Time - Toshiki Soejima

Early mornings

black sharpie and water color

Westwood 1986

Let me try to explain myself.

When I was a young man I loved illustration.

Perhaps the two illustrators who had the greatest influence on me were Aubrey Beardsley and Jean Giraud aka Moebius. Both artist drew with a fine line and I tried to emulate that.

Here's an old drawing of mine.

pencil drawing

Venice CA 1978

So back then I saw myself as an illustrator.

Then sometime around 1980 I was introduced to Abstract Expressionism and I had an epiphany...

Could I approach Abstract Expressionism with an illustrator's line?

A new world opened up to me and I started having fun with my drawing.

And then, for about 35 years I never drew an identifiable object.

No joke.

Still Life

black sharpie

Westwood 1985

Attitude Adjustment

pen, colored pencil and watercolor

Duarte CA 1996

Time never began

black sharpie on bond paper

San Francisco 2003

Dan's drawing

black sharpie

Rosemead 2011

i did a lot of these drawings. And I really enjoyed making them. For over thirty years I completely liberated myself from the rigors of drawing something that had to look like something. And I loved it. But then...

Sometime around 2015 I returned to illustration. Why? I'll be honest with you, I started to miss it.

Call it full circle but that's where I'm at now.

I still treasure my line though.

little boxes

black sharpie on paper

Los Angeles 2019

Thank you Aubrey and Jean.

Aubrey Beardsley

Jean Giraud aka Moebius

Tropical diving

colored pencil, calbayog city, 2025

I added more to this one. I love playing with these colored pencil pigments.

I brought heavy duty art paper from America that can put up with some abuse. I draw with the pencils and then rub them with alcohol. The colors smear around and blend together. When the alcohol dries I draw more and then smear again. It's so satisfying.

Lately I'm inspired by the blue of the Philippine sea near my home. I went diving a few days ago. The colors of the tropical waters were just like this drawing. As I dove around in a pastel coral forest I actually met a tropical sea snake. It calmly swam about ten feet from me. The snake, the coral forest and the tropical blue ocean were breathtaking.

Hermanos Gutierez - Esperanza

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Just between you and me

colored pencil watercolor and pen

Monrovia, CA, 1995

In 1995 I was living in Monrovia, CA, and, on the advice of a judge, I stopped drinking alcohol.

Not being drunk all the time came as a shock to me. I suddenly had all this time to kill. I decided to work on large, time cosuming projects. The drawing above was my first. It took a couple of weeks to complete. And then I did another.

I drew. I drew in the middle of a life completely shattered. I drew, and I dreamed of a future. A future far away where I could be new.

Years later, in 2011, when I first landed in the Philippines, the first thing I noticed was the smell. Manila smells like an overwhelming mixture of cooked pork, motorcycle exhaust and BO.

As I walked down the tarmac I was still in Monrovia and I was still dreaming.

Calbayog City, Philippines, 2025

Akae Beka - Rebellion Running

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Youth and innocence

pencil drawing

Culver City 1977

This is an old one. 1977.

I can still remember drawing it. I was living at the time, with someone special, in an apartment in Culver City, with a big double bed. When she came home that night she loved it.

I stlll have this drawing tucked away in one of my drawers.

And I still have my memories tucked away in my mind.

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T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Nougbo Vehou

This really blows me away. Going back I'm finding that I like my colored pieces better in black & white than in the original color. SMH

This really bothers me.

Next day...

It's not that I don't like the drawing's color. It's more that the drawing becomes lost in the colors and it becomes flat

Back when I did this drawing I wanted my drawings to have no there there. Nothing to suggest a shape other than the image in its entirely.

But now looking at it I want something to define something.

I'm going to do another one of these to show you what I mean.

Kind of Pink

Colored pencil

Los Angeles 2015

black pen & colored pencils, los angeles, 2013

Lines go where they want to. That's life.

There is no such thing as an incorrect line until another line is drawn next to it.

Colors, on the other hand, are like flavors.

Alpha Blonde - Jerusalem

black pen & colored pencils, los angeles, 2015

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not only by words

colored pencil, calbayog city, 2025

A man can live for a hundred years or more

A hundred years and he's scored

Not only by the words of his mouth

But the meditations of his heart

-- The Gatherers

The Gatherers - Words of your mouth

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Little Boxes - Pete Seeger

Colored pencil & black sharpie

Los Angeles 2019

One day, a couple of years ago, I was looking around the apartment for something to draw when my eyes landed on three boxes, stacked upon one another, in the corner of our dining area.

So I quickly sketched them in pencil.

It was an OK drawing and I still have it lying around here somewhere but after I had drawn the boxes in pencil I got out my sharpie and redrew them in ink.

The result was nice..

Three Boxes

Black sharpie

Los Angeles 2019

This got me stared drawing boxes. I drew boxes at home. I drew boxes at work. I drew boxes in my moleskine. I drew boxes.

I soon cut the stack down to two boxes because it looked better.

Two Boxes

Black Sharpie

Hollywood 2019

I drew these boxes over and over. Like about thirty times.

More Boxes

black sharpie

Los Angeles 2019

Why did I keep draw these boxes?

Here's why.

When I look at these boxes I always get this erie feeling of...

Time is standing still.

I don't know why, but it gives me tickle.

Time is standing still

Black sharpie

Los Angeles 2019

Recent drawings

Nagai - Stronger

watercolor, ballpoint pen, colored pencils

Calbayog City 2024

Nature & Humanity

pencil on watercolor paper

Calbayog City 2024

In the Philippines, the real law of the land is the law of nature. With no safty net.

In the Philippines, everywhere women are suckling babies. The streets are filled with children laughing and dancing in play. But there are no old people.

Smiles and machetes.

I exist here as if in a dream. As if in a bubble. Looking out but never touching.

Calbayog City 2024

Cigarettes after sex

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