Sketches from China

IF I were teaching someone to paint, I'd first make sure they had a good foundation in drawing. I really ought to heed my own words. But it's so much FUN to smear oils on canvas! Nonetheless, I got an opportunity to do some drawing recently while traveling in China. I'd forgotten how satisfying it can be. A word of caution: don't try to do fine pen and ink work while the cruise ship you're on is rolling in seas near the Aleutians. You tend to draw odd, meandering lines...

These 2 pieces were based on photos taken, and were drawn free-hand style while referring to the photo. I inked directly without any pencil rough, using sepia tone ink with various quills on a good hot press paper. I forgot my brushes, so the tones were applied with a good ole number 8 right index finger (you know-smudged!) I used to do a healthy business in my old freelance studio in pen and ink, before Macs came along with decent software and pressure sensitive tablets. "Analog" pen and ink requires a certain steadfastness on the artist's part: once pen hits paper and ink flows, well–you're truly committed! There's no beloved command/control-Z; that lovely undo command that digital artists use regularly.