I got a chance to sit down with a dear friend, Tyler, today.

Do you ever have that feeling where you never really got a chance to get super close to or hang out with somebody, but anytime you’d see them for a moment, you’d end up having some enjoyable conversation? You just kind of develop this shared, mutual respect without ever really knowing each other that well.

Tyler was definitely one of those people.

I’ve known the dude for probably a little over a decade at this point, and I never really got the chance to sit down and pick his mind. But I always got the sense there was a lot more under the hood.

Sure enough, I got to sit down with Tyler today. He volunteered to be drawn when I put an ad out on social media looking for people to draw, and I obliged. He was my first subject, as it were.

And I gotta say, I was not disappointed in my conversation with Tyler.

The conversation had both depth and breadth. We touched on all things life: video games, music, anime, gardening, hiking, and the deep esoteric. It was nice to just let the conversation be free-flowing and see where it went.

It’s also interesting to sit around with somebody for two hours who you’ve never really spent that kind of time with before.

That’s always something I think about before I do these portraits: whether or not the person is going to be able to endure sitting there, being looked at, for that long. I certainly don’t know if I could do it.

My ADHD mind needs to be doing something.

And honestly, sitting down with somebody and drawing is how I hang out. It’s how I quiet my mind.

So it was a really nice afternoon.

I’m thankful I finally got the chance to catch up with Tyler, and I’m also really thankful that I’ve gotten to do so many of these studies now. I’ve been doing them consistently enough that they’re starting to feel like their own little practice—a reason to sit down with someone, look at them closely, draw them, and actually spend some time together.

And I think that’s pretty special.