He loves the quaint, old-timey delivery system. He loves the inky residue left on his hands.

Erik Shveima has a muse. It’s a newspaper.

In part out of concern that this muse might go away one day, for every day in 2011 he is drawing the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

At first this might seem as if Shveima intended to create an exact replica of the newsprint. Instead, his renditions are more artist’s interpretations than exact reproductions.

He jests in his blog, where he posts every cover: “There was so much going on on the front page that I didn’t have time to incorporate any of the news out of Bell. Things fall through the cracks when A1 also offers up a camel, Natalie Portman, and the word ‘AK-47s.’”

Professionally, Shveima is an animator at MoonScoop, working on children’s television, mostly in 3-D animation.

He recently spoke with The Times about his yearlong project:

Why did you start drawing The Times?
I do so much digitally, I kind of wanted to get back to paper a little bit.

Sometimes I sit down and sketch whatever is in front of me. Last November, what was in front of me was the L.A. Times. It's this complex thing -- you end up drawing portraits and drawing typography. It brought together all these drawing challenges. I do also love the paper. I read it every day.

The drawings are somewhat surreal interpretations. How do you choose what elements you’ll exaggerate or what you’ll leave out?
The first drawing I did in November 2010 was a literal drawing of the paper. I did a few more covers in December to see if I could actually draw the paper every day. As I started drawing every cover, I found this hidden lyricism. One day, every headline ended in "ate" -- it was sort of a verse.

I started to look at the paper as a single image, instead of just the linear x and y.

What’s your process generally?
It's a lot of free association. It's a little free form. I usually start with an image. Sometimes it's a cluster of headlines. I try to find an anchor image, and then use that as a starting point.

How long does it take? Does it take many versions to get to the final product?
It's one sketch. The first sketch is the final. I work all day and I have a family, so an hour or two is all I have. I wish I had more time to devote to them.

Your favorite so far?
I really like how the 21st of January turned out. It's a body with a big trail of smoke coming out of the head. It was a big mob round up and a rocket launch on the same day. Those two images together was just sort of hilarious. That one came together perfectly. But I love them all. 

What tools are you using?
Bound sketchbooks and pencil. I use a red copywriter's copy pencil. I used a lot of markers -- somewhat dried-out markers; they have a really interesting texture. A little bit of pen and white acrylic paint. The paint brightens the actual page.

What are you intending to do with all 365 of them at the end of the year?
I really don't know. I'd love to see them all on a wall somewhere.

Do you somehow feel more news informed, since you have been drawing the front pages?
I always read the paper, but now I feel more attached to the news in a way. I feel more weirdly invested in the stories.

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Image (top): Feb. 3, 2011, cover of the Los Angeles Times, as drawn by Erik Shveima. Credit: Erik Shveima. Image (second): Jan. 21, 2011, cover of the Los Angeles Times, as drawn by Erik Shveima. Credit: Erik Shveima.

Banksy's identity is safe for at least another day as EBay has shut down yet another auction created to reveal the elusive street artist's name.

An EBay user going by the handle "jaybuysthings" set the starting bid for $3,000 for the auction in which the winner would receive a piece of paper with the British artist's name. 

"I have uncovered his identity by matching up the prices of his sold pieces to corresponding tax records. I will reveal no more details," the seller wrote as part of the description of the auction.

Claiming EBay had shut down a similar previous auction because the site said "jaybuysthings" wasn't offering anything tangible, the most recent auction was for the paper on which Banksy's name was written. Thus it was an auction for something tangible, right?

Perhaps, but EBay took it down anyway.

Banksy is a hot commodity right now; earlier this week three of his pieces were sold at a more traditional auction house for close to $300,000. Meanwhile, the documentary he put together has a fair chance at an Oscar nomination.

Perhaps he will show up to accept the golden trophy if the film wins.

-- Tony Pierce
Twitter.com/busblog

As reported Monday by Publishers Weekly, Mark Twain’s classic “Huckleberry Finn” will be republished by NewSouth Books without the ‘N word.’

Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books felt this change allowed the book to be more acceptable to a 21st century audience and less hurtful. Though Gribben -- English professor at Auburn University at Montgomery -- says this is not an effort to render the book colorblind.

Although we are not proponents of racial slurs of any kind, eliminating original words as they were written from classic literature seems more than a little risky. It’s a slippery slope -- we can only imagine what might be changed next. Less murder in Poe? Less filth in the “The Jungle”?

What’s more -- although the N word is not a pretty thing, much of American history is, unfortunately, not very pretty either.  All over the globe, atrocities have occurred, and they have been documented. Fiction writers have often captured the feeling of a time or place to show history through memorable characters. Tweaking the flavor of a character’s language, especially in a book rich with local color like "Huckleberry Finn," could change the context, and thus the feeling and lessons readers take away.

Twitter has been abuzz with comments about the removal:

@deadwhiteguys: When the publisher of the censored Huckleberry Finn dies, I hope he meets Mark Twain who will certainly throttle him with a whiskey bottle.

@TWlTTERWHALE: Huckleberry Finn removes the "N" Word. Great!!! I love when people erase racism and pretend it never happened.

@OfficialFYRARE: Huckleberry Finn has the "N word" removed from the book, next slavery will be re-explained in history books as an all expense paid vacation

@Brent_Watson41: Glad I already have a copy of HUCKLEBERRY FINN. I hate the N-word, but hate censorship even more.

What’s your take on this change? Is NewSouth doing right by readers by cleaning up the text? Or should students read the words as Twain penned them? Sound off in the comments below.

-- Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

Image: UC Berkeley Library

One of the more talked-about stories this week is the alleged censorship by the Museum of Contemporary Art upon a large mural that it commissioned. An Italian street artist who goes by the name Blu created a striking image of caskets draped in giant dollar bills on the Geffen Contemporary's north wall.

When the mural was completed, MOCA had its workers whitewash it, deeming the art "inappropriate" because of the wall's proximity to the nearby Veterans Affairs building and Japanese American war memorial.

Although reactions are mixed, with Blu saying he's being censored and artists including Shepard Fairey saying that although the situation is "unfortunate" he can understand MOCA's actions, the quote of the day comes from another local artist, Robbie Conal.

"I thought the mural looked really good," the Venice Beach artist began. "I thought it was a cautionary tale about how much it costs to park downtown."

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Graffiti artist Blu paints an antiwar mural on the wall of MOCA's Geffen Contemporary downtown. The museum commissioned the work but then had it whitewashed, saying it could be offensive because of its proximity to the V.A. hospital and Japanese American war memorial.  Credit: Justin T. Ho / For The Times