For some stupid reason, when life gets tough, I get creative. I have no idea why, but its only in the downers that I seem to play my guitar plenty, begin putting together new book sketch-outs, pull out some of the old sculpting stuff, and, when its really all hit the fan, start drawing again.

Did all of my best drawing back after college. It was the closest I ever came to doing some good human form sketches, and one or two shots at actual faces, which to my dying day will be the hardest thing in existence to draw accurately.

I've drawn a few of pieces since that time but nothing (save one, perhaps) of any significance. Until this Fall. We were somewhere on our trip to Greece and someone mentioned something in passing about how great it would be if Robbie could do some paintings of some of the wonderful sights we were seeing. Now let it be known that I will not go near paint, because I have only lowly lead-sketching skills, and even those are rough and untrained. But, the thought occurred to me at the time that I might put a couple small pieces together for both the 'rents and the 2 sisters for Christmas. I wasn't seeing anything that they seemed to like that either a) they weren't already buying for themselves or b) I didn't see as a good fit for a gift from me, and so I thought combining a little of my time and (arguably) talent with the Greek countryside / infrastructre might make for nice Christmas gifts.

Things weren't really going rough come the trip to Greece, but I did have a formidable new project on the horizon which has since lived up to its formidity, along with everything else that transpired in the last few months. So, although I wasn't planning to be in a state to draw well, there I found myself. In retrospect, perhaps that was part of what led me to where I am now. That's rather beside the point now, though.

A couple of weeks ago I finally threw a bunch of my work, old and new, into a portfolio and took it by Cregan's office to scan it all for posterity. And you are now the benefactor of this effort, in both this and subsequent posts, to follow.

This one is the Acropolis at Rhodes, off of a picture I took facing towards it from the west, along the side of the road up from town that Joey and I were motorbiking up. The sun was behind the clouds as it set in the afternoon, and it didn't really come out how I would have liked because in the end, the clouds are shaded and the sky isn't, and it really should be the reverse. Even though the sunlight was coming in from behind the clouds in the picture, the sky behind it was such a deep blue that the clouds really became brilliantly white, and everything in the foreground (trees, Acropolis, ground, etc.) all had a contrast of almost completely dark, from the angle we were facing it. That said, I think it still came out alright, with the color scheme flip for everything that isn't on the ground. This is Mom and Dad's present, mounted in a nice frame (not pictured).

(Clicking on it takes you to the full size version, which unless you have a computer / monitor setup that I sincerely lust for, your browser is not going to fit. Hint: right click, save as...)