Pimp Your Sketchbook began as a summer feature this year and is now embedded as an occasional feature in DART. Michael Paraskevas, who lives on the South Fork of Long Island, recently sent some sketches from his trip to Iowa.

Your favorite travel sketchbook

I loved going to Iowa. It was like being on the moon. It was so removed from the life I live that the book came together quickly. Sometime you can be really "off". You need to focus in on something and sometimes its just not there. But Iowa was great. I want to go back, maybe for the upcoming Iowa Caucus. 

If you ever lost a sketchbook, tell about this.

I never lost a sketchbook and I don't sell them, but I did trade a small sketchbook I drew at the US Open tennis match. I traded it to Nick Meglin from Mad Magazine. He was a real tennis nut and he begged me for a trade of some type and low and behold, Nick owned a Robert Weaver sketch of the Saint Valentines Day Massacre. I gladly traded it. Weaver never sold much of his work, but he use to give things out once in a blue moon. I mean there are some floating around out there. I bought one at an auction he did of JFK for Esquire. Amazing drawing. I wish I was that good.

How sketching energizes your art practice

I sketch all the time. I tend to like focused events like a concert or a specific place. I use to go to the Horse show in Bridgehampton for years and years. I have tons of sketchbooks. It’s a great place to draw since the riders and the horses have a lot of sitting around time and you can really focus on them.

I need thick paper so I can paint over my drawings and add spot color to focus the eye. I draw on the spot and try like hell to remember the color. Sometimes I make notes for the color, but it’s amazing what you can remember. Besides… sometimes you can take liberties. I’m not a camera. I go for over all feeling not actual accurate color.

The best sketchbook you’ve seen by another artist

Anything by Weaver. He was the best. Look him up. He’s way better than I’ll ever be. DaVinci was pretty good too. My old school friend Tom Thorspecken (look him up, too) does great on the spot sketchbooks. He’s more focused on places than I am at times. I really admire him.

Favorite subjects 

I love events. I love concerts. The Radiohead concert was incredible. I’ve always liked them. I got a floor ticket at the very last minute and it just came together. So over two hours I stood at the side of the stage and had a blast. The oddball crowd never even gave me a look. They were too busy jumping around.

I did a couple of good drawings of Penn and Teller but they really do move around a lot on that stage.  But the ones I did they signed for me. So that was nice. They are one of my favorite acts. We had good seats. I’m a seat snob. I have to have a good seat. I have to be able to see the guitar strings. I have to be able to see the color of a person’s eyes.

A manager on the Roger Waters Wall Tour came over to me during intermission and asked me what I was up to. I was sitting in the front row with my feet up on the rail by the stage. Everyone one was on their feet, singing along and there I was drawing through the whole thing. 

Michael Paraskevas has been an illustrator since graduating from The School of Visual Arts in 1984. He then went on to receive his MFA from SVA in 1986. He’s worked for most major magazines including Sports Illustrated, Time, Town & Country, New York Magazine and Rolling Stone, to name a few.

Michael Paraskevas has also illustrated and written 24 children’s books over the years with his mother, Betty. The two went on to create and write the animated television series Maggie and the Ferocious Beast for Nickelodeon. Michael is currently writing and drawing a weekly comic, The Green Monkeys for Dan’s Papers. He is also writing and drawing Lili and Derek with his wife Maria. [More]

He has a new book, Mr. Moon, that he wrote and illustrated, coming out from Crown Books for Young Readers in the Fall of 2016. Sketchbook blog
Facebook Lili and Derek, a daily comic he writes with his wife Maria Bruno
The Cheap Show, a puppet show they also did together