Colored Pencil Drawings

This series of Tom's drawings are all Prismacolor colored pencil on smooth bristol board, done in studio. This is a new medium for Tom upon retiring from his industrial design career. The over 200 colors available greatly expand the possibilities of the pencil as a medium, in comparison to his life-long use of graphite pencil for black and white plein air drawing expression.

Raven

November 9, 2021

Ravens are among the most intelligent birds on the planet. Jill and I really like them. I especially enjoyed drawing this Raven’s “hairy beak” and shaggy shiny throat.

Turku and Buddy were our semi-tame wild tom turkeys, who would come right up to us for treats. Turku was healthy but Buddy caught a tumor causing virus called Lymphoproliferative disease. Eventually Buddy died in our yard and Turku soon after drifted away and did not return.

Cardinal Pair

July 21, 2021

The Northern Cardinal is one of the most common birds at our feeders. The vivid red of the male is enjoyable to view year-round, but especially on frosty winter days.

Goldfinch

July 21, 2021

The American Goldfinch male, in brilliant yellow summer plumage, is a delight as it bounds up and down in flight near our feeders.

Bluejay

July 21, 2021

The Blue Jay is very striking, with white, black and many blue tones. The patterns on wings and tail are very complex like a mosaic.

Nuthatch

July 21, 2021

The White Breasted Nuthatch is a delight to listen to and to watch. It seems to defy gravity as it “walks” up and down trees and on the bottom side of branches.

Merlin Falcon

July 21, 2021

The Merlin Falcon is the smallest falcon, very fierce and very beautiful. We often have them in our yard. They regularly dine on our songbirds and chipmunks….which is, of course, in Nature’s plan.

Chickadee

July 21, 2021

Our Black Capped Chickadees are always curious and the most naturally friendly birds, buzzing our heads at our feeders.

Olive

July 21, 2021

Olive is our daughter’s cat, a muted tortoise shell with bright green eyes.

Grace & Almonzo

July 21, 2021

Gracie and Almonzo were our two indoor house cats, who grew up with our daughter Thea. This drawing of them as kittens is looking through a hole in a carpeted climbing structure that I built for them.