Notes about my techniques

 

My methods are hybrids of many techniques I've been shown, lots of trial and error, and more than a few happy accidents. My experience over decades has covered both traditional and digital media, so my approaches take advantage of both worlds. When I retired from full-time teaching (and the responsibility to teach digital illustration) I returned to traditional media and methods, which I missed very much. 

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Pre-drawing prep

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For most of my images, both full-color and monochrome, I draw with colored pencils over a digitally printed "grungy" texture. For that base texture I scan almost anything -- old rusty steel plates, the unpolished back-sides of pewter platters, sides of dumpsters -- and then sepia-tone them in Photoshop. I print a texture-rectangle, sometimes lighter sometimes darker depending on the intended image, onto archival quality drawing paper (see image at right, detail of texture below it; images on mobile are below text), usually Epson Legacy Fibre paper or Legacy Etching paper, both 100% cotton.

 

​Hard-mounting vs. loose paper

 

Several years ago I hard-mounted paper to acid-free foam board before drawing, because the brushed-on varnish I applied when finished would buckle the paper badly. Lately I've started using spray varnish so there's no need to board-mount the drawings. However I also frequently do a lot of erasing and redrawing, and if I anticipate that then I still occasionally hard-mount a drawing. If mounted, I burnish the paper down thoroughly and trim the board to the planned frame-size, strictly a business decision to reduce the cost of matting and framing.

 

Drawing​

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Some years ago I discovered accidentally that a grungy texture printed onto matte paper takes colored-pencil beautifully. With colored-pencil you cannot draw light-over-dark because the pencil is too waxy, but over the grunge-texture you CAN draw light-over-dark, much like a painter might work. I'm color-blind so I can't paint, but I fell in love many years ago with the Renaissance pre-painting technique of drawing both light and dark values onto toned paper, and this is precisely what I do with colored-pencil over the printed sepia-grunge. My process sometimes completely covers the base-texture, but occasionally it shows through in small areas of the final.

    To prelim-sketch into the texture I use light value pastels or white charcoal. I used to sketch digitally (part of what I taught) but found that sometimes I wanted to completely obliterate the rough sketch as I added colored-pencil details, and a digital sketch won't erase. Soft pastels are perfect since they can be completely removed down to the grunge (see 4-step progressive image at right). The grunge also sometimes suggests features -- objects, facial features, skin wrinkles, etc. -- but it can also be completely covered up. In this way I frequently do what I call "Rorschach" sketching -- I sketch into the texture and watch to see if the combination suggests anything to me..  

    I do lots of erasing and re-drawing, which adds to the base texture as I go, so there's lots of serendipity. For the low-color images my palette is mostly French Greys, although I do add some browns and Cream or Eggshell for hilites. I frequently draw hilites first then draw the negative space around them; it's time-consuming, but the hilite needs as much paper-tooth as possible. I do work under a magnifying glass at times.
Full-color images take much more time than the sepia images,
and my wife (who is also a professional artist and an excellent
colorist -- lisabinkley.com ) helps me with palettes.  

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Finishing​

 

When the drawing is done (both full-color and low-color images) I apply light coats of workable spray-fix, then paint in small highlights with acrylics and tiny brushes to reinforce them. Finally I apply spray-varnish to the entire image. I recently discovered that I can do multiple layers of colored-pencil/spray-varnish/colored-pencil/spray-varnish, etc., and create EVEN STRONGER light-over-dark effects.  

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Laser-cutting & layering​

 

As of Summer 2026 I've begun creating multi-layered drawings which I will introduce at the IX Art Show in Reading, Pennsylvania, in October. The drawing technique is the same as above, but I've added additional depth by layering individual lasercut items on various thicknesses of archival boards (also lasercut) then mounting everything as a full scene in a shadowbox. After a few months of frustrating x-acto cutting, my wife finally convinced me to buy a laser-cutter. It's a real game changer and fun to use, although a bit nerve-wracking when cutting a drawing one has just spent thirty or forty hours creating. The images here show the actual cutter and some of the cutout elements, including the back-boards that I add for support. For some reason I find the leftover negative cutouts fascinating and I keep them. Not sure why or if I'll ever try to use them.

     I've also begun adding non-paper elements like actual metal wire, jewelry, hair, beads, and other sculptural stuff, though it's challenging figuring out how to incorporate them well.