Drawn the Road Again

Tag: North Dakota

  • Butte-iful

    Butte-iful

    Like Saguaro, Theodore Roosevelt National Park is divided into two separate units. Unlike Saguaro, the North Dakota badlands are an old, familiar haunt of mine. Greener and less weathered than their craggy South Dakota siblings, these buttes have a similar mystery to them, all the same. It’s not hard to see why they were dear…

  • Of man camps and mass destruction

    Of man camps and mass destruction

    I always embark on road trips with the expectation that I’m going to delight in what I see along the way. Mostly that’s the case—I’m interested in just about everything, and the road is always full of pleasant surprises. But while this blog mostly has been a collection of things I love, I also sketch…

  • Big Bessie

    Big Bessie

    You might remember Salem Sue—she was the first sketch I ever posted on this blog. I have a deep fondness for just about any roadside attraction, but I might just love Sue best of all. It’s not just that she’s freakishly realistic (just out of frame of this sketch: the big scary veins on her…

  • A reason to celebrate

    A reason to celebrate

    Two years ago today, the Tailor and I were at our friend Sarah’s family farm in North Dakota, celebrating her wedding to the coolest groom we know. (That barn you see above is the same one that sometimes appears as the masthead on this blog!) We didn’t just get to spend a whole day in…

  • Raindrops actual size

    Raindrops actual size

    Speaking of stormy weather, it’s a little unnerving to be sitting in the passenger seat, happily sketching along, and suddenly be startled out of your reverie by massive raindrops that sound like rocks hitting the windshield. To be honest, though, it also makes for a thrilling sketch session—especially when you live in the Pacific Northwest,…

  • Dark skies

    Dark skies

    One of my very favorite things about the Red River Valley (of the north) is that the land is so perfectly, endlessly flat that you can see entire weather systems grow and unfold before your very eyes. Then again, it’s not so fun when that weather catches up with you. I did this painting in…

  • U.F. Uh-Oh

    U.F. Uh-Oh

    When the Tailor and I drove to Texas last year, we planned our return route around my decades-long desire to visit Roswell, NM. I was so excited to see what kind of alien-themed kitsch would be waiting for me that I banned myself from looking online to see exactly what was there. I just didn’t…

  • Have sketchbook, will travel

    Have sketchbook, will travel

    You know when you’re on a road trip, and you see a highway billboard that says something like, “World’s Largest Two-Headed Calf, Exit Now!” and you consider stopping, just for a moment? And then your spouse looks it up on the map, and you discover that yeah, it’s this exit, plus maybe another 140 miles…