The walled town of Monsaraz

 Watercolor 23x31cm, Arches paper, rough

Bass Harbor

Watercolor 10x14" (25x35") on Blick paper cp

Capp Road, Forks Township PA

Watercolor 10x14" (25x35cm), Blick paper cp

Viseu - Arco da Rua escura

Stabilo pen on Beechmore sketchbook, page 6

Hollo Farm, Lower Nazareth PA

Watercolor 10x14" (25x35cm) Blick paper, cp

Castle of Belmonte

Watercolor 23x31cm, Arches paper, rough

Tower, Castle of Mourão

Micron 03 pen on Beechmore sketchbook page 5

Cabo Raso Light

Watercolor 23x31cm, Arches paper, rough

Tewksbury, New Jersey

Stabilo pen 88/22 on Beechmore sketchbook, page 4

Castle of Ourém

Staedler 0.3 pen on Beechmore sketchbook, page 3

A Farm - Northampton County, Pennsylvania

Stabilo 88/65, Beechmore Sketchbook page 2

North Star

Image: Engraving, Yellowstone Lake, signed J G Smithwick

I love to draw in Pen & Ink. I think that is because I have always been mesmerized by the beauty of old engravings that were widely used to illustrate books and magazines before photography became commonplace. My reflexive (and futile) goal is to make my drawings look like engravings, although I will never get there. This image is from an antique book I recently purchased (America Illustrated, 1883). It is full of beautiful images, but this one is special, with the brightly lit rocks against the expansive dark landscape. It is most likely a wood engraving which means the image is cut into the wood as a negative, by removing the parts that will print white. A dark line is printed by removing the wood on both sides of it. It is hugely labor intensive. Nevertheless, one of my favorite engravers, the French artist Gustave Doré produced an incredible 10,000 illustrations in his short life span of 51 years. True, he also employed several talented artists to produce engravings from his original drawings, but that’s still beyond impressive. He was commissioned to illustrate seminal books like Dom Quixote, Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy and even The Bible.

Back to the image above, I could say it represents a beacon, or a North Star for my drawing efforts. I will never come near it, but I enjoy the ride.

Castle of Beja

I started my new Beechmore sketchbook that Fátima gave me for Christmas (thank you!). The old one took me five years to finish, and this one has even more pages (thanks a lot). The new strategy calls for quicker and looser sketches, so that I have a chance to finish before the next Ice Age hits.

..............

Comecei a primeira página do meu novo caderno de desenhos que a Fátima me deu no Natal. O último caderno levou-me cinco anos a completar e este tem ainda mais páginas (muito obrigado mesmo). A nova estratégia é fazer desenhos mais rápidos e soltos, de maneira a que eu tenha uma chance de acabar antes de a próxima Idade do Gelo chegar.

Santa Clara

 Watercolor, 23x31cm, Arches paper, rough

Tatamy, Pennsylvania

Watercolor 10x14" (25x35cm), Blick paper cp 

Winter Harbor Light, Maine

Watercolor 25x35cm, Blick paper cp
 

Igreja de Santa Engrácia (Panteão Nacional), Lisbon

Watercolor 23x31cm, Arches paper, rough

Easton on the Lehigh River

Watercolor 7x10" (18x25cm), Arches paper, rough

Castle of Porto de Mós

Watercolor, 10x14 (25x35cm) on Blick paper, cp

Linescapes

This is the title page for my recently finished Crazy Ideas sketchbook that Fátima gave me as a gift five years ago. I had inadvertently left this first sheet empty and now that I picked a title, the empty page came in handy.

Esta é a página de título do meu caderno de desenhos Crazy Ideas que a Fátima me deu de presente há cinco anos. Eu tinha-a inadvertentemente deixado em branco, mas agora que acabei e escolhi o título, calhou bem ter essa página para o colocar.