sketches

This sketch is the seventieth in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day seventy: Bizarre as it may seem, this drawing was inspired by a highly influential  Netherlandish artist of the sixteenth century: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It brings together details from two drawings by Bruegel. The flying fish creature is from “Big Fish Eat Little Fish” (1556) and the strange masked man one of “The Beekeepers” (c. 1567-68). I am repeatedly amazed at the masterful skill of historic artists like Bruegel as I try to emulate their drawing styles (and clumsily fail). Bruegel’s command of line and his steady hand produce remarkable, virtuosic results akin to another of my favorite draftsmen: his Venetian contemporary, Domenico Campagnola. Bruegel’s subject matter, however, is often much weirder!