Why The Beautiful Line?

A site dedicated to the art of drawing and painting, The Beautiful Line is an open forum for the sharing of information and inspiration about the drawing and rendering process in digital and traditional media.

This blog is created for all those who share a love of drawing and are enticed by the potential of a blank piece of paper, canvas, or board to create a unique work of art. This space is dedicated to the open sharing of information and experiences concerning drawing. Included here are tutorials on drawing and rendering a variety of subjects in easily accessible media.

Why the Beautiful Line? As a long time professional illustrator, artist, and instructor, I still believe that the most powerful tool for image making is the simple pencil, pen, or brush. In an era of fantastic advances in digital arts with the power to create new worlds of amazing realism, the pencil drawing remains an exquisitely elegant tool for expressing thoughts and ideas. With this in mind, I view it as a personal mission as an instructor to encourage students to draw their ideas first, before developing concepts within a software program.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Preparatory Sketch for General Sherman Portrait


"General Sherman", 12x14 inches, Black Prismacolor pencil on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper


Civil War photography is exceptional for its detail. I am currently drawing a series of portraits based on historic photos from the Civil War era. This first attempt is a preparatory sketch for a potential painting coming up soon. I am thinking in terms of painting in black and white with acrylics with soom color highlights.

I am always trying to indicate the feeling of brush strokes, even in my drawing. For me, drawing should be like writing my signature: fluid, natural, and expressive of a personal style.
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1 comment:

  1. SaltyDecember 22, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    I was searching for photos of General Sherman when I came across your site within the Google Image search. This is gorgeous and I just thought you should know. Excellent work.
    My blog is inactive but I wasn't able to post this comment without it linking.

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