Knoxville, TN - The Tin Roof (sketch)

I'm loving this rough-sketch look!  I'll tighten this one up at home, though it'll stay rough like this for the final version.

Knoxville, TN - Butterflies at Cades Cove (illustration)

Still learning my way around these illustration markers.  They have a tendency to smear the india ink when I use them after I've sketched out the lines, so for this sketch I tried doing things a little differently.  The blocks of "wash" were applied first in a loose style, following the color and overall shapes of things I was looking at (the insects, stones, light patterns), then I used the pen to refine those blocks into a recognizable image.

This is one of my favourites from the trip so far and I can't wait to rescan this one when I get back home as this image doesn't do it justice.  It's a small pix, about 4 x 5in., and "very sale-able" I've been told . . . I'm thinking art cards, maybe?

Knoxville, TN - Smokey Mountains (sketch)

Just sort of kickin' around today waiting for the power on the laptop to die, messing around with markers between card games and gusts of wind from Isaac.  Went back into my older photos and did a couple of sketches from Knoxville for later work in the studio.

Despite these two sketches are clearly of trees, they'll probably end up as some abstract painting without the leafy scribble; if you ask me about the painting later I'll probably say something really profound about the symbolism of life's rapid pace in the peaceful chaos of the universe's movement, or the music of the stars and wind represented as love and solidarity. . . I don't know, whatever sounds really artistically profound that really isn't an answer at all.  Or maybe I'll just keep it simple and agree with whatever the viewer thinks it is, but really they're just trees backlit by sunlight.

Knoxville, TN - World's Fair Park

World's Fair Park and the Sunsphere.  Knoxville, TN

Coming to LOTR merchandise soon!

Aug 20 - Knoxville, TN

Today was the only day I was going to be in Knoxville, TN, so I wanted to make the most of it by visiting the Smoky Mountains and getting something specific to the city itself.  I drove out to Cade's Cove in the park and took the recommended scenic drive; did my first practice en plein air sketch with the illustration markers and nabbed a lot of great photos.  Afterward I headed to the city for lunch and more photos . . . and got a great illustration of Knoxville's World's Fair Park and the Sunsphere, which will be in a following post.

Click the photo to view some of the day's pictures (more to come after the trip):

As mentioned, here's the sketch:

Clipped a little by the scanner!