Well, it’s about time to say goodbye to the fella who made me desperate to live in New York long before I knew he wasn’t kidding about the rats and urine. There used to be a time when I wouldn’t miss a show, and there was even a time when I paid $400 as a broke college student to see him burst onstage mere weeks after quintuple bypass surgery. I still have the hospital bootie that I ripped off Robin Williams’ foot.

I don’t have any real complaints about late-model Dave. I think it was by design that, in the last decade or so, his show went from unmissable to the kind of show you could dip in and out of at will. Whether it was his bypass, or the inevitable perspective that comes with growing older, he settled into being television’s reliable raconteur. I slept soundly knowing that I wasn’t missing any of the ambitious comedy set pieces that characterized his early years on CBS. This new Dave, this real Dave, sat at his desk and told stories. And let’s face it, I’d find them on YouTube eventually.

I first became aware of Letterman at age 13 or so. It’s a critical age. 13-year-olds who reveled in sports grew up bumping chests, and grunting, and thinking they were god’s gift to the ladies. 13-year-olds who excelled in Dungeons and Dragons became the arrogant IT guy you can’t live without. 13-year olds who taped Letterman and watched him before school became self-deprecating wise-asses.

That may sound like a detriment, but believe me, there’s nothing better than laughing at myself, laughing at people, and laughing at the world. At age 37, I don’t need a talk show host to be my rudder. But if you’re ever offended by one of my snappy comebacks or sarcastic one-liners, you’d better believe I’ll blame Dave. And by blame, I mean thank. Thanks, Dave!

This sketch of a statue at the Met looks OK, right? Better than your dog could do? OK, I’ll give you that. Your dog’s a hack.

But compare it with a photo of the statue, taken from the same seated position from which I drew it.

Green=Sillhouette of the real statue=I am Mr. Magoo

OK, so a camera can add its own distortions, but not this much. I SUCK.

Don’t worry; I’m not actually beating myself up over this. There was a time in the past when I would have seen this as a sign to throw in the towel, but now it’s quite the opposite. It’s comforting to know that all the art books and teachers are right. If you want to get good, and stay good, at drawing what you see, you need to practice. All the time.

It’s timely that this fella Noah Bradley recently posted an article entitled “21 Days to Be a Better Artist.” It’s one of many such “challenges” on the Internet that makes a game out of something you should already be doing. I do like the fact that he restricts it to accurately recreating what you see.

Let me deconstruct art for you. Taking the 80/20 rule to art, the most important thing you can learn is being able to look at something and recreate it on paper. That’s the first and foremost skill you should learn in art.

Longtime readers (hi Mom) will remember I was pretty gung-ho about this for about a week in 2012, spending less time on cute sketches and more time learning how to see and measure.

The thing about measuring is, you can’t really half-ass it; it just ends up screwing you up more. As I set about drawing the statue above, I held up my pencil a few times and thought I made some accurate measurements. I made some marks on my paper and proceeded to shoehorn poor Dionysus here into those obviously wrong proportions.

I know better than to make these mistakes. A corollary to improving with practice is getting less shy about holding your pencil up in the air like some artist out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. You just gotta do it.

Anyway, consider this day 1 of the challenge. I probably won’t post everything, but feel free to ask me about it and hold me to it. And, if it’s your kind of thing, try it out yourself!

You know it’s cold when all the figure models in town are posing in leotards, tights, and scarves!

This was drawn on my latest impulse purchase, the Toshiba Encore Write 2. It’s sort of a poor cheap man’s Cintiq Companion. Or, to those that don’t geek out about this stuff, it’s a small tablet PC on which you can draw. it runs full-fledged software (such as Manga Studio, which I already bought for my Mac), and the pen is much more precise than anything I can buy for my iPad. On the minus side, it runs Windows, which, even when streamlined for use on a tablet, still feels like a chore compared to anything Apple.

For general tablet use, it’s pretty underwhelming. But if you’re looking for an art creation tool, the Encore Write 2’s combo of stylus hardware and desktop software works very well, and is surprisingly unique at this price point.

As seen at every bar tonight.

The niece plots her next move.