Environmental Drawing Works

The ultimate joy I get from art is when I can travel out into the world, natural or otherwise, and capture a scene as I see it. The one and only way to learn the intricacies of the reality that surrounds us is to observe from it. How to understand light, color, value is apparent all around us in the universe -- these are some of the only semi truths we can know, they apply to us. So to get better we must study nature, that is what the drawings below you are; snapshots of reality through an artistic license, the privilege to take from real-life and interpret, either adding or subtracting, twisting facets of the observed to support an inherent beauty that lies within the natural world.

A mix of charcoal and graphite, fairly large and all from observation. Of particular interest are those from the center for wooden boats on south Lake Union in Seattle. Enjoy!

Still Life Drawings

The bane of my existence is charcoal -- or so I thought before I took it to more practice and genuine application. Through working more with this messy, black-ash stick that is charcoal I have begun to truly appreciate the useful qualities it offers. Most notably being its dry application, easy blending abilities, capacity to reach a pure black and the diverse assortment of values it can conjure up in between. This is a testament to the fact that you cannot like or dislike a medium / material until you have whole-heartedly working with it and learned its methods. I doubt I will be working much with charcoal in the future but it was invaluable to have had the time to fully comprehend and experiment with its possibilities.

Below are a number of still life's as depicted in my 'works on paper' drawing course from this past semester. Most are large, roughly 2x3 ft. or so and all are done using the aforementioned medium of vine and compressed charcoal with splatterings of white and red pastel. Also note that each drawing took from 10 minutes to 2.5 hours to complete and, again, are completely hand drawn from observation under studio lighting. Enjoy!