I built up layers and layers of cross-hatching to build up the tones - if you click the image you can see a larger version that shows more details (the photo is slightly blurry, but you get the idea). I have never cross-hatched so much in my life!
I am happy with the drawing, it is a real advancement for me, probably the best drawing I have ever done.
Art Envy
Sometimes I find an artist who makes me green with envy. Nathan Fowkes is one of those artists. He combines rock-solid drawing skills with highly expressive marks, both in his drawings and his painting sketches. I found his blog four days ago and I have gone back every day since to drool over the work. He has another blog just for his landscape sketches, which he says he does in 20-40 minutes. Daunting.... and yet inspiring.
Art Shed News
My little art shed is allllmost done. Of course the final details are taking forever to wrap up. As a final step I got a quote to paint it. Maybe it's San Francisco, but I never imagined it could cost so much just to slap one color (white) on the inside of a 100 square foot room, and another color (to match the house) on the exterior. Holy cow. Now I have to decide if I want to do it myself, or go looking for other bids. My housepainting experience is nil, but maybe it's not very hard?