From pencil to ink

If you aim to make ink sketches with a certain degree of accuracy, it helps to block out the composition in light pencil first. I like to use an H pencil for that part of the process. The pencil marks…
If you aim to make ink sketches with a certain degree of accuracy, it helps to block out the composition in light pencil first. I like to use an H pencil for that part of the process. The pencil marks…
These are some demo sketches from an online class I taught last month through Seattle’s internationally-known Gage Academy of Art. For the winter quarter I’m planning a new class (also via Zoom) devoted to “Pen and Wash” sketching. Would you…
THE POOR PINK Elephant. It doesn’t spin all the way around anymore. It just nudges back and forth with the wind. As dusk begins to set in, I notice that half of its neon tubes are dark. But the day…
THE R/V THOMAS G. Thompson has just returned to its home port at the University of Washington School of Oceanography in Portage Bay after a weeklong research trip off the coast of Oregon. It’s rare to see the impressive oceanographic…
A few behind-the-scene snapshots from a wonderful time sketching the University of Washington scientific research vessel Thomas G. Thompson and some crew members. Main sketch process: Light drawing with H pencil; ink line with Carbon Desk Fountain pen on 11…
Spending a few hours working on a big sketch can be very gratifying, but it’s the small drawings I make during unexpected pockets of time that I often enjoy the most. I drew this charming little house in the Greenwood…
See full post in The Seattle Times: Passersby pay their respects as the beloved Pink Elephant packs its trunk.
I like to fill pockets of time here and there drawing on my pocket sketchbook. Above are recent spreads done with a good-old 2B pencil. 1. Trees and geese near Green Lake. Sketched while sitting for a break after a…
This arboretum just around the corner from our street is very much a hidden gem in our neighborhood. It gets its name from large rhododendron trees that are hard to find elsewhere. On this summer day, I sat on a…
You don’t get to sketch camels and giraffes every day.
My sketcher pal Roy De León documented the exhibit opening at Tsuga Art Gallery in the best possible way.
I’m back in Seattle after a whirlwind trip to Clermont-Ferrand, a city in central France boasting the picturesque (medieval churches), the industrial (Michelin), the outdoorsy (snowcapped volcanoes!) and the best-known travel-sketchbooks festival in the world, Rendez-Vous Carnet de Voyage. Thousands…