Here is a fun little sketch of a horse I got to ride on a recent trip. It looks so easy in the movies!

Plus, there have been lots of exciting developments lately:

• I have a large new climate controlled studio space – no more unpacking the milk crate in the dining room for every printing session – yes!
• I have a new press on the way! It is a 27 inch wide Conrad etching press. Ill be looking for the delivery truck at the end of this month or early next. I love printing by hand, but it’s going to be nice to be able to work larger more quickly.
• Ill have work included in the upcoming 2nd Annual Best of NC Printmakers Show at 311 West Martin in Raleigh, NC.
• I registered for a 2 day color woodcut workshop with Endi Poskovic in November at Artspace in Raleigh. I met this master of the medium when he was a resident at the McColl Center in Charlotte last year. Very interesting work and impeccable technique. I’m sure there will be a lot of learning and inspiration packed into 2 days.

These are 2 remote controlled military robots that are in production and in use today. The top one is a SWORDS and can be weaponized in different configurations. The bottom one is an backpack sized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle by Honeywell. The UAV is remote controlled or programmable eye in the sky that is unarmed.

I’m both fascinated by and terrified of these things. On one hand, they are just really cool – in the same way that a guy might be attracted to action movies, loud motorcycles or the latest technological gadgetry. On the other hand, these are real things that exist and operate today in real war zones. They are also real things that you may find helping out with domestic security jobs – I know of one US city that is using this UAV to keep an eye on crowds at public events.

Here is a minotaur sketch. What a tragic beast. It’s all greedy King Minos’ fault. when will we mortals learn?

This weekend I picked up Alexander Calder’s “Sketching Animals.” Definitely one of the best $4 I have spent in a while.

I’ve been trying to learn how to convey the essentials of a space without going into too much detail. I’d say these are 10 minute sketches and they are a lot better than the ones that have taken much longer. I guess it’s the freshenss factor. It seems like there is only a little room to tweak before things start to look pretty stale and life disappears from the sketch.

This weekend I “wasted” a lot of time printing 2 colors on Roly Poly. Feels like a waste but I know these little failures are most instructive. I thought my under-color was good until I printed the black on top. Plus, seeing it printed, I can now see some major changes I want to make to the under-color block. In other words, I’m going to have to redo at least 1/2 the work on this print. Oh well, whatever it takes to get it right. I’ll work on some other things, then come back to it.

I was really happy with the way the hand printing went. I found that wax paper makes a great slip sheet between the paper and baren. That has made a huge difference – no more rubbing through. The slickness helps me print darker and I can see through it to know where I need to rub more.