Though my lodging accommodations in Cedar Falls may have lacked grace and refinement, downtown had plenty of charm. As I enjoyed a hot chocolate and baked goods made on the premises at Cup of Joe, I took much delight in the stylish quartet in the balcony. Pitt pens on Strathmore and three different whites, a Pitt Big Brush White, a white grease pencil, and an Uni Ball Signo.
For the 5th year, I will head out across the country, this time trekking down the middle, from the mountains to the Mississippi, over the Oglalla and amber waves of grain, to sketch and share craft and discoveries with a whole mess of folks. To follow my journey, go to: doncolleysroadtrip.com.
 
The trek began with an 8 hour layover at the Twin Cities airport and  a late arrival in gorgeous Bozeman. From there I made it to the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. Go. Hallowed ground. The markers indicating where the combatants fell give and amazing sense of the raging and rambling nature of the battle. From there, Sheridan, Wyo, and a long bus ride to Fargo, where the biplane was drawn at the Fargo Air Museum. The West has to be experienced by bus by car and by train with frequent stops.
All drawings executed with various fountain pens, Lamy Accent, Graf Von Faber-Castell Classic Ebony, using Platinum Carbon ink, grease pencil, and a ide array of F-C Pitt Artist Brush Pens in several types of sketchbooks: Strathmore toned sketchbooks, Moleskine landscape formate watercolor sketchbook, Stillman & Birn Epsilon, Tomoe River Paper sketchbook, and a ledger book from the 1950’s.
 
A selection of head and hair studies while out drawing in public. A few friends graciously held still for me, but most were captured while drawing in transit, in cafes, airports, and a couple during life drawing sessions. You can tell these were executed on a variety of papers, some in ledger books, some on watercolor paper, Tomoe River Paper, in various journals, but all of the drawings were made using ink and pigmented pens.
Can you ever get bored drawing heads and hairstyles??? Trying to capture as wide a range as I can, the tonsure zoo of hair. Dreads, ponytails, crew cuts, B-52s, pompadoured crowns, flips, dips, cowlicks, comb-overs, straight, Boticelli & Michelangelesque curls, sprays, tinted, two-toned, razor cuts, haze cuts, feathered, bed head, pig-tailed, braided, gathered, bearded, moustachioed, Van Dykes, Imperials, goateed, sideburns, mutton chops, pencil-thins, cornrows, bobs, top-knots, bro-knots, high-n-tight, Mohawks, faux-hawks, French braids, Amish bowel cuts, Page girls, conks……yee-gads!
So, at my demos and workshops, and for the upcoming workshop at the USk Chi Seminar July 9th, I will stress the value of a range of pens, brushes and mediums so that you don’t overwork your tool. As you can see in the top color drawing in a cafe, I still have much to describe, should I want to push this drawing further. And if you notice the scale of marks relative to the size of the page and surfaces described, I would have benefitted from big brushes or markers. It’s one of the reason so many people who sketch in public or dynamic environmets gravitate towards watercolor because of it’s coverage and how easy it is to vary the values. Compare this to the following drawings below where I had several values in varied nib widths, the 2 monochrome drawings in the cafes were done in the same amount of time, the cemetery required a bit more time, but the ability to cover the page and build value and volume and create the drama of light I was after were due to working with several tools with a range of attributes that also make for a drawing rich with descriptive marks. After returning home, I worked further on the drawing based on memory and prior notes. Cheers, and see you at the Urbane Sketchers Chicago Drawing Seminar July 9th and 10th.
 
Faber-Castell Pitt Pens and various fountain pens rolled with Platinum Carbon Ink in an unlined Rhodia, a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, Strathmore Toned Sketchbook and a ledger book.
After 57 years, I finally return to the Land of The Midnight Sun. Glorious light. Flowers going crazy in long luminous days. Met up with some of the local talent for a plein aire event and a drink-n-draw at Spenard Tattoo. The above log cabin is the home of local artist Don Kolstad who has been an educator and fixture on the scene for years.
  
Above, drawings done on the flight to Anchorage. An attempt to capture some cloud and mountain formations somewhere over British Columbia.
The following drawing of Columbine flowers and the following paragraph I did and dedicated to a young woman who passed away just days before I arrived in Anchorage. I also dedicated gave it and gave it to the owner and staff at Blaine’s Art where she had worked for about nine month’s prior to here death at 21 years of age.
Ashley, I never had the privilege to have met you. But I have met wonderful people who did , and clearly, your spirit touched them. You are missed. I believe life is a supremely amazing gift, and the people who come into our lives, are a large part of that gift. I was told of your departure as I sat in the car outside the store you worked at, having been driven there from the airport. The first things I saw as I stepped from the car were the Columbine flowers at the store’s entrance. They were the first things I drew after stepping on Alaskan soil since I left as a child 57 years ago. They were purple, one of your favorite colors I’m told, and radiant in the incredible searing light. It was the first I had ever seen Columbines. It will not be possible for me to see them again without thinking about you and the emotional way those who knew you, spoke about you, your radiance, your accomplishments, your wit and brilliance. The growing season in Alaska is brief, and like those arresting Columbines, you had an all too brief but intense presence to those whom you encountered. I know they are grateful to have met you.
Above, a view from the water’s edge of a Salmon catching contest near the mouth where Ship Creek empties into Cook Inlet by downtown Anchorage.
 
Seth and his shy friend at the Drink & Draw at Spenard’s Tattoo when Seth works. I could tell she was watching me thru the veil of her hair.
The Anchorage Plein Aire group with Don Kolstad on the right from an overlook facing the estuary alongside Turnagain Bay.
 
Above, a dorama in the Anchorage Museum of Art and my lunch counter view of the kitchen crew at Anthony’s in Sea-Tac International. Airport.
Drawings done in a ledger book, a Strathmore toned sketchbook, a Stillman & Birn Alpha series sketchbook with Faber-Castell Basic and Pelikan M215 and Pelikano Jr. fountain pens with Carbon Black ink and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brish Pens and White China markers.