Siena

This is not the only picture I've made of Siena, or even of the Basilica di Servi in Siena, but it might be my favourite. It's an etching, made on an aluminum plate, but based on a pencil sketch I did on site.

The colour comes from chine collé, a technique in which a thin sheet of paper - hand tinted tissue from Japan in this case - is pressed into the paper support of the picture by the etching press.

The picture was etched and printed at the Open Studio in Toronto.

Is that you, Mary?

I wouldn't dare

One day

stand tall

Rachel is one of those people who knows exactly how attractive she is. Confidence is a good look.

Emily

A portrait drawn in less than five minutes using a Copic brush pen.

Sketching the sketcher

I've made a lot of portraits of Tarragon over the years. Here I took the opportunity to draw him while he was drawing a still-life of flowers. It was done with a Copic brush pen, and probably took 20-25 minutes.

Jacki and Rob, unfinished

An image that shows my usual procedure for pen drawing, in which I delineate the forms of the body, and then the shadow lines on the body. Next, I would start filling in the deep shadows, but the pose ended before I got that far.

next to the Guggenheim

Years ago, I went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice with my art class. Here's a very quick sketch of the canal outside the entrance, and few classmates, done with a dip pen and india ink.

The gallery was selling the small ceramic version of Jeff Koon's Puppy sculpture. I wish I had bought one. It would have made a great umbrella stand.

I had a bad night

Girls Love Girls In The Sunshine

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http://tarragonsmith.com/

warm up sketches

manicure

Drawn from life with a Copic brush pen and a china marker.

the beacon

At night in Venice, I saw a red light glimmering over the canal, and stopped to make a watercolour.

Worth mentioning: it's not easy to paint in the dark.

Hello Friend

Alan

Drawn from life in about 10 minutes using a Pentel brush pen.

one minute pose

Jacqueline