Buttnekkiddoodles

Farmers still getting produce to market while keeping workers and customers as safe as possible under the very real threat of spreading a lethal disease.  

• Drawn with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens and the Essentio fountain pen on Clairefontaine Goldline Watercolour sketchbook and a Stillman & Birn Beta Series Watercolour sketchbook.

Saturday at Evanston Farmers Market and checking in of some favorite stalls. Above, Nick answers questions and keeps the flow going.

 
Faber-Castell Coconut barrel Ambition fountain pen, Essentio Black Leather fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens on Clairefontaine Goldline Watercolour sketchbook.

 
Got  in a weekend at Rachel & Bob’s beach house in Michigan. Chicago has been really going thru it and it was necessary to take a break. Between the demonstrations which have seen the torching of police cars and property damage, shootings, the pandemic, loss of employment, the restrictions on public gatherings, the closing of so many restaurants, and the general anxiety increased by truly depressing news cycles, Giamila & I hunkered down in Sawyer for a few days. If you’re going to feel isolated and cut off, you might as well be in a gorgeous environment where you can take off the masks, swim on the clean side of the lake, and go pick blueberries.
 

Drawn on #clairefontaine Stillman & Birn Nova Series Beige and Goldline Watercolour sketchbook with #fabercastell Essentio broad nib fountain pen and Pitt Artist Pens.

 
Took a calming break from the city and parked my arse in my friend’s beach house near Sawyer, Michigan. Top image is Bob’s babe magnet Jeep under a tarp.
 
Sitting at the top of the staircase that used to lead down through a short span of woods to the beach. No longer in use in order to protect the dunes that were planted with sea grass. Due to a rise in lake level and because erosion has been so bad that 20 yards of beach, those dunes bearing the sea grass are also being undermined.

Drawings made using a broad nib Faber-Castell Essentio Black Leather fountain pen, DeAtramentis Document Black Ink, Pitt Artist Pens, Albrecht Dürer Watercolour Markers on Clairefontaine Goldline Watercolour sketchbook (top) and Stillman & Birn Gamma Series sketchbook.

 

  Last Saturday I made my way to Calvary Cemetery on a day of exquisite beauty. The light was intense, producing strong, crisp contrast and deep shadows. A fairly chilly day for mid June at 60F, and a cool breeze from the lake meant the necessity of a sweatshirt despite the heat of direct exposure to the sun.

I had expected to meet up with a group of artists also going there to sketch, but, despite the relative openness and simple layout of Calvary, we never bumped into one another. Deep into the cemetery there are sufficient crypts and statuary and scattered cedars to screen people separated by only a couple hundred yards.

Calvary Catholic Cemetery was created because 19th century Irish residents of Chicago were being excluded from burial in some of the city’s cemeteries.

I brought a simple kit of Pitt Artist Pens including my some of my dwindling supply of the various  #fabercastellusa PAP Big Brush Grays. I will be truly bummed, if not challenged to become adept with other medium. I also used a Faber-Castell Black Leather fountain pen filled wit DeAtrementis Document Black Ink. The top sketch is in a #clairefontaine Goldline Watercolor sketchbook, the bottom sketch is on a on Stillman & Birn Nova Beige sketcbook. White Big Brush Pitt Artist Pens gave me the sky and highlights.