Buttnekkiddoodles

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.

Made it to Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky but only had slightly less than two hours to take in and draw on those glorious grounds. Ink in a Tomoe River Paper sketchbook.

The above 3 drawings were executed on the bus ride to Louisville.

A coffee shop drawing of a fellow who held the expression of a seriously skeptical customer to what ever it was the other fellow was proposing. Next, on of Jeremy’s students in a drawing class followed by Jeremy himself explaining a concept to another student. Immediately above, a sketch of the Bardstown Road VFW that was begun on site but largely completed from memory. And Big Ed drawing at the same VFW during an Urban Sketching workshop coordinated with the Pearson Art Center.

faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens, fountain pens, Zplatinum Carbon ink, in Tomoe River Paper and Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks.

Spent time in Millenium Park this weekend past and captured people stopping by the Sketchbook Project’s Mobile Library which was on a cross country tour from it’s home base in Brooklyn.

Absolutely loving drawing in this Tomoe River Paper sketchbook. Mostly making use out of Pitt Artist Brush Pens but also dragging along 2 fountain pens, a LamyAccent and a Graf Von Faber-Castell Classic. Both have been great to work with and the Tomoe is customer tailored to showcase their wet, fluid lines. For the past year, I’ve used Platinum Carbon Ink for the fountain pens almost exclusively. Some of the really bold contours were drawn with a 1.5 Pitt Pen. A UniBall and a grease pencil round out the basic kit seen below on an unroll pen wrap.

Oops, this got posted as if It was done in the Northwest. It wasn’t. It’s a northwest based corporate coffee shop, which, is just 2 blocks from my Midwest residence. 

Land this was the flight home.

 

N Center NU at lunch (l) Evanston PO (r)

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At the CSO, Mozart & Strauss conductor Haitink. Both pieces great, but the Strauss Alpine Symphony just bowled me over.

    

Dude sketching the transit passengers in 30th Street St. Above him is conductor Josh of Amtrak.

 

So, I arrived in Philadelphia by Amtrak to the beautious 30th Street Station, one of my favorite public transit centers in the country, and had time to kill so down I sat to grab a sketch of the Bronze statue dedicated to Railroad employees who died serving in the armed forces during WWII. The statue was by Walter Hancock who taught at the Pennsyvania Academy of Fine Arts and during WWIi, was one of the” Monuments Men” whose exploits and mission was made famous in the George Clooney film of the same name. The actor John Goodman’s character was based on Walter Hancock. The drawing on the right was posted earlier and is a memorial sculpture to the fallen Canadian Rail workers from both WW I and II, copies of which can be seen in a number of Canadian cities, Vancouver being home to this one.

Drawn in  Rhodia unlined sketchbook, and a Tomoe River Paper sketchbook using Pitt Artist Brush Pens and various ni sizes of the Pitt Pens. Also fountain pens, Pelikan M215, and Faber-Castell Basic Black Leather fountain pen filled with Platinum Carbon ink.

Once again, I made it to the terrific Flight Museum in Seattle. Above you see a 6 bladed propeller on a reconnaissance plane from the Vietnam Nam War. An early model using “Stealth” technology of the day.

WW II era flight suit for gunners. Some fountain pen, and the rest rest in various Pitt Artist Brush Pens in a Rhodia unlined sketchbook.

  

Above you’d see the drawing kit do one of Boeing’s chief engineers and later executives. It was nice to see the celebrated engineers and designers all drew, some very regularly as children.