I did this sketch with a Pilot Varsity fountain pen at the Old Port (Old City?) in Montreal when I was there to shoot a friend's wedding, and finished it up with watercolor and a teensy bit of white jelly roll pen for the words:

I flew into Burlington, Vermont and then took greyhound to Berri-Uqam station in the middle of Montreal, on my friend's recommendation. When I got to the station, I found this guy sleeping behind a row of benches. People sat in front of him, totally ignoring him. He looked more like a backpacker than a bum.

(Drawn in ink on a sketchbook page I'd pre-splattered with coffee.)

I sketched this next guy in the airport while waiting for my plane to fly back home yesterday, which was crazy delayed. A TSA agent leaned over to look at sketchbook and complimented me profusely, which was a delightful change from my usual TSA interactions.

(Sketched with a pilot varsity fountain pen and noodler's heart of darkness ink, watercolor to finish, over a lightly pre-splattered page.)

A few weeks ago, my brother found Constance Hockaday's lecture at her Boggsville Boatel listed in last night's Nonsense, told me he'd pick me up in ten minutes, and off we went!

I spent the whole time sketching into the dark - couldn't really see how these sketches were working out until I got home to look at them indoors.

Here are some of the folks watching the lecture along with us. You can tell I was very into the neon "Boatel" sign that welcomed us when we arrived, and that I was still listening to what Constance was saying while I sketched!

You can see the full set of my Boggsville Boatel sketches here.

I've been sketching lately. I've focused more on sculptural work with glass and metal and fiber over the past few years, but this summer I started feeling that urge to polish my illustration skills and play with 2d media again.

I fell in love with Urban Sketchers, and have been carrying sketching supplies around NYC for the past few weeks and having fun submitting scans of my work to their Flickr group.

I should really post my sketches here regularly, from now in. In the meantime, let's catch up! I have three favorites this week so far.

Dave finally managed to sit still long enough for me to get a rough sketch with him with my old dip pen and the sample of Noodler's Walnut ink I picked up from Goulet, finished with a waterbrush wash:

While waiting for a court appearance in L&T court in Manhattan, I sketched this view of that charming building in Columbus Park (Chinatown, NYC). I used a Pilot Varsity fountain pen that I'd previously disassembled and refilled with a sample of Noodler's Cayenne ink, again finished with a waterbrush wash):

This gentleman was kind of enough to give me permission to stare at him across a very tiny table in Starbucks and sketch him one evening. I used a Pilot Varsity fountain pen that I'd previously disassembled and refilled with a 1:1 blend of samples of Noodler's Sequoia and Brown inks (neither of which did I like very much on their own), again finished with a waterbrush wash):

And some pieces from last week:

I saw this homeless man sleeping outside a Starbucks window right by Union Square about a week and a half ago. He sat up at some point while I was inking and painting this, but didn't make eye contact or speak to me at all. I gave him all the cash I had on me at the time as soon as I was done.

(Pencil sketch, inked with a brush pen, pencil erased, watercolor washes to finish the piece.)

After finishing up an appearance in NY County Supreme Court on a matrimonial matter last week, I sat for a bit in that little outdoor food court area by Centre and Reade and drew the Surrogate's Court.

(Pencil sketch, inked with a fine-tipped waterproof pen, pencil erased, waterbrush washes and just a touch of watercolor and white gel pen to finish the piece.)

I'm sort of ridiculously fond of this fellow I sketched sitting in a little city park during lunchtime last week, with assorted pigeons.

(Pilot varsity fountain pen.)

And this last one, from a photo I took in Rhyolite, Nevada during this summer's road trip.

(Pencil sketch, inked with a brush pen, pencil erased, watercolor washes to finish the piece.)

You should check out the bigger version here.