E.B White, one of my favorite authors, once spoke about the raw excitement he felt as he ratcheted a blank sheet of paper into his typewriter. I feel the same way about writing—of course I’m dropping my words onto my computer screen instead of a sheet of erasable bond typewriter paper. But other than not needing whiteout, the thrill of all that blank potential is still the same when I sit down to write.
But I also revel in the smooth wonderfulness of a big sheet of real paper. Arches, 140 lb, hot press, 22″ x 30″ in particular. And in the tactile intimacy of dragging a Prismacolor Turqouise pencil across said ocean of paper (a 9B being my favorite of course). You see, I love pictures as much as I love words.
Today I started a new pencil drawing. I’ve been doing realistic pencil drawing for years, and I’ve been waiting for the afternoon light to flood into my studio at just the right angle before I started a new drawing. Today the light flooded in just right, so I slid a huge sheet of perfect white paper out of my portfolio and got ready to go.
The new drawing will be a close-up of my son, Jeremiah’s hands as he feeds his new daughter, Sophie, a bottle. The whole focus will be on my son’s big hands and my granddaughter’s tiny curled fingers and her beautiful little week-old face. The drawing will be pretty big, probably about 20 inches wide and 15 inches tall, and it will likely take between 40 and 50 hours to complete. Yes, it really takes that long—just a few square inches a day. I consider it a good day when I draw an entire thumb! I’ll be posting regular progress reports here on my blog.
