No. 387: A New Look

This quick writeup is called "A New Look" for two reasons:
1. This is the third time that I have drawn the iconic Vindicator building in downtown Youngstown. Each one is slightly different.  It is the only drawing for which I will violate my "Consider An Original" standard. I won't make a print, but I may draw it again.

ROBERT McFERREN | THE VINDICATOR

2. Today The Vindicator, my newspaper employer for 32 years, gives its readers an advance peek inside of the reborn building, repurposed by the Youngstown Business Incubator as part of its Tech Block downtown.

Although I do urge you to venture out and buy the newspaper, and keep all of us in business, I will share The Vindicator building's latest chapter here, to help this story along:

http://www.vindy.com/news/2017/nov/05/former-vindy-building-now-ybis-newest-addition/

Vindicator No. 3. This illustration is SOLD.

The sign is staying on the building. And the sign is what draws the eye.
This drawing, No. 387, benefits from darker lead and a surer hand: I have been here before.  You may read about my first illustration of this building here:

http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2013/04/no-195-ink-inc.html

I wrote that blog in 2013 and I'm still there, but some of those young'uns have left and been replaced by younger ones. The future is still unwritten. And I still take the stairs.

ROBERT K. YOSAY | THE VINDICATOR

It is a beautiful building. Rough and solid, just like the people who worked inside of it. I hope its new tenants are made of strong stuff, too.  I suspect they will like the place and its cavernous spaces.

Here's how old stone face looks from the outside now:

ROBERT K. YOSAY | THE VINDICATOR

I look over at the old building most days, fascinated by its rebirth and its new parking lot, filled with cars more expensive than mine. Something good must be going on inside, I think.
The Incubator people did an amazing job cleaning up the place. I know for a fact how deeply the ink permeated those old floors. Ink is like that, if you're a writer. A whole houseful of us will make a mess.

Two of the three Vindicator drawings were requested by former employees, both reporters who put in many years of good, hard work before moving on to other professions. Skill acquired from their Vindicator colleagues proves useful every day, I know.  Like that ink on the floorboards, it sinks in.