I have always
enjoyed drawing. When I was in high school I was constantly drawing cars
or car related things that were popular in the early 60's. I attended a
school that was closer to the country than the suburbs and they only had
basic classes at that time. They started art classes in my sophomore
year and I readily took them. At that time there was something called
the National Scholastic Art program. One year I entered a watercolor
painting and received a national award for it.
After high school I attended Cooper Art School in Cleveland for a little
over a year. I had to leave prematurely so I worked in the advertising
art department for the city newspaper and then at several local art
studios.
The Viet Nam war was getting bigger at the time and I got drafted so
that interrupted my art work for a few years. I wanted to get back into
art when I got out of the Army but most of the studios found my two year
absence as a way to start me at the bottom so my vocation took a
different direction.
I would still sketch when I had the time but as everyone knows when
you're working and trying to raise a family it doesn't leave much time
for artwork. As my children got older and more independent I took a few
watercolor classes at the local vocational school. Being around other
people who enjoyed creating got my artistic mind going again. About ten
years ago I took an airbrush class and started doing some automobile
paintings. It seemed the more I did the more I wanted to learn and that
led me to colored pencils.
I had been looking on line at some of the great work that people were
doing with pencils and came across Ann Kullberg's work. I purchased one
of her books and bought all of the materials that she recommended. I had
never done that much portrait work in my life, just quick sketches for
people, but now I was hooked. I have done a number of portraits and a
few on commission but have branched out to all different types of
subject matter. As with every medium there is so much to learn and by
doing portraits, landscapes, automobiles etc. you have the opportunity
to work with so many textures, clothing, skin, metal and more. Each one
requires a different technique to show itself. I still do the occasional
watercolor but I have found a home with colored pencils. Now if I could
just find a way to do them more quickly.
