, and by simple, I mean using just pen and ink. It's been ages since I've done that. It'd be a lot more fun than digitally inking using Illustrator.