Marterella Winery

"Wine Saturday" resumed at the end of May in lovely weather as the Winers visited Marterella Winery in Warrenton, Virginia. We sampled a long list of white and red wines and settled on a bottle of Merlot accompanied by home-made pizza baked in the brick oven you see in the drawing. Sunlight and Wine go together nicely, with no deluge as with the Wine and Craft Festival a couple of weeks ago. 

Marterella image is brown ink and colored pencil, 8 1/2" x 11", May 30, 2015. Click for larger view.

Yellow Warbler

Just thought I'd do a little Photoshop doodle with a bird theme. The Yellow Warblers have left my area on their way north, but I can always do a graphic for them. They are bolder than other warblers and will perch on visible branches and sing loudly. I heard them in my back yard but didn't go searching for a visual contact because it was 1. well before dawn and still twilight dark 2. rich in bugs 3. in someone else's trees that I couldn't approach due to protective fences. The controversy, if it is one, is just what counts as "seeing" or sighting a bird. If it is identified only by sound, have you really "seen" it? I say, being an old-time birdwatcher, that you have to both hear and have a sure visual sighting and identification of the bird. With warblers all that is harder because they are so elusive, and their songs are very squeaky, though loud. A really good birdwatcher can identify migrating warblers by song alone. I can identify some of them, like the Yellow, but not others. 

Photoshop, 7" x 7", May 30, 2015.

Sunoco Station 1987

It was a warm day in Cambridge, Mass. in March 1987, warm enough so that I could go outside and draw. I was using water-based markers this time. They had a lot of bright colors so I chose something that was colorful: a Sunoco gas station. I could use these basic-color markers on the cheerful hues of orange and blue. I put the drawing in the same book that three years earlier I had filled with drawings of houses, gardens and flowers, street trees, and my neighbors. Most of this sketchbook is still blank, but I hesitate to bring a precious old sketchbook outside into the dangers of the city.

These markers had chunky chisel tips and so were not so good for drawing fine lines. You had to use a corner to get any line at all. I had some fine line markers too. I was not satisfied with the lack of precision of these markers and after a few more drawings, retired them from outdoor sketching and used them for temporary signage at restaurants, or roughs for future work. I don't think they're being made any more.

It's outdoor drawing season again and perhaps I should draw romantically portrayed gas stations, something that might bore my readers even more than abstractions from steel mills or Starbucks coffee cups. It all depends on my getting a place to sit and draw where I will not be run over by a car.

Stabilayout watercolor markers on sketchbook page, 9" x 5 1/2", March 24, 1987.

Starbucks again

Starbucks is my home away from home, and I'm not home alone. When all else fails regarding sketching subjects, the coffee house awaits. Everyone has a digital gadget, including me, but these sketches were done with a good old technical pen on paper. The young woman on the top sketch bent her arm back at a peculiar angle, you might think there was something wrong with it but she was just holding onto the seat.

Technical pen black ink on sketchbook page, 4 1/2" x 8", May 27, 2015.

Stover Engine 1925

I had never heard of a "steam show" nor of the hobby of keeping antique engines, until I stumbled across it in rural North Carolina, the "Old Threshers' Reunion." By now you faithful readers (all three of you) know that I love old industrial equipment, sites, and designs. This show was filled with nostalgic American machinery. There is another annual "steam show" closer to me in Berryville, Virginia, and I made this drawing during a visit to the one in 2003.

Steam shows have more than noisy hardware. They have vendors, live music, food, games, and historical displays. The show lasts all weekend and people camp there in RVs and trailers, or tents they brought in the car or even on a motorcycle. They set up their sites with most of the comforts of home, including little sitting rooms under an awning with a barbecue grill and a cooler and the whole family and the dog. And many of them, in a reserved section, bring along an antique engine that they have restored, which is set up in front of their space for visitors to admire. 

This is one of these hobbyists' pride and joys. It is a Stover farm engine from 1925. It runs on gasoline and was originally used to power a cement mixer. When I saw it and drew its  picture, it was running (note the spinning flywheels) but slowly, about one "chug" every few seconds. The wheeled stand supporting it is modern, so that the engine can easily be moved. The owners were only too happy to explain all about how the thing worked and how they restored it. I ended up drawing a number of engines and equipment, as well as draft horses which were also on display at the show. 

The Berryville steam show is on July 25 this year and I hope I can get to it, sketchbook in hand.

"Stover Engine" is brown technical pen ink and colored pencil, some restoration in Photoshop, 9" x 5 1/4", July 26, 2003.

Extraterrestrial RV

Take a road trip on another planet with the "Pillbuggy," a spacecraft/RV designed to travel in extreme or even outer space environments. It is an independent, self-contained haven for travelers. Its shape is inspired by the common armored "pill bug," with ground-hugging stability. The front end is a hyperglass bubble which shows panoramic views to the driver and a companion. A maximum of four people can inhabit the Pillbuggy, though two or three are probably optimum. The "dino-scales" at the roof are actually variable form solar collectors which move and change shape according to how much energy is collected from the sun. The Pillbuggy can explore Earth environments too, such as remote deserts or islands. It is not meant to be driven on highways or in cities, and does not go very fast; it's for exploration, not speed.

This design is inspired by this "extreme RV" built for Earth travelers, though I'm not sure that the vehicle really exists. The truck looks unstable, as if a driving mistake or a storm would tip it over quickly. My recreational vehicle fantasies are fueled by my memories of growing up and camping in my family's red Volkswagen "Campmobile," which was hardly extreme but braved muddy campsites in the suburbs of Brussels and Paris.

Drawing of "Pillbuggy" is brown ink on sketchbook page, shaded in Photoshop, 3 1/2" x 3", May 26, 2015.

Industrial Patterns 8: Crane Bridge

If I were an engineer, I would know exactly what pattern this ironwork would make if I depicted it. There are many layers of girders and beams in this bridge. The pattern is made by one layer of built bridge in front of another, from this vantage point. Some of it is made up as I didn't have enough material to fill out the picture. The bridge is actually a long box made up of openwork iron lattice. It's a crane bridge because the box you see hanging from it on the right moves things along a track on the bridge. I'd love to visit a steel mill. There aren't very many still operating in the USA. Most of the steel making has gone overseas to China, India, and other places where labor is cheap. So cherish every bit of real steel you can, sooner or later you will have to make do with wood and bamboo.

Marker ink on sketchbook page, added to with Photoshop, 7" x 2 1/2", May 25, 2015.