. . . not a horse with no name. (Might have felt good to be out of the rain, but Taco was in the fog.)

A drawing student showed me a photo that she would like to draw. I cropped it, converted it to black and white, and enhanced a few details for her to have the best version available. After all that work, I realized that I would LOVE to draw it, and not only did she give me permission, she provided a piece of paper.

I have plenty of my own paper, but she had 3 different types, wondering which one to use; I was curious about one of them. I mainly use Strathmore 400 series Bristol smooth finish, and this one was Strathmore 500 series Bristol plate finish, which is a little too slick for my needs. However, it has been decades since I used it, the higher quality (500 series is the best) seemed to have a little more texture than I remembered, and I was curious.

On a not-too-terribly-hot day, I did what a friend described as “sauna drawing” in the studio while my air conditioner was getting replaced. (Tony didn’t need any supervision, but I hung around in case he needed anything.) The drawing went quickly because the photo was so clear, but I did change a bland water tank in the photo to old boards. The paper was indeed too smooth for me – stroke marks showed up more, and it smeared too easily for my normal style; however, the smearing was very effective when it came time to put “fog” over the building in the background.