Buttnekkiddoodles

Backhoes, bulldozers, cranes, & earth movers hauling mud and muck from the bowels of North Pond and reshaping the banks. The initial trauma of uprooting shrubs waterlogged trees dead stumps is giving way to a clear design as banks are cleared and the pond enlarged.
Had a nice chat with the owner of the company doing the heavy work. Hoping to get within the work barrier to nab some close ups of the equipment.
Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia Dot Grid notebook.

Late afternoon at the evolving banks of North Pond. Got the mini earth mover and most of the landscape done when a workman came along, hopped in, fired it up, and rode off to the level the banks elsewhere. I was attracted to this scene because the tilt of the vehicle parked on the slope of the embankment looked as if it was slowly losing the battle with gravity.
Fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia Dot Grid notebook.

 At the Green City Farmers Market Saturday. Intense light and loads of deep shadow beneath the trees. First sketch executed on Rhodia Dot Grid notebook with just one marker. That marker however was the chromium green opaque Pitt Artist Pen Dual Nib Marker by Faber-Castell. The big brush nib allowed me rapid and broad coverage, which would increase in depth and saturation with each pass. Very quick, lite strokes and finger prints produced mid tones and textures, i.e. grass blades. The 1.8 nib added line work on the field for weeds and grass. The idea here was to worked rapidly and economically avoiding fusing over details.
Second drawing uses similar approach but this time four hues are used: Chrome Oxide Green, Chromium Green Opaque, May Green, and Light Yellow Glaze. 

Two gorgeous days, perfect to draw out in the park. So yesterday I headed out to draw more of the renovations at North Pond. That was my intention until I came across the quirky sculpture by Robbie Barber next to the Lincoln Park Recreational Center. An old shell of a mobile camper/trailer mounted on a rusty outsized wheel rims. Channeling Claus Oldenburg a smidg, this very American, iconic mash up, part Conestoga wagon, part baby carriage on steroids glued me to the grass and out came the sketchbook. I started laying out the basic structure a bit after 3pm. At that point the trailer shell was partially in the sun with the raking light casting zebra shadows on the side. But with the sun moving quickly the whole piece wound up in the full shade of the building behind me. Not what I’d hoped to capture. So I worked on the wheels, background & grass and decided the drawing would be finished at roughly the same time today.
Today I headed out to complete the drawing and arrived at the perfect time. Okay, next up, I figured I head over to North Pond as planned the previous day. Well, en route to said pond, I spied the magnificent Eli Bates fountain by Augustus Saint-Gaudens of boys with scaly fin tipped fish legs (merboys?) wrestling with fish. The light was good, I was game and thus out came the sketchbook and pens.
Fountain pen & Pitt Artist Pens on a Rhodia notebook.

 
After months of notifications and raising funds, the project to clean the water, deepen North Pond and redesign and redevelop the banks has begun. First image shows the bottom being dredged.


The underbrush and waterlogged trees are being removed, debris is being dredged, the depth of the pond is increased to 8’ in the center.
Below are images before the project got underway.

Drawn on Clairefontaine paper, in Rhodia sketchbooks and the toned Stillman & Birn Nova Series sketchbooks with fountain pen, Platinum Carbon Ink, DeAtramentis Document brown ink, and Pitt Artist Pens.