Some recent pages

Kansas, Illinois & Providence, RI - Click image for larger view

I realized it has been a while since I posted and in the meantime we had gone off on vacation again..so here are a few spreads from my sketchbook.

Onset, MA - Click image for larger view

More from Onset beach - Click image for larger view

Visiting In Illinois

Evening Chatter - Click Image to view Panorama

Our visit with my brothers in Illinois was a spectacular time. It is always good to be able to spend some time with Dave and Dan. Dave has a new home in Kansas, Illinois and he and Tammi were the best hosts ever. . . thanks brothers for a great time. We went canoeing, to the fair and a truck pull and a tour of Amish country..all the time telling tall stories and having insult filled exchanges.  I can't wait until next time… Ben and Grace met Dan and Dave and Tammi for the first time and it was very hard for Ben to say goodbye to his Great Uncles, and great uncles they are.

Thoughts on making crap

Bell School again - Click image for larger view

I am still sketching just about every morning before work and making new marks in my various sketch books. As I look at the pile of books I have filled, I have come to the realization that, so far, I have not made any art…I have merely been working up to that point. I have a while to go. In the past couple of weeks I have had the occasion to talk to a couple of budding creative people, one who is beginning to sketch and another who is beginning photography. They both are concerned with making art. My comment to them is that, right now, in the beginning stages, all the images they are making are crap. Right now they are learning to see and beginning to understand their tools and all they can do is keep at it long enough to attain the understanding of their tools so they can create an image that reflects their vision. A style will develop, vision will become clear and purpose will reveal itself. I am still struggling with that, but feel that I am getting a bit closer to that end. I have been fairy diligent over the past year or so trying to sketch every day. I am still experimenting with various tools and materials, with various styles and with various visions, with value and hue, with composition and with just what it is that drives me to do this. I have done well over 500 sketches and feel like I have a good start. There is nothing in these sketch books that I consider art - it's all crap - but it is my start on a journey that will hopefully lead me to a destination that allows me to produce an image that reflects my vision. Right now all we can do is keep at it until it reveals itself -- like Yoda said -- 'There is no try, only do' -- so I will continue to make my marks on paper and encourage others to do the same.

Komatsu Bucket Loader - Click image for larger view

A trip to the Flight 93 memorial

Wall forms at the future Visitors Center - Click image for larger view

Working for VIBCO I have been fortunate to get to so many great locations. This past Tuesday was no exception. We are providing the vibration equipment for concrete consolidation at the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania. Our vibrators are being used for the concrete walls of the Visitors Center which is situated on top of a hill overlooking the crash site. (We have also had many many vibrators at the site of the new World Trade Center, since the very first concrete was poured) We spent the day here in Pennsylvania working with the crew teaching them the ins and outs of external vibration, something new to them. The walls will have a textured finish and the goal is to get them as blemish free as is possible. Although we had some issues with the air supply to the vibrators (this is being remedied) the finish on the walls came out surprisingly well. We at VIBCO are honored to be even a small part of this  project.

Crane on the site and vibrator (inset) - Click image for larger view

We arrived on site at 7:30 am and didn't leave until  the job was done a bit after 4:00 pm - the middle of the afternoon gave us a very heavy downpour filled with lightening and high wind..it was pretty exciting and very wet. We sought shelter under the lee of this crane, which of course is a great lightening rod. . . We drove home after the wall was completed. It is an eight hour drive in good conditions - I got home at 3:00 am after eleven hours in the truck. It was the traffic in Connecticut the was the worst -- over an hour in one spot, but it did give me a chance to sketch this. 

Late night traffic - Click image for larger view

It was good to get home and out of wet clothing and although I was at work at the usual time the next morning, I didn't make the extra to get out and sketch… and my poor sketchbook is now covered in mud -- it got a bit beat up in the storm.

Some new sketches

American Star - Click image for larger view

On Fathers Day Carol and I went into Providence to sit along the waterfront. Carol sunned herself as I sketched. The picture above is an exercise in light and dark values. The ship is a white ship but the side facing the shore was in shadow.   I feel like the sketch is a success but that I may have carried the shadow area a bit too dark. The far shore should have been a bit lighter as well..

Locustville Road, Hope Valley - Click image for larger view

Another sketch done before work. I have found so many interesting views down in Hope Valley. It really is a very good place to go and sketch..I guess I am lucky that it is at the end of my morning commute.

Sabin Point, East Providence - Click image for larger view

Looking south down Narragansett Bay toward Conimicut Point in Warwick. East Providence is lucky to have these nice parks along the water. This is another Fathers Day sketch, just a small one about 2 inches tall and 8 inches long.

A couple of trucks

1975 Peterbilt Pacemaker - Click image for larger view

I have been following the work of a fellow sketcher in Germany who is the most extraordinary artist. He is a master of sketching vehicles and buildings, I really admire his work. His name is Florian Afflerbach and his Flickr page is here. I have been inspired to sketch some vehicles and work more in pencil and wash. From exploring his work I think I am looking at vehicles and buildings and just everything more closely, which of course is really what this is all about.

Careful Observation.

The truck in the sketch above was a rare find. It seems to be a 1975 Peterbilt Pacemaker long cab (thank you internet) He was parked in a lot in Wyoming, RI, engine running and a full load on his trailer. It is great to see this workhorse still in service. The owner must be very proud of his truck as it looks like it just came out of the showroom.

 The picture below of the postal truck was done in the same parking lot, just the day before. Using Wikipedia I found this:
"The mail van used by the USPS for local deliveries since the late-1980s is the Grumman LLV. LLV stands for Long Life Vehicle. This is a custom-made mail van manufactured by Grumman Corporation, whose US$1.1 billion contract with the USPS was for 99,150 vehicles in 1986.  The vehicle is built on a General Motors chassis, is 175 inches (440 cm) long, weighs 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg), can carry up to 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of mail, and is driven by a 2.5 litre General Motors four-cylinder engine. "

Postal Truck - Click image for larger view

More scribbles

The blue house again - Click image for larger view

Recently I seem to be struggling a bit more that  usual. I have been experiment with different techniques and papers and it occurs to me that my sketching must be distracted or something as I feel the quality of the sketch has fallen off. Don't think that I am fishing for complements here, as I assure you I am not.. this is simply an observation. The spring has been filled with damp and gloom and I hope that warm weather arrives soon..I am tired of sketching from inside my car with the heater running. . .

Sakonnet Point House - Click image for larger view

While I was sketching the house in the picture above, down on Sakonnet Point in Little Compton, it was raining hard and the light was very flat. This has been the typical environment I have been working in and I am longing for strong sunlight and my little comfy stool instead of the drivers seat in the car.

Watercolor sketches

The Gordon Green American Legion Post #27, Hope Valley - Click image for large view

I have been negligent in posting recently as I have been a bit under the weather with a cold (that is the best excuse I can come up with- I am really just a lazy lout) I have been sketching almost everyday but little of it is worth posting. The weather has finally broken a bit and has begun to get warmer. Spring is beginning to happen and the trees are getting their leaves, finally. A lady I work with told me about this place on Locustville Pond, and I had good sunlight this morning. I wish I had more time and larger paper, but this little sketch has the feel of the morning.

Barrett's Service Station, Hope Valley - Click image for larger view

I sketched this one the other day, another early morning sketch before work. I was pleased with the perspective of this one and may revisit. As you can see I have been experimenting with using just watercolor and leaving the pens behind. These are done lightly in pencil first and then painted..this is relatively new to me but I will continue to experiment.

RT 95 crossing over Switch Road, Richmond, RI - Click image for larger view

I find myself sketching the things that we tend to overlook from day to day. I love finding the 'unseen' views that we just pass by in our travels and try to make something of them. These are the scenes that stick in my head. . . .

Book Press

Home made sketchbook - Click image for larger view

I have been making sketchbooks recently. . .

Green Book - Click image for larger view

This one I made has hot pressed Arches 140 lb paper for it's pages and a great 'organic' looking clover handmade paper for the cover. This is a good size, 8.5 X 5 inches and has 28 pages all out of a single sheet of watercolor paper, some decorative paper and cardboard and of course white glue (PVA - Elmers) and a bit of thread. Some patience is required as well.
This one fits nicely in my back pocket.
Since I started making these I learned more and of course wanted more tools.  I looked at book presses and found that they are very expensive.. so I made one. I found the screw at Rockler for about $21, bought a few nuts and bolts ($12 or so) and had the wood on hand in the shop. Here is what I came up with.

Early stages - Click image for larger view

And the finished press… this should make the process easier and the books a better quality.

The finished press - Click image for larger view

Total working time - one hour and forty minutes - total cost about $35.00 - less the price for the wood which I had.  I would guess you could get the wood for about $25 - 30 - My top plate and the cross bar were made from poplar which I had from a sign project and the base made up from 3/4 inch birch ply - but you can make the whole thing from plywood and a half sheet birch ply would be more than enough to make this press. I have seen these presses on line for over $400 and an original cast iron press is MUCH more expensive.
ADDENDUM
I got a couple of questions of how I cut up a single sheet of watercolor paper to make a 28 page book.. so I drew this up to help with the explanation. Hope this helps out.

And I know that I am likely horrifying many bookbinders by having the grain run the wrong way on the one sheet but - hey, I live on the wild side. . .

Main Street

OK- It's Done. .. Click image for larger view

So I went back this morning and and sat again and added some more detail - maybe it's better and maybe not. In any event, I am declaring it done. Typically this is exactly how I come to ruin things, like maybe those giant wires. . . .

Main Street, Hope Valley - Click image for larger view

This sketch is a two day effort I began it on Wednesday morning laying out the spread and working out the composition of what to include an what to leave out. I was in my car sketching this one in the parking lot of the ball field across the street. I love the porches on these old houses and the similarity and the disparity in their design. I will likely go back tomorrow morning and add a bit more to the sketch as there are still some unfinished bits.

Below is the original sketch - it looks like a coloring book.

Original sketch