SELECTIONS FROM MY SKETCHBOOK . . .

I haven't posted much "artwork" lately, though I'm still in the thrall of a drawing compulsion, which began when conversations about art with my son Austin (of the trip to Costa Rica), who's a sophomore at the Kansas City Art Institute, began to spin out of control . . . Previously, I hadn't drawn much since high school.

I'm enjoying the sketchbook so much that it's become the new metaphor for Beyond the Underground. In my sketchbook, I can follow my whims and fancies where they lead--photo-realistic re-creations of B&W family photos with pencil one day, pen-and-ink sketches of trees the next, watercolor views of the neighborhood on the weekend, and so on. That also describes how I've been thinking of this blog lately, as a place to note whatever seems interesting to me at the moment. (By way of comparison, previous metaphors for this blog have been a daily magazine for lawyers, a promotional brochure for my law firm, a commonplace notebook, etc. -- more on this in another post, perhaps).

Anyway, on to the sketchbook.

 

Some leaves from the backyard, done in watercolor (click to enlarge)--

The dome of the New Cathedral in St. Louis (this page is seriously warped)--

 

The school where my son Sam is in third grade (not exactly to scale, but who cares)--

Meanwhile, Austin is urging me to "go larger," but I'm just not feeling it yet . . .

UPDATE: A view of the inside of Austin's studio in Kansas City.