a jungle feeling

Experimenting with brush marks.

W/c on 140# Arches.

fabric painting

It's on paper, but once again, I ended up with a pattern and colors I'd like to wear for a skirt or scarf.

W/c on Strathmore Aquarius II paper.

roses inside

My mother collected all sorts of figurines, ceramics, and porcelains. The only kind I really liked were the Boehm flowers. Partly because the petals are so amazingly thin.

Pastel pencils, tech pen and colored pencils on PaperBlanks (yes, lined) journal paper.

wonky car

Pen, red markers, and w/c on 60# smo-oth paper.

I went for color impact, not perspective or accurate car anatomy.

rubbing texture

I was doing an idle drawing of the cat beside and behind me, then scribbled in a dark background.

Because of things taped on the other side of the journal page, I got unexpected texture in the wall. Worth planning for, next time!

6B pencil on journal paper.

practicing brush technique

Just lines and a disk, letting the brush move. Kind of like the Buddhist practice of drawing a circle.

W/c on 90# drawing paper.

flat form

A quick pencil sketch that I painted in only to add color to the journal.

The cat averts his gaze from the encroaching foot and the sketcher's eye.

colorful wonkiness

Playing with paint on 2 different paper textures. The spiral is on thin, smooth journal paper. The other mug is on 140# Arches.

I'm constantly testing paint on various papers, just to experience the texture of drag and flow. I often like the results on cheap paper better, except for the ripple problem.

partly en plein aire

Sitting on my little painting stool, I drew the flight of granite steps. Then a chilly wind pushed through my layers so I moved inside to do the colors.

But there's real hope for spring. The forsythia are starting to open.

Colored pencil and w/c on 140# Fab. Artistico.

amazing tree guys

In the devastating ice storm last December, many trees in our yard were damaged or completely broken. One was a huge old hickory that lost more than 3/4 of its crown.

We were sad to have to take it down, but decided to do it before the hanging branches fell and killed someone.

We hired a local tree service and they did an amazing job. Bobby, the cutter here, reached out with a 15-foot pole saw, standing in the bucket at full extension, and still could barely reach the tree. I took these pictures from the second floor of our house.

Now the tree will help keep us warm next winter; we have a lot of long-burning hickory to split up for firewood.

finally, warm enough to paint outside!

Our biggest city park has this stone building in the center. It's old, quaint, and very popular--housing the bathrooms.

Tech pen and w/c on 140# Fabriano Artistico.

another way of working with fluids

What one artist can do with ink and water. Wow!

Check out these images by artist Shinichi Maruyama:

playing with sky

Imagining and mixing colors. I guess this is a sunset.

W/c on 140# Arches.

flat heads

When a photo has already turned 3D into a 2D image, copying is relatively easy. The challenge is to produce such subtle detail from a live model.

But photos hold still and offer such a huge range of interesting features.

On Aquabee superdeluxe.

spring greens

Inspired by the fragile greens emerging from under the snowbanks.

W/c on 140# Arches

the epitome of sketchiness

Sometimes a drawing attack comes over me and I have to get something on paper immediately.

So I stood over the cat and got the basics on a piece of shirt cardboard. Oooo, relief!

I refuse to think this is a problem . . .

purple guy

Months ago I was trying out a drawing with a drybrush, copying from a photo of Christopher Walken.

Yesterday I discovered a lovely mix Winsor & Newton quinacridone violet plus cobalt blue. I needed somewhere to place this outstanding color.

Poor Christopher is enduring my victimization.

On 140# Arches.

filling a page

Half drawing what's in front of me. Imagining what I was too lazy to look at carefully.

But I love painting in the colors.

Pencil and w/c on 60# drawing paper.

bell and drum

I use the bell to call people to dinner. The drum gets a thump once in awhile.

Non-soluble colored pencil and w/c on Aquabee superdeluxe.

new pencil

I love the feeling of this watersoluble graphite pencil by Prismacolor. It has the perfect amount of drag without too much pull, more than non-soluble graphite, less than a w/c pencil.

Though I didn't dissolve it this time, I like that the pencil offers that option. I resisted the lure to make the sky blue.

On 60# drawing paper.

profile practice

Practicing that nose from all angles. At least the mug has a squared top so I don't have to practice ellipses, too.

Brush pen on prepainted Hand Book Journal

working from a master

Drawings by John Whalley are stunning. I saw one in the Portland (ME) art museum and then bought a book of his work.

Sketching hyperrealism--the ultimate in artistic oxymorons.

Doing a version of a master's work teaches me how they see detail that I'd never notice.

5B pencil on 60# sketchpaper. Paper and color are distorted by a water sketch on the reverse, plus my scanner's blueish contribution.