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Caran d'Ache on masonite.

These studies were done when we were first dating and I was desperate to impress Leisa at all costs.

I learned about caran d'ache crayons from a friend who was attending the Rhode Island School of Design and they offered vibrant colors without the mess of oil pastels.

Additionally, with some fixtive and a little patience, you could easily add many layers to build up a drawing. The process is the closest thing in drawing to the kind of underpainting you see with the masters.

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Colored pencil on paper.

A detail study from a model session at the Corcoran. A simple but important lesson for the budding artist is that you have to understand your materials to make great art. I was doing a lot of printmaking at the time and found that the Arches88 paper had a smooth yet firm finish that was great for drawing.

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Pencil on paper.

Robin was a pregnant crackhead I met who would hang out in the lobby of my building pretending to be a resident who was "waiting for a ride."

Overcome with pity, I invited her up to my apartment where I made her some soup and she locked herself in my bathroom and attempted to steal my wallet.

After I got my wallet back, I asked her if I could sketch her and we had a pleasant chat from 2AM to 3AM.

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Pencil on paper.

Another sketchbook drawing. I never seemed to get myself quite right though. Handsome devil you!

Yeh yeh..I know.

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Pencil on paper.

This is a sketch of artist Leon Golub who came to speak at The Corcoran when I was a student.

I offered the drawing to him after his lecture and he refused, what a classy move.

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Charcoal on cardboard.

I lived in DC from 1993 through 1998 during the reign of the 'Mayor for Life."

This sketch became the inspiration for an installation I did at the WPA/Corcoran's Project Space in 1995.

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Pencil on paper.

A sketch of the photo from the cover of First Rays of the New Rising Sun album.

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Oil pastel on paper.

This is a pretty early drawing of mine circa 1991.

I drank a lot, a lot of that beer as a young man. A fitting tribute to my beer of choice as a broke college student and one of the first drawings I did where I felt like I was 'getting it.'