Sketching through life

"Do you want to see how to draw a box? I'll show you."

My dad picked up the pencil and drew a square on a piece of paper. I watched as he connected diagonal lines to mimick a 3D box. From that very early lesson, my mind was settled that drawing was what I wanted to do.

My mom would often take my brothers, sister and me to a large public library located in Exton, PA, where I would pick out books about animals and attempt to draw from the photos and illustrations displayed inside. This and many outdoors experiences led to continued drawings of animals and birds, even during and after design school.

Bird illustration in watercolor of a wren standing on a cactus plant

Cactus Wren. Watercolor class project. 2003.

Illustration class project. Watercolor and Color Pencil. 2003.

In 2006 I began working in the wall coverings industry as a digital graphic artist. I later worked in textile design before switching to another role. During much of the last decade in the commercial art world, I no longer produced much regarding personal artwork. However, that has begun to change, inspired by some commissioned work and also from the experience of parenting a young boy who also enjoys animals, dinosaurs, and all things outdoors.

Commissioned illustration. Watercolor and digital media. 2016.

A sticky note dino sketch for my son. 2017.

River trout for my dad. Watercolor. 2017.

In the weeks to come, I will post more pictures and describe more experiences as I continue this journey of learning to make better art and design while interacting with the world around.

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T. Rex is 'Tyrant Lizard King'

Tyrannosaurus Rex. 9"x12" Watercolor. After seeing photos of scaly Tyrannosaurus Rex skin, I painted the picture above using colors and patterns inspired by other large reptiles. Tyrannosaurus Rex means "tyrant lizard king", although it wasn't much like any lizard today. It's resemblance was more that of a dragon walking on two feet. At 40 feet long and weighing 8 tons (14 metric tons), tyrannosaurus was enormous. It stood 12 feet tall and had bone crushing teeth the size of bananas. It isn't known whether T-Rex was a scavenger or a fierce hunter, but its forward pointing eyes could be indicators of a keen sense of sight and razor sharp focus on its prey. Here's a second Tyrannosaur painting and a reference photos taken in the wild. Mother Tyrannosaur leading her young. 6.5"x 9" Watercolor. Wild Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. Smithsonian c. 2018.

Drawing is more than seeing

Learning to draw again as an adult is a tad bit different from learning to draw as a child. There is a freedom of imagination and expression in childhood drawing that gets overshadowed sometimes by the need to control and plan in adulthood. A watercolor sketch from direct observation Some say that learning to draw is learning how to see, but that isn’t quite right. It is important to see certain aspects of form, shape, light and atmosphere in order to better observe what you want to represent realistically. But learning to draw is all about learning to control lines, shapes and edges on a surface in order to build a picture of what you see. So drawing involves much more than seeing. Drawing is a constructive and organizing activity that communicates ideas. In this way it goes beyond seeing and simple observation. It is related to speech. It organizes lines and shapes on a surface so that something new can be seen, felt or understood. A cave drawing organizes lines so that viewe...

Drawing in order to imagine

Jonathan sketching Drawing is a form of entertainment that goes way, way back in the history of humans. It's also a powerful tool for imagination. Computer and AI assisted animation are simply advanced forms of imaginative drawing. I like to use drawing in service of the imagination by drawing what I'd like to see in a narrative. My son Jonathan enjoys movies and imaginitive adventure. So Saturday night before bed, I told him we could get our shared big sketchbook off the book shelf and imagine we were going on an adventure. I asked him what we should start with. "Draw a jeep," he said. So I drew a jeep driving down a rugged path. Jonathan then drew some trees. He asked me to draw some dinosaurs; a dilophosaurus spitting green venom, a brachiosaurus eating leaves, Dakota Raptor running through the trees, a pterodactyl sauring in the air. "Draw an Indominus Rex," he asked after all the others. "Cool!" was his response when I sketched somet...

Penn's Sketchbook

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