Haven’t going to life drawing sessions much this Spring. Here is a smattering of models, nude and clothed.
 
The model in the Daisey Dukes was helping me with a logo design. The drawings of the young African American model were from a Friday night session at the Palette & Chisel. My first time drawing her I got modest results and wound up focusing much of my efforts on her head. Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens and fountain pen on Tomoe River Paper.
Drawn with Pitt Artist Brush Pens in a Strathmore sketchbook just before leaving St. Louis to take Amtrak to Lawrence, Kansas, I caught Ulysses S Grant standing proud and vigilant in the morning sun.
Dropped into Madison to visit Madison College, The University of Wisconsin, and Edgewood College, and received the offer from Barry Carlsen to do a print. Worked on a two color lithograph over the weekend. Above is the proof. It’ll be editioned later this fall. Worked from a sketch (below) done about 8 years prior.
Master printer Barry Carlsen above. Sketch of the studio done with Pitt Artist Brush Pens in Strathmore toned sketchbook.
Staying close to home and watching the citizenry. Pat, one of the residents in my apartment compound watches a movie set up in the courtyard. I found her much more engaging than the flick.
And so, after forty years of watching others  build their chops with watercolor, I have decided this month that I am to take the plunge with the medium. Previously, I have used watercolor and gouache to tint and hand color prints and drawings.
i know several masters of the medium, Clive Powsey, Shari Blaukopf, and Ron Stocke, whose work will serve to inform and guide me with the additional benefit of keeping me humble.
The above watercolor, done while in a cafe with the added fun of a fidgety student, has some light guide lines but I also tried to just knock in shapes with a flat brush.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The above watercolor of the parking lot and club house of the Jackson Park Yacht Club, was actually, my first, plein air watercolor in forty years. My color may have reflected somewhat, the washed out summer day in a parking lot with white, silver, and black cars, but felt muddy so I did a study after John Singer Sargent, the gourds below, to hopefully  amp up my hues and loosen up my brush work.
Above, I ventured to a rose garden in Evanston in the late afternoon, but failed to catch the brilliance of the light. Again, I tried to use minimal structural lines and worked as directly with the brushes as I could. All the other figures, save the blue shirted guy and the window counter, were executed with Pitt Artist Brush Pens.
Some more captures from a street festival, a movie in Pulaski Park, this cluster was drawn from life with my standard gear.
I accidentally trashed this entry so I’ll attempt to reinstall it.
When I originally put this post up the Illinois legislature put a rider into  Senate Bill SB1342 that made it a felony to record on duty officers of the law without their permission. This bill had majority support in both houses from both parties. I still haven’t obtained an understanding of how broadly the term “record” will be interpreted. My personal belief is the recording of police or law officials is not a threat to their effective performance of their duties and actually serves to enhance the public and court’s understanding of conditions on the ground during police actions. This rider serves to restrain the roll of the press, the freedom of speech and the nature of informed consent necessary to have an enlightened citizenry whose job it is to elect officials, judges, representatives.
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
Some of the medium used in the above drawings were:
old ledger books and diaries, Utrecht toned sketchbooks, Stillmann & Birn sketchbooks both the Alpha and Epsilon series, Seven Seas Tomoe River Paper, Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks.
a variety of fountain pens, Lamy Studio, Pelikan M215(fine, medium, and broad nibs), several Faber-Castell fps, – Ambition, Ondoro, and Graf von Faber-Castell Classic and Guilloche, Sailor 1911, Sailor brush nib! Namiki’s Vanishing Point and Falcon, and Pelikano Juniors. I fill these pens with Platinum Carbon ink, Noodler’s Ottoman Blue and Electric Eel, and several Iroshizuku inks.
White china Markers aka grease pencils, and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens