A new sketchbook.

I think I've been on vacation long enough. Here's a sketch of the scissors I use every-day with a little color thrown on top digitally.

Toad study.

Practicing toads. Gouache on cardboard--my new favorite thing.

Greedy Lizard.

Space Rock.

Getting ready for some color work so I'm practicing my gouache technique. 

A little study of a space rock here.

Lizard Hunt.

From the sketchbook.

An eye in the sketchbook.

Not sure what creature it belongs to, but it's looking at me.

A pile of rocks.

From the sketchbook.

Abnormal growth.

A thumbnail, botanical study and rough sketch for an editorial on the mysterious, controversial and ever-more-common G.M. crops.

Will they solve the global hunger crisis and propel the world into an era of universal prosperity, or are they the gateway to a zombie apocalypse?

Come back tomorrow for the finished drawing.

This week is now sketch week.

A sketch or two every day! Hurrah, drawing is awesome. Two from my sketchbook:

Blind contour from the sketchbook. Fans.

Sometimes I don't really feel like drawing, but feel as though I should be drawing. At such times I compromise and draw blind contour--that is I look at something intently and try to draw it without looking at my paper. It's an ancient technique, based on wishful thinking and procrastination. It almost invariably results in hilariously wonky disaster.

Fortunately, the mere act of putting pencil to paper usually results in a continued and productive drawing session. Does anyone else feel that beginning work (and ending play) is always much more difficult than the work itself?

A misshapen bowl.

From my sketchbook, from my imagination, and from the end of a very long pencil with a slightly shaky hand.

A rhino.

Playing around with texture and the deprecating effects of laser-printers, which seem to give a pretty good facsimile of plate tone from an etching. The lines of the rhino could easily be confused with an etched line, at least to the casual observer. I think I need to make a few more fake etchings and see how convincing I can get.

I found a rock in my sketchbook.

Mustache Monday.

The original handlebar.

Apathy Bird.

He doesn't even care that he's flat.

Sketchbook Shrubbery.

Lots of lectures today, which meant lots of absent-minded doodling. My scribbles turned into a weird shrub. It's a sketchbook shrub. Shrubbisthmus Sketchimibit.

Printmaking Studio.

Today is the first day of school, and I've moved into my printmaking studio. It's hot, sparse and dirty, but it has light and a place to draw, so everything should be just fine.

From the Sketchbook.

A sketch of common motifs from earlier in the summer.

Preliminary drawing of four Aspen.

Here's a quick sketch I did looking over some shadowed rocks onto four slender Aspen trees. I like the composition so I'm going to go back to the spot and do a finished drawing.

Drawing again.

So I guess I dropped the ball on the whole 'let's post three times a week during the summer' thing. Ugh. Anyways, I'm in Colorado for a while and I'm drawing again. Clearly I am rusty. Or maybe my fingers were just frozen--it's kinda cold up here.

Allright, so I'm a little rusty---but I won't be for long. Be right back got to go draw some more.