Leo Goes Fishing, colored pencil on paper, 8″ x 8″, 2025

This drawing is of my grandson, Leo, perched on a flat rock, fishing in the shallows. Leo is an active, busy child, but in this moment he was so contemplative and serene, all of his attention focused on the bobbler and the ripples of the water. This was the first drawing I’ve ever done using colored pencil. At first I found the process of layering the colors to get the effect I wanted really difficult and it is time consuming. By the end, though, I found myself drawn into the process and lost in reproducing the ripples. I think my zen-like state in drawing mirrored Leo’s while he was fishing.