A Regal Bird (Sketch of the Week for Week 23 of 2026)

A pencil sketch of Henry the 8th, if he'd been an American blue jay instead of a fat British dude.

It was another week focused on fanciful compositions, this time fixated on blue jays (there is one haunting my backyard, where I’m increasingly working now that Michigan is favoring high-heat/high-humidity days. Also, I finally finished patching my fence and mounting gates, thus making the yard safe for the dogs to wander and amuse themselves rather than kvetch at me all afternoon because they are bored and disagreeable).

Anyway, this sketch started in this direction because I had a reference photo of a blue jay that made the lil fella look quite regal and blue jays naturally have a Henry the 8th chin-beard. But I ended up liking it because the royal bird wound up looking sorta shell-shocked, like the enormity of his power and responsibility had just dawned on him.

Moonset, Lake Michigan, 1994 (Sketch of the Week for Week 22 of 2026)

A pencil sketch of the moon setting over Lake Michigan

All last week was dedicated to creative composition—drawing what was in my head (often using references pics for individual elements) rather than just trying to recreate what I saw. I liked this moonset landscape most, although my son preferred these two (“Shall Not Pass” and “Atlas Ignored”)

A pencil sketch of a lone picket blocking the path of an invading snail
A sketch of a colossal man holding a huge orb aloft, his labors entirely ignored by the puny little humans going about their lives below

One “Not Angry, Just Disappointed” Man (Sketch of the Week for Week 15 of 2026)

Last week was a series of sketches based on a bunch of screencaps I took while watching 12 Angry Men. The reference for this sketch is Joseph Sweeney playing Juror #9. I don’t know that it’s really much of a likeness to Sweeney, but I really loved his face and gesture—honestly, I sorta loved every frame of this film, just as visual compositions.

A pencil sketch modeled on Joseph Sweeney as Juror #9 in TWELVE ANGRY MEN.

Reflections from the Aucilla River

Last week was my wife’s and daughter’s Spring Breaks, so we drove with the dogs down to the Florida Panhandle, where we stayed in an especially crooked fishing shack hanging over the Aucilla River. From there, it was an easy paddle down to the Gulf of Mexico, complete with old-man’s-beard, leaping mullet, and easily spooked alligators.