Practice! More Practice!

Try as I may I cannot seem to get enough practice but I have managed a few sketches this last week. But first I will put up one from last month that I didn't get scanned until last week.


While I was in florida I walked past a building that cought my eye. The thought of a 24 hour dentist was intreaging enough but the sign below made it laughable.

As I sit in my office in the morning I am watched by a small wooden sculpture that my son gave me upon his return from vacation in Mexico. I quickly drew this sketch of it in my Moleskine.

the sketch on the other side is one of those portable backgrounds used for taking ID photos. As I waited to get yet another ID card I decided to sketch it. I experimented with using Prismacolor Art Markers. I was surprised to see how much it blead through the page...won't us them in my Moleskine again. I originally got the Prismacolor markers for coloring some of my wood turnings because they do penetrate..guess I should have expected the penetration of the Molskine page.

This weekend I went down town to try my hand at sketching some of the old buildings in town. I'm not really satisfied with my results. The sketch might have been better left uncolored. I put to much detail in for a wash - I need to work on that alot. I also need to work on my color mixing - cannot seem to get the colors I want.

I still seem to be trying to put lots of details into a drawing - I need to try to simplify the sketching. I guess the need for detail is a carry over from past times, for example:

EDM #32. This is a sketch of a race car engine - made from a photograph as reference. Does this count as something metal?

Catching up a little

I have finally scanned some of the sketches I did last month on a trip to Orlando, FL. These were my first sketches in many years...so I will also include a couple flash backs as well. The first is a quick ink sketch I drew while waiting for a colleague to join me for breakfast. I was sitting in the atrium of the hotel and I looked up to see 14 floors of balconies that facinated me...


I drew this in my Moleskine sketch book and added some watercolor afterwards. I was trying to capture a wash like affect sort of like this sketch I did in highschool...


Another sketch here of the stopwatch on the table in the restaurant where we had lunch...


Again this was done in my Moleskine adding watercolor afterwards...


Right now I have just returned from a few days down at the Folly (what we affectionately call our weekend/retirement place). It is located in a small town on the Potomac River. It has been pretty well forgotten for the last 50 years. I had a little time to sketch and decided to try one of the EDM(#3) chalenges to draw a wallet, purse, or bag.


Later this weekend I will try to get some of the other sketches posted as well.

In the beginning. . .

It all began in highschool...being a student with more potential than motivation I became bored with many of my classes and began doodling to pass the time. Doodling became drawing. I can't say my subject matter was especially significant, it had adolecent leanings. It was the 60's and many young boys were enamored with the creations of Big Daddy Ross and others, and I guess I was no different. I liked to draw car caracatures and strange looking characters. After some time I decided to take some art classes and learn to draw for real.

Here are a few examples of my earliest works:

Hot rods were a favorite of mine...

















Then there were some strange creatures and hot rods...

























Then came art class and I left those adolecent sketches behind...


















Many of the earlier drawings were pencil and ball point pen... and later I discovered Rapidograph pens.

By the end of highschool I had aspirations of becoming a commercial artist. But these are images from my distant past and I have not drawn much since. Alas, I followed a different path and did not continue to draw, instead I turned to photography (as a hobby).

In future posts I will be posting new attempts to return to drawing and sketching. With ocassional flash backs to the distant past.