Rigging

This is a sketch of some of the main sheet rigging on the boat that sits next to us in our marina. I'm intrigued with drawing the blocks and various features that ships with sails have in abundance. Hence the sketch.  I haven't worked much with a pencil/pen combination of late so it was fun to get back to the medium.

Bone Yard

Most marinas have a bone yard. It's the place where boats, abandoned by their owners, are left to die and be overtaken by mold and vegetation. This piece was done in our marina's bone yard which is across the street from where our boat spends its summers. These two boats have been sitting, now, for a number of years and probably will remain unless they're sold or cut up for parts and scrap. Sad ends.

White River Light

This is the light station that we pass by in our boat as we head out to and come back from Lake Michigan. The light, which was built in 1875 and is no longer active, was built in 1875. Today the old light and house is a museum, a host to weddings, and a great place to watch boats as they come and go between White Lake and Lake Michigan.

Bringing the Midwest to a larger audience

Urban Sketchers: Meet the Correspondent: Marcia Milner-Brage > Cedar Falls:

Windowsill Hickory Nuts, Winter Outside

I've been chosen to post to the Urban Sketchers Blog!!! I'm so excited to have the opportunity to bring the Midwestern scene to a larger audience!!! Urban Sketchers has been an inspiration to me over the past several years. I hope my continued work will do likewise.

Great time at our August sketchcrawl!

The annual Fly-in and BBQ On The River in Excelsior Springs--what fun!

My almost-finished sketch...

Lots more sketches on our Facebook group, here, as well as on Warren Ludwig's blog with his tale of derring-co!

Scow Race

Over the past weekend White Lake, where our boat lives in the summer, was host to a national scow racing event. The race draws large numbers of boats and crews and is fun to watch. I made this sketch while race watching on a hill by the White Lake Yacht Club.

Sturgeon Bay Tugs

The first stop for us post crossing Lake Michigan with the boat was Sturgeon Bay, WI. Next to the marina where we stayed for a couple of days was a row of tug boats that caught my eye. This sketch is the result.

From Minneapolis to  Excelsior Springs, Mo

On a trip to drop my son off with his grandparents in Arkansas I had a two day trip back to do as I pleased. I had always thought of stopping by Excelsior Springs to visit Cathy Johnson. Cathy is an artist I greatly admire and helped me with advice and encouragement and a great example of living by art.

These are roughly in the order I sketched them. 90% on site work.  The last 10% was line weight ramp up and some color touchup.  It was getting dark, and I will admit a little creepy being the only one walking around downtown once it got dark.

Cathy and her husband Joseph graciously welcomed me in.  I had no idea if they only had time for a quick visit but it turns out we all went to dinner together at a beautiful hotel downtown.  The restaurant at The Elms is quite beautiful and food was great.  As soon as the food was done the sketchbooks came out!

Neat little building corner.  I think it was the Mill Inn. I need to go back and put the lettering in.

It was starting to get dark and the color got away from me. This building isn't really green, but now that I have some distance on my frustration that it turned green I really like it. Always be careful with mixing yellow at night. You really can't see it so use about 1/3 as much yellow as you think. Or just go for it and have bright interesting colors the next day.  Either works!

This was just a neat building corner.

Such a wonderful evening.  After they left I had about 45 minutes to an hour of daylight and made a quick walking tour grabbing what sketches the light allowed.  I think I may have been one of 5 people out and about downtown.

The night before I loaded up two pages with color for some yet unknown project the next day.  Over breakfast I did these two drawings.  The family in front of me turned out to be an art teacher from Omaha that I wound up showing my sketches and paint kits to.  It is always fun to meet people.

Such a nice morning and beautiful patio to have breakfast at. I should have drawn the biscuits and gravy but they somehow went away to quickly!

James Nutt

www.nuttdraws.blogspot.com