Hellespont Rising Newsletter

 

In my latest newsletter, I talk about the process for my latest encaustic piece. You can get there by clicking HERE.

Hellespont Rising

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encaustic wax on wood panel

Here is the finished encaustic piece that I started a few weeks ago in a workshop for just that occasion. Why Hellespont Rising? I just thought it sounded cool. Stuff happened there. Old stuff. That sharklike creature looks like old stuff. And I like ancient history, so there.

Plus, it sounds better than Jonah and The Thing. Or something like that.

Tomorrow, I will do up a brief process post over on my Substack, so coming soon!

 

Jane Austen Sketch Night

On Thursday, I attended a Jane Austen themed live model sketch night at the Ferndale Area District Library. Not only was our model dressed in Jane Austen era garments, she was the librarian, as well. 

I started off with some pen sketches for the opening gesture sketches.

Then with the pencil and provided paper.

Colored pencil...

This one above, the librarian took for herself.

Then, on to the Kraft paper for the slightly longer poses.

And, our model was actually reading a Jane Austen book while posing. Authentic!

This was a fun night, with a good crowd and I look forward to December's meet-up, where the theme will be The Odyssey. 

Stickers, Part Two

 

My latest Substack is up and is about more stickers on sketchbooks. You can get there by clicking HERE.

Sketching At The Detroit Zoo

 

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colored pencil in sketchbook

This past Wednesday found me back at the Detroit Zoo with some friends doing a little sketching and walking around. The Detroit Zoo is known worldwide for the happy mental state of their animals and it shows. They are usually quite active. Those dainty rhinos would not stay in one place. I tried to sketch the young chimpanzees, but wow, were they flying around. I was able to at least get some good pics, though. 

Blue Shark Sketch

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ink in sketchbook

My buddy's kid is going to the University of Maine to become a marine biologist and he's been keeping me in the loop as to his doings and experiences. He just finished a weeklong course where they went out into the Atlantic and caught and tagged some sharks, mostly blues. So, a bit inspired, I did a quick blue shark sketch for #SundayFishSketch. It's been awhile since I've done one.

And he had some very cool pics. 

 

Emerging

 

My latest Substack is about one of the pieces that I have in the Emerge! 2026 show at the Hannan Center in Detroit. You can click HERE to get there.

Star Wars Galaxy Chrome Sketch Cards

 So, after a six year time-out with Topps and doing Star Wars stuff, I am now back in the fold. I was doing MLB work for them, during that time, so all was not lost. Anyways, I am now on my 3rd set for them this year. I signed on to do 60 cards and had 19 of them rejected. My likenesses were off, so they say. Some of them, I could see why, as I was pushing some stylized looks. Others had me scratching my head, but it happens. So, here are my accepted cards for the just released set for the Galaxy Chrome series.

You can click on each individual set of nine for a closer look. For this set, I wanted to focus on the movies and series that I didn't get to draw during my six year absence. Andor, The Mandalorian, Season 3, Skeleton Crew, and The Acolyte. Fun stuff to draw, for sure. 

My next set has less rejections! 

Entangled

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ink on bristol board

I started this drawing years ago and just now finished it. It really only had a little bit to go, I just needed to buckle down on the bottom part. So, I'm thinking that maybe my style evolved some, but not too sure. I think I would have handled the helmet a little different these days, but I think that my objective was met with this one, so I'm happy. 

This could have easily been titled Mislead Man In A Mangrove. 

 

Sketchbooks And The Stickers That Adorn them

Hey, a double post today!

My latest Substack is up and is about... stickers! You can read about it HERE.

 

Emerge! 2026

 I will have two pieces in the Emerge! 2026 exhibit starting tomorrow at the Hannan Center in Detroit. The show will run through mid September . 

My two pieces are a sculpture and a woodblock print, keeping with the them of emergence. 

Emerging

soapstone
photo by John Wood

The sculpture, pictured above was carved out of soapstone and has all these great looking colors that come out when wet. I had applied a coat of tung oil recently that brought out some of those colors, but it did make it darker than what is pictured here. 

Ascending

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woodcut print

The woodcut print was a lot of fun to do. My first woodcut, actually. I was happy with how the patterns of the sea came out. And... it's a hammerhead!

So, the opening is tomorrow as stated in the flyer and it goes from noon until 7.

I will be exhibiting alongside a few friends, as well. Dug Rusin will have two colored pencil pieces and Mary Stebbins Taitt and Laura Reed will have pieces, too. Stop on by, check out the show. I'm sure that it will be a good one (I saw some of the works when I was dropping my pieces off and there are some good ones). And remember, there will be a hammerhead present!

Broomstick Bee Sketch

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pencil sketch in sketchbook

Recently, we watched the documentary Secrets of the Bees and in it they showed a cool little bee named the broomstick bee, because it collects sticks and branches that resemble broomsticks to build temporary protective covering for themselves and each other. So, of course, I wanted to do up a sketch of a little witch bee riding its broomstick. And they do need a hat, after all. 

 

Elroy

 

colored pencil from sketchbook

We lost our faithful, loyal and best buddy, Elroy on Monday. 

I was looking for this sketch done last December when I was working on ideas for future Christmas cards. This one was done of Elroy wearing a plush reindeer hoodie. He looks a little crazy here, but sometimes that tooth came out. So, instead of an elf lip-locked to a giant candy cane, this is what you can expect for this year's card. 

He was a good boy. 

Bill Mauldin

 

I wasn't too sure that I would be able to write up this post for today due to unavoidable circumstance here on the home front, but as I started to make it yesterday, I found it to be helpful with dealing with what we were dealing with. I suppose, more on that later.

Anyways, today's Substack is about the cartoonist Bill Maudlin and how he influenced my own cartoons. You can check it out HERE.

Ye Olde Quill Pen

My latest newsletter post is up and is about sketching with a goose quill pen. Fun. You can click HERE to read it whenever you get a chance.

 

Sketch Safari At The Detroit Zoo

 In the two sketch groups that I am a part of, there has been talk for about a year now of having a sketch night at the Detroit Zoo. We were finally able to do so, albeit a low turnout for this first time. We started when most people are still at work (peeps can arrive whenever they want as the zoo is open until 8 on Wednesdays) and there was intermittent rain, but that didn't deter us. Plus, there are buildings to duck (pun intended?) into when the rain became heavy. The animals were quite active, so we did a lot of walking around and taking pics. We did sketch, as that was the plan!

Here a some sketches that I did.

The male otter was out and was swimming in the rain. before he became active, I sketched the enclosure, including the water slide.

The top sketch is of the otter zipping by underwater. Sketching movement quickly is an exercise one must work at. The rhinos were out and about, moving around in the rain. 

Oceanic Tendrils

 

My latest Substack is up and has everything to do with the process of creating the scratchboard piece. You can check it out HERE. 

Blue & White Invitational At The Holland Museum

 

Oceanic Tendrils

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scratchboard/clayboard and watercolor

I will have a piece in the Blue & White Invitational at the Holland Museum. The exhibit starts this Friday and runs through October. You can get all the details HERE. 

This is my second gallery show of the year (there will be a third) and my first ever at a museum, so that's exciting. 

The show is inspired by the Delft collection at the museum, so anything blue and white was fair game. Of course, I went weird. Weird, you say? Pshaw, it's normal where I operate. Tentacles, sharks and gulper eels... I hang with only the best creatures.

So, make sure to tell your friends and if you find yourself on the west side of the state of Michigan, then check it out. It's a cool museum and city, as well.

A Tracery Of Loss

 Here is the second illustration that I did for Mary Stebbins Taitt's book of poetry titled When Time Stumbled. It's a simple image for some strong imagery. 

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ink on bristol board

Here is the poem by Mary:

A Tracery Of Loss

While spray painting a fern for a collage,

I left behind a tracery of the space

around the fern and an absence where the fern

had been, which reminded me of the shadows

of people left by the bomb,

which in turn reminded me of that giant you-shaped hole

in my heart now that you are gone.

  You can pick up a copy of When Time Stumbled here. 

Robots, Aliens, Heroes, and Villains...

And a lizard, too. 

My latest Substack is up and is all about some watercolor pop culture images that I did some time ago and forgot about. You can click HERE to check them out.