I forced myself to go to Prospect Park and draw this tree. I wanted to be a bit lazy but I got on the train anyway with my drawing stuff and strolled until I found this tree which looked not so easy to draw. Even when I’m not in the mood, I always try to bring my A game. Sometimes drawing is like being in a band that plays the same set list every night over and over on the road. It’s easy to phone it in once in a while. My nervous body and brain don’t allow for that. If only.
Baby
I’m not sure if anyone out there is familiar with my sensitive side. It is kept well hidden. Recently, when my wife and I were in London, we visited with our friends who recently welcomed a new baby boy. I took a few photos thinking maybe one would make for a good drawing. I never know if these types of illustrations will come out good or not. It’s a crap shoot. This one happened to come out quite excellent. I even shocked myself along with the surprised mother who was not expecting this in the mail.
Saint Augustin
This was the view out the window of our AirBNB in Paris. It happened to be the Church of Saint Augustin looming above the rooftops.
Paris Cafe Sketching
While staying in an AirBNB in Paris, there was a book of fashion photographs on the coffee table. I knew I didn’t have much time to do any urban sketching while on this jaunt, so each morning I would do a bit of scribbling into my Moleskine from photos in the book. I added some extra images while drawing in cafes on the street. This is what I cobbled together.
Jean-Christophe
Here’s another drawing I did from a photograph I took while Jean-Chrisophe Defline was walking my wife and I around Paris. I only snapped a handful images but I ended up doing three illustrations from those few. I thought maybe I would draw one. Jean-Christophe happens to be visual good luck for moi.
Dingy
Haven’t done a painting in quite a while. I specifically took this photograph at my friend, Michael Snow’s dock in Maine for the sole purpose of painting it. Acrylic ink on heavy Arches watercolor paper. My dock companions, two loons gave their eerie bird calls in the early morning while I shot this simple picture. As I began to paint, things quickly went awry. It was not looking the way I intended. My strength as an artist is not surrendering while I’m screwing things up. So, I fought the crummy direction I took the painting in by going over what I’d painted several times. I began to tame the paint and it started to look like something I’m proud of. I gifted it to my cousin, Eileen for her new house in Florida.
Paris Corner
My wife and I have each been to Paris many times, so we don’t go to the traditional tourist spots. The best time we had this trip is when our friend, Jean-Christophe wanders us through his old neighborhoods of childhood. I occasionally snap a picture or two of street corners that catch my eye as we stroll. This drawing doesn’t really resemble the photo I took. I created my own atmosphere and sky, along with inventing a time of day. The drama of this illustration is all a fiction.
Postcards
On a recent trip to Europe, we hit London, Paris, and Ireland. I had no time to do any real street drawing because we were booked solid. I’ve come up with my own strategy whereby I sketch little objects in people’s homes, on trains, planes and AirBNBs when I have spare minutes. The faces were from framed historic photographs hanging in the Shannon Airport lounge area. In the end, I managed to squeak out an interesting double page spread in my Moleskine.
Paris
On our recent trip to Paris, I was a tourist and not a street artist. No frivolous free time. We always stay in the 8th district. There’s some great architecture there that I admire. So, I clicked a few photos to do some drawings when I returned home. I love the triangular shaped buildings that are on the street corners. They never cease to delight me.
Mab Graves
Vampire Squirrel. This is for Mab Graves Drawlloween 2023. Squirrels love cosplay.
Stuff
This is a sketchbook drawing that took me a long time to do. I picked a few items off the ground in the Berkshires and drew them when it was raining outside. A couple of weeks later I sketched a few in Maine. Two weeks later, I was back in the Berkshires, so I did several more. That’s how I roll. At some point, I put my pens down and my hands in the air and called it done.
Oz Tree
This was quite an unusual looking tree I found in the mountains of Massachusetts. I jumped at the chance to sketch her. The tree never knew what hit it. By the time the tree realized I was drawing it, I had begun to hightail it out of there. The tree chased me just like a scene straight out of “The Wizard Of Oz.” A garden gnome lawn ornament was resting next to it, so I tossed him into the illustration too.
Berkshires
I sat in my car and drew this through the window in the parking lot of a bowling alley. Sometimes the outside elements are too much for me so I sheltered in the front seat. Plus, I was close to a McDonalds, so that I could take a pee every 17 minutes.
