I drew this pencil drawing because I thought my good friend Koji would like it. He is a big fan of the Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger. Koji loves rock ‘n roll and owns Analog, a rock bar I frequently go to in Kyodo. He allows me to hang my drawings on the walls in his bar.

I think this drawing turned out a lot better than I had anticipated. I say that because I stopped several times during the drawing process. I felt the drawing wasn’t looking exactly right and it seemed something was off. I felt what I had drawn at that point was bad and was not good enough to finish. Mick’s hair and eyes were wrong. His mouth and teeth were a disaster. So I stepped back and put the drawing aside for awhile.

And then I recalled what my high school art teacher (and good friend) would say to me when he saw me struggling with a piece in class. “Don’t over work it. Know when it’s done.” So after a few days of thinking about it, I dove back into the project. And in the end it came out much better than I could have hoped.

I think this piece is my favorite drawing thus far. The reason could be that I struggled so much with this piece. The hair looks good, the eyes turned out right, and I really like how the teeth and mouth came out. I couldn’t be happier with the results. I really like this drawing, and I hope you will too.