As you can see HERE in these previous posts, I’ve done some digital paintings over the last few years of the late and great David Crosby, whom I’ve admired for well over half a century. I present most of them here because it’s #CelebratingCroz day on Twitter.
The iPad painting below was supposed to be Joni Mitchell. It started out as her, and then it kinda’ became someone else. Ok, what’s this all about? Well, it started when Joni Mitchell wrote, “For Free,” a lovely song about an experience she had at an intersection on foot while “waiting for the walking green,” while she happened to hear some nearby guy playing a clarinet “real good” and “for free” all before the “signal changed.” Fast forward, I heard a newer rendition of that song performed by David Crosby and Sarah Jarosz (listen below via YouTube). I fell in love with the song, especially this newer rendition. I’m intrigued by the encapsulation of such a spacious and almost timeless experience into such a brief and situated moment; and, I just love how David and Sarah sing together. What a beautiful song! What a beautiful songwriter! So I looked for some images of Joni Mitchell, you know, to thank her and to get some Saturday practice. And I found a photo that called my attention:
[Joni Mitchell revisits her earliest recordings in “Joni Mitchell Archives — Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967).”Credit…Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images]
So here’s what I came up with on my iPad Pro using Sketch Club:
Here’s David Crosby and Sarah Jarosz performing Joni Mitchell’s For Free. I inserted the lyrics below.
For Free
Joni Mitchell (1970)
(Ok, you’ve made it this far, so check this Rolling Stone piece.)
I slept last night in a good hotel
I went shopping today for jewels
The wind rushed around in the dirty town
And the children let out from the schools
I was standing on a noisy corner
Waiting for the walking green
Across the street he stood and he played real good
On his clarinet, for free
Now me, I play for fortunes
And those velvet curtain calls
I’ve got a black limousine and two gentlemen
Escorting me to the halls
And I play if you have the money
Or if you’re a friend to me
But the one man band by the quick lunch stand
He was playing real good, for free
Nobody stopped to hear him
Though he played so sweet and high
They knew he had never been on their TV
So they passed his music by
I meant to go over and ask for a song
Maybe put on a harmony
I heard his refrain as the signal changed
He was playing real good, for free
I’m guessing that I’d like his rye bread as much as his voice, guitar playing, creativity, and audacity. Yea, I follow the legendary David Crosby on Twitter; and, I’ve tried rendering his mug elsewhere on the illustroblog. He recently (11/9/20) tweeted a photo of himself standing before what he says is his first loaf of rye bread, crediting David Nuell, whom I’m guessing made the photo.
Done on an iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil in Sketch Club with a tweak or two in iColorama. Sketch Book stats indicate that I used 4,327 brush strokes, 130 undos, and 1 hour, 44 minutes. I made a dumb mistake using multiple layers. I added a black background color to sketch out Croz independent of the kitchen back drop, which I did separately and first. Unfortunately, I didn’t sketch Croz on a third layer, rather, I did him over the black background fill of the second layer, which blocked out the kitchen backdrop. So I had to scramble. My advice: think through stuff, and check your layers frequently. I know, on one hand, I could have spent more time on this, on the other, I could have been looser and more playful and cut the time in half. It is what it is. Here’s a screen shot of the reference tweet/photo crediting David Nuell:
Screen Shot
I can’t remember exactly when I I’d this, but I know it was in 2018. It looks like I did it in Sketch Club with a tweak or two in iColorama…on my iPad Pro, of course.
I so enjoyed this Lianna Pevar photo reference found on Twitter (see below) that I felt the urge to create a digital painting of a cropped portion of it in Sketch Club with a tweak in iColorama. Visit the photographer’s site here: Lianna Pevar. Besides, Croz has one of those faces…. I’ve attempted that face elsewhere on this illustroblog, click here to view those renditions.
Photo by Lianna Pevar…Used by permission
Croz has been collaborating and harmonizing with some beautiful voices lately; namely, Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis, and Michael League, the Lighthouse Band. Listen to all four do Woodstock (live) here.
I started with Croz and Becca on my iPad Pro in Sketch Club (Google images reference photo).
click to enlarge
Then I moved on to Becca, Croz, and Michelle in the same way (reference photo by new friend Valerie with permission).
click to enlarge
One of these days I’m gonna get Michael League in there!
I follow David Crosby on Twitter @thedavidcrosby. I love his voice, his music, and his viewpoints. He’s quite interactive with his many fans, incidentally.
You may recall that I’ve illustroblogged about David Crosby on these very portfoliolongo.com pages, click here for two examples, three now.
After following him on Twitter for a while, I found out that, in addition to everything else I had expected, he’s a good sport. So when I tweeted him the following photo-mash-up, he retweeted it, and for weeks I was receiving notification after notification from Twitter that his fans were liking it, retweeting it, and even commenting on it. I’ll share the mash-up, the tweet’s stats as of today, and one funny comment below:
Mash-Up
Stats (as of 1/18/8):
Funny comment:
Hey David, if you ever wanna do an endorsement deal they could call them “Croz-oats: The breakfast of Hippies”
Let me begin with: “Mea culpa.” When I saw the news that Crosby, Stills, and Nash are cruising to London with a boatload of fans, see NYT article, this image came to mind faster than you can say “Quaker Oats,” click here to understand why. I’m a CSN and a CSN&Y fan from way back, maybe not all the way back, but way back.
Procreate
OK, this project has been rattling around in my head for some months now, so I thought I’d get it out of my system, as it were, once and for all. It’s not a sketch, per se, although these’s a tiny bit of sketching involved, which I did in Procreate; it’s a manipulation of a photograph and an image, which I did in Procreate and PowerPoint.
Technical: I’m a big fan of Crosby, Still, Nash, and sometimes Young (you know, like the vowels, right? a – e – i – o – u – and sometimes – Y). Bio of Maestro David Crosby is here. Plus, I also like Quaker Oats products, especially hot oatmeal; that image comes from here.
Again, if necessary, mea culpa. Hey, it’s my blog; but, I know, there are rules’n stuff.
portfoliolongo 
