Creston Iowa

These sketches were done when I was in Iowa with my wife. She grew up in Indianola, Iowa and we were there for her 50th high school class reunion.

The sketches were done near Creston, Iowa on a farm that belonged to my wife's uncle, that now belongs to her cousin. In her uncle's day cattle and hogs were raised on the property. Today the land around the house, barn, and garage is planted with corn and farmed by a farmer who rents the land from my wife's cousin. The buildings are getting tired and as such were interesting to draw. Both pieces were done with a pen and graded grey scale markers.

J. Nagem

This is J. Nagem, an all steel, home built, trawler/tug that's currently residing in a corner of the yard at our marina. The boat is about ready to launch for the season so Sunday afternoon I pulled out my sketch book, sat under a tree and sketched away.

Abandoned

This abandoned, overgrown, farm house sits on the same property as the barn sketch I posted under the title "Last Legs." The house is up and around the drive that passes the barn. The place hasn't been lived in for years and is now mostly obscured by the brush, trees, and tall grass that have grown up around the old house. Like the barn it will soon be gone.

I'd intended to go back and sketch the house the day after I did the barn but wasn't able to for a couple of weeks. When I went back this past Friday, to do the sketch, the sun was shining brightly but as I worked on the sky darkened to the west and by the time I headed back to the boat it had started to rain.

Last Legs

I've driven past this old barn, that's just outside of Whitehall, Michigan, for years. Saturday afternoon with boat launch chores at least under control, I decided to have a go a sketching the old barn that sits, ready to fall down, on one of many of Michigan's used to be farms. I've no idea how old the barn is but I did note the large beams in the structure are hand hewn.

I was almost done with the drawing when the gentleman who lives across the street from the old farm stopped by to see what I was up to. He told me it was a good thing I was drawing the barn now as the property has been sold and the barn will soon be torn down.

USS Silversides - Muskegon, Michigan

This past Saturday was a rainy and dreary day at the boat. So, my wife and I drove down to Muskegon, Michigan to tour and visit two WWII museum ships. We toured the LST (Landing Ship Tank) 393 which is a veteran of the D Day landing in France. Today the ship houses an museum and hosts an enjoyable self guided tour. By the time we were done with the LST the rain had gone and the sun was out. So we headed over to the Muskegon channel into Lake Michigan to where the USS Silversides is docked.

The Silversides is a decorated WWII veteran that is docked on the channel wall. You can tour the ship and on shore there is an excellent museum that informs visitors about the Silversides and the the US Navy's WWII silent service. We've toured the museum and boat before so I found a spot to sketch from and did this sketch of the USS Silversides's conning tower structure. The sketch was done with a Pigma Micron Pen and a set of cool grey grey scale Prisma Color marking pens.

Fish Town - Leland, Michigan

While we sat in Leland, Michigan waiting for the wind and Lake Michigan to calm down (I've become a fair weather traveler with the boat), I got out the sketchbook and spent the morning in Fishtown making this sketch. Fishtown is located right next to the marina where our boat was parked and is what used to be a fishing village along the river that runs into Lake Michigan. Today Fishtown, which is about a block long, is inhabited by old buildings and lots of tourists. The buildings host t-shirts shops and the usual collection of tourist trinkets. Fishtown also has a commercial fishing operation and several charter boats that take anglers out to try their luck on Lake Michigan.

Hanging Out

This is a sketch I did Sunday afternoon while sitting in the cockpit of my boat. The sketch is of the aft end of a 33 foot Cape Dory that's, for the time being, hanging out in a slip directly behind my boat. I got to meet the new owner of the boat, know the old one, and applaud the new owner's efforts at polishing, cleaning, and re-doing the boat's wood. She's now in great shape and ready to be a part of the new owner's daughter's wedding this summer.

The sketch was done with ink and Prismacolor graded grey scale cool grey markers. Love the effect you get when you start using the pens to provide shadows. Suddenly the flat paper takes on depth and dimension. Fun to work with.

Gas Dock - End of the Season

This is a sketch of the floating gas dock at our marina. The piece was done last Friday while I was relaxing after a day of work getting our boat ready to pull out of the water for season. The dock, usually busy with boats coming and going, is quite now. The season is winding down, boats are coming out of the water for the cold months ahead, and White Lake is settling down for fall. For those of us who sail it's a sad time of year.

End of the Race - In the Basin

This past Friday, August 7th, we took part in the Clipper Cup race with our boat Amadeus. The Clipper Cup is a sailing race that starts in Muskegon, Michigan and ends between the pier heads in Port Washington, Wisconsin...about 70 miles across Lake Michigan. We had good wind all day and quite a ride 'cross the lake. This is a shot of our boat with the chute up that was taken by a friend with her cell phone from another boat.

We had a slip for our boat in Port Washington but we were back in the marina's basin where a large number of the boats were rafted up post completing the race. This sketch was done while sitting in the cockpit of our boat and is of several of the racing boats that were rafted up in the basin. The best part of the race for me was having our entire family on board as crew for the crossing.