the nice thing about having a studio to himself was that there was no one there to bother him. no distractions (for the most part) meant he could focus on the work he was doing. despite having a hefty computer set up for the free lance work he did, kal often found himself sitting at a drawing table with nothing but a small coffee cup filled with sketching pencils and erasers.
it wasn't often he felt inspired to just sit and draw. sometimes he sketched, and the proof of this was hanging by strings spread all across his studio, sketches of all shapes and sizes hanging by chip clips or clothes pins. most of his sketch work was nothing he was proud of, and there was nothing there he would show people as a means to showcase his work. but sometimes, it helped to just get it out of his system.
and that's what he was doing now.
it was nearing midnight and he was on his third monster, certain that if he didn't stop drinking them soon, his heart was going to give in and stop beating completely. an ash tray filled with the half-smoked butts of a now nearly empty pack of camel wides sat to his left and he looked at the the drawing he was working on. his hands were covered in black graphite, whether it was from smudging or erasing, it was a sign of his hard work. he had been locked away since roughly 7:30, when he stopped in on his way back to the apartment to pick something up. the creativity bug had bit him hard on the ass and before he knew it, he was neck deep in ideas that would help sate the appetite awoken inside of him.
ahead of him on the pad of sketch paper he had been working on sat a portrait of a young woman. unknown to any onlooker that would catch a glimpse of it, she had long blonde hair and wild blue eyes. the kind a person could get lost in if they stared long enough. the woman was one he drew often , and she was perhaps one of his finest creations.
only she wasn't a creation. she was alexandra dewitt, kal's now deceased girlfriend from college. the one he was going to marry when they graduated and settled into the city. six years and some change ago, alex was involved in a hit and run drunk driving accident which left her in a coma before she passed away shortly after. this had rendered kal almost entirely useless, as only months before, his mother had died of cancer.
these days, his best therapy was to remember them through his artwork. he often thought of them, and every now and again, he would find himself holed up just like this in his studio, sketching until dawn broke outside his windows and his hands cramped from being over worked. this night was no different, and kal had been long at work on this particular piece for hours.
sitting back, he ran his dirty hands through the mop of hair atop his head and sighed. his eyes stung from being tired and from straining so hard on the small details he put into this drawing of alex. he needed a break, so grabbing his pack of cigarettes and the nearly empty can of monster next to him, he climbed from the stool he sat on and walked towards the open window of the studio.