Andean Condor (Pen and Ink)

This is a bit of a change in media for me. I haven’t done a pen-and-ink drawing in over 20 years! I was cleaning up my flat files, going through old paintings and sketches when I came across a piece of illustration board with a sketch of an Andean Condor on it. I remember doing a watercolor painting of the same bird. At some point I transferred the sketch onto a scrap of Letramax 2000 illustration board. That wasn’t my favorite surface to work on, and I think that’s why it sat around for ages without being touched.

At any rate, during a gap between work projects recently, I decided I should either finish the piece or throw it away! Although it had been ages, I quickly remembered why I didn’t like working on that board. A decent surface for other needs, it isn’t smooth enough for good pen and ink, like clay boards or films like Denril. Anyhow, I soldiered on and finished it.