View from 14 floors up of the Horseshoe Falls. Pure Glory. Drawn with a fountain pen juiced up with Platinum Carbon ink, and using Faber-Castell Pitt Pens in a Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.
Depth of Winter, and what a winter it’s been. Got warm dwellings, proper gear, someone else shovels the sidewalks, amenities are all a short walk from the crib, and the view of the weather from my living room has been operatic. After a busy Fall on the road and a grueling month of moving to my current home, I’m settling in  to a gob of reading and trying to pick up the pace on drawing. Love the Michelin Man quality of so much winter wear and feeling a need to work on anatomy studies for upcoming work. It’s been eons since I made a body of paintings so with 2 velvets stretched and more on the way I’m trying to kick my arse into gear after a long period of hibernating. Put the clowns to bed long enuff, time for reveille.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
Usual suspects in materials: Pitt Pens, grease pencil, ledgerbooks, fountain pens.
Once in awhile, I actually put up some doodles of naked butts. Went to the Palette & Chisel last night to see a strong show of Errol Jacobs paintings from the last few years and made it upstairs for the last 2 hours of life drawing. Been awhile.
 
 
Well it’s been some time since I settled in to some nude drawing having managed to travel the country extensively this Fall so I squeezed in a half session last night with less than what I might have hoped for. Since I returned to Chicago 5 days ago much has gotten in the way of my daily drawing so some of the slap dash I was looking for came in fits and starts. I also left the house with a limited range of grays and wound up making careless use of cool and warm grays on the model which is irritating me  sufficiently on the morning after. I did have with me a Sailor bent nib fountain pen that give both bold and narrow line widths depending on the angle you attack the page with and you can see it’s effect in the drawings of the dude with the Jeff cap & blue backpack and the slouching fellow in ski cap texting away. Fun to draw with and loosens you up. On the page immediately above of cafe goers and transit riders, I could have used some of the darker Pitt Big Brush Artist Pens which would have knocked in richer values and strokes on the clothing.
Friday nite life drawing session. What better time to see a spot of flesh than in the depths of Winter. Justin is a good model. Very muscular, light produces definitive shadows on him, important at the Palette & Chisel as their extensive use of fluorescent lights blows out dark and dramatic contrasts. He is limber as evidenced by the drawings can hold athletic poses reasonably well. Drawn on a Boorum & Pease ledger book with 3 different fountain pens, a TWSBI 540 medium nib, Faber-Castell Coconut Ambition broad nib, and a Pelikano Junior medium nib, all filled with Noodler’s Ottoman Blue ink. Some additional work done with Pitt Artist Pens.
Flew down to San Antonio for a week of work & play in central Texas. Got a break from the weather in Illinois and chewed me some bar-b-cue.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Finished the Pentalic book and am plowing thru the ledger book I received from Ed Nelson. Hauled a slew of Pitt Artist brush pens and a cluster of fountain pens with me. Didn’t think I’d need much green so came up short in my sketches on the River Walk because it was verdant with loads of plants. While most of these were drawn in public and on site, I doctored a couple because I was so limited in my color selection. Popped into the San Antonio Museum of Art and received a very pleasant surprise in the small but engaging collection. That’s where I drew the Maya underworld figure and the statue of Marsyas.