Category Archives: Graphite

Back in Time Part 3 – Last Batch Before the Long Break

Welcome back for part three of the “old sketches from Jon” series. Previously, we looked at my high school drawings and some study aids I used in college. This is the last “old sketch” phase, covering the time after high school until age 20 or 21. Around then, life started giving me more stuff to do and seemingly less time to

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Reflections on the Dark Tower Series (Spoilers Everywhere)

I finished the last mainline book in the Dark Tower series yesterday, and my head is swimming with thoughts and feelings about it. If you haven’t read the series and plan to, I recommend abandoning ship on this post! I’m going to talk spoilers from the last book and throughout the series, and some thoughts about the finale. I also

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Wedding Present for Some Friends

This Christmas, we were excited to attend an additional event beyond the usual family get-togethers. My wife’s close friend for the last two decades was getting married, and she was the Matron of Honor. Also, our oldest got to be the flower girl. My wife and her friend met in high school, and they’ve been like family since. I decided to

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A Tribute to Faith No More, the Greatest Band of All Time

Around 1999, as I was finishing high school, some guys I started hanging around with (who would become lifelong friends) introduced me to Faith No More. I had heard the band before; most people are familiar with the song Epic, and at the time a couple singles from their 1997 album were getting radio play. But these guys were major

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Fond Memories of Star Trek – Picard, Data, and La Forge

When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows was Star Trek the Next Generation. The series landed right in time to entertain a certain nerdy little kid, with new episodes airing between the time I was six to 13 years old. Outside of the Next Generation series, I actually don’t really care much about Star Trek. I’ve never

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Dak Prescott and Jason Witten Sketch

Despite the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have consistently rewarded fan loyalty over the past two decades with a hefty serving of mediocrity, I am a lifelong fan. I grew up watching the Cowboys, and because they were winning Super Bowls when I was young, I sort of thought that would keep happening. Well, I was clearly wrong about that…but

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Family Portrait, Thanksgiving Scene (This One Needs Work)

This one seemed simple enough, since I’ve been doing so many family sketches. I set out to draw a scene from a Thanksgiving dinner out with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, wife, and our two little ones. Unfortunately, not all art is destined to actually work…and this one I think falls into that category of “not this time, Jon.” Here’s what

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Group Scene of My Granny, Mom, Sister, and the Girls

I’ve discussed in a post a few weeks ago (or was that longer?) how I wanted to draw my Granny. I’ve also wanted to get a few more family members to paper, including my mom and sister, but hadn’t gotten to them yet either. Well, I finally captured Granny’s likeness, and I’m pretty satisfied with her portion! My sister and

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Tiny Art Show Opening at the River Oaks Arts Center

Way back in September, someone told me about an art show in Alexandria, Louisiana that featured only “tiny art.” All entries for this show had to had to by 5″ x 5″ x 5″ or smaller. It sounded interesting, and I had just gotten back into drawing; I figured I may as well enter something. Tiny art is definitely a

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Serious-Minded Baby Achieving Maximum Cheesiness

I’ve said this before – I have difficulty drawing small babies. This may not be surprising, but I have a long-winded theory as to why. I think most babies look very similar, but parents have some sort of innate biological drive to recognize their infants even with the slightest differences. As a parent, even when my kids were newborns, they

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Another Sketch with my Oldest, Alternate Title “Tired Dad”

Well, I’m sure it seems like the prevailing theme for all these drawings, but here’s another a did of me with my oldest kiddo. I actually started this one in the same session as the last one I did (her dancing, me flailing about), and I finally finished it yesterday. I think I finished the dancing sketch first because I

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Dancing Dad – Drawing from a Video

A couple months ago, we took the family to North Park Mall in Dallas. While we wandered around, we came across a live song-and-dance thing for kids. It was a guy named “David Chicken,” who played guitar, sang, and did fun interactive stuff with the kids in the audience. My oldest daughter absolutely loved it, she danced and cheered pretty

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