I had an idea for a drawing so I grabbed an old piece of soft charcoal and a pad of newsprint paper and began to sketch out my idea. The sketch was coming along when I decide to use my finger to smudge one of the lines. To my horror, not only did the line smudged, it all but disappeared. Clearly, this image would not stand up to being stored or displayed. By this point, the drawing had progressed quite far along. I thought about copying it over onto a better piece of paper using another medium. But that would be a lot of work and besides I liked the effect that this soft charcoal was producing. So I decided to finish the picture and see if I could find some way of fixing the image to the paper. I use charcoal quite often but I usually do not apply fixatives. I don't like chemical odors and so rather than use chemical fixatives I just store my charcoal drawings as carefully as I can and just accept that there will be some deterioration in the image. In any case, ...
I grew up with art. Both my mother and father were artists. Not surprisingly, I have always done artwork. However, my primary focus for most of my life has been elsewhere - - music, law, writing and travel. Now, I am returning home. This blog reflects that journey homeward. My intent is to write about my thoughts on art, art technique and to review other art that I have seen. Some of my artwork can be seen at http://www.beyondshipsart.com