If I said I never went to art school, say, twelve years ago, it would have been with some amount of pride. It was a conceit—I liked the twin ideas of (one) being a natural talent and (two) approaching a career in art from some unrelated discipline. Oceanography or archaeology, were my two preferred fantasies. For something I took pride in, this idea of being a natural talent was never really put to practice. For one, not going to art school robbed me of having any artist friends to brag to.

Like I said, it was a conceit and I dropped it long ago. I realize I did learn something from the time I spent in libraries looking through old books and the time I spent in lectures drawing. So while I don’t think my art has suffered by lack of formal schooling, I can think of one area where I fail: I’m not very good at sharing my art. Showing my work, especially my works in progress always makes me cringe a little.

It’s a strange thing. I’m hardly a private or stingy person and growing up the youngest of five has given me a thick skin, but somehow I’m just not used to showing my drawings. Keeping this blog and participating in Illustration Friday has been fun and though I’m still not sure how I feel about sharing more of my work, I figure, what the hell. In for a penny, in for a pound. I’m starting a new “Works in Progress” category. Here we go…

First up is a story I wrote years ago (1995? Man, it’s been a long time. I’ve worked on the story a couple times over the last twelve years, but the drawings are all new) about pirates. I’ll post more over the next couple of weeks.

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