About the artist
Being an artist is a compulsion. A day without drawing or painting strikes me as wasted While I split my time between working in colored pencil in the studio and painting en plein air, I am always thinking of ways to do something new and different with my chosen mediums.
Colored Pencil
This family of swans is done in colored pencil. They live on a small lake in Czechia. They were done in the studio from a series of pictures I took of them. I had taken several pictures of them as we walked around the lake and then sketched a rough plan for the composition, using swan details from different photos. Some of my colored pencil wildlife is done on suede matboard. Others, like this one, are done on various papers: hot press watercolor paper, or bristol-finish drawing paper. These pieces start with a rough sketch to set the composition and then finish very slowly with layers of pencil.
Watercolor
While I have worked in pastel, oil, or acrylic outside, in recent years I have gone back to watercolor. I am more at home with the spontaneity and translucence of watercolor. It was my first medium 20 years ago. Since that time I have tried everything else, just to see what would happen. Then a few years ago I went back to watercolor. I love the transparency and the ability to paint the light with it. Even deep shadows can be both dark and have translucent details. Sometimes I start a painting outside with an ink pen and then add watercolor to it.