This is one of a pair of cart horses that were waiting by the curb in the main square in Prague. He was decked out in a gold croched head scarf that included fabric ear coverings. I’ve been studying Claudia Nice’s book Sketching Your Favorite Subjects in Pen & Ink and thought I’d resume my pen and ink studies. This was done with a black .005 Prismacolor Premier pen. I had some problems with ink build up on the point resulting in little blobs of ink in some of my crosshatching. It may be the result of the paper/pen combination/operator error. I’m going to work up a few more drawings with this combo and try it on other papers as well. Perhaps I’ll have better luck or develop greater control.

I was in Paris in May of 2011 and took a few snapshots of this fabulous fountain. I sketched this in black ballpoint pen from one of the snapshots.

I found a couple of reference drawings (a line drawing of wing structure and line drawings of feathers) and worked up this study in pencil. The feather reference was from Claudia Nice’s Sketching Your Favorite Subjects in Pen & Ink. The line drawing of the wing structure I could not find a attribution for, but I am grateful to be able to study it and if anyone recognizes the structure and composition and knows who the artist is, let me know. I’d like to be able to give him/her a credit here.

I’ve finally taken time again to draw. I thought I’d spend some time with bird studies. These feet are from reference images I found in the World of Birds. I’m going to try to work my way through some bird anatomy so I can gain a better understanding of them.

This is a digital photo of my first Everyday Matters Challenge drawing. It’s been a very long time since I’ve done an ink drawing and I felt pretty rusty as I worked but it was wonderful just to be drawing again. I’m excited to start the next one. Brown prismacolor premier pen, size 005, in a 5.5 x 5.5″ Hand Book sketch journal.

Today I am setting up my first blog. I intend to fill it with images from my sketchbook (I’m starting a new one so it will be a bit before I have something to post). I have been much inspired by the online sketchbooks, blogs and other posts from artists in the Everyday Matters group, and elsewhere online.  

I haven’t done creative work for my own satisfaction since 1991 (how sad is that?). For the last 25 years I have done work for hire most of the day, nearly every day (obviously, I’m not a spring chicken anymore). These days the work I do is mostly graphic design. Up until about five years ago, I did about 50/50% graphic design/spot illustration. As my projects have gotten drier and drier, I feel a stronger need than ever to do drawings for myself.

To start with, I am going to focus on technique and not worry about creativity. When I get tired of technique, I’ll move on to creative exploration. I have reasonable technical chops with graphite, colored pencil, and other soft media. I have always felt that my ink work stunk. So, that’s where I will start.

I’ve started this blog with a template and for now, have left it pretty much as it came. Over time, I’d like to customize it a bit but for now, that’s not as important to me as working on my drawings.