Posts

Ran two miles yesterday. Swift as the wind – if the wind was very light, or maybe like, no wind. It was slow and tough. But the weather wants to be warm now, and I want to be outside, so it’s a good fit. Broke my bonsai’s out of winter slumber and spent a fewContinue reading “Back in the Shed – March 19, 2025”

3/10 Sharing a decent drawing of a dragon I made in February and finally made a scan. 16×20, Ink on Cold Press illustration board.

Random things. Mostly in a bit of a panic the past few weeks. Thought maybe I’d make a post to look back at the good things that I’ve been doing lately:

Doing some research/practice for a project with another artist around dragons. Here’s a sketch. Hopefully this project goes somewhere and I can push out a few cool drawings.

Snow still on the ground here. Trying to find some time and energy to move forward on three projects I’ve been stuck on for a minute. Found a little inspiration in Jessica Abel’s Autonomous Creative podcast from a couple days ago. The whole thing had some good ideas about how to approach creative work toContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 12, 2025: Imperfect Action”

[Ipad| Procreate| digital sketch] It’s 2025. No big declarations here. 2024 was a fine year and I had plenty to be thankful for. I think for 2025 I’m just going to try to be more present with people and more conscious of my time. Maybe that leads to more blogposts…maybe not. Hopefully more drawing. IContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 5, 2025”

Catching up on the last 6 weeks in pictures. It’s been hectic but a lot of cool stuff too. First thing is the hot-tub. We I spent a good deal of August and early September fretting over the idea, but we pulled the trigger and it was all setup by late September. A bit ofContinue reading “Back in the Shed – November 7, 2024”

Lucky enough to have a great friend in Ann Arbor that can get tickets to see Michigan Football games. We try to get in for a game every year and this year we got to see a doozy against Southern Cal. Compete with a 4th quarter, 4th down, goal-line win for the Wolverines. Incredible! TailgatingContinue reading “Back In the Shed – September 26, 2024”

Last week I took a sort-of-spontaneous trip with my Mom and Dad as they were passing through town on their way to the U-P to stay at my Uncle Bill’s cabin on the north shore of Lake Michigan. Side note: It’s funny how “The U-P” – The Upper Peninsula – is such a common termContinue reading “Back in the Shed – August 22, 2024”

I had planned a longer post to cover some of the things I did this week, but that will wait. For now, I want to say farewell to my old dog, Pebbles. We got her back in 2009 when the kids were in 1st and 4th grade. I’ve never had a dog like her. BeforeContinue reading “A Final Goodbye to Pebbles: Our Loyal Protector”

Weekend Bits: I slept terribly on Thursday night, so I ended up taking a sick day from work to rest. Colin was home, so I went with him and Danette on some errands. Afterward, I took a nap, then caught a Nats game in the evening with the family. The rest of the weekend hasContinue reading “Back in the Shed – August 4, 2024”

We finally got a heavy rain early last week after weeks with barely a sprinkle. The last time we got a decent rain feels like it was in early June. Back then I got a handful of cool mushrooms around the yard including this all white one growing in the front lawn. (Side note: IContinue reading “Back in the Shed – July 29, 2024”

Spent some time in the backyard with my plants today. I’ve got a few I’m kind of excited about – Joe Pye Weed and this Tall Coreopsis. Joe Pye Weed is named after a Native American herbalist known in New England for helping the settlers treat typhoid fever. Fun times. Last year, I bought theseContinue reading “July 20, 2024 – Back in the Shed”

Holy crap this weather. I know it gets hot every summer but the combination of the lack of rain and the heat is rough. I like to get out in the back yard and water my trees but everything else is just crisping up. Pictured is a Wild Indigo Duskywing butterfly hatching on the frontContinue reading “July 18, 2024 – Back in the Shed”

Back from vacation yesterday with a cold, feeling tired and fat. Trump got shot at a convention and I’m feeling like unplugging from politics and focusing on some personal goals for the rest of the year. Currently watching: Reading

Lots of stuff going on last week with my nephew graduating High School and one of my best friends getting married. So the past week has been very busy and very social full of evening hangs with family and old friends, backyard parties, reminiscing, catching up, laughs, hugs and even a pause or two toContinue reading “Back in the Shed – June 11, 2024”

It’s been a minute since my last post…but that minute has given me time for an update on my twin trunk Spruce bonsai from my last post. Recall, I was worried that it would die….well it did…. And it didn’t!!!! Here is it this weekend. The one on the left died but the right oneContinue reading “Back in the Shed – May 19, 2024”

In late 2020 I bought 10, 2-year old Alberta Spruce seedlings from Virginia Department of Forestry for about $3 per tree. I put them in some cheap pots and just let them grow. Here are 5 of them. Just pulled out of their winter beds. They’ve been growing in these plastic pots mainly untouched sinceContinue reading “Back in the Shed – March 6, 2024”

Blog post about the weekend

Goings on: Reads:

New year etc. Still recovering from this cold/gunk/crud. But I thought I should get a post in. Looking back on 2023 I think I did ok on my goals. We ended up having a blast in the UK and I did end up getting to 1,000 miles on my bike. Even after completely losing myContinue reading “Back in the Shed – January 4, 2024”

Holidays are finally over and I’m dealing with the back end of a mean little virus (COVID/FLU/Cold? does it matter really? I dunno). Annoyingly, this is the third time I’ve been virused since August. I’ve been lucky enough to have not been sick during the pandemic so I guess I was due. Maybe I needContinue reading “December 29, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Blog post about some stuff

Short blog post today. Spent the weekend doing chores and spending a little time outside. I did a round of raking leaves, cleaned my bike chain and gears, replaced the back tire (after literally wearing a hole on the old one last week), watched the Hokies play football, and played a little Baldur’s Gate. ItContinue reading “November 12, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Post about the weekend

Back from a trip to the UK on Saturday. Felt crap and took a Covid test and ended my streak of not being positive. But I’m all vaxxed and boosted so hoping it’s mild.

Got a morning ride in. Hit the road around 6:45AM and it was already hot and oppressively humid. Ugh. Not sure if I was up for it this morning: just had no energy out there. But, whatever. I’ll be on vacation for a week starting Saturday so I’ll have time to rest. Time to buttonContinue reading “July 28, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Got my first (only) morning ride of the week in today. I wanted to get up on Tuesday but I had to go into the office and just didn’t want to stress about the commute and being late for work. Sure, I could’ve got up even earlier but there’s only so much I can take.Continue reading “July 27, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Headed to Blacksburg on Friday to help Colin move house from the place he’d been in for the past 3 years to a new spot. Beers and dinner at Eastern Divide Brewery to game plan, then over to Colin’s townhouse to get stuck into packing and cleaning. The old place looked a lot better byContinue reading “July 23, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

Got up again this morning for a ride. Day 2/2. Roads were wet from overnight rain. Lots to think about but I blotted it out with an episode of the Square Ball podcast. Heading to Blacksburg this afternoon to help Colin move to a new spot across town. Played around with Notion AI to enhanceContinue reading “July 21, 2023 – Back in the Shed”

I woke up early to ride before work. Traffic better. Temperatures cooler. I can see the benefits of doing this in the morning, but I’m realistic about my ability to consistently wake up before 6 AM. Riding those waves. Creative stuff: Reading:

I’ve taken a lot of pictures of my little Bonsai trees over the years but Ive done a terrible job of trying to keep them organized so I can’t really go back and see the progress. I spent an hour this morning digging through my old google photos and apple photos and creating albums forContinue reading “Progress Pics From My Azalea Bonsai, “Kumono””

It’s been a crazy 10 days here in the Shed. My oldest son, Colin, graduated from college last Friday and I couldn’t be more proud of him. The weather was perfect and the ceremonies were great. He’s a great guy and I can’t wait to see what he does next. Between hosting 5 grandparents inContinue reading “Weekly Round up: I’m not old! You’re old!”

Blog post listing my essential travel drawing tool

I’ve always enjoyed making my own sketchbooks. Sketchbooks are essential for me and I use them all the time – for playing with ideas, working poses or compositions, doing thumbnails or just doodling. I also like sketchbooks for keeping finished drawings in – they function as a record of the time for me and IContinue reading “Can’t find a sketchbook you like? Make your own!”

I got inspired looking at some Hugo Pratt, Corto Maltese drawings (especially this and this) over the weekend. Something about they way he draws his main character – always looking warm in his coat and looking like he is deep in thought. So I started doodling in my sketchbook which got me thinking of myContinue reading “Drawing: Bertie’s Frozen North Epilogue”

The other day, I was outside and the way the sun was angled in the sky, I noticed my feet casting these crazy shadows. The shadows really exaggerated my foot shapes and got me thinking about drawing feet. So, I snapped a few pics to use as reference. The best way to learn how toContinue reading “Drawing Bits: How to Think about Drawing Feet”

some pics from the week that was

Danette and I took the dogs out past Culpeper to a private campground to do some “Boondocking” this weekend. (What is Boondocking you ask? scroll down past the photos) The campground was essentially a cleared spot next to a small river in a wooded section of someones farm. I’ve been interested in trying to findContinue reading “Hey look ma, I’m “Boondocking”! (not really it turns out)”

I’m working on a big drawing showing the whole Frozen North crew in the final battle vs the Demi-lich Iriolarthus and a bunch of Nothic minions. I want this drawing to be epic and amazing but I got stuck. In laying out that drawing I wanted to draw Mars doing casting Steel Wind Strike andContinue reading “Drawing Process: How to draw Mars’ Steel Wind Strike?”

The beginning of last week, work was a total bastard. It felt like everything that could go wrong did and a few other little things decided to give me the bird as well. But, luckily everything calmed down and things got back to normal late Thursday. By Friday, I was ready to drink a beerContinue reading “Update from the Shed – Feb 06 2023”

Ok January is basically over, let’s review my progress: Other than that, It’s been a bit of a slow week – very couch based. I helped Koli with a dead battery and then had to get a new battery on my camper too. Danette and I are looking to take the camper and the dogsContinue reading “31 down, 334 to go. Goals check-in.”

A summary of the things I got into this week. The Washington Wizards, Jim Gaffigan, some TV shows I’m into and a change the Shed.

It’s Sunday and my kids have both gone back to school. Time to dig into some work to avoid being sad! So after Marcus drove off this morning, I looked at my to-do list and saw “clean out the shed”. This is a good one that I’ve been putting off for about 3 months andContinue reading “It’s the weekend, clean something!”

Its a weekly update on projects goals and some pictures from the week