For me, drawing is the backbone of art. I don’t care what’s happening in my life. I have to draw. I don’t care if I’m in the middle of the desert lost somewhere. I’ll find some way to draw in the sand. I just have to draw and I have to draw every day. I just have to.

 And that is part of my sensibility. Keeping my mind and my hands active. And it’s for me, it’s the it’s the mind and the hands working together with the eye. But the mind and the hand working together in a continuous motion.

In these drawings, I’m using a water-soluble graphite. Specifically, I’m using Lyra Graphite Crayon, Water-Soluble. You might find it called aqua graphite or watercolor graphite from different brands. What’s great about this medium is that I can wet it after I’ve drawn with it and start shading with a brush.

While this will give the drawing more dimension, the important thing is still the drawing underneath. Without that drawing underneath, I don’t have the structure to create. Working with the aqua graphite and water infuses a sense of working in watercolor.

It’s important for me that I’m using a very soft brush. I don’t use a bristle brush because the bristle brush will just make a lot of scratchy marks. There is nothing wrong with that, but not for my process here.

I want a variety in the lights and darks in the line, but I also want to continue the flow in the line. Sometimes I want the brush strokes to show and sometimes I don’t; that adds to the variety. I want people to know I’m using a brush. I want people to know that I’m using graphite, which is the uniqueness of this way of working. This is only become possible in recent years with the advent of aqua graphite.