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Bike Sketch

I recently started doing sketches on an iPad using Procreate and an Apple Pencil. (I got an Apple Pencil (1st Generation) along with an elago Silicone Sleeve which makes holding the pencil much more enjoyable.) I have been staying away from paper sketches in recent years, and I wasn’t sure why. When I did the January 2024 Prints I used a light tracing box along with the Shaper Trace and I did like the process, but I came to realize what I didn’t like about drawing on paper was that I liked using markers but I didn’t like how unforgivable they were. Pencil sketches allow you to erase and redo, and markers… do not.

That said, the tracing on paper part was great, the end result was good, but I really wanted to try an Apple Pencil to see what it could do. Back in 2023 I got the old Wacom tablet working again, but I just didn’t love using it. The whole “draw here but look here” thing is not for me. So I bit the bullet, upgraded my iPad to a 6th Gen (since my old 5th Gen did not work with the Apple Pencil) and somehow I had already purchased Procreate so I got that installed and got started sketching.

My favorite thing is the undo. Yes, it’s so damn simple, but if you draw a line and don’t like it you can just hit undo and be back where you were before you added that line. This is the thing I don’t get when sketching on paper, and drawing digitally offers it, and while you should (sometimes) be definitive in your mark making, I am not always that confident… and that’s fine. Everyone works differently.

I still have a lot to learn, but above you can see one of my first sketches… It’s my bike. A Trek 7200 and Dana got it for my birthday back in 2006. I’m not sure if I’ve drawn a bike since 2011, when I did it from memory.

Anyway, welcome to the start of more sketches… I’ll probably use some of them for relief prints in the future, so fair warning if you start seeing prints that look like sketches and vice versa.

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Exclamation Mark (mini) Print

I had a lot of fun in January when I made 46 prints and those prints were in hefty frames that were 6″x6″x1.25″ frames. The frame (and thusly the size of the art you see) is 4.5″ which I thought was a nice size (and of course based on the 6″x6″ size of the 30x30x30 show (of which I did not participate.)

Okay, so anyway I really liked the size of those prints, and I will do more of them. But I also run a Free Little Art Gallery called Gallery 69 and I want to put art in there to give away for free. So I want to do a series of mini prints and here’s the first one, and yes it’s a two color print to make things even more difficult on myself.

These will not be on handmade paper but instead of (probably really) cheap paper. This isn’t fine art, it’s free art, but it does come in a frame and ready to hang. I can keep costs on these pretty low so I’ll make as many as I can and give them away (in the gallery, of course).

This one is an exclamation mark which is probably one of the most fascinating marks when it comes to punctuation. This one is specifically a warning sign, which is something you should look out for, and also seems fitting for the times we live in.

Whether you call it a “bang”, a “pling”, or a “shriek” if you are a programmer or someone who dabbles in code you’re probably all to familiar with the exclamation mark and using it for various purposes.

For a long time I use the name RasterWeb! for this site, though I’ve not always been consistent in the name. Yahoo! also used the bang in their name as do Yum! Brands and others. Seriously go right now to Wikipedia and read up on the !

Westward Ho!

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Biking in the Cemetery

I mentioned in my previous post that I probably will not be biking to work since it would involve riding on streets like Lisbon, Burleigh, or Capitol… Those are streets you somewhat risk your life on even in a car! So where I can I ride? Well, I used to walk in the cemetery by my house quite a bit. It’s a lovely space, quiet, lots of nature and best of all (almost) no cars! In my dozens of walks I probably saw just a few cars in the cemetery. So my plan was, bike in the cemetery.

I mentioned this to a bike friend and he said “Well, check that it’s allowed… I know some cemeterys do not allow bikes.” So the first thing I did was searched for “riding bike in cemetery” and got this AmItheAsshole post… (Worth a read, but I still hate Reddit.)

So I did a bit more searching and found this brochure for the cemetery I planned to ride in.

The highlighted bit says “Walker, runners, riders and the like should remain only on roadways.” Hey, I’m a rider (or an “and the like” whatever that means) so it should be all good. I have no plans to ride on the grass or anywhere else that isn’t the roadway. So I set out for my first ride…

… and it was a little bumpy! I realized that on the main road from the entrance the road has these “cracks” every 50 feet or so, and you get a good “cuh-chunk!” riding over them. It’s a very noticeable bump. I wondered if this was by design, since it would be noticeable when driving a car and might make you more aware of your speed. Luckily it seems these bumps don’t persist through all of the roads.

On my second ride I spotted a coyote! It saw me and started to run off and I (sort of) followed it, in the hopes of getting a better look or a photo. I did manage to get a phone photo, so it’s super tiny since I was so far away… As the coyote ran through the cemetery I kept an eye on it and tried to keep track of it while I was in motion. It was actually pretty fun! I’m hoping I didn’t freak it out too badly. I had heard about coyotes in the cemetery before but never saw one on any of my walks, so that was pretty neat!

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Back on the Bike

Back in 2021 I became a walking guy, and I walked a lot in 2022 and 2023, and then in December 2023 I had an extremely bad case of plantar fasciitis so I had to take a break from walking. I managed to get a bike trainer stand thing and put my bike in the basement and tried riding it for exercise while I was suffering from extreme foot pain. I missed walking outside but it was also winter so basement biking was… okay. I’d usually listen to music or NPR or watch some streaming show.

As December 2023 rolled around I had a new issue, a neck injury and some weird foot/toe pain so I took a break from walking and any other exercise for a bit to do physical therapy (thanks Erin!) and now that’s all done. I still have the weird foot/toe pain so I was concerned about walking so hey, it’s back to the bike!

First things first, I had a flat tire which wasn’t an issue on the trainer but would be on the road. The last real ride I did was the Black is Beautiful ride in… 2020!? I took the bike into Emerys for a tune-up and tire repair. They did a good job, though they did call me to ask why there was a 7 gear sprocket instead of an 8 gear, and asked if I ever had issues shifting. I answered “I don’t know!” and “Yes…” so we got that fixed. I got the bike used, so someone must have done something weird along the way. Well, it shifts better now!

It’s been a long-ass time since I biked to work and I lived in the “country” then, and since my commute to work now would probably include Lisbon, Burleigh, or Capitol, I’m pretty sure I’d be risking my life so for now I’ll stick to the car for getting to work.

Anyway, to make a long story short (which is probably too late) I’ve started riding again. I’m typically out around 7am most mornings and doing a few miles, and it feels good. I’m doing this for health and fitness since I hate going to the gym and without the daily walking I just don’t move enough.

Oh, and remember my post about reporting potholes to the city? Well, guess what? Biking into a pothole is even worse that driving over one! So if I’m out on the road and see a pothole I hit the brakes, snap a photo, and submit it.

(Oh shit, did I become and urbanist!?)

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Fixing Potholes

I read a great Milwaukee Record article titled Mandatory Milwaukee: Potholes! and learned about the MKE Mobile Action app which allows you to submit a pothole to the city! So of course that’s what I did…

I walked down to Lisbon Avenue which is about a block from my house, and a road I drive on every day, and snapped a photo of the first pothole I came across. Tap, Tap, Tap… Submitted!

And hey, I can use the app to check the status of the submission, or this URL to publicstuff.com. I submitted it this morning and when I checked on it this afternoon it was marked as received.

According to Milwaukee Record this is what the Department of Public Works (DPW) has to say:

“We currently have four crews city-wide working on potholes. That number will increase to six in March. That is the time of year we see the most potholes because of thawing. Yesterday [Monday, January 29], we received 48 pothole requests and we are basically caught up with requests. Our current response time is 1-3 days. In the cold months we use cold patch. Once about April hits, we have hot mix available which is more flexible and stronger.”

I’m excited to see when it gets resolved, which is why I am posting this now. There’s this thing where it’s really easy to complain about something, but it might take actual work to do something about it. This seems like a pretty easy thing to do to improve the city… if it works.

Check this out… you can view the map and see other issues submitted. I feel like if you got your neighbors together and all submitted the same issue (like potholes on your street) they might even get dealt with quicker… who knows?

The mobile app (and web site) does have all sorts of other city services you can request or check on, so if you live in Milwaukee (or a city that has this app) install it and give it a try. I figure the worse thing is you might waste a bit of time setting up an account and submitting an issue, but hey… I still have some hope left in this world!

Update: Holy Wow it’s fixed! On the same day… But wait!

I drove home around 5:15pm and noticed the street, and it looked like it was filled in. It was. I walked over to get a photo of it and on the way home ran into some neighbors. I told them I submitted it this morning and my neighbor said she saw a crew out there around 10am. That is 3 hours after I submitted it. Yeah, this works. Go at it, people!