An "en plein air" water color and gouache sketch of my friend and teacher Glenn Michaels. Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, 1998. I'm sketching Glenn sketching.

Thumbnail sketches for a book I wrote and illustrated "The Giving Season",  pen and ink, 1997

Hippy 4th of July! Composite pencil sketch for the WallStreetJournal, 1996.

Gouache and pencil sketch for "The Monster Who Ate My Peas", Peachtree Publishing, 2001

Beaver Island Light House, Lake Michigan, pencil, August 1999

Pencil sketches of my nephew Keith McNally and my son Gabriel Faulkner. St. James Harbor, Beaver Island, Lake Michigan, July 1st, 2003

Several years ago I sat at my parent's kitchen table, my sketch book in front of me and the print-out of a magazine editorial illustration assignment in front of me. I'd gone through several pages of thumbnail sketches and was thoroughly frustrated, unable to come up with a decent idea for the job. I sat there glaring at my blank sheet of sketch paper. My mom came in the room, saw me looking all angst and stürm and drang and stuff and she said "What's the matter with you?". "You know what mom," I replied. "There's nothing worse than a blank sheet of paper."
She smiled at me.
"No kidding. That's funny."
I frowned at her. "Oh really? Why?".
"Well, when you were about 6 years old I remember you sitting at that very same spot at the table and when I came in the room you smiled up at me as you were drawing and said 'You know what Mom!? My favorite thing in the world is a blank sheet of paper!'".
The End