Drawn the Road Again

Category: Planes & Trains

  • Hope floats

    Hope floats

    I spent the whole weekend digging through dozens of old sketchbooks, searching for something I could post as some sort of post-election metaphor. Something that stood for a new day, for rising above the hateful muck we’re all slogging through…something. Anything. Welp. Yeah. It’s corny, I know. On that morning last year I thought seriously…

  • Harvey hospitality

    Harvey hospitality

    This post is part of an ongoing series called 66 Fridays, which explores the wonders of old Route 66. Click on the preceding “66 Fridays” link to view all posts in the series, or visit the initial overview post here. If you travel Route 66, you’re sure to come across the name of Fred Harvey.…

  • Tile typography

    Tile typography

    New York might not have an ornate theatre marquee bearing its name, but it does boast a style of typography so iconic it’s practically synonymous with the city. I’m talking about the tile mosaics that grace many of the city’s subway stations. I’ve racked up many months’ worth of visits to New York over the…

  • Trains of thought

    Trains of thought

    I love traveling by rail, though these days I don’t often get the chance to do it. So the next best thing is hanging out with historic trains—and sketching them, of course. Besides, you know I’m a sucker for vintage lettering and logos—and a logo hound at a train museum is like a kid in…

  • Bird’s eye view

    Bird’s eye view

    Like I said the other day, point-of-view is everything. And while flying isn’t my favorite way to travel, I absolutely love it when the weather is clear enough that I can see the landscape below. I love being able to draw the scene below like a map, and—especially in places I know well—follow along with…

  • Rock n’ roll

    Rock n’ roll

    Speaking of quiet places, usually the last place I’d think of as meditative is the airport. In fact, airports are usually at the top of the list of places that send my stress levels sky high (yet another reason I’m not a huge fan of flying). I should have known better about the Asheville airport,…

  • The final tally

    The final tally

    If you happen to follow along on Instagram or Facebook, you’ll know I’ve just returned from a 4000+ mile road trip across the south and west of the county. One of the things I like to do at the end of a trip (and the end of my sketchbook) is a map and recap of…

  • Quick n’ dirty

    Quick n’ dirty

    And then there are sketches where I don’t have the luxury of time. I did this sketch from a (however slowly) moving train, so I frantically blocked out the drawing in pen, and then approximated the color based on whatever was currently passing by my window. It’s maybe not the most precise or accurate way…

  • Indigo-a-go-go

    Indigo-a-go-go

    It’s on my list today to refill the pans in my paintbox—starting with indigo, which is most in need of it. Before I moved to Washington, I didn’t use indigo—it just wasn’t a color I needed often, and if I did, I could mix a reasonable facsimile. But now that I live here, and the…

  • Killing time

    Killing time

    If I’m traveling by car, you can put me in any landscape—even the most barren, treeless, flat places that most sane people would label “dull”—and I’ll be fascinated. No matter how long the trip and unvarying the scenery, there’s always something for me to sketch, some vista to marvel over. Put me in an airplane…