While many artists draw with an emphasis on lines, I use light and shadow—contrast—to delineate surfaces, much like a painter uses color (as well as light and dark). My approach to graphite pencil drawing is one that is more like painting in that respect. The only lines visible are those used to portray a texture in my subjects. They’re very rarely, if ever, used to separate one surface from another.

This approach mimics the way our eyes see the world. When one looks at an object, there isn’t an outline that separates it from its background. The separation is achieved through variations in color, light and shadow.  Since, with the pencil, I have only black, white and shades of gray with which to work, I must rely only on the light falling across the surfaces. It is also the light or, more correctly, the shadows created by the light that reveals the textures of the subject.

When looking at my drawings, step away from the idea that you are looking at a specific object and try to see only the light as it falls across the surfaces and shapes. Invariably, you will find light surfaces against dark surfaces and almost never a line between the two. It is this use of light rather than line that makes my drawings uniquely “real”.

Although a most frequent comment is that my drawings look like photographs, I like to think that they go beyond what a photograph would be. Because, as an artist, I have the luxury to add or subtract details that a camera and film (or digital pixels) cannot readily see, there is a clarity in my subjects not easily possible in a photograph. There is also an undefined quality in my drawings that, although nearly photographic in detail, adds an emotional response. That emotion is something that comes from the artist’s hand. It results from the conscious (and unconscious) decisions made in the creation of the artwork.