​I recently discovered the works of Paul Gustave Dore, a 19th century artist renowned as a book illustrator who used etchings and woodcuts to create dramatic black and white images.  I was struck by how he used darks and lights.  He seemed to always create a dramatic focal point by placing the darkest dark right next to the whitest white.  His work was what got me thinking of creating a large dramatic black and white scene.
 
I have a couple of three foot by two foot scratchboards hanging around and was thinking of getting started on one.  Inspired by Dore, who illustrated Dante and the bible among other things, I was thinking of a rather complicated scene, something dramatic with rocks and trees and people and buildings.  Something that maybe tells a story.  In such an endeavor drawing is of course important, but it is of no value if the composition and values are not right, and at some level, the values are the composition.  So rather than playing with the positioning of trees, rocks, people and buildings, I decided to start by playing with the values. 
 
I did these relatively quickly while watching TV Saturday night.  I think one of them, or something quite like one of them, will be my starting point, but I also gained a couple of other ideas from the effort.  One, is that this page is interesting by itself and the exercise could make a good scratchboard.  The second is that rather than spend a lot of time agonizing over what the scene will be, it might be interesting to just quickly rough in the values on the board and then step back and see what the image suggests to me, and then carve out a more detailed scene from what I see in it.  

​When I’ve got to cool my heels someplace I get real fidgety if I can’t be drawing.  Last Thursday we were working out in the woods in Montague, MA.  We were about two miles from the car when we finished, but real close to a road.  My son offered to let me walk down to the road and he would walk back for the car and then come around and pick me up.  I am getting old, you know, and I do have a hard time keeping up with him, so I swallowed my pride and headed for the road.  
 
I waited for him where a powerline crossed the road and rested against the gate at the powerline’s access road, enjoying a bit of sun.  There was a little pool next to the road and it was warm enough for the frogs to start croaking.  I knew it was going to be a while, and I started getting that fidgety feeling.  There was a bush with many curved stems rising out of the pool and I started mentally drawing it.  I had plenty of pens, but no paper.  Then an idea hit me.  I had a sharpie and the top of the gate was nice and clean.
 
I went to work on the bush in the pool, then I moved on to a tall hemlock standing beside the road.  When that was done he still hadn’t arrived, so I then tackled the scene looking down the powerline.
 
It was a kind of neat feeling, leaving a bit of my art behind, like a poor man’s Banksy.  I wonder if anyone was impressed.

​It’s an early spring and time to get outside and start the post winter clean-up.  I had a large amount of debris in the back yard from the big pine that fell last September so I put it in a pile and had a nice fire.  I couldn’t leave the fire unattended, so I brought out a chair and did this portrait of the one pine remaining on the edge of the yard (there once were three).

I was looking at the large pine behind my house that had broken in a wind storm last fall.  It was still standing, but there was no green left, so it was basically dead.  I thought of how at the end of each year there are stories of the people we had lost that year and I felt that this tree should have been on that list.  I decided that I must memorialize it.  It was about 35 degrees and overcast, and there was still an inch of snow on the ground.  I put on thick boots and thin gloves and started to draw.  I guess I really got into it.  I didn’t feel cold at all, but the pens weren’t cooperating.  One went dry and the other wasn’t much better.  I just kept drawing, though, darkening this and filling in that.  I thought I should stop several times, but then I would find another part of the picture to work on.  When I finally decided to stop I figured it had been about a half hour, but I had actually been there for well over an hour.  When I put the pen away and took a step my leg reacted like it was frozen in place and I almost lost my balance but recovered and stumbled for a few steps with my joints buzzing.  I realized that I had, except for my head and hand, been standing perfectly still for a long time.

​Sunday afternoon was much like the day before, so I returned to the tree, this time with better pens.  This time I drew it from a different angle.  It seemed slightly warmer than the day before, but I only lasted 50 minutes this time and my hands were damn cold by then.

 I still​I have a lot of art supplies that don’t get used enough.  Lately I am always working on a scratchboard leaving no time for anything else, but the other day I did find the time to take out some pastels.  I had no idea in mind.  I just started playing, drawing random shapes, switching up colors, enjoying a little bit of freedom.  I like how it ended up but I couldn’t decide which way was up.  Then I had the idea to put the four options together, so I wouldn’t have to choose, and I ended up with this abstract masterpiece. I still don't know which way is up, though.

The last Sunday in September was a lovely, sunny day.  ​While doing my time manning the GALA Gallery in Winchendon I sketched some of the other artists as they sat outside enjoying the sun.

​Last Thursday the thermometer approached 80.  Fearing it may be the last good summer day, I headed out with sketchbook in hand to one of my favorite places, the Thousand Acre Brook.  I ended up at the spot I’ve drawn many times, the falls below the Boy Scout Bridge.  Along the way I crossed to the other side of the brook looking for a rock cliff I thought I had glimpsed through the trees on a previous walk.  I didn’t find any cliff, but I did find a group of large boulders that was interesting enough to draw.  I did a pen and ink sketch and then decided to add some color with the watercolor markers I had used up at Millen Pond.  From there I went down to the falls and did a sketch of the river. 

​On Tuesday it was back to Rockport, bringing in a piece for the next show.  I left very early in the morning to avoid the worst traffic and to ensure I got a parking spot near the gallery.  I therefore had a couple of hours to kill before the gallery opened. It was a beautiful sunny morning.  I went out onto one of the piers, took a seat looking out toward the water and sketched the boats in the harbor.  There was a man there doing a painting, so when I finished that I did a quick sketch of him.

​I have a drawing problem and being at a beautiful place like Millen Pond only makes it worse.  I see a canoe on the water or the sunlight on the far shore and I instinctively reach for my pen and pad.  Perhaps that’s how I compensate for the shortness of our stay, by trying, perhaps, to take some of the beauty back home with me.  Anyway, we had great weather all week and I had plenty of time to draw and paint.  As usual, I brought a variety of different media with me and found time to give them all a try.
 
The red canoe is with a water soluble marker.

​The orange canoe was with Inktense pencils.  I’m always fascinated by the trees on the far slope and how you can pick out the individual crowns as they march up the hill.

​This is a sketch of the inside of the cabin with a dip pen.

​On Friday afternoon I toured the lake in my kayak with my sketch pad and artist pen.  It was tough drawing in a moving boat, but I was able to get these cottages and a passing loon.

​I did complete one painting and started another while I was there.  The first painting was a view from our dock that I first sketched with the water soluble markers.

​The two ancient pines on the far shore are still there and are still a beloved subject for my pen and camera.  Here are some of the sketches I did of them during the week.  I had a couple of days left after completing the first painting so I decided to start on another featuring the pines, but, as you can see, I didn’t get far.

​On Tuesday this week I travelled to Rockport, MA to deliver my picture for the upcoming show.  I was lucky enough to find a parking spot downtown but I had trouble with the new-fangled parking kiosk and only paid for one hour.  After I dropped off the picture I had only 45 minutes left.  I decided to sketch the famous building in Rockport Harbor that is a popular subject for artists.  I believe it is called Motif #1.  I was able to knock this off, buy some candy, and get back to the car just as the ticket expired.