Introduction

Welcome to my new blog project! This is the first of what I hope will be may posts on my new blog. My name is Robert Brightwell and I am a man of many interests. Some of you may be familiar with a few of my other blog projects. The point of this project is to explore my interest in sketching and drawing.

I guess to start with I should give a little back ground to my drawing experience. I started drawing, like most people, as a child. And as a child, I was as good as you would expect. I did not have a strong passion for drawing but I also had nothing against it. Indifferent is the right way to describe it. By the time I took a technical drawing class in high school I was very much over drawing. It was just a class and as soon as it was done I never thought about it again.

Fast forward a bunch of years. My oldest daughter is very artistic. She loved drawing and painting. She had acquired lots of materials and had created lots of amazing art. I never paid much attention to what she was doing, it was her thing. I would come to regret that greatly. Long story short, she past away in October 2007 and my whole life changed. It changed in ways that I am still learning.

I spent most of the next year in a fog. During this time I thought a lot about my daughter's art. I thought about all that I had missed. I wondered what drove her as an artist. This was not completely foreign to me as I consider myself to be an artist of sorts. I paint miniatures and build models. But I had missed a huge opportunity to make a connection based on our shared love of art.

So, there I was with all these feelings and all this stuff. I decided to pick up a pencil and see what happens. In December 2008 I started my journey. I started slow. I wasn't very good. I bought a book on drawing and read some books of my daughter's. My interest in drawing grew. I started ready some cool drawing blogs and web sites.

By the summer of 2009 I had added lots of new skills and I had acquired lots of new materials. I decided to take an art class in the Fall of 2009. This was a very new experience and the idea actually scared me. It has been a long time since I took a class and I have never taken a creative class. But I did it and I really liked it. Oh sure, the 20 somethings are a little annoying but I learned a lot.

So, there you have it. That is how I came to have an interest is drawing. I have been drawing now for just over a year. I have learned a lot but I still have a long way to go to get to where I would like to be. I plan to continue with the classes. I have been inspired by many of the current comic book artist as well as other illustrators. I am excited to see where all this takes me.

My plans for this blog include posting some of my work that I am proud of as well as discussions of materials and techniques. This will not really be a 'how to' blog as much as a blog documenting my progress and what I have learned. I hope you enjoy it and please leave feedback.